The New Library of Alexandria
This thought did not occur to me until I bought myself a Kindle.
How much of ancient history that we read by modern authors is new?
Don’t get me wrong, I think I realized it on some sort of sub atomic level, but the thought did not appear in my consciousness until I noticed something offered on Amazon.com. The company not only offers books you can download, but there seems to be no charge on some books that have been out of print for a long time. The book I am reading right now is called Cleopatra by Jacob Abbot, 1803-1879. Abraham Lincoln was a fan of his work which was a consistent work of anecdotal history termed ‘juvenile history’ with an age category of 18 to 25. Go figure that one out.
I found the book enjoyable to read (especially when they are trying to explain the relationship between Caesar (50 years old) to Cleopatra (18). An awful lot of verbiage was used to talk around of an older man and a younger woman ‘hooking up.’ What do you expect for the middle 1800s?
The interesting thing is I have a copy of Abbot’s books ( There were two brothers by the way: Jacob and John) and the narrative is pretty good, written over a hundred and forty years ago. What does a hundred and forty years smell like? I found out when I opened the book that was sitting in my apartment’s party room simply as decoration. The cover was pretty old, and the pages harbored that dusty, sweet smell when the earth begins to reclaim the pages. It smelled like Egypt. It took a Kindle to get me to crack it open.
I think what is interesting, that much of what was written I had heard recently in a lecture given at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. This brought up the thought of: “How much of what historians tell us is new?”
In my opinion — not much.
After all, it’s not the information, but how it is told which is important.
I think interest in the classics is generational. It is the telling, not he what, but the how. The story captures the imagination, at different times, and is retold in a fresh and interesting way, and in the words of the time. A good comparison is the teachings of the astronomer Carl Sagan. Much of the information told in his TV show COSMOS had been around for generations, and the science though current, was not fashionable or sexy. What made Carl Sagan popular was HOW he told it.
Cleopatra, A life, by Stacy Schiff has struck the imagination of the public and will soon be made into a movie starring Angelina Jolie. Every generation or so, we see books (fiction and non-fiction), and movies on this subject, telling and retelling the story with a unique perspective of the generation telling it. One Cleopatra is a ‘vamp’, one Cleopatra looks like a ‘flapper’ of the twenties, one Cleopatra is a girl-child enthralled by the attentions of an older man (Shaw and his white whiskers should come to mind), one Cleopatra is hard to tell where the movie star stops and the real Cleopatra begins (shades of Elizabeth Taylor and being the first ‘million dollar’ actress). Cleopatra morphs and changes, and becomes African American, and morphs back again into a sex siren or intellectual (as proposed by an Egyptian historian). It all depends what generation or WHO is telling the story.
Yet, what it REALLY is a retelling based on the same data. Plutarch , Lucan, Dio Cassius, Straaabo (I like saying it with three ‘a’s) , is the foundation of other writers who today write under the names of Brown, Schiff, and Goldsworthy.
In between you got a guy called William Shakespeare who more than likely read Plutarch.
In between you got a guy called Emil Ludwig who wrote Cleopatra: Geschichte einer Konigin. It was translated and published in 1939, and Ludwig gave credit to Plutarch, Appian and Dio Cassius.
In between you got a guy called Michael Grant, who wrote a book titled Cleopatra, a doctor of letters and Cambridge, who more than likely broke open his copy of Plutarch sometime during the writing.
And in between there are a whole host of titles and authors telling and retelling the story in such books as: Cleopatra: Beyond the Myth by Michel Chauveau, Cleopatra: A Biography by Duane W. Roller, Cleopatra by Prudence Jones, and so on, and so on, and so on.
And where did you think they got their sources?
Plutarch , Lucan, Dio Cassius, and Straaabo (with three ‘a’s).
Rob Cain has traveled extensively through Europe, Italy, and Egypt. He was formerly on active duty with the United States Army. He is a fan of history, and enjoys reading books on the history of Rome. He currently has a podcast presentation on itunes and hipcast. The blog is for the free and open discussion of Ancient Rome based on Mr. Cain's observations noted in his podcast. Most episodes start out with an original dramatic narration written by Mr. Cain. In the podcasts he will include his own unique commentary, and interviews with subject matter experts. Comments are welcome and will be highlighted on the show. 
Episode 10, “Nothing New Under the Sun. Get Over it”, features the book, “The Ancient Guide to Modern Life” written by author, comedian, and TV commentator Natalie Haynes.” Whether political, cultural, or social, there are endless parallels between the ancient and modern worlds. Whether it's the murder of Caesar or the political assassination of Thatcher; the narrative arc of the hit HBO series, The Wire, or that of Oedipus; the popular enthusiasm for the Emperor Titus or President Obama – over and over again we can be seen to be living very much like people did 2,000 or more years ago. It's time for us to re-examine the past. Our lives are infinitely richer if we take the time to look at what the Greeks and Romans have given us in politics and law, religion and philosophy and education, and to learn how people really lived in Athens, Rome, Sparta and Alexandria. 
This is a book with a serious point to make but the author isn't just a classicist but a comedian and broadcaster who has made television and radio documentaries about humor, education and Dorothy Parker. This is a book for us all, not for an elite.
