Tag Archives: Cicero

Book Review: “How to Tell a Joke,” By Michael Fontaine

Written by Ben Potter, Contributing Writer, Classical Wisdom As Michael Fontaine’s latest book How to Tell a Joke: An Ancient Guide to the Art of Humor comes hot on the heels of his fascinating How to Drink: A Classical Guide to the Art of Imbibing, one might reasonably expect the Cornell professor’s next installment to

Written on March 17, 2021 at 8:38 am, by Ben Potter

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Categories: Culture

Tags: Ancient Greek and Roman tradition, Cicero, humor

Corruption in the Classical World

Written by Ronan McLaverty-Head, Contributing Writer, Classical Wisdom The barbs traded between Demosthenes and Aeschines in 4th century BC Athens would not be out of place on cable news today. After their attempt to draw up a treaty between Athens and Philip of Macedon, Demosthenes and Aeschines fell out spectacularly. Demosthenes accused Aeschines of corruption of

Written on October 2, 2020 at 8:59 am, by KristinD

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Categories: Philosophy

Tags: Ancient Rome, Cicero, corruption, economy, government, Money

Cicero: Rome’s Greatest Defender

Written by Edward Whelan, Contributing Writer, Classical Wisdom There are many great Romans whose names are still honored to this day. None has been more feted down the centuries than Cicero. He was perhaps Rome’s greatest author and one of its greatest orators and philosophers. Cicero was also one the last defenders of the Roman

Written on May 27, 2020 at 8:00 am, by Whelan

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Categories: Leaders

Tags: Academic Scepticism, Augustus, Cataline, Cicero, First Triumvirate, Julius Caesar, Marc Antony, Roman empire, Roman Republic, Scepticisim, Statesman

Aristotle: Bad Writer, but Good Philosopher?

Of Aristotle’s writing, some readers were struck by the accuracy, some by the tone, others by the diligence, incision and insight of Aristotle’s words. Marcus Tulius Cicero, the most prominent man of letters of the late Roman Republic, even referred to Aristotle’s literary style as an ‘aureum flumen’, a ‘river of gold’. However, Cicero was

Written on May 1, 2020 at 8:32 am, by Ben Potter

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Categories: Philosophers

Tags: Ammonius Hermiae, Aristotle, Cicero, Jonathan Barnes

Why Study Latin? The Reason for Dead Languages

By Visnja Bojovic, Contributing Writer, Classical Wisdom “Why study dead languages?” “Who needs that?” “Why don’t you learn something that you can actually communicate in?” These are the questions that every person who has studied ancient languages has been asked at least once…or a hundred times. As someone that has practiced and taught Latin for

Written on September 25, 2019 at 9:24 am, by Visnja Bojovic

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Categories: Language

Tags: Caligula, Cicero, dead languages, latin, Virgil, why study

[Video] Classics Challenge: Ancient Greek Memorization Techniques

In ancient Greece, prior to being written down, stories were recounted orally. Due to that, memory played an important part in the life of an ancient Greek storyteller. The Odyssey for instance, had 12,110 lines – and each one of those had to be recited by memory – a seemingly impossible task today. Did the

Written on January 3, 2019 at 4:37 pm, by plato

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Categories: Media

Tags: Ancient greek, Cicero, Loci Memorization technique, memorization technique, Memory Palace, Simonides of Ceos

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