THE MYTHOLOGY...
As the daughter of Zeus and a mortal woman (Leda), Helen of Troy's legendary beauty was divine in origin.
She had many suitors in her youth but ultimately married Menelaus.
The pair ruled Sparta until Helen left with Paris, a prince of Troy.
Menelaus' quest to return his queen to Sparta led to the Trojan War...
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THE ARCHEOLOGY...
Ampurias was founded on a small island at the mouth of the river Fluvià, in a region inhabited by the Indigetes.

This city came to be known as the Palaiapolis, the "old city" when, towards 550 BC, the inhabitants moved to the mainland, creating the Neapolis, the "new city".

After the conquest of Phocaea by the Persian king Cyrus II in 530 BC, the new city's population increased considerably through the influx of refugees. In the face of strong pressure from Carthage, the city managed to retain its independent Hellenic character.
Political and commercial agreements were concluded with the indigenous population long settled in the nearby city of Indika. Situated as it was on the coastal commercial route between Massalia (Marseille) and Tartessos in the far south of Hispania, the city developed into a large economic and commercial centre as well as being the largest Greek colony in the Iberian Peninsula.

During the Punic Wars, Ampurias allied itself with Rome, and Publius Cornelius Scipio initiated the conquest of Hispania from this city in 218 BC.

After the conquest of Hispania by the Romans, Ampurias remained an independent city-state.
However, in the civil war between Pompey and Julius Caesar, it opted for Pompey, and after his defeat it was stripped of its autonomy. A colonia of Roman veterans, named Emporiae, was established near Indika to control the region.

From that time onwards, Ampurias began to decline, obscured by the power of Tarraco (Tarragona) and Barcino (Barcelona).

At the end of the 3rd century it became one of the first cities in Spain to admit Christian evangelists. In that century, too, the Greek town was abandoned while the Roman town survived as a mint and the largely ceremonial seat of a coastal county, Castelló d'Empúries, until the Viking raids of the mid-9th century.
Coinage began again under count Hugh II of Empúries
(1078–1117).

Milan, Italy – Pompeii discoveries shed light on middle class life
By Valentina Za

Archeologists have discovered four new rooms in a house in Pompeii filled with plates, amphoras and other everyday objects, giving a snapshot of middle class life at the moment Mount Vesuvius's eruption buried the Roman city in AD 79.

The remains of bowls, a hastily emptied trunk, a bed and a crib-shaped terra-cotta perfume burner were found on two floors of a previously-excavated building, the Pompeii archaeological park authority said on Saturday.

Some were more valuable than others - vessels made of bronze or glass next to everyday tools.

"A large slice of the population in the Roman Empire were people who sweated for their daily bread but were also anxious to raise their social status," the park's director, Gabriel Zuchtriegel, said.

Archaeologists took plaster casts to reproduce some of the objects from the site in Pompeii, one of Italy's main tourist attractions near the modern city of Naples.

The rest of the structure, excavated in 2018, includes a courtyard decorated in frescoes of plants, birds and hunting scenes. A niche hosting the household guardian gods, or Lares, gave the "Larario house" its popular name.

"The owners of the Larario house in Pompeii had been able to decorate the courtyard hosting the Lares site and a well with outstanding paintings, but evidently they didn't have enough money for all of the rooms," Zuchtriegel added.

"We don't know who lived here but the pleasurable life depicted in the courtyard was probably more of an aspiration than their everyday reality."

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