The area around Spoleto has been inhabited since at least the eighth century BCE. Rich grave finds from several necropolises demonstrate that there must have been a settlement here of some importance. Excavations in 2008-2009 in the Piazza d’Armi, north of the railway station, have for instance uncovered the tomb…
I will readily admit that the famous Nile Mosaic was the reason I took the bus to Palestrina in the first place. This gorgeous piece of art, presumably from the late second century BCE, is the most prized possession of Palestrina’s National Archaeological Museum. The mosaic has a room of…
After Sulla had established a military colony at Praeneste after 82 BCE, the town enjoyed several centuries of peace. It prospered and grew and quickly became a popular destination for Romans during the summer to escape the scorching heat of Rome itself. I myself visited Palestrina on a very hot…
Getting from Rome to Palestrina by public transportation is pretty easy. You just have to know how. I travelled to the Ponte Mammolo metro station in the north of Rome and took a COTRAL bus to Palestrina from there. It should also be possible to make use of a similar…
Our ticket to the church of San Francesco allowed us to visit the National Archaeological Museum in Arezzo as well. The museum is special, because it is housed in a former monastery that was itself built into the remains of a Roman amphitheatre from the second century. We were short…
People who almost 2.000 years ago took the Limes road from Praetorium Agrippinae and travelled east for some eight kilometres would eventually arrive at the next castellum protecting the Rhine border. According to the Peutinger Table (Tabula Peutingeriana), this castellum was called Matilo(ne), a name of unknown origin. The precise…
In the first century BCE, very few people lived in what is now the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. Experts estimate that the population may have been 9.000 at most. The area was swampy and prone to flooding by the sea. The inhabitants were members of the tribe…
The lovely Dutch town of Valkenburg aan de Geul, located in the south of the province of Limburg, has a very special museum. The address is Plenkertstraat 55. Museum Romeinse Katakomben (Roman Catacombs Museum) does not just have a name that is a little peculiar – it is spelled ‘katakomben’…
In Antiquity, Boulogne-sur-Mer on the Channel and the Roman colony of Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium at Cologne in present-day Germany were connected by an important road. We do not know whether this road had a name in the Roman era itself, but nowadays it is usually called the Via Belgica.…
This short post is about a very special day of the year, 25 December. On this day, Christians and non-Christians alike celebrate Christmas everywhere in the world. On the internet, you will often find the claim that the date of 25 December derives from the ancient cult of Mithras, which…
Grado today is a lovely seaside resort which draws scores of tourists to its wonderful beaches. Ancient Grado used to be the port of Aquileia, some ten kilometres to the north. In Antiquity, it was known as Ad Aquas Gradatas, which was shortened to Gradus during the Middle Ages. Here,…
Modern Aquileia is just a small and pleasant town of some 3.500 inhabitants in the Friuli Venezia Giulia region of Northeast Italy. Ancient Aquileia, however, was a large and prosperous city with a population that is estimated to have exceeded 100.000 souls. Founded in the year 181 BCE, Aquileia occupied…
I am currently working on a new series about the Second Punic War (218-201 BCE). This is a lot of work and it is taking up much of my spare time. I will therefore repost a ‘golden oldie’, a post I wrote many years ago for an internet forum. The…
1. Introduction In 63 BCE, a trial took place in Ancient Rome which is still shrouded in mystery. Even in its own time it was extraordinary and controversial, not least because of the strange charges brought against the accused, the prosecutor’s motives, the alleged bias of the judges and the…
By Laurens Dragstra and Taco Groenewegen 1. Introduction If people call Dutch politician Geert Wilders a ‘people’s tribune’, this is unlikely to be meant as a compliment. The word is often used to describe agitators, demagogues and populists, people who are driven by resentment and claim that they – and…
Fiesole’s small but interesting archaeological museum is located right within the city’s archaeological area, where one can find the remains of an Etruscan wall, a Roman temple, Roman public baths and a Roman theatre that is still used for performances during the summer. Fiesole has had an archaeological museum since…
The Grand Ludovisi Sarcophagus was found in 1621 near the Porta Tiburtina, one of the eastern gates of the city of Rome. It was named after Cardinal Ludovico Ludovisi (1595-1632), who was an avid collector of antiquities. The sarcophagus can be dated to around 250-260, so it is a little…
The Portonaccio Sarcophagus is a large sarcophagus that can be found in the Palazzo Massimo, one of the four locations of the Museo Nazionale Romano. It is an impressive piece of second century craftsmanship. The sarcophagus was found in 1931 near the Via Tiburtina and can be dated to around…
I was not familiar with the technique called opus sectile until I visited an exhibition in the Nieuwe Kerk in Amsterdam about Constantine’s influence on the Christianisation of the Roman Empire. Part of the exhibition was a mosaic depicting a man in a chariot and four horsemen in the colours…
Gortys, also known as Gortyn or Gortyna, was the capital of Roman Crete. It was destroyed in the ninth century by Muslim Arab raiders and the area has been uninhabited ever since. At the end of the nineteenth century, the Italian archaeologist Federico Halbherr and his team began excavating at…