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What were the Greeks and Romans like? Their letters suggest they weren’t so different from us

When we read about the Greco-Roman world, we often hear the stories of famous and wealthy men and women. But the letters of ordinary people, preserved on papyri in Egypt, show us what they were thinking and doing. Human nature, their contents suggest, hasn’t changed much.

The Conversation

Guide to the classics: written more than 2000 years ago, Cicero’s On Old Age debunks stereotypes that persist today

As the New Year festivities fade, each January reminds us of the passage of time. There is a tendency to look back with regret at roads not taken, and perhaps even despair at what the future holds.

The Conversation

Nobleman, soldier, revolutionary, humanist – who was Tadeusz Kościuszko, the man behind the mountain?

Anthony Sharwood’s Kościuszko: The Incredible Life of the Man Behind the Mountain is far more than a biography of an extraordinary historical figure. It is a trip through time, continents and cultural landscapes. It blends the life of Tadeusz Kościuszko (1746–1817) – a nobleman, military engineer, revolutionary and humanist –…

The Conversation

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New Year’s Eve celebrates St. Silvester – the 4th-century pope whose legend shaped ideas of church and state

On Dec. 31, while many people are preparing for their New Years Eve parties, some Roman Catholic Christians will also mark the feast day for St. Silvester.

The Conversation

Friday essay: A man out of time – E.M. Forster’s A Passage to India at 100 and the legacies of colonialism

I was aware of David Lean’s cinematic adaptation of A Passage to India (1984) before I encountered E.M. Forster’s original novel, which celebrated its centenary in 2024. While the film was being shot on location, I had a vague sense of the ambition as well as the arrogance of those…

The Conversation

Where does Santa live? It’s a trickier question to answer than you may think

Sending a letter to Santa can be difficult as no one can agree on where exactly Santa lives. Several countries are competing to claim Santa as one of their citizens.

The Conversation

Greed, Erich von Stroheim’s intense, monumental silent film, turns 100. Its legacy lives on

First released in New York on December 4 1924, Erich von Stroheim’s intense, monumental Greed remains more famous for what didn’t end up on screen than what did.

The Conversation

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Friday essay: ‘murdered because he was a Jew’ – Robert Manne on his grandfather Chaim and the hell of Vienna’s 1938 pogrom

My father’s father, Joachim Manne, or Chaim, as he was called, was a Galician Jew born in 1872 and raised in Cracow, in the Polish lands of the Habsburg Empire.

The Conversation

The best subtitle fonts for accessibility

Here are the accessible fonts to use for subtitling video, TV and film content, with advice from experts. Subtitles are vital for accessibility.

Creative Bloq

The Magic Mountain is a sweeping critique of totalitarian Europe. 100 years later, its warnings feel urgent

This month, Nobel Prize winner Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain turns 100. One of the 20th century’s towering literary achievements, it is a sweeping critique of the dangerous totalitarian political forces that shaped – and very nearly destroyed – Europe in Mann’s lifetime.

The Conversation

The government has withdrawn its misinformation bill. A philosopher explains why regulating speech is an ethical minefield

Misinformation and disinformation are major concerns worldwide. The federal government’s misinformation bill aimed to respond to the threats posed by false, misleading and harmful information. The bill met strong opposition in the senate and has just been withdrawn.

The Conversation

Sudan’s national treasures have been stolen – we spoke with the director of museums

In September, amid the ongoing war in Sudan, reports began to surface of the looting of the Sudan National Museum in the capital, Khartoum. The museum is internationally celebrated for the breadth of its collection. It illustrates powerful and unique African kingdoms from the ancient and medieval past in a…

The Conversation

Why you should get to know Thomas Aquinas, even 800 years after he lived

Some years ago, I was rushing past the treasures of the Louvre in Paris, on the way to the “Mona Lisa,” when a painting stopped me in my tracks.

The Conversation

Vanitas and the life of the author: in Chinese Postman, Brian Castro transforms fiction into a mechanism of truth

There was a point in the 1990s where it became fashionable to emphasise that autobiography was fiction. This proposition sprang up to complement an earlier stricture that emerged with the New Criticism of the mid-20th century – namely, that the author of a work of fiction was never the narrator.…

The Conversation

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The Conversation

Part science, part magic: an illuminating history of healing with light

For millennia, humans had one obvious and reliable source of light – the Sun – and we knew the Sun was essential for our survival.

The Conversation

Kristallnacht’s legacy still haunts Hamburg − even as the city rebuilds a former synagogue burned in the Nazi pogrom

Johanna Neumann was 8 when she witnessed a mob of local citizens and Nazis vandalizing the Bornplatz Synagogue in Hamburg. They were “shouting and throwing stones at the marvelous glass windows,” as she later said in an oral history interview. Other students at the Jewish school nearby described a mountain…

Reason

Maduro and His Crony Made Millions While Venezuelan Children Starved

Venezuela is governed not only by a brutal dictatorship, but by a band of depraved criminals who have enriched themselves in part by stealing money intended to buy food for hungry children.

The Conversation

Debates about Columbus’ Spanish Jewish ancestry are not new − the claim was once a bid for social acceptance

In connection to Columbus Day and Indigenous Peoples Day, media from the BBC and Fox to Reuters and Haaretz reported on new DNA evidence about the holiday’s original namesake. According to research revealed in a recent Spanish documentary, Christopher Columbus was not Italian, as widely assumed, but Sephardic: of Spanish…

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The Conversation

Israel’s ‘generals’ plan’ to clear Palestinians from north of Gaza could pave the way for settlers to return

Western political leaders were quick to argue that the killing of Hamas leader, Yahya Sinwar, on October 17 presented a window of opportunity. Perhaps the decapitation of the militant group’s senior command would be a chance for renewed ceasefire talks and the release of the Israeli hostages.

The Conversation

Exile, resistance and cactus pears: two Australian writers’ depictions of Palestinian life weave a powerful tapestry of stories

While Hasib Hourani’s Rock Flight and Samah Sabawi’s Cactus Pear for My Beloved are both books by Australian writers that speak of the Palestinian experience, they could not be more different.

LiveScience

'The waters become corrupt, the air infected': How the ancient Greeks and Romans viewed pollution and what they did about it

Here's what the ancient Greeks and Romans can teach us about the environment and ourselves. From Roman soldiers in crowded camps to emperors cleaning up rivers, there are many lessons to be learned.

Inverse

The Abandonment Of This Early City Might Be Less Mysterious Than Many Think

Why abandon and dense and robust town? For early civilization the answer might lie in city planning — and disease.

The Conversation

During the American Revolution, Brits weren’t just facing off against white Protestant Christians − US patriots are diverse and have been since Day 1

In 1770, Barnard Gratz of Philadelphia wrote to a friend complaining about a recent speech by King George III. Gratz, an American patriot, wrote that the speech “was such narishkeit” that it was “not worth the postage.”

LiveScience

32 physics experiments that changed the world

From the discovery of gravity to the first mission to defend Earth from an asteroid, here are the most important physics experiments that changed the world.

The Conversation

‘The waters become corrupt, the air infected’: here’s how Ancient Greeks and Romans grappled with environmental damage

Today the perilous state of the environment is often in the news. Many stories describe how Earth is being damaged by human beings and discuss ways to prevent this.

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