This original book looks in detail at arguably the two most significant characters on either side in the middle years of the great Peloponnesian War and the showdown in and around Amphipolis that led to both their deaths in 422 BC. The Spartan commander Brasidas was already a veteran of many campaigns when he headed for the strategically important northern theatre. Cleon was the key hawk in the Athenian assembly who led his fellow citizens in a major effort to counter the impact that Brasidas was having in the north. The two finally clashed in battle outside the Athenian colony of Amphipolis which Brasidas had by then captured (the great historian Thucydides being exiled for his failure to defend it). The Spartans won but both men died in the fighting, their passing having far-reaching consequences for the subsequent course of the war. By focussing on the fatal duel between Brasidas and Cleon, and drawing on all available sources to supplement Thucydides' seminal account, Mike Roberts offers a valuable new perspective on the Peloponnesian War.

Erasmus advised readers to learn quotations by heart and copy them everywhere: write them in the front and back of books; inscribe them on rings and cups; paint them on doors and walls, ?even on the glass of a window.? Emerson noted that ?in Europe, every church is a kind of book or bible, so covered is it with inscriptions and pictures.? In Arabic script as tall as a man, the Koran is quoted on the walls and domes of mosques. ø We quote to admire, provoke, commemorate, dispute, play, and inspire. Quotations signal class, club, clique, and alma mater. They animate wit, relay prophecies, guide meditation, and accessorize fashion. ø In Quotology Willis Goth Regier draws on world literature and contemporary events to show how vital quotations are, how they are collected and organized, and how deceptive they can be. He probes all these aspects, identifying fifty-nine types of quotations, including misquotations and anonymous sayings. Following the logic of quotology, Quotology concludes with famous last words.