The last human sacrifices carried out in Rome—beyond considering the ludi gladiatorii as an acceptable adaptation of the concept—took place in 216 BC. It was during a colossal catastrophe that shook Rome to the point of desperately reviving those ancient practices. The same disaster that caused tens of thousands of deaths, the loss of many […]
Jorge Álvarez
Degree in History and Diploma in Archival and Library Science. Founder and director of Apuntes magazine (2002-2005). Creator of the blog El Viajero Incidental. Travel and tourism blogger since 2009 in Viajeros. Editor of LBV Magazine.
Posted inAncient Rome
The Debated Historicity of the Overthrow of the Roman Monarchy and the Birth of the Republic
Traditionally, the history of Rome begins with its founding by Romulus, a descendant of the exiled Trojan Aeneas, and the establishment of a monarchy under which seven kings succeeded one another. The last of these was Tarquinius Superbus the Proud, who was overthrown in the 6th century BCE after his son assaulted a patrician woman […]
Posted inAntiquity
Mount Medullius, the Site of the Last Cantabrian Resistance Against the Roman Conquest Whose Location Remains Unknown
The term Astur-Cantabrian Wars refers to the long conflict that the Romans waged along the Spanish Cantabrian coast for a decade, between 29 and 19 B.C. The subjugation of Hispania’s last resistant peoples, the Astures and Cantabrians, was the campaign chosen by Augustus in 27 B.C. to consolidate his newly acquired power, securing control over […]
Posted inArt, Travel
The Talking Statues of Rome
Statues don’t talk, evidently, and they never have, except when some clever priest of Antiquity used a hollow in the stone to deliver whatever message he was interested in. But that’s not the case we’ll discuss today with the statue parlanti, or talking statues, because these expressed themselves in writing. They are a series of […]
Posted inAncient Rome
Marcus Valerius Laevinus, the Roman general who persuaded the senators to donate their assets to fund the war against Hannibal
The name Marcus Valerius Laevinus doesn’t mean much to most history enthusiasts, not even to those interested in Ancient Rome, as he remains overshadowed by other contemporaries who achieved lasting fame due to their roles in the Second Punic War, such as Hannibal Barca, Scipio Africanus, Marcus Claudius Marcellus, or Quintus Fabius Maximus. But Laevinus […]
Posted inAncient Greece
The Laws of Charondas, the Greek-Sicilian Legislator Who Wrote Them in Verse
Legal language is harsh and convoluted for most people, a sentiment that law students who have to memorize laws would surely agree with. Would it be easier if these laws were written in verse? This was the belief of Charondas, a legislator from Antiquity, who applied it to the legal corpus he created for the […]
Posted inAntiquity
The Sicilian Wars that Pitted Carthage against Magna Graecia were the Longest-Lasting Conflict in Antiquity
The rivalry between Rome and Carthage for control of the western Mediterranean culminated in the three Punic Wars, fought between the two powers from 264 B.C. to 146 B.C., ending in Roman victory. However, this wasn’t the first time the Carthaginians had resorted to arms to contest maritime dominance; they had been doing so since […]
Posted inSecond World War
The Last Cavalry Charges in History Happened During World War II
Although it seems more characteristic of earlier times, cavalry remained active until the mid-20th century. We’re not referring to the modern concept, in which the name has been adopted by tank and/or attack helicopter units, but to cavalry in the strict sense, where combat was fought on horseback. In fact, cavalry was used more in […]
Posted inModern Era, Science
How the movie ‘Frozen’ helped solve the Dyatlov Pass incident, the mysterious deaths of nine hikers in 1959
If we combined the premise of the movies Match Point and Final Destination, the result could very well be called Yuri Yudin. This was the name of a young Soviet man who, paradoxically, was saved by a series of health issues in 1959, forcing him to abandon an expedition that would cost the lives of […]
Posted inModern Era
Qian Xuesen, the Scientist Expelled from the United States Who Brought China Into the Space Race
On October 31, 2009, an elderly man, nearly a century old, passed away in Beijing. His name was Qian Xuesen, and in China, he is considered a national hero for being the father of the country’s astronautics program, to the point that China’s first manned space mission, successfully carried out in 2003, was based on […]
