Ancient Rome vs North Korea: Spectacular 'executions' then and now

 This year saw reports of two executions of high-ranking North Korean officials and an endless stream of speculation about Kim Jong-un and his leadership style. Stephen Harrison, professor of Latin literature at Oxford University, considers the parallels with ancient Rome - as told by its historians. North Korea's vice-premier Choe Yong-gon was said to have been shot in May, after he "expressed discomfort against the young leader's forestation policy", while Defence Minister Hyon Yong-chol was said to have been executed by anti-aircraft weapons in front of an audience of hundreds, reportedly charged with treason for disobeying orders, falling asleep at a military event and being disloyal to the supreme leader. These reports evoke some interesting parallels from the darker side of the history of ancient Rome, or at least from the more colourful stories told about it by Roman historians. The similarities are striking. In both cases, we rely on a small number of reports from potentially biased origins in order to gain a view of a distant and inaccessible society. Arguably, our sources for ancient Rome, some 2,000 years ago, are at least as extensive as those for modern North Korea, and, perhaps, even more reliable.