Ancient marble head discovered under Italian town’s 2,000-year-old city walls is identified as Rome’s first emperor Augustus by his big ears and unusual ‘swallow-tail’ hairstyle The head was discovered during renovations to the historic city walls in Isernia It bears Augustus’ iconic ‘swallow-tail’ haircut and comma-like locks Rome took Isernia in 295BC but briefly lost control to … Read more
Ancient marble head discovered under Italian town’s 2,000-year-old city walls is identified as Rome’s first emperor Augustus by his big ears and unusual ‘swallow-tail’ hairstyle The head was discovered during renovations to the historic city walls in Isernia It bears Augustus’ iconic ‘swallow-tail’ haircut and comma-like locks Rome took Isernia in 295BC but briefly lost control to … Read more
A giant bronze statue of the Roman emperor Constantine the Great has been reunited with a finger that it lost some 500 years ago. Held in the Capitoline Museums of Rome, remains of the 39ft colossus include a head as tall as a man, a damaged left hand and the sphere it once bore. In 2018, … Read more
After vanishing for 62 years and ending up as a coffee table, a mosaic that adorned the bridge of one of Emperor Caligula’s lavish pleasure barges has returned to Italy. The 2,000-year-old, 5 sq. foot red, green and white pattern was recovered from the bottom of Lake Nemi — 19 miles south of Rome — … Read more
A mausoleum built two millennia ago for the first Roman emperor, Augustus, has finally reopened to the public after 14 years and a $12.25 million restoration project. The funerary monument took five years to restore and make safe before it could be reopened to the public, including removing rubbish and clearing surrounding trees. Towering above … Read more
A massive mausoleum built in 28 BC for Rome’s first emperor Augustus has been restored and is set to open to the public next year. Towering above Rome’s historic center, the ancient tomb was once used as a military look-out point and hosted the lavish parties of the Roman dynasty. The structure was also transformed … Read more
The emperor penguin has managed to create a home in one of the most hostile habitats on Earth – Antarctica. And award-winning photographer Stefan Christmann has captured their unique existence there in a quite breathtaking collection of photographs, showcased in a stunning coffee table book called Penguin – A Story of Survival, published by teNeues … Read more
My favorite fairy tale when I was a kid was Hans Christian Andersen’s ‘The Emperor’s New Clothes’. It’s about a narcissistic, deluded, arrogant, materialistic and detached Emperor of a city who loves expensive new clothes. Two conman weavers persuade him they can create beautiful suits made of such fine fabric that they would be invisible … Read more
MEMOIR RESCUING MY FATHER by Susanna Johnston (Zuleika £10, 128pp) Doting elder sister of the late Spectator editor Alexander Chancellor, slightly less adoring daughter of the late-lamented (and late-demented, poor man) former Reuters chairman Sir Christopher Chancellor, the writer Susanna Johnston has collated this charming, witty selection of vignettes and diaries from her well-connected life. … Read more