Dr Joshua Hall talks with Dr Ulla Rajala (Stockholm University) about Early Rome, with special reference to books that have been recently published on this topic.

The ancient Greek stories about gods and heroes are set in a time long ago. Did the ancient Greeks believe that their tales were set during the period that we today refer to as the Bronze Age? The answer is no, but this requires some qualification.

Someone on Reddit’s AskHistorians wondered if bows were unpopular in ancient Greece. An uncritical reading of the ancient sources might, at first glance, suggests that this was indeed the case, but nothing could be further from the truth.

On the southern coast of Crete, a little north of Matala, lies Kommos, the site of a Minoan harbour town. While not open to the public, you can get a good sense of the site from behind the fences.

The newest entry into the Total War series of strategy games is inspired by the Trojan War. While the game looks beautiful, it’s not something that I have enjoyed playing.

Located about 30 km east of Rethymno is Gerontospilios (“Old Cave”), more commonly referred to in English as the Melidoni Cave, an underground site of great historical significance.

With the recent release of the strategy game A Total War Saga: Troy, there has been a flood of videos about the Trojan War. Sadly, many of them are not very good. The recent video by Extra Credits on “Battles in the Bronze Age” is an example.

Last month, Josho Brouwers gave a lecture about the cultural signifcance of the Homeric epics to ancient Greek warfare, which was also recorded on video. Here you can read the text of this lecture.

A great stone monument dated to the Archaic period (ca. 600 BC), the Lion of Kea is an impressive early Greek monument. But it is almost entirely ignored in the history of Greek art.

Did the hilly terrain of Italy force the Romans to abandon the hoplite phalanx? Did they even use the phalanx to begin with? In this article, we suggest “no” to both of those questions.