Books for Sale!

I have way too many books, and am trying to unload some of them before my next move. Since my landlord is raising my rent by more than 40%, that will be the end of next month, whether my next job (whatever it is) is in Baltimore or not. Please check out my listings here. Further notes:

1. All prices are 10% off through midnight Sunday, July 18th: just subtract 10% from the advertised price.
2. As a bonus to the first eleven orders, no matter how large or small, I will throw in an official PanAm Latin-language instruction pamphlet from 1962. It is titled 'Ad Clericos et Religiosos Viros Iuvandos per Terrarum Orbem Peregrinantes'. Click here for a small picture, here for a large one (190 K). Please note that these pamphlets were apparently used as teaching tools at some point, so there is a small amount of underlining or similar marks, in pen, on one page of each, as you can see on the larger picture (near the bottom of the page with the airplane on it).
3. I can take either PayPal or a personal check in U.S. dollars, and generally ship the books within 24 hours.
4. The first person to inqure about a particular book has first claim on it, though I do expect a decision one way or the other within, say, 48 hours, if someone else inquires in the interval.
5. I will be adding more books between now and Friday, including a few more classical titles. Check back from time to time if you want to make sure not to miss anything.
6. Don't miss the $2.00 and $2.25 videotapes: sure, you'd rather have the DVDs, but how can you resist prices like these?
7. Finally, I have added not-very-competent pictures of a few of the more interesting titles. So far, these are all under Biblical, Modern Philosophy, French, and English. While browsing, just click on any camera icon you see: .

More Answers: TCCI

Just for completeness, here are my answers to Terry Teachout's original TCCI. In this case, I have bolded both choices, but RED means I agree with Teachout, BLUE means I disagree, and BLACK (the majority) means I have insufficient information to decide one way or the other. As a shorthand method to get across how I decided some of them, I sometimes give pairs of ratings on a scale of 1-10. Thus, 10-1 means I absolutely love the one and hate the other, 4-3 means I rather like both, but the first one a little bit more, 2-1 that I dislike both, but one slightly less than the other. An X means insufficient information: thus 9-X means I really like the first item, but don't know the second, so I can't say for sure I would still prefer the first if I did. Clear enough? If not, the comments are open. My compatibility index seems to be 75%, higher than any yet recorded on Teachout's site: the vote is 36-12, with 52 abstentions and spoiled ballots.

Anyway, here are my answers to the questions on the Teachout Cultural Compatibility Index:

