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Iris Online New eyes for old worlds

Iris chat with Charlotte Higgins

In my wilder moments I like to think that I am rather like Odysseus: a man of wide-ranging spirit, cunning, and able to navigate the storms of life. Of course, like all heroes I am brave. But as I ...

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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 all, Rome has just 2.7million inhabitants to London’s 8 million+ (though did you know that ...

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Catullus: the most loved of love poets

Before the poet Catullus took up his stylus and poured his heart out onto wax and papyrus, men and women of the world fell in love with one another just as they do now and just as they will do until ...

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Who are you calling a Pleb?

Tory chief whip Andrew Mitchell has been in the news recently for allegedly calling a couple of policemen ‘plebs’. This appears to be unacceptable. So why has this word caused so much trouble for ...

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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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