Roman life « Alison Morton's Roma Nova

Persecuting the Pagans

British Museum display (Author photo)

Probably because of various Hollywood films, it’s “general knowledge” that those nasty Romans spent all their time killing Christians.

Well, no…

Romans, for the most part, were comparatively tolerant in matters of religious belief and allowed countless religious sects, cults, saviours and redeemers to proselytise without restrictions. Most […]

Bored little Romans at home?

I haven’t written anything here on the Roma Nova blog about the current havoc wreaked across the world by Covid-19, the coronavirus. You can read a few of my thoughts here and here on my writing blog.

But as you probably know, Rome had its fair share of rampant disease not least the Antonine Plagues […]

Who were the Roman cops?

Modern Roman cops – Carabiniere (Author photo)

Thinking about police, gendarmes and emergency services in the past few days brought me to the law enforcers of Ancient Rome. Faced with terrorist attack (or riot, revolt and rebellion), they would have been robust in their attitude and actions. So who policed Rome?

Vigiles as […]