#ancient-rome

#ancient-rome

They celebrated the start of January by giving offerings to the month's namesake, Janus - the two-faced god of beginnings and endings - and auspicious gifts (like twigs from sacred trees) to their loved ones. "It was a day to make promises and offerings," McCrossen says. "I think that's the origin of our New Year's resolution, because a resolution is a kind of promise."

Before the Roman world, Europe was not joined up. Now the Roman Empire joined up Europe and the Middle East and North Africa into a system that was linked. Big roads went across continents, linking one place with another in a way that was inconceivable before.

The discovery of a skeleton from a Roman settlement in Britain marks the first direct evidence of a gladiator maimed by a lion, revealing new insights into ancient combat.