Great Books
The Early History of Rome
How Rome told itself the story of where it came from. Livy knew much of it could not be true, said so in the preface, and told it anyway —...
On the Laws
Written in a garden, in the last quiet summer he would have, and arguing that law is not whatever the government says it is. Every appeal above the statute book...
On the Republic
Rome's greatest advocate asked what makes a state legitimate, and wrote the answer while the republic he was describing came apart. The book itself was lost for thirteen centuries and...
On the Nature of Things
A poem about atoms, written to cure you of the fear of death. It nearly failed to survive, and when it came back it helped bring the Middle Ages to...
