Tag Archives: Plutarch
Written by Brendan Heard, Author of the Decline and Fall of Western Art When I was about twenty five years of age, I read Plutarch’s Lives. I did so because I came across it in a used book shop, and it had a nice leather bound cover, and because it seemed to be a history of the
The Birth of the Biography
By Ben Potter, Contributing Writer, Classical Wisdom What springs to mind when we think about literature of the Ancient World? Maybe it’s Homer’s Achilles dragging the corpse of Hector around Troy or Sophocles’ Oedipus stabbing out his polluted eyes. Perhaps it’s Plato’s Socrates holding forth or Herodotus’ Leonidas and his 300 Spartans. It even might
Herodotus Proved Right! Nile Shipwreck Vindicates the Greek Historian’s Wild Claims… About a Boat.
In 450 BCE, Herodotus wrote about a specific sort of cargo boat that he saw along the Nile, which, until now, no one believed existed. Historians and archeologists were doubtful about Herodotus’ description of the ship because they had never seen any evidence…and indeed, while he is known as the “father of History”, many of
Pompey Needs a Buddy
by Cam Rea, Contributing Writer, Classical Wisdom Rome was expecting the Parthian invasion, but it never came. Instead, in the west, the Great Roman Civil War exploded, in the years 49 – 45 BC. It was a politico-military conflict which pitted Pompey against Caesar, each vying for leadership of the Roman state. It was during
Do All Roads ACTUALLY Lead to Rome?
We all know the phrase “All roads lead to Rome”. Today, it is used proverbially and has come to mean something like “there is more than one way to reach the same goal”. But did all roads ever really lead to the eternal city? The Power of Pavement There was a close connection between roads
The Cave of Nightmares
By Francesca Leaf, Contributor from Noet, a Classical Wisdom Weekly Partner – Learn more about Noet Here! In ancient Greece, oracles held sway over important life decisions. People visited the shrines to receive counsel on everything from difficult religious questions and the healing of ailments, to determining if they should wage war on a neighboring