BESTIARIA LATINA BLOG - Latin Via Fables - Zoo - Legenda

Greek and Roman Person of the Day

This script returns a link to a Wikipedia article, together with an image, maximum 225 pixels in width, maximum 250 pixels in height. The images are also taken from Wikipedia. The image is either an image displayed in the Wikipedia article itself, or from the image resources in the Wikimedia Commons area related to the article.

Here is what the script displays for today's date:

Using a javascript, it is easy to add the Greek and Roman Person of the Day to your website! Here is the javascript you will need to cut and paste into your webpage. Keep in mind that you need to have room for an image up to 225 pixels in width and 250 pixels in height.

Notes:

• Arbitrary date. Please note that there is nothing significant about the date which is associated with each person (that is why the date is not included as part of the content displayed by the script). The figures are assigned to a given day in a completely arbitrary manner. Anniversaries are hard to pin down in the ancient world, and no effort has been made here to associate a particular person with a particular date. The placement of persons in this calendar is completely arbitrary.
• Central Standard Time (US). The script recognizes a new day based on US Central Standard Time (the time in Norman, Oklahoma where yours truly resides). This should not be a problem, given the arbitrary nature of the dates in the calendar. Every 24 hours a new item is displayed, even if the change may not take place at what is midnight in your own time zone.
• Repetitions. When multiple images were available in Wikipedia, the person may show up repeatedly in the calendar, but spread out evenly over the year. So if someone shows up twice, they show up at six month intervals; if they are in the calendar three times, they show up at four month intervals; and if they show up four times (the maximum number for any one person), they are separated by three month intervals.
• Coverage. The articles were chosen for this script based on the availability of images. Therefore, it is not necessarily a comprehensive or well-balanced list of historical figures. However, if you take the time to click on the various links within the Wikipedia articles and browse around, you will be able to gain a good, broad knowledge of the ancient world! For general coverage of the ancient world, you can also browse the Wikipedia Classical Civilization Portal, which is a great place to explore!
• Javascript. Some websites prevent the introduction of javascript. This is often true of posts to discussion boards and posts made to blogs. However, most blogs allow you to include a javascript in the blog template, so you should follow the instructions for your blog software in order to add this javascript to the blog template.

Want to create your own script with wikipedia links and images? It's easy to do that with the free Rotating Content Tool at the R9Solutions website.