You may ask yourself why we study the lives and experiences of great exemplars. When I say “exemplar” I mean a person of substance and distinction, a person of notoriety in some field of endeavor. There are many reasons for this; I will attempt to give a few of them here.
Al Fadl Ibn Yahya al-Barmaki (A.D. 766—808) was a government official who served the most famous of all the Abbasid caliphs, the great but mercurial Harun al-Rashid. Besides serving in several administrative posts (such as governor of Khurasan), he was also trusted enough to tutor Harun’s young son and heir al-Amin. Although he later fell out of favor with the caliph, many stories are told of his generosity and kindness.
No matter how much ability a commander may have, his purposes will ultimately come to nothing if he is surrounded by discontented or disloyal associates. It was for this reason that, as the historian Sallust relates, the Roman general Metellus decided to send his disloyal subordinate Marius back to Rome. A further example of this is provided by the career of the Greek general Eumenes of Cardia (362–316 B.C.).
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I am pleased to announce that my latest book, an original and extensively annotated translation of Sallust’s Conspiracy of Catiline and War of Jugurtha, is now available for purchase. It uses a fresh, modern English idiom that preserves the flavor of the historian’s famous epigrammatic style. Fully outfitted for comprehension and efficient referencing, this special edition contains the following unique features:
One of the great names of eighteenth century science is the botanist Carl von Linné, more commonly known as Carl Linnaeus. His primary importance to history lies in his innovative classification system for living organisms. Before him, there was a chaos of competing names and terms for the swelling corpus of knowledge about plants and animals; after him, there was something approaching order.
This was a great week. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: discovering unexpectedly good films in out-of-the-way places is one of the things that keeps my faith in cinema alive. There are good things happening out there; you just have to be persistent and know how to wade through all the sewage.
A reader who is a teacher is troubled by the fact that one of his teenage students firmly believes in fascist government. The teacher seeks advice on how to deal with this situation. He relates this situation to similar experiences he had as a soldier in Afghanistan when he was speaking with local villagers.
I saw a program the other day about an event I previously had known little about: the great New York blackout of 1977. Something about the story left me with a distinct feeling of unease. I don’t imagine many readers here are familiar with it, either. Let me describe some of the details.
Some weeks are better than others. I’ve had better weeks, but here are the results. Even disappointing movies are fun to write about.
A former NKVD agent describes a meeting with Joseph Stalin and the special assignment he was given. We reflect on the fact that power and glory are fleeting, and that they can vanish faster than most people believe.
Quintus Curtius 
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