1393
The legend of how Rome was settled gave rise to the March festival of Roman motherhood.
Romans began March, the month of the war-god Mars, by celebrating the ‘Matronalia’, a kind of mothers’ day with presents for the ladies and a day off for slaves. The strange juxtaposition of war and love was said to go back to the legend of how Romulus’s Rome was settled.
Posted March 3 2016
1394
In the populist democracy of 5th-century BC Athens, heroes fell as quickly as they rose.
After Pericles died, the Peloponnesian War with Sparta (431-404 BC) was carried on by other leaders in the radical democracy of Athens, including his nephew Alcibiades, and Nicias. Fighting a war and pleasing a people that brooked no failure in their heroes was not an easy matter.
Posted February 29 2016
1395
The popular monk was elected as bishop of Menevia in Wales in 550.
St David is the Patron Saint of Wales. His life shows just how closely connected the churches of Britain were to those of the Mediterranean world, even before the arrival of St Augustine of Canterbury in 597.
Posted February 28 2016
1396
The leader of 5th-century BC Athens lavished public money on the city and its adoring citizens, and wherever he led they followed.
The story of Pericles, the 5th-century BC Athenian leader, is one of personal magnetism and a matchless cultural legacy, and also a warning. Democracy should give us the freedom to demand more of ourselves. If we use it merely to demand more from politicians, we corrupt ourselves and them too.
Posted February 26 2016
1398
Michael Faraday showed that gases could be compressed and evaporated to preserve food and make ice.
The development of modern refrigeration involved French, American and Australian inventors, but it was a Scottish professor and an English chemist who made the key breakthroughs.
Posted February 24 2016