1. Fred Astaire or Gene Kelly? X-X: insufficient information. I don't watch a lot of movies, and have no clear picture of either.
2. The Great Gatsby or The Sun Also Rises? Ditto: never read either that I can remember, but I don't much like Hemingway, so would probably prefer Fitzgerald.
3. Count Basie over Duke Ellington. 4-3: I haven't heard a lot of either, but more of Basie, mostly on a few Big Joe Turner albums. And I've liked what little I've heard of both, but Basie a bit more, so Basie it is.
4. Cats over dogs. I'm not a pet person, but if I had to own one or the other, it would definitely be a cat, preferably calico.
5. Matisse or Picasso? X-2: Don't really know Matisse, don't care for Picasso. Sue me.
6. Yeats over Eliot. 6-4: Neither is all that high or low on my list.
7. Buster Keaton or Charlie Chaplin? X-X: See #1. Keaton's bit part in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum was not bad, but that's hardly enough to tip the scales.
8. Flannery O’Connor or John Updike? Never read either, but I strongly suspect from their reputations that I would prefer O'Connor.
9. To Have and Have Not or Casablanca? X-8: I don't recall having seen the former, but it would be hard to beat Casablanca. Still, I can't vote without more information.
10. Jackson Pollock or Willem de Kooning? 1-X: Drips and spatters leave me cold, and mystified. I suppose I've seen a DeKooning or two, but have no mental picture at all. They either made a negative impression or none at all.
11. The Stones over The Who. I find rock in general leaves me cold, but there are degrees of coldness, so I'd have to call this for the Stones by 2-1. Remember: there's no zero on this scale.
12. Philip Larkin over Sylvia Plath. 9-1. I guess I prefer reading a screwed-up depressive man to a screwed-up suicidal woman.
13. Trollope over Dickens. Call it 8-3. I would think that most people who prefer Trollope would also prefer Tolstoy (number 15), and vice versa, but Teachout is an exception.
14. Billie Holiday or Ella Fitzgerald? Never heard much of the latter. Call it 6-X.
15. Tolstoy over Dostoyevsky. Maybe not by much: call it 9-7.
16. The Moviegoer or The End of the Affair? Never read either, and had to think for a while to remember who wrote them.
17. George Balanchine or Martha Graham? Insufficient information.
18. Hamburgers over Hot dogs. As long as they have cheese on them, and maybe some bacon, and ketchup, mustard, and fresh onion, but no relish or lettuce or tomato, and are burned on the outside but bleeding raw inside, and are bought from a trustworthy butcher so they won't make me sick. I mean not immediately sick from food poisoning: they can't be good for my heart.
19. Letterman over Leno. Not that I care much for either: 2-1.
20. Wilco or Cat Power? Never heard Wilco, or heard of Cat Power, though I gather it (they? he? she?) is or has some kind of band.
21. Verdi over Wagner. No contest here: 8-3.
22. Grace Kelly or Marilyn Monroe? Can't recall any of their movies, though Monroe's is certainly a familiar face -- and blown-up skirt.
23. Bill Monroe over Johnny Cash. Not by much: maybe 5-4. I have no particular preference for bluegrass over country, so this could have gone either way with different representatives on each side. For the former, I would give either the Stanley Brothers or the Louvin Brothers an 8, Del McCoury a 7, for the latter Hank Williams a 9, Loretta Lynn an 8, George Jones and Dwight Yoakam a 7, and so on.
24. Kingsley over Martin Amis. By about 9-2 -- not that I've read much Martin, but what I little I have (a few pages browsing in the bookstore) has not tempted me to go further. Perhaps I should try again some day.
25. Robert Mitchum or Marlon Brando? As I said, I don't see a lot of movies, though I have vague memories of On the Waterfront, and wasn't that Mitchum as the marine stranded on a Japanese-held island with a nun in Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison? Not a bad movie, but hardly sufficient to tip the scales here.
26. Mark Morris or Twyla Tharp? Never seen either's work.
27. Vermeer over Rembrandt. Just an impression, based on vague acquaintance.
28. Chopin over Tchaikovsky Maybe 5-3. Other romantics would have tipped the scales much further one way or the other. I do find the slushier of the romantics (e.g. Liszt) far more tolerable on the piano than with a full orchestra. Perhaps if Tchaikovsky had written much at all for the piano I would like him better.
29. White wine over red. If I'm drinking wine at all. I generally prefer hard liquor over wine or beer.
30. Noël Coward or Oscar Wilde? Insufficient information: call it X-6.
31. Grosse Pointe Blank or High Fidelity? I've never seen either.
32. Shostakovich over Prokofiev.
33. Mikhail Baryshnikov or Rudolf Nureyev? Insufficient information. I get the two mixed up: can't even remember which one played an Amish farmer in Witness. (Is "Amish farmer" redundant? Maybe not: I imagine a few of them are blacksmiths and barrel-makers.)
34. Constable or Turner? No clear picture (sorry!) of either.
35. The Searchers or Rio Bravo? I don't recall seeing either of these -- certainly not in the last 20 years.
