Category: Roman Empire
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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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Ovid: The Art of Love (Ars Amatoria) Book II Part III: Be Gentle and Good Tempered
Publius Ovidius Naso 43 BC – c. 17 AD Gentleness especially impresses minds favourably: harshness creates hatred and fierce wars. We hate the hawk that lives its life in battle, and the wolf whose custom is to raid the timid flocks. But the swallow, for its gentleness, is free from human snares, and Chaonian doves…
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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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Ovid: The Art of Love (Ars Amatoria) Book II Part II: You Need Gifts of Mind
Publius Ovidius Naso 43 BC – c. 17 AD Minos could not hold back those mortal wings: I’m setting out to check the winged god himself. He who has recourse to Thracian magic, fails, to what the foal yields, torn from its new-born brow, Medea’s herbs can’t keep love alive, nor Marsian dirges mingled with magic chants.…
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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).…
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Ovid: The Art of Love (Ars Amatoria) Book II Part I: His Task
Publius Ovidius Naso 43 BC – c. 17 AD Sing out the Paean: sing out the Paean twice! The prize I searched for falls into my net. Delighted lovers grant my songs the palm, I’m preferred to Hesiod and old Homer. So Paris the stranger sailed, from hostile Amyclae’s shore, under white sheets, with his…
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The Laurel Wreath
To the Romans, like the ancient Greeks before them, the laurel was sacred. The Greeks believed the laurel groves were the sacred dwelling places of the gods and nymphs. The Romans adopted the laurel wreath, and it became a symbol of military victory, worn by generals leading their troops in a triumph, on their arrival back…
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Ovid: The Art of Love (Ars Amatoria) Book I Part XIX: Be Flexible
Ilustration by Frederico Righi Publius Ovidius Naso 43 BC – c. 17 AD I’ve done, but there’s diversity in women’s hearts: a thousand minds require a thousand methods. One soil doesn’t bear all crops: vines here are good, olives there: this teems with healthy wheat. There are as many manners of heart as kinds of…
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