Friends, Romans, Crossword-men (and women), lend me your beers…I come to praise Wire, not to bury him…
I think this my first Wire solve/blog – and most enjoyable it was too. A veritable plethora of Roman/Latin references in clues, wordplay and solutions – Republican, Tiber, Caesar, Nero, villa, pater, Rome, Colosseum, emperor, Aventine, Italy…all dotted around the clues. Legion contributes to LEG-IRON in wordplay. And HAIL, POSIT, PLUTO, some unfortunate CHRISTIANS and a TOGA PARTY appear among the solutions (ok, the last is more American frat movie fodder than Ancient Rome, but you get the idea!)
My joint LOIs were CRASSUS and SCREE in the top left quadrant – 1A reads as an almost Cyclops-ean Trump reference, but is actually more classical, or even crass-ical!
Veni, vidi, solvi!
Thanks to Wire, a Happy New Year to one and all, and I hope I have it all present and correct below…
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
|
| 1A | CRASSUS | Boorish American is historically a rich Republican leader (7) | historically a rich Republican leader (Rome being the republic in question) / CRASS (boorish) + US (American) |
|
| 5A | TRAMPLE | Tread in Tiber having being drained enough (7) | tread / TR (T |
|
| 9A | REGARDING | Seeing dagger in Caesar’s back twisted (9) | seeing / anag, i.e. twisted, of DAGGER IN + R (back, or last letter, of caesaR) |
|
| 10A | OUNCE | Old relative forgetting Latin for ‘cat’ (5) | cat / O (old) + UNC( |
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| 11A | SUSPECT | Dubious cult infiltrated by The Independent quietly (7) | dubious / S_ECT (cult) infiltrated by US (the Independent) + P (piano, quietly) |
|
| 12A | PUTS UP | Finds shelter for youth stabbed by nameless maniacs (4,2) | finds shelter for / P_UP (youth) around (stabbed by) (N)UTS (maniacs, nameless) |
|
| 14A | INSET | It could be stuck between pages of fashionable collection (5) | it could be stuck between pages / IN (fashionable) + SET (collection) |
|
| 16A | PERCHANCE | Maybe fish spear lacks tip (9) | maybe / PERCH (fish) + ( |
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| 17A | NOTORIETY | Pity Nero. To lose power when rebuilding reputation (9) | reputation / anag, i.e. when rebuilding, of ( |
|
| 19A | PLUTO | Philosopher has a change of heart … there is a god (5) | a god / PL( |
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| 21A | IMPELS | Wicked types hampering the Spanish forces (6) | forces / IMP_S (wicked types) around (hampering) EL (the, in Spanish) |
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| 22A | PLECTRA | Picks woven carpet to cover interior of villa (7) | (guitar) picks / P_ECTRA (anag, i.e. woven, of CARPET) around (covering) L (middle letter, or interior, of viLla) |
|
| 25A | ALLOT | Distribute a fair amount according to reports (5) | distribute / homophone, i.e. according to reports – A LOT (a fair amount) sounds like ALLOT (to distribute) |
|
| 26A | DESPAIRED | Lost hope after pater consumed by wish to join daughter (9) | lost hope / DES_IRE (wish) around (consuming) PA (pater, father), plus (joining) D (daughter) |
|
| 27A | LEGIRON | Shackle soldiers traversing river (7) | shackle / LEGI_ON (soldiers) around (traversing) R (river). (My Chambers has this as hyphenated – 3-4?) |
|
| 28A | THEOREM | Proposition of article has Rome shocked (7) | proposition / THE (definite article) + OREM (anag, i.e. shocked, of ROME) |
|
| Down | ||||
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
|
| 1D | CHRISTIANS | Transport rich ass in time to see Colosseum unfortunates (10) | Colosseum unfortunates (whose misfortune was usually to be fed to the lions?!) / anag, i.e. transport, of RICH ASS IN + T (time) |
|
| 2D | AEGISES | Defences of troops are ultimately submerged by rising Tyrrhenian? (7) | defences / A_ES (sea, e.g. the Tyrrhenian Sea, rising) around (submerging) GIS (GIs, US troops) + E (ultimate letter of arE) |