36. Comedy or tragedy? I've gone back and forth on this one and still can't decide. When it comes to Greek plays and Shakespeare, definitely tragedy. For opera and modern English plays (e.g. Pygmalion and Importance of Being Earnest), definitely comedy. For Roman plays, I'm not sure: Plautus and Seneca are so different I can't think how to really compare them. For movies, probably comedy. I think I'd better pass on this one.
37. Fall over spring.
38. Manet or Monet? Time to hit the art museums and develop an opinion?
39. The Simpsons over The Sopranos. Haven't seen much of the latter, but what little I have seen seemed good, not great, and I love The Simpsons.
40. Rodgers and Hart or Gershwin and Gershwin? I've certainly heard some works of each, but never stopped to check the authorship. When it comes to The Great American Songbook, I'm astonishingly ignorant.
41. Henry James over Joseph Conrad. 10-8: Conrad would have won most other matchups.
42. Sunset over sunrise.
43. Johnny Mercer or Cole Porter? No idea: see number 40.
44. Mac or PC? Never used a Mac, so I can't say. Maybe I should try one before I replace my current 6-year-old wreck.
45. New York over Los Angeles. I've never been to Los Angeles, but I love most of what I've seen of New York (6 months residence in 2001-02, 15-20 weekend visits since). Perhaps I would like Los Angeles even better, but it seems unlikely.
46. Partisan Review or Horizon? Huh? Is Partisan Review still in business? And what's Horizon, some kind of travel magazine?
47. Stax or Motown? No idea. I don't tend to notice the label on pop recordings.
48. Van Gogh or Gauguin? See number 38.
49. Steely Dan or Elvis Costello? I've never knowingly listened to either, and couldn't name a song by either, though I have a clear picture of the latter's face, or rather his haircut and glasses. I think both postdate my total loss of interest in non-country, non-bluegrass contemporary pop music, though I may be wrong about Steely Dan's dates. I've certainly never owned or borrowed any album by either one.
50. Reading a blog or reading a magazine? What did you think I was going to say?
51. John Gielgud or Laurence Olivier? Insufficient information.
52. Only the Lonely or Songs for Swingin’ Lovers? I don't even know who did these, though I gather they are album titles. Sinatra? No idea.
53. Chinatown or Bonnie and Clyde? I may have seen the latter long ago.
54. Ghost World or Election? Haven't seen 'em.
55. Minimalism or conceptual art? Hmmm. How to settle the precedence between a louse and a flea? I'm going to pass on this one even if that violates the spirit of the TCCI.
56. Daffy Duck or Bugs Bunny? I've never watched non-contemporary cartoons, and have no idea which I would prefer if I did. Perhaps I should. It's been far too long since I've watched either of these to have an opinion. Ask me to judge Beavis & Butt-Head, The Simpsons, Duckman, Futurama, King of the Hill, and South Park, and I'll have an answer. In fact, that is my answer, in decreasing order of preference. (I almost began "Except for the occasional Three Stooges episode, I've never watched non-contemporary cartoons" -- until I remembered that they're not actually cartoons, they just seem like them somehow.)
57. Modernism over postmodernism. I much prefer Classicism, actually, but if I have to choose . . . .
58. Batman or Spider-Man? In comics, or in movies? Either way, I have no idea. In fact, I don't know and don't care.
59. Lucinda Williams over Emmylou Harris. 7-4. Perhaps I should buy some of the latter's albums: there's a good chance she would move up, since I've liked what little I've heard. Then again, the one I like best is just a remake of the Louvin Brothers version ("If I could only win your love").
60. Johnson over Boswell. Perhaps I should recalculate, but I figure the best parts of Boswell are direct quotations from Johnson, and there's plenty more Johnson not in Boswell, so how could he lose?
61. Jane Austen over Virginia Woolf. 10-3. I was going to say 10-1 to get across the degree of difference, but I suppose there are plenty of worse authors than Woolf.
62. The Honeymooners or The Dick Van Dyke Show? Before my time, I think, or might as well have been. (I'm 51.)
63. An Eames chair or a Noguchi table? No clear picture of what either looks like, much less feels like to sit on, or at, though I suspect I've seen one or both on Frasier.
64. Out of the Past or Double Indemnity? No clear memory of seeing either.
65. Don Giovanni over The Marriage of Figaro. Not that I've seen the latter, or listened to it, enough to judge fairly. Can I get back to this one when I do?
66. Blue over green.
67. A Midsummer Night’s Dream or As You Like It? Have never seen the latter, or read it since college, and remember nothing of that.
68. Opera over ballet. 10-2, though I've seen very few ballets.
69. Film over live theater. And not only because I can watch films at home. But what about films of theatrical productions? If he hadn't said "live", it might have been more difficult to decide.
70. Acoustic over electric. No contest.
71. North by Northwest or Vertigo? I have only vague memories of seeing the first, none of the second, so there's no way to decide.
72. Sargent over Whistler. Nothing against Whistler, but I really like Sargent.
73. V. S. Naipaul over Milan Kundera. I don't recall the last time I read any Kundera, but Naipaul's a favorite, so call this 9-X and mildly provisional.
