Lampas - Volume 50, Issue 2, 2017

Summary The present contribution, the first panel of a diptych, discusses a claim put forward by George G.M. James in his book Stolen Legacy (1954). According to James, the Macedonian king Alexander III in association with the philosopher Aristotle plundered the Royal Library at Alexandria – a crucial episode in what Afrocentric thinkers consider the theft of African philosophy by the Greeks. The article presents an Read More

Summary In the present article, a sequel to a contribution published elsewhere in this issue of Lampas, I discuss afrocentric attempts to amend James’ story of the plundering of the Royal Library at Alexandria by Alexander and Aristotle. The aim of these attempts is to salvage from its critics the fiction of a palpable theft of Egyptian wisdom by the Greeks. Rakote, the original Egyptian settlement on the location of the city foun Read More

Summary Among the numerous graffiti found at Pompeii, there are a number of metrical texts, either quotations from famous ancient poets such as Virgil, or lines from unknown sources. Both categories offer interesting reading for classicists. Poetical texts from Pompeii may also be profitably used in teaching Latin.

Summary This article presents the rhetorical exercise as a valuable addition to the didactic toolbox of teachers. First, the rise of rhetoric as an educational system is traced throughout antiquity, starting from Plato’s objections against rhetoric. In addition, I discuss the nature and philosophical acceptability of rhetoric by considering Aristotle, Isocrates and Quintilian. Second, I offer an analysis of the didactic value o Read More

Summary In this article I note a change of approach among historians of ancient philosophy with regard to the Roman philosophers Cicero and Seneca. Today they are not just studied as sources for earlier thinkers but as independent authors who pursue an agenda of their own within their Roman context. After a few observations on the viability of the notion of ‘Roman philosophy’. I discuss a number of recent publications t Read More