Who were the Roman cops?

Modern Roman cops – Carabinieri (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 […]

Roma Nova on Jo Frances Penn's Books and Travel podcast

Travel is a wide concept. It doesn’t just mean trotting up the steps to a plane or sitting back looking out of a train window, or even visiting entrancing and exotic places.

Travel can be in the mind, across hundreds or possibly thousands of years, into other realities and mentalities, even into an alternative […]

Surprise and pleasure at a woman leading the action?

Recently, I attended a fair near where I live in southwest France. I chatted with local English friends, met real ones who had only been Facebook friends until then and made new ones. I had a fascinating discussion about Romans in France with a French philosophy teacher who also talked about the different English and […]