The English and the Celts - no genocide?

[Ron Andrea]

While we're all being humble, we can also blame the current academic ("publish or perish") environment for encouraging scholars to toss out new theories on increasingly flimsy grounds simply because they must. Many times their bibliographies and footnotes resemble mutual admiration societies quoting each other (or themselves) or inventing quotes and sources. (European scholarship may not be troubled with the latter, but American academia has been scandalized recently by tentured professors having fabricated sources, not to mention the usual plagarization and misquoting.)

Modern academicians are no longer content to stand on the shoulders of the ancients for a better view (a simile which dates back at least to Thomas Aquinas, I believe), but now feel obligated to kick them in the knees and stomp on their toes, if only to raise themselves by comparison.

Without a doubt much ancient scholarship is twaddle also, but the modern penchant for revisionism almost for its own sake is sad.

One reason I continually return to Roman Army Talk is the high standard of scholarship here, but even more the general humility to admit we have far from definitive knowledge about most of the things we discuss.

Keep up the good work, gentle men and gentle ladies.