In 260 AD, Emperor Valerian was captured by the Persian king Shapur I. It was a shock unlike any other in Roman history. Later writers claimed he was used as a human footstool. Others said he was ...

The same travertine quarries near Rome that built St. Peter's Basilica and the Colosseum are still being dug out today, providing the distinctive pock-marked rock to build a new generation of churches ...

The anthropologist embarks on a journey by train visiting key sites of the Roman empire. Alice begins her Roman tour at Pompeii, where she explores ingenious Roman engineering, racy artworks, the role ...

Pompeii often feels like a city paused in time. When Mount Vesuvius erupted, volcanic ash sealed streets, homes, and bathhouses almost exactly as they were nearly 2,000 years ago. This preservation ...

The expansion of one of the Mediterranean’s strongest powers wasn’t only driven by conquest, but also infrastructure. By borrowing techniques from the Greeks and the Etruscans, Romans engineered ...

A recent excavation at Pompeii has uncovered new details about the construction techniques that allowed the ancient Romans to build structures still standing after over 2,000 years. Archaeologists ...

Vindolanda was an ancient Roman fort just south of Hadrian’s Wall, the defensive barrier built in the early second century to mark the northern edge of Roman Britain. The fort was home to rotating ...

Roman roads are often celebrated as one of the greatest engineering triumphs of the ancient world. Built over 2,000 years ago, these roads spanned more than 250,000 miles, connecting the vast Roman ...

Hadrian’s Wall runs east-west from the North Sea to the Irish SeaLedger et al. Now, an advanced sewer system might have been installed at the famous Hadrian’s Wall, but the Roman soldiers suffered ...

Evidence of Roman engineering ingenuity is not in short supply. From Rome’s Pantheon to the Pont du Gard aqueduct in southern France to the Alcántara Bridge on the Iberian Peninsula, large-scale ...