Interview Adrienne Mayor on Flying Snakes and Griffin Claws July 14, 2022 Adrienne Mayor is renowned for exploring the borders of history, science, archaeology, anthropology, and popular knowledge to find historical realities and scientific insights—glimmering, long-buried nuggets of truth—embedded in myth, legends, and folklore. Read More
Essay Rediscovering friendship November 12, 2021 Plagues and pandemics are nothing new in history with the classical world of ancient Greece and Rome certainly having their share. Read More
Essay So what’s new? Innovation in ancient Greek experience October 29, 2021 When I worked in business in the 1980s I was struck by the constant demand for the new. The company I worked in produced and stocked a wide range of well-designed products for a varied international market, but customers would regularly pass over existing designs—even the most recent ones—and ask “What’s new?” Read More
Interview Judith Barringer on Olympia: A Cultural History October 26, 2021 The memory of ancient Olympia lives on in the form of the modern Olympic Games. But in the ancient era, Olympia was renowned for far more than its athletic contests. Read More
Essay A look inside The War for Gaul: A New Translation September 13, 2021 Caesar deserves to be compared with Alexander the Great. No one before or since comes close. Read More
Podcast What do the ancients have to teach us? July 15, 2021 Marshall Poe recently had a fascinating conversation with Rob Tempio, the talented editor behind the Ancient Wisdom for Modern Readers series. The books in this series present the timeless and timely ideas of classical thinkers in lively new translations. Read More
Interview Book Club Pick: 1177 B.C. June 01, 2021 This month’s Book Club Pick is Eric Cline’s bestselling book, 1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed. As we head into summer, this bold and breathtaking book is a terrific book club choice and it is sure to lead to lively discussion. Read More
Essay Ridding ourselves of a demagogue: What the ancient Greeks would have thought of impeachment February 23, 2021 In 471 BCE, the politician and renowned general Themistocles was exiled from Athens for ten years by a vote of some six thousand Athenians. Read More
Podcast Listen in: Rome Is Burning January 06, 2021 According to legend, the Roman emperor Nero set fire to his majestic imperial capital on the night of July 19, AD 64 and fiddled while the city burned. It’s a story that has been told for more than two millennia—and it’s likely that almost none of it is true. Read More
Essay Leadership in a time of crisis: Nero and the Great Fire of Rome November 13, 2020 There is one political failing that people seem unable to forgive. In the case of George W. Bush it was not the bitterly divisive invasion of Iraq that blighted his presidential image, nor was Donald Trump’s belligerent governing style his most serious liability in the 2020 election. Read More
Essay How to be content: The contemporary lessons of an ancient poet October 20, 2020 The poet Horace (65-8 BCE) is one of the most celebrated writers of Latin literature. His work has been copied and preserved over the centuries for both its sparkling form and its enlightened content. Read More
Essay All at sea: The maritime lives of the ancient Phoenicians June 23, 2020 The Phoenicians were, according to one ancient scholar, ‘the first to plough the sea’. The little ports of the Bronze Age Levant, including Tyre, Sidon, and Byblos, lay between the great empires of Egypt, Anatolia, and Mesopotamia. Read More
Essay Cicero, friendship, and social distancing May 04, 2020 The best friend of the Roman politician Marcus Cicero was Titus Pomponius, also known as Atticus since he spent many years living in Athens to escape the political chaos and partisan bickering of republican Rome. Read More
Essay How to drink (at home) April 30, 2020 Is there an art to drinking alcohol? Can drinking ever be a virtue? The Renaissance humanist and neoclassical poet Vincent Obsopoeus (ca. 1498–1539) thought so. Read More
Essay Quarantini: Cocktails to drink (alone) April 09, 2020 Have you heard about the latest cocktail, the Quarantini? It’s a regular martini, except you drink it alone. Read More
