Most Recent Visit: July 2023 Little is known of Venusia (today modern Venosa in Italy’s Basilicata region) prior to conquest by the Romans, though according to legend it was founded by Diomedes after his arrival in Italy. He dedicated the city to Aphrodite in hopes of making amends with the goddess after he wounded her…
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Continued From Diocletianopolis, Thracia – Part I Continuing on at the Camel Gate, inside the Camel Gate, located just to the west, are the remains of barracks abutting the fortification wall. These barracks were constructed in the late 4th or early 5th century CE. Originally the barracks built at this time along nearly the entirety…
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Continued From Asturica Augusta, Hispania Tarraconensis – Part I Continuing out through the northeast exit of the Jardín de La Sinagoga, and then north on Calle Padres Redentoristas, is the Domus del Mosaico del Oso y los Pájaros, the Domus of the Mosaic of the Bear and Birds. Located at Calle Padres Redentoristas 19, the…
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Most Recent Visit: June 2022 Little is known about the history of the Roman and pre-Roman settlement that preceded the Castrum Divionense; Divio (Modern Dijon, France). The name seems to derive from a word relating to a sacred fountain, which may have been present there. Evidence suggests habitation in the area from at least the…
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Most Recent Visit: July 2023 The Roman city of Brundisium (modern Brindisi), located on the Adriatic coast of Calabria (modern Apulia) seems to have begun life as a settlement of the Messapi; though legends have the city being founded by the mythic king Diomedes of Thrace. The Messapi are thought to have originated in the…
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Most Recent Visit: June 2021 The Greek settlement of Chalcis (also Chalkis or Χαλκίς in Greek) is located about midway up the western coast of the island of Euboea (modern Evia), at the narrowest point of the Euripus, the body of water that separates Euboea from mainland Greece. The name is alternatively attributed to either…
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Continued From Aquincum, Pannonia Inferior – Part V With the civilian and military settlements of Aquincum wrapped up, there are a few more interesting things to see closer to central Budapest, nearly 5 kilometers south of the military amphitheater. In antiquity, the site of the Erzsébet híd, the Erzsébet Bridge connecting the central parts of…
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Continued From Aquincum, Pannonia Inferior – Part III The area to the west of the basilica is largely un-excavated. There are a few remains poking out amid the vegetation, but nothing that is really exposed in any meaningful way. These are all supposedly more of the long, thin houses that also seemed to have some…
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Most Recent Visit: July 2022 Prior to the arrival of Roman hegemony, the settlement of Bagacum (modern Bavay) was located in the territory of the Nervii. The Nervii are not mentioned prior to Julius Caesar’s writings, but he describes them as one of the most formidable of the Belgic peoples. Caesar relates a battle in…
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Continued From Numantia, Hispania Tarraconensis – Part I While I may have found the actual archaeological site of Numantia a little disappointing, one thing that was not disappointing about my Numantia experience was, located about 7 kilometers to the northeast, about a kilometer northeast of the town of Reniblas. Located there are the vestiges of…
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