Tales From Time — The Journal of Historical and Mythical Tales
The Great Fire of Rome: What Really Happened in 64 CE
The fire began on the sweltering night of 18 July 64 CE, in the merchant shops skirting the eastern curve of the Circus Maximus. Nero was fifty kilometres away, fiddles did not exist, and the earliest full account admits nobody could say whether it was an accident or arson.
Core Sections
Articles organized by human record, vanished civilizations, and classical mythology.
Human Tales
The person inside the event: Spartacus, Cleopatra, Ashoka, Joan of Arc, Ibn Battuta, and the catastrophes people lived through, from the Great Fire to the Black Death.
Lost Worlds
Cities, empires and ways of life that vanished: Babylon, Petra, Aksum, Alexandria, Rome and Constantinople, and what archaeology can honestly settle about each.
Myths & Legends
Stories held against the texts that carry them: Arthur, Troy, Atlantis, Robin Hood, the Templars. Which manuscript preserves each one, and when it was assembled.
Recent Articles
Newest first. The full archive is on the index page.
Human TalesIbn Battuta: Twenty-Nine Years on the Road
A law student left Tangier for Mecca in 1325 and came home in 1354. What his Rihla records, and why Marco Polo is better known in the West.
Human TalesJoan of Arc: The Trial That Preserved Her Voice
Her trial transcripts preserve a teenager's own words under hostile questioning. What the record shows about Joan of Arc, and where it stops.
Human TalesArchimedes: Four Famous Stories, Assessed
Four famous stories about Archimedes, including his death in Syracuse in 212 BCE, weighed against what the ancient sources actually say.
Human TalesAlexander: The Twelve Years That Rearranged the World
He took the throne at twenty and campaigned for twelve years across three continents. What the sources say about how, and what it cost.