The Journal of Historical and Mythical Tales
Ancient and medieval history and myth, from primary sources, saying plainly where the evidence runs out.
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Ibn 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.
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Joan 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.
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Archimedes: 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.
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Alexander: 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.
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Ashoka: The Emperor Who Confessed on Stone
An emperor who had his own remorse carved into rock. What the edicts say, and what the later legends add.
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Cleopatra: The Legend and the Person
The Roman propaganda, the later legend and the woman beneath them: what the sources actually say about Cleopatra.
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Spartacus: What the Romans Actually Wrote Down
What Roman writers actually recorded about Spartacus and the slave revolt, and how much of the popular story comes later.
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The Mongol Empire: How Genghis Khan Built It
The Mongols won through organisation, not just cavalry. The reforms that unified the steppe, and why the empire dissolved by absorption.
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The Black Death: Causes, Deaths and What Changed
A 2022 study located its origin in a Kyrgyz cemetery. What the plague was, how it spread, and how it reshaped medieval Europe.
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The Great Fire of Rome: What Really Happened in 64 CE
Nero was fifty kilometres away when it started, and fiddles did not exist. What the three ancient sources actually say, and how they differ.