A Young Klavan on Ancient Culture

If you’re a fan of ancient Greece and Rome, you should check out The Forum. My son Spencer, a classics scholar lately out of Yale, is doing his own fresh translations of brief passages from the ancients and then providing a meditation on what these might mean to him personally and thus to a new generation. Perhaps I’m not the most objective observer, but it does seem an incredibly cool idea to me and amazingly well done.

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The first translation is a passage from Theophrastus:

Tactlessness is hitting on just the right moment to annoy everyone you meet. A tactless person is the kind of guy who comes to talk to you right when you’re trying to get some work done. He tries to mess around with his girlfriend when she’s under the weather. . . . He shows up in court to give evidence — after a verdict has already been made. . . . When everyone has already heard and understood a story, he stands up and explains it from the beginning.

Read the whole thing here.

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