|
| 3D | SCREE | Rock shelter almost completed (5) | (loose) rock / SCREE( |
|
| 4D | SWIFT | Fleet sails west into foreign territories taking their capitals (5) | fleet / first letters, capitals, of ‘Sails West Into Foreign Territories’ |
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| 5D | TOGA PARTY | No interlude perhaps during vulgar social event (4,5) | social event / T_ARTY (vulgar) around O (no, none) + GAP (interlude) |
|
| 6D | ABOUT-SHIP | 9 Across and son needing joint command on galley, say (5-4) | command on galley, say / ABOUT (regarding, i.e. answer to 9 Across) + S (son) + HIP (joint) |
|
| 7D | PENGUIN | Write piece about oneself being an emperor? (7) | an emperor / PEN (write) + GU_N (piece) around I (oneself) |
|
| 8D | EWER | Vessel in underground channel has section removed (4) | vessel / ( |
|
| 13D | MEMORANDUM | Servant crosses overthrown city nearly speechless delivering note (10) | note / M_AN (servant) around (crossing) EMOR (Rome, city, overthrown), plus DUM( |
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| 15D | THREE-STAR | Mid-range hospital in forest could be found by seaman (5-4) | mid-range / T_REES (forest) around H (hospital) plus (found by) TAR (sailor, seaman) |
|
| 16D | PRESSED ON | Made progress organising sprees with family leader (7,2) | made progress / PRESSE (anag, i.e. organising, of SPREES) + D_ON (mafia, or ‘the family’, boss) |
|
| 18D | TIME LAG | Delay broadcast about criminal (4,3) | delay / TIME (emit, or broadcast, about) + LAG (time-serving criminal) |
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| 20D | UTTERER | Person who announces absolute ruler (7) | person who announces / UTTER (absolute) + ER (Elizabeth Regina, ruler) |
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| 22D | POSIT | Suggest flower of Italy’s the best (5) | suggest / POS (Po’s, of the Po, italian river, or flower) + IT (the ‘ne plus ultra’, the best) |
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| 23D | EVADE | Climbing part of tree-lined Aventine to make escape (5) | to make escape / reversed hidden word, i.e. climbing part, in ‘tree-linED AVEntine’ |
|
| 24D | HAIL | Greeting arrival from the heavens (4) | double defn.? / to HAIL can be to greet the arrival of someone; and HAIL can arrive ‘from the heavens’ |
|
I thought this was a superbly constructed crossword. Most went in reasonably quickly but that NW quadrant – some toughies there. SCREE, AEGISES & CRASSUS were my last three. Almost gave up on them but then guessed CRASSUS, looked him up, then the rest followed.
Thanks to Wire and mc_rapper67.
Most enjoyable even though I did mix up my Crassus with my Croesus!
Amongst those I liked the most were 16a plus 7,13,18,22&24d – quite a list.
Many thanks to Wire for the Roman games and to mc rapper for the blog.
Yes, we too struggled a bit in the NW quadrant till we sorted out 9ac, but then it all fell into place. And a great achievement to get in so many Roman/Latin references. CoD, was PLECTRA (a Latin plural form, of course), with PERCHANCE as runner-up.
Gratias vobis ago, Wire et mc_rapperLXVII
Salve! Thanks to mc rapper for the blog…all spot on! And thanks to everyone else for taking the time to complete this puzzle and for posting your comments. I quite enjoyed putting this one together! All the best for 2019. Wire
Thanks for the various comments and feedback – especially to Wire for stopping by!
allan_c at #3 – I like the ‘LXVII’ – nice touch, maybe I’ll have to change my blogging handle…
As you say. PLECTRA is also a Latin plural form, and MEMORANDUM must have Latin roots…in fact, most English words that aren’t based on Greek (AEGIS(ES), THEOREM) or French probably have Latin lineage…apart from the odd bit of foul-mouthed Anglo-Saxon, when necessary (;+>)