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Sometimes Winning Is Not Enough (Podcast)
Sometimes even a decisive victory is not enough. The victory may create entirely new landscapes, obstacles, and challenges that test you to the ultimate limit. There is no such thing as reaching a safe “end zone.” We discuss the Battle of Cunaxa in 401 B.C., where the Greek mercenaries of Cyrus won the battle, but…
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The Books Of Numa Pompilius
The defilement of a nation’s cultural heritage is among the most odious of crimes. But the offense is especially noxious, and finally unforgivable, when committed by national leaders for their own personal aggrandizement. The past is always vulnerable to the malicious exigencies of the present. An illustrative example is found in the pages of Roman…
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Decius Iubellius Has His Appointment With Fate
Philosophers and theologians have often pondered whether, or to what extent, wicked deeds are punished within the lifetime of a malefactor. Some maintain that the consequences of evil actions can never be avoided, and that, sooner or later, divine retribution will be visited upon him who offends the gods of justice. Others take a different…
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Coming In Late 2025: A New, Annotated Translation Of Frontinus’s “Stratagems”
I expect to publish a new, annotated translation of the Roman military classic Stratagems. It will contain a detailed explanatory introduction, hundreds of footnotes, a commentary on the text, a bibliography, and an extensive index.
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Two Amusing Anecdotes From The Siege Of Charleston In 1780
In 1822, Alexander Garden, an aide-de-camp of Major General Nathanael Greene, published a fascinating work titled Anecdotes of the Revolutionary War in America, With Sketches in Character. Some of the stories contained in the volume are based on Garden’s own experiences, or were conveyed to him personally by veterans of the conflict. Out of a…
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A Tale Of Chivalry From The Revolutionary War
A touching example of battlefield chivalry is found in the august pages of Alexander Garden’s Anecdotes of the Revolutionary War in America. This forgotten work, through interviews with veterans and knowledgeable parties, was published in 1822, and compiles a great number of stories connected with the war and its combatants. One of them we will…
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The Enmity Of Poets Is The Worst Of Acquisitions
Buried in the learned and fecund pages of Ibn Khallikan (IV.43) is an amusing tale of an impoverished poet of medieval Sicily. Who will object to its retelling?
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The Musa Brothers Confirm The Measurement Of The Earth’s Circumference
Enthusiasts of the history of science are familiar with the ingenious method used by the ancient Greek scientist Eratosthenes to measure the Earth’s circumference. Briefly described, he measured the angle of a shadow cast by a stake driven into the ground at midday in the Egyptian city of Alexandria. He compared this to the fact…
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Purgation
The Roman writer Aulus Gellius (X.8) relates an interesting anecdote about his country’s military punishments in olden times. He says that if a soldier committed some offense, he would be “bled”: that is, he would be subjected to a ritualistic opening of a vein and be forced to lose some blood.
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Book Review: “General Eoin O’Duffy: The Political Life Of An Irish Firebrand” (Podcast)
This podcast is a book review of General Eoin O’Duffy: The Political Life Of An Irish Firebrand, by Jack Traynor. This book is a scholarly but brief political biography of a key figure of Irish politics from the War of Independence through the end of the 1930s. We discuss the book and its subject matter,…
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A Conversation With Dr. Massimo Pigliucci (Podcast Video)
In December 2024, I had a great conversation with Dr. Massimo Pigliucci, a professor of philosophy at City College in New York City, an evolutionary biologist, a scholar of Greco-Roman practical philosophy, and an authority on Stoicism. He is also the author of How to Be a Stoic and The Quest for Character. We covered…
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The Survival Of Terry Jo Duperrault: Mass Murder On The High Seas
Enthusiasts of sea tales and true crime stories will find much to ponder in the horrific account of the ordeal of Terry Jo Duperrault aboard the Bluebelle. The story is a relatively recent one, and has been told before. But since many readers may be unfamiliar with the episode, I believe it is worth recounting…
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If You’re Not Losing, You’re Not Learning
If you encounter someone who claims to have a perfect record, and says he has never lost in some field of endeavor, take the claim with a grain of salt. Statements like this can be misleading, and often do not tell the whole story. If you want to learn and grow, you need to know…
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As I Found Him, So Did I Leave Him
There is an anecdote told about the Athenian commander Iphicrates during the time his forces were defending the city of Corinth from 393 to 391 B.C.
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On Prepared And Extemporaneous Speeches
We will discuss the preparation and delivery of the prepared and the extemporaneous speech. I find that, in reviewing the vast corpus of writing about this subject, most authors have devoted their attentions to abstract theories and didactic classifications, instead of practical and effective advice. My comments here are not intended to be an exhaustive…
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The Three Branches Of Government And Their Responsibilities (Podcast)
In this podcast we describe the three branches of the United States government, their responsibilities, and some related details. I had been asked some questions about this subject, and thought it might be useful to discuss it. A related topic is this: what happens if one branch of government exceeds its authority?
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The Ovation Givers
The lawyer and epistolarian Pliny the Younger, in his correspondence with a friend, vented his anger on the sycophantic atmosphere surrounding certain courts of his era. The centumviral courts—so called because they were composed of pools of one hundred men (centum viri)—were courts of equity dealing primarily with civil matters. Offended by the insolence and…
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Courage And Cacozelia
Vasili Nikitich Mitrokhin was a Soviet intelligence officer who first began work for his country’s security services in the late 1940s. During the 1950s, he was sent on various overseas missions; but he was apparently ill-suited to field work, and was reassigned to a desk job as an archivist.
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Four Factors Affecting The Credibility Of An Argument
The rhetorician Quintilian, in his study of the orator’s education (IV.2.52), stated that there were four factors affecting the credibility of a forensic argument. By forensic argument, we mean a speech or writing that examines past events and evidence in order to evaluate culpability.
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Certainty And Reasonable Probability Are Totally Different Things
The Stoic philosopher Ariston of Chios was said to have believed strongly that the wise man should avoid making absolute judgments. Certitude, he felt, was neither possible nor desirable.
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On The Punishment Of False Prophets
De poena prophetarum falsarum. If a leader cannot base his decisions on verifiable truth, or on the closest approximation of what he believes to be the truth, he will not escape calamity. He must surround himself with advisors who have his, and not their own, interests at heart; and he must seek independent confirmation of…
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The Times Must Be Right For Extraordinary Characters (Podcast)
For a great personality to flourish and find expression, the historical times must be favorable. History is filled with examples of great men who withered in obscurity simply because the periods in which they lived were unable to hear their voices. Greatness can only accomplish so much; it must be nurtured by propitious circumstances.
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The Ten Most Popular Essays Of 2024
Below are listed the most visited essays of 2024. Not surprisingly, the movie pieces showed considerable traffic. But I did not expect a few essays from much earlier years to resurface: as the waters of time churn and seethe, what was once submerged can often break through the surface. The essays are listed in descending…
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Always March On Rome
It can often be instructive, in the study of history, to play the intriguing game of “what if?” We are inclined to believe in the inevitability of historical events, simply because things turned out as they did; yet we tend to forget that different decisions might have produced very different outcomes. Thought experiments also help…
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Shipwrecked On Inaccessible Island
When Napoleon was finally imprisoned on St. Helena, the British government thought it prudent to occupy a small volcanic island named Tristan da Cunha, which was located about twenty degrees south of St. Helena. It was assumed that, if the wily French emperor attempted an escape from his island lodgings, Tristan da Cunha would present…
Original copy of Cicero’s De Officiis (On Duties) published in Holland in 1642. From the collection of Fortress of the Mind.
Quintus Curtius 
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