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Karwansaray | Ancient History Magazine - History
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The New Roman Empire with Anthony Kaldellis
In this episode we talk to Anthony Kaldellis about his new book The New Roman Empire: A History of Byzantium, Byzantium's continuity with the Roman world, and the ins and outs of writing narrative history. You can also listen to the first episode on Spotify, Apple, and Amazon.
The Connected Iron Age - Review
By Owain Williams The ‘typical’ areas of ancient history that readers are most familiar with, based on general trends in popular history publishing and on our own reader survey, are likely to be the Late Bronze Age eastern Mediterranean (ca. 1600–1150 BC), Classical and Hellenistic Greece (ca. 500–30 BC), and the Roman
Ancient Greek Cheese Graters
By Owain Williams One thing that I really love about reading history – not just ancient history – is delving into the intimate details about daily life, whether that be the jobs of the non-elites, such as sausage sellers and wood collectors, or clothing, and food. One such object that has taken my interest recently is
Ancient History Podcast - A History of the Roman Empire in 21 Women
In this episode we talk to Dr Emma Southon about her new book A History of the Roman Empire in 21 Women, the position of women in ancient Rome, and the struggles of working in academia. You can also listen to the first episode on Spotify, Apple, and Amazon.
How Women Became Poets - A Review
By Owain Williams As it is Women's History Month in some parts of the world, I thought I would review a recent book that examines the place of women in ancient Greek literature: Emily Hauser's How Women Became Poets: A Gender History of Greek Literature. Sappho, “the most famous woman poet of ancient Greece… had no wor
AH 48 Non-theme Reading List
Here are some options for further reading for the non-theme articles in Ancient History 48: Kelder (Bronze Age Cult Statues) Collins, B.J. “A Statue for the Deity: Cult Images in Hittite Anatolia.” In Cult Image and Divine Representation in the Ancient Near East, N. Walls (ed.): 13–42. Boston: American School of Orient
Ancient History Podcast - Pax Augusta
In this episode episode we talk to Roger Gassman, the solo developer behind the game Pax Augusta, a city-building game set in ancient Rome, about what it takes to make a game set in the ancient world. You can also listen to the first episode on Spotify, Apple, and Amazon.
A Guide to Writing for Ancient History Magazine
By Owain Williams In the last few months, we have had plenty of people submitting proposals for Ancient History. I think it is fantastic that so many of our readers have turned their hands to writing history. Unfortunately, however, many of the submissions are not what we are looking for. So, I thought I would put toge
The Importance of Translating Place Names
By Owain Williams I was reading Thucydides one weekend (as everybody does, of course...), when I came upon this passage: “They established a garrison at Pylos, manned by the Messenians from Naupactus who sent their best men for this purpose to what they regarded as their fatherland (Pylos lies in what was once Messeni
Ancient History Podcast: Archaeogaming
In this episode we talk to Briana Jackson about Archaeogaming, a relatively new academic field that combines Game Studies and Archaeology to investigate the representation of archaeology and the ancient world in video games, as well as the future of the discipline. You can also listen to the first episode on Spotify, A
Everyday Life in the Classical Maya World - A Review
By Owain Williams Welcome to the very first blog book review of 2024! For readers who don’t know, these reviews are part of an informal series that, by highlighting books that discuss cultures beyond the ‘big three’ of Greece, Rome, and Egypt, aims to help readers expand their historical perspectives, should they want
Exercise like an ancient Greek
By Owain Williams One of the most common resolutions people have every New Year is to lose weight – I know I repeatedly make the same resolution. Every January gyms see a rush of new people signing up to use their facilities. Considering the long winter nights after hearty, warming meals and holiday feasting, it is har
Looking ahead to 2024
By Owain Williams 2023 was a great year. We released some excellent issues of the magazine, our artists created some truly beautiful artworks, and we read some thoroughly engaging books. 2024 is looking even better. We have some very exciting things in the works. We already have some interesting issues planned, startin
Ancient History Podcast: Phoenicians Among Others
In the very first episode of the Ancient History podcast we talk to Denise Demetriou about her new book Phoenicians Among Others (Oxford, 2023), which discusses the Phoenician immigrants who moved throughout the Mediterranean and how they adapted to and influenced their host communities.
2023, A Retrospective
By Owain Williams I may be biased, but I think that 2023 was a good year for Ancient History. We released several excellent issues, each filled with articles written by experts and with beautiful illustrations. 2023 was also a good year for me. I got to work with many excellent contributors, both authors and artists, t
Silk Road Centurion - A Review
By Owain Williams Scott Forbes Crawford, author of Silk Road Centurion and contributor to both Ancient History and Ancient Warfare, after I interviewed him about his new book, was kind enough to provide me with a copy (PDF). The book follows Manius Titinius, a Roman centurion who, after the disastrous Battle of Carr
More Roman recipes!
