classics digests, reflections and reviews
Greco-Roman and Eastern Classics: Mythology, Philosophy, Literature.
Dedication to Augustus When I saw that you [Imperator Caesar] were giving your attention not only to the welfare of society in general and to the establishment of public order, but also to the providing of public buildings intended for utilitarian purposes, so that not only should the State have been enriched with provinces by your means, but that the greatness of its power might likewise be attended with distinguished […]
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The Case of Socrates It is a historical fact that Socrates was convicted of impiety and sentenced to death by an Athenian court in 399 BC. It is a matter of dispute whether the verdict was just and whether Socrates was right to submit to the State of Athens and not escape with the aid of his friends. In a recent blogpost, a Thomist philosopher stated that Socrates went too […]
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Reign of the Thirty Tyrants Now at Athens the Thirty had been chosen [by the people] for the purpose of framing a constitution under which to conduct the government, however, they continually delayed framing and publishing this constitution, but they appointed a Senate and the other magistrates as they saw fit. Then, as a first step, they arrested and brought to trial for their lives those persons who, by common […]
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How Eteonicus Quashed the Conspiracy of the Reed The troops that were at Chios under Eteonicus subsisted, so long as the summer lasted, upon the produce of the season and by working for hire up and down the island; when winter came on, however, and they were without food and poorly clad and unshod, they got together and agreed to make an attack upon Chios; and it was decided that […]
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It is my regular custom, my lord, to refer to you all questions which cause me doubt, for who can better guide my hesitant steps or instruct my ignorance? I have never attended hearings concerning Christians, so I am unaware what is usually punished or investigated, and to what extent. I am more than a little in doubt whether there is to be a distinction between ages, and to what […]
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When I was last in my native district a son of a fellow townsman of mine, a youth under age, came to pay his respects to me. I said to him, “Do you keep up your studies?” “Yes,” said he. “Where?” I asked. “At Mediolanum,” he replied. “But why not here?” I queried. Then the lad’s father, who was with him, and indeed had brought him, replied, “Because we have […]
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I was delighted to find that you are so zealous a student of my uncle’s books that you would like to possess copies of them all, and that you ask me to give you a complete list of them. I will play the part of an index for you, and tell you, moreover, the order in which they were written: “Throwing the Javelin from Horseback,” one volume; this was composed, […]
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