
The mystery of the lost Roman herb
Julius Caesar kept a cache of it in the government treasury and the Greeks even put it on their money....

A Brief History of Book Burning, From the Printing Press to Internet Archives
As long as there have been books, people have burned them—but over the years, the motivation has changed

A Byzantine ancestor to same-sex marriage?
The medieval Byzantine Empire might hold some lessons about tolerance and same-sex marriage.

The uncertain origins of the modern marathon
The story behind the marathon is more complicated than it seems.

3,700-year-old Babylonian tablet rewrites the history of maths - and shows the Greeks did not develop trigonometry
A 3,700-year-old clay tablet has proven that the Babylonians developed trigonometry 1,500 years before the Greeks and were using a...

X-Rays Reveal Details of Portrait Once Hidden Under Vesuvius' Ash
Using X-ray fluorescence, researchers have mapped the pigments used on a crumbling painting in Herculaneum

The Long History of Damnatio Memoriae and the Destruction of Monuments
After video emerged Monday of protesters toppling and kicking the Confederate Soldiers Monument in Durham, North Carolina, some suggested that...

A Short History Of Torches And Intimidation
The carrying of torches to suggest power and project intimidation has a long and sordid history.

Analysis of Roman coins tells of Hannibal's defeat and Rome's rise
Scientists find that silver used came from mines captured by Rome from Carthaginian leader on Iberian peninsula