Roman emperors are perhaps remembered for their notoriety more than anything else. We remember Julius Caesar, after whom all the subsequent rulers took their name, as a brilliant commander (and because he wrote an awful lot of histories about himself) but he is most famous for his actions against the dying Roman Republic, for which
Cure-alls are, generally speaking, never what they claim. Most medical wonder drugs are nothing of the sort, and snake oil salesmen have existed throughout history, prospering as long as there are people out there who are prepared to believe them. But this is not to say that all such medical supplements are fraud. Some have
The ancient Greek philosopher Plato, writing about Atlantis, made mention of a fabulous metal which he called “orichalcum”, literally “mountain copper”. This mysterious element was supposedly second only to gold in value, and was highly prized by the ancients for its beauty and its versatility. Plato was not the first to mention this precious metal.