What's in a name? Where barbarians really just uncouth savages or is there more to the original meaning behind this term?

"Ludi" is a series on ancient games. The ancient Egyptian board game of Senet is one of the oldest games in the world and may be the ancestor of modern backgammon. Senet represents the two players' journey through the afterlife.

A recent search of the internet for information on Roman artillery machines returned, amongst other results, a website with a page entitled ‘The Roman Trebuchet Catapults’ [sic]. The title is misleading and we challenge the 'facts' cited.

"Ludi" is a series on ancient games. Aseb is the ancient Egyptian version of the ancient Middle Eastern game called "The Game of 20 Squares". Aseb is a two player race game similar to Senet and the Royal Game of Ur, but with a shorter playing duration.

On This Day, February 26th in 1852, 450 perish as the troopship HMS Birkenhead sinks off the coast of South Africa. The soldiers' chivalry gave rise to the unofficial ‘women and children first’ code of conduct for abandoning ship. The ‘Birkenhead drill’ as it was termed in Rudyard Kipling's 1893 tribute to the Royal Marines, ‘Soldier an' Sailor Too’, would later come to describe courage in the face of hopeless circumstances.

The last battle on British soil is commonly accepted as being the French invasion at Fishguard in 1797. One of the popular stories arising from this event centres on Welsh women in "national" costume being key to the French failure. But is this truly what happened?

On This Day, February 22nd in 1797 Britain was "invaded" for the last time in its long history.

"Ludi" is a series on ancient games. Mehen is an ancient Egyptian multi-player board game dating to before 3100 BC.

On This Day, February 8th, 1587, after 19 years of imprisonment, Mary Queen of Scots is beheaded at Fotheringhay Castle.

On This Day, February 1st in 1709, Alexander Selkirk, believed to be the inspiration for Daniel Defoe’s novel ‘Robinson Crusoe’, was rescued after being marooned for over four years on the Juan Fernandez Islands.

On This Day, January 29th in 1856, the Victoria Cross was introduced by Royal Warrant.

"Ludi" is a series on ancient games. First off, the grandparent of so many board-games: The Royal Game of Ur. It was a two-player strategy race game first played in ancient Mesopotamia during the early third millennium BC.

The Anglo-Saxons are said to have replaced wholesale the Romano-British inhabitants of these isles. But archaeology and scientific research are challenging the popularly accepted historical account. Continuity and change seem to be hand in hand.

On This Day, January 12th, 1976, crime writer Agatha Christie dies aged 85. In her posthumously published Autobiography, she briefly details her experiences as a Red Cross nurse in the Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD). Find out more about the nurse of the VADs here.

On This day, January 7th, 1536: Catherine of Aragon, first of Henry VIII’s six wives, dies in Kimbolton Castle at the age of 50.

On This Day, January 6th, in 1066 Harold Godwinson, formerly Earl of Wessex, is crowned king in Westminster Abbey. He was the second King of England that momentous year but not the last.

Cleopatra VII was the last ruler of the Ptolemaic dynasty, ruling Egypt. She is celebrated for her beauty and popularised for her love affairs with Roman generals, but she was much more than the movie myth. Highly intelligent, a skilled politician and a stateswomen, Cleopatra was an indomitable African queen.

On This Day, December 31st, 1705, Catherine of Braganza, widow of Charles II whom she had married in 1662, died in Lisbon, Portugal. Most notably, from our food history perspective, Catherine is said to have brought the tea drinking habit to the Royal Court.

It is widely held, and oft repeated, that ancient Britons, and most especially the Picts, painted or tattooed their bodies with Woad.We all know that, because depictions of the Iron Age or Roman period on television and film nearly always show the indigenous tribespeople painted in 'mystical' blue designs. It seems, however, that the evidence for Woad inspired body art is not as rock solid as one might have hoped. Another myth to be dispelled?

On This Day, December 27th in 1675 a Royal Proclamation orders the closure of all coffee houses in London because they are seen as hotbeds of subversion. Within days public outrage forces a reversal of the decision.