Ancient History

Patrick Geary is co-PI of the European Research Council funded research project HistoGenes, which uses a combination of genomic, archaeological, anthropological, and historical methods to study over six-thousand burial sites in the Carpathian Basin between the fifth and tenth centuries.

In the summer of 430 B.C.E., a ship from Egypt arrived in Piraeus with an uninvited guest onboard: the "plague." The symptoms of this yet-to-be-identified disease—hypotheses range from typhoid fever to viral hemorrhagic fever—are described by the...

In 327–326 B.C.E., Alexander the Great, after having defeated the Persian King and conquered the Persian Empire, crossed eastern Iran, Afghanistan, and Bactria, testing the limits of his abilities. He attacked the fortress of Aornos, on Mount Pir-Sar...

As part of Ideas: Celebrating 2017–18, Kathleen Coleman, Elinor Lunder Founders' Circle Member in the School of Historical Studies, gives a talk on A Child Prodigy in Ancient Rome with Professor Angelos Chaniotis.

Harvard University Press has published Age of Conquests: The Greek World from Alexander to Hadrian by Angelos Chaniotis, Professor in the School of Historical Studies, which provides a compelling narrative of the main events that shaped ancient...

Emotions penetrate every aspect of our lives. Interwoven with memory, attention, cognition, and decision-making, they determine our interpersonal relations, our private life, the public sphere, and religious worship. Emotions are the background of...

During Augustus’s reign (late first century B.C.E.), the philosopher Athenodoros returned from Rome to his hometown Tarsos, in southwest Turkey. When he found the city dominated by the poet and demagogue Boethos, he used the authority given to him by...

Besides Rome itself, there are principally two cities in Roman Italy that vie for the attention of both scholars and the public at large: Ostia and Pompeii. The latter is known for its tragic end in the volcanic eruption of 79 C.E., for fascinating...

The study of cinematic representations of ancient history is one of the most rapidly rising fields of classical scholarship. As an important part of the modern reception of classical antiquity, movies inspired by Greek and Roman myth and history are...

Harvard University Press has published Volume 6, Books 28–39, of The Histories by Polybius (Loeb Classical Library, 2012), edited by Christian Habicht, Professor Emeritus in the School of Historical Studies, and F. W. Walbank and translated by W. R...