The Curses of Aquae Sulis

A reexamination of the defixio (Defixiones, Part 1)

While visiting Bath, we went to the Roman ruins there. To be frank, my expectations were not high; at street level, the town center is all gray Palladian orderliness built…

Sympathy for Sauron

The analogies employed for action at a distance (Defixiones, Part 3)

There’s a pop-culture connection between the ancient defixiones (curse tablets) of Roman Britain and our own times. It’s also interesting because it…

The Sum of Its Versions

Getting comparatist with “Snow White” (DeDisneyfication, Part 9B)

Tokyo’s Epoch-Defining Architecture

Rapidly changing attitudes toward Western design (Taishō, Part 2A)