Men built these networks by harnessing the power of the state, and she uses the Cameron and Ruffin families as examples of clans that parlayed their access to state into agreements that shored up their own interests and built their businesses. 2. [read post]

Alan Cameron speculates that Philitas died from a wasting disease which his contemporaries joked was caused by his pedantry. * 207 BC: Chrysippus, a Greek stoic philosopher, is believed to have died of laughter after watching his drunk donkey attempt to eat figs. * 162 BC: Eleazar Maccabeus was crushed to death at the Battle of Beth-zechariah by a War elephant that he believed to be carrying Seleucid King Antiochus V; charging in to battle, Eleazar rushed underneath the elephant and thrust… [read post]