I was checking out some of the books I have stowed away at home and found this gem: "Vote for Caesar: How the Ancient Greeks and Romans Solved the Problems of Today." It's full of references to events in the UK which were current at the time of the book's release, but it's understandable regardless. The author distinguishes the differences in the mindset of the ancient Romans and Greeks from that of ours. It's surprising how different they can be.

For example, did you know that the even America would have been considered undemocratic by the Greeks? At best, the fairest out of all of our modern governments could be said to be a meritocracy or elective oligarchy. If they were a true democracy, not only should the citizens be in charge (the closest to this would be Switzerland, which as per the author has its people vote on almost all important matters by a show of hands), but also appointments should be made by lottery. It's the only way to guarantee that age, race, sex, creed, etc do not play a part at all.

There's a lot of things to think about with this book, I cannot recommend it enough. I really liked the part where it talked about the ancient perspective on death; I'd been reading this article lately on what members of the medical profession do to prepare for the end of their lives, and I can't help but see a fortuitous connection. Mr. Nicholas Nassim Taleb also wrote about some of the philosophers who were mentioned in the book, so now I'll have my work cut out for me finding works by Seneca while reading Marcus Aurelius' monumental "Meditations."