Ancient Rome | Ancient Rome
Oct.24.2012
This week I finished writing and editing a historical novel set in Europe immediately preceding the year 1000. It's in good enough shape for Lyn, my "second set of eyes." She's an excellent editor as well as a gifted writer, so it's in her hands now.
Sylvester II
image via commons.wikimedia.org
I...
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Sep.14.2012
The Death of Tarpeia
The tales of famous Roman women such as Lucretia and Virginia serve to reinforce the stereotypes of the ‘matron’ and the ‘virgin’ as exemplars of Roman virtues. Both these women died tragically: one defending her family’s honour by suiciding, the other murdered by her father...
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Jan.07.2012
Etruscans loved shiny things. The more glittering and ornate the better. The most stunning examples of jewellery and art came from the era known as the ‘Orientalizing’ period from ca. 720-575BCE. This was a time when Phoenician and Greeks were attracted to Etruria due to its rich metal...
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Dec.12.2011
From ancient times to the present, there’s a lengthy, ugly record of men who paid for sex with their lives rather than their pocketbook.
Commodus, 2nd century Roman emperor; Johann Joachim von Winckelmann, the great 18th century art historian; silent screen star Ramón Novarro; Italian film...
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Nov.14.2011
One of the main themes of The Wedding Shroud is the exploration of the lives of women in the ancient world through the characters of a Roman girl, Greek slave, Cretan courtesan and Etruscan matron.
So what was the status and role of these women in classical times? In both Greece and Rome they...
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Oct.25.2011
As well as the ability to interpret the future from lightning bolts, the Etruscans also observed the flight of birds for the purposes of divination. The process of interpreting the patterns of flight was known as taking the auspices (literally ‘looking at birds’). As was the case with...
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Oct.10.2011
The Roman historians Suetonius, Plutarch, and Tacitus wrote accounts of prominent people in the ancient world that were more often propaganda than objective reporting.
A present-day historian compared ancient historians to tabloid reporters and imagined historians in the distant future writing...
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Oct.09.2011
The ancient world has always held a fascination for me. It must be in my genes because one of my fondest memories is that of my father telling me stories about the Greek gods. As a kid, I also found a book in our house that had been handed down from generation to generation within my family...
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Sep.20.2011
And the winner is...the Emperor Elagablus!
It says much about how the authority of Rome’s emperors had been debased and the power of the military increased that a 14-year-old boy could become ruler of the known world simply because the army proclaimed him so.
Of all emperors, including even Nero...
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Sep.16.2011
I have two obsessions – writing and ancient history. Luckily I was able to combine both while researching and writing my novel, The Wedding Shroud. The novel is set in Etruria, a civilisation that existed in Italy from archaic times and was situated in the area we now know of as Tuscany, Umbria...
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