Sextus Roscius of Ameria: The Parricide Trial That Launched Cicero
Cicero’s defense exposed a scheme built on proscription lists and a freedman’s influence. According to Cicero, in September of 81 BC a wealthy landowner from … Read more
WeirdItaly
Trajan’s Baths Reopen at Colle Oppio, Revealing a Painted City Buried Beneath the Empire
Underground at Trajan’s Baths: The City Painted Before the Empire Built Over It A restoration project on one of Rome’s most layered archaeological sites brings … Read more
A Murder Trial in Ancient Rome: The Poison Ring of 331 BC
How a slave’s testimony uncovered the first criminal inquiry into poisoning in Roman history According to Livy, in the year 331 BC the city of … Read more
Sicily’s Hidden Layers: Arab-Norman Palaces, Ancient Tombs, Catacombs, and Other Unusual Sites
Sicily has always resisted a single historical label. The island sits between Europe and North Africa, between western and eastern Mediterranean routes, and its cities, … Read more
A Murder in Ancient Rome: The Case of Pedanius Secundus and the Slaughter of His Household
The praefectus urbi’s murder reopened a debate the empire had avoided for generations According to Tacitus, in the year 61 AD the city of Rome … Read more
The Fake Ancient Theater in Italy That Fooled Ticket Buyers for a Decade
Marketed as a Neolithic and Roman find, the site was in fact assembled with concrete and grouted stone blocks. A man in northern Italy has … Read more
An Archaic Necropolis Beneath a Pasta Factory: Gragnano’s Extraordinary Discovery
Pristine Tufa Tombs Reveal Mediterranean Trade Links from 550 BCE On Wednesday, July 15, at the Pastificio Garofalo in Gragnano, in Via dei Pastai, officials … Read more
The Surreal Story of How Wehrmacht’s Central Asian Conscripts Wiped Out Tuscany’s Historic Camels
The Dromedaries of San Rossore: How World War II Wiped Out Tuscany’s Century-Old Herd For over three hundred years, the coastal pine forests of San … Read more
Venice: A Guide to the City and Its Lagoon
A guide to the lagoon city’s history, architecture, islands, and the peculiar institutions that kept it independent for over a millennium Few cities have written … Read more
Pink Flamingos Are Returning to the Venice Lagoon in Record Numbers
The Venice Lagoon Has Become One of Europe’s Most Important Flamingo Sanctuaries For much of the twentieth century, flamingos were an exotic postcard image associated … Read more
Two Equids Unearthed in the Bakery of Pompeii’s House of the Chaste Lovers
Pompeii’s House of the Chaste Lovers Gives Up Two Working Animals A fresh round of excavation inside the House of the Chaste Lovers at Pompeii … Read more
South Tyrol: A Guide to the Mountains, the Minorities and the Complicated Past
How the Raeti, the Romans and the Bavarian Settlers Shaped a Territory That Still Defies Easy Categories The autonomous province of Bolzano sits at Italy’s … Read more
Italy’s Hidden Languages: Italy’s Linguistic Minority Map
Forty Languages, One Peninsula: A geographic and historical guide to the twelve communities recognised under national law, from the Dolomites to Salento Italy is commonly … Read more
Ostia Antica: A Monumental 4th-Century Episcopal Church Discovered
Constantinian Era Architecture at the Port of Rome A few centimeters beneath the topsoil of a former agricultural field near Rome, excavations have uncovered the … Read more
The Wine, The Storm, and the Arctic Void: The Transcendent Drift of Pietro Querini
The Accidental Marriage of Venetian Commerce and Norwegian Survival January 1432. The edge of the world is not a cliff, but a jagged, frost-bitten tooth … Read more