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Caroline Wazer

Caroline Wazer

Caroline Wazer is an editor and translator based in New York. She holds a PhD in History from Columbia University, where her research focused on the concept of public health in ancient Roman politics.

Cicero denouncing Catiline, by John Leech, from: The Comic History of Rome by Gilbert Abbott A Beckett, circa 1850

In Rome, Mourning Clothes as Political Resistance

In Ancient Rome, swapping one’s regular toga for the dirty, drab robes associated with mourning could request mercy, or communicate resistance.
A disappearing Roman emperor with a lictor (left) and nobleman (right)

Latin Literature’s Problem with Invisibility

Ancient Romans saw the rituals of professional sorcerers as foreign and suspicious. But how else were you supposed to become invisible?
A Mnemosyne mosaic from the second century AD

Healing and Memory in Ancient Greece

The goddess Mnemosyne helped bards remember what to sing and was the mother of the Muses. But she also played a role in healing sanctuaries.
Figurine: The Eros terracotta figurine from Tel Kedesh, front and back views 

Source: P. Lanyi; courtesy Sharon Herbert and Andrea Berlin, Tel Kedesh Excavations.

The Archaeological Mystery of Tel Kedesh

Was a well-preserved set of game pieces and other childhood items buried by a young woman before she got married?
Ruins of a Roman aqueduct in Tunisia

Fixing the Aqueduct from Hell

The Roman engineer Nonius Datus thought the project was in good shape when he left Saldae. He would return.
Ancient Roman slave-collar

Slave Collars in Ancient Rome

The objects purported to speak for the wearer: "Hold me! I have run away."
Galen by Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller

Library Fires Have Always Been Tragedies. Just Ask Galen.

When Rome burned in 192 CE, the city's vibrant community of scholars was devastated. The physician Galen described the scale of the loss.