Benjamin Phillips > Recent Status Updates

Lycurgus and Numa (The Lawgivers)

Both of these lives are buried in myth. This is a great excuse for P to talk about the institutions whose etiologies are the real claims to fame. This is interesting, but not in the way p usually is.

Numa is clearly the more just and pious. Many of his institutions lived on, but his effect on the Roman character was brief. Lycurgus’ constitution is enduring, but unjust.

The chapter on the Sabbath in this very Dutch book isn’t exactly Westminster, but it’s similar enough that the idea of a radically different “Continental view” is rather overturned.

I considered myself quite familiar with the book’s argument prior to reading it, simply because I’ve been in and around this discourse. Ironically or fittingly, I am finding that it is more involved and nuanced than popular representations suggested.

Too long to finish before the library wanted it back, too good to not be on hold.

See you again in a few weeks, General

Theseus and Romulus ✔️

Two statesmen who finished poorly.
Theseus reads like a hero trying to be a statesmen: full of gallivanting and Kleos, but he couldn’t settle down. The foundation of Athens showed some prudence and politic spirit, but he ended up being a case study of “feared rather than loved.”
Romulus is a consummate man of piety and action. But he let it get to his head. And there were shenanigans

Starting a habit of reading a pair in-between other books.

Pericles and Fabius ✔️
Two prudent and cautious men. Fabius, however, was the more public-spirited of the two and took the reins of the state in more dire circumstances.

The concision and precise argument actually make this surprisingly accessible.

When the Christmas gift is perfect for Pre-New Year’s reflection 👌

Listening to a book from each grade we teach at the school. This one is 7th.
Listened to the majority while on a solitary night drive across Ohio. There was a ton of dry lightning and a very large, very orange moon. Strange experience.

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader but with more side quests and make it a prelude to the Iliad

The movie cut out the prayers but also the Pelagianism

It feels slightly hackish, but I am going to count each commentary volume as an individual read with no apologies.

Smells like Popery

A great poem about an awful war. The first read felt like learning what to read for the second time.

Joyce’s translation is nice, but her habit of breaking “lyrical” lines in two is distracting and takes away from the unity of the epic.

He’s calling out the Cambridge school (Skinner and Laslett by name) on the first two pages of the introduction. This is gonna be spicy.