#AncientSiteSunday The Asklepieion of Kos (GR) was a place of worship of the god Asklepius & a place of healing & teaching medicine. Hippocrates founded his school & taught medicine on Kos. There are stunning views of Anatolia (Turkey) from here.

#RomanSiteSaturday In Volterra (Tuscany), besides the well-preserved Roman theater and adjacent remains of baths, the Etruscan arch, and the amphitheater just found in 2015, on the acropolis are the foundations of 2 Etruscan temples from the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC.

#RomanSiteSaturday One of the oldest Greek colonies in the West from the 8th c. BC, Cumae is famous for the cave of the Sibyl, prophetess who presided over the oracle of the god Apollo. Her predictions are described in works by Greek & Roman authors, including in Vergil’s Aeneid.

#MosaicMonday Located near the magnificent Greek temples in Selinunte (Sicily), there is a unique mosaic with the representation of the Punic goddess Tanit outside a Carthaginian house. Tanit was a fertility goddess and queen of heaven, later conflated with Roman Juno Caelestis.

#RuinoftheDay In the area today known as Testaccio, the so-called Emporium, Rome’s largest inland river port along the Tiber, served as docking station, warehouse and distribution center for goods and foodstuffs shipped from Ostia beginning in the late 2nd century BC.

#RomanSiteSaturday The three faces of Hadrian. It was a unique opportunity to see the only surviving bronze heads of Hadrian at the Israel Museum in 2016. One was found at Tel Shalem in northern Israel, one in the River Thames, and one of unknown provenance now in the Louvre.

Pompeii Skeleton Proves Greek Culture Thrived in Ancient Rome. Plays were presented in Greek as well as Latin. https://t.co/YKboFglOgb

#RuinoftheDay The theater in the Umbrian town of Iguvium (modern Gubbio) is dated to the 1st century BC & according to an inscription, restored by the quattrovir Gnaeus Satrius Rufus around 20 BC. It is unusually large fir this period, seating at least 6000 spectators.

#RomanSiteSaturday The amphitheater at ancient Capua, one of the most important cities in the Roman world which Cicero compared to Carthage & Corinth, was second in size to the Colosseum & the site of the 1st gladiatorial school. Here the revolt of Spartacus broke out in 73 BC.

#RomanRoadsFriday The Via Domitia, the 1st Roman road built in the 2nd c. BC in Gaul to link Italy & Hispania through Gallia Narbonensis, passed under the triumphal arch at Glanum & the Mausoleum of the Julii. The cardo maximus is still visible in the city’s residential district

#Romancity The beautiful Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Bayeux (Roman Augustodurum founded in the 1st c BC) is built on the site of a Roman temple. Remains of the ancient city include frescoes from a Roman domus and milestones.

#RomanSiteSaturday Finally Maison Carrée in Nîmes (Roman Nemausus) has been named a UNESCO World Heritage site. Long overdue! One of the best-preserved Roman buildings in the world, it is a textbook example of a Roman temple as described by the architectural writer Vitruvius.

#RuinoftheDay Les arènes de Lutèce in Paris (called Lutetia by the Romans) is a Gallo-Roman mixed-use amphitheater or a “amphitheater-theater”, i.e. an amphitheater for gladiatorial combat with a stage for mimes, pantomimes, musical or theatrical performances. 1st AD.

#RuinoftheDay The magnificent polychrome mosaic now in the Sala Rotunda in the Vatican Museums was originally the floor of octagonal hall of the baths in the ancient Umbrian city Ocriculum (Otricoli, Italy).

#TombTuesday #EpigrahpyTuesday In front of this large tomb in the necropolis at Isola Sacra near Ostia, Italy is a black and white mosaic with 2 ships towing 2 rowboats approaching the Portus lighthouse & the Greek inscription "Ode Pausilypos" (This is the place where worry ends)

#MosaicMonday Here are just a few of the extraordinary mosaics from the Villa Romana del Casale at Piazza Armerina, Sicily. The villa is renowned for the richness of the mosaics which decorate every room. They are among the finest mosaics in situ in the Roman world. ca 320 AD.

#AncientSiteSunday The beautiful Baroque Duomo of Siracusa on the island of Ortigia, Sicily is built on the stylobate (stepped platform) and incorporates the columns of the Doric Temple of Athena, erected by the tyrant Gelon to celebrate his victory over Carthage in 480 BC Himera

#FrescoFriday A hunter confronting a charging lion, thought to have decorated the balustrade of the podium of the amphitheater in Augusta Emerita (Mérida, Spain). It was discovered covered by a slab in a tomb outside the amphitheater. 1st c. AD. Museo Nacional de Arte Romano.

#RuinoftheDay While the magnificent theater of Taormina, Sicily (Ancient Tauromenion) is well-known, the nearby Roman odeon is also interesting. The Church of Santa Caterina was built on its ruins, which in turn had been built on the ruins of an ancient Greek temple in 21 BC.

#ReliefWednesday On a pilaster of arch 9 of the well-preserved amphitheater of the Roman colony Colonia Nemausus (modern Nîmes, France) is this bas relief of Romulus and Remus being suckled by the she wolf. In the Musée de la romanité – Nîmes is a cast of the relief. 1st c. AD