Ancient and modern
The Greeks had their reservations about the Olympics
Winners at the Olympics were thought to have come as close to a god as any man could. But that…
The ancient Greeks had no time for losers
Every red-blooded Englishman has believed that exercise in the open air is the finest prophylactic against popery, adultery and the…
How the ancients kept people behaving responsibly
The Prime Minister is urging citizens not to throw caution to the winds when lockdown ends on 19 July but…
What the Romans would have made of Diana’s statue
The recently unveiled funerary monument of Princess Diana prompts comparison with Greek and Roman archetypes. To many, Diana was a…
Tacitus and the hypocrisy of cancel culture
The delicious hypocrisy at the heart of today’s cancel fraternity is that it is strongly opposed to censorship. Romans grappled…
What the EU could learn from the Athenian Empire
The EU has regularly been likened to the Roman Empire. But its current direction suggests that the Athenian Empire (478-404…
Roman cancel culture didn’t stop at statues
The mob is at work again in Oxford, protesting against the existence of Oriel’s statue of Cecil Rhodes. But this…
What Dominic Cummings could learn from Xenophon
On the subject of leadership, the Athenian soldier, historian, biographer and essayist Xenophon (c. 430-354 BC) had much to say,…
A sex education from Aristophanes
The publication of the new Cambridge Greek Lexicon reminded the comedian and classicist Natalie Haynes of her frustrations at school,…
A Roman solution to Prince Charles’s ‘Harry problem’
Charles, Prince of Wales, is having a little trouble with his son Harry. Romans knew about difficult offspring. They told…
Animal sentience law has finally caught up with Plutarch’s thinking
Almost no ancients cared whether animals felt pain or not. The classical Stoic belief that man’s reasoning capacity elevated him…
Virgil understood the great power of nature
‘Georgics’ are an ancient form of poetry about agriculture and the land. The term derives from Greek gê ‘land’ +…
The importance of gossip (according to the ancients)
Gossip appears to be good for the mental health. That should make the females of the ancient world some of…
Do spelling and grammar still matter?
Some universities have announced that spelling and grammar (i.e. morphology and syntax) are not all that important, but quality of…
The Greensill scandal wouldn’t have shocked the ancients
Ex-prime minister David Cameron, ignoring official protocol, though not acting illegally, went directly to the chancellor Rishi Sunak to ask…
How to eulogise the Duke of Edinburgh
The reason why Greeks and Romans would have found it difficult to eulogise the Duke of Edinburgh was that he…
Models of obedience: how to make people obey the law
Protests are being staged against the proposed bill to change the laws on protest. But there is a bigger issue…
The ancient Greek approach to mediation
Divorcing couples are being given vouchers worth £500 to settle their problems by mediation rather than going to court. It…
Even Ancient Rome battled culture wars
Identity politics empowers people to make all sorts of claims, not because they are true but because it makes them…
The Stoics would have had little sympathy for Meghan
Meghan Markle seems to see herself as a ‘victim’. Had she called herself a victima in Rome, it would have…
Alex Salmond and the trouble with revenge
Ancient Greeks were not slow to express their enthusiasm for taking revenge. Observing the recent proceedings in the Scottish parliament,…
Cicero knew that we should study the past, not cancel it
Modern historians, excoriating the past evils of e.g. slavery and imperialism are taking the understanding of history back to its…
The Egyptians knew the value of accidental discoveries
The government has plans to fund a new research agency to back ‘cutting-edge science’. Ptolemaios (Ptolemy) I (367-282 bc), the…
How a Roman emperor would handle Navalny
A Roman emperor would consider the tyrant Putin’s treatment of Alexei Navalny’s supporters as foolish but, looking at Russia as…
What Pliny the Elder and David Attenborough have in common
When it comes to natural history, Sir David Attenborough rules the airwaves. Pliny the Elder (d. ad 79) who, as…
