Category: Roman Republic
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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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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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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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This Bloody Road
The Appian Way is named so after its founder, Appius Claudius Caecus. In 312 BC, Caecus, a Roman censor and engineer, started the road to improve military supply issues to and from Rome. Statius, a 1st century AD Greek-Roman poet, said the road was often referred to as the “Queen of the Long Roads”( Appia…
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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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Roman Wall Blues
W.H. Auden Over the heather the wet wind blows,I’ve lice in my tunic and a cold in my nose. The rain comes pattering out of the sky,I’m a Wall soldier, I don’t know why. The mist creeps over the hard grey stone,My girl’s in Tungria; I sleep alone. Aulus goes hanging around her place,I don’t…
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