Fascinating History

In book X of the Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle tackles the concept of happiness.  Happiness, he says, is not a state because if it were then everyone would possess it, even someone who is asleep throughout his life (we might say someone who is in a coma).  Happiness ought therefore to be referred to an activity, one which is chosen for itself and not for the sake of anything else as it does not require anything else, it is self-sufficient.   According to Aristotle we choose almost everything in our lives for the sake of having something else.  This is not the same though with happiness because happiness is the goal.  He quotes Anacharsis , a Scythian philosopher who visited Greece in the early 6 th c. B.C. "Play to work harder" to emphasize his view that amusement is not happiness but a mere form of relaxation as we nobody can work non-stop and needs to relax.  Because relaxation is taken for the sake of continuing with another activity (i.e. work) it is not an end in itsel...

Solon, an ancient Athenian statesman and legislator credited for sowing the seeds of Athenian democracy, liked to write poetry in his spare time. In the below he describes what he sees as the the stages in the life of a man, each stage constisting of seven years. The youthfull boy loses the first row of teeth He grew while a baby in seven years; When god has completed the next seven years for him He shows the signs that yourthful prime is on its way; In the third seven, while his limbs are still growing His chin grows downy with the bloom of changing skin In the fourth seven every man is at his best In strength, when men give proof of valour. In the fifth it is time for a man to think of marriage, And seek a family of children to come after him. In the sixth a man's mind is now disciplined in everything, And he no longer wishes to do reckles deeds. In the seventh he is now at his best in mind and tongue, And in the eighth, that is fourteen years in total. In the ninth he is stil...

The image of the long-haired, armed and cloaked Spartan warrior was meant to evoke a sense of terror and induce severe abdominal cramping in all enemies of Sparta, the harshest and most fearsome city state in the ancient Greek world.  Yet, despite this bloodcurdling reputation Herodotus tells us that when the Persian king Cyrus was visited by a delegation of rough-looking, long-haired, sun-baked men clad in red cloaks and with no desire for small-talk, and was duly warned to leave the Ionian cities alone or he would have to deal with them, the Spartans, the king allegedly turned to one of his advisors and asked "Who are the Spartans?"  Suffice to say no Greek would have asked this question. Based in the fertile plain of Laconia, with the banks of the river Eurotas on the east, in the southern Peloponnese region of Greece, Sparta was well positioned for further development and expansion.  In the latter 8th century BC neighboring Messinia was annexed and its entire population e...

Publius Clodius Pulcher, born 92BC, was the youngest of six children, son of Appius Claudius Pulcher, brother of the notoriously unprincipled Appius Claudius Pulcher and member of Rome's most influential and powerful patrician (aristocratic) family, the Claudii, renowned for their arrogance and outrageous behavior.  He is chiefly remembered for trespassing during the Bona Dea festival, disguised as a woman (a women's only event) in Julius Caesar's house (allegedly to have a fling with Pompeia, Caesar's wife at the time) and vilified by most historians who characterize him as a mobster, demagogue and violent opportunist.  To add insult to injury, he was pursued throughout his life by rumours of of incest with his sister Clodia, a lively and intelligent woman who enjoyed courting controversy and entertaining Rome's demimonde.   In 59BC, at the age of 32 and in the midst of a most promising political career, he chose to give up his patrician rank and join the plebs via...

"...in the first place, pains must be taken that, if possible, so no discord should arise between friends, but in case it does then our care should be that the friendships appear to have burned out rather than to have been stamped out.  And you must indeed be on your guard lest friendships change into serious enmities, which are the source of disputes, abuse and invective.  Yet, even these, if endurable are to be borne and such respect is to be paid to the old-time friendship that he may be in the wrong who committed the offense and not he who suffered it.   In short:  there is but one security and one provision against these ills and annoyances and that is neither to enlist your love too quickly nor to fix it on unworthy men.  Now they are worthy of friendship who have within their souls the reason for being loved.  A rare class indeed!  And really everything splendid is rare and nothing is harder to find than something which in all respects is a perfect specimen of its kind.  Bu...

According to Suetonius in his Life of the Deified Julius (45.1-3): "Caesar is said to have been tall, with a fair complexion, shapely limbs, a rather full face and keen black eyes and to have had sound health, except that towards the end of his life he was subject to sudden fainting fits as well as nightmares.  He also had two attacks of epilepsy while on campaign.   He was fastidious in the care of his person and so not only kept his hair carefully trimmed and shaved, but even had his body hair plucked.  He was extremely vexed by the disfiguring effects of his baldness since he found it exposed him to the ridicule of his opponents.  As a result he used to comb his receding hair forward from the crown of his head and of all the honours voted him by the senate and people, there was none that pleased him more or that he made use of more gladly than the privilege of wearing a laurel wreath on all occasions.   They say too that his dress was unusual; his purple-striped tunic had fring...

Today we have various social and/or professional networking sites (i.e. Facebook, LinkedIn, Plaxo, etc.).  The Romans would have liked this but they would have wanted to ensure that 'friends' and 'connections' would be of use to each other. On meeting a stranger a Roman would express intense interest in where he comes from and what they do.  (How this Roman would react on any potential second meeting would very much depend on how convinced he was after that first one, that the amicitia (friendship) of the new acquaintance would be worth having.)   Amicitia , which is often translated as 'friendship' was best described by the Roman Stoic philosopher Seneca as "mutual serviceability" .  Therefore, amicitia  would mean trading gifts and favours with an amicus  (meaning something between 'friend' and useful contact').  Roman society relied on interlocking networks of such 'friendships' and the favours Romans did for one another ( benefi...