Today's arrivals for me, via the magic of Interlibrary Loan:

1. Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers (Loeb Classical Edition). Made a part of the Widener collection by a generous contribution on the part of Evangelinus Apostolides Sophocles, Tutor and Professor of Greek at Harvard University, 1842-1883. E.A. Sophocles was a rare bird indeed, an actual Greek in the Harvard Classics faculty, and championed among many things the idea of studying the Greek language as a living continuum, and not a series of arbitrarily-drawn subdisciplines. I asked for the Diogenes in order to find the original Greek for the alleged first meeting between Xenophon and Socrates that I mentioned a few posts ago that I had culled from a second- or third-hand source. The quotation is from Diogenes' Life of Xenophon (II, 48):

The story goes that Socrates met him in a narrow passage, and that he stretched out his stick to bar the way, while he inquired where every kind of food was sold. Upon receiving a reply, he put another question, "And where do men become good and honorable?" Xenophon was fairly puzzled; "Then follow me," said Socrates, "and learn." From that time onward he was a pupil of Socrates.

Good ol' Socrates.

2. Route 66 A.D., On The Trail of Ancient Roman Tourists, by Tony Perrottet. A new book that I've been dying to get my hands on. Finally, a lender was willing to part with it! Mr. Perrottet explores the not-so-modern-after-all concept of tourism in the ancient world, specifically that of the Romans, who piled into their carriages and thronged the "must-see" sites of the Mediterranean in a manner eerily reminiscent of our own summer vacations. Tacky Trojan War souvenirs, anyone? Can't wait to read this one!