Classics

Not so bad, actually: Nero in the Journal of Roman Studies

Peter Thonemann | 23 Apr 2021

A fair-haired, bull-necked, poetry-loving ruler, with an eye for interior design, pathetically desperate for his subjects’ affection, sexually incontinent, lazy and slapdash in his handling of public affairs, prone to showing off his knowledge of Greek in public, and later to be remembered as the most disastrous political leader his country had ever produced – why have the Roman Society and the British Museum chosen this year of all years to commemorate the emperor Nero?…

Pots and cultural diversity in the Roman north – the case of Severan York

Martin Pitts | 14 Apr 2021

Questions on the extent of multiculturalism in Britain’s (Roman) past have never been more relevant. Thanks to the evidence of inscriptions and the recent scientific analysis of human skeletal remains we know that Romano-British cities were home to significant minorities of people with foreign origins from across the Roman empire and beyond, but what can the more everyday evidence of pottery tell us?…

Disentangling Domesticity

Lin Foxhall | 4 Mar 2021

A new blog from Professor Lin Foxhall looking at domestic interactions in the ancient world.

Introducing Lin Foxhall – new Editor of the ‘Journal of Hellenic Studies’

Kristian Turner | 17 Feb 2021

Lin Foxhall chats to Cambridge about her new editorship and hopes for the Journal's future.

‘Classical Review’ welcomes new Reviews Editor Greta Hawes

Kristian Turner | 1 Feb 2021

Classical Review welcomes new Reviews Editor Greta Hawes

Philo of Alexandria: My Ancient World dinner guest

Joshua I. Weinstein | 11 Jan 2021

I would love to have a dinner with Philo of Alexandria even though we would be more likely to disagree on most issues.…

Favorinus: My Ancient Roman dinner guest

Rachel Barney | 6 Jan 2021

I probably should be naming some mighty and mysterious genius, one of the great philosophers I study or a mostly-lost tragic poet, but it would feel wrong somehow.…

Art and character: My Ancient Greek dinner guest

Julie Ward | 11 Dec 2020

In discussing the interconnections of action and character (ethos) in tragedy, Aristotle praises the Greek painter Polygnotos for his “fine depiction of character” (Poetics 1450a27), contrasting his work with that of Zeuxis, who, famous for his realism, does not depict character.…

Lysis and his life: My Ancient Greek dinner guest

Luuk Huitink |

Visiting museums has been difficult this year, so it is with even greater longing that I often think these days of what is, to me, one of the most moving objects to have survived from antiquity: the gravestone of ‘Lysis, son of Democrates, of the deme Aexone’ (to cite the inscription), dating from around 350 BC and preserved in the Museum of Piraeus.…

David French – A Life in Anatolian Archaeology

Kristian Turner | 5 Aug 2020

“French, the son of a Yorkshire policeman, graduated with a BA in Classics from Cambridge University, but found his vocation as an archaeologist in Greece through encounters at the British School at Athens…” The latest digital publication of the British Institute at Ankara is a collection of papers that commemorate and appraise the work of David French, director of the BIAA from 1968 to 1994.…

The Türkmen-Karahöyük Intensive Survey Project (TISP): documenting the discovery of a lost kingdom in Anatolia from the Late Bronze and Iron Ages

James Osborne | 2 Jul 2020

“The Türkmen-Karahöyük Intensive Survey Project (TISP), led by James Osborne (University of Chicago), was begun in 2019 and determined that the site might not just be big, but among the very largest sites in Anatolia during the Late Bronze and Iron Ages…” One of the paradoxes of archaeology is that, although understanding of the past is usually achieved only after years of painstaking work, once in a blue moon something may be found that instantly changes one’s theories or suddenly leads to completely new research avenues.…

Why are we launching Higher Education from Cambridge University Press?

Eliza Senatorova | 25 Jun 2020

Higher Education from Cambridge University Press is our new online textbook website, launched in August 2020. In recent months Cambridge University Press has introduced a new set of strategies to support changing teaching and learning needs as higher education institutions prepare for a more digitally driven future in the wake of pandemic.…