In a stunning aphorism the Roman lawyer and philosopher Cicero summed up the traditional problem of intellectuals in politics. "We have to work, not in the Republic of Plato but in the cesspit of Romulus."

In 10 A.D., Roman engineer Julius Sextus Frontinus said, ``Inventions have long since reached their limit, and I see no hope for further developments.''

In ancient Rome, famous Pliny the Elder wrote a piece called Natural History which attempted to give advice to horse breeders. Among his sage counsel was an explanation of how mares in Lithuania foaled.

He said they stand facing towards the west wind, which gives them the breath of life when birthing. He believed that a new born foal had a fig-sized love poison on its forehead, which the mother must eat or she refused to suckle. Pliny believed that if a man took the poison before the mare ate it, he would be driven mad by the scent. I can say with some authority that Pliny the Elder perhaps had one too many love poisons himself.

Another common misconception was that a pregnant mare exposed to a sudden fright might cause peculiar markings on the newborn foal. This explanation seemed to make sense of such little understood things as solar or lunar eclipses and how they might relate to an unusual star or crescent marking on a newborn's face or neck.

And then there is the quote that summarizes the value of all the advice (or lack thereof.) It is from the writer Publilus Syrus in 42 B.C.: “Many receive advice, few profit by it.”

It may be a folktale or a historic fact, but residents of this village believe that Alexander the Great, during his invasion in 326 BC, camped here. They say they have heard verbal sagas from their ancestors that Alexander had received a resistance from the local rulers and after camping here, he returned to his country, Greece, after crossing Indus, which now flows in Pakistan.

A bivalve mollusk, the oyster has been a favorite food for thousands of years. Oysters were craved by ancient Greeks and ancient Romans, who imported them from across the empire. Roman emperors paid for them by their weight in gold.

How best to worship the perfect breast? Men have long dreamed of sipping fine wine from their lovers’ busts cast in glittering crystal. In antiquity, a temple on the island of Rhodes displayed a goblet believed to have been modeled on the breasts of Helen of Troy by her paramour Paris.

While few of us depend on fermentation to preserve our foods today, some of the healthiest foods we eat are naturally fermented. One of them is sauerkraut. The original sauerkraut dates back to China 6,000 years ago. In ancient Rome, it was used for digestive problems. Tiberius carried sauerkraut on his voyages to the Middle East because he knew that it protected his men from intestinal infections.

The gesture of blowing a kiss to a lover is believed to have originated from a custom of the ancient Greeks and Romans. When entering or leaving the temple they would kiss their fingertips then throw the kiss toward a sacred object such as an altar or statue.