A comprehensive "who's who" listing of the names and descriptions of Greek and Roman deities.

Illustrated dictionary entry for Greek standard orders of stone architecture. Provides explanation of the three architectural types as well as picture examples.

This site takes a brief look at aspects of ancient Roman private life. It examines where the Romans lived, describes some of their household goods, and includes clear color pictures. Links at the end of the article provide information on...

A map of the Roman territories on the Italian Peninsula after the Samnite Wars in 290 BC, showing the cities of Rome, Beneventum, Capua, Naples, and Ausculum, including the territories of Latium, Etruscans, and Samnites under Roman...

Many civilizations have inhabited this small Aegean island, near Asia Minor, since the 3rd millennium B.C. The remains of Pythagoreion, an ancient fortified port with Greek and Roman monuments and a spectacular tunnel-aqueduct, as well...

The act of reclining at meals. The Greeks and Romans were accustomed, in later times, to recline at their meals; but this practice could not have been od great antiquity in Greece, since Homer always describes persons as sitting at their...

A Persian sword, whence Horace speaks of the Medus acinaces. The acinaces was a short and straight weapon; and thus differed from the Roman sica, which was curved. It was worn on the right side of the body, whereas the Greeks and Romans...

Cameo, a term applied to gems of different colors sculptured in relief. The art of engraving on gems boasts of high antiquity, having been practised with various degrees of success by the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans.

Trowsers, pantaloons, were common to all the nations which encircled the Greek and Roman population, extending from the Indian to the Atlantic ocean, but were not worn by the Greeks and Romans themselves. Accordingly the monuments...

A mask. Masks were worn by Greek and Roman actors in nearly all dramatic representations. This custom arose undoubtedly from the practice of smearing the face with certain juices and colours, and of appearing in disguise, at the...

A mask. Masks were worn by Greek and Roman actors in nearly all dramatic representations. This custom arose undoubtedly from the practice of smearing the face with certain juices and colours, and of appearing in disguise, at the...

A shoe or boot, anything adapted to cover and preserve the feet in walking. The use of shoes was by no means universal amount the Greeks and Romans. The Homeric heroes are represented without shoes when armed for battle. Socrates,...

The large shield worn by the Greeks and Romans, which was originally of the circular form, and is said to have been first used by Proetus and Acrisius or Argos, and therefore is called clipeus Argolicus, and likened to the sun. But the...

The large shield worn by the Greeks and Romans, which was originally of the circular form, and is said to have been first used by Proetus and Acrisius or Argos, and therefore is called clipeus Argolicus, and likened to the sun. But the...

An oil lamp. The Greeks and Romans originally used candles; but in later times candles were chiefly confined to the houses of the lower classes. A great number of ancient lamps has come down to us; the greater part of which are made of...

An oil lamp. The Greeks and Romans originally used candles; but in later times candles were chiefly confined to the houses of the lower classes. A great number of ancient lamps has come down to us; the greater part of which are made of...

The palla, as well as the pallium and palliolum, was always a rectangular piece of cloth, exactly, or, at least, nearly square. It was, indeed, used in the very form in which it was taken from the loom, being made entirely by the weaver....

A Greek and Roman liquid measure, containing one-twelfth of the sextarius, or .0825 of a pint English. The form of the cyathus used at banquets was that of a small ladle, by means of which the wine was conveyed into the drinking-cups...

Halteres were certain masses of stone or metal, which were used in the gymnastic exercises of the Greeks and Romans. Persons who practised leaping frequently performed their exercises with halteres in both hands; but they were also...

The most common material on which books were written by the Greeks and Romans, was the thin coats or rind of the Egyptian papyrus. This plant was called by the Egyptians Byblos. The papyrus tree grows in swamps to the height of ten feet...

Sacrifices being of the nature of feasts, the Greeks and Romans, on occasion of extraordinary solemnities, placed images of the gods reclining on couches, with tables and viands before them, as if they were really partaking of the things...

A cuirass. The cuirass was worn by the heavy-armed infantry both among the Greeks and Romans. The soldiers commonly wore cuirasses made of flexble bands of steel, or cuirasses of chain mail, but those of generals and officers usually...

A cuirass. The cuirass was worn by the heavy-armed infantry both among the Greeks and Romans. The soldiers commonly wore cuirasses made of flexble bands of steel, or cuirasses of chain mail, but those of generals and officers usually...

The figure in the middle of the following illustration is from a most ancient specimen of Etruscan sculpture, and represents an augur with his lituus, or staff. The others are Roman denarii. - Anthon, 1891