Category: Roman Empire
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The Lewd, the Nude and the Rude: The Graffiti of Ancient Italy
Romans liked to scrawl their jokes, political opinions, wants and desires, complaints, insults, and their sometimes inane ramblings on the walls of communal toilets and private buildings. Both politicians and prostitutes would advertise there. Much like nowadays then, really. Their graffiti is usually bawdy, lewd, profane, and quite often vulgar, but at the same time…
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The Short Reign of Pertinax: Corruption and Assassination
Image Credit: Egisto Sani-Flickr Publius Helvius Pertinax was born of a fairly low status on the 1st August 126 AD. The son of a freed slave, he joined the legions, and after commanding in Syria, Britain, and earning distinction on the Danube and the Rhine during the invasion by German tribes in 169 AD, he found…
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Verism: Portraying Power and Ancestry
Heavily wrinkled, with sagging jowls and a thrusting jaw, the face of a Roman aristocrat stares back at us from the time of the late Republic, his countenance meaning to convey his seriousness of mind (gravitas) and the battle scars earned through a life of public and military service. The Veristic style (from the Latin verus meaning true)…
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Herculaneum’s Villa of the Papyri
The Villa of the Papyri is the name given to a private house that was uncovered in the ancient Roman town of Herculaneum. This town, along with nearby city of Pompeii, is perhaps best remembered for its destruction during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. Because of this natural disaster, most, if not…
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AI reads ancient scroll burned by Vesuvius
US Military photograph of the 1944 eruption This article was written by Ian Sample the Science Editor, published in the Guardian newspaper on Thursday 12 Oct 2023 The University of Kentucky challenged computer scientists to reveal contents of carbonised papyrus, a ‘potential treasure trove for historians’. When the blast from the eruption of Mount Vesuvius…
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Castor and Pollux: The Legendary Twin Horsemen of Rome
Black-figure amphora depicting the Dioscuri on horseback. Dating to circa 500 BC, held in the British Museum In the southern sky during wintertime, near the constellations of Orion and Taurus there are two bright stars. Known in Greek mythology as the Dioscuri, (Dioscuri from the Greek Dioskouroi, meaning “Sons of Zeus”), they were twin supernatural beings who helped save shipwrecked sailors, usually by appearing…
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Tyrian Purple: History, Myth, and Royal Power
Perhaps no other colour in history has been so celebrated as purple, and Tyrian purple was one of the costliest, and therefore most sought after, of colours to produce in ancient times. From emporers to cardinals, senators to magistrates, royalty to priests, many coveted this mysterious colour as a way of marking them out as…
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Teach Me how to Live
The reason why we have two ears and only one mouth is that we may listen the more and talk the less – Zeno of Citium, founder of the Stoic school of philosophy, in which he taught in Athens from circa 300 BC. It was the year 155 BC that philosophy arrived in Rome, when…
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Romulus and Remus: Myth and Reality of the Lupercalia Festival
In the Capitoline Museum in Rome, there is a room known as the Chamber of the She – Wolf, a small but elaborately designed room of marble walls and mosaic floors. In the centre is a bronze statue of a wolf suckling two human infants, an image that the Romans, ancient and modern revere as…
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Ultimate Power: History and Influence of the Roman Senate
If you must break the law, do it to seize power: in all other cases observe it. Gaius Iulius Caesar 100BC – 44BC The Roman Senate was one of the most incredible and enduring institutions of antiquity. According to the Roman historian Livy (59 BC – 17 AD), it was created not long after the founding…
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