74. The Music Man or Oklahoma? Don't know, don't care, never liked musicals.
75. Sushi, yes, oh yes!
76. The New Yorker under Ross or Shawn? Insufficient information, and I've never really cared for or about the magazine, or read it much all. Do you have to grow up with literary ambitions and dreams of being published in it to be a New Yorker fanatic? I am vaguely aware that Ross came before Shawn, and that the latter was the father of the guy who played the Grand Negus (Nagus?) of the Ferengi on Star Trek: Deep Space 9, but that's about it.
77. Tennessee Williams or Edward Albee? Modern drama (I mean the last 50 years or so) is a closed book to me, with a very few exceptions from my time in New York. I did like Zimmerman's stage version of (parts of) Ovid's Metamorphoses. and Stoppard's Invention of Love, on A. E. Housman. I suspect I may have been the only person in the theater for the latter who had read just about all of Housman's prose and very little of his verse.
78. The Portrait of a Lady over The Wings of the Dove. Actually, I've never read either, but can be quite sure the score would be something like 10-2, at worst 9-4. I've read and loved several other earlyish James novels: The Europeans, Washington Square, The Bostonians, even The Reverberator. I found What Maisie Knew and The Spoils of Poynton hard going, but worth it: I sometimes had to read a sentence three or four times to construe it, but was never tempted to give up. Given that James' style is reliably reported to get even more difficult by the time of The Wings of the Dove, I have no doubt that I would far prefer The Portrait of a Lady. I really need to find time for it soon, also The Princess Casamassima, which I've read about a quarter of. In that case, I quit because of a job change and resulting overwork, not at all because I'd lost interest. Time to knit up the broken strand, or just start again at the beginning?
79. Paul Taylor or Merce Cunningham? Insufficient information. I know nothing about dance.
80. Frank Lloyd Wright or Mies van der Rohe? Insufficient information. I don't know anything about architecture, either.
81. Diana Krall or Norah Jones? Never heard (and barely heard of) either.
82. Watercolor or pastel? Huh? Depends on what the artists do with them.
83. Bus or subway? Depends on the city, I think.
84. Stravinsky over Schoenberg.
85. Crunchy over smooth peanut butter. I rarely eat either, except in Thai food, but I always buy crunchy, even for baiting mousetraps. Why not give the furry little bastards a special treat before they die?
86. Willa Cather over Theodore Dreiser.
87. Schubert over Mozart. Hard to decide: 10-9.
88. The Fifties over the Twenties. Just an impression with nothing much to back it up.
89. Huckleberry Finn over Moby-Dick.
90. Thomas Mann over James Joyce. 7-3: would be 7-1 if it weren't for Dubliners.
91. Lester Young or Coleman Hawkins? Haven't heard either lately, and have no impression strong enough to decide. My jazz collection is severely limited: several Minguses (Mingi?), Cecil Taylor's first two albums (like Henry James, but much faster, he seems to have gone around the bend into unintelligibility as he got older), a couple of others.
92. Emily Dickinson over Walt Whitman. Neither is a big favorite, but the latter leaves me completely cold -- too prosy, and oratorical, if that's not a contradiction: maybe 4-1.
93. Abraham Lincoln or Winston Churchill? Sorry, too different to judge. I'll have to think about this one some more.
94. Liz Phair or Aimee Mann? Mere names: I don't even know whether they sing, dance, paint, sculpt, or what.
95. Italian over French cooking. If restricted to these two, I have a mild preference for Italian (maybe 4-3), but what I really prefer is almost any kind of Asian: Japanese, Korean, Chinese in all its varieties, Thai, Vietnamese, Indian, Afghan, and more. Any of these would beat Italian and French, though it may just be that I can't afford to eat in the restaurants that make the latter worthwhile. On the other hand, it may just be a generalized preference for the exotic, since I would also rather eat Ethiopian or Mexican food over anything strictly European -- not that good Mexican food is particularly easy to find. And I almost never order a steak, tossed salad, and baked potato in a restaurant: I can make those at home.
96. Bach on harpsichord over Bach on piano. I'm not a militant 'original instrument' fan, but here it does make a difference. If the pianist is Glenn Gould, I might vote the other way, but it usually isn't.
97. Anchovies, yes. I was going to add "but only on pizzas and in Caesar salads", but (a) that's the only place I ever come across them, and (b) I suppose they would be good in other dishes, too. I find that one of the best ways to make a frozen pizza at home is to buy a large four-cheese pizza and add a whole can of anchovies, so I guess that means I like anchovies.
98. Short novels or long ones? Depends on the author, I think, and how much free time I have.
99. Bebop over swing. I guess, if bebop includes Charles Mingus (see number 91), and I think it does
100. "The Last Judgment" over "The Last Supper". I have a weakness for the apocalyptic.

