

Who Were The Street Philosophers?
Miriam frequently refers to the street philosophers. For example, in The Deadliest Fever, she mentions encountering them in the agora:...


Rediscovering Ancient Alexandria
The sphinxes were everywhere in Alexandria. A sphinx is a mythical creature with the head of a human, falcon, cat, or sheep, the body of...


Ancient Egyptian Perfumes
The ancient Egyptians were famous for their perfumes. Cleopatra herself wore Neroli oil, an essential oil produced from the blossom of...


The Papyrus Ebers
With a lot of luck and a dry climate like that of Egypt, the Papyrus Ebers remained stable for thousands of years. The medical knowledge,...


Gift Of The Nile
Ancient Egyptians made efficient use of all the parts of the papyrus plant, which they considered to be a “gift of the Nile.” For...


Why Not A Writers' Group?
Maybe because I’m a writer too, I wince when I read a scathing review. I know the work it takes to put words together. But it also takes...


Using Tourniquets To Treat “An Overabundance of Blood”
Greek medicine was based on Hippocrates’s theory of the four humors, that diseases occurred when a humor became imbalanced in response to...


Roman Medical Practices
In last week’s blog, we saw that the Greeks approached the practice of medicine scientifically. The Romans, however, banned dissection...


Learning Human Anatomy
Miriam explains in The Deadliest Lie that her favorite school subject was anatomy: My tutor Hector would tell us about Herophilos of...


Frescoes Expand The Interior Of Small Rooms
The Romans used frescoes to expand their interiors, which were often small and claustrophobic. The history of Roman painting is...