Category: Ancient Rome
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Ovid: The Art of Love (Ars Amatoria) Book II Part VII: Give Her Little Tasteful Gifts
Publius Ovidius Naso 43 BC – c. 17 AD I don’t tell you to give your mistress expensive gifts: give little but of that little, skilfully, give what’s fitting. When the field is full of riches, when the branches bend with the weight, let the boy bring a gift in a rustic basket. You can…
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The Antonine Plague
The Antonine plague killed millions of Roman citizens, and lasting a fifteen year period, from AD 165 to 180 it exposed and exacerbated the vulnerabilities of the Roman Empire, hastening its decline and eventual fall. The Antonine Plague was a deadly epidemic that devastated the Roman Empire. It takes its name from Antoninus, the family…
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Ovid: The Art of Love (Ars Amatoria) Book II Part VI: Win Over the Servants
Publius Ovidius Naso 43 BC – c. 17 AD Nor is it shameful to you to cultivate her maids, according to their grades, and the serving men. Greet them by their names (it costs you nothing) clasp humble hands with yours, in your ambition. And even offer the servant, who asks, a little something on…
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Metamorphoses
Juul Kraijer’s Spawn (2019) Wherever the might of Rome extends in the lands she has conquered, the people shall read and recite my words. Throughout all ages, if poets have vision to prophesy truth, I shall live in my fame. Ovid, Metamorphoses 15.877–9 Funny, devastating, flip, throat-catching – the moods of the Metamorphoses are as…
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Ovid: The Art of Love (Ars Amatoria) Book II Part V: Don’t be Faint-Hearted
Publius Ovidius Naso 43 BC – c. 17 AD Love is a kind of warfare. Slackers, dismiss! There are no cowards guarding this standard. Night and winter, long roads and cruel sorrows, and every kind of labour are found on love’s campaigns. You’ll often endure rain pouring from heavenly clouds, and frozen, lie there on…
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Not housekeeper, but a ‘vilica’
By Tamara Lewit Published 18 July 2026 in Opinion Not a housekeeper, but a vilica: How the many responsibilities of Roman-era female farm managers were overlooked – Women on ancient Roman farms were in charge of making wine, oil — and profits. Historians dismissed them as ‘housekeepers’ Female farm managers are hidden in plain sight in ancient Roman…
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Ovid: The Art of Love (Ars Amatoria) Book II Part IV: Be Patient and Comply
Publius Ovidius Naso 43 BC – c. 17 AD If she’s not charming or courteous enough, at your loving, endure it and persist: she’ll soon be kinder. You can get a curved branch to bend on the tree by patience: you’ll break it, if you try out your full strength. With patience you can cross…
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Face-to-face with ancient Rome
Exhibition in Hungary brings forgotten faces to life This article was written by Justin Spike, an Associated Press reporter based in Budapest, Hungary. It was published in AP News on July 15th 2026 BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — A blacksmith, a stable boy, a soldier, a slave: The faces and stories of these and other residents…
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Salmacis and Hermaphroditus
Paolo de Matteis, 9 February 1662 – 26 January 1728, Italian painter. 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…
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Roman Roads: The network was twice as large as previously thought
The new digital map increases the Roman road network by nearly 100%. This article was published in Live Science on November 6th, 2025 and was written by Kristina Killgrove An international research team has created a new map of the Roman Empire — and it expands the ancient road network by more than 60,000 miles (100,000 kilometers).…
