Sublime
An inspiration engine for ideas
Dictionary dump (unformatted): a/an : “A was modified from the Egyptian hieroglyph representing the eagle. In Hebrew it was an ox, and in Greek it was a “symbol of a bad AUGURY in the sacrifices.” The distinction between a/an happened around the 1300s. aardvark : South African “earth pig” aaron’s serpent : “something so powerful as to swallow up mi
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pantagruélico: [banquete, comida] que es muy abundante o excesivo.
petimetre: persona joven que se preocupa en exceso de su aspecto y de vestir según la moda.
piafar: alzar el caballo, estando parado, las patas delanteras alternativamente dejándolas caer con fuerza y en el mismo punto en que estaban.
pulpería: tienda donde se venden bebidas, comestib
... See moreOur Catiline?
Mary Beard • SPQR
In return for the promise of ‘a faire Portugal maiden’ Ala-uddin Shah connived at this move to the extent of detaining a Portuguese emissary who might have alerted his fellow countrymen.
John Keay • The Honourable Company: History of the English East India Company
And in a much-quoted phrase that still hits home, he sums up the Roman imperial project: ‘they create desolation and call it peace’, ‘solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant
Mary Beard • SPQR
This text has often been seen as one of the major embarrassments of Seneca’s corpus in that it includes some abject flattery both of Claudius himself and of Polybius.
Emily Wilson • The Greatest Empire: A Life of Seneca
Cicero versus Catiline
Mary Beard • SPQR
Back in France, Lafayette showered Washington with gifts, including seven hounds sent in the custody of John Quincy Adams. He also sent along French pheasants and nightingales, which Washington had never seen before. All the while, Lafayette perfected his manumission scheme and acted on it the next year with breathtaking speed. He bought a large su
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