Wednesday 28 May 2008

O.B.I. - my new award


Thu, 05 Aug 2004 12:59:00 -0400
Thu, 05 Aug 2004 12:59:00 -0400
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May I emphasise that this is a personal initiative, not part of ARLT policy.

<br>

Every now and then I come across an example of wilful ignorance about the Classics, or conduct likely to cause grievous harm to the cause of Classics. It struck me that there ought to be some recognition of these.

May I emphasise that this is a personal initiative, not part of ARLT policy.<br>

<br>

Every now and then I come across an example of wilful ignorance about

the Classics, or conduct likely to cause grievous harm to the cause of

Classics. It struck me that there ought to be some recognition of

these.&nbsp; Private Eye has its OBN - Order of the Brown Nose -

for&nbsp; lickspittle behaviour, so&nbsp; I have instituted&nbsp; my

own&nbsp; variation on the OBE,&nbsp; the OBI, Order of&nbsp;

Barbaric&nbsp; Ignorance.&nbsp; <br>

<br>

The first recipient, as seen on the home page of the ARLT site, was

suggested by hearing Robin Birley at Vindolanda. Apparently the Birley

family actually own the Vindolanda land, while English Heritage

administers the excavated site of the fort.&nbsp; Robin Birley has

shown himself an expert in making parts of Hadrian's Wall attractive to

visitors, with the reconstructions of a turret from the turf Wall and

one from the stone Wall, and the Roman Army Museum, and he suggested to

English Heritage that information plaques at various points in and

around the fort could well feature text in English, German, Spanish -

and Latin. Apparently the local English Heritage people were all in

favour of this, but some wonderful committee down in Londinium (sorry,

London) came up with the remarkable decision that for a Roman site,

Latin would not be appropriate.<br>

<br>

Fortunately for the visiting public, the Trust took on the expense of

producing the information plaques themselves, including the Latin

version, produced by Professor Anthony Birley - it must be useful to

have a Professor of Classics in the family. You can see photos of the

result in the Vindolanda folder of photos here.<br>

<br>

I wonder if the folk who thought this inappropriate had heard of

Newcastle's excellent scheme for interesting tourists in the Roman

heritage by putting public signs in Latin in the metro.<br>

<br>

So, to the London committee, the award of the OBI.<br>

<br>

I have at least one other award winner up my sleeve. If you want to suggest&nbsp; a worthy recipient, do let me know. <br>
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Here is the first post

Just a place holder