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Ancient stories are curiosities revealing lesser-known, surprising, or unusual episodes from the world of ancient Rome and antiquity. This category includes short stories about events, people, and situations that don’t always make it into classical works, yet allow for a better understanding of the realities and mentality of the era.
On May 13, 609, Pope Boniface IV decided to transform the Pantheon into the Church of Santa Maria ad Martyres. Until now, the former temple of all Roman deities, since the fall of the Western Roman Empire, was largely unused. There is, however, a parable related to this event.
Roman mythology is said to be a carbon copy of Greek and Etruscan beliefs. This is true in many cases, although there are interesting exceptions.
Ancient sources, both the unbelievable ones like “Historia Augusta” and those more sensible (Herodian), mention the Roman emperor Maximinus Thrax as a man of enormous size. According to “Historia Augusta”, his height was 250 cm.
Octavian Augustus, after the victory at Actium (31 BCE) and the suicidal death of Cleopatra and Antony, when he entered Alexandria, ordered to be taken to the tomb of the great Macedonian general, Alexander the Great. According to Suetonius, he honored the body, put a golden crown on his head and showered the body with flowers.
Pliny the Elder, author of the encyclopedic work “Natural History”, often relied on various and often unverified sources. The writer even mentions that if a mother wanted her child to have black eyes, she had to eat a shrew during pregnancy.
The Law of the Twelve Tables, in ancient communications, appears as a plebeian victory over an aristocracy. However, not everyone knows that, according to sources, their creation was associated with dramatic events and a private tragedy.
Hannibal was over 40 years old after the end of the Second Punic War. After signing the humiliating peace, Hannibal decided to focus on politics. He was elected a shofeṭ, the highest government official, with strong executive power and considerable legislative and judicial powers. As a result of his efficient reforms, seven years after the battle of Zama (202 BCE), Carthage was “rising from its knees”.
All the time we hear about sensational reports of observation of unidentified flying objects – UFOs. As it turns out, the ancient writers also left us interesting accounts.
According to ancient sources, during the First Punic War (264-241 BCE), consul Appius Claudius Pulcher attacked in 249 BCE Carthaginian fleet at Drepanum (today Trapani) in Sicily, despite the unfavorable behavior of the sacred chickens.
Gladiator Spiculus convinced himself that life in grace is uncertain and changeable and that nothing lasts forever. He fought in the arena, he was the favourite of the emperor, he gained fame and enormous wealth, which every Roman certainly dreamed of, but it was this that ultimately led him to destruction.
