Welcome to our regularly scheduled survey of ancient news, from archaeological discoveries to experimental archaeology. This time we cover anything from shipwrecks to deliberate wrecking equipment, from war to medicine. Let us start with your classical bit of archaeology. This is an amazing find from the Danube: Probable Roman shipwrecks unearthed at a Serbian coal […]
Ancient Rome
Book Review: The Last Gladiator, by Daniel Ottalini
Daniel Ottalini’s Steam Empire Chronicles have an obvious appeal to me – writing fellow alternate history based on Rome – so I was quite glad to jump on the prequel novella. What to expect A story set in Ottalini’s Steampunk version of the Roman Empire, but a few years before the events of the main […]
Ancient Discoveries to Rock Your Boat (you’ll get the joke later)
Welcome to your favourite collection of ancient oddities — where the plagues are firmly history 🙂 I won’t bother you with Stuff To Learn During Quarantine. I figured your social feed is chock full of that stuff anyway, and you would have seen it. Same with actual historical information about historical plagues, because, again, everyone’s […]
The Importance of Space
Today, we are used to seeing the ruins of ancient Roman and Greek building like in this picture: a few columns and a broken outer shell, the pieces erected back by modern archaeologists to give us a sense of the ancient grandeur. But what was it like, when those buildings were living, breathing spaces, used […]
Feasting in the Shadow of Death
This is all stuff that came up during the research and writing of In Victrix, and found it’s way in some off-hand way into the book. I’ve mentioned before how small trivia and throwaway lines make for rich world-building. For me, I love exploring all those articles for the enjoyment in learning more about a […]
TV Series Review: Roman Empire: “Reign of Blood”, and “Master of Rome”
Unlike the previous series I reviewed (Chelmsford 123 and Plebs), this is a docudrama. Or rather, dramatised scenes in between documentary commentary by notable historians and classicists. The series is produced by Netflix, and it’s nice to see them tackle real history: this isn’t Starz’ Spartacus, which was very entertaining with all the blood and […]
Ancient Texts
Today’s post collects interesting articles on the subjects on ancient texts. From high-tech reading of ancient Roman scrolls to medieval books made now available (and down to some really pissed-off bronze age customers), we have an amazing selection for lovers of words. Protect yourself! First, let’s start with a bit of fun. Every author these […]
Book Series Review: Marcus Corvinus, by David Wishart
I’ve read and reviewed Ovid, the first in the series, about a year ago. It was awesome, so naturally I went down the rabbit hole of reading through the 20-volume series… I’ve even chased down Corvinus himself for a character interview. I’ve posted my reviews of each individual volume on Amazon and Goodreads, but below […]
Book Review: Cabaret of Monsters, by Tansy Rayner Roberts
Caberet of Monsters presents a marvelous twist of Urban Fantasy. Though I was originally drawn by the Roman elements, the vibe of Parisian theatre and roaring 1920’s as a backdrop to urban fantasy was refreshingly original What to expect A novella set in the same world as the Creature Court trilogy, published a few years […]
Hot off the… err… Scribe: Ancient News Roundup
A few things on the agenda today, from ancient Roman wine-making to expensive coins, from functional shields to decorative helmets, and even some ancient military humour! Wines today and in Roman times This article about ancient wine popped up in my feed: We Drink Basically The Same Wine As Ancient Romans — And That’s Not […]
