Serif Press

Something to read.

  • Zosimus, the Last of the Pagan Historians

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    One of the most valuable histories of late antiquity is finally available in an economical and useful English edition, with the standard chapter numbers, chronological headings, and helpful and entertaining supplements.

    What was it like to be a pagan after the final Christianization of the Empire? For Zosimus, it was clear that Rome had declined and Roman glory was gone—and it was all the Christians’ fault. The Romans had risen to power because they had the favor of the gods; Roman power collapsed because the gods justly withdrew their favor. Zosimus tells us at the beginning that this will be the theme of his history, and he sticks to it.

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  • An Ancient Roman Bathroom Book

    The Various History of Aelian
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    A collection of stories, legends, and snappy comebacks preserved for us by one of the most entertaining companions among ancient writers. It’s a long and rambling conversation with an ancient Roman whose mind is full of trivia, and who knows how to make those trivia as interesting to us as they are to him.

    I am told there is a Law at Thebes, which commands Artificers, both Painters and Potters, to make the Figures as good as may be. This Law menaceth to those who mould or paint them not well a pecuniary mulct.

    Socrates being very old fell sick; and one asking him how he did, “Well, saith he, both waies: for if I live longer, I shall have more Emulators; if I die, more Praisers.”

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  • You’ll Want to Quote The Miscellaneous Chesterton

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    Chesterton was always Chesterton. No matter where he was writing or what the subject, his mind ranged over the whole universe of thought. These occasional pieces are as filled with his eccentric but provoking wisdom as any of his more famous writings, and they have this great advantage: you probably haven’t read them yet.

    A great drama of the past does not consist of one sincerity. A great drama consists often of twenty sincerities, all colliding with each other.

    A teacher who is not dogmatic is simply a teacher who is not teaching.

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  • A Great Saint, a Great Translation

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    The Douay Bible was Bishop Challoner’s most famous work: he revised the stilted language of the 1600s original to produce the beautiful and mem­orable English version beloved by gene­ra­tions of Catholics.

    Challoner applied the same genius for straight­forward dignity to his transla­tion of the most famous work of Christian litera­ture outside the Bible. In Challoner’s mem­orable prose, St. Augustine of Hippo comes alive on the page, speaking to us across the centuries.

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  • Oroonoko, by the Ingenious Mrs. Aphra Behn

    Oroonoko
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    “This is a true Story, of a Man Gallant enough to merit your Protection; and, had he always been so Fortunate, he had not made so Inglorious an end: The Royal Slave I had the Honour to know in my Travels to the other World; and though I had none above me in that Country, yet I wanted power to preserve this Great Man. If there be any thing that seems Romantick, I beseech your Lordship to consider, these Countries do, in all things, so far differ from ours, that they produce unconceivable Wonders; at least, they appear so to us, because New and Strange. What I have mention’d I have taken care shou’d be Truth, let the Critical Reader judge as he pleases. ’Twill be no Commendation to the Book, to assure your Lordship I writ it in a few Hours, though it may serve to Excuse some of its Faults of Connexion; for I never rested my Pen a Moment for Thought.”

    —From the Epistle Dedicatory

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