HODIE: ante diem quartum decimum Kalendas Decembres. You can add a Roman calendar as a widget in your blog or webpage, or display it as a Google Calendar: here's how.
TODAY'S POEM: Here is today's little poem, from the Poetry Widget. Today's verses are from the wondering little rhymes and word-games collected by Wegeler, with a word list at NoDictionaries.com as usual:
Vita evanescet, corpus mortale putrescet:English: "Life vanishes, and the mortal body decays: Smoke we are, dung we become." Of course, the charm of the thing is quite lost without the Latin play on words: fimus fimus, "dung we become." :-)
Fumus sumus, fimus fimus.
TODAY'S TWITTER:
Vita Caesaris: You can see my IVLIVS CAESAR feed with a sentence from Plutarch's Life of Caesar each day in Greek, Latin and English. Today's Latin portion is a bit of a pause before launching into the next phase of Caesar's life: Talia eius ante Gallicum bellum facta fuerunt.
Proverbiis Pipilo: You can see my Proverbia feed of Latin proverbs which I "tweet" while I am online each day (in English, too). Here's one from today: Ad opus manum admovendo Fortunam invoca (English: Invoke Fortune by setting your hand to the work).
TODAY'S PROVERBS:
You can get access to all the proverb of the day scripts (also available as random proverb scripts) at the SchoolhouseWidgets.com website.
Audio Latin Proverb of the Day: Today's audio Latin proverb is Non gladio, sed gratia (English: Not with the sword, but with kindness). To read a brief essay about this proverb and to listen to the audio, visit the Latin Via Proverbs blog.
Maxims of Publilius Syrus: Today's proverb from Publilius Syrus is: Etiam sine lege poena est conscientia (English: Even without law, conscience is a punishment).
Rhyming Proverbs: Today's proverb in Leonine verse form is: Communis sors est, quod cunctis debita mors est. (English: It is our common lot that death is an obligation to all).
Proverbs of Polydorus: Today's proverb from Polydorus is: Egregia musica quae sit abscondita, nulli rei est (English: Outstanding music, if it is hidden, is of no account… which always makes me think of those "mute inglorious Miltons" in Gray's country churchyard).
Proverbium Perbreve of the Day: Today's two-word proverb is: Pax vobiscum (English: Peace be with you… and the Latin, of course, can safely omit the "be").
Proverbium Breve of the Day: Today's three-word proverb is: Facilia sapientibus cuncta (English: All things are easy for those who are wise).
Vulgate Verse of the Day: Today's verse is Sol non occidat super iracundiam vestram (Eph. 4:26). For a translation, check out the polyglot Bible, in English, Hebrew, Latin and Greek, at the Sacred Texts Archive online.
Latin Animal Proverb of the Day: Today's animal proverb is Etiam me meae latrant canes (English: My own dogs are even barking at me - a saying you can find in Plautus's Poenulus).
Latin Animal Proverb of the Day from Erasmus: Today's animal proverb is Sus acina dependet (English: The pig will pay the price for eating the grapes; from Adagia 3.4.23 - Erasmus actually cites a version where a farmer is speaking to the pig, telling the pig that it's going to pay the price for having eaten the grapes from the vine: Sus, acina dependes!, the idea being that for some small offense such as eating some grapes, you run the risk of a terrible penalty).
Proper Name Proverb of the Day from Erasmus: Today's proper name proverb is Atticus aspectus (English: The Attic look; from Adagia 1.9.42 - given the proverbial character of the people of Athens, this referred to someone whose facial expression showed self-confidence and boldness, before they even spoke a single word).
Greek Proverb of the Day: Today's proverb is Πρὸς σῆμα μητρυιᾶς κλαίει (English: He's weeping at the grave of his stepmother… so, to borrow another proverb, you could say he is crying crocodile tears!).
TODAY'S FABLES:
Fable of the Day: Today's fable of the day from Barlow is DE EQUO ET LEONE, the story of the horse and the lion, an example of the trickster tricked.
Ictibus Felicibus: Today's fable with macrons and accent marks is Auceps et Palumbes, the story of the man hunting a bird who fell victim to his own ambitions! This is one of the fables I adapted for Tar Heel Reader, in a "play" format where the lines are all spoken by the characters in the story. Here's an illustration from that reader:
