May 2011 Articles

Roman History from the kings through the Roman Republic and Empire, with charts of battles, wars, and emperors, timelines, maps and social and cultural history, including foods and clothing.

Learn about the main gods and goddesses in Greek mythology.

Resources on learning, reading, and translating Latin, including grammar and tips about poetry, with information on important Classical Latin writers.

An updated profile of the third of the great Athenian tragedians, Euripides, who was both immensely popular and unpopular and whose life generated many legends.

Here are 10 questions to test your familiarity with the tribal system of mainly archaic age Greece and Rome.

The Silk Road was a trade route with cities where people exchanged goods, oases for refreshment in the great expanses of desert. Learn about the places in the ancient world that fell along the Silk Road.

The First Triumvirate -- a word referring to three men, was formed in the Roman Republic after Pompey, Crassus, and Caesar had demonstrated their power.

We might look to role models for our parental behavior, but it might be worth your while taking a look at these notoriously terrible ancient fathers to see what not to do. Some of these fathers from classical antiquity and classical mythology had reasons and excuses, but in the end, their children suffered.

Servius Tullius, the sixth king of Rome was a reformer and builder. Here are some of what are considered his main contributions to ancient Rome.

Being eligible to vote in a Roman election did not guarantee that your vote counted for as much as the guy at the next voting enclosure. Voting was still a new institution with various kinks to iron out in the Roman Republic, although even today there still seem to be plenty of kinks in this seemingly self-evident process.

The Roman goddess Fortuna had many different attributes and represented everything from good to bad fortune.

Maps showing an area of the eastern Mediterranean important in antiquity and known as the Levant.

Servius Tullius increased the tax basis and added many young men to the list of those who could be recruited for the constant Roman wars. His reforms to Roman society are known as the Servian reforms.

The second to last king of Rome is credited with creating reforms to Roman society that including reforming the Roman army.

Basic information on the political body of early Rome called the Comitia Curiata.

Greaves were a part of the armor of the Roman soldier. See what various greaves looked like.

The Roman legionary's boot doesn't look much like what we think of as an army boot. It looks a lot like the gladiator sandal that is sometimes popular in the summer, with a few important differences.

An introduction to the piece of ancient armor known as the lorica.

The Roman army had non-combatants in its train. Among these are the little-understood lixae.

An introduction to the very ancient Syrian city-state of Yamkhad whose heart was Aleppo. This was one of the major cities and stopping points along the Silk Roads.

An introduction to the family from which the Maccabees and other influential Jews of the Hellenistic and Roman periods came.

The Taklamakan Desert is an important desert for Silk Road and Chinese history.

A list of quotes on pain from the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius' quotes based on his Stoic philosophy and found in his Meditations.

Here is a 10-question true/false quiz on Romance languages.

Do you know why French, Italian, Catalan, and Rumanian are called Romance languages? Do you think it has to do with candles, flowers, and bottles of wine? If so, you really should read this article.

A picture essay on the manufacture of silk as it would have been done in ancient, most likely by the Han Dynasty.

This is a list of the most important ancient Chinese inventions for people of the modern world.