James Carrigy > Recent Status Updates

Elegies I

The highlights here as a lustful and catty as any Roman elegist I’ve read.

Persius, Satires

6/10

May very well be that Persius just isn’t as good as Horace, but it certainly feels like the translation trails off a bit towards clunky modernisation of the Latin, making the text more understandable perhaps for the reader, but definitely at the expense of the intent/talent of the author.

Epistles II/Ars Poetica

10/10

Really just some of the finest Latin literature I’ve read.

Epistles, Book I

8/10

Lightly taking the epistle.

Satires, Book 2

9/10

A lot more fun! Drunk bawdy times all round from Horace.

Satires, Book 1

8/10

Took me a moment to get used to Rudd’s style of translation, which seems to empathise feel/tone to the character intent of the text over accuracy to the Latin. Such an approach doesn’t work all the time (even in this) but it does make for a riotous and ribald read. Best to imagine a very drunk Brian Cox (The actor) reading this.

Melancholy I

10/10

Deliberately bleak and hellishly recursive, a striking depiction of the banal repetition’s of a damaged creative psyche without romanticising such.

The Histories: Unable to review due to their fragmentary state.

Jurgurthine War 9/10:

The more I learn about this Jurgurtha from the perspective of a clearly biased governor of Africa with a vested interest in disparaging the previous indigenous rulers to justify the Roman rule that allowed him to amass an illegally obtained fortune, the more I don't care for him.

Catiline's War 8/10:

Try to something positive about Cicero challenge (IMPOSSIBLE)