10,000 Followers

Critical Dispatches gained its 10,000th follower over the weekend, which is rather a remarkable consideration. That I can publish a post in London that can be viewed as far away as Australia, the US, or Argentina still blows my mind. It is an absolute pleasure to be part of a community as diverse, engaging and…

The Romans and the Moralists

I am half way through rereading Augustus, a suberb novel by John Williams, author of the equally brilliant Stoner and Butcher’s Crossing, and noticed this particularly eloquent passage that I had overlooked the first time through. The quote is taken from a fictionalised 12BC letter from the political advisor Gaius Cilnius Maecenas to Titus Livius and…