Gossip:

• Hugh Jackman Drops Out of Cleo Talks – ComingSoon.net.

• Herodotus, “The Histories”, and the Greco-Persian Wars | The League of Ordinary Gentlemen.

Readers of rogueclassicism might want to get in on this … Rufus over at the League of Ordinary Gentlement wants to get a discussion going on Plato’s Symposium …

• The League Book Club | The League of Ordinary Gentlemen.

The incipit of an interesting piece at the Smart Set:

The funny thing about Rome is that anyone can invoke it. The whole death-to-Caesar thing is popular. John Wilkes Booth seems like something of a quack, quoting Brutus’ “Sic semper tyrannis” as he jumped to the stage after shooting Lincoln. But Abigail Adams thought the same of George III, and signed her wartime letters to her husband John with the name “Portia” — Brutus’ wife. Everyone also seems to love thinking themselves Rome to their enemies’ Carthage. Washington’s victory over Britain was often compared to Rome’s ultimate victory in the Punic Wars. But back before the war ended, Britain’s Charles Van told Parliament, “Delenda est Carthago” (“Carthage must be destroyed”) in discussing the trouble with the colonies — lines spoken by Cato the Elder when Carthage broke the treaty ending the Second Punic War. Tyrants and Carthage, it seems, are in the eye of the oppressed and those facing a herd of elephants descending the Alps.

more …

via All Symbolic Roads … The appeal of Rome for 17th-century Americans | The Smart Set.

• Roman city of Chester to bid for World Heritage status | Liverpool Daily Post.