The exploration ship sent out months ago to find a suitable planet for the population of Makunia returns with seven captured Earthlings. Valonius is furious when he learns of this lawless act. Upon meeting the Earthlings, a woman called Athena intrigues Valonius. Beautiful, alluring, she is a spitfire and minces no words. Athena feels drawn to the handsome blue alien and determines to at least seduce him before doomsday. Little does she know that she and the other six abductees have landed in a web of intrigue and deceit. Or that they’re in for the adventure of a lifetime...
Denied citizenship by the Roman Empire, a soldier named Alaric changed history by unleashing a surprise attack on the capital city of an unjust empire. Stigmatized and relegated to the margins of Roman society, the Goths were violent “barbarians” who destroyed “civilization,” at least in the conventional story of Rome’s collapse. But a slight shift of perspective brings their history, and ours, shockingly alive. Alaric grew up near the river border that separated Gothic territory from Roman. He survived a border policy that separated migrant children from their parents, and he was denied benefits he likely expected from military service. Romans were deeply conflicted over who should enjoy the privileges of citizenship. They wanted to buttress their global power, but were insecure about Roman identity; they depended on foreign goods, but scoffed at and denied foreigners their own voices and humanity. In stark contrast to the rising bigotry, intolerance, and zealotry among Romans during Alaric’s lifetime, the Goths, as practicing Christians, valued religious pluralism and tolerance. The marginalized Goths, marked by history as frightening harbingers of destruction and of the Dark Ages, preserved virtues of the ancient world that we take for granted. The three nights of riots Alaric and the Goths brought to the capital struck fear into the hearts of the powerful, but the riots were not without cause. Combining vivid storytelling and historical analysis, Douglas Boin reveals the Goths’ complex and fascinating legacy in shaping our world.
The lives of the Saints of the Desert have ever exercised a wonderful influence over the minds, not only of Catholics, but of all who call themselves Christians; nor is it difficult to comprehend why it should be so now, more than ever. The age in which we live distinguishes itself above all others by a restless longing to realize the past. Men are searching bog and marsh, moor and river, the wide expanse of downs, the tops of mountains and the bottom of lakes to find out how our ancestors lived, and to reproduce the men of the age of stone, bronze, or iron. The same sort of yearning curiosity exercises itself on the early Christians. If we had only Eusebius and Sozomen, it would be utterly impossible to picture to ourselves what were our ancestors in Christ. The Catacombs tell us much, but they are comparatively dumb. In the lives of the Desert-saints, we have a most strangely anthentic insight into the very hearts and thoughts as well as the way of life of men and women who lived hundreds of years ago. Aeterna Press
Despite their inherent seriousness, the law and those who practice it, be it lawyers, judges, politicians, or bureaucrats, are amongst the most popular objects of comedy and humour. Sometimes even the mention of the law, or the mere use of legal vocabulary, can trigger laughter. This is deeply counterintuitive, but true across cultures and historical eras: while the law is there to prevent and remedy injustice, it often ends up becoming the butt of comedy. But laughter and comedy, too, are also infused with seriousness: as universal social phenomena, they are extremely complex objects of study. This book maps out the many intersections of the law and laughter, from classical Greece to the present day. Taking on well-known classical and modern works of literature and visual culture, from Aristophanes to Laurel and Hardy and from Nietzsche to Totò and Fernandel, laughter and comedy bring law back to the complexity of human soul and the unpredictability of life.
