Category: Roman history
My walk along the Via Latina (part 1)
The 10 highlights of… the Museo Nazionale Romano (Baths of Diocletianus)

The Museo Nazionale Romano opened its doors as early as 1890. The immense collection of the museum is currently distributed across four locations: the Palazzo Massimo and Palazzo Altemps, which have been discussed previously, the Crypta Balbi and the Baths of Diocletianus. The baths can be considered the museum’s original…
The 8 highlights of… the Museo Nazionale Romano (Palazzo Altemps)
The 10 highlights of… the Museo Nazionale Romano (Palazzo Massimo)

The nineteenth-century Palazzo Massimo is currently the main seat of the prestigious Museo Nazionale Romano, which is completely dedicated to Roman civilisation. The museum has much to offer to visitors, basically too much for a single visit. This means it is virtually impossible to write a post about the museum…
Grand: in the footsteps of Constantine the Great
The Roman villa of Desenzano del Garda

The picturesque town of Desenzano on the shores of Lake Garda once had an imposing Roman villa. Like all Roman villas, this villa was primarily an agricultural estate. The part where the buildings related to agricultural production must have stood has not been excavated. The residential part has, although the…
The Roman bath house of Jonvelle
Rome: the so-called ‘temple of Minerva Medica’ and the ‘trophies of Marius’
The Early Republic: consolidation in Latium and the Third Samnite war (303-290 BCE)
The Early Republic: the Second Samnite war and the wars against the Etruscans (part 2; 311-304 BCE)
The Early Republic: the Second Samnite war (part 1; 327-312 BCE)
The Early Republic: Samnites, Latins and Campanians (343-327 BCE)

In 343 BCE a war broke out between the Romans and Samnites, an Oscan-speaking people that lived in the hills and mountains of southern Central Italy. Roman behaviour was exceptionally opportunistic, as little more than ten years ago they had made an alliance with the Samnites. Now, however, they decided…