Author: Quintus Curtius

Michael Crichton On The Masculine Virtues Of Sean Connery

Quintus Curtius Film, Thought , ,

In his 1988 memoir Travels, author Michael Crichton recalls the time he spent with actor Sean Connery during the shooting of the film The Great Train Robbery in Ireland in 1978.  Crichton, the famed author of Jurassic Park, Sphere, Congo, Disclosure, and a number of other popular novels, was also once a film director.  Connery was the star of The Great Train Robbery, and Crichton clearly was in awe of the volcanic Scotsman.  The anecdotes he relates of Connery’s masculine charisma make it clear that men today can learn a great deal from him.

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How Benito Mussolini Took Power

Quintus Curtius History , ,

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Stalin biographer Stephen Kotkin spends several pages of his book discussing the lessons to be learned from Mussolini’s seizure of power in Italy in the early 1920s.  It was something that happened gradually, in stages, when institutions that should have been able to bring him to heel did nothing, either due to their own lack of resolution or tacit support of his power grab.

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Carsten Niebuhr: Sole Survivor Of The Danish-Arabian Expedition

Quintus Curtius Biography, Travel & Exploration , ,

Of the German explorers of the eighteenth century, the only man whose accomplishments rival those of Alexander von Humboldt is Carsten Niebuhr.  His extensive travels and surveys in the Near East and India resulted in specific geographical data, surveying information, and historical insights.  This was no dreamy wanderer; this was a trained professional, a man who was tough, hard-bitten, and practical, with the astuteness to process what was going on around him and commit his observations faithfully to paper.

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Why We Must Seek The Divine Within Us

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Upon his accession to the throne of Augustus in A.D. 364, the emperor Valentinian gave a short address to his troops.  The speech is related in Ammianus Marcellinus’s history (XXVI.1).  The historian tells us that Valentinian appeared on an open expanse of ground and mounted a platform that had been arranged for this purpose; he was also wearing an imperial robe and a coronet.  The speech itself was short and to the point.

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Why We Should Not Rely On First Impressions

Quintus Curtius Thought , , , ,

It is often said that a man should rely on his first impressions of things when trying to form a final judgment.  There is some merit to instinct; but it seems to me that reasoned deliberation will always provide more accurate results than the shifting sands of sense-perception.  We cannot know all things, or even many things, at a glance.

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Carl Friedrich Philip Von Martius’s Daring Explorations In Brazil

Quintus Curtius Travel & Exploration , , , ,

Men undertake explorations and great journeys for many reasons.  Some expeditions–such as those undertaken by Denham, Burton, Burckhardt, and others like them–are primarily focused on expanding geographical knowledge, commercial information, and ethnographic data.  Others, such as those of Humboldt, Rondon, Lewis and Clark, and von Barth, are more interested in the collection of scientific information about the natural world.  The Brazilian explorations of Carl Friedrich von Martius falls into the latter category.

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The Wrath Of Least Persistence

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Everyone has heard the tired phrase, “path of least resistance.”  It represents a principle that I have no objection to.  Of course there is no reason to make more work for oneself without good reason.  No one is arguing with this idea.  All things being equal, the shortest path to a goal is usually the best.  But it occurred to me today to take this phrase and modify it a bit to create another principle, one perhaps equally valid, yet one far less frequently discussed.  Let us consider this new phrase:  the wrath of least persistence.  What do I mean by this?

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John Lewis Burckhardt’s Travels And Explorations In Nubia

Quintus Curtius Travel & Exploration , ,
J.L. Burckhardt’s intensity and determination clearly show in this engraving.

In a previous article we have sketched the life of John Lewis Burckhardt.  He was born in Lausanne, Switzerland in 1784 of a prominent family.  At the age of 16 his father moved the family to Leipzig; and four years after this they moved again to  Göttingen.  His family was staunchly opposed to the new Napoleonic government that had taken power in France, so he moved to London in July 1806 to seek employment prospects there.  At some point, and possibly influenced by the daring men he had contact with there, he decided on a career in exploration.

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David Mamet’s Film “Redbelt” (2008) (Podcast)

Quintus Curtius Podcast, Uncategorized , , , ,

In this podcast we discuss David Mamet’s 2008 film Redbelt.  This is a great movie, and a worthy addition to his long line of films that explore the moral and ethical problems that men face as they try to reconcile their personal creeds with the world’s corrupting influences.  How we resolve this struggle will define what kind of man we are.  Mamet instinctively understands the necessity of masculine virtus in a world characterized by shifting loyalties, fair-weather friends, and moral corruption; this makes him, in a sense, the most “virtuous” filmmaker today.

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The Boar And The Wolf Of Sant’ Antonio

Quintus Curtius Thought, Travel & Exploration , , , ,

I will turn again to Biondo Flavio’s geographical compendium of Italy called Italia Illustrata, which was published in 1453.  Flavio traveled all over the Italian peninsula and recorded historical information, anecdota, and local customs of the Italian countryside in the late medieval period.  During his tour of Tuscany, he found himself in the region near the city of Petriolo.  Here there was a remote monastery dedicated to Sant’ Angelo named the Eremo di Sant’ Antonio in Val d’Aspra.  Flavio describes the place as being at the top of an irregular road threading through forested hills.  It was also an austere place, not lavish at all in its construction (ut ad parum sumptuose et minus laute aedificatum te conferas monasterium).

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