New study uncovers the secrets of Roman concrete
The secret of the ancient material’s durability has intrigued researchers for decades, but a new study led by a team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology may have found the key.
Lazio
Water in the Roman World: engineering, trade, religion, and daily life
Review by Dylan K Rogers To say that the Roman world was overflowing with water is an understatement. Recently, scholarship has increasingly begun to explore the numerous ways water impacted the lives of ancient Romans, from understanding the design of…
Minerva: cultivating wisdom
A deity of wisdom and war, born fully grown, and armed, from the head of her father Zeus/Jupiter, Minerva – and her Greek counterpart Athena – played an important part in Greek and Roman religion.
Back to the Drawing Board: the M11/39 Medium Tank
DAVID PORTER ON MILITARY HISTORY’S DOOMED INVENTIONS
Rome: strategy of empire
REVIEW BY MARK CORBY This fine book seeks to overthrow the current academic consensus that the Romans were incapable of strategic thought, had little understanding of their frontiers, lacked the will to develop a coherent defensive system due to the…
Santa Costanza, c.1710-1730
Among the early Christian catacombs in northern Rome, beyond the walls of the ancient city, are those of the Sant’Agnese fuori le mura complex. It is here along the via Nomentana that St Agnes of Rome is said to have…
Janus: two-faced god of beginnings
As we enter a new year, many of us find ourselves both reflecting on the past and making plans for the future. This dual outlook is embodied by the two-faced god Janus, who governed the first month of the year in ancient Rome
Archaeologists unearth Etruscan temple at Vulci
The temple is believed to date to around the end of the 6th or beginning of the 5th century BC.
Living and Cursing in the Roman West: curse tablets and society
Review by Charlotte Spence. Stuart McKie’s reassessment of curse tablets sets itself up as a ‘paradigm shift’ in the scholarship and our understanding of these objects; and this is something he well achieves. The focuis on the examination of the…
The War That Made the Roman Empire: Antony, Cleopatra, and Octavian at Actium
Review by Diana Bentley. Few episodes in antiquity are more gripping than the epic struggle for political supremacy and survival between Octavian, heir of Julius Caesar; his rival, politician and general Mark Antony; and Cleopatra, ruler of Egypt. In his…
Divine or demonised? The many faces of feminine power
How has female authority been expressed through belief? Examining goddesses, demons, and spiritual beings from around the world exposes the true scope of feminine power, as Belinda Crerar told Matthew Symonds and Amy Brunskill.
MHM129 competition: win a copy of At the Gates of Rome!
Put your military history knowledge to the test with our competition, and be in with a chance to win a copy of Don Hollway's At the Gates of Rome.
Current World Archaeology 113
• Digging Caesar’s Forum: daily life in Rome
• Nebra Sky Disc: decoding a prehistoric vision of the cosmos (out 25 May on The Past)
• The dead of Amato: conflict on the Peruvian south coast
• Tsunami: a Bronze Age tragedy in Turkey
• Finding Shackleton’s ship
• The monastery of San Vincenzo al Volturno
Digging Caesar’s Forum: three thousand years of daily life in Rome
Fresh traces of urban life spanning almost three millennia are coming to light in central Rome. New Danish-Italian excavations have uncovered far more than Caesar’s monumental forum project. Delving through archaeological layers, while travelling back in time from Mussolini’s 1930s constructions, Jan Kindberg Jacobsen, Eva Mortensen, Claudio Parisi Presicce, and Rubina Raja disentangle the complex urban stratigraphy of the Eternal City.
Analysis of Roman coinage sheds light on financial crisis
A study involving the scientific analysis of Roman coinage has revealed a significant debasement in the value of silver denarii at the start of the 1st century BC, shedding new light on a financial crisis alluded to by Roman statesman…
Museo Barracco: a head for sculpture
Having brought together ancient Roman, Greek, Egyptian, and Mesopotamian artefacts to create a museum of comparative sculpture, Baron Giovanni Barracco gave his collection of antiquities to the city of Rome in 1902. Now housed in a 16th-century palace in the Italian capital, the little-known Museo Barracco showcases ancient artistry and the activities of collectors, both at the turn of the century and in ancient Rome. Dalu Jones is our guide.
