Pliny: Did you mean...?

In ancient Rome, the legally acceptable age for marriage for girls was twelve. Although in middle-class Roman society, the most common age of first marriage for a girl was mid-to-late teens, evidence also shows that in a section of elite...

The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus (Bodrum, Turkey), was a massive tomb built for Mausolus, the ruler of Caria, c. 350 BCE. The marble structure was so immense and decorated with such an array of striking sculptures that it made it onto the list...

Sub-Saharan Africa was explored by Roman expeditions between 19 BCE - 90 CE, most likely in an effort to locate the sources of valuable trade goods and establish routes to bring them to the seaports on the coast of North Africa, thereby minimizing...

The unicorn, a mythical creature popularized in European folklore, has captivated the human imagination for over 2,000 years. For most of that time, well into the Middle Ages, people also believed them to be real. The roots of the unicorn...

The upbringing and education of girls in ancient Rome are rarely addressed in ancient sources. A young Roman girl from an affluent family married very young, often in her mid-teens, and girls, according to tradition, were brought up solely...

The Library of Pergamon was established in the city of Pergamon (also Pergamum) by the Attalid King Eumenes II (r. 197-159 BCE) and became the most famous and well-respected center of learning after the Library at Alexandria, Egypt. The library...

The Romans assimilated earlier Greek science for their own purposes, evaluating and then accepting or rejecting that which was most useful, much as they did in other fields such as warfare, art, and theatre. This assimilation of Greek thought...

The Colossus of Rhodes was a gigantic 33-metre-high bronze statue of the sun god Helios which stood by the harbour of that city from c. 280 BCE. Rhodes was then one of the most important trading ports in the ancient Mediterranean and the...

Lars Porsenna was the semi-legendary Etruscan king of Chiusi who famously attacked and probably occupied Rome c. 508 BCE when the city had just exiled its last king and was moving towards becoming a republic. His extravagant tomb is described...

The magnificent temple on the Acropolis of Athens, known as the Parthenon, was built between 447 and 432 BCE in the Golden Age of Pericles, and it was dedicated to the city's patron deity Athena. The temple was constructed to house the new...