(acommonreader.st)
Following the capture of Babylon, Darius led an army against Scythia. For Asia was flourishing; it had both numerous fighting men and ample revenues, and Darius had developed a desire to punish the Scythians for having earlier invaded Media and having conquered those who had tried to oppose them; for in doing this the Scythians […]
Picture source The first of several summer family trips will keep me away from the computer over an extended weekend. Withdrawl pangs start in 10… 9…
Carthage Must Be Destroyed: The Rise and Fall of an Ancient Civilization by Richard Miles 560 pages, Allen Lane, £30 ISBN: 978-0-713-99793-4 Attempts to conjure up contemporary relevance with regard to the ancient world can often appear trite and laboured at best, and fatuous and false at worst. However, the history of Carthage does force […]
Ryszard Kapuściński’s Travels with Herodotus is a marvelous half-memoir of his career and half-reflection on Herodotus’ The Histories. Other than a few articles I’ve read over the years, this is my first extended exposure to Kapuściński. I have definitely shortchanged myself in not reading more of his work before now. Kapuściński was a Polish journalist/correspondent […]
In 249 BC the Roman consul Publius Claudius Pulcher—a man variously described as being mentally unstable, an arrogant snob and a drunk—decided to launch an attack on the Carthaginian-held port of Drepana [on Sicily]. The mission got off to a rocky start when the sacred chickens used to gauge divine favour went off their feed, […]
The lack of recent posts is tied to summer fun with the family and too much work, not to lack of reading. Hopefully I’ll be able to post on the following books/chapters before an upcoming trip: Book 4 of The Histories–the Scythian chapter, or Darius invades Europe. After finishing this chapter my first time through […]
I have already mentioned where the author of this account came from; and now I shall tell you what I heard about him in Proconnesus and Cyzicus. Aristeas, they say, was in lineage the equal or superior of any citizen in his town. One day he entered a fuller’s shop in Proconnesus and dies there, […]
The Thinker: Portrait of Louis N. Kenton (1900) by Thomas Eakins Picture source That time of year thou mayst in me behold When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang Upon those boughs which shake against the cold, Bare ruin’d choirs, where late the sweet birds sang. In me thou seest the twilight of […]
Picture of the 1986 first edition dust jacket for A Summons to MemphisPicture source The courtship and remarriage of an old widower is always made more difficult when middle-aged children are involved—especially when there are unmarried daughters. This seemed particularly true in the landlocked, backwater city of Memphis some forty-odd years ago. … Almost immediately […]
Harold Bloom calls Hadji Murad “my personal touchstone for the sublime of prose fiction, to me the best story in the world, or at least the best that I have ever read.” Bloom argues throughout his book “that originality, in the sense of strangeness, is the quality that, more than any other, makes a work […]
Conspiracy theories and hidden codes rarely do anything for me. So I’m a little skeptical that, even if true, Cracking the “Plato Code” will truly “transform the early history of Western thought, and especially the histories of ancient science, mathematics, music, and philosophy.” Regardless, since I’m planning on reading the dialogues in the next year, […]
Two presentations on the story of Gyges from The Histories. First is Kristen Scott Thomas in The English Patient (link, in case the video doesn’t display): Next is a fun little parody by Mike using scenes from various Star Wars movies (I can’t find the link anymore…if anyone knows of a site hosting it, please […]
I have wanted to mention The Classics Circuit‘s current focus on imperial Russian literature, so I’ll do that now. Having recently read and enjoyed some of the books that will be reviewed I look forward to seeing others’ comments on them as well as adding more books to my “To Be Read” stack. I will […]
Phaidymie feeling for Smerdis’s Ears Picture source Never hath a painless life Been cast on mortals by the power supreme Of the All-disposer, Cronos’ son. But joy And sorrow visit in perpetual round All mortals, even as circleth still on high The constellation of the Northern sky. What lasteth in the world? Not starry night, […]
The inscription of Darius I, the Great on Mount Behistun Picture sourceFrom Livius.org: In Antiquity, Bagastâna, which means ‘place where the gods dwell’, was the name of a village and a remarkable, isolated rock along the road that connected the capitals of Babylonia and Media, Babylon and Ecbatana (modern Hamadan). Many travellers passed along this […]
I have given a rather lengthy account of the Samians because they achieved the three greatest engineering works of all the Hellenes. First, they dug a tunnel through a 900-foot-high mountain; it is 4,080 feet long and 8 feet high and wide. Another channel, 30 feet deep and 3 feet wide, was dug along the […]
Map of ancient EgyptAfter the Persian king Cyrus dies and before the narrative follows Cambyses’ reign, Herodotus pauses and relays his inquiries and research on Egypt. While still wealthy, Egypt had declined markedly over the previous few centuries. Despite the decline, the wonders and achievements he sees in that land provide material for an entire […]
Published in 1965, the scans from The Recently Deflowered Girl at Bitten Nails Design & Illustration brought back memories of several upscale, tongue-in-cheek “racy” books from the ’60s. Not that I was old enough to understand the few I saw, of course. For a fun diversion, check out Mel Juffee’s….I mean Hyacinthe Phypps’ advice and […]
The Lost Books of the Odyssey by Zachary Mason Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 240 pages, $24.00 ISBN: 9780374192150Steven Riddle at A Momentary Taste of Being gave this book a high recommendation and since I re-read The Odyssey lately (or so it seems to me) I thought I would check this book out from the library […]
Work has been overwhelming lately (just finished a round of funding and an audit starts next week), which has meant almost no time to read. Hopefully things will slow down in a few weeks. In the meantime and to mark his passing, here are a couple of scans from Art Linkletter’s book. My favorite moments […]