Daisy Dunn

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Articles

New library books

Aug 24, 2024 | journalgazette.net | Philippa Gregory |Nancy Nichols |Julie Satow |Daisy Dunn

These works on women in history are newly available from the Allen County Public Library. “Normal Women: Nine Hundred Years of Making History”by Philippa Gregory Focusing on the agency, persistence and effectiveness of everyday women throughout periods of social and cultural transition, the bestselling historical novelist redefines “normal” female behavior to include heroism, rebellion, crime, treason, money-making and sainthood.
Who Were Cleopatra’s Rivals for Mark Antony's Love?

Jul 30, 2024 | smithsonianmag.com | Daisy Dunn

The Roman general’s third and fourth wives, Fulvia and Octavia, adopted varying strategies for luring their husband away from the queen of Egypt Cleopatra VII, queen of Egypt, remains one of the most notorious women of the ancient world. Her relationships with Julius Caesar and Mark Antony were a source of particular scandal, not least in Rome.
THE MISSING THREAD

Jul 30, 2024 | kirkusreviews.com | Daisy Dunn |Jack Weatherford |Roberto Calasso |Tim Parks

“The Mongols swept across the globe as conquerors,” writes the appreciative pop anthropologist-historian Weatherford (The History of Money, 1997, etc.), “but also as civilization’s unrivaled cultural carriers.” No business-secrets fluffery here, though Weatherford does credit Genghis Khan and company for seeking “not merely to conquer the world but to impose a global order based on free trade, a single international law, and a universal alphabet with which to write all the languages of the...
Fulvia, blazing star of the late Roman Republic

Jun 28, 2024 | engelsbergideas.com | Daisy Dunn

One of the most notorious women of the ancient world is today little known. Fulvia lived in the dying days of the Roman Republic and ventured boldly, often scandalously, into the political battlefield. She was once described as spitting on the decapitated head of her late enemy, Cicero, and puncturing his tongue with her hairpins. Later, during a military siege, she was targeted by missiles aimed explicitly at her vagina.
Facing the Facts

Jun 3, 2024 | theamericanscholar.org | Sarah Ruden |Daisy Dunn

The Missing Thread: A Women’s History of the Ancient World by Daisy Dunn; Viking, 512 pp., $35In The Missing Thread, alongside the female stars of classical antiquity, like Sappho, Cleopatra, and Boudica, British classicist Daisy Dunn introduces us to a selection of arresting minor figures: the swimmer who disabled ships during the Persian Wars, a painter and a historian (their works now lost), the Roman civil warrior Fulvia, and many more.
Mapping Pompeii's undiscovered country

Apr 12, 2024 | engelsbergideas.com | Daisy Dunn

It is in equal parts gratifying and extraordinary that Roman Pompeii should still be making headlines 2,000 years after it was destroyed. Now comes news of a discovery there of an extremely opulent ancient ‘dining’ room with stark white mosaic floors and dramatic black walls featuring some of the most exquisite mythological-themed frescoes found so far this century. Pompeii truly is the gift that keeps on giving.
We are legion

Feb 7, 2024 | engelsbergideas.com | Daisy Dunn

If you’ve ever wondered what life was like in the Roman army, you could do no better than visit the new exhibition at the British Museum, a five-star blockbuster dedicated to Rome’s crack infantry force, the Legion. While there have been many books on the subject, there is nothing quite like seeing the paraphernalia of real recruits to understand what the soldiers endured on the ground.
In pursuit of greatness: from Troy to Westminster

Aug 4, 2023 | engelsbergideas.com | Daisy Dunn

In pursuit of greatness: from Troy to Westminster Foundation myths based on the lives of heroic figures are often used by leaders to affirm their own authority — but they can also inspire wider society. The peoples of Greece and Rome were inspired by the idea of ‘Great Men’. These men were envisaged as having lived hundreds if not thousands of years before in a more glorious age.
In the face of nature we are all too human

Jul 27, 2023 | engelsbergideas.com | Daisy Dunn

Pliny, the great Roman encyclopedist, urged people to respect the environment. We should heed his sage advice. Even when presented with the video footage and satellite images, it is almost impossible to take in the scale and severity of the fires engulfing parts of Europe and North Africa. The orange skies can look more like the work of Photoshop than nature. It is no easier to describe the scenes on the ground.
A Roman Feast

Apr 7, 2023 | engelsbergideas.com | Daisy Dunn

A knotty and complex portrait of everyday life under the early Roman emperors, written with delightful abandon. Palatine: An Alternative History of the Caesars – Peter Stothard – Weidenfeld & Nicolson 2023Wealthy Romans had a reputation for being experimental in the kitchen. A cookbook by Apicius, the best-known gourmand of the first century, featured recipes for everything from flamingo and parrot to peacock.