Can we still use a Christian calendar in a global world? But if we don’t use a Christian calendar, who are we? The question has come up in Texas. Here, in the video as well as the article, is my take.
In Jerusalem, at the foot of the western wall of the Temple Mount — where the Second Temple stood, near its southern corner, you can see a jumble of large stones, each weighing 2-3 tons. Roman soldiers threw them down when they destroyed buildings on the Mount in the year 70. The Romans burned down the Temple as part of …
As early as December 2021, the White House released intelligence findings that a possible invasion was looming. Two weeks before Russia’s attack on Ukraine in February, foreign diplomats began pulling out of Kyiv. The world took these as omens of war. (Photo: Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam)
“War sometimes takes place in dramatic sites, like the beaches of Normandy; or with a legacy of ruin left behind as a reminder, like the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in Berlin; or in places proudly commemorated by later generations, like the monuments of Gettysburg. And sometimes war happens on a lonely hill. You might pass by without noticing the blood …
“Barry Strauss’s new book is a fun and exciting examination of the events leading up to and involving the great battle, as well as the fallout afterward.” A review of my The War that Made the Roman Empire by David Kindy on HistoryNet.
“Barry Strauss, America’s foremost popular classicist, brings the story of Actium to life in ways that rival and surpass Shakespeare’s tragedy Antony and Cleopatra and Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s Cleopatra…” A review of The War that Made the Roman Empire by Paul Krause in Merion West.
Join me for my book launch talk this spring in Cornell’s prestigious Chats in the Stack series on The War that Made the Roman Empire: Antony, Cleopatra, and Octavian at Actium.
Barry talks to Ancient History Fangirl. Join us as we deconstruct this battle, paint a vivid picture of ancient war at sea, and tackle the one question everyone’s asking: why did Cleopatra flee the battlefield?
While we might crave information, we are right to be suspicious of the sources that provide it.
History shows that such talks are a way station to the real arena: the battlefield.