REVIEW BY MARC DeSANTIS Alexander the Great of Macedonia is one of the best-known figures of ancient history. Comparatively large amounts of written material concerning his short but extraordinarily eventful life have survived from ancient times. This is a boon…
An exhibition at the Getty Villa Museum brings together painted vessels from three major ceramic traditions to explore these dynamic objects and the stories they tell.
New research has found that an ancient suit of armour may have been used in battle, and not just for ceremonial purposes as was previously thought. The 3,500-year-old Mycenaean armour is one of the best and most complete examples of…
Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones completes his series on the later Ptolemaic queens and assesses their legacy as women of power in the ancient world.
Review by Matthew Symonds When we think of Alexander the Great, it is his exploits as an adult that spring to mind. He is the audacious leader who landed an army in Asia at the age of 21 in a…
We all know that the finer things in life can transmit messages about wealth and status. In the epic struggles between the Persians and Greeks in the 1st millennium BC, though, luxury came to mean so much more, as Jamie Fraser told Matthew Symonds.
The study suggests that the archaeological sites of Apollonia, Ptolemais, and Tocra are at risk of extensive erosion.
There are lots of great archaeological events coming up over the next few months, including new exhibitions, lectures, and conferences. Or, if you would prefer to get your history and heritage fix at home, there is a wide selection of resources available, from virtual tours of museums and heritage sites to radio and TV shows, games, and activities. Amy Brunskill has put together a summary of some of the options available.
In the first part of our special, Paul Rahe examines the background to the struggle between Athens and Sparta for control of the ancient Greek world.
In the second part of our special feature, Paul Rahe reveals how Sparta won the largest land battle fought within Greece during the Peloponnesian War.
REVIEW by MARC DeSANTIS The death of Alexander the Great in Babylon in 323 BC left the empire he had conquered without blood heirs ready to take up the heavy burden of governance. Thus, in the days following his passing,…
The mountains and forests of Epirus offer a dramatic backdrop for a tour through the theatres of the Greek region’s ancient cities. Diana Bentley finds stories of a famed oracle and a celebrated victory along the way.
Alexander the Great’s ambitions of conquest took him far from his Macedonian home and into Asia and Babylon, where he died. Ursula Sims-Williams investigates the mythical legacy of Alexander in the East, where different traditions cast him variously as an accursed figure, a philosopher-king, and even a prophet.
Review by David Stuttard On an Apulian funerary vase, a fair-haired young man sits clutching a spear in his left hand as he exclaims in terror, ‘I’m not coming!’ But it is no use. Grabbing his wrist in a vice-like…
by Garry J. Shaw.Yale University Press, 2022ISBN 978-0-300-26743-3Hardback, £16.99. So much has been written about Tutankhamun and his tomb since its discovery that it is an achievement for any writer to find an original angle to illuminate their narrative. Garry…
The map was created by Hipparchus between c. 170 and 120 BC
A new exhibition at the British Library explores the 2,000-year history of storytelling and myth-making surrounding Alexander the Great.
The remarkable discoveries of headless falcon skeletons and a stele depicting an Egyptian falcon deity have led researchers to dub the temple the 'Falcon Shrine'.
At which battle in 490 BC did an Athenian army repulse the first Persian invasion of Greece?
The inscribed stone is the ancient Greek equivalent of a 'graduate school yearbook'.
Ashley Cooper and Stephen Cooper question the hallowed notion of decisive battle.
In honour of which god were the Ancient Olympics held?
The difference between a historian and a poet is not that one uses prose and the other verse. After all, you could take the History of Herodotus and turn it into verse, but it would still be history, not poetry.
Review by David Stuttard. On an August morning just over two and a half millennia ago in 490 BC, a numerically inferior army of democratic Athenians, their liberated slaves, and Plataean allies won an overwhelming victory over Persian invaders on…
Review by Paul Christesen Olympia is not an especially large archaeological site (the entire excavated area measures less than 1km on a side), but it is nonetheless a particularly complex one. Activity at the site began in the 4th millennium…
Zeus is the king of the gods. But who was his queen?
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…
For Ancient Greeks, the natural world was a source of wonder and inspiration. Philosophers pondered sundry subjects, seeking the secrets of the night sky or what makes for a satisfying tune. Such questing curiosity inspired technological advances that we are only fully appreciating today, as Jane Desborough and Matthew Howles told Matthew Symonds.
Which philosopher was the tutor of Alexander the Great?
Ancient Mesopotamian literature, written in cuneiform from around 3000 BC, is haunted by omens and ghosts. Most of the sources on ghosts come from the 1st millennium BC, written in Akkadian, but some texts and ideas hark back to even…
Some time in the 8th century BC, with the Greek alphabet just decades old, two monumental poems, the Iliad and Odyssey, were committed to writing and so became the first great works of Western literature. We call their author Homer,…
This book provides a brief history of Christianity in the eastern Peloponnese (including ancient sites in Corinth, such as Kenchreai and Lechaion, as well as Isthmia, Nemea, Sikyon, and Epidauros) and in Athens, from its beginnings but with a focus…
Ancient historian Paul Rahe, whose monumental history of Sparta is just out, analyses the origins of the feared Spartan hoplite phalanx.
He inherited the kingdom of Macedonia (in modern-day Greece) at the age of 20. By the time of his death, just 13 years later, he had created an empire that covered two million square miles – stretching across three continents, from the Danube and the Nile to the Himalayas – and all without losing a battle.
Graham Goodlad surveys the remarkable career of ancient history’s most successful warlord.
The newly discovered Ptolemaic galley was found under 5m of dense Nile clay and building remains.