In the early years of the American Revolutionary War, there existed a loose association of military men who lacked faith in George Washington’s ability to lead the Continental Army, and who were convinced he should be replaced. Although Washington’s position was never seriously in jeopardy, these undercurrents of discontent eventually broke through the surface, taking the form of a bizarre duel between partisans of both sides.
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The island of Cerigo, modernly called Kythira, is situated off one of the southern-jutting fingers of the Greek peninsula. Greece’s rocky shores have without doubt claimed more than their fair share of shipwrecks; and in 1807, near the end of the Napoleonic wars, they became the scene of a terrible tale of maritime suffering and survival, which we will now relate.
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In this podcast, I offer a short selection of Latin readings from Cornelius Nepos, Cicero, and Sallust, at the request of a follower on Twitter (@DingoStar64).
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The Soviet defector and writer Victor Suvorov published a book in 1987 called Spetsnaz: The Inside Story of the Soviet Special Forces. Suvorov, whose real name is Vladimir Bogdanovich Rezun, was himself a Spetsnaz veteran and a Soviet intelligence officer. I enjoyed his book Inside the Soviet Army as well; and he has written other volumes which I have not yet had the opportunity to examine.
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We’re pleased to announce that the audiobook of the new translation of Cicero’s On the Nature of the Gods is now available on Amazon’s Audible. To take a look at it, and hear a audio sample, you can click here. Audiobooks add a whole new dimension to the learning experience. The translation is available in four different formats: Kindle, paperback, hardcover, and now audiobook.
If you have questions, please email me at qcurtius@gmail.com.
Would a captain deliberately wreck his own ship, or turn it over to privateers, in order to collect insurance money? This is one of the central questions surrounding the strange and controversial story of the British merchant ship Nottingham Galley, which was wrecked off the coast of Maine in December of 1710. It is a dark and compelling incident, one which will invite readers to draw their own conclusions as to what actually happened.
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In very ancient times there was a dense, feared, and trackless forest that separated the territory of Rome from that of Etruria. It was called the Ciminian Forest (Silva Ciminia), and it was a region that the Romans avoided.
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Ya’qub Ibn Al-Laith Al-Saffar was the founder of the Saffarid Dynasty of Sistan. He lived from A.D. 840 to 879, and rose from humble origins in Afghanistan to conquer an immense area comprising parts of Iran, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.
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Those who have seen the movie Saving Private Ryan (1998) will recall a scene where the actor playing General George Marshall reads to his staff an eloquent and moving letter of condolence written by President Abraham Lincoln to a Mrs. Lydia A. Bixby during the Civil War. This justly famous epistle, now known as the Bixby Letter, is reproduced below. Who will protest at our quoting it in full here?
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Gratitude is what determines our attitude and outlook on life. When we are imbued with a sense of thankfulness, when we look at the world from this perspective, doors open up for us. But if we see everything from a negative, grievance perspective, then we are unable to make progress–and in fact go backwards. We discuss an example.
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Quintus Curtius 
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