Written for TimeTravelRome by Kieren Johns. All roads lead to Rome, or so the old proverb goes. For those of us with an interest in the ancient world, it’s a saying that still very much rings true to this day. Whether it’s a chance to explore the remains of the ancient city itself in the Forum, or the opportunity to get up close [...]
Michel Gybels for Time Travel Rome Not far from the Belgian border, in the north of France, is the Gallo-Roman site and museum of Bavay - ancient Bagacum (from the Celtic word for ‘beech’). The city was probably founded at the end of the 1st century BC. Situated at a strategic crossroads, it grew to become one of the largest and most important [...]
Michel Gybels for Time Travel Rome The Costa Brava on the Mediterranean coast in Spanish Catalunia is best known for its seaside resorts and nightlife and attracts crowds of tourists every summer. Less well known, however, is that there are also interesting archaeological sites and museums to visit there. In the region of Girona, this includes the Greco-Roman site and museum of Ampurias, [...]
Written for TimeTravelRome by Michel Gybels Description of Mithraeums - Michel Gybels & TimeTavelRome Who was Mithras and why was this outsider in the pantheon of gods so widely venerated throughout the Roman Empire? In this article, we examine this mystery cult, which initially became popular among the legionnaires during the Roman Imperial period and how the cult forged close alliances of loyalty [...]
Continued from the part II... “Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale her infinite variety. Other women cloy the appetites they feed: but she makes hungry where most she satisfies.” - Antony and Cleopatra, Shakespeare Meeting on the Kydnos Cleopatra was not deeply involved in the civil wars that immediately followed the assassination of Caesar, though she stayed in steadfast support of her [...]
Continued from the Part I. ...“So Cleopatra, taking only Apollodorus the Sicilian from among her friends, embarked in a little skiff and landed at the palace when it was already getting dark; and as it was impossible to escape notice otherwise, she stretched herself at full length inside a bed-sack, while Apollodorus tied the bed-sack up with a cord and carried it indoors [...]
To modern ears, the name Cleopatra refers to only one woman – the famed last Queen of Egypt who tragically chose the wrong lover and the wrong side in the Roman Civil Wars. However, this famous Cleopatra was actually known as Cleopatra VII, the last in a long line of kings and queens descended from the Macedonian general Ptolemy I Soter. The original [...]
Originally established by Celtic-Germanic tribes of the region, Augusta Treverorum, or "City of Augustus in the land of the Treveri," was so named during the reign of Emperor Augustus, who visited the region around 15 BC. It became an influential settlement, in part thanks to its location along the Moselle River Valley and also because it was a hub of fiscal and military [...]
Author: Marian Vermeulen “Time brought to us in our time of need the aid and arrival of a god. For there came that mightiest avenger, the victor Hercules, proud with the slaughter and the spoils of threefold Geryon, and he drove the mighty bulls here, and the cattle filled both valley and riverside.” - King Evander in Virgil’s Aeneid Nestled between the Aventine, [...]
Author: Marian Vermeulen The Origins of the Island The island of Aegina lies in the Saronic Gulf of Greece, south of island of Salamis where the allied Greek city-states managed to defeat the invading Persians in a great sea battle. Aegina is predominantly made up of a now extinct volcano, which accounts for Aegina’s fertile landscape. Today, the island produces cotton, grapes, almonds, [...]