It's my birthday today. The LRB has sent me a copy of The Birthday Book, which the Roman scholar Censorinus wrote for his friend Caerellius in 238 AD, and which has recently been translated into English for the first time by Holt Parker, who dedicates his translation 'to Barbara, for her birthday' (Chicago, £12). 'Because you have no lack of precious gifts because of the virtue of your soul,' Censorinus writes, 'and I have no excess because of the thinness of my income, I have sent you this book (take it for what it's worth) composed from my riches, and put the title "Birthday Present" on it.' It's hard not to see this as the Stoic equivalent of 'Sorry I haven't got you anything, but hey! I made you a card' - though maybe that's ungenerous of me.

LRB 22 February 2007 | PDF Download