Matyszak is one of my favourite historians (because archaeologists and historians are much more deserving of celebrity culture than actual celebrities 😜), and I loved previous books of his. This books offers a review of people and nations you’ve probably heard of in passing, and promises to give you a deeper understanding of those forgotten […]
Ancient Rome
Smells Like Classical Latin
A collection of Ancient Roman curios — including the most exciting and hilarious bit EVAR!! All of the items for today are actually around how life in Ancient Rome still survives today. We shall start with a few of the more mundane finds, and finish with grand finale that you must absolutely watch to believe […]
Naughty Roman Mice
Let’s start this week with toys, though we have much larger things in store for you. Over at Vindolanda, while closed to the public their curators have been going over some of the existing collections. They have been slowly releasing information, like this article on combs and articles and videos about broaches in the collection, […]
TV Series Review: Up Pompeii
I first heard about Up Pompeii when I reviewed Chelmsford 123, another favourite Roman-esque British sitcom, and someone recommended this show in response. What to expect A British sitcom dating from 1970, about events two millennia prior. The humour is a product of both time periods: a lot less politically correct then current tastes, but […]
Book Review: Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City, by K.J. Parker
I first saw Sixteen Ways to Defend A Walled City when it came out, and it caught my attention: a potentially humorous, military fantasy exploit by an author known for his historical and humorous works (KJ Parker is a pseudonym for Tom Holt). I’m glad I read it. What to expect The story starts by […]
Roman Links: from military to sorcery
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 […]
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 […]
