Author: Mark
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A Happy Roman New Year
The Romans celebrated the New Year as a time of new beginnings and fresh starts, and New Year celebrations in ancient Rome were full of symbolism and held huge significance. Janus, the god who the month of January is named after, was often depicted with one face looking backward and another face looking forward, representing…
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Statius – An Ode to Sleep
An Ode To Sleep by Publius Papinius Statius, a Latin poet of the 1st century CE. Gentle divinity, how have I merited?Whither, unfortunate wretch, have I strayed,Thus of thy bounty to lie disenherited –I alone whilst every other is paid?Sleeping are cattle and birds without number,Beasts of the wilderness rest in their lair;Even the hills,…
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Saturnalia: The Roman festival that influenced Christmas
Antoine-François Callet’s Saturnalia 1783 “For a day and a night the cry of the Saturnalia resounded through the City, and the people were ordered to make that day a festival and observe it as such for ever” (Livy, History of Rome, XXII.1.19) Matt Salusbury wrote the following article and it was published in History Today, Volume 59, Issue…
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The Great Invasion
”Of all the Britons, the inhabitants of Kent, an entirely maritime district, are by far the most civilised, differing but little from the Gallic manner of life. Of the inlanders most do not sow corn, but live on milk and flesh and clothe themselves in skins. All the Britons, indeed, dye themselves with woad, which…
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Unearthing the first ever Roman Funerary Bed discovered in London
Excavations at the site in central London The following article was written in 2024 by Vladimir Vulic for Roman Empire which can be found at roman-empire.net The discovery was made by a team from the Museum of London Archaeology (MOLA) near Holborn Viaduct, situated in the heart of central London, approximately six meters (20 feet)…
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Echo and Narcissus
Narcissus and Echo (45–79 AD), wall painting from Pompeii Praise for Tales from Ovid: ‘A breathtaking book…To compare his versions with the Latin is to be awestruck again and again by the range and ingenuity of his poetic intelligence…He rescues the old gods and goddesses from the classical dictionaries and gives them back their terror. There should…
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Crossing the Rubicon: Caesar’s bold move
The Roman-built stone bridge over the Rubicon marking the spot where Caesar’s troops allegedly crossed in the small hours of 10th January 49 BC © Carole Raddato. The Rubicon is a small river, or stream in northeastern Italy which flowed into the Adriatic Sea, and marked the boundary between the Roman province of Cisalpine Gaul and…
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Tiresias
Praise for Tales from Ovid: ‘A breathtaking book…To compare his versions with the Latin is to be awestruck again and again by the range and ingenuity of his poetic intelligence…He rescues the old gods and goddesses from the classical dictionaries and gives them back their terror. There should be a copy of his book in…
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Cleopatra VII – Power, Romance & Rome
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Bust of Cleopatra VII in the Altes Museum, Berlin Her full name was Kleopatra VII Thea Philopator, the title Kleopatra, is Greek for ‘Glory of her Father’, and she was the seventh female in the royal dynasty of Egypt to be called a Kleopatra. Although she was born in Egypt, she could trace her family…
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Hercules and Dejanira.
Praise for Tales from Ovid: ‘A breathtaking book…To compare his versions with the Latin is to be awestruck again and again by the range and ingenuity of his poetic intelligence…He rescues the old gods and goddesses from the classical dictionaries and gives them back their terror. There should be a copy of his book in…
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