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Konstantine Panegyres, McKenzie Postdoctoral Fellow, The University of Melbourne

Did people in Ancient Rome and Greece love the same way we do? Perhaps even more hopelessly

Galen Pliny Rome Wikimedia British Museum Italy
Venus and Adonis depicted in a work by Simon Vouet. British Museum, CC BY-NC

Sometime around 100 AD, the Roman lawyer and aristocrat Pliny sent a letter to his third wife, Calpurnia – who was staying in a different part of Italy – to express how much he loved and missed her:

I love you so much, and we are not used to separations. So I stay awake most of the night thinking of you […] The only time I am free from this misery is when I am in court and wearing myself out with my friends’ lawsuits. You can judge then what a life I am leading, when I find my rest in work and distraction in troubles and anxiety.

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