Pursuing Paideia
Fr. Most, a mid-20th-century Jesuit Classics professor in Iowa, wrote a Latin textbook that broke many precedents about how to teach Latin. To prepare the students and teacher who would use his book, he begins by outlining the history of the different methods of teaching Latin. I find it to be a helpful perspective in the Acquisition vs. Analytical debate about learning Latin.
Do we study history to predict the future or deeply analyze human nature? Plutarch as a biographer helps us see the real reasons we study history even when we’re young.
Plutarch’s parallel biographies end with a comparative essay of the Greek and Roman hero. Why does Plutarch compare Greece and Rome? How should we go about reading these appended essays to get the most out of them?
Reading Plutarch and getting lost in the place names? Looking for the best and cheapest maps for studying the Ancient World? Read on for resources!
See a side-by-side comparison of the most common Plutarch translations currently available in English. Make an informed decision about what kind of English prose you prefer as you sit at the feet of the master biographer.
Polybius asserts that the best training for politics is the study of history. But why does a Greek prisoner-of-war pen a history praising the virtues of his captors? Does he have any other reasons for writing history?
In the second post on the historians defending themselves, Thucydides not only vociferously defends his history, but he attacks inferior historians too! Read more about Thucydides’s definition and defense of history!
Herodotus has been known as the “Father of History” but has also been called the “Father of Lies.” Why did he write his history? Let’s hear from him in his own words.