Infanticide in ancient Rome

Starting from the founding of Rome, the father of the family had extensive, almost unlimited power in relation to his family – literally the life of the offspring was in his hands. He had the right not to accept a child, regardless of his sex, even if he was healthy. The law of the Twelfth Tablets adopted in the early stages of the republic (450 BCE) even demanded the elimination of sick or weak children: “A dreadfully deformed child shall be quickly killed” (Table IV).

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26 September 2019

Roman sea expeditions

In addition to many land expeditions, the Romans also undertook several sea expeditions in southern directions. Greek scholars did not realize that the African continent stretches south of Libya, they believed that Libya was flowing around the ocean – according to Plutarch, Alexander the Great considered circumnavigating Libya as a shorter alternative to a trip by land from the Indus estuary to Macedonia.

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21 September 2019

Lucius Siccius Dentatus – Roman Achilles

Lucius Siccius Dentatus was probably a historical figure, although his history was written for the first time only in the middle of the first century BCE (several centuries after his death) by a Roman scholar and writer Marcus Terentius Varro.

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21 September 2019

How did the Romans dress?

The upper social strata of Rome paid attention to how they dressed and what fashion prevailed at that time. Roman clothes owed a lot to Greeks, but it should be emphasized that the Romans created their own style and cut of clothing (you can say more sophisticated).

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10 September 2019

Caesar’s ambitious plans before death

In the final period of his life, Julius Caesar was preparing for the implementation of several ambitious plans. To a large extent, these were only beautiful dreams, because having regard to the political realities and possibilities that existed at that time, he could not count on them to be finally realized.

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24 June 2019

Tattoos in Roman world

Body tattooing usually in the Roman or Greek world was associated with the barbarians and their mysterious cults. The custom among Greeks to tattoo bodies came from the Persians. They used tattoos to mark slaves and criminals, in case they tried to escape. However, tattoos in Roman world were also present.

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14 June 2019

Treasure from Boscoreale

Almost everyone has heard of Pompeii and Herculaneum – ancient cities that have been buried under the layer of ashes of Vesuvius – a volcano that erupted in 79 CE.

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2 June 2019

Archimedes – man who put himself against Romans

The Greek thinker Archimedes became famous not only as the author of the exclamation “Eureka!¹” (the Greek word for an unexpected discovery). It was mainly due to his ingenious inventions and innovative machines that he managed to defend Syracuse against the mighty Roman war machine for a long time.

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12 May 2019

What beauty was appreciated by Romans?

Ovid, a Roman poet of the Augustan era, in his work Medicamina Faciei Feminae—a short treatise on the care of the female body—presents the ideal of female beauty: pale complexion, rosy cheeks, dark eyes, and skin free from unnatural odors.

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4 May 2019

Did Nero play lyre during great fire?

To this day, Emperor Nero appears to us as a ruthless and cruel ruler who ordered to start a fire¹ to get a space for a beautiful Domus Aurea – a luxurious imperial villa. But what was the truth about the fire?

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3 May 2019