classics digests, reflections and reviews
Emperor Augustus The principal conquests of the Romans were achieved under the republic; and the emperors, for the most part, were satisfied with preserving those dominions which had been acquired by the policy of the senate, the active emulations of the consuls, and the martial enthusiasm of the people. The seven first centuries were filled with a rapid succession of triumphs; but it was reserved for Augustus to relinquish the […]
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Being Accountable The Autobiography of George Müller, also known as The Life of Trust, should be titled The Life of an Account Manager. For starters, Müller gives a detailed account of all the money that has passed through his hands, in his capacity as a missionary and director of orphanage in Bristol. Second, he also painstakingly records the actions he has taken and choices he has made in the same […]
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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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Having grown up as an atheist, I used to treat all religious practices with contempt. Even after my conversion to theism, rituals and liturgy have remained alien to me, partly by choice, partly due to circumstances. My experience and understanding of Christianity have been mostly on the intellectual level. In this regard, Prof. Hurtado made a significant impact on me, as he piqued my interest in the lives of the […]
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All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances, Some exit on their sick-bed, some on the battlefield, others, like Socrates and Thomas More, were executed by the state they had loved and served. Thomas More lived in late 15th and early 16th century Europe, in the time of the Renaissance and the Protestant Reformation. Peter Ackroyd’s sympathetic and […]
Read moreAbuse of Names as a Herald of Tyranny The first ever political coup in the long ancient history of China was heralded by an incident in court involving abuse of names. According to the Records of the Grand Historian (史记), not long after Qin Er Shi, the youngest son of the First Emperor of Qin, succeeded the throne by killing his eldest brother, one of his scheming ministers, who helped […]
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