CCCI: The 'Answers'

In the extended entry (press 'Continue reading') I have placed my own preferences on the Classical Cultural Compatibility Index expounded in the previous post. I didn't provide them up front because how much any individual classicist agrees with me personally is hardly the most important thing in the world, even if comparing notes between any two or more classicists can be interesting and (conceivably) informative. My own preferences are bold-faced, and I have added explanations to most.

My Own Preferences

1. *Aeschylus, or Sophocles, or Euripides? A difficult decision, and I could make a case for any of the three.
2. *Agricola, or Germania, or Dialogus de Oratoribus? No contest, though having a theory about a work does tend to make it more interesting.
3. Ajax, or Philoctetes? Subject to change.
4. Amores, or Ars Amatoria? Not likely to change. Macaulay thought it was Ovid's best work. I wouldn't go that far, but I much prefer it to the Amores.
5. Anabasis, or Memorabilia? The subject is endlessly fascinating, even if Xenophon's treatment is sometimes dull or confusing -- but perhaps that's just me.
6. Antony, or Cleopatra? I may change my mind on this tomorrow.
7. Antigone, or Oedipus (Tyrannus, I mean)? I may be prejudiced by a bad experience with Antigone in high school. A lousy translation and poor teaching combined to give me a visceral aversion to the play, which vanishes as soon as I actually sit down to read it. Since I'm not reading it at the moment, I have to go with Oedipus, where I'm not handicapped by any semiconscious learned aversion.
8. Apollonius of Rhodes, or Apollonius of Perga? Hmmmm. Epic or mathematics? Not too hard for me to decide.
9. Archilochus, or Hipponax? I don't imagine I'll get a lot of agreement on this one. See #50 for a possible reason.
10. Archimedes, or Ptolemy? The stars are a little too far away for me to care much about them, not that ancient science interests me all that much to start with.
11. Aristophanes, or Menander? Most contemporary classicists will agree with this one. See #90 for a similar skew.
12. Athenian navy, or Spartan army?
13. Augustus’ Res Gestae, or Marcus Aurelius’ To Himself? Perhaps I'm being unfair: it's shorter, and in Latin, and from an era I'm much more interested in.
14. Aulus Gellius, or Plutarch’s Moralia? Again, being (mostly) a Latinist may prejudice me.
15. Ausonius, or Prudentius?
16. Birds, or Clouds? This changes from day to day.
17. Books, or Journal Articles? Life is short. Get to the point, fellow scholars.
18. Byzantium, or Constantinople?
19. Caesars: Julius, or Augustus? Subject to change: criteria for choosing are awfully vague.
20. Callimachus’ Aetia, or Ovid’s Fasti? Subject to change from day to day -- or would be if I thought of either of these every day.
21. Callimachus’ Iambi, or Horace’s Epodes?
22. Catullus’ epigrams, or Martial’s?
23. Catullus’ love poems, or Propertius’?
24. Cicero: Verse, or Prose? Will anyone choose the verse, except as a joke?
25. Cicero: Oratory, or Treatises? Hard to decide, but for now, and at least another five minutes, I prefer the treatises.
26. Cicero’s philosophical works, or Seneca’s? Ditto.
27. Cicero’s letters, or Pliny’s? Ditto.
28. *Pre-Classical, or Classical, or Post-Classical? (both languages)
29. Claudian, or Ammianus Marcellinus?
30. Curse Tablets, or Potsherds (I mean the ones used for ostracisms)?
31. De Bello Gallico, or De Bello Civili? I can never remember who is who on the other side in the Gallic wars: Ariovistus, Commius the Atrebate, Eporedorix, Vercingetorix, one unsuccessful rebel or invader blurs into another. The stakes are much higher in the civil wars. Higher for the Romans, anyway.
32. Demosthenes, or Cicero? I'm a Latinist, what can I say?
33. Ennius, or Lucilius? Depending on my mood.
34. Epistulae Heroidum, or Epistulae ex Ponto?
35. Ethics, or Politics? Not that I'm all that interested in either -- the books, I mean, not the subjects in general.
36. Euripides’ Ion, or Plato’s? A favorite, though Plato's is also quite interesting -- not to mention short.
37. The First half of the Aeneid, or the Second? Maybe I'm just being perverse. Subject to change.
38. The First Triumvirate, or the Second? All three members are interesting and important, not just two. Who cares about Lepidus?
39. Gadarene Epigrammatists: Meleager, or Philodemus?
40. Galliae: Cisalpina, or Transalpina? If I have to choose. Perhaps one day I'll be able to visit one or both and see for myself.
41. Gilgamesh, or Who cares, since it’s not in Greek or Latin? I know, I shouldn't admit this, and it's not totally without interest. Subject to change.
42. Gorgias, or the Gorgias?
43. Greek, or Latin?
44. Greek Anthology, or Latin Anthology? Just because I prefer the Latin language doesn't mean I have to prefer the Latin Anthology. Not much of interest in it other than the Pervigilium Veneris and bits of (probably Pseudo-) Seneca and Petronius.
45. Heraclitus, or Democritus?
46. Herodotus, or Thucydides? A very difficult choice, subject to change from moment to moment.
47. Herondas, or the Priapea? The seller of ladies' "shoes" is funnier than anything in the Priapea. In fact, is the latter ever actually funny?
48. Homer, or Vergil?
49. Horace: Odes, or Epistles? A very tough decision -- not that it's really a decision, since I can and do read both.
50. *Horace’s Satires, Persius, or Juvenal? I prefer hard liquor to wine or beer, and vicious satire to the more genteel flavors.
51. Housman, or Wilamowitz?
52. Ibis, or Medicamina Faciei Femineae? More vicious not-exactly-satire-but-close.
53. Iliad, or Odyssey? So hard to decide, I almost might as well have flipped a coin.
54. Iphigenia in Tauris, or Iphigenia in Aulis?
55. Caring, or Not caring that Tauris in the previous question is a Latin plural and Aulis an English singular?
56. Isocrates, or Life is too short to bother? Subject to change if I find a job with more spare time. (What am I saying? I'm between jobs right now and still don't have time for Isocrates. Should I sell my texts of his works?)
57. Livia, or Agrippina?
58. Livy’s Rape of Lucretia (1.57-60), or Ovid’s (F. 2.685-852)?
59. Longinus, or Aristotle’s Poetics? If I'd read either of them in the last decade or two, I might be entitled to a more informed opinion.
60. Longus, or Heliodorus? Mostly because Longus is the shortest of the Greek novelists.
61. Lucan, or Lucian? So many criteria in play here: Latin vs Greek, verse vs prose, serious (if sometimes bitterly humorous) vs light.
