The recently discovered 2,000 year old Roman dildo barely makes a dint in the long-standing history of sex-toys and aids.
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Articles on Ancient Rome
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Sexuality in Ancient Rome was more preoccupied with power dynamics than it was with gender – as an expert in visual cultures of sexuality explains.
The idea of virgin birth has been part of Christianity since the start, but its significance has shifted over time.
Rutland’s Roman villa caused a media storm when it was first discovered in 2020 – now researchers have returned to uncover even more surprises.
Disregarded as ‘fakes’ for decades, new analysis of coins bearing the face of a mysterious emperor is providing answers about a heady gap in Roman history.
The British crown is the only surviving European monarchy that retains a coronation.
Just in time for this year’s Nobel Prize announcements, here’s how the symbolism of a plant associated with the god Apollo lives on in modern-day laureates.
Displays of captured Russian weaponry aim to show the strength of the foe Ukrainians face, but also that victory is possible.
Jacques-Louis David’s picture of death and despair has a strange and compelling beauty.
Since antiquity people have harnessed sound as a weapon, and the practice continues – in new high-tech ways – today.
Mulled wine has been around for at least 2,000 years.
Pompeii is remembered as a place of surprising liberality – but the ‘masturbating man’ is probably a far less lurid tale than assumed.
A patchwork of Roman laws (including Rome’s complex murder laws) sought to address coercive and violent behaviour
We tend to romanticise the Christmas season, that time of year when we gather with friends and family, feast and be merry. But for most of its history Christmas has been a time of sordid behaviour.
Scent and magic have been entwined in our imaginations for centuries – right up to today’s witch-inspired perfumes.
Ancient Athenians and Romans also let shared mass tragedies propel justifications for going to war – even when it wasn’t clear what that violence would solve.
The classical tradition has long excluded anyone who wasn’t white. But a succession of Black female artists have attempted to broaden these ossified boundaries.
While they weren’t living through a pandemic, citizens of ancient Pompeii weren’t strangers to societal stress.
Voices on the extremes don’t represent society.
New technology mapped the buried ancient Roman site of Falerii Novi. Now archaeologists have started targeted excavation and soil testing to reveal details of life from more than 2,000 years ago.
Top contributors
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Associate Professor of Classics and Head of the Centre for Classical Studies, Australian National University
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Assistant Professor of Classics, University of Cambridge
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Honorary Professor, The University of Queensland
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Lecturer in Classical Studies, Institute of Classical Studies, University of London; Honorary Fellow, Macquarie University, Macquarie University
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Professeur d'histoire ancienne, Université de Lorraine
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Lecturer, Classics, University of Glasgow
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Associate Professor of Classics, College of the Holy Cross
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Head, Public Engagement, Chau Chak Wing Museum, University of Sydney
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Professor, Department of Classics and Ancient History, University of Sydney
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Paul Eliadis Chair of Classics and Ancient History, The University of Queensland
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Lecturer in Roman Archaeology and Art, Royal Holloway University of London
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Doctor of Philosophy, The University of Melbourne
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Lecturer in Ancient History, Cardiff University
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Professor of Classical Studies, Brandeis University
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Emeritus Professor of Roman Archaeology, University of Birmingham
