Christina Athanasiou

Roman Empire Anecdotes

The Strange Necromancy Case of Libo Drusus in Ancient Rome

In AD 16, Libo Drusus was accused before the Senate in a case involving necromancy, astrology, informers, marked names, and fears around Tiberius’ rule.

Roman Empire Historical Facts

When Rome Went Dark: Life After Sunset in the Ancient City

Ancient Rome after dark was noisy, dangerous, and unequal. Martial heard bakers and crowds from his bed, while watchmen, taverns, lamps, and night workers kept another city alive.

Roman Empire Historical Facts

How Did Romans Cool Their Homes: Surviving a Heatwave with Ancient Strategies

From shaded courtyards to the cooling splash of impluviums, Romans designed their homes to fight the summer heat. Long before air conditioning, they used architecture to live with the sun—not against it.

Roman Empire Historical Facts

Debt and Disgrace in Ancient Rome

In ancient Rome, debt could expose property, reputation, friendship, and political ambition. To owe money was often to stand inside a relationship of power.

Roman Empire Anecdotes

Catullus: The Roman Poet of All Life has to Give

Catullus wrote of love, betrayal, friendship, obscenity, politics, myth, and grief. His poems reveal a learned and fiercely personal voice shaped by the final years of the Roman Republic.

Roman Empire Historical Facts

What Made the Ancient Romans Laugh?

Roman laughter could mock emperors, expose fools, ward off evil, reverse social roles, and turn myth into spectacle. What made Romans laugh was rarely simple – and not always harmless.

Roman Empire Anecdotes

The Most Dangerous Place in Rome? Beside the Emperor

Near the emperor, influence could bring honours, wealth, office, and command – but it also exposed courtiers, freedmen, jurists, relatives, and guards to suspicion, rivalry, and sudden violence.

Roman Empire Anecdotes

Ulpian: The Roman Lawyer Who Helped Define Justice

Ulpian rose from Tyre to the heart of Roman power, giving Roman law a language of justice, freedom, and dignity before dying in the violence of imperial politics.

Roman Empire Anecdotes

Did Ovid Change the Greek Medusa Myth Forever?

Ovid did not invent Medusa, but he gave her myth a powerful new shape: beauty, violation, punishment, snakes, and the making of a monster.

Roman Empire Historical Facts

The Empire behind Rome: How Society Really Worked

Behind Rome’s marble monuments was a working society of families, slaves, soldiers, engineers, roads, food, baths, festivals, and daily systems.

Roman Empire Historical Facts

Before the CIA: How Ancient Rome Built Its World of Spies and Informers

Rome had no modern intelligence agency, but its spies, scouts, informers, couriers, and imperial agents helped the state watch enemies, cities, provinces, and its own people.

Roman Empire Anecdotes

Augustus’ Secret Syracuse: The Mystery of the Emperor’s Private Room

Augustus called one private retreat “Syracuse,” a strange nickname that opened onto Archimedes, conquest, tyranny, Sicily, and imperial memory.

Roman Empire Anecdotes

Sextus Pompeius: The Last Pompeian Who Challenged Octavian

Sextus Pompeius was dismissed by his enemies as a pirate, but Pompey’s son used Sicily, sea power, refugees, and memory to become Octavian’s last Pompeian rival.

Roman Empire Historical Facts

The Roman Navy: The Forgotten Force That Helped Rule the Sea

Rome is remembered for roads and legions, but its navy helped defeat Carthage, protect sea routes, move armies, and turn the Mediterranean into a Roman highway.

Roman Empire Anecdotes

Valens: The Emperor Rome Remembered Through Disaster

Valens is remembered for Adrianople, but his reign reveals a harsher story of religion, manpower, imperial pressure, and Roman control.

Roman Empire Anecdotes

Claudian: The Last Great Poet of the Western Roman Court

Claudian turned late Roman politics into poetry, shaping a world of heroes, monsters, fragile power, and Rome’s last western court.