62. Lucretius, or the Georgics? Another very difficult decision.
63. Lycophron, or Nicander? Obscure mythology or obscure pseudoscience? Hard to decide, but I lean towards myth today.
64. Manilius, or Persius? Just as difficult, but a lot more interesting. Then again, I don't much care about the stars.
65. Marcus Argentarius, or Marcus Aurelius? (both wrote in both languages)
66. Martial on sex, or Martial on money (and property, class, power, and ambition)? Maybe I just have a dirty mind. (Ed. Maybe? Shut up.)
67. Martial’s flattery of Domitian, or Statius’? It would be hard to measure, but they seem equally shameless and abject, and both spend whole poems wallowing in flattery, sometimes two or three poems in a row. However, Martial's are so much shorter that there's no contest: relief is never more than a page ahead.
68. Massive Commentaries: British, or German?
69. R. G. M. Nisbet, or John Henderson?
70. Nonnus, or Silius Italicus? Nonnus is (I gather) probably a better poet, but even longer, and in weird Greek with weird metrical rules. If someone put a gun to my head and forced me to read one or the other, it would have to be Silius. Of course, even your Sadist wouldn't be that cruel.
71. OCTs, or Teubners? Especially the ones with the rough burlappy covers.
72. Olympus, or Oulumpos? I'm pedantic, but not that pedantic.
73. Cicero on Catiline, or Sallust on the same? Hmmm: rhetorical elaboration by a direct participant, or full treatment by a later writer? I guess I'll have to go with the full treatment. (I seem to have misplaced this one alphabetically, but I'll leave it here in case anyone is already using my numeration.)
74. Orpheus’ catabasis (Georgics IV), or Aeneas’ (Aeneid VI)? A lot more to see and do, and with Vergil, the more the better.
75. Ovid’s Metamorphoses, or Apuleius’? Will anyone dare pick the latter?
76. Pacuvius, or Accius?
77. Parmenides, or the Parmenides? It's been quite a few years, but as I recall the latter is even harder to understand.
78. The Parthenon, or the Pantheon?
79. The Persian War, or the Peloponnesian?
80. Petronius, or Tacitus? A very difficult choice.
81. Phaedrus the Roman fabulist, or Phaedrus the Platonic dialogue? Not difficult at all, even for one who generally prefers verse to prose and Latin to Greek.
82. Physics, or Metaphysics? Surprisingly, not quite as difficult. I still recall some horrible moments in college (30+ years ago) trying to figure out Aristotle's theory of motion.
83. Pindar, or Bacchylides? I probably won't get much agreement here, but I love the two dithyrambs (if they are dithyrambs) on Theseus (17 and 18 in modern numbering).
84. Pirates, or Gladiators?
85. The Plank (apotympanismós), or the Pit (Bárathron)?
86. Plato’s Symposium, or Xenophon’s?
87. Plato’s Republic, or Cicero’s?
88. Plato’s Laws, or Cicero’s?
89. Plato’s Apology, or Apuleius’? A tough decision.
90. Plautus, or Terence?
91. Plutarch’s Lives, or Suetonius’?
92. Prometheus Bound, or Seven against Thebes? No contest, even if it is Pseudo-Aeschylus (Euphorion?) vs genuine Aeschylus.
93. Propertius, or Tibullus?
94. Pseudo-Tibullus, or Pseudo-Vergil? The average for both is very low, but I figure Sulpicia is better and more interesting than even the Copa and Catalepton XIII. I just wish I could figure out the latter, which seems to be the only Augustan epode not by Horace.
95. Roll, or Codex?
96. Sallust, or Livy? Very difficult choice, but with Livy there's so much more to love.
97. Sappho, or Simonides? Considering the lyrics alone -- what little is left of them both -- Sappho would come out ahead, but throw in the epigrams and it's no contest, though I don't expect many to agree.
98. Satyr Plays, or Satires?
99. Semonides on Women (Fr. 7), or Juvenal on Wives (Satire 6)? What can I say? I'm a Latinist.
100. Senecan Tragedy, or Seneca’s Prose? His prose is probably better overall, but I'm busy editing the tragedies for this site, and still not tired of them.
101. Siculate sigmas, or the other kind? Just call me 'el pedantón'.
102. Knowing (or stopping to look up) the technical name for the other kind, or Not knowing and not caring? Maybe I'm not all that pedantic.
103. Socrates, or Diogenes? A closer contest for me than for most, I suspect.
104. Statius’ Achilleid, or Claudian’s De Raptu Proserpinae?
105. Stoics, or Epicureans?
106. Syme, or Momigliano? Hard to decide, but Syme is more often directly pertinent to things I'm working on, and that counts for something.
107. Tacitus’ Annales: I-VI (Tiberius), or XIII-XVI (Nero)?
108. Textual Criticism, or Literary Criticism? No contest for me, though I expect most readers to go the other way.
109. The Elder Pliny, or the Younger Pliny?
110. The Elder Seneca, or Quintilian? Not only because he preserves bits of Marcus Argentarius.
111. The Greek Novel, or the Roman Novel? Sorry, Hellenists, no contest.
112. Theocritus’ pastorals, or Vergil’s? Close, but . . . .
113. Theognis, or Solon? I hate to admit it, but I have trouble staying awake for everything Solon wrote except the one on the Ages of Man. Actually, that's a general problem with Greek elegiac verse, as opposed to lyric and iambic, though Theognis has his moments.
114. Theogony, or Works and Days? Because I don't want to read about how to build a wagon, unless the author provides a clearly labeled diagram. The same goes for Caesar's bridge over the Rhine, and his siege-towers at Massilia.
115. Trojan Women, or Medea?
116. Utopias: Aristophanes’ (Ecclesiazusae), or Plato’s (Republic)? I guess I just don't believe in Utopias.
117. Us and Vs in Latin, or just small u and large V? I don't actually care much either way, but why not be pedantic?
118. Velleius Paterculus, or Valerius Flaccus? Because, as Leslie Stephen (quoted from memory) put it, "bad verse has no reason for existing". Even the worst of historians, and Velleius may well be that, preserves some useful information.
119. Vergil, or Ovid?
120. Verse, or Prose?
121. Vitruvius, or Plotinus? Not that I'm in a big hurry to read either, but if I have to choose one or the other, I'll go with down-to-earth practical instruction over in-the-clouds philosophical ruminations any day. You may disagree.
122. Xenophon of Athens, or Xenophon of Ephesus?
123. *Your personal library: Ink Annotations, or Penciled Notes, or Pristine Pages? Only in my 'reading copies', in tiny print with a number 3 pencil. If my eyesight ever goes bad, I'll be in serious trouble. Secondary sources are kept clean, so maybe I should have bolded Pristine Pages.

