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Alea iacta est….The die has been cast….One of my favorite ancient texts is Lucan’s Civil War, translated by Susan H. Braund (Oxford University Press). I was lucky enough to take three of Professor Braund’s classes—Nero, Virgil, and Lucan, while she was at Stanford. Lucan’s epic describes the waves of terror loosed upon Rome by the act of Julius Caesar crossing the Rubicon. Lucan gives one the sense of the affectionate regard the Romans had for Pompey, while at the same time showing the decline of a great man. On the other hand, all that Caesar did in this noble epic is washed with his ambition. Read it and let me know what you think.

Today’s episode is from Plutarch’s Lives for Boys & Girls, retold by W.H. Weston, and illustrated by W. Rainey, published in London & Edinburgh in the early 1900′s.

Enjoy!

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Shakespeare studied Plutarch’s keen commentary on the character of Julius Caesar and then wrote some of the most beautiful lines in all of literature. This is one of my favorite Shakespeare plays because the tragic main figure is rendered with such depth. I never tire of picking up my little palm-sized New Temple edition published by J.M.Dent & Sons, Ltd., with engravings by Eric Gill. One afternoon I read it straight through while waiting for some eighth graders on their Physics Day amusement park field trip. An unforgettable pleasure!

Today’s episode is from Plutarch’s Lives for Boys & Girls, retold by W.H. Weston, and illustrated by W. Rainey, published in London & Edinburgh in the early 1900′s.

Enjoy!

Click here for link to previous audio podcast episodes.

Here is our final episode on Caius Marius, in which he turns to savagery against his own people.

Today’s episode is from Plutarch’s Lives for Boys & Girls, retold by W.H. Weston, and illustrated by W. Rainey; published in London & Edinburgh in the early 1900′s.

Enjoy! Next week we start Plutarch’s portrait of Julius Caesar!

The European tribes that defied the Romans have always appealed to me. I especially like to read of open defiance in the face of death, like this excerpt describing the Cimbri warriors marching through the Alps, from the Modern Library edition of Plutarch’s Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans, translated by John Dryden:

“…the barbarians…came on with such insolence and contempt of their enemies, that to show their strength and courage, rather than out of any necessity, they went naked in the showers of snow, and through ice and deep snow, climbed up to the tops of the hills, and from thence, placing their broad shields under their bodies, let themselves slide from the precipices along their vast slippery descents.”

On a darker note, Plutarch goes on to tell of the Cimbri women, “…standing in black clothes on their wagons, slew all that fled, some their husbands, some their brethren, others their fathers; and strangling their little children with their own hands, threw them under the wheels and the feet of the cattle, and then killed themselves. They tell of one who hung herself from the end of the pole of a wagon, with her children tied dangling at her heels.”

Would you have surrendered yourself and your loved ones to the enemy?

Today’s episode is from Plutarch’s Lives for Boys & Girls, retold by W.H. Weston, and illustrated by W. Rainey, published in London & Edinburgh in the early 1900′s.

Click here for link to previous audio podcast episodes.

Rome feels the pressure from the north and the south! Jugurtha is nabbed, the barbarians are held at bay, and treachery among the political elite is being held in check by Caius Marius. Tune in to find what awaits this influential general and statesman.

Today’s episode from Plutarch’s Lives for Boys & Girls, retold by W.H. Weston, and illustrated by W. Rainey, published in London & Edinburgh in the early 1900′s.

Enjoy!

Click here for link to previous audio podcast episodes.

This episode takes a decidedly ugly turn as the common man shows his tendency to be easily manipulated by the crafty patrician senators. Alas, the noble Gracchi are powerless as the machine of Roman politics puts the pedal to the metal.

Here we see the faithful friends of Caius Gracchus attempting to stop the soldiers
from crossing the bridge.

Enjoy this last episode of the Gracchi, from Plutarch’s Lives for Boys & Girls, retold by W.H. Weston, and illustrated by W. Rainey, published in London & Edinburgh in the early 1900′s.

