Three soldiers (far right) carry karnyxes, long horns with frightening boar-headed mouths that produce eerie calls during battle.
Prisma/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
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.
Perfumes, potions and witches have been entwined for centuries.
Frederick Stuart Church/Smithsonian American Art Museum/Wikimedia Commons
Scent and magic have been entwined in our imaginations for centuries – right up to today’s witch-inspired perfumes.
America’s political leaders rushed the nation into war just weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks, just like ancient Greeks and Romans did in response to similar traumatic events.
David Hume Kennerly/Getty Images
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 bodies in Lizzo’s video aren’t chiseled like the Greek statues seen in museums.
YouTube/Lizzo Music
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.
As they do today, threats of destruction loomed in ancient Pompeii.
Art Media/Print Collector via Getty Images
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.
The domed neoclassical Capitol building was inspired by European cathedrals and the Roman Pantheon – shrines to imperial power, not rule by and for the people.
The role of witches in society relates directly to the role of women in society. And during times of social upheaval and changes, witches represent access to women’s power.
Last year’s AFL premiers were definitely not socially distancing.
AAP/Michael Dodge
Crowds, albeit smaller ones, will again watch the AFL and NRL grand finals. Crowds can bring people together but, since the time of the Roman republic, they have also expressed political dissent.
An Egyptian winged scarab amulet (circa 1070 –945 BC).
Believed to possess magical qualities, amulets were once widely used. They range from amber pendants worn during Denmark’s Mesolithic age to wind chimes found at Pompeii.
Melbourne’s State Library under lockdown. The wisdom of Seneca can help us through this difficult time.
James Ross/AAP
Assistant Director of Archaeology, British School at Rome; Honorary Postdoctoral Fellow, Macquarie University; Research Affiliate, Australian Archaeological Institute at Athens, Macquarie University