CCCI: The Classical Cultural Compatibility Index

Terry Teachout (About Last Night) has come up with an amusing idea: the Teachout Cultural Compatibility Index (list here, explanation here, scores here). It is a list of preferences, in which readers are asked to choose between Dostoievsky and Tolstoy, Count Basie and Duke Ellington, cats and dogs, Schubert and Mozart, and so on. Since Teachout gives his own preferences in the first post, readers can see how compatible their own tastes are with his. I may post my own answers elsewhere, though they are somewhat embarrassing: I was unable to express any preference in fully half of them, because I am unfamiliar with one or both of the choices offered. In one case (Liz Phair or Aimee Mann?) I don't even know whether the choices are dancers, painters, sculptors, singers, or what. I do agree with Teachout in 36 of the 50 on which I have an opinion, for a TCCI of 72% -- not quite the highest so far reported. [Update: When I finished calculating the number was actually 75%: 36 of 48. I seem to have become even less decisive in the interval.]

In a further twist, Aaron Haspel (God of the Machine) suggests that it would be interesting (and maybe even useful) to cross-correlate the various choices: "if we find, for example, that nearly everyone who prefers Astaire to Kelly also prefers Matisse to Picasso and Keaton to Chaplin, then we might be on to something". Too bad he's too lazy to actually do the work. That's not a serious criticism: so am I.

However, I am not too lazy to put together a similar (and even longer) list for Classics, which I present here. But first, some Preliminary Notes:

1. My list is very heavy on the literature, light (if not weightless) on the history, art, and archaeology, reflecting my own rather narrow interests. Others are invited to compile their own lists, though a link would be polite.
2. A few, including the first two and the last one, did not seem reducible to dyads, so I give three choices. These are marked with asterisks. This does not seem to violate the spirit of the exercise, though it would complicate the calculations in any attempt at a Haspelian analysis.
3. Not all the choices work the same way. As Teachout puts it, explaining his own list (second link above): "Some measure your preference for opposing but not mutually exclusive alternatives . . ., while others require you to make an either-or choice. . . . . Some, by contrast, ask you to choose between similar but not identical alternatives . . . . A few ask you to choose what I consider to be the lesser of two evils." I have included all four categories here, though readers will no doubt have various opinions about which choices fall into which categories.
4. The question in each case is not which is better, but which you prefer. As Kingsley Amis once put it, "Importance is not important". The CCCI is not a measure of general reputation, but of personal opinion. Be not ashamed to confess a preference for Bacchylides over Pindar, or Simonides over Sappho, if that is how you feel.
5. I will reveal my own preferences at some point, though I must confess that I haven't made up my mind in every case.
6. In a few cases, I expect all or nearly all readers to vote the same way. However, I may be wrong, given the perversity of the human soul and the eccentricity of the scholastic mind.
7. If readers show sufficient interest, I will post each dyad or triad separately, one or two per day, for individual comment and argument. If I can handle the technicalities (so far, signs point to yes) I may even add polling software for some or (theoretically) all of them, so we can all vote -- anonymously, of course.
8. Watch the italics. Number 3 contrasts two literary works, number 6 two historical figures.
9. Comments and questions on the general subject of the CCCI are welcome here: just click on 'Comments' at the end of this post. Comments on particular dyads or triads should be saved for the individual posts.

And now, without further ado:

