Enmity of Ideals But can you, Hortensius, continue to ask me, the man being what he is, what feelings of private enmity, what personal wrong, can have led me to undertake his prosecution? … Why, think you that any enmity between human beings can be more bitter than such as arises from the conflict of their ideals, from the diversity of their aims and purposes? Can one who reverence modesty […]
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“The Verrine Orations I” by Cicero
Cicero, The Professor and the Artist Cicero’s writings need little or no introduction. His erudition, eloquence and fluid writing style give the readers instant familiarity with the historical and political background of his times. His defense and prosecution speeches are like lectures given in court. Cicero the Professor teaches the jury and his opponents the meaning of justice and propriety, and demonstrates how to execute justice, by arguments of moral […]
Read more“The Jugurthine War; The Conspiracy of Catiline” by Sallust
With a few changes in names, the whole story of “The Jugurthine War” can perhaps be transplanted from 110 BC Rome to the 20th century, or any other period in history, when there are global/central super powers, local tyrants/warlords and puppet governments. “The Conspiracy of Catiline” is a tale of political intrigue and class struggle instigated by lust-crazed individuals. It complements Cicero’s account of the event in his orations “Against […]
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“Orations” by Cicero
[Volume X of Loeb Classical Library’s 28-volume series] What times! What crisis! What drama! A masterpiece of oratory! A fine specimen of human being! These orations by Cicero, especially “In Catilinam” and “Pro Murena”, showcase his exceptional skills as a lawyer and supreme orator, political foresight and vision as an eminent statesmen, erudition in law, politics, history and philosophy, and, above all, his “masterful urbanity” as a fine specimen of […]
Read more“Tusculan Disputations” by Cicero
“Life is not an easy matter…. You cannot live through it without falling into frustration and cynicism unless you have before you a great idea which raises you above personal misery, above weakness, above all kinds of perfidy and baseness.” –Leon Trotsky “Diary in Exile” For Cicero, the Roman statesman who was beset by sorrows and troubles in his old age (death of his beloved daughter, his political exile and […]
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“The Bacchae” by Euripides
“The Bacchae” won the first prize in the City Dionysia festival in Athens in 405 BC, for good reason I suppose. The structure, plot, and character development are among the best of Euripides. William Arrowsmith, the translator, compared it to “Oedipus the King”, “Agamemnon” and “King Lear”, as one of the greatest tragedies. Truth be told, I’m not quite sure what to make of it. For example, is there anything […]
Read more“The Phoenician Women” by Euripides
“Imagine there’s no countries It isn’t hard to do Nothing to kill or die for … Imagine no possessions I wonder if you can No need for greed or hunger A brotherhood of man Imagine all the people Sharing all the world” I wonder if John Lennon would still have imagined “brotherhood of man” if he had read this play: Two sons of Oedipus, Eteocles and Polynices, two brothers killed […]
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