Paradoxes of this kind have been known since antiquity (for instance, the standard Liar is attributed to the Greek philosopher Eubulides, probably the greatest paradox-producer of antiquity).
Ms. Mayor is a classical folklorist whose latest book, "Greek Fire, Poison Arrows & Scorpion Bombs" (Overlook Duckworth, 2003), describes biochemical warfare in antiquity, including many instances of catapults that rained fire and pestilence in battle.
As strange as this may seem (actually, this philosophical principle has deep spiritual roots in antiquity; Socrates, for instance, believed that we should "always be occupied in the practice of dying" in order to appreciate our living), I ask that you take this advice seriously before it does become "too late".
Thus, although quantitative studies of market trends, together with evidence of on-the-ground destruction, can demonstrate which categories of antiquities are likely to be largely illicit, it is generally not possible to determine definitively in any particular instance that an antiquity was originally obtained illicitly.
Many letters that were current in antiquity have not survived; for instance, the account of the suppression of Catiline's conspiracy, mentioned in the Pro Sulla and Pro Plancio, which Cicero sent to Pompey at the end of 63; Pompey hardly as much as acknowledged it, and Cicero was mocked about it in public later.
But doubters were put on trial in antiquity, and some were executed, for instance under the Athenian law against "impiety" – including Socrates, who was accused of "not believing in the gods of the city".
Despite the many recorded instances of its use since antiquity, it was not until the early 19th century that the tracheotomy finally began to be recognized as a legitimate means of treating severe airway obstruction.
We are reminded for instance of how little from antiquity has survived: we have only 7 of the more than 80 plays Aeschylus wrote, only 7 of Sophocles' 120 and only 18 of more than 90 by Euripides.
However, from the historian Eusebios, we know with greater certainty of a more interesting instance of auto-cremation in antiquity: around 300 A.D., Christians persecuted by Diocletian set fire to his palace in Nicodemia and then threw themselves onto it — presumably, to express their objections to Roman policy and not to the emperor's architectural taste.
For instance, the Texas German settlers of antiquity didn't have a word for the skunks they encountered in the South, so they had to come up with their own: "stinkkatze," literally "stink cat".
