Glory and the Lightning: A Novel of Ancient Greece

by Taylor Caldwell

Western man established the initial base for an argument, defined his terms, demolished his opponent with irrefutable logic or was demolished by his own ineptitude of reasoning.

A republic, as Solon has said over a century ago, is government by written and permanent law, instead of government by incalculable and changeable decrees, which is democracy. A republic, he has said, is when the people obey the rulers and the rulers obey the laws. But in a democracy the rulers obey the mass, which is whimsical, violent and greedy. Hence chaos and finally the tyrant.”

He, himself, Pericles, acknowledged that he was not guiltless at times of open scorn, and that he slighted others when impatient.

Only republics, and empires, can rise above the gutter and execute splendor.

But democracies are feminine and republics and empires are masculine, and therein lies the difference between

Ichthus put his hand on his slight breast. “I hear the voice of God in my heart. God is the enemy of tyranny, of all that oppresses man, and to obey God is better than to obey an unconscionable government.”

“I often think that nations are ungrateful,” he said. “Brave men have died for their country, and were joyous so to die. They have fought for their people—and their people have forgotten. Perhaps it is better to be a living weasel than a dead lion. The gratitude and the memory of nations are all too brief. Should a man die for such ephemeral

death. We prefer affable liars, even if they had wounded us and deceived us.

The gods, themselves, often chose men to wreak retribution

attention.” Anaxagoras said, “In the middle of an elevated conversation