Leave a Comment / greece and rome, greek vase, podcast / ancientblogger For those of you who have followed me on twitter you may have noticed that around early October my feeds hums with the various designs I challenge myself with. You see, pumpkins are near perfect in terms of recreating images from Greek vases. […]
Leave a Comment / ancient greece, greek myth / ancientblogger Each year in Athens women from across all levels of society would climb ladders and make their way onto rooftops for the Adonia. This was a festival mourning the death of Adonis, a mortal beloved by Aphrodite. The grief of the goddess was so heavy […]
Legio II Augusta is a roman reenactment group who I have joined up with recently. You may recall our display at Chichester which was great fun. Well this time it was on a bigger scale at the South Of England Showground for an event called Battles Through History. As you can see there were a […]
The Saturnalia was a festival which began around the 17th of December, many of its elements (partying and gifts) have been linked to events of December in the modern day. But what went on exactly? Just in case you are interested, you can also read about a Greek midwinter festival called the Haloa which easily […]
The link between Italy and Hercules may not seem obvious. Yet there was a relationship between the two. The myth of Geryon’s cattle and the defeat of Cacus both involve Hercules in and around Rome, although it’s worth pointing out that Rome hadn’t yet been founded. Roll forward to 1951 and to the post WW2 […]
When it comes to writing a piece or researching a podcast episode I’ll source information from various places. Here are some which I’ll usually sift through as well as some blogs. I’ll be continually updating this by the way – if you have any suggestions let me know. Ancient History Resources. Theoi.com This is an […]
Leave a Comment / Ancient Sicily, podcast / ancientblogger 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 […]
In 2017 work was being done outside of Cambridge in the UK. These were upgrades to the A14 road and though needed weren’t exactly headline grabbing. However what they found allowed experts to piece together a tale which linked Roman Britain to the easternmost tips of the Roman Empire. Whilst digging the remains of a […]
Leave a Comment / roman military, Rome / ancientblogger It was around this date in AD 9 when a Roman force left its summer camp and headed back west to cross the Rhine and to its winter camp. On the way the general in command, Varus, was convinced into making a detour to stabilise the […]
Recently I stumbled upon a few unusual, if not downright quirky clashes of superheroes and antiquity. The more I thought about it the more I realised that this wasn’t really a far-fetched idea. After all – why should Hercules get all the attention? Batman. Batman’s earliest foray into antiquity (that I could find) occurred in […]
Leave a Comment / greece and rome, comics, Myth / ancientblogger Classics and comics. Recently I stumbled upon a few unusual, if not downright quirky clashes of superheroes and antiquity. The more I thought about it the more I realised that this wasn’t really a far-fetched idea. After all – why should Hercules get all […]
This feels apt given the amount of graffiti and images of gladiators which we have. In any case here are some notes. You may have noticed the amazing cover art. This was from Gladiator Doodles, you can find her on twitter (@Amata106 ) and on Instagram (@Gladiator_Doodles ) Here’s the image – thanks so much! […]
Whenever I get the chance I like to jump on the train and make a visit to the British Museum. It’s not just a trip, it’s a walk down memory lane. I studied for my part time MA nearby at Birkbeck and spent many an hour wandering around the place. This year I took the chance […]
February in ancient Rome had several festivals, the Lupercalia and Parentalia as two examples. Yet running alongside this was a festival with a name which might raise an eyebrow. The Fornacalia was a festival to celebrate ovens, yes, you read that correctly. It was a feraie conceptivae, this translates something along the lines of ‘a […]