BAD EXAMPLES
A new book by the peerless classical scholar Mary Beard looks hard at the hold these Roman emperors still exert on our ideas and images of political power.
James Romm is the co-author of The Greek Plays: Sixteen Plays by Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, published on August 23 by the Modern Library.
DEFIANT LOSERS
When the Persians told the Spartans to lay down their arms at Thermopylae, the Spartans defiantly and suicidally replied “Come and take them.”
GIMME A T
Everybody names sports teams after the Spartans even though they were losers, but isn’t it high time we gave it up for the Thebans.
CLUELESS
A world power mired in the Middle East: The Rome/U.S. parallels are inescapable and tantalizing—and cluelessly handled in this chariot ride to nowhere.
HISTORY LESSON
Sure, King Tut had a space dagger made from a meteorite. While that seems pretty cool, another kind of metal knife from that period gets historians much more excited.
QUESTIONABLE
An archeologist claims to have discovered the final resting place of the Greek philosopher. He’s probably wrong, but it will be surely be good for business for the locals.
LONG LINE
What’s behind the epic rush to put Homer’s ancient text into new modern editions?
A PEOPLE’S HISTORY
Mary Beard has shaken the dust off the Classics world with her vivid vision. With her new book SPQR, she sees our modern life in the empire’s everyday people.
Secrets of the Grave
The grave of the Griffin Warrior may unlock the mysteries of a Bronze Age era that precedes all written records.
PAST PRESENT
The ancient Greeks knew a thing or two about life amid tragedy. In his new book Theater of War, how Bryan Doerries’s own grief led him to help today’s vets act out their suffering.