J. Rufus Fears

It is March 15, 44 B.C., and you are with Caesar as he walks to a meeting of the Senate in the Theater of Pompey, where he will be murdered by a conspiracy of senators led by Marcus Junius Brutus. Why did Brutus kill Caesar? What consequences flowed from this bloody deed?

A sign of the Augustan system's genius was its ability to survive eccentric or even mad emperors. History is fascinated by those emperors' excesses, which indeed can be highly instructive. Claudius, for all his oddness, was a shrewd and able ruler.

To the senator and historian Tacitus, Nero illustrated the grim reality of the principate and the fate of the Roman people, who had surrendered liberty for security only to find their fate in the hands of a mad tyrant.

A lawyer, intellectual, and family man, Apuleius had a fascinating career that brings to life the 2nd century, an age much like our own. His novel "The Golden Ass" is both a ribald yarn and a touching allegory of the human soul thirsting for redemption.

It is a March day in 218 B.C., the year that will see the beginning of the Second Punic War. Join the consul P. Cornelius Scipio and his son as they tour the Forum, discussing its statues of heroes from Rome's early days.

Caesar's brilliant history, The Gallic War, recounts his defeat of the Celtic hero Vercingetorix and reveals his mastery of strategy, tactics, logistics, battlefield command, and peace settlements.

Professor J. Rufus Fears presents his choices of some of the most essential writings in history. These are works that shaped the minds of great individuals and that offer an extraodrdinary gift of wisdom to those willing to receive it. Focus is on intellectual history and ethics, taking the underlying ideas of each great work and revealing how these ideas can be put to use in a moral and ethical life. From the Aeneid and the Book of Job to Othello...

Professor Fears presents his choices from some of the most essential writings in history, ranging in time from the 3rd millennium B.C. to the 20th century, and in locale from Mesopotamia and China to Europe and America. He focuses on intellectual history and ethics, taking underlying ideas of each great work and revealing how these ideas can be put to use in a moral and ethical life.

Presents lectures concerning the history of freedom from ancient civilization to the twentieth century.

Presents lectures concerning the history of freedom from ancient civilization to the twentieth century.