Category Archives: Rome

Plutarch on the Ides of March

Posted on March 15, 2017 by Matthew Phillips

But destiny, it would seem, is not so much unexpected as it is unavoidable, since they say that amazing signs and apparitions were seen. Now, as for lights in the heavens, crashing sounds borne all about by night, and birds of … Continue reading →

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Playing the Tyrant

Posted on January 19, 2017 by Matthew Phillips

“The nobles had played the tyrant often enough in the past; but now the proletariat was on top and showed itself as arrogant as they had been.” Sallust, Chap. 5 in The Jugurthine War, trans. S. A. Handford (London: Penguin, 1963), … Continue reading →

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Exchanging Tyrants

Posted on November 8, 2016 by Matthew Phillips

“This is clear at once to the dullest-witted man in Rome that, so far from having escaped from tyranny, they had only exchanged one tyrant for another.  As for the elder Marius, he had always had a savage character, and … Continue reading →

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History Kindles the Desire for Honor

Posted on September 10, 2016 by Matthew Phillips

“I have often heard that Quintus Maximus, Publius Scipio, and other illustrious citizens of our state, used to say that the sight of their ancestors’ portrait-masks fired their hearts with an ardent desire to merit honour.  Obviously they did not … Continue reading →

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The Miseries of the Republic

Posted on February 19, 2014 by Matthew Phillips

“Sallust has given a brief sketch of the miseries of the republic in that long period, in all the years down to the Second Punic War, troubled by incessant wars abroad, and at home by continued civil strife and disharmony. … Continue reading →

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