In Praise of Antiquity’s Grande Dames
Daisy Dunn’s new book argues that the great female poets, heroines, and martyrs of the ancient world tied history together with a ‘missing thread.’
Joan Smith
· 19 min read
Ancient History
A collection of 35 posts
Podcast #263: In Defence of Julia the Elder
Quillette podcast host Jonathan Kay speaks with Joan Smith, whose new book critically examines the 2,000-year-old propaganda campaign against imperial Rome’s leading women.
Quillette
· 15 min read
‘Shameless Beyond the Curse of Shamelessness’
In a new book, Joan Smith critically examines the historical mistreatment of Ancient Rome’s leading women—including Emperor Augustus’ daughter Julia, who was denounced as a nymphomaniac and cast into exile.
Joan Smith
· 16 min read
Games and Thrones
The real history of the era portrayed in Gladiator II is much more interesting, tumultuous, and murderous than Scott’s simpleminded yarn.
Charlotte Allen
· 13 min read
Savage Entertainment
A new version of Tinto Brass and Bob Guccione’s notorious 1979 film ‘Caligula’ provides a valuable record of one of the most fascinating disasters in cinema history.
Jaspreet Singh Boparai
· 30 min read
Two Wars, a Wedding, and a Funeral
In the eleventh instalment of ‘The So-Called Dark Ages,’ Herbert Bushman describes the dramatic events preceding the death of Attila the Hun.
Herbert Bushman
· 12 min read
Under Attila’s Gaze
In the ninth instalment of ‘The So-Called Dark Ages,’ Herbert Bushman describes a Roman diplomat’s famous fifth-century journey into the heart of Hunnic territory.
Herbert Bushman
· 28 min read
Attila Invictus
In the eighth instalment of ‘The So-Called Dark Ages,’ Herbert Bushman describes the Huns’ increasingly violent incursions into the Eastern half of the Roman Empire.
Herbert Bushman
· 19 min read
A Gathering of the Huns
In the seventh instalment of ‘The So-Called Dark Ages,’ Herbert Bushman describes how disparate Hunnic tribes coalesced into the unified force that would terrorize Europe.
Herbert Bushman
· 16 min read
Merry Christmas, Little Wolf
Christmas offers a chance to remind ourselves of the intellectual debt that our editors and writers owe to the Christian tradition.
The Quillette Editorial Board
· 7 min read
From out of the Steppes, a ‘Whirlwind of Nations’
In the sixth instalment of ‘The So-Called Dark Ages,’ Herbert Bushman describes the rise of the Huns, who struck terror into the hearts of Goths and Romans alike.
Herbert Bushman
· 21 min read
The Long Road to Aquitaine
In the fifth instalment of ‘The So-Called Dark Ages,’ Herbert Bushman describes the conclusion to the Visigoths’ four-decade quest for a permanent homeland.
Herbert Bushman
· 13 min read
A Roman Trauma
In the fourth instalment of ‘The So-Called Dark Ages,’ podcaster Herbert Bushman describes the Visigothic sack of Rome in 410 C.E.
Herbert Bushman
· 17 min read
King of the Goths
In the third instalment of ‘The So-Called Dark Ages,’ podcaster Herbert Bushman describes the rise of Alaric I, whose Gothic armies roamed Greece and the Balkans before marching on Rome itself.
Herbert Bushman
· 20 min read
Huns to the North. Romans to the South
In the second instalment of ‘The So-Called Dark Ages,’ podcaster Herbert Bushman describes the events that sparked the fateful Gothic invasion of the Roman Empire.
Herbert Bushman
· 25 min read