A belated nod to International Men’s Day (November 19) and a salute to Movember — a post about the mystery cult of Mithras. Its rituals were conducted in man-caves, included wing-men and were for men only! The cult of Mithras began in Persia and became popular among both soldiers and officers of the Roman army. …
When Romans invaded they brought their gods with them but these rarely displaced the local gods. What happened was people would equate local gods with Roman gods. It might have gone something like “oh, Maponus has the same attributes and sphere of influence as Apollo so they must be the same god but with different names.” …
Last Saturday night my Hadrian’s Wall hiking group got together for a Roman feast potluck. We dined well on dishes based on ancient Roman recipes adapted in the book, The Classical Cookbook by Andrew Dalby and Sally Grainger. Our menu included: Honeyed White Wine Garlic Cheese with Bread Olives Parthian Chicken Shoulder of Pork with …
Two thousand years ago Romans didn’t hold back celebrating. Especially during December. According to a book I’ve just read, Roman Timetable by Simon James Young, here is a list of Roman festivals just for December: 3/12/11 – Bona Dea (the good goddess) for women only; games, music and dancing. 5/12/11 – Faunus (god of the wild …
Trajan erected his famed column in AD 113 and it was an original and memorable way to broadcast his success in defeating one of Rome’s long-time enemies, the Dacians and their ruler Decebalus. The column was covered in carved depictions of events that happened during his campaigns in Dacia (modern Romania) on the Danube frontier in …
Hideous women performing strange and perverse nocturnal acts, summoning the power of the demons who dwell between the earth and the underworld, between life and death. Witches haven’t changed much in 2000 years and we have no trouble recognizing the witches of Roman literature. Canidia and Sagana– Horace wrote two poems about these witches, one slightly …