It's always easy when imagining history to assume that people spoke and acted differently from the way they do now. And, of course, that's largely true, in the sense that the language is permanently changing and that different fixations worm their ways into our day-to-day lives. But that's not to say attitudes have changed all that much.

According to many, many Facebook memes, Cicero once wrote, "Times are bad. Children no longer obey their parents, and everyone is writing a book." I am not a Cl...