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Ancient and modern

Democritus on the 50p rate

What Ancient Greeks would have made of Ed Balls

1 February 2014

9:00 AM

1 February 2014

9:00 AM

What a song and dance about a tax rise affecting a minuscule proportion of the richest in society! Greeks would have been baffled.

Classical Greeks did not have the automatic admiration for self-made millionaires that we do. They felt that only the very lucky or the very wicked could aspire to wealth.

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In the British Museum on 22 February, Peter Jones will introduce participants to ‘Ancient Greek from scratch’ (Google ‘Alpha Museum February 22’).

You might disagree with half of it, but you’ll enjoy reading all of it. Try your first month for free, then just $2 a week for the remainder of your first year.


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