I've had an idea for a story that I almost wish I hadn't! The germ of the story was the discoveries of Roman-era mass graves of babies in Ashkelon, Israel, and in Hambleden, England, and other places.

The situation of these graves near bathouses and the evidence that the babies were actively killed rather than exposed, and were, unusually for ( Read more... )

Setting: Roman Chichester ( Noviomagus Reginorum) in 197.  About 17 years after the Antonine Plague, which has depressed population levels considerably ( Read more... )

Time/Place: Roman Britain, 133 CE
Search terms used: "ancient roman wills", "ancient rome wills", "ancient rome inheritance", "ancient rome debt burden" (but also see links in my post ( Read more... )

I've tried googling this (search terms: "phoenician female names", "carthaginian girl names" and various variations), but haven't had much luck ( Read more... )

In the Roman Empire, can a widow inherit the entire estate ( Read more... )

Ever wondered what travel times would be like from place to place in the Roman Empire!  Wonder no more!

http://orbis.stanford.edu/# 

So this is a weird question that is hard to research without people thinking you are a serial killer, but here goes: the set-up is an alternate history of Classical Rome, set about 400 CE. The religion still includes regular sacrifices, but instead of focusing on the smoke rising into the sky, it focuses on the blood soaking into the ground. So ( Read more... )

I'm writing an AU modern-day fanfic from a canon set during the reign of the Roman Empire Republic (ETA: Specifically, between 73-71 BC) and I have several interdependent questions ( Read more... )

I have two able-bodied (one a former gladiator) male characters operating a small farm. If it’s just the two of them working, how many acres (or iugera, if that’s an easier measurement) can they manage by themselves? They’re not particularly well off, but they can afford a goat and possibly some chickens. I’m also not sure whether they would be ( Read more... )

I'm working on a story set in a fantasy pseudo-Rome, complete with gladiators (of course). Two of the characters are the children of a Lanista, and I had an idea in my head that within this family, for the past few generations, one of the requirements of inheriting the Ludus was that the sons, provided there are more than one, must understand the ( Read more... )