Category: History
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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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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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The Roman Custom
”It is much better to overcome the enemy by famine, surprise or terror than by general actions…” – Flavius Vegetius Renatus, writer Livy, writing during the reign of Augustus after thirteen years of civil war and the possibility of moral collapse in the Roman people, highlighted the wisdom of Romes’ ancestors, for they had built…
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650 Caesar & Mark Antony Coins unearthed in Turkey
Photograph courtesy of Pamukkale University Isis Davis-Marks wrote this report that was published in the Smithsonian Magazine in February 2021. Minted between 75 and 4 B.C., these silver coins were probably buried by a high-ranking Roman soldier during Augustus’ reign, writes Isis Davis-Marks in the Smithsonian Magazine February 10th 2021 Archaeologists in the ancient Turkish city…
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Roman Road built by Agricola discovered in Scotland
The following is an article printed in The Independent newpaper in November 2023 by Laura Paterson An ancient Roman Road said to be used by key historical figures including William the Conqueror, Oliver Cromwell and every King and Queen of Scotland, has been found in a garden near Stirling. The road dates back almost 2,000…
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Hadrian & Antinous: The Roman Empire’s LGBTQ+ Heritage
Publius Aelius Hadrianus assumed control over the vast Roman Empire in AD 117 following the death of his adoptive father, Trajan. He was born in AD 76 in Rome, his family coming from ltalica in the Roman province of Hispania Baetica (near Seville in modern-day Spain). Hadrian’s father having died when he was ten, he and…
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2,200 year old Roman Bronze Battering Ram found off the coast of Sicily
By Jennifer Nalewicki in Live Science,published 30/08/2024 Researchers have uncovered a bronze battering ram off the coast of Sicily. The weapon would have been used during the Battle of the Aegates between Rome and Carthage. A Roman battering ram found at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea was used during an epic battle that unfolded more than 2,200…
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Beware the Ides of March
If you must break the law, do it to seize power: in all other cases observe it – Gaius Iulius Caesar The Ides of March (15th) 44 BC, was the day Julius Caesar was assassinated in Rome by a group of disgruntled Senators, and is one of the most consequential dates in history, an event that…
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Medusa Misunderstood
Luciano Garbati, Medusa holding the head of Persues, 2008 To some, the Greek myth of Medusa is a nightmarish tale, one of madness, a demonic monster with snakes for hair and a glance that has a petrifying power, while others such as the Roman poet Ovid, have interpreted her as a wronged woman, a symbol…
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Sappho: Two new Poems discovered
Woman with Stylus, an ancient Roman fresco unearthed in Pompeii In the late 19th Century a series of excavations at an ancient rubbish dump in the city of Oxyrhynchus, around 100 miles south of Cairo, were undertaken that found some valuable papyrus scrolls that included a sizeable amount of long-lost poetry by the Greek poet…
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