News
How Much Did It Cost to Paint a Pompeii Room Egyptian Blue?
The price of covering a room in the prized pigment was equal to between 50% and 90% of a Roman legionary's annual salary, a new study estimates.
Sarah Bond
Sarah E. Bond is an associate professor of history at the University of Iowa. She blogs on antiquity and digital humanities, and is the author of Strike: Labor, Unions, and Resistance in the Roman Empire (Yale University Press, February 2025).
Book Review
How White Elites Drained Ancient Art of Its Color
The publication of “Chroma” represents an important shift by museums toward recognizing polychromy and its entanglement with white supremacy.
Feature
A Millennia-Long Fascination With Armor
The Worcester Art Museum’s reopening of its armor galleries goes far beyond the romance with medieval Europe.
News
Pet Monkeys Were Popular in Ancient Rome, Burials Reveal
The recent archaeological discovery also deepens our understanding of trade networks between India and the Roman Empire.
News
Nearly Intact Roman Shipwreck Rests Just Six Feet Beneath Mallorca’s Waters
Discovered in 2019, the 1,700-year-old merchant ship reveals details about early Christian trade.
Opinion
The Arch of Trump’s Triumph and Downfall
Triumphal arches have been used for imperialistic ends since Roman antiquity, and the president’s latest proposal is no exception.
Feature
Our Enduring Fascination With Ancient Roman Baths
From a mosaic of flip-flops in Sicily to Cicero's possible sauna, new discoveries prove that bathing has always been about more than getting clean.
Feature
An Ancient Roman Guide to Trump’s Authoritarian Playbook
The authors of a new anthology argue that we can understand and counter authoritarianism’s rapid expansion today by looking at culture in the time of Julius Caesar.
Opinion
Why Does Elon Musk Have Such a Straight View of Antiquity?
Musk and other conservatives often omit the role of queer soldiers in ancient military successes when extolling the virtues of Greek warriors.
Book Review
Why Are We Still Obsessed With Pompeii?
In The Buried City, the director of the archaeological park brings a more humane and soulful version of the site to life.
Feature
New Research Shows Slavery’s Outsized Role in Pompeii’s Economy
It was the violent profitability of slavery as an exploitative labor system that allowed for the region to prosper, the study demonstrates.
News
Archaeologists Reconstruct the Scents of Ancient Mummification
A new study underscores the ubiquity of pleasant smells attached to commonly displayed objects, like sarcophagi and wrappings used in mummified remains.