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The Romans mass-produced glass. This statement requires emphasis because it contradicts the common assumption that mass production is a modern phenomenon and that ancient luxury goods were necessarily handmade in small quantities by skilled artisans serving elite clients. Roman …
Rome’s mines were among the most productive and the most deadly operations in the ancient world. The silver mines of Spain, the gold mines of Dacia, …
Frontinus, the Roman senator appointed curator aquarum — superintendent of waters — in 97 AD, opened his report on Rome’s water supply with a sentence …
The arch is not a Roman invention. The Babylonians built arches. The Egyptians built arches. The Etruscans used the arch centuries before Rome became …
The Cloaca Maxima — the Great Drain — is among the oldest continuously functioning pieces of Roman infrastructure. Built initially in the sixth …
The Colosseum was not called the Colosseum when it was built. Its official name was the Flavian Amphitheater — the Amphitheatrum Flavium — after the …
The Pantheon is the best-preserved ancient building in the world, and it is better preserved than most medieval buildings, because it has been in …
Rome did not conquer its empire and then build roads to administer it. The roads and the conquest advanced together, each enabling the other in a …
The Roman bath was not primarily about hygiene. That framing, which modern people find intuitive, misses what made the baths central to Roman urban …