Recently I got the chance to visit Winchester City Museum, you might have seen some of my other visits to museums and siteson here (e.g. Richborough, Worthing, The Mithraeum or specific exhibitons at the British Museum such as Feminine Power, Legion or Persia to Greece). However, this visit had a personal resonance. Around 15 years […]
Winchester Museum visit: Roman, and personal, history. Read More »
You may have read in the news about a gruesome discovery – a bite mark attributed to a lion found on a skeleton from a 1,800-year-old cemetery near York. This places the event within the Roman period. The individual was a male, aged 26-35 and the bite mark was found on his pelvis. Perhaps he
Venator, Gladiator or worse in York? Read More »
The ancient Siciliy miniseries has been great fun and I hope you have enjoyed it – I will pick it up again sometime but this episode seemed a good place to pause things. You can find episode notes for the previous episode here – and why not check out the subreddit for this pocast? I
Ancient Sicily – Dionysius I: Poetry and Politics. Episode Notes. Read More »
The Mithraeum, a temple to Mithras, sits some 7 metres below the current street level and was discovered by chance in the early 1950s. At this time London was still carrying the scars of the blitz, the temple’s ruins were found in a bombsite. At the time the city was undergoing a rebuild and the
The London Mithraeum – a secret Roman temple. Read More »
I recently attended a coin workshop day organised by Brighton & Hove Archaeological Society (well worth joining if you are in the area). I got to hold some very interesting Roman and Celtic coins and learned about a link involving Philip II of Macedon (Alexander the Great’s dad) to the latter type. If you want
Celtic coins, Roman coins and Philip II of Macedon Read More »
Odysseus will soon be on the big screen as part of Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey. Recent images released of Matt Damon as the eponymous hero brought much commentary, not all of it warm. For many the look was drab and at best resembled a mash up of what Hollywood considered ancient Greek. This isn’t a new
Odysseus and the boar’s tusk helmet Read More »
The ancient Olympics were a pinnacle of physical performance but twinned with this need to succeed was something less noble, cheating. Perhaps it shouldn’t be that much of a shock – in Homer’s Iliad the chariot race at the funeral games for Patroclus has Menelaus seething at what he percieved was an illegal move made
Ancient Olympics and cheating Read More »
For the ancient Greeks love wasn’t a singular thing. It manifested in a number of types and to help illustrate this Aphrodite had a retinue which represented the variations. They were often referred to as Erotes and here is a bit about them. If you are interested in more Aphrodite related content there’s a podcast
Aphrodite and her Erotes Read More »
I hope you enjoyed the episode, here is some extra bits which you may find useful. In the episode I mentioned my discussion with LJ Trafford about Domitian, here’s the episode. I also spoke about the date of Vesuvius, here’s the episode for that as well. Pliny’s home. As you can see from the photos
Pliny the Younger – episode notes Read More »
The below figurine is of a Greek deity you will be familiar with, namely Artemis. But look closer and you might notice something unusual. The cap Artemis wears is a Thracian or Phrygian cap, this was an item of clothing which belonged to the neighbours of the ancient Greeks (this features in a previous article
