Bust of Gallienus It cannot be said that the official historiography was tender towards the Roman Emperor Gallienus, considered an immoral man, incapable and despicable (since he was also an uncomfortable character, we can however hypothesize a certain deliberate exaggeration in painting him wit
Bust of Marcus Giunio Brutus (Michelangelo) Who really was Marco Giunio Bruto , the man who went down in history above all for being among the conspirators who killed Giulio Cesare ? In truth, it does not seem that the young man had ever shown excellent talents in any field, nor have they e
Commodus The Roman emperor Commodus, figure recently returned to the fore thanks to the film The Gladiator , in which a psychotic Emperor rivaled and eventually fought with the protagonist Russel Crowe, was one of the most hated political figures in the history of Rome. Although we want
Joaquin Phoenix plays Commodus in the film The Gladiator. In reality, the end of the tyrant was decided by a palace conspiracy The stubborn commitment of Commodus to make himself disliked by anyone, it had the effect of provoking a conspiracy to get it out of the way, with great general satisf
Joaquin Phoenix played Commodus in The Gladiator. The Roman senators nicknamed Commodus gladiator emperor as a sign of contempt Hypocrisy and flattery are evils of all time and often belong to high circles both culturally and politically. It was no exception, indeed it could be called the emblem
Clodia, or Lesbia, in a painting by Edward John Paynter (1907) She is one of the most famous women of Latinity thanks to the poems of Catullo and to the invectives of Cicero: how much do we know about the life of Lesbia? Little, and such little we can only reconstruct thanks to what was tol
Ancient Greeks in the kitchen The ancient Greeks called it artolagano , we could define it as a sort of white pizza perfect to accompany many dishes:below is the recipe. Ingredients: 1/2 Kg. of flour, 25 gr. of yeast, a few tablespoons of olive oil, 100 gr. of lard, a little white wine
Russel Crowe, the most famous gladiator of cinema. The gladiators of present-day Turkey were vegetarians The physical effort to which the gladiators of Ancient Rome they were constantly subjected would suggest that they followed a diet based on animal proteins, instead a recent archaeological d
Death penalty in Rome:damnatio ad bestias (mosaic) The death penalty in Ancient Rome it was applied with unprecedented ferocity and with absolute regularity:those who violated state or divine laws could hardly find escape. The sample book of torture expected in case of serious crimes was s
Tomb of Amphipolis The great Hellenistic tomb continues to reserve surprises and make people talk about it discovered some time ago in Anfipolis, in the north of Greece. Even if it would now seem excluded that it could be that of Alexander the Great in person, the extraordinary dimension
Octavias head is shown to Poppea. Painting by Giovanni Muzzioli When in the life of Nero the unscrupulous Poppea, broke in unscrupulous woman for whom the emperor had lost his mind, he found it impossible to repudiate his legitimate consort Octavia , Daughter of Claudio, who had adopted it
Tiberius in Capri (French engraving). It seems that the Emperor, in his frequent orgies, drew inspiration from a collection of erotic paintings that he kept in his private rooms It seems that the Roman Emperor Tiberius, besides being cold, cruel and terribly miserly, he was also a pervert, at
A kiss between ancient Romans. Statue of Cupid and Psyche For the ancient Romans kissing it was an art to which they devoted themselves often and willingly, it seems with success. In Rome there were different types of kiss and the differences depended above all on the nature of the recipient
Roman legionaries We have always considered legionaries of ancient times as men of Spartan life and habits, but perhaps we were wrong. They shouldnt have had a bad time, at least judging by the artifacts found at the fort of Novae (todays Svistov), in Bulgaria, the Roman legionarie
“The slave market in Rome” by J.L.Gérome (1884). The slave was a res, so it could be bought and sold Although the expression buy a slave sounds horrible to us, in Roman times it defined a common and everyday reality:Rome, however grandiose you want to judge it, did not only mean great merits, bu
Greek symposium. Prawns glazed with honey are mentioned by the poet Philoxenus of Kythera By the Greek poet Philoxenus of Kythera (435-380 BC) only a few fragments of two poems remain, Cyclops and Symposium, and it is in the second that he, in describing the not very frugal courses of a
Sophocles Being great artists does not protect against the inconveniences of life and does not guarantee any protection against the cunning of the moment. He knew something Sophocles, author of some of the most memorable tragedies of all time, who fell like a chicken into the trap set by a you
Hygiene and bathroom in Ancient Rome What I report below is one of the posts funniest of all those I wrote for the site Notizie.it, as it concerns the unhealthy habit of ancient Roman citizens to throw their needs out of the window without even bothering to see if some unfortunate passed by at
The wooden “seat” found in Vindolanda in England In the ancient and interesting castrum Roman of Vindolanda, in England, a team of archaeologists has recently found a wooden tablet with a hole in the center that was used as a “ seat” in the latrines . All such seats found so far were in
Statue of Antinous Of the beautiful Antinous, young lover of Adriano, I already talked about in this post: https://www.pilloledistoria.it/2274/storia-antica/antinoo-bellissimo-amante-dellimperatore; the sudden and tragic death of the boy, who drowned in mysterious circumstances, threw the Emp
When the life of John Paul II was at stake, prayers and wishes for a speedy recovery were flowing to the Vatican from all over the world. The cables were sent by the leaders of world powers, the governments of African and Asian countries, and even by communist dignitaries. What can you find in them?
At a time when women were treated as inferior beings, the relationship between older men and young lovers was considered the only admirable love. But are love and erotic fascination the same? Whoever loves no one, will never know anyones love - warned those living at the turn of the 5th and 4t
Pre-war men had their irresistible charm. Elegantly shaved, well-dressed, well-built and showing a real kinder hair, they easily won womens hearts. We present a gallery of men to whom our great-grandmothers sigh. Eugene Bodo One of the greatest pre-war lovers - Eugeniusz Bodo (photo:public do
The Red Army liberated Auschwitz on January 27, 1945; on the spot she found demolished crematoria and only a few thousand prisoners. All camp records have disappeared. However, there were traces of what happened in the camp. Many warehouses have been destroyed, but hundreds of thousands of mens and