The triumphal arch: exploring the legacy of a Roman monument
Dismissed by one distinguished architectural writer as a regrettable example of Roman pomposity, ‘typical of the rather pretentious magnificence of the [Roman] Empire’, the ‘triumphal arch’ (more correctly the ‘honorary arch’) has proved to be surprisingly enduring, with a history that extends from the Roman period to the present day. Chris Catling reviews a new book by Peter Howell tracing the history of the arch through its many manifestations.
War of Words – ‘GLADIATOR’
Gladius was a general Latin word for ‘sword’. A gladiator was someone who fought with a gladius – a swordsman. As usually employed today, gladius refers to a double-edged short sword.
Terracotta dog found in Rome
It was uncovered at a construction site in the Via Luigi Tosti, which joins Via Latina, home to a number of large tombs.
Early Christianity Quiz
What name was given at birth to the 1st-century apostle now known as St Paul?
Roman Art Quiz
Tesserae played a central role in which Roman art form?
Greco-Roman Medicine and What It Can Teach Us Today
This book examines aspects of the medicine practised in the Roman Empire from the reign of Augustus to that of Marcus Aurelius. ‘Roman medicine’ was an amalgam, which combined the theories and practices of Greek physicians operating within the so-called…
Mediterranean in Peril Quiz
Can you identify these Mediterranean UNESCO World Heritage sites?
War of words – ‘ovation’
Marcus Claudius Marcellus asked the Senate to grant him a triumph. He was refused because the fighting in his former province of Sicily was still ongoing, and his army was not with him to support his claim. Instead, he was given only an ovation.
This week: Domitian
Few figures in history have seen their reputation rise and fall quite like Domitian (AD 51-96). The third and final ruler of the dynasty founded in AD 69 by his father Vespasian, he became one of the longest-serving emperors, praised during his 15-year reign as a living god, but later remembered as corrupt, murderous and deeply depraved.
Domitian: dominus et deus
Are bad Roman emperors really that different from good Roman emperors? Nathalie de Haan and Eric M Moormann look at the case of Domitian, an accomplished military man and prolific builder who emulated Augustus but was reviled as a new Nero.
Roman Emperors Quiz
Augustus was the first Roman emperor. When did he come to power?
Tracy Roberts and LoveItaly
Based in Rome, LoveItaly is now in its seventh year and its accent is decidedly American and not patrician. It owes everything to the dynamism of a Californian who is every bit as Roman as the Romans.
‘Arrogance and violence’
Suetonius’ Lives of the Caesars offers a series of sensational biographies of Roman rulers from Julius Caesar to Domitian, highlighting moments of depravity, viciousness, scheming, and excess.
The Hidden Language of Graphic Signs: Cryptic Writing and Meaningful Marks
Throughout history, scripts have become established by communicating language and meaning as transparently as possible to literate readers. But, of course, scripts have an aesthetic dimension, too, which both enhances their appeal and distracts readers from their meaning – as…
Honouring Augustus
After centuries of reuse and years of closure, the Mausoleum of Augustus is now open to visitors. Dalu Jones examines the structure’s long history and how, with its neighbour the Ara Pacis, it forms a modern monumental complex to the ancient emperor in the heart of Rome.
Rare Roman boundary stone
The travertine stone bears an inscription detailing Claudius’ titles and honours
Words of wisdom: ‘Not everything people laugh at is witty’
And here’s another point to take note of, that not everything people laugh at is witty.
Rome’s hidden mosaics
With small tiles of marble and glass, Roman mosaicists created intricate mythological images, realistic scenes from nature, and other complex compositions to decorate the floors and walls of tombs, sanctuaries, and homes. Dalu Jones explores some mosaic masterpieces normally hidden in stores in Rome’s museums.
Rare stone marking the border of ancient Rome unearthed
Only ten other stones of this kind have been discovered in Rome – the last was unearthed 100 years ago.
Nero: monster or maligned?
It would be fair to say that Nero’s reputation survives him. But could it be that this notorious imperial bad boy has been unfairly condemned by history? While the charge sheet levelled against him by the ancient historians is truly horrifying, archaeology paints a more nuanced picture, as Thorsten Opper told Current World Archaeology's Matthew Symonds.