Mark the situation, men of Athens: mark the pitch which the man’s outrageous insolence has reached, when he does not even give you a choice between action and inaction, but threatens you, and utters (as we are told) haughty language: for he is not the man to rest content in possession of his conquests: he is always casting his net wider; and while we procrastinate and sit idle, he is… Read more
Our Book Club selection for January is Pausanias Description of Greece, Book 1. In this work we possess a plain, unvarnished account by an eye-witness of the state of Greece in the second century of our era. … Pausanias, a contemporary of Hadrian … wrote his description of Greece. He came in time, but just in time. … Again and again he notices shrunken or ruined cities, deserted villages, roofless… Read more
The second great conflict between Rome and Carthage is the most well-known because of the famous Carthaginian general, Hannibal Barca. While this war, like the first Punic War, ended in victory for Rome, it is Hannibal and his elephants, crossing the Alps into Italy, which has captured people’s imaginations. After the end of the first Punic War, and after defeating the rebellious (and unpaid) mercenaries in Carthage, Hamilcar, father of… Read more
We were pleased to welcome Denise Demetriou, University of California – San Diego, for an Open House discussion entitled “Immigration and Belonging: Phoenician Immigrants in Fourth-Century BCE Athens,” on Friday, October 9, at 11 a.m. EDT, which was recorded In preparation for this event, you might like to read this PDF handout of readings: Immigration and Belonging Handout You can watch the video on our YouTube channel, or in the… Read more
L’univers est une espèce de livre, dont on n’a lu que ta première page quand on n’a vu que son pays. The universe is a kind of book of which one has read only the first page when one has seen only one’s own country. From de Montbron, Le Cosmopolite, quoted by Lord Byron in the “Preface to the First and Second Cantos” of Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage When I received… Read more