Click here for direct link to audio podcast Episode #60.

Click here for previous audio podcast episodes.

Happy New Year, Everyone! I hope your holidays were full of friends, family, and food! It is my resolution to get us back on a weekly schedule. I have so much I want to share with you and this year I vow to make time! Hold me to it! Send me an email so I know you are out there listening!

Today’s podcast introduces us to two dashing and idealistic brothers whose political lives focused on land reform and empowerment for the common people. Their mother, Cornelia, was famous for her great devotion and dignity. Her example was promoted as the ideal for a Roman matron.

From Weston’s book:
“The two Gracchi brothers in blood, were both inspired with the sense of the evils produced by the decrease in the number of freemen and the increase in the number of slaves in the Roman state, and by the tendency of wealth to pass more and more into the hands of the few at the expense of the many.”

Today’s episode from Plutarch’s Lives for Boys & Girls, retold by W.H. Weston, and illustrated by W. Rainey, published in London & Edinburgh in the early 1900′s.

Enjoy!

For some amazing 19th century prints, check out this website I’ve just discovered:
Darvill’s Rare Prints.

EXPLORE MY WEBSITE TO SEE THE AMAZING
ANCIENT WORLD ACTIVITIES I’VE CREATED!

The Iliad

Click here for link to previous audio podcast episodes.

Alas, my trusty Compaq laptop went the way of all flesh and is no more. I lost 3 hours of work, a completed episode, when the blue screen of death appeared. Rushed the patient to Piers, computer physician extraordinaire, but it was too late.

Upon examination, contents of insides revealed a massive hairball from our kitty Thetis, Achilles’s mother. See how guilty she looks!

…Our final installment in our series on Coriolanus. Today, you will meet his mother, Volumnia, and see what lengths she is willing to go for her country! Enjoy! And then go track down your Shakespeare version!

Today’s episode from Plutarch’s Lives for Boys & Girls, retold by W.H. Weston, and illustrated by W. Rainey, published in London & Edinburgh in the early 1900′s.

Click here for link to previous audio episodes.

Sorry to be so long out-of-touch! Summer travels and beginning a new school year have kept me busy, but my classes are now dialed in and the stress of the first weeks has fallen away.

In an effort to understand these historic economic times, I’ve been watching documentaries on what happened in 2008. To hear the voice of the Roman man in the street through Plutarch’s Lives and compare it to the voice of an Occupy Wall Street protester is one of the many benefits we reap when we look at ancient writings, for these times are those times.

Scarcity of food, factious orators, a tumultuous mob of commoners, and the struggle between patrician and plebeian, all mark this episode in Plutarch’s life of Coriolanus. A gift of corn stores from the King of Syracuse arrives in a famine-wracked Rome and the elite 1% consider selling it, rather than giving it away to the citizens. And on which side of the issue did our Marcius speak out? Find out today in our second of three episodes on Caius Marcius Coriolanus, Plutarch’s tale of the ruin of a noble nature by pride.

Enjoy today’s episode from Plutarch’s Lives for Boys & Girls, retold by W.H. Weston, and illustrated by W. Rainey, published in London & Edinburgh in the early 1900′s.

Click here for link to previous audio episodes.

London was amazing, as usual, and I couldn’t have done more in the 2 weeks I was there. There is much to tell you about my trip, but I am still organizing all the notes I took and will make them available in some form soon. In the meantime, here is the first of two parts of Plutarch’s Coriolanus, who most of us know from Shakespeare’s play. You will be interested to know that Shakespeare got most of his information on the ancient world from Plutarch’s Lives. This fall you will be hearing the retelling of Plutarch’s life of Julius Caesar, the historical personage who most interested Shakespeare, judging from the many references and allusions made to him across the entirety of Shakespeare’s work. Enjoy today’s episode from Plutarch’s Lives for Boys & Girls, retold by W.H. Weston, and illustrated by W. Rainey, published in London & Edinburgh in the early 1900′s.