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After surviving exposure at birth, these unconventional academics realised they were destined to found the greatest Ancient Roman History podcast! đŸ›đŸ“Żâš”ïž 📘‘Your Cheeky Guide to the Roman Empire’ is out now! https://linktr.ee/ThePartialHistorians

Description from Nicolo Melissa Antiques: “Ancient Roman Carved Phallus. Carved white marble phallus with figure grasping the shaft that can be interpreted as a representation of fertility.” Thought to date to the first Century CE.
A frieze showing six figures. From left: a veiled seated woman (possibly the chief Vestal Virgin) facing right; four veiled standing women facing right; a one figure at the far most right facing towards the viewer but details are missing from the mid torso up.
A short video of walking down the Appian Way.
Video of Trajan’s forum showing reconstructed columns and flooring.
Dr G stands outside the Colosseum with her arms wide as if to ask the question posed by Maximus in the arena.
Short video of Etruscan frescoes depicting scenes from Homeric epic.
Image of a grey-stone paved road surrounded by dry grass, pines, and ancient crumbling structures.
Video of the exterior of the pantheon in Rome.
Dr G looking up at the modern statue of Augustus based on the Prima Porta style on the Via dei Fori Imperiale.
Short video of an ancient Roman statue which is heavily worn and the head is missing. The figure is seated and likely male.
This fresco depicts a woman playing the lyre, while seated next to a man, though he might be a god. To the far right another woman leans on a wall watching the other two. The woman playing the lyre seems to be frowning. The fresco is thought to date from 50–79 CE and come from Pompeii. Now held by the British Museum.
Image: Antiquity Reaches Society 1st Workshop on Outreach for Classicists - Warsaw Thursday 2nd – Friday 3rd July, 2026. Hybrid Event.
This mosaic medallion depicts Dionysus in his distinctive wreath of fruits and garb that looks like a leopard skin. The facial expression registers something akin to dissatisfaction.
Image: Photo of Jess Venner. Text reads ‘Special Episode - The Lost Voices of Pompeii with Dr Jess Venner’
Fresco of Diana the huntress, with bow and arrow. She wears cream and yellow toned garments and seems to nearly float against the blue background, though there is a gesture to solid ground with a white line. The fresco is held in the MAN Napoli. Photo credit to: Stephen Chappell via Wikimedia Commons
This tintinnabulum combines a phallic creature that has a phallic tail and its own phallus. Five bells are attached by chains to various parts of the creature.
The statue of Laocoön and His Sons was excavated in Rome in 1506 and put on public display in the Museo Pio-Clementino in the Vatican Museums. The sculpture group depicts the Trojan priest Laocoön and his sons Antiphantes and Thymbraeus being attacked by sea serpents. The date of the statue is mot certain with dates posited from 200 BCE to the 70s CE.
Image description: from left to right - Dionysos, Nike and a maenad. Dionysos stands on a chariot led by big cats. Dionysos has a nimbus and holds a thyrsos. Next to him stands Nike, who also rides in the chariot and holds the reins for the panthers. To the right a maenad dances with a cymbal. Zeugma Mosaic Museum. Photo credit to Dosseman via Wikimedia Commons.
This Pompeian fresco depicts Terentius Neo and his (name unknown) wife. She holds a stylus and writing tablet while he holds a scroll. The literacy of both is openly suggested in this double portrait. This fresco comes from the Villa di Guilia Felice and is now held in the MAN Napoli. Photo credit to Mary Harrsch.
Dr G sitting front of books and talking about the latest released podcasts episodes on The Partial Historians.
The Prima Porta Augustus blends Greek and Roman styles to create an idealised image of Augustus. The portrait head is a combination of realism and youth, while the body embraces Greek heroic elements in posture. The detailed armour offers a range of gods including: Caelus, the sky god, spreading the tent of the sky; Aurora and Luna; Diana; the earth goddess Ceres/Tellus; Apollo, Augustus' patron; the sun god Sol; and a Sphinx on each shoulder, representing Augustus’ defeat of Cleopatra.
Image: details of a black, white, and orange bird with a forked tail on the branch of a tree. The Garden painting from the House of the Golden Bracelet, Pompeii is thought to date to the first century CE. Today this artefact is held by the MAN Napoli.
Dr Rad (left) promotes the virtues of Livy (um, we mean mustard) while Dr G (right) favours the charms of Dionysius of Halicarnassus (or should we say, tomato sauce).
Mosaic scene of three birds at a bird bath with a cat crouching just out of their eye line. This artefact is held by the MAN Napoli, inv. no. 9992
Fresco shows a detail of Minerva from a broader scene including Hercules (seated) and Juno (standing).
The phallus krater by the Pan Painter. This side depicts a naked woman hurrying along with a phallos, as long as she is tall, under her arm. The phallus has a staring eye painted on the glans. 480–460 BCE. Today held in the Altes Museum, Berlin– Inv. 3206. Photo credit to Egisto Sani via Flickr.
