Big thanks to everyone who joined us yesterday evening! It was a privilege to be invited into your computer screens and I hope you enjoyed it. When I finally worked out how to read the comments, they were a delight. Hopefully nobody ran screaming from the room at the gory bits (unfortunately when you let … Continue reading Blades and Banter, the postscript
Tuesday on the Blog Tour – Parmenion Books
Many thanks to the excellent Robin Carter over at Parmenion Books for hosting today - a VITA BREVIS giveaway and some medical remedies you very probably haven't tried before. Or even considered.
Halloween: Strange goings-on at Downie Towers
“The Britain of today,” asserted Pliny back in the first century, “performs the rites of magic in manic fashion.” Given the piles of plastic Halloween tat in the shops here, it’s hard to see that much has changed. I’m normally as cynical as Pliny about this sort of thing, but at four o’clock this morning, … Continue reading Halloween: Strange goings-on at Downie Towers
The library of illegible books
Big news in recent weeks, as Ruso and Tilla have mentioned on their Facebook page. (They must be reading my mind.) It now seems someone's found a way to read the charcoal ink on the scrolls that were burned to a crisp by Vesuvius almost 2000 years ago. There really is a chance that Herculaneum's … Continue reading The library of illegible books
Can I try that question again, please?
One of the perils of combining a haphazard approach to research with a terrible memory is that I often recall useful things that I read a long time ago, but it's impossible to quote them because I no longer know where they were. Worse, I sometimes wonder whether they really existed or whether I made … Continue reading Can I try that question again, please?
First, drown your ape.
Welcome to my corner of the 2013 Wonder of Rome Blog Hop! There are (I think) seventeen of us linking up this weekend to offer blog posts on some aspect of Rome for your enjoyment. As you'll have gathered, I’m Ruth Downie, and I write a series of crime novels featuring Roman army medic Ruso, … Continue reading First, drown your ape.
Life and Death in Pompeii and Herculaneum
I love the British Museum more every time I visit. Pompeii and Herculaneum were destroyed by the same volcano AD 79, in but in different ways, so that different kinds of things survived in the buried wreckage. Now the British Museum has cleverly put items from the two together to give a vivid picture of … Continue reading Life and Death in Pompeii and Herculaneum
Apollo reappears
How wonderful to see a wall mosaic of Apollo and his muses reappearing from beneath (ancient) Roman building work. Apollo was the son of the Greek god Zeus, and his 'numerous and diverse functions' included healing, purification, prophecy, care for young citizens, poetry and music*. Although the Romans could be sniffy about Greek doctors (Pliny … Continue reading Apollo reappears
Ruth Downie 