Dear Cicero,
If you are well, then I am well, dear friend.
It's been a long time between letters, a year? I must admit that I have been writing to the living during this hiatus of our correspondence. I found a friend in a foreign land, a professor of history and religion at New Jersey University with whom I have developed a remarkable friendship. The story of our meeting is worth describing.
I finished reading everything Tacitus had written, and suddenly bereft, knowing that he was not going to release any new books, I discovered a 600 page book of essays concerning his work. (A companion to Tacitus, edited by V E Pagan). I devoured it, overjoyed to read so many different authors discussing one of my favourite authors (beside you of course, Cicero.) In this book I found an essay written by Prof Holly Haynes, author of The History of Make Believe. I loved her essay so much I wrote to her, praising her work. Scholars don't get much fan mail, so she was as surprised to receive my missive as I was to receive her reply.
A year later and our correspondence has continued unabated, sharing our passion for ancient literature as well as philosophy, art, drama and music. On her recommendations, and with her tutelage, I read The Oresteia trilogy, (translated by Anne Carson), The Lysistrata (two different translations, by Benjamin Rogers, 1952 and Ian Johnston 2010), Sappho (translated by Anne Carson), and On Tyranny by Xenophon, with an analysis by Leo Strauss and Alexandre Kojeve. More recently we have been studying Nietzche, this week I attended an online lecture/tutorial with her and a group of students and scholars discussing The History of Morals, from Beyond Good and Evil. It's an interesting chapter, but I'll get to that later.
Today, I wanted to share a reading from your speech Pro Lege Manilia, in support of Pompey.
With gratitude and respect
Morgan
