Students in Dr. Jonathan Thorndike’s sections of The Ancient World Honors classes were treated to a visit by local historian and author Brandon D. Winningham. A resident of Columbia, Tenn., Winningham recently published Catiline, the story of the turbulent final decades of the Roman Republic. Students in the Ancient World classes were studying Roman history and reading the speeches of the famous orator Marcus Tullius Cicero. Winningham lectured on the period of civil wars in Rome when Lucius Sergius Catiline schemed to fill the void in the political scene. Winningham’s historical novel traces the background of the manipulative Catiline and his rapid rise to power shortly before the time of Julius Caesar.