By Owain Williams A few weeks ago, I wrote a short blog on trying out one of Manon’s recent recipes that feature in Ancient History – Roman veggie burgers. They were delicious, and I would highly recommend that people try them! This week, I decided to try out Manon’s next recipe, based upon the recent discovery of a
Thessalian Witches
By Owain Williams Witches appear with a surprising regularity in ancient Greco-Roman literature. Circe and Medusa are the archetypical witches from mythology. Both reside in peripheral areas to the ancient world, Circe on the mythical island of Aiaia (Odyssey 10.135), Medea in Colchis, in the Caucasus (Euripides, Medea
Vandalism in the ancient world
By Owain Williams Unfortunately, there were several news stories throughout this summer announcing that tourists had been caught vandalising the Colosseum in Rome. Vandalism of historic monuments is to be deplored no matter the country they reside in or the culture that created them. After my initial feelings of frustr
Thinking about ancient Rome
By Owain Williams As some readers will be aware, there has been a trend on social media concerning how often people think about ancient Rome and the Roman Empire. The trend appears to have started when people specifically asked their male partners and relations about the Roman Empire, but it has since developed into a
Ancient History 45: More Further Reading
By Owain Williams Every issue of Ancient History includes a selection of further reading items so that readers who have enjoyed the topic and want to learn more about it can do so. Usually, this further reading section is dedicated to the theme of the issue. If non-theme articles include further reading suggestions, we
Property and Wealth in Classical Sparta - A Review
By Owain Williams Early studies had, as Hodkinson writes, a “superficiality of analysis” (2000, p. 1), as scholars treated all our available evidence as equally reliable accounts of Spartan society. As Flower notes, “A traditional approach to the study of Sparta is to attempt to give a comprehensive description of Spar
Trying out Roman veggie burgers
By Owain Williams For those who are not aware, in every issue of Ancient History, we include a recipe from Manon Henzen based upon a reference in the many historical sources. You can find Manon’s website here, where she has posted many historical recipes dating from the ancient world through to the 20th century. Usuall
Some Summer reading suggestions
By Owain Williams Summer is well underway (although here in Britain it is currently wet and windy). Regardless of whether you’re sunbathing on a beach or sheltering from summer storms, here are some reading suggestions for you to while away the long evenings. The Last of the Wine by Mary Renault (1956) Mary Renault is
Man's best friend
By Owain Williams While perusing some ancient Athenian vases for images of dogs for a piece of art in an upcoming issue, I started to wonder about what dogs would be wandering around in an ancient city. If you go out in a city today, especially in a park, you will see all manner of dogs, from tiny dachshunds to Great D
The Shield of Achilles
By Owain Williams Of all the memorable moments in the Iliad, from Apollo’s arrows striking the Achaeans to the funeral games for Patroclus, no description is more evocative than that of Achilles’ shield. The 130-line description creates a clear image of the intricately decorated shield in one of the most effective mome
Total War: Pharaoh - Recommended Reading
By Owain Williams Creative Assembly have recently announced their next instalment in the Total War videogame franchise – Total War: Pharaoh. For those who are not quite familiar with Total War games, they are strategy games that combine resource management and city building in a large-scale map of a particular part of
Persians: The Age of the Great Kings - A Review
By Owain Williams Dr Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones’ (hereafter LJ) new book Persians: The Age of the Great Kings is the latest work to shine a much-welcomed light on ancient Persia, specifically the Achaemenid Empire. The book offers a grand narrative of the Achaemenid Empire, "from its modest beginnings as a tribal society in
Luxury and Power in the British Museum
By Owain Williams I recently had the privilege of being invited to visit the exhibit Luxury and Power: Greece to Persia, which examines the relationship between luxury and power in the Middle East and southeast Europe. The exhibit was divided into three sections, each concerning a different region or a different period
An interview with Scott Crawford
By Owain Williams In 53 BC, having been captured by a Xiongnu warband, nomadic horsemen who rule the seas of grass between the Gobi Desert and Mountains of Heaven, Roman soldier Manius Titinius rots in a slave camp. Until, with the help of a Chinese family, he escapes. In their frontier village, he grapples with the la
'The Heroines' by Laura Shepperson - A Review
By Owain Williams There is currently a trend of modern literary reinterpretations of Greek myths, especially reinterpretations told from a feminist perspective, as characters who were previously depicted as villains or simply passive characters lacking any real agency – usually women – are given a chance to tell their
Exchanging Eggs in Antiquity
By Owain Williams Over Easter (or Paschal), it is not uncommon for people to exchange eggs of some kind, from colourful hard-boiled chicken eggs to chocolate eggs. When you think about it, exchanging eggs is a strange tradition. However, it turns out we have been exchanging eggs for millennia. Rather than chicken eggs
April Reading List
By Owain Williams Spring has finally sprung! We are leaving winter and the long nights behind, which means more time for reading! There have been plenty of books released in the last few years that have been on my radar. This April, I am getting around to reading some of them. Here is my ancient history reading list fo
Friends, Romans, Countrymen: The Ides of March
By Owain Williams “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears;I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him. The evil that men do lives after them;The good is oft interred with their bones;So let it be with Caesar.” From William Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Julius Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar’s assassination on the Id
Heroes of Bronze: The Memory (Review)
By Owain Williams For those who do not know, Heroes of Bronze: The Memory is a short film by Martin Kleckner using the 3D computer graphics software Blender that depicts the career of Nikephoros, an Athenian, at the time of the Battle of Marathon. The film brings the early fifth century BC to life in vivid detail. This
The Curse of Tutankhamun? The persistent tales of king Tut’s curse
The idea of a pharaoh’s curse or the curse of Tutankhamun in particular has captured the imagination of millions. Such ideas existed before the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb, but that discovery in 1922, and events surrounding it, meant the idea exploded. It has been the subject of novels, films, television, video gam
Luxury and Conspicuous Consumption
By Owain Williams The British Museum has announced an upcoming exhibition that will certainly be of interest to fans of ancient history. Luxury and Power: Persia to Greece “will explore the relationship between luxury and power in the Middle East and Southeast Europe between 550-30 BC”. Drawing from a variety of arch
What is ancient history?
By Owain Williams What is ancient history? While this may seem like a simple question – one you would hope the editor of Ancient History magazine would be able to answer – it is, in fact, not so simple. If we want to discuss cultures beyond the Mediterranean basin in Ancient History magazine, it is an important questio
The Greek Experience of India
By Owain Williams “Generally speaking, the men who hitherto have written on the affairs of India, were a set of liars,” at least, according to Strabo (2.1.9). It is this central premise that Richard Stoneman has set out to explore in his exploration of the cultural interactions between the ancient Greeks and Indians in