Today only historians of the sea have heard of the horrific loss of the steam packet Rothsay Castle in 1831. Yet in its day, the tragedy aroused considerable public indignation and mourning in England; and it remains one of the most unsettling of the nineteenth century’s long list of maritime calamities. We will retell the tale.
Continue reading
It often happens that, in the affairs of states and princes, conveniences lead to dependency, and from dependency to ruin. What may first appear to be advantageous, may in time prove to be only the first link of a chain forged for the purpose of bondage. History abounds with examples of this slide into servitude, but we will relate two from the military history of the second century Greek author Polyaenus.
Continue reading
The Roman emperor Julian, wary of the encroaching borders of the Persians, undertook a military campaign against the Persian Empire in March of A.D. 363. Despite some initial successes, the operation resulted in a defeat for Roman arms and Julian’s own death in battle. Yet the field of conflict yielded more than just a litany of forgotten sieges and dusty marches. The emperor had occasion to deliver two masterpieces of rhetoric, expressive of some of the noblest, and most memorable, sentiments ever uttered by a wearer of the imperial purple. We will review both of them here.
Continue reading
Sybaris was an ancient city of Magna Graecia in southern Italy. Its ruins are located in the modern Italian province of Calabria. The historians tell us that it was founded around the year 720 B.C., and that it persisted as a community until around 440 B.C.
Continue reading
The outline of the story that follows appeared in Edward R. Snow’s volume The Fury of the Seas, which was published in 1964. Snow relates that he first became aware of its details in 1934. His book is now long out of print, so it will be a pleasure for us to retell it here.
Continue reading
Theodore Roosevelt was going to Cuba when war with Spain broke out, and no power on earth was going to stop him. As Assistant Secretary of the Navy, he had fought, schemed, and maneuvered to get an officer’s commission, and he had prevailed.
Continue reading
Andrea Palladio is considered one of the most distinguished names in the history of architecture. His designs of villas, churches, theaters, and palaces have for centuries been held as exemplars of the High Renaissance genius for adapting classical styles and themes to modern purposes.
Continue reading
This morning my friend Dr. Michael Fontaine sent me an email that contained the following quote by the French Enlightenment thinker Bernard Le Bovier de Fontenelle. When Fontenelle, at the age of 85, met Rousseau in 1742, he counseled him, “You must courageously offer your brow to laurel wreaths, and your nose to blows.”
Continue reading
The Athenian statesman and general Phocion lived from about 402 to 318 B.C. He was famous for his frugal and unassuming personal habits; and he always put the interests of his country first, in stark opposition to his careerist, opportunistic contemporaries.
Continue reading
The following story is taken from John Koehler’s masterfully researched Stasi: The Untold Story of the East German Secret Police (1999). It is just one of countless tales of tragedy, suffering, and betrayal that took place in East Germany between the years 1945 and 1989. As the memory of communist oppression continues to recede in time, it becomes increasingly important to document, for the benefit of future generations, its fearsome scope and unrelenting cruelty.
Continue reading
Quintus Curtius 
You must be logged in to post a comment.