Tag: rome
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Girls and Dolls in the Roman Empire
Published in JSTOR, the nonprofit library for the intellectually curious, by Nora McGreevy on March 28, 2021 Analysing the dolls of elite girls shows that playthings reinforced gendered expectations but also allowed for imaginative play. Barbie dolls tend to get a bad rap. Critics rebuke them for promoting harmful body standards and other sexist tropes in the minds of young…
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The Dramatic Funeral Procession of Julius Caesar
This article was posted on June 18, 2021 by Ron Current stillcurrent.blog/2021/06/18/the-roman-forum-searching-for-caesar I thought it was really interesting read and it is something that isn’t common knowledge for a lot of people. Peter Stothard’s book The Last Assassin details a part of the story behind Current’s article, it’s a great read and was published by Weidenfeld &…
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Antony and Cleopatra
O Cleopatra, I am not distressed to have lost you, for I shall straightaway join you; but I am grieved that a commander as great as I should be found to be inferior to a woman in courage – as recorded by Plutarch, when Antony was told of Cleopatra’s (supposed) death The Roman politician and…
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Spartacus: The 3rd Servile War
Slavery in ancient Rome differed from its more modern form only in that it was not based on race, but like any form of slavery it was an abusive and degrading practice, and cruelty was commonplace. As a slave you had no rights whatsoever, and time and again those who suffered under this practice rebelled…
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Have 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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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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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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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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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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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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