Description from National Museums Liverpool: “A statue of the Greek god Dionysus or Roman Bacchus, as a young man. He has a hipshot pose, with the right right leg straight and the left leg bent. He looks towards the left. He is naked with a skin of an aninal hanging underneath his left armpit. His left hand is a restoration and holds a drinking cup (kantharos). His right arm embraces a thyrsos, a stick decorated with laurel or myrtle and associated with the Dionysian revellers. The god has his head slightly titled and has a naive expression. He wears a fillet on the crown of his head, his hair is long and untamed and falls onto his neck. Although he is easily identified as Bacchus because of the nebris and the thyrsos, he does not wear the typical crown of ivy and grapes.”
Image description from Theoi: “The god Dionysus rides side-saddle on the back of a panther with a ribboned thyrsus (pine-cone tipped staff) in one hand and a tambourine in the other. He is depicted as an effeminate man wearing womanly robes and a crown of ivy.” This stunning mosaic is thought to date to 120-80 BCE and is from the House of the Masks, Delos, Greece.
Fresco fragment depicting the Judgment of Paris. Paris sits on the right looking at the three goddesses, from left: Hera, Aphrodite, and Athena. Hera appears wearing a diadem; Aphrodite is pretty much nude; while Athena stands by with her helmet and shield. This fresco comes from in Pompeii, and is thought to date to between 45–79 CE. The fresco is from the House of Jupiter and is now held by the MAN Napoli.
Solidus of Julian issued at Ravenna in 361 CE, during his war with Constantius. The reverse reads virtus exerc(itus) gall(icarum), ‘virtue of the Gallic army’, celebrating Julian’s legions from Gaul which acclaimed him as emperor. Text below reads ‘The Emperor Julian with Jeremy Swist’.
Dr Rad on the left holds a small gladiator helmet replica. Dr G on the right holds a replica sword. Both are dressed in military style tracksuits. Best not mention the facial expressions.
Books about ancient Greek and Homer scattered on a table with ‘The Odyssey: A Modern Retelling’ by Liv Albert on top.
Image description: Roman mosaic depicting Odysseus and the Sirens. The central image is of Odysseus' ship sails past the island of the Sirens. Odysseus is tied to the mast in order to resist the song of the Sirens. The Sirens are depicted to the right as women with the legs and wings of birds. This mosaic is held by the Bardo National Museum, Tunisia. Photo credit to Carole Raddato.
Birds fly around and perch on branches of trees while fruits and flowers flourish in the beautiful imagined garden of Livia’s villa.
Description from the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Cambridge: “Large beaker of colour-coated (Colchester) ware, with barbotine decoration showing a chariot-race, the chariots being drawn by teams of phalluses, which run on cocks' legs. Various other phalluses are dotted about the scene, also a couple indulging in sexual intercourse, after a fashion. Object number: Z 30141.”
Description from the J. Paul Getty Museum: “This silver tetradrachm is stamped on the obverse with a bee within a dotted border, with the Greek letters, Ε (‘epsilon’) and Ί (‘phi’), to either side. The reverse shows the foreparts of a stag kneeling in right profile, looking back towards a palm tree. An inscription to the right reads ÎšÎ‘ÎĄÎÎ©[Κ] (‘KARNO[PS]’). The bee, stag, and palm are all emblems of Ephesos, a Greek city on the west coast of Turkey. Object Number: 80.NH.152.62.”
This mosaic panel depicts a central Medusa head with snakes and wings. She is inside a circular border with a wave pattern in oranges and blues. In the spaces between the circular border and the square borders are smaller gorgon heads. This artefact is part of the National Archaeological Museum of Tarragona collection.
In the lower register a woman is accompanied by Silenus, an elderly companion and tutor to Dionysus, holding a torch. The woman is thought to be on the brink of her initiation to become a maenad (a follower of Dionysus). Above them are what look to be eels, fish, and other sea creatures.
Image of a map of central Italy with text that reads: “Episode 173 - Nobody Beats Camillus. From the Founding of the City.”
Description from the Kunsthistorisches Museum: “The head of a man wearing a laurel wreath, likely an imperial insignia. This is probably a portrait of Emperor Numerian (283-284 AD). The inscriptions on the setting name Rudolf II on the front and Constantine the Great on the back. When the stone was set, the portrait was interpreted in a Christian context: as representing Constantine, the friend of Christians. On the back of the setting is the cross with the Christogram and the inscription HOC SIGNO VICTOR ERIS (= Under this sign you will be victorious). Object no. IXa 16.”
Image depicts the central panel of a mosaic floor with the head of Medusa, which is thought to date the 1st-2nd century CE. Medusa has a somewhat grumpy expression and snakes from her hair are also snaking in front of her face. This artefact is held by the National Museum of Rome, Baths of Diocletian, Rome.
