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.
Ancient Rome
News
Pompeii’s Elite Once Lived in Luxury Towers, Research Says
Digital reconstruction technology is offering new insights into life in the ever-fascinating Ancient Roman city.
Features
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.
Features
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.
News
Archaeologists Reconstruct Ancient Roman “Jigsaw Puzzle”
The thousands of fragments once formed an enormous fresco that decorated around 20 walls in a building in central London.
News
Research Shows How Mount Vesuvius Turned Man’s Brain Into Glass
A glass sample collected from the skull of a young adult victim of the eruption in Herculaneum yielded evidence of human brain matter.
Art
The Revisionist History of the Nazi Salute
Elon Musk’s defenders were quick to claim that his hand motion was actually an ancient “Roman salute” — but that gesture never existed.
Film
The Insidious False History of Gladiator II
The film’s casting of Africa and Africans as largely rebellious, uncivil, and above all outside of the bounds of the Roman empire is incorrect and dangerous.
News
Rome’s Arch of Constantine Damaged in Lightning Strike
Italian authorities began conservation on the ancient monument after a storm caused part of the arch’s frame to collapse.
News
California Man Sentenced for Smuggling 2,000-Pound Ancient Mosaic
The massive artifact was looted from Syria in 2015 and illegally transported to the US in a shipping container.
Film
Why Do We Expect Ancient Romans to Have British Accents in Movies?
Most of the objectors to Denzel Washington’s accent are men who think too much about the Roman Empire. Here’s how the accent has changed throughout cinema.
News
Caligula’s Garden Unearthed in Rome
The 2,000-year-old ruins were discovered during a construction project ahead of the Vatican’s Jubilee Year.