St Valentine and the Ides of February
Who is Saint Valentine? His name is now a byword for romance and all things heart and flowers on February 14, but there is so much more to this man than just romance.
Friends, Romans, Countrymen…
Today, rhetoric gets a bad rap. Rhetoric has come to mean empty words and insincerity, but it wasn’t always this way.
Letting Latin Live!
The Roman empire might have long gone, but its legacy remains strong even to this day. Did you know that sixty percent of the English language comes from Latin?
Doctor, Doctor
It might come as a surprise to many to discover that back in ancient Rome there were women doctors. Those un-PC Romans even had a gendered term for them – medicae – as opposed to medicus for men.
Concrete Solutions In History
One can’t look at Ancient Rome without being in awe of buildings that have lasted more than a thousand years. How did they do it? They mastered the art of concrete.
What Happens in Baiae, Stays In Baiae… sort of
Those Romans weren’t all work, you know. They rather liked their summer holidays – although the transportation wasn’t as comfortable as a first class airline seat.
The Oracle of the Dead
Long before there was Indiana Jones, there was another enthusiastic amateur British explorer in the 1960s by the name Dr. Robert Ferrand Paget who worked at an NATO base in Italy.
Give Us This Day, Our Daily Bread
Sometimes we in the 21st century world with instant access to information, electricity, food and water tend to take all of our technological advances for granted.
A Sporting Chance In Rome
The Romans loved their sport and would as much at home attending the Superbowl, the Melbourne Cup and the FA Cup final as any sports fanatic today.
Whimseys and Fairings
The industrialisation of the 18th into the 19th century brought mass manufacturing. Items previously out of the reach of the working class were suddenly affordable.