Archduke Ferdinand and Me
Dr. Mike Lippman, formerly of New Jersey and Emory University, is visiting Tucson this semester, bringing his fascination with the ancients along with his love for east coast pizza to the Humanities Seminars every Tuesday morning. The reading s are longer and deeper than many other Seminars have required, but I find myself referring back to Scullard when Plutarch has me scratching my head. Did Satullus really just tell the same story from another perspective, or had I forgotten who had bribed whom to achieve success on the battlefield? It started out as a mystery and ended up as a parable and I wish you had all been there with me, denizens. My head was spinning and my brain was stretched and 3/4 of the students were participants in a conversation that ranged from Eisenhower to Caesar to OWS. Why are wars fought? If you have a standing army, is it standing around looking for someone to fight? Will a draftee fight harder or long...