Malta Classics Association

If you're looking for something quick and simple to while away a slow day, Marble Age is the ideal option for you. Originally released in 2015 by Clarus Victoria and released in a remastered version in 2020, this game is a turn-based historical strategy game where you need to balance various production chains while reacting to pop-up events. Gameplay is very simple, and the game comes with various difficulty settings to match your mood.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/383740/Marble_Age_Remastered/

Builders of Greece is a city-building game released by CreativeForge Games in 2025. In this game you play as the leader of an island-based community as you develop it from a small village into a prosperous city. While managing resources and the varying demands of your increasingly refined citizenry, you will also need to fend off pirates and raiders. Interested players should, however, be warned that reviews of this game have been mixed and might want to wait until some of the bugs and issues with the game have been ironed out.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1273100/Builders_of_Greece/

The Classical Studies Crash Course is designed for students who wish to receive a general introduction to Classics and those who wish to sit for the MATSEC board Classical Studies Intermediate Exam on Friday 4th September 2026. Each session runs online.

Please find more information about each specific module and the schedule for the full course here: https://classicsmalta.org/classical-studies-crashcourse/

Students wishing to register for specific modules only may apply at the following rates: €60 for modules B and D, or €80 for modules A or E, €100 for module C (bundle discounts for registrations for multiple modules will be offered on request). The deadline for registration is Tuesday 30th June. Registration is complete upon payment of the corresponding fee.

For more information, kindly email the MCA on [email protected].

If you've ever marvelled at just how much we can learn about ancient Roman society throught their epigraphic inscriptions, this game will be of interest to you! 'Valete Vos Viatores' is a game developed by Valencia University and La Sapianenza University together with TLR Games and TRAHELIUM. In this game, you play as a craftsment within the workshop of a scriptor titulorum (a sculptor specialising in inscriptions). You will receive orders from various people of different social class backgrounds and depending on their requests and budgets you will need to to design a commemorative inscription for their deceased loved-ones. This game will introduce you to every single stage of the process, from choosing the stone, to inscription, to decoration and is therefore as much an in-depth educations experience as it is a fun game.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2075540/Valete_vos_viatores/
https://en.unav.edu/web/valete-vos-viatores
https://www.timemachine.eu/ltm-projects/valete-vos-viatores-travelling-through-latin-inscriptions-across-the-roman-empire/

Book Recommendation: Glorious Exploits (2024) by Ferdia Lennon

Athens' Sicilian expedition has been a catastrophic disaster and its unfortunate citizens find themselves locked in Syracuse's infamous quarries, where their suffering is prolonged on starvation rations at the mercy of Syracusans who wish to avenge their death. The Syracusan Gelon, however, comes down to the quarries not to beat the starving Italians but for an entirely different reasons: he loves theatre, and some of these prisoners know Euripides' work, and even his latest tragedy, which had never made it to Syracuse before. Together with his friend Lampo who is the narrator in this book, they decide to put up 'Medea' and 'Trojan Women' in the very quarries, with Athenian actors. This book tracks their trials and tribulations to make this vision a reality.

The book is enjoyable read. Some of the successes the pair enjoy feel a bit too much like a deus ex machina in their own right but the book is ultimately an interesting historical-fiction approach to a very curious event in history.

https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=glorious+expploit&qid=LJRqROXEGH

Happening soon!

Next week's Lecture: https://fb.me/e/4nd4rooyJ

Zenobia is recognised as one of the most prominent female figures of late antiquity. As queen of Palmyra in the third century, she aspired to become empress of Rome, which her kingdom then belonged to. Although her political career was brief, the circumstances of her rise to power, her confrontation with Rome, and the ambiguity surrounding her fate after defeat quickly transformed her historical narrative into legend. Greek, Latin, Byzantine, and Arabic traditions, along with other textual traditions, appropriated her story, adapting it to serve their respective political, ideological, and theological agendas. However, in this paper, we will demonstrate that the legend of Zenobia began to take shape in the 3rd century, during her lifetime, particularly in the East, where it originated within the Palmyrene court before spreading to the Eastern and Western parts of the Empire.

