Damnatio ad bestias: Did you mean...?

Roman mosaic depicting damnatio ad bestias where two condemned men are being thrown to the beasts. The arena is littered with spears and splashes of blood. Numerous animals can be seen, including five bears and six big cats. In the two surviving...

An amphitheatre was a structure built throughout the Roman empire where ordinary people could watch such spectacles as gladiator games, mock naval battles, wild animal hunts, and public executions. Usually oval in form, the largest examples...

If there was one thing the Roman people loved it was spectacle and the opportunity of escapism offered by weird and wonderful public shows which assaulted the senses and ratcheted up the emotions. Roman rulers knew this well and so to increase...

Building operations were supervised by Gaius Julius Magnus, centurion of the 3rd Cyrenaican legion. The emperor Domitian's name has been erased following damnatio memoriae (formal condemnation of his memory) after his death in 96 CE. Roman...

The Amarna Period of ancient Egypt was the era of the reign of Akhenaten (1353-1336 BCE), known as 'the heretic king'. In the 5th year of his reign (c. 1348 BCE), he issued sweeping religious reforms which resulted in the suppression of the...

The Roman Senate functioned as an advisory body to Rome's magistrates and was composed of the city's most experienced public servants and society's elite. Its decisions carried great weight, even if these were not always converted into laws...

Caracalla was Roman emperor from 211 to 217 CE. Born Lucius Septimius Bassianus, son of Septimius Severus and Julia Domna, he became co-ruler with his father in 198 CE and sole ruler after the death of his father in 211 CE and of his brother...

Julia Domna (160-217 CE) was a Syrian-born Roman empress during the reign of her husband, Roman emperor Septimius Severus (r. April 193 - February 211 CE). She was also the mother of the emperors Geta (r. 209-211 CE) and Caracalla (r. 198-217...

Lucius Aelius Seianus or Sejanus (20 BCE-31 CE) was the commander of the praetorian guard under the emperor Tiberius (14-37 CE). Coming from an obscure equestrian family, he managed to become one of the closest advisor of Tiberius, hoping...

Agathocles of Syracuse (c. 361 - 289 BCE) ruled as tyrant of the Sicilian city for over 25 years. Ambitious, unprincipled, and seeing himself as a new Alexander, he famously attacked Carthage in a three-year campaign and made conquests in...