[email protected]

Tag: Rome

Tag Archives: Rome

14Feb/23

Valentine’s Day’s connection with love was probably invented by Chaucer and other

February 14, 2023Human InterestCarl Wilhelm de Hamilton, Chivalric romance, Claudius Gothicus, Courtly love, Crato, Creative Commons, Durham, Fowles, Geoffrey Chaucer, Italy, John Gower, Literature, London, Ma, Medieval literature, Natalie Goodison, Oton de Grandson, Pardo, Rome, Saint Valentine, Terni, The Canterbury Tales, Tradition, Valentine, Valentine's Day, Whanadmin

Natalie Goodison, Durham University

As an undergraduate, on a tour of Europe, I happened to step into the church where Saint Valentine’s head was kept. The tour guide told us a (likely fictitious) story about Saint Valentine performing forbidden marriages for persecuted Christians under the Roman emperor Claudius Gothicus (possibly 269-270 AD). Valentine was then imprisoned and beheaded in Rome.

His saint’s day has since become a celebration of romance. But earlier medieval accounts of Valentine’s life contain no mention of his association with love.

Continue reading →

26Jan/23

Pompeii’s House of the Vettii reopens: a reminder that Roman sexuality was far more complex than simply gay or straight

January 26, 2023Human InterestAncient Roman art, Craig Williams, Creative Commons, Culture, Deities, House of the Vettii, Human sexuality, I Modi, João Florêncio, Karl Otfried Müller, Phallus, Pompeii, Priapists, Priapus, Rome, Secret Museum, Naples, Sexuality in ancient Romeadmin

João Florêncio, University of Exeter

As Pompeii’s House of the Vettii finally reopens after a long process of restoration, news outlets appear to be struggling with how to report on the Roman sex cultures so well recorded in the ruins of the city.

Continue reading →

07Dec/22

Lost childhood: a ‘tight-knit’ network to combat abuse and distress

December 7, 2022FamilyMenarini, Rome, Think tankadmin

Setting real changes in motion through dialogue among experts in order to tackle the unresolved issues of juvenile distress. This was the topic addressed during the first meeting of the ‘On Radar’ Think Tank of Fondazione Internazionale Menarini held in Rome on November 29th. Continue reading

01Nov/22

Could Russia collapse?

November 1, 2022Conflict and WarAfghanistan, Awards, Belarus, Boris Yeltsin, Buryats, Chechens, Countries, Creative Commons, Dagestanis, Grand Croix of the Légion d'honneur, Ingush, Iraq, Kadyrovtsy, Kazakhstan, Kiril Stremousov, Matthew Sussex, Mikhail Gorbachev, Moscow, Nikolai Patrushev, Oleksandr Lapin, Orders, decorations, and medals, Ramzan Kadyrov, Responsibility for the Russo-Georgian War, Rome, Russia, Russia–United States relations, Russian Ruble, Sergei Kiriyenko, Sergei Shoigu, Sergei Sobyanin, Soviet Union, St Petersburg, Tuvans, Tuzla Island conflict, Ukraine, United States, Vietnam, Vladimir Putinadmin

Matthew Sussex, Australian National University

Among the many questions asked about Russia’s disastrous war against Ukraine, one of them is posed only very rarely: can Russia survive what seems increasingly likely to be a humiliating defeat at the hands of its smaller neighbour?

Continue reading →