History

Mary Beard, in good form today: I’m surprised that no-one seems to have spotted an obvious Roman parallel for the success of Barack Obama. Or have I missed it? In the second century AD, Lucius Septimius Severus became the first ‘African-Roman’ emperor of Rome. Like Obama he was of mixed race -- his father from Libya, his mother of European descent. He too had an outspoken and determined wife, from Syria. And his first task on coming to the throne in 193 AD was to deal with a military disaster in Iraq (‘Parthia’ as it was then known). Of course, I'm sceptical that there are often actually any (truly useful) lessons to be learnt from Rome but that doesn't mean one can't have some fun digging up comparisons from the ancient world.

Via Clive Davis, I see that Niall Feguson has abandoned John McCain. In a Guardian interview he says: He denies suggestions that Colossus, specifically, was written with half an eye on influencing the White House - but he became, for a time, one of John McCain's foreign policy advisers. "I must say that since he won the nomination, which I was very happy about, I've played virtually no role. In fact, I've played no role. Because, uh" - he is suddenly, uncharacteristically halting - "how to describe it? - I felt much less ... enthused, I think is probably the word, now that it's between him and Obama. And I felt much more uncomfortable with some of the positions he has had to take in order to secure the conservative vote.

I mentioned some of the factors that make Jim Webb, the Democratic Senator from Virginia, a less than entirely compelling Vice-Presidential pick for Barack Obama, here. To recap: when he campaigned for the Senate in 2006 Webb was, not to put too fine a point on it, hopeless on the campaign trail. You could see that it pained him to even ask people to vote for him and he plainly had little patience for the self-abasement and daily humiliations of life on the campaign trail. He is not a natural baby-kisser. My sense - from his own writing and what I've read about him - is that he is also difficult, stubborn, awkward, cussed and not to be trifled with. these too may not be attributes best-suited to a national campaign in the modern political era.

Clive Davis: I might as well remind Barack Obama that the war in Iraq hasn't lasted longer than WW2. There were some isolated outbreaks of fighting before Pearl Harbour.

It's an election,  of course, so no card must be left un-played. Nonetheless, there's something a little unseemly about trying to exploit war crimes and massacres for personal, political gain. In fact it's grotesque. I assume this press release* was supposed to appeal to Polish-Americans in Ohio. Statement from Senator Hillary Clinton “We will soon mark the 68th anniversary of the Katyn Massacre of Polish prisoners during World War II. “This is a time to remember the victims of the Katyn massacre and also to reflect on the importance of remembrance itself.  Only by preserving the memory of past inhumanities can we hope to avoid inhumanity in the future. Only by seeking the truth about the past can we be confident about our pursuit of peace and justice today.

Ross and Rod despair, quite naturally, over this poll asking American teenagers to name the "10 Most Famous Americans". Presidents and First Ladies were excluded from the poll. It's an illuminating view of how American history is taught these days. anyway, The results were: 1. Martin Luther King Jr.: 67% 2. Rosa Parks: 60% 3. Harriet Tubman: 44% 4. Susan B. Anthony: 34% 5.Benjamin Franklin: 29% 6. Amelia Earhart: 25% 7. Oprah Winfrey: 22% 8. Marilyn Monroe: 19% 9. Thomas Edison: 18% 10. Albert Einstein: 16% Interesting that only MLK and Rosa Parks received the endorsement of more than 50% of high school students.

Good grief. The Washington Post reports: Still looking for that last-minute Christmas gift for White House press secretary Dana Perino? May we recommend a gift certificate for the forthcoming book on the Cuban Missile Crisis by our colleague Michael Dobbs, "One Minute to Midnight: Kennedy, Khrushchev, and Castro on the Brink of Nuclear War," due out next summer? Appearing on National Public Radio's light-hearted quiz show "Wait, Wait . . . Don't Tell Me," which aired over the weekend, Perino got into the spirit of things and told a story about herself that she had previously shared only in private: During a White House briefing, a reporter referred to the Cuban Missile Crisis -- and she didn't know what it was. "I was panicked a bit because I really don't know about . . .