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Iris Online New eyes for old worlds

Top Ten Election Winners from the Ancient World

Forget the polls, spin doctors and being 'on message', the only day that matters is election day, which is all about winners and losers. Mainly the winners though. While the world today has plenty of ...

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Politicians, People and the Power of Satire

On the morning of 7th January 2015, two Islamist terrorists stormed into the offices of Charlie Hebdo, a French, strongly anti-religious satirical newspaper. Armed with assault rifles and shouting ...

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Voting In Ancient Athens

In our world, many of us belong to bodies such as choral societies or sports clubs, where we vote to elect officers and make decisions, but the voting which we first think of is voting to elect ...

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Top Ten Scandals of the Greek and Roman World

Duck houses, cash for questions, dodgy donations, sometimes our politicians give us reason to think that they are all corrupt. Yet it was ever thus and compared to some of the scandals of the ...

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Interviews

(Not Quite) Thoroughly Modern Martha.

The clock struck thirteen as I stormed the ominous portals under the battlements of the British...

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A chat with Ian Hislop, editor of Private Eye

In the midst of the apocalyptic storms that March had sent to whirl around the streets of London,...

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A Day in the Life of a Classicist

Classics is immensely transferable as a subject, and its students go on to almost every walk of...

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Travel

Great Cities of the Roman Empire - Tarragona, Spain

Welcome to Colonia Julia Urbs Triumphalis Tarraco. Better known to us today as Tarragona, it is...

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Samothrace - Moving to a remote Greek island

The 180 km squared Greek island of Samothrace in the North Aegean is dominated by the 1600 metre...

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Dougga By Day

Tunisia, a richly historical land at present under-going a (one hopes, short) period of political...

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Great Cities of the Roman Empire - Nîmes

Le Midi is the name the French have given to the beautiful, southern region of their country and if...

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When in Rome use the underground

It isn’t surprising that Rome’s Underground/Metro system is smaller than that of London’s - after...

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Bacchus in France

Philippa Williams searches for the god of wine in Aquitaine.

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