

WAS THE GREAT LIBRARY DESTROYED BY FIRE?
Maybe. Maybe not. No one knows for sure, but according to several Roman writers, including Plutarch, who lived roughly during Miriam bat...


THE GREAT LIBRARY OF ALEXANDRIA: How were so many of its scrolls acquired?
The answer is by outright thievery. The Great Library of Alexandria, the most significant library in the Ancient World, was built during...


Take a walk with me along the Canopic Way.
The Canopic Way is Alexandria’s longest and most impressive boulevard, running east to west from the Gate of the Sun to the Gate of the...


Did Alexander the Great have a splendid nose?
Well, yes and no. According to this Roman floor mosaic found in Pompeii and preserved in the Naples National Archeological Museum,...


Who wore the Roman toga?
Before the Second-Century BCE, all free Roman citizens, whether male or female, wore the toga, a semi-circular blanket of...


Did women fight in the Roman arena?
The answer is yes but rarely. Gladiatrices (the singular is gladiatrix) are the female counterpart of male gladiators. They may have...


Miriam’s Himation
Readers have been asking me about Miriam’s clothing, in particular about her himation, a garment that originated in Ancient Greece. ...


THE DEADLIEST SPORT
I’ve been working on THE DEADLIEST SPORT, the third book in the Miriam bat Isaac Mystery Series, the one that illuminates Miriam’s...


What does it feel like to enter the arena knowing you could die?
In THE DEADLIEST HATE, the second book in the Miriam bat Isaac series, Binyamin, Miriam’s brother and the type of gladiator known as a...


How would you like to stay at The Pegasus?
By the first century CE, the ports and roads of the Roman Empire were humming with commercial travelers, government personnel, military...