Friends of Classics

Ancient and Modern: 2003

4-1-2003	‘Prepare for war, Blair tells army,’ announces a newspaper headline, stirring the ghost of the Roman military historian Vegetius in its grave.
11-1-2003	Mrs Samira Ahmed, an ex-university professor in Sudan, has launched a sex-strike in an attempt to end the nineteen years of (un)civil war that have torn the country apart. The newspapers went into their usual routines about Aristophanes' Lysistrata (411 BC) - and, as usual, got it wrong.
25-1-2003	Every week professionals such as teachers and doctors express their desire to get out of their jobs. Why? Because they have lost their independence. Greeks and Romans would have richly sympathised.
1-2-2003	What is it in our interests to do about immigration? The ancient Athenians came up with an interesting answer.
25-2-2003	Whether war against Iraq is justified or not, hardly a day goes by without someone condemning it because (a) the enemy will be crushingly defeated and (b) the West will seize control of Iraqi oil-supplies.
1-3-2003	The debate grinds on about whether to bid for the Olympic Games to be staged in London. It is time to apply a little ancient wisdom.
8-3-2003	The EU has recently proclaimed that, for the purposes of its statistical analyses, Britain is not an island. That poses an interesting question: when did it become an island? It has recently been argued that it became one, in Roman eyes at any rate, on July 21st 54 BC, at 9.21pm.
15-3-2003	In his already classic sociological study of the Hoorah Henry in last week's Spectator, Professor Oborne did not have space to explore in full the ancient precedents for this style of behaviour. Herewith, then, a humble footnote to his marr-sterful overview, together with a forward-looking proposal.
22-3-2003	George Bush wishes to see democracy - he means, of course, elective oligarchy - imposed all over the middle east, whether middle easterners want it or not. Alexander the Great had the same sort of idea, but his way of doing it was not quite what Mr Bush has in mind.
5-4-2003	Commentators are complaining that the Iraqi army is refusing to confront the coalition forces head-on. Very sensible of them. Quintus Fabius Maximus (charmingly known as Verrucosus, 'covered in warts') would have applauded.
12-4-2003	Wilfred Owen is always quoted in times of war, especially his poem ending '...you would not tell with such high zest/To children ardent for some desperate glory/The old Lie: dulce et decorum est/Pro patria mori'.
19-4-2003	What will be Middle Eastern historians' judgement of Saddam's regime and its enforced collapse? Is there a Tacitus among them?
3-5-2003	The Americans say they have no plans to attack any other foreign power - at the moment. To judge by the Iraq conflict, however, it will not be St Augustine's concept of the 'just war' that controls that decision, but the Roman statesman and philosopher Cicero's.
10-5-2003	Two British commandos from the Special Boat Service (motto: 'Not by force, but by guile') escaped capture in Iraqi by trekking some hundred miles across mountainous terrain, by night, to the Syrian border. Who were they? Nobody knows, or will know - a unique form of heroism.
17-5-2003	The footballer David Beckham has had new tattoos imprinted on his arms, complete with Latin tags. One reads perfectio in spiritu, 'perfection in spirit' the other ut amem et foveam, 'to love and to cherish', translated into Latin from the Solemnization of Matrimony in the 1552 Book of Common Prayer. What is going on?
24-5-2003	Apologies for singing a very old song, but with the debate on a referendum over the European constitution in full swing and the term 'parliamentary democracy' being bandied about by New Labour to repel the notion, it is time to remind readers again how meaningless the term 'parliamentary democracy' actually is.
31-5-2003	As the forces returning from duty in Iraq know best of all, important though amazing technology is, the camaraderie and morale of the unit make the crucial difference. The Romans knew this too and took steps to nurture the right frame of mind in their soldiers.
8-6-2003
15-6-2003
22-6-2003
29-6-2003
6-7-2003
13-7-2003
27-7-2003
6-9-2003	The pop-singer Sir Mick Jagger thinks that the Greek god whom he most resembles is Dionysus. Oh dear!
13-9-2003	The death of Dr David Kelly has raised questions about justifications for suicide. The ancient Greeks were equally interested in the issue.
20-9-2003	Commentators are expressing shock at the Hutton Inquiry's 'revelation' that Tony Blair consults a private cabal of chums about policy. Excuse the Roman historian while he stifles a yawn.
27-9-2003	So Gordon Brown's Treasury has overspent its budget by 40% - all on itself! No wonder the officials didn't know where the money had gone. What fun if they had had to account for it in classical Athens... .
4-10-2003	Can one justify American intervention in the Middle East, both the wars themselves and the apparent establishment of a shadowy sort of American empire? If one accepts the force of the arguments the Romans used to justify their empire, the Americans probably can.
11-10-2003	The refusal of his patients to assume responsibility for their own actions is a recurrent theme of Dr Theodore Dalrymple's columns. He and Aristotle see eye to eye on the matter perfectly.
18-10-2003	Cheque-books have been sharpened in America to lure top professors to top universities, and the ones attracting the most attention are those ‘great communicators’ with a reputation based only loosely on specialised knowledge
25-10-2003	*Mr Blair has promised to 'listen to the people'. Would a Roman-style tribunus plebis, 'tribune of the plebs', help him to do so?*
1-11-2003	Mars closed in, and astrology freaks wet themselves with excitement - the poor dears.
8-11-2003	What should men pray for?
15-11-2003	The Americans want to bring 'democracy' to Iraq. But what if it is the sort of 'democracy' that flourishes in Mugabe's Zimbabwe?
22-11-2003	As WMDs fail to surface in Iraq, it looks more and more likely that we went to war on false pretences. This is no new phenomenon.
29-11-2003	With the Tory party facing defeat at the third election in a row, no ambitious young tiger would want to be leader at this juncture.
6-12-2003	It is routinely said to be better that ninety-nine guilty men should escape the noose than one innocent be hanged. As the capital punishment debate starts again, an ancient might ask 'Better for whom?'
25-12-2003	Since Christmas is the season of good cheer but seems to leave millions squabbling, resentful and as miserable as sin, it is an appropriate time to consider what the key to happiness is. The ancients provided two distinct but highly practical theories, easily condensable into the average cracker.
27-12-2003	Now that Christmas dinner is a distant memory, it is time to consider Armin Meiwes, on trial in Germany for killing and eating a 'willing' victim, Bernd Brandes. .

Every week in the London Spectator, Peter Jones compares something that has happened in the week's news with the way things were done in the ancient world.

Responses to the columns and further articles from the current Spectator are contained in the Spectator's website, to which you can travel by clicking the logo below: