The Medieval Magazine (Volume 3, Issue 8) : Mother’s Day Issue
In our latest issue: Celebrating Mother’s Day. Mothers Who Weren’t: Wet Nurses in the Late Medieval Mediterranean
Motherly advice from the ninth century, Sex in the Roman Empire: In Bed with the Romans! Feast, Famine, and Food in Medieval Russia, Books: A trip through Welsh past in Mysterious Wales and much, much more!
Book Excerpt: Warriors and Kings The 1500-Year Battle For Celtic Britain by Martin Wall
For those of you looking for something Celtic to read this spring, author Martin Wall brings us Warriors and Kings: The 1500-Year Battle for Celtic Britain.
Remembering Antiquity: The Ancient World Through Medieval Eyes
Exhibition at the J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Center January 25-May 28, 2017 This remarkable collaborative exhibit takes a head-on approach…
BOOK REVIEW: Spies, Sadists, and Sorcerers: The History You Weren’t Taught in School
A review of Dominic Selwood’s, ‘Spies, Sadists, and Sorcerers: The History you Weren’t Taught in School’
A Tale of too Many Romes: Competing Byzantine and Medieval Claims to Roman Legacy
Likewise in the Middle Ages, Rome’s legacy was contested among many powers and interested parties. The eastern (Byzantine) and western (German) emperors insisted that each was the sole legitimate owner of the title ‘Emperor of the Romans.’
Restauratio and Reuse: The Afterlife of Roman Ruins
As sustainability becomes ever more critical to the architectural profession, it is worth noting that the practice of recycling has a long history.
Medieval Lisbon: Castelo de São Jorge
Above Lisbon’s skyline of colourful tiled houses and red roofs lies Castelo de São Jorge, a dominating, but beautiful, 11th century fortress in the heart of this vibrant city…
Who Were The Celts? The British Museum Offers Answers with New Exhibition
The British Museum just opened its latest exhibit, Celts: Art and Identity this past Thursday, covering 2,500 years of Celtic history. The exhibit explores Celtic identity and how it eveolved from the time of the Ancient Greeks to the present through art, culture, daily life, religion and politics.
Hellenes and Romans in Ancient China (240 BC – 1398 AD)
In this article I have assembled elements from historical texts, archaeological discoveries and research from other scholars in order to establish the links between these civilizations.
Foundation Myths in Medieval and Renaissance Italy
The 3 papers featured here looked at the development of the civic identities of Florence, Genoa and Rome through art, architecture and foundation legends.
Paying the Army in the Theodosian Period
Calculating how much the army was paid during the Theodosian period is more difficult than calculating the army’s pay about a century earlier or later.
Katherine of Alexandria: Decline of an Empire
According to hagiographers, (C)Katherine was a princess, the daughter of Roman governor named Constus. She was well educated, beautiful and highly intelligent. She converted to Christianity at the age of 13 or 14 and caught the eye of the Roman Emperor, Maxentius (278-318 AD).
The conversion of Constantine and the Christianisation of Europe
Historians have argued for centuries – in the face of contradictory primary sources – both about when and how the Roman Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity, and the nature and extent of his faith.
Unexpected Evidence concerning Gold Mining in Early Byzantium
One of the consequences of the decline of Roman imperial might was the shortage of slaves at state-run mines. Consequently, criminals were often sentenced to damnatio ad metallum. The need for gold especially soared when the gold solidus was introduced at the beginning of the fourth century.
Rose without Thorn, Eagle without Feathers: Nation and Power in Late Medieval England and Germany
It is hard at times to take the Agincourt Carol entirely seriously. Patriotism of such brash exuberance seems more properly to belong in a brightly lit Laurence Olivier world of mid twentieth-century medievalism than amid the grim and tangled realities of fifteenth- century politics and war.
ARTICLES: The Deflation of the Medieval in Joyce’s Ulysses
For James Joyce, Irish nationalism, with its appeal to patriotic emotionality and promotion of interest in the archaic and medieval Irish past, was suspect.
Christianity and the Latin tradition in early Medieval Ireland
The Christianity which arrived in Ireland with the fifth-century missionaries was more than just a literate religion; it was very much a religion of the book.
Hungary’s Conversion to Christianity: The Establishment of Hungarian Statehood and its Consequences to the Thirteenth Century
The Carpathian Basin occupies a peculiar place in history. It was the ground where Roman-Germanic world met that of the Slavs and mounted nomad peoples, where no group had achieved sustained unity before the state of Hungary was founded.
The Birth of the Monarchy out of Violent Death
There were many motives for murdering a king.
Slaves, Money Lenders, and Prisoner Guards: The Jews and the Trade in Slaves and Captives in the Crimean Khanate
Trade in slaves and captives was one of the most important (if not the most important) sources of income of the Crimean Khanate in the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries.
Scandinavia and the Huns: an Interdisciplinary Approach to the Migration Era
The aim of this paper is to discuss the early Migration period as a particular period of ‘short term history’ and its formative impact on the Scandinavian longue duree in the first millenium.
The transition between late antiquity and the early medieval period in north Etruria (400-900 AD)
Traditionally, the idea that the Roman empire ‘declined and fell’ was considered a historical fact, not a matter for debate. The beginning of the ‘decline’ was usually dated to the 3rd or 4th century AD.
The Medieval Life of the Colosseum
Archaeologist working on Rome’s Colosseum have discovered that the ancient landmark continued to be used throughout the Middle Ages, but not as a gladiatorial arena. Instead, it was used homes, workshops and even stables.
Julius Caesar and Alexander the Great: Tracing the Literary Zeitgeist from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance
My purpose here is to examine how English writers viewed and depicted these men in poetry, prose, and drama, beginning in medieval England and on through the Renaissance, in search of a pattern. In all ways, a society or culture is in a constant state of change.