Tyrant. The word definitely has a negative connotation these days. “Sic semper tyranniis” is what you say after you’ve killed one. The evil Count Dooku was also known as Darth Tyrannus. Nobody wants to be a tyrant—“king,” quite possibly, and you might even be able to talk them into “dictator,” but not tyrant. This was not always so. Solon, the Athenian lawgiver, protested that he did not wish to become a tyrant, despite all the wealth and prestige that accrued to one with such a title. Alcaeus the Lesbian also decried tyranny, as did Herodotus the historian, though they never […]

There’s a strange pattern among ancient monarchs and their dynasties. There never seems to have been a long series of great kings but a regular and predictable decline. Very rare was the dynasty that managed to last more than three generations. The archetypal example is, of course, the principate in Rome. First we have Augustus, who seized power by force of arms but then created an image for himself as a man of peace. Not everyone liked Augustus or approved of everything he did, but respect and admiration for him was all but universal. Tiberius, on the other hand, started […]

The greatest crime and the surest proof of the insanity of the democracy in Athens, an outrage that cast a black mark on that city’s glory for two-and-a-half thousand years, was the judicial murder of Socrates in 399 B.C. On trumped up charges of impiety and corruption of the youth, a completely blameless man, in truth more pious and devoted to the education and improvement of young men than anyone else in Athens, was put to death. Spite, spite was the motive of his accusers and judges; spite for his unwavering virtue and pursuit of truth: his inquiries showcased their […]

Meis mortuis digitis algentibus licet tibi narrationes nostrum avorum rapere. In Rome of old, it is said, there once nearly befell a great catastrophe. A great chasm opened up in the Forum and grew ever wider day by day, threatening to engulf the entire city. The Romans tried to fill up the pit with earth, but this did not even slow its expansion. In despair they consulted an oracle, who said that the Romans must cast into the pit that which made their city great, and so they gathered up gold and silver, swords and armor, horses and oxen, anything […]

In 376 A.D., the Goths found themselves on the wrong side of the Danube. Across the river lay the Roman Empire, an old enemy of the Germanic peoples but one with which they could negotiate. Behind them rode the Huns. Valens, the eastern Roman emperor, agreed to allow the Goths to enter the Roman Empire and to provide food for them on the condition that they serve as soldiers (foederati) in the Roman army. The deal was fair and satisfactory to all concerned. All, that is, except the officials responsible for providing the food to the Goths. According to the […]

In the movie 300, King Leonidas makes an offhand remark that has generated some controversy. He refers to the Athenians contemptuously as “boy-lovers,” imputing effeminate homosexuality among the Athenians in sharp contrast to the soldierly masculinity of the Spartans. It’s a harsh put-down, one that certainly matches the tone of the film, but has the unfortunate disadvantage of being completely false. It can be fun to watch 300 and pick out the various classical references scattered throughout. For instance, the Spartans’ military application of the double-reeded flute shown while Leonidas and his band are marching to Thermopylae is attested by […]

Tacitus has got to be one of my favorite Latin authors. He’s the devil to work through: Latin and Greek are both bad about dropping the verb “to be,” but Tacitus leaves out all manner of other words too. Plus, he really doesn’t like using the same word twice, so he varies his vocabulary quite a bit. To read him, you really need three fingers for bookmarks: one to mark your page in the text, another to mark the corresponding section of commentary, and a third in the dictionary section. What makes the whole effort worthwhile is that if you […]

On this, an occasion of no particular significance, let us pause and revisit one of the great achievements of modern drama.  In an age when technology is demonized and environmentalism exalted, there remains at least one last shining example of Man overcoming nature.  I speak, of course, of Predator (1987). The plot is straightforward: sent into the Central American jungle to kill some generic rebels, Arnold and company succeed spectacularly only to find themselves stalked by a mysterious alien Predator.  In the end, only Arnold survives the creature’s attacks, and he defeats it by covering himself in mud and crushing […]