Welcome to the Classical world.

The ancient world is not remote — it is still shaping how we live now. It’s All Ancient History is your introduction to the most word-changing stories, art, and ideas that Classics has to offer.

The ancient Mediterranean world was messy and brutal but, like it or not, it was also the birthplace of Western culture. Histories of great rulers — and monstrous ones; the first philosophies; the earliest written literature and representative art. This was the material which formed the basis of the Classical education system for more than a millennium. It is the stuff on which centuries of Western culture, politics, and thought was built.

But there are other, less exulted, strands to ancient history too. There’s the scurrilous: libelous satires, scandalous love poetry, debauched rumours. And the every day: snippets of family disagreements in surviving letters; whole life stories preserved in funerary inscriptions; the endless archeological evidence of people just getting on with things as best they could. This combination of the great and humane is what makes the ancient world so exciting.

In this newsletter, we explore all these aspects of the ancient Mediterranean world — and how its history continues to shape our world today. Whether you’re a scholar, a lifelong autodidact, or a proud dilettante I hope you’ll find something of interest.

This newsletter is written by me, Honor Cargill-Martin. I’m a classicist and art historian from London.

I occasionally write about ancient history for the New York Times and my first history book — a biography of the scandalous ancient Roman empress Messalina — was published in 2023. Think sex, murder, and high politics in the early Imperial court. It was The Sunday Times Book of the Week and one of Waterstones’ Best Books of the Year — you can check it out here, if you’re interested:

I’m currently studying for a DPhil at the University of Oxford on politics, sex, and scandal in ancient Rome.