I enjoy reading history. there is so much to learn from where we came from that it may even be helpful to predict where we’re headed. Of course, too many of those we refer to as leaders refuse to learn anything from history and therefore, repeat the miseries experienced for millennia, then we’ve been too busy celebrating the past rather than learning. I really like ancient history and I recently posted about a rare letter, penned between 130 CE and the end of that century that is fascinating to me. It’s a Christian apologetic, one of the earliest discovered, and although it’s author is unknown, it’s written by what looks like a very well educated person. So I think about the context in which this was written. Marcus Aurelius was emperor of Rome until 180, his son, Commodus succeeded him but was assassinated in 192. Commodus was such a awful emperor that the Romans tried to erase him from history, completely. so reading the words of some ancient Christian apologist has me thinking about the lives of everyday people, like this unknown writer perhaps.