TonyMcK

ARISTOTLE - Metaphysics “In his autobiography, Ibn Sina (Avicenna) claimed to have read the “Metaphysics” 40 times with limited success, grasping it only after coming across an analysis by the philosopher al-Farabi.” While Aristotle is famously difficult, his towering concepts…

Here you see 3,000 years of Ionic columns! A short 🧵 of 📸 and history below. 📸 by me.

ARISTOTLE - Metaphysics “All men by nature desire to know.” Aristotle opens Book A (I) of the Metaphysics, Bekker number 980a, with this bracing line: “All men by nature desire to know.”

APPIAN - Roman History Antony's Funeral Oration - Original Version NOT Shakespeare's Blank Verse Version [2.143] When [Caesar's father-in-law] Piso brought Caesar's body into the Forum, a huge number of armed men gathered to guard it. It was laid with lavish pomp and cries of…

APPIAN - Roman History Antony's Funeral Speech - Incomparable Caesar [2.146] So saying he hitched up his clothing like a man possessed, and girded himself so that he could easily use his hands. He then stood close to the bier as though he were on stage, bending over it and…

Diogenes of Sinope as a Woodstork

"The proudest and most perfect separation which can be found in any age or country between the nobles and the people is perhaps that of the Patricians and Plebeians, as it was established in the first age of the Roman republic. … But these distinctions, so incompatible with the…

HOMER - Odyssesy - Book VIII - Butler Translation 8.480 - 8.520 Wooden Horse only mentioned 2 times by Homer in Odyssey NOT Iliad (2 of 2) Homer never mentions Iphigenia "So he spoke, and the herald bore the portion and placed it in the hands of the lord Demodocus, and he took…

HOMER - Odyssesy - Book IV - Butler Translation 4.265-289 Wooden Horse only mentioned 2 times by Homer in Odyssey NOT Iliad (1 of 2) Homer never mentions Iphigenia [265] Then fair-haired Menelaus answered her and said: “Aye verily, all this, wife, hast thou spoken aright. Ere…

Looks like a turkey, but is a vulture - Turkey Vulture

Three Takes on the Decisive Battle of Pharsalus – Julius Caesar, Cassius Dio, Appian (2 of 2) The fighting is fierce as the engagement begins, as would be expected with combat-experienced troops on both sides led by two proven military geniuses. After both sides throw their…

Three Takes on the Decisive Battle of Pharsalus – Julius Caesar, Cassius Dio, Appian (1 of 2) One of the advantages of covering over 30 authors in my new book “Ancient Classics User Guide” is that we enjoy multiple accounts of some of the greatest historic events. A…

Herodotus vs Homer - Alt-history of Helen Helen never got to Troy "113. ... Alexander having carried off Helen was sailing away from Sparta to his own land, and when he had come to the Egean Sea contrary winds drove him from his course to the Sea of Egypt; and after that, since…

PLUTARCH - Platonist Philosopher, Inventor of Biography Parallel Lives In reading Plutarch, the following points should be remembered. He is a moralist rather than a historian. His interest is less for politics and changes of empires, and much more for personal character and…

PLUTARCH - Parallel Lives Platonist Philosopher, Inventor of Biography ‘Tis said that, having this extravagant question put to him by a friend, that if learning must suffer a general shipwreck, and he had only his choice left to him of preserving a single author, who should be…

XENOPHON - Memoirs of Socrates Socrates' Son on his Mom, the ferocious Xanthippe ‘The wife conceives and carries this burden, bearing the weight of it, risking her life and giving up a share of her own nourishment; and after all her trouble in carrying it for the full time and…

Snow blowing around cabins at Valley Forge