LOL - several of you know that our next Symposion Guest (March 16-22) is Dr. Garrett Fagan of The State Pennsylvania University, but who is also THE voice of Rome for those of us who enjoy The Teaching Company's 'courses' in history. I've thought a great deal of him for a long time and it suddenly occurred to me, a month or two ago, to take a wild leap and see if he would come spend a week with us discussing Roman history in general and the Fall of the Republic in particular.

Now, there's a catch! I've listened to Dr. Fagan's History of Rome at least three times over the years, and I always wince a bit when he gets to our boy, Caesar. My suspicion is that Dr. Fagan is one of those who give Caesar his brilliance but are convinced he was a Very Bad Thing for the Roman Republic - and heaven knows, maybe he is right. Anyway, I encourage any one of our members to bring your special expertise to the discussion - heaven knows we've spent a lot of mental time trying to figure out just WHY the Republic fell, who was responsible, and what it meant!