In The Deadliest Lie, Miriam explains to her aunt what the study of alchemy means to her: “Alchemy is the search for both material and...

Playing the cithara was arguably the most popular, most geographically widespread, and longest-running performance genre in Antiquity....

Salt is either mined or harvested by evaporation. In Alexandria, salt is made from the evaporation of weakly saline seawater from ponds...

In THE DEADLIEST HATE, Miriam is suspicious of a man she encounters in Caesarea. She sees he’s come up in the world since he used to...

In The Deadliest Lie, we learn that Miriam and Phoebe celebrated the Isis festivals at the Flamingo’s Tongue, the smoke-filled restaurant...

A wax tablet is a wooden frame covered with a layer of wax. It was used as a portable writing surface from Antiquity throughout the...

Miriam frequently refers to the street philosophers. For example, in The Deadliest Fever, she mentions encountering them in the agora:...

The sphinxes were everywhere in Alexandria. A sphinx is a mythical creature with the head of a human, falcon, cat, or sheep, the body of...

The ancient Egyptians were famous for their perfumes. Cleopatra herself wore Neroli oil, an essential oil produced from the blossom of...

With a lot of luck and a dry climate like that of Egypt, the Papyrus Ebers remained stable for thousands of years. The medical knowledge,...