In 250 CE, a Gothic leader named Cniva led his forces across the Danube, sacked one of Rome’s great Balkan cities, and destroyed an imperial army in the marshes at Abritus, killing the emperor Decius and his son. Then he disappeared from the record entirely.
Cniva: The Gothic King Who Killed A Roman Emperor And Vanished From History Read More »
In the movies, gladiators fight until one is dead and the emperor’s thumb decides the rest. The real arena was deadly, but gladiators were expensive to train, and most walked away from any given fight.
Did Roman Gladiators Really Fight to the Death? Read More »
Roman builders mixed their concrete hot, leaving reactive lime inside it — so when water later found a crack, the crack sealed itself. A company called DMAT is now selling the same trick.
Roman Concrete Healed Its Own Cracks. A Startup Is Bringing It Back. Read More »
2020 was the first time most of us experienced a global outbreak. The entire world seemingly ground to a halt. Despite the devastating loss of life, it wasn’t the first time that a pandemic threatened our global order. Human history is full of examples of diseases that have run amok, claiming innumerable lives and affecting
The Antonine Plague: The Illness That Conquered the Roman Empire Read More »
The Roman Empire spanned from the Middle East, across Northern Africa, into Northern Europe. Buildings and roads constructed as part of the empire’s expansion have survived thousands of years due to advanced Roman engineering, and ruins can be found across dozens of countries. Here’s a list of 10 of the most interesting Roman ruins: Colosseum
10 Iconic Ancient Roman Ruins That Everyone Needs to Visit Read More »
History is full of odd customs and practices that have not withstood the passage of time as a result of cultural and scientific advancements. One such practice revolved around the recycling of urine in Ancient Rome. Nowadays, human waste is recognized as a source of disease and is whisked away at the moment it is
The Shocking Role of Urine in Ancient Roman Life Read More »
Roman aqueducts were, and still are, an impressive feat of engineering. Designed to transport water over almost impossibly long distances, they were the veins carrying the lifeblood of the Roman Empire and sustained life across the vast stretches of its borders. They stretched across Europe and brought the various communities the Romans conquered together. They
The Way of Water: How Roman Aqueducts Were Constructed Read More »
Gaul was a region in Europe inhabited by a number of tribes. It was eventually absorbed into the Roman Empire. This region in the present day contains the countries of France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Northern Italy, and parts of the Netherlands, Germany, and Switzerland. Little is known of life in pre-Roman Gaul, because there are virtually
What was life like in Ancient, Pre-Roman Gaul? Read More »
Rising up out of the water like someplace from a fairy tale, Venice is a city of extremes. A romantic destination of bridges and canals… and a moldering cesspool of crumbling buildings tilting slowly towards the mud that has supported them for a thousand years or more. It begs the question: why was this astonishing
How was the Floating City of Venice Constructed? Read More »
The Goths were a significant ethnic group in Europe during the first half of the first millennium of the Common Era. They first appear in the historical record in the first century AD. They eventually spawned kingdoms that clashed with the Huns, the Romans, and the Umayyad Empire. They spoke an East Germanic language that
History of the Early Germanic Goths and Visigoths Read More »
