Read it here or here.

0) Housekeeping

Perceptive readers will note that I haven't actually posted here since eight weeks ago. I have been travelling a lot, and also was taken up with a project (well, several projects) involving the British election; and finally last weekend was a family birthday so other matters have had priority. I hope to be a bit ( Read more... )

Sorry for interruption of service last week; domestic commitments took priority as will sometimes happen. Anyway, this week's chapter can be found here and here.

1) Good quotes

Gibbon, typically open-minded and unbigoted, this time on the Persians (footnote 53): In every age the Persians have been addicted to intemperance, and the wines of Shiraz ( Read more... )

Read it here or here.

1) Good quotes

Summary of Constantine's reign: The general peace which he maintained during the last fourteen years of his reign was a period of apparent splendour rather than of real prosperity; and the old age of Constantine was disgraced by the opposite yet reconcilable vices of rapaciousness and prodigality.
The peculiar ( Read more... )