Free Republic

An incredibly rare Roman coin discovered in Acle has been donated to Norwich Castle Museum. The coin -- only the second of its kind known in the world -- was unearthed by Dave Clarke during the Springfield archaeology dig last summer. Acle Parish Council has sent the ancient artefact to Norwich where it may go on display and will be used by experts to identify and date other coins. The coin dates from AD 312 when Emperor Constantine I ruled the Roman world. The only other example was found in the 18th Century and is on show in Lisbon. One...

A dive to the undersea cliff where a famous Roman shipwreck rests has turned up either evidence that the wreck is enormous -- or a suggestion that, not one, but two sunken ships are resting off the Greek island of Antikythera... The Antikythera wreck is famed for the massive number of artifacts pulled from the site over the past century. First discovered in the early 1900s by local sponge divers, the wreck is most famous for the Antikythera mechanism, a complex bronze gear device used to calculate astronomical positions (and perhaps the timing of the Olympic games). Numerous bronze and...

A team of researchers led by the UAB has found the first ancient remains of a calcified ovarian teratoma, in the pelvis of the skeleton of a woman from the Roman era. The find confirms the presence in antiquity of this type of tumour -- formed by the remains of tissues or organs, which are difficult to locate during the examination of ancient remains. Inside the small round mass, four teeth and a small piece of bone were found. Teratomas are usually benign and contain remains of organic material, such as hair, teeth, bones and other tissues. There are no...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jv6YwLpy6G4

Originally founded as a Roman colony in the 4th century BCE, the site of Interamna Lirenas lies in the Liri Valley in Southern Lazio, about 50 miles south of Rome itself. After it was abandoned around the year 500 CE, it was scavenged for building materials and, over time, its remains were completely lost from view. Today, the site is an uninterrupted stretch of farmland, with no recognisable archaeological features. Now, researchers have successfully produced the first images of the ancient site, using geophysical methods that allowed them to look beneath the surface of the earth and map the layout...

The ship, a navis oneraria, or merchant vessel, was located at a depth of about 200 feet after a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) was used to scour the seabed. A search for the shipwreck was launched after local fisherman revealed they kept finding pieces of pottery in their nets. The divers found the wreck so well preserved even the food, still sealed in over 200 pots, is intact.

The Ivy League of Ancient Roman Gladiator Schools If you got sent back in time 2,000 years to ancient Rome, you probably wouldn't want to choose a career as a gladiator. After all, it was a messy existence, with a fairly low life expectancy. But if you were up to your eyeballs in debt, or wanted a chance at fortune or fame, you could break in at the top, by going to gladiator school. And four different Roman gladiator academies rose above the nearly 100 others, to become the best of the best. At these schools, you'd learn specific fighting...

Rome Icon Actually Younger Than the City The icon of Rome's foundation, a life-size bronze statue of a she-wolf with two human infants suckling her, is about 1,700 years younger than its city, Rome's officials admitted on Saturday. The official announcement, made at the Capitoline Museums, where the 30 inch-high bronze is the centerpiece of a dedicated room, quashes the belief that the sculpture was adopted by the earliest Romans as a symbol for their city. "The new dating ranges between 1021 e il 1153," said Lucio Calcagnile, who carried radiocarbon tests at the University of Salento's Center for Dating...

Gay marriage and homosexuality were part of the moral landscape faced by the first Christians in Ancient Rome.Given that the gay marriage agenda will be increasingly pressed upon Catholics by the state, we should be much more aware of what history has to teach us about gay marriage—given that we don’t want to be among those who, ignorant of history, blithely condemned themselves to repeat it. Contrary to the popular view—both among proponents and opponents—gay marriage is not a new issue. It cannot be couched (by proponents) as a seamless advance on the civil rights movement, nor should it be...

In the middle of Rome's trendiest neighborhood, surrounded by sushi restaurants and nightclubs with names like Rodeo Steakhouse and Love Story, sits the ancient world's biggest garbage dump--a 150-foot-tall mountain of discarded Roman amphorae, the shipping drums of the ancient world. It takes about 20 minutes to walk around Monte Testaccio, from the Latin testa and Italian cocci, both meaning "potsherd." But despite its size--almost a mile in circumference--it's easy to walk by and not really notice unless you are headed for some excellent pizza at Velavevodetto, a restaurant literally stuck into the mountain's side. Most local residents don't know...

