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Rome, Sweet Rome: Could a Single Marine Unit Destroy the Roman Empire? It was a hypothetical question that became a long online discussion and now a movie in development: Could a small group of heavily armed modern-day Marines take down the Roman Empire at its height? We talked about the debate with James Erwin, the man who scored a movie writing contract based on his online response, and ran the ideas by Roman history expert Adrian Goldsworthy. James Erwin was browsing reddit.com on his lunch break when a thread piqued his interest. A user called The_Quiet_Earth had posed the question:...

But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.(Micah 5:2)The story of the birth of Jesus, is perhaps the most familiar and loved portions of the Bible. But the problem with familiar passages of scripture is that people think they know what needs to be known about them and often aren’t open to a fresh look at the same text from another angle. It is called the Christmas story,...

Compare Romans 13:1-7 with Matthew 22:17-22. Obedience to this passage will require the Bible-believing student to examine the governmental system alongside which he strives to serve the Lord in the country where he lives. Romans 13 is used most often by preachers trying to convince church members to: 1. Pay income taxes; 2. Don't rock the boat. Get any license the civil authorities say they require; 3. Subject even the operation of God's churches to the scrutinies of unregenerate civil bureaucrats. None of these are included in the purposes for the writing of Romans chapter 13!! The Roman Empire during...

The chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, Rocco Landesman, provoked ridicule when he said last week that “Barack Obama is the most powerful writer since Julius Caesar.” He didn’t mean that Barack Obama is a literary titan who doth bestride the narrow world like a colossus while petty men like Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Tolstoy walk under his huge legs and peep about to find ourselves dishonourable graves. But what he did mean, while no less fatuous, is also disquieting in its implications: for the first time, the United States of America has a president whose supporters talk about...

Much has already been made of Landesman’s comparisons of Obama to Julius Caesar. As a teacher and lifelong student of history, I find that comparison amusing on various levels. Caesar was an accomplished military leader whose campaign through Gaul was the subject of his major literary work, still available in your local Barnes and Noble. Barack Obama is an indecisive teleprompter reader whose book will certainly be long forgotten 2,000 years from now. Julius Caesar’s actions as leader of Rome turned the Republic into a dictatorial empire that later spawned such rulers as Nero and Caligula. Might the Messiah, who,...

Rocco Landesman, the NEA (National Endowment for the Arts) chairman, said, in part: "This is the first president that actually writes his own books since Teddy Roosevelt and arguably the first to write them really well since Lincoln. If you accept the premise, and I do, that the United States is the most powerful country in the world, then Barack Obama is the most powerful writer since Julius Caesar. That has to be good for American artists."...

...Which brings me to President Obama, our Optimist in Chief. He is a writer, an artist but we’ll come to that later. His second book had a title that would resonate with Lionel Tiger: “The Audacity of Hope”. This is much more than a felicitous phrase that he found in a sermon: it is the manifesto of this presidency and will lay the groundwork for the most arts-supportive administration since Roosevelt. Again, optimism presumes positive outcomes, the exigencies of the real world notwithstanding. The Obama campaign, and now the Obama presidency, has always been about aspiration: the idea that our...

Julius Caesar was a skilled orator ( without a teleprompter ) and a clever politician. He ruled Rome within a triumvirate (literally, a government of three). Pompey and Crassus his co rulers were back from the victory over Spartacus and the gladiator / slave revolt and Julius was engaged in the massive killing of Celts in Gaul, his personal province. Caesar was marching with his army to Rome, when a messenger intercepted them from the Senate in Ravena a small border town on the Rubicon River. Pompey and Crassus were worried that Caesar with his army would usurp power in...

A story about the Roman Empire. (which was called Honoria) how it came about and how it eventually fell. Very eerily similar to America's history.

Being the only true and reliable account ever published; taken from the Roman "Daily Evening Fasces," of the date of that tremendous occurrence. Nothing in the world affords a newspaper reporter so much satisfaction as gathering up the details of a bloody and mysterious murder and writing them up with aggravating circumstantiality. He takes a living delight in this labor of love--for such it is to him, especially if he knows that all the other papers have gone to press, and his will be the only one that will contain the dreadful intelligence. A feeling of regret has often come...

When Saul of Tarsus set out on his journey to Damascus the whole of the known world lay in bondage. . . . Then, of a sudden, there was a light in the world, and a man from Galilee saying, Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's and unto God the things that are God's. And the voice from Galilee, which would defy Caesar, offered a new Kingdom in which each man could walk upright and bow to none but his God. Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have...

