The statuary and architecture of ancient Greece and Rome has inspired us for centuries. Our own nation’s capital, with all its gleaming white marble, is a tribute to what we suppose an ancient city of grandeur ought to look like. And while it is true that many buildings in Rome did employ white Luna marble and the creamier yellow kind from Numidia, the cities and statuary were generally a riot of color.

How do we know? Fragments of paint and pigment left on statues and found in archeological digs tell us so. But I’ve never seen it actually rendered as vividly as in the series of photos discussed in this article.

The colors and patterns that ultra violet light reveals might be considered “tacky” as the article observes, but it seems to me that the ancients were expressing their own version of bringing the past to life. We use color photographs to record the present, and resort to bold cinematic reproductions to explore the past. We do this because life is full of color, and we want to make everything as real as possible. It seems that with the limited technology available to them, the ancients wanted to do the same.

This is more than a little past my time period, but I cannot resist an ancient Roman sword-and-sandal epic and this one looks better than any recent such endeavor. This review makes it sound rather promising.

On August 24, 79 AD, Mount Vesuvius exploded, killing thousands and burying Pompeii under a layer of ash. You might not think this is cause to celebrate, but the largest volcanic explosion in recorded history is apparently a holiday.

Perhaps this is meant in the sober spirit of Memorial Day, in which we remember those we’ve lost. To that end, I’d like to share this recent article exploring a cheery new theory that many of the casualties of that ancient disaster were not suffocated, but ‘cooked alive.’

The city of Pompeii and its surrounds were still untouched by this tragedy during the lifetime of Cleopatra Selene, but in the sequel to Lily of the Nile, I do have her visiting the resort town of Baiae, where the air smelled like sulfur and the ground was warm to the touch. It turns out that volcanic activity made for some delightful hot tubs!

Okay, how great is this? My friend Karen Wester Newton just informed me that Vicky Alvear Shecter has a book out this month called Cleopatra Rules: The Amazing Life of the Original Teen Queen.

Sure, my books are dark and angsty tomes, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have a sense of humor…or at least appreciate someone who does. I’m always thrilled whenever I see a new book out about Cleopatra, especially one for teens. But I’m even more delighted when I find a kindred spirit like this author, who brings such passion to the ancient world.

Just look at that delicious cover. I wish I knew a teenaged girl that I could send this book to. Any suggestions?

In 8 BC, the month of Sextilis was re-named in honor of Rome’s first emperor and we’ve called it August ever since. It seems only right that we should take this month to celebrate his accomplishments.

In deciding which month to claim as his own, Augustus passed over the month of his own birth in favor of the month in which he conquered Cleopatra. Augustus put an end to the civil wars by ruthlessly eliminating all possible rivals. However, once he was the unquestioned ruler of the empire, he was able maintain a period of relative peace and prosperity for the Romans that lasted more than two hundred years. This became known as the Pax Romana.

A superb administrator, he seems to have attempted to inculcate a love of peace in the Roman mindset that transcended the more traditional aspirations of war-booty and territorial expansion. What’s more, unlike his predecessor, Julius Caesar, Augustus had a knack for recruiting men who would not only be useful to him, but also, loyal to him. For example, though Augustus wasn’t talented on the battlefield, he befriended men of military brilliance, like his school friend, Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa.

Order was the byword of his regime, and he used his authority as “First Citizen” to reform and stabilize the empire. He introduced the notion of publicly funded police and fire fighters. He maintained a standing army to defend Roman territory. He built an unprecedented number of roads and instituted public projects on a scale never attempted before, or perhaps since. He standardized taxation throughout the empire and he restored a great many temples. He also commissioned great works of art, including the nationalistic epic poem, Virgil’s Aeneid.

Of his most enduring legacies was the effective political use of an appeal to traditional values. Augustus asked the Romans to reform their behavior so as to be in keeping with older and supposedly more simple times. He passed all manner of social legislation that directly interfered with the family lives of his subjects–laws on marriage, adultery, and social obligation. His attempt to transform Roman society was ultimately a failure: within a generation, the debauched days of Caligula were visited upon the Romans. However, the political notion of a culture war endures to this day.