Classical corner

Apocalyptic scenes in Southern Europe as wildfires rage

Carthage burned for six days. After three long years of siege, in the spring of 146 BC Roman soldiers finally broke through the city’s defences and began to slaughter the population. But still the Car

For weeks this summer, firefighters have battled flames across Langdale Moor in the North York Moors National Park. The fire has scorched more than 2,000 acres – about 10 square miles – inland between

The most intriguing aspect of this book is that it’s written as a sort of ‘life in the day’ of the Colosseum, that vast edifice begun in Rome by the emperor Vespasian (AD 69–79) to entertain the masse

As frequently, this column is inspired by Britain’s Queen of Classics, Mary Beard. This time, her ‘History of food tasters from Nero to now,’ appearing (25 May 2025) in the TLS weekly Newsletter. Does

“Something is probably going on that we don’t yet know about.” – Lewis Thomas, MD, dean of Yale’s Medical School and medicine’s poet-philosopher Modern medicine has gotten pretty good at figuring out