Ancient and modern
Celsus, St Peter and the curiosities of Christianity
Last week Tom Holland reflected on the ‘utter strangeness’ of Christianity’s claim that Christ’s death on the cross was a…
Marriage is becoming more like it was before Christianity
The Christian church ordained that marriage, a sacrament imparting divine grace, was for life. In 1857, the state enacted its…
What would Jon Snow have said about the Athenian assembly?
Channel 4 news presenter Jon Snow announced at a recent ‘Leave’ rally that he had never seen so many white…
Can ancient Greek comedians tell us how to leave the EU?
Since comedians these days seem to be the authorities on all matters spiritual and temporal (puts on funny voice, knife-crime…
The fake names on the Remain petition are nothing new
The petition calling on the UK to remain in the EU has garnered 8,000 votes from Jacob Rees-Mogg and 700…
Unlike MPs, Cicero understood the meaning of sovereignty
The problem with Brexit is that parliament is not designed to do what the people have commanded it to. MPs…
As the Romans knew, eternal life is hopeless without eternal youth
A research professor has pointed out that lengthening human lifespan threatens to turn us into living zombies unless we can…
Can you really teach students to solve knife crime?
Next year the London Interdisciplinary School (LIS) will offer one degree, in design, technology and the humanities, to teach students…
The aim of the Games
The Olympic Committee has added surfing, skateboarding and break-dancing to the events for the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2020.…
May needs to get dramatic over Brexit – and fast
It is becoming clearer by the day that Mrs May was right not to consult her colleagues, let alone the…
![Opposition supporters take to the streets against Nicolás Maduro [GETTY IMAGES]](https://spectatorau.imgix.net/content/uploads/2019/02/A_M.jpg?auto=compress,enhance,format&crop=faces,entropy,edges&fit=crop&w=410&h=275)
How to get away with being a tyrant
Last week, in an effort to understand what that left-wing hero Nicolás Maduro, President of Venezuela, must be suffering, Hieron,…
Poor old Nicolás Maduro
However much he is heroised by left-wingers, the Venezuelan ‘tyrant’ Nicolás Maduro must wonder what is in it for him.…
Sick of award ceremonies? So were the ancients
All over the world, from Armenia (the Silver Apricot) to India (the Golden Conch) and the UK (the Shaftas, honest),…
The rejection of the people’s mandate – then and now
The Transport Secretary Chris Grayling may be quite right (not words one often reads) to warn that failure to deliver…
Those tempted to turn over a new leaf this year should remember Aesop’s fables
At this time of year the media urge us all to turn over a new leaf and believe that we…
How the year began
Why are our years structured as they are? Censorinus in his de die natali (‘Birthday Book’) for his chum Caerellius…
What would Jesus’s childhood have been like?
Around 1 ad a 14-year-old Jewish Arab girl called Maryam, almost certainly in Nazareth in Galilee, gave birth to a…
Socrates vs Steve Bannon
The country’s champions of free speech — the police — were recently out in force to ensure that the alt-right…
Call the polis
If Brussels is willing to offer the British Parliament only a dog’s Brexit, that should tell Parliament everything it needs…
Doctors and death
The Royal College of Physicians has suggested that doctors should learn to talk to patients about death. But talk about…
The Romans liked a stylish death
World Mental Health day raised again the issue of suicide, still regarded as happening only among those ‘whose balance of…
What the NHS does now, Babylon did first
Financial constraints combined with a shortage of staff have brought the NHS to a situation so desperate that it is…
Corbyn’s false democracy
At the Labour party conference, Jeremy Corbyn said that he would do whatever his party members told him to. This,…
Where there’s a quid there must be a quo
The 5th century bc Athenian historian Thucydides proposed that the driving force behind interstate relations was power and fear. But…
The EU’s divide and rule
‘Divide and rule’ (or ‘conquer’) diplomacy aims to disunite the opposition, the better to control it. The ancients were masters…
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