The ancients are dancing around the room today, a rainy Sunday. First, a wonderful quote, Sullivan quoting Hitchens quoting Orwell quoting Milton: "the known rules of ancient liberty." Looking up the sonnet, there are other great lines:

That bawl for freedom in their senseless mood,
And still revolt when truth would set them free.
Licence they mean when they cry liberty...

Second, a notion from the fringe that indicates there were sophisticated people long before Mesopotamia. Really ancient.