The story is familiar by now. Nine years ago, a young football coach at Penn State walked into the locker room and heard odd noises from the showers. He peeked in, and claims to have seen a young boy with his hands placed on the walls, and a retired coach, Jerry Sandusky, embracing him from behind.  He reported this to his superiors, and, after a perfunctory investigation, they let the matter drop. Other young men now claim that Sandusky recruited them through his charity, The Second Mile, and seduced them or pressured them into sexual activity.
Sandusky maintains that he is...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TivVcfSBVSM

The Illinois Department of Revenue has substituted the whim of a bureaucrat for the written law, in commencing a groundless project to strip non-profit status from Illinois hospitals.... Watch as we travel from Ancient Rome to modern-day Springfield, Illinois... Roman life in the 5th century B.C. was pretty good, relatively speaking. Roman society had freed itself from the tyranny of Etruscan kings; the people had representation in the Council of the Plebs, and the nation was at peace. And a merchant class was rising from the fields; no longer was the society entirely made up of farmers, soldiers, and rulers....

Like so many “lost” civilizations, her rollercoaster ride history is hard for politically-correct elites to process. But why ignore or edit her lessons? One clue: Professor Anthony Esolen of Providence College says, “In some ways ancient Rome, especially during the centuries of the Republic, was as politically incorrect a place as you can imagine.” To Christians, Rome strengthened the church through persecution. That said, not all Romans were bloodthirsty tyrants, and Christians and Jews weren’t always at odds with warring imperialists. Table-turning Christ (no pacifist) openly applauded the Centurion. In the Bible, “righteous pagans” (even turnaround prostitutes) were given credit,...

LONDON, (CAIS) -- Almost 2,000 years ago, 19 Roman soldiers rushed into a cramped underground tunnel, sent to defend the Roman-occupied Syrian city of Dura-Europos from an army of Persians digging to undermine the city's mudbrick walls. But instead of Persian soldiers, the Romans met with a wall of noxious black smoke that turned to acid in their lungs. Their crystal-pummelled swords were no match for this weapon; the Romans choked and died in moments, many with their last pay of coins still slung in purses on their belts. Nearby, a Persian soldier — perhaps the one who started the...

Ultra millionaire sponsorship deals such as those signed by sprinter Usain Bolt, motorcycle racer Valentino Rossi and tennis player Maria Sharapova, are just peanuts compared to the personal fortune amassed by a second century A.D. Roman racer, according to an estimate published in the historical magazine Lapham's Quarterly.According to Peter Struck, associate professor of classical studies at the University of Pennsylvania, an illiterate charioteer named Gaius Appuleius Diocles earned “the staggering sum" of 35,863,120 sesterces (ancient Roman coins) in prize money.Recorded in a monumental inscription erected in 146 A.D., the figure eclipses the fortunes of all modern sport stars,...

The Jewish people, according to archaeologists, originated in Babylon and Persia between the 4th and 6th centuries BC. The modern-day Jews most closely related to that original population are those in Iran, Iraq and Syria, whose closest non-Jewish relatives are the Druze, Bedouins and Palestinians, the study found. Sometime in that period, the Middle Eastern and European Jews diverged and the European branch began actively proselytizing for converts. At the height of the Roman Empire, about 10% of the empire's population was Jewish, although the bulk of them were converts. Some Khazars were also incorporated during this period. "That explains...

For centuries many of the world's distinguished philosophers have assaulted Christianity as being irrational, superstitious and absurd. Many have chosen simply to ignore the central issue of the resurrection. Others have tried to explain it away through various theories. But the historical evidence just can't be discounted. A student at the University of Uruguay said to me. "Professor McDowell, why can't you refute Christianity?" "For a very simple reason," I answered. "I am not able to explain away an event in history--the resurrection of Jesus Christ." After more than 700 hours of studying this subject, I have come to the...

Dating from 211 BC and found near the Leicestershire village of Hallaton, the coin was uncovered with 5,000 other coins, a helmet and a decorated bowl. Unearthed in 2000 by a metal detectorist, staff at the nearby Harborough Museum have only just realised its significance. One side of the coin depicts the goddess Roma wearing her characteristic helmet while mythical twins Castor and Pollux sit astride galloping horses on the reverse. David Sprason, Leicestershire County Council cabinet member for communities and well-being said: 'Leicestershire boasts the largest number of Iron Age coins ever professionally excavated in Britain. 'To also have...

Bones in togas puzzle Vatican archaeologists By Nick Pisa in Rome (Filed: 21/05/2006) Archaeologists exploring one of Rome's oldest catacombs are baffled by neat piles of more than 1,000 skeletons dressed in elegant togas. The macabre find emerged as teams of historians slowly picked their way through the complex network of underground burial chambers, which stretch for miles under the city. They say the tomb, which has been dated to the first century AD, is the first known example of a "mass burial". The archaeologists are unable to explain why so many apparently upper-class Romans - who would normally have...