Description from The Met: “Copy of a Greek bronze statue of ca. 450–425 B.C. This head of a youth wearing a fillet (band) must have belonged to the statue of a victorious athlete. He probably rested one arm lightly on his head; the remains of a rectangular support can still be seen among his curls. Roman copies often conformed to contemporary taste, and the contrast between polished flesh and deeply drilled hair on this head would have held special appeal for clients in the second century A.D.”
Description adapted from the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna: The relief depicts the central scene of the so-called Parthian Monument from Ephesus, a relief cycle whose original arrangement remains unclear. It shows the dynastically predetermined imperial succession in the mid-2nd century CE: Hadrian (right), Antoninus Pius (center left) and simultaneously designated the still-young Marcus Aurelius (left) and Lucius Verus (front center) as presumptive successors. Artefact number: I 864.
A square mosaic panel with a Gorgon’s head at the centre. The Gorgon is surrounded by a complex geometric pattern in red and light blue which is itself surrounded by designs in mustard yellow. The artefact is held by the MusĂ©e de la RomanitĂ© de NĂźmes.
Closeup of Silenus looking concerned with a furrowed brow and great eyebrows. He carries a thyrsus and a tympanum. This is a detail from the fresco of Dionysus and Ariadne in the House of the Golden Bracelet at Pompeii. Photo credit to Stephen Chappell via Flickr.
Short audio clip from the interview between The Partial Historians and Dr Simon Elliot.
Description from the Kunsthistorisches Museum: “The Maenad is depicted in a frenzied movement, viewed from a slightly rear angle. Her garment, knotted above the hips, leaves her right shoulder bare. Her almost free-standing head is turned back over her shoulder and out of the picture plane; it is very skillfully connected to the relief ground by her full hair. In her hair, the Maenad wears a wreath of ivy leaves and berries, and she holds cymbals in her hands. Collection of Antiquities, I 1099.”
Opus sectile floor in stones ranging from deep rust reds to whites and greys. The patterns are geometric including squares surrounded by triangles in various configurations and complexity.
A Roman fresco portrait of a floating Apollo. The link to Apollo is suggested by the lyre and the golden wreath worn by the figure but some wonder if this might also be a portrait of Nero, given his fondness for musical pursuits. Photo credit to Chapps via Flickr.
Description from the Met: “Dionysos, god of wine and divine intoxication, wears a panther skin over his short chiton and his high sandals with animal heads on the overhanging skin flaps. He stands beside an archaistic female image whose pose and dress imitate those of Greek statues carved in the sixth century B.C. It is difficult to know whether the original Greek bronze statue of Dionysos, of which this is a copy, included the female figure. Supports in the form of pillars, herms, and small statues were not uncommon in Classical art, but this figure may have been added to support the outstretched arm and may represent Spes, a Roman personification of Hope, who was commonly shown as an archaistic maiden.”
Mosaic of a lion in a rocky landscape clutching a leopard in it’s front paws. The lion has a fierce expression while the leopard looks fearful for what comes next. Now held in the MAN Napoli, inv. no. 114282.
This fresco depicts a riot. Figures can be seen fighting inside and outside the arena. The arena has external stairs to reach the upper seating, archways leading into the arena, and awnings shading the central area. MAN Napoli: inv. 112222. Photo credit: Carole Raddato via World History Encyclopaedia.
A picture of Roman ruins with overlaid text reading ‘Episode 172 - A New Republic?’ Categorised under ‘From the Founding of the City’ and ‘Podcast’ - Release date April 16, 2026.
Image description from the Mediterranean Museum in Sweden: “According to a research visit by Alfredo Buonopane, this sarcophagus fragment is part of the Getty Museum, 86.AA.701. Fragment from the sarcophagus of Titus Aelius Evangelius. Dated by the Getty Museum to circa 180 AD. The owner Titus with his wife Gaudenia Nicene. The man lies at table on a kline with a cup of wine in one hand and grapes in the other. His wife stands at the foot of the bed, raising a toast. The scene probably depicts a funeral banquet and celebration. Details from Titus' life as a wool merchant are included. Artefact no. MM 1997:001”
This 5th century CE Mosaic showcases Thalassa surrounded by the sea and frolicking Erotes. Thalassa is reclining in the sea and holds a fish in one hand and an oar in the other. This mosaic can be found in the Hatay Archaeological Museum, TĂŒrkiye.
In stunning delicacy, Venus sits on a throne while wearing a crown. Before her stands the diminutive Cupid holding her staff. Behind her is one of her attendants (one of the Graces) who is busy securing Venus’ veil.
Relief of a stylised erect phallus with balls. The words ‘hic habitat’ are inscribed above the phallus and the word ‘felicitas’ is inscribed below the phallus.