SCROLLING, JUST SCROLLING...

            Many of the ancient texts we love and revere – from Homer to Plato to the Bible – began their journey through the Centuries as scrolls, or even clay tablets. Vulnerable to chance, war, and weather, inevitably some of these fragile artefacts are damaged and incomplete. Generations of scholars have laboured and disputed how best to edit and interpret the resulting document.

            Now their studies can be informed, even revolutionised, by the use of AI tools. These are capable of scanning and reading a tightly wound scroll too precious to unwind by hand. They can reconstruct a lacuna in a damaged text from a sample of handwriting. When used with caution they allow the voices of the distant past to be heard more clearly.

            A selection of AI textual augmentation is offered below. Test your classical knowledge by Identifying them.

1)         'So at last the Queen ended her narration and said to her daughter, 'And that, my Darling, is the your Father's account of what he did in the many years it took him to get home from the War.'

            'But is it true, Mother?' returned her daughter Physia.

            And the Queen smiled and said, 'No. Not one bloody word of it, my Love. Does something trouble you?'

            'You hint at falsehoods, Mother,” replied Physia. 'Yet your husband returned last month after twenty tears away and I have just turned 18. How can that be?'

            'That is another story, Physia,' said the Queen with a furrowed brow. 'But for now, according to the Oracle, we must pretend that you are my handmaiden.'

2)         “...I have read your play with interest and can confirm, as a doctor, that there is nothing you need to be worried about. No one will assume it is autobiographical. In fact I have many healthy well-adjusted clients who report having such 'dreams' on a regular basis. Though none has had the nous to turn them into a sensational play, as you have. Be sure to send me free tickets...”

3)         Great Leader – Wonderful news! All Rome is agog with praise of your book on the War! No one suspects we invented it all on a cruise up the Nile. Yet, all Citizens think it true and demand you return to be crowned Emperor!!!

4)         BEATIFUL VILLAS FOR SALE IN POMPEII AND HERCULANEUM!

            Buy with Confidence!

            Personal GUARANTEE from The Gods Themselves that Vesuvius Will NEVER Erupt!!!

            TRUST THE GODS

            TRUST ME!

            BUY!   BUY!   BUY!   NOW!  NOW!  NOW!

            PUER LATA - VIA COMMODUS

5a)       I, Caius, never asked for such a thing!!!

            And yet you had your people bring

            Their tools and dyes and anaesthetic...

            And I woke and found this monstrosity clinging

            To me. How could I deserve it?

            I just don't know. IT CANNOT BE!

            But this I know: I will have my revenge on you,

            For inflicting a B R M B T on Me.

            So Mantissa: Quake and Shiver...

            For condign Vengeance I'll deliver!

5b)      Mates! Just what is this about?

            What's Mantissa done to Caius now? And...

            What the Jumping Julius is a B R M B T?

5c)       My Dear Mantissa -

            I've arranged with the Gods for you to be

            Reincarnated as a Fish in the Sea.

            I think you'll like it -

            Just you among all those flashing fins -

            I hope you'll love it -

            And take to the waters as an iridescent wriggly thing -

            NO! I know you'll hate it! So you apologise...? Too late! It's

            Ordered and Paid for!

            And my retribution for giving me a

            B R M B T

6)         They said You were a God.

            Some God!

            With these Feet?

PROBABLE SOURCES

1          The Odyssey – Homer - The previously invisible concluding lines of the earliest copy of             the “Odyssey.”

2          Oedipus Rex – Sophocles - Fragment of letter from Phales the Physician to Sophocles.

3          De Bello Gallico: Fragment of letter to Julius Caesar. Caesar's own note, added             underneath, reads: Now nothing can stand in my way. (Anthony, have this fool silenced           to stop his blabbing.)

4          A Painted Wall Sign Advertisement for an Estate Agency. From a recently excavated             street in Pompeii, provisionally dated 78AD.

            (May contain the earliest known use of the Exclamation Mark. Often called a 'Shriek',             by association with the facial expression of a fatally wounded gladiator.)

5          'Vendetta' – A selection of Graffiti from a Plaster Wall in a Herculaneum Wine Bar.

            Undated.

            Scholars in the Classics Department of Harvard Business School, who used AI to             examine these samples, are divided as to authorship and the meaning of “B R M B T”.

            Perhaps some mysteries are best left that way.

6          Fragment from a papyrus wrapping the legs of Pa-Ki-Derm VII (13th century BCE).

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