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TitleArticle: A New Interest in the Classics`
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From http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1582332-1,00.html

Virgil Goes Viral
By MICHAEL ELLIOTT
Thursday, Jan. 25, 2007

The culture has lately offered up for mass consumption two new histories of the Peloponnesian War, a whacking great biography of Julius Caesar, a film on Alexander the Great (plus a book lauding his business strategy), the current bbc-hbo series on Rome, Robert Harris' recent novel Imperium and a book (with a film to come this year) on the battle of Thermopylae.

In this enthusiasm, the usual biases seem to be absent. Conservatives sup at the classic cup; Victor Davis Hanson, a scholar of ancient warfare, is Dick Cheney's favorite historian. And liberals seek succor from the ancient texts too; it is easy to read Harris' novel on political intrigue in Ciceronian Rome as a critique of the idea that external threats justify politicians taking extraordinary power. But why this sudden thing for the toga-and-sandals set? Quid donat?

Read the entire article at http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1582332-1,00.html .

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