A thoughtful header. Assisted dying is something that sounds humane, but which is not, in practice. (View Post)

The ancient world did, of course, experiment with forms of democracy. But, all were finally replaced by oligarchy or autocracy, and democracy came to be synonmyous with mob rule (and in practice, it … (View Post)

Probably quite a lot of bum, in the Roman navy. (View Post)

What did the medievals ever do for us? 1. The invention of Just War theory. An idea that would have seemed outlandish to Caesar. 2. The abolition of domestic slavery. Propose that to an ancient, and … (View Post)

That requires one to have a very romanticised view of the Roman Empire. Which Gibbon had, but then he imagined that the Roman upper crust were all enlightened sceptics like he was. In reality, the Ro… (View Post)