Publius Aculeius Spina Arcanus is a classical scholar and Veteran Editor III, having contributed over 17,000 edits to Wikipedia, Wiktionary, and Wikimedia Commons since 2009.

Interests and areas of study

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This editor is a
Veteran Editor III
and is entitled to display this
Silver Editor Star
.

The topic that first led me to become an editor on Wikipedia was onomastics, the study of proper names. For several years I had searched for information about Latin and Etruscan personal names, cataloging and categorizing names by origin, meaning, and usage. Wikipedia gave me the opportunity to share relatively obscure information about a fascinating topic. In the past, I also scoured historical sources for names of Germanic origin, organizing them by theme and linguistic variation, and have dabbled in similar projects involving Hebrew, Slavic, and Japanese names.

I'm also interested in the study of Greek and Roman religion, specifically topics related to the nature and mythology of the gods, and in particular the progeny of the Titans. I was first introduced to these subjects through D'Aulaire's Norse Gods and Giants when I was six, and Greek Myths when I was eleven. Since then I've enjoyed reading about Greek, Norse, and Ancient Egyptian religion, as well as the myths of Sumeria and other cultures of the ancient near east, which introduced many of the traditions common to Jews, Christians, and Muslims.

I've also spent time studying the History of ancient Egypt, with emphasis on the various dynasties of Egyptian kings, and similar topics from other cultures, including the ancient kings of the Germanic peoples, found in the Saxon Chronicle and other sources. From my interest in names, I've developed a great deal of interest in the Magistrates of the Roman Republic, and the numerous gentes from which they came.

I'm fascinated by the natural sciences, including geology, astronomy, and paleontology, and have studied trees, wildflowers, birds, and mammals.

On a completely different track, I'm also interested in color, color names, perceptions of color, and color blindness.

Main articles

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Lucius Junius Brutus.

Roman, Italic, and Etruscan

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Egyptian

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The Animal Sha.
(After an original by
E.A. Wallis Budge)
  • Sha (animal) is an attempt to describe the totemic animal of the god Set, otherwise known only as the Set animal or Typhonian animal.

Other

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  • John Reinhard Weguelin, an English painter and watercolourist of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, specializing in classical and allegorical figures, as well as the female form in nature. Nearly forgotten today, I felt that the beauty and warmth of his work deserved a more substantial article than the stub I found in March, 2012.
  • Mermaid of Zennor, an article I stumbled across while working on the Weguelin article. Revised for readability and to delete unsupported and biased speculation about the origin of the legend.
  • Camden Park (amusement park), a revision and expansion of the original article, with detailed descriptions of current and former rides and attractions.
  • Cover to Cover (PBS program) and its host, John Robbins (illustrator), an influential program about literature for children, fondly remembered from the early 1980's.
  • Oil spill, documented three spills at the top of the list of largest spills in history, after finding sources detailing the size and scope of three spills associated with the 1991 Persian Gulf War; most notably, the Kuwaiti Oil Fires, resulting in the uncontrolled release and destruction of more oil than any other spill, by at least two orders of magnitude.
 
Cesare Maccari (1840-1919): Cicero Denounces Catiline.

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