John Warrington

The calamities that befall the hapless creatures of Aesop's Fables! The fox can't reach his grapes, then gets attacked by biting flies, and loses his tail in a trap. And things don't go much better for the hare, who is chased relentlessly by a hound, barely escaping with his life-only to be beaten in a race by a lowly tortoise. Misfortune turns to mayhem when a wolf is killed by his sweetheart's father, a sheepdog preys on his own flock, and the mouse...

Caesar portrayed his invasion of Gaul as being a defensive pre-emptive action, most historians agree that the wars were fought primarily to boost Caesar's political career and to pay off his massive debts. Even so, Gaul was extremely important to Rome, as they had been attacked many times by the Gauls. Conquering Gaul allowed Rome to secure the natural border of the river Rhine. Caesar painstakingly describes his military campaign, and this is it...

Demosthenes, whose name is a byword with us, as it was to Cicero and Burke, for oratory and statesmanship, was the man who would have revived the fading glory of Athens if any man could. All his political life he strove to restore his native city to her place as the leader, but not as the dominator, of the Hellenic world. It was his glory that while he foresaw the almost inevitable eclipse of Athens with the other free communities of Greece, he never...