To which classical figure do you most relate and why? I have changed my mind about this question a number of times as the years have gone by. Right now I am very intrigued by Fulvia, the wife of Mark Antony (and of Clodius and Curio). I wonder what she would have done with herself if she had been born in modern times. What book has been most influential to your career? “Myths every child should know” a beautifully illustrated collection of myths that I read and reread as a child. For quite a while I was deeply in love with Bellerophon, probably actually with Pegasus, and wanted to know everything about him. What would have you become if not a Classicist? If I could stand the fieldwork, I think that I would have liked to work with frogs. They are fascinating. If it were possible, with whom, dead or alive, from the world outside of Classical Studies would you like to have dinner? Plautus, absolutely. How could you not have a good time with him? What law, rule, event, or custom from Classical times would you like to see reincarnated today? Ostracism. What is the most interesting thing in your car right now? The very excellent CD version of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. If you had been a boy, what would your name have been? Since I was the oldest, I would have been named after my father, James Benno. As it was I was named after my mother, Elizabeth, so it amounts to the same thing.

Elizabeth Tylawsky is a Latin teacher at Norwich Free Academy. She is the winner of AbleMedia's Bronze Chalice awards for her submission of Jeeps and Hummers in Antiquity? Crossover Vehicles and Conspicuous Consumption. When did you know you wanted to be a Classicist? It snuck up on me silently and had happened before I ever made a conscious decision. What book are you currently reading? Nothing new, I’m afraid. I always am reading more than one thing: some trashy murder mystery to entertain me, then something work-related to keep me honest, right now that is Suetonius in translation because I assigned it for summer reading, and, so that I don’t forget Latin, some author whom I plan to think and write about, right now that would be Tacitus. If you could travel back to ancient Rome, what five items would you take with you from the present? A small hydro-electric plant (if I knew how to operate it and maintain it and had a supply of lightbulbs), antibiotics, a large quantity of Velcro, eyeglasses, and duct tape. When and where in the Classical World would you have liked to live? I wouldn’t want to live in the ancient world unless I were fantastically rich and a man but I think almost anyone could find a niche and a livelihood in Alexandria. If it were possible, with whom, dead or alive, from Classical times would you want to deliver your eulogy? Definitely Cato the Elder: then, even if I weren’t important, it would sound as though I was.