As I told you in last weeks article (the one about Italians and Australians), newborns in Rome had to face the verdict of the paterfamilias . If he picked it up off the ground, it meant he accepted it. If, on the contrary, they were not accepted, the son was exposed, that is, he was abandoned. But d
If there was a ritual associated with the consumption of wine in Greece, it was the symposium. It was the time for drinking and chatting among the guests - only men - after finishing the main meal (deipnon ). At the end of the meal, the servants cleared the tables, decorated the guests with ivy crow
With the Neolithic Revolution, the first radical transformation of the way of life of humanity takes place, going from being nomadic to sedentary and from having a collecting economy (hunting, fishing and gathering) to a producer (agriculture and livestock). The development of agriculture and livest
Okay, I already know that the mission of the RAE, according to its first article, is to ensure that the changes experienced by the Spanish language in its constant adaptation to the needs of its speakers do not break the essential unity that it maintains throughout the Hispanic sphere », but since I
Looking back, in this case to Antiquity, on too many occasions we can say that Nihil novum sub sole (Nothing new under the sun), because today we have one more example:brushes to remove lint (or anything else) from clothes. The Greek philosopher Thales of Miletus , who lived around 600 BC, observed
Im not talking about an adaptation of the television series No one lives here based on Ancient Rome, which, by the way, would not be bad at all, but on Satire III (There is no one who lives in Rome ) of the Roman poet Juvenal (1st and 2nd centuries), where he denounces the social situation of a deca
If it were necessary to choose a letter of presentation of the pharaonic culture, the Sphinx would be among the first positions. It measures 73 meters in length and is almost 20 meters high. It is built from a natural outcrop of rock from an ancient stone quarry on the Gizeh plateau to which only st
Something will have this genius of strategy, perhaps the greatest military talent of all antiquity and the enemy par excellence of Rome, that just the mention of his name horrified generations of Romans and that to scare their children, as today would be the bogeyman,” they would say:“Hannibal ad p
Some time ago we talked about the oldest joke of humanity, because today we are going to see the jokes that triumphed in the different civilizations of Antiquity. Of course, starting from the basis that this humor is very relative... Sumerian Here we find some of the oldest examples of humor in hum
In the early 20th century, high temperatures and humidity threatened the reputation of Sackett-Wilhelms Lithographic and Publishing companys color printing work. from Brooklyn, New York. Bulging of the paper and improper drying of the inks were responsible for the blurry prints that ruined the entir
Any government aspires, or should, to the so-called welfare state, implementing policies and measures that allow all citizens access to education, health, social assistance and to have their most basic needs covered. But we already know that from saying to doing, there is a long way. In the Rome of
Sun Tzu said in The art of war … Know your enemy and know yourself; in a hundred battles, you will never be defeated. If you are ignorant of your enemy but know yourself, your chances of winning or losing are the same. If you are ignorant of your enemy and yourself, you can be sure to be defeated
Who would go down in history as Philip V of Macedonia born in 238 BC His father was Demetrius II, grandson of the legendary Demetrius Poliorcetes, one of the most prominent rulers of Antigonid Macedonia. When Philip was only nine years old, his father died, leaving his uncle Antigonus as regent of t
According to the RAE dictionary, sybarite defines himself as a native of Sybaris , city of the Gulf of Taranto (Italy) founded by the Achaeans in 720 BC. and famous for the wealth and refinement of its inhabitants. Hence, this term has remained to designate people who love exquisite pleasures. In t
If we go through the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford we will see a famous object on display. Specifically, it is a block of baked clay covered with cuneiform writing. It is known as Weld-Blundell Prism , by the name of the expedition that discovered it during the excavations of the Sumerian city of Larsa
Although it could well be that of a midwife, prostitution has always been euphemistically considered the oldest profession in the world. So, following tradition, were going to tour Sumer and Rome to see what we find. In Sumer, sex was lived and practiced with great disinhibition. The goddess who be
The so-called highly advanced continent that they say disappeared 11,000 years ago continues to be sought after by many who still believe in it fervently. Some place the remains of Atlantis on the island of Malta, recently there is talk of Santorini in Greece, also of the Great Grift Valley, a large
Painting in Ancient Egypt was used to decorate burial chambers, temples and palaces, usually in fresco, and the theme varied between religious symbology and everyday life. A curiosity of these paintings is that the human figures were represented as young people, without wrinkles and beautiful. For w
Sign language is a system of gestural expression that allows deaf people to communicate with each other or with anyone who knows them. Of course, I recognize that, given my limitations when it comes to expressing myself in languages other than my mother tongue, I have had to resort to this form of
In a short time you will no longer hear in any restaurant in the world that Waiter, there is a fly in my soup!, because surely the fly will be one of the ingredients of the dish we have ordered. According to a 2013 report from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), eating
Our character today was considered one of the most despicable traitors of ancient Rome. Of Germanic origin and Roman citizen at the same time, he was the architect of one of the most degrading defeats suffered by the Roman army in its entire history. Thirteenth installment of “Archienemies de Roma “
None of Japans world history textbooks mention the Battle of Pharsalus, Romes greatest battle, but at the same time, no textbook does not mention the Council of Nikea. It seems that the meeting that confirmed the Christian doctrine was more important to the Japanese textbook editor than the fate o
Bayeux tapestry:a ten-century-old object of desire In July 2018, in the context of Brexit, Emmanuel Macron officially announced the loan of the famous Bayeux Tapestry to Great Britain, the loan being granted from 2020. In reality, this cultural project hides important economic contracts between th
Charles VII (1403-1461), known as the Victorious, was a king of France from the Valois dynasty. His reign, which lasted nearly forty years (1422-1461), is inseparable from the end of the Hundred Years War. It covers one of the most eventful periods in the history of France and can also be a time whe