The CCCI

1. *Aeschylus, or Sophocles, or Euripides?
2. *Agricola, or Germania, or Dialogus de Oratoribus?
3. Ajax, or Philoctetes?
4. Amores, or Ars Amatoria?
5. Anabasis, or Memorabilia?
6. Antony, or Cleopatra?
7. Antigone, or Oedipus (Tyrannus, I mean)?
8. Apollonius of Rhodes, or Apollonius of Perga?
9. Archilochus, or Hipponax?
10. Archimedes, or Ptolemy?
11. Aristophanes, or Menander?
12. Athenian navy, or Spartan army?
13. Augustus’ Res Gestae, or Marcus Aurelius’ To Himself?
14. Aulus Gellius, or Plutarch’s Moralia?
15. Ausonius, or Prudentius?
16. Birds, or Clouds?
17. Books, or Journal Articles?
18. Byzantium, or Constantinople?
19. Caesars: Julius, or Augustus?
20. Callimachus’ Aetia, or Ovid’s Fasti?
21. Callimachus’ Iambi, or Horace’s Epodes?
22. Catullus’ epigrams, or Martial’s?
23. Catullus’ love poems, or Propertius’?
24. Cicero: Verse, or Prose?
25. Cicero: Oratory, or Treatises?
26. Cicero’s philosophical works, or Seneca’s?
27. Cicero’s letters, or Pliny’s?
28. *Pre-Classical, or Classical, or Post-Classical? (both languages)
29. Claudian, or Ammianus Marcellinus?
30. Curse Tablets, or Potsherds (I mean the ones used for ostracisms)?
31. De Bello Gallico, or De Bello Civili?
32. Demosthenes, or Cicero?
33. Ennius, or Lucilius?
34. Epistulae Heroidum, or Epistulae ex Ponto?
35. Ethics, or Politics?
36. Euripides’ Ion, or Plato’s?
37. The First half of the Aeneid, or the Second?
38. The First Triumvirate, or the Second?
39. Gadarene Epigrammatists: Meleager, or Philodemus?
40. Galliae: Cisalpina, or Transalpina?
41. Gilgamesh, or Who cares, since it’s not in Greek or Latin?
42. Gorgias, or the Gorgias?
43. Greek, or Latin?
44. Greek Anthology, or Latin Anthology?
45. Heraclitus, or Democritus?
46. Herodotus, or Thucydides?
47. Herondas, or the Priapea?
48. Homer, or Vergil?
49. Horace: Odes, or Epistles?
50. *Horace’s Satires, Persius, or Juvenal?
51. Housman, or Wilamowitz?
52. Ibis, or Medicamina Faciei Femineae?
53. Iliad, or Odyssey?
54. Iphigenia in Tauris, or Iphigenia in Aulis?
55. Caring, or not caring that Tauris in the previous question is a Latin plural and Aulis an English singular?
56. Isocrates, or Life is too short to bother?
57. Livia, or Agrippina?
58. Livy’s Rape of Lucretia (1.57-60), or Ovid’s (F. 2.685-852)?
59. Longinus, or Aristotle’s Poetics?
60. Longus, or Heliodorus?
61. Lucan, or Lucian?
62. Lucretius, or the Georgics?
63. Lycophron, or Nicander?
64. Manilius, or Persius?
65. Marcus Argentarius, or Marcus Aurelius? (both wrote in both languages)
66. Martial on sex, or Martial on money (and property, class, power, and ambition)?
67. Martial’s flattery of Domitian, or Statius’?
68. Massive Commentaries: British, or German?
69. R. G. M. Nisbet, or John Henderson?
70. Nonnus, or Silius Italicus?
71. OCTs, or Teubners?
72. Olympus, or Oulumpos?
73. Cicero on Catiline, or Sallust on the same?
74. Orpheus’ catabasis (Georgics IV), or Aeneas’ (Aeneid VI)?
75. Ovid’s Metamorphoses, or Apuleius’?
76. Pacuvius, or Accius?
77. Parmenides, or the Parmenides?
78. The Parthenon, or the Pantheon?
79. The Persian War, or the Peloponnesian?
80. Petronius, or Tacitus?
81. Phaedrus the Roman fabulist, or Phaedrus the Platonic dialogue?
82. Physics, or Metaphysics?
83. Pindar, or Bacchylides?
84. Pirates, or Gladiators?
85. The Plank (apotympanismós), or the Pit (Bárathron)?
86. Plato’s Symposium, or Xenophon’s?
87. Plato’s Republic, or Cicero’s?
88. Plato’s Laws, or Cicero’s?
89. Plato’s Apology, or Apuleius’?
90. Plautus, or Terence?
91. Plutarch’s Lives, or Suetonius’?
92. Prometheus Bound, or Seven against Thebes?
93. Propertius, or Tibullus?
94. Pseudo-Tibullus, or Pseudo-Vergil?
95. Roll, or Codex?
96. Sallust, or Livy?
97. Sappho, or Simonides?
98. Satyr Plays, or Satires?
99. Semonides on Women (Fr. 7), or Juvenal on Wives (Satire 6)?
100. Senecan Tragedy, or Seneca’s Prose?
101. Siculate sigmas, or the other kind?
102. Knowing (or stopping to look up) the technical name for the other kind, or Not knowing and not caring?
103. Socrates, or Diogenes?
104. Statius’ Achilleid, or Claudian’s De Raptu Proserpinae?
105. Stoics, or Epicureans?
106. Syme, or Momigliano?
107. Tacitus’ Annales: I-VI (Tiberius), or XIII-XVI (Nero)?
108. Textual Criticism, or Literary Criticism?
109. The Elder Pliny, or the Younger Pliny?
110. The Elder Seneca, or Quintilian?
111. The Greek Novel, or the Roman Novel?
112. Theocritus’ pastorals, or Vergil’s?
113. Theognis, or Solon?
114. Theogony, or Works and Days?
115. Trojan Women, or Medea?
116. Utopias: Aristophanes’ (Ecclesiazusae), or Plato’s (Republic)?
117. Us and Vs in Latin, or just small u and large V?
118. Velleius Paterculus, or Valerius Flaccus?
119. Vergil, or Ovid?
120. Verse, or Prose?
121. Vitruvius, or Plotinus?
122. Xenophon of Athens, or Xenophon of Ephesus?
123. *Your personal library: Ink Annotations, or Penciled Notes, or Pristine Pages?

On The Usefulness Of The Classics

From a 'Dr. Armstrong' (1846):

Read aloud resounding Homer's strain,
And wield the thunder of Demosthenes;
The chest so exercised improves its strength,
And quick vibrations through the bowels drive
The restless blood, which in inactive days
Would loiter else in unelastic tubes.

This was quoted in the late and much-missed journal Encounter in August or September 1986.