This paper will examine the motif of Zenobia’s alleged descent from Cleopatra, from its initial construction within Zenobia’s court — notably in the fragmentary inscription preserving Callinicos’ speech, as part of a broader strategy of self-representation — to its later literary reworking in the Historia Augusta, highlighting the connections between these sources that have so far gone largely unnoticed.
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Dr Wifek Aouinet is a Senior Lecturer in French and Cultural Studies at the Institute of Tourism Studies (Malta). She holds a PhD in Classical Studies. Her research examines the reception of historical figures across Mediterranean traditions, focusing on cross-cultural transmission and the role of political and ideological contexts in shaping narratives.

Next week's Lecture: https://fb.me/e/4nd4rooyJ

Zenobia is recognised as one of the most prominent female figures of late antiquity. As queen of Palmyra in the third century, she aspired to become empress of Rome, which her kingdom then belonged to. Although her political career was brief, the circumstances of her rise to power, her confrontation with Rome, and the ambiguity surrounding her fate after defeat quickly transformed her historical narrative into legend. Greek, Latin, Byzantine, and Arabic traditions, along with other textual traditions, appropriated her story, adapting it to serve their respective political, ideological, and theological agendas. However, in this paper, we will demonstrate that the legend of Zenobia began to take shape in the 3rd century, during her lifetime, particularly in the East, where it originated within the Palmyrene court before spreading to the Eastern and Western parts of the Empire.

This paper will examine the motif of Zenobia’s alleged descent from Cleopatra, from its initial construction within Zenobia’s court — notably in the fragmentary inscription preserving Callinicos’ speech, as part of a broader strategy of self-representation — to its later literary reworking in the Historia Augusta, highlighting the connections between these sources that have so far gone largely unnoticed.
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Dr Wifek Aouinet is a Senior Lecturer in French and Cultural Studies at the Institute of Tourism Studies (Malta). She holds a PhD in Classical Studies. Her research examines the reception of historical figures across Mediterranean traditions, focusing on cross-cultural transmission and the role of political and ideological contexts in shaping narratives.

IMPERATOR: ROME is a 2019 grand-strategy game released by Paradox Interactive for PC as a successor to the 2008 Europa Universalis: Rome. The game spans from AUC 450 (304 BC, therefore using the Romans' own dating system till AUC 727 (27 BC), covering the period of the wars of the diadochi and Rome's gradual rise to power and supremacy. The game is extremely complex and might not be ideal for a beginner to the genre, and requires the player to balance resource management, population configuration, competing cultures and religions within the domain, military expansion, general development, economic investment and expansion, and complex diplomacy, all while struggling to expand militarily or at least defend one's own borders. This game is a formidable but rewarding challenge for lovers of grand strategy games with a keen interest in the ancient world.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperator:_Rome
https://store.steampowered.com/app/859580/Imperator_Rome/

HADES II is a direct sequel to Supergiant's HADES. This time you'll play as the immortal Princess of the Underworld, and you'll explore a bigger, deeper mythic world, vanquishing the forces of the Titan of Time with the full might of Olympus behind you, in a sweeping story that continually unfolds through your every setback and accomplishment. Infuse your legendary weapons of Night with ancient magick, so that none may stand in your way. Become stronger still with powerful Boons from more than a dozen Olympian gods, from Apollo to Zeus. There are nearly limitless ways to build your abilities.

Rich, atmospheric presentation and storytelling fused with responsive action is the hallmark of Supergiant's titles. Vivid new hand-painted environments, even smoother real-time 3D characters, and an electrifying original score make this mythic world burst with life.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1145350/Hades_II/

HEGEMONY ROME: THE RISE OF CAESAR is a real-time strategy game released by Longbow Games for PC in 2014. The player takes charge of Caesar and his legions as he ventures into Gaul and commences his many-year campaign to subdue the region and bring it under full Roman control. The historical campaign is organised in chapters that closely follow the divisions of Caesar's own De Bello Gallico, and make the game a fun accompaniment to anyone studying the work. The fighting aspect of the game is beautifully balanced by an expanded resource and logistics management aspect that keep the game from feeling too repetitive.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/227060/Hegemony_Rome_The_Rise_of_Caesar/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hegemony_Rome:_The_Rise_of_Caesar