Redating Caesar’s invasion of Britain TxSt astronomers come to bury long-accepted date, not to praise it Julius Caesar landed an invasion fleet on the shores of Britain in 55 B.C., expanding the boundaries of the so-called “Known World” and inadvertently sparking a dispute between historians and scientists for centuries to come. Now, astronomers from Texas State University have applied their unique brand of forensic astronomy to the enduring controversy surrounding the precise location of Caesar’s landfall, concluding that the historically accepted date for the event--Aug. 26-27, 55 B.C. – is incorrect. The Texas State team’s proposed new date of Aug....

PARIS - Divers trained in archaeology discovered a marble bust of an aging Caesar in the Rhone River that France's Culture Ministry said Tuesday could be the oldest known. The life-sized bust showing the Roman ruler with wrinkles and hollows in his face is tentatively dated to 46 B.C. Divers uncovered the Caesar bust and a collection of other finds in the Rhone near the town of Arles — founded by Caesar. Among other items in the treasure trove of ancient objects is a 5.9 foot marble statue of Neptune, dated to the first decade of the third century after...

<p>When Saul of Tarsus set out on his journey to Damascus the whole of the known world lay in bondage. There was one state, and it was Rome. There was one master for it all, and he was Tiberius Caesar.</p>

When Saul of Tarsus set out on his journey to Damascus the whole of the known world lay in bondage. There was one state, and it was Rome. There was one master for it all, and he was Tiberius Caesar. Everywhere there was civil order, for the arm of the Roman law was long. Everywhere there was stability, in government and in society, for the centurions saw that it was so. But everywhere there was something else, too. There was oppression [snip] Then, of a sudden, there was a light in the world, and a man from Galilee saying, Render...

This editorial was written in 1949 by the late Vermont Royster and has been published annually since. When Saul of Tarsus set out on his journey to Damascus the whole of the known world lay in bondage. There was one state, and it was Rome. There was one master for it all, and he was Tiberius Caesar. Everywhere there was civil order, for the arm of the Roman law was long. Everywhere there was stability, in government and in society, for the centurions saw that it was so. But everywhere there was something else, too. There was oppression--for those who...

ARCHAEOLOGISTS in Germany have found a 2,000-year-old glue Roman warriors used to repair helmets, shields and the other accessories of battle. "Caesar's superglue" - as it has been dubbed by workers at the Rhine State Museum in Bonn - was found on a helmet at a site near Xanthen on the Rhine River where Romans settled before Christ. Frank Welker, a restorer at the museum, said: "We found the parade cavalry helmet had been repaired with an adhesive that was still doing its job. "This is rightly called some kind of superglue because air, water and time have not diminished...

The Central Intelligence Agency violated its charter for 25 years until revelations of illegal wiretapping, domestic surveillance, assassination plots, and human experimentation led to official investigations and reforms in the 1970s, according to declassified documents posted today on the Web by the National Security Archive at George Washington University. CIA director Gen. Michael Hayden announced today that the Agency is declassifying the full 693-page file amassed on CIA's illegal activities by order of then-CIA director James Schlesinger in 1973--the so-called "family jewels." Only a few dozen heavily-censored pages of this file have previously been declassified, although multiple Freedom of Information...

I have a play -- a very loose (EXTREMELY LOOSE) adaptation of Shakespeare -- and I'm trying to get it produced. Does anyone know where I can find companies that do Shakespeare parodies and actors to perform it?

If Bill Clinton was Elvis, Hillary was the Statue of Liberty, inspired by Pelosi's triumph (more about that in a future story) and welcoming the huddled masses, who were pushing each other out of the way to take pictures with her. At night, we gathered at the National Building Museum for a celebration concert and Democratic Party fundraiser. Filmmaker Peter Kaufman, a friend of Christine Pelosi's, set the tone of the evening's festivities. He quoted someone else he'd heard that day: "She's the most powerful Italian since Caesar.''

As a result of their arena exploits, Pullo and Vorenus have become heroes to the Roman rank and file, causing Caesar to reward those he normally would punish. Pullo's unexpected return to Vorenus' household is not appreciated by his former slave Eirene. Caesar decides to overhaul the Senate by adding some unexpected new faces, to the chagrin of the old guard. And Servilia hurdles the final obstacle in her ambitious revenge scenario, at Niobe's expense.

Episode 9: Utica With Scipio and Cato defeated, Caesar returns home to a hero's welcome. Vorenus and Pullo's showdown with local thug Erastes gets an unexpected reprieve from Caesar. Servilia's plan to use Octavia to unearth a secret about Caesar backfires. Don't miss the all new episode "Utica", Sunday, October 30th at 9PM ET.

Tonight, HBO-HD (HBO 1) shows Rome Episodes 6, 7, 8 in a run up to the new episode "Utica". Episode 6: Egeria Synopsis With Caesar chasing Pompey in Greece, Mark Antony is in Rome pushing through laws on his behalf - insisting that the few remaining senators agree to anoint the general "co-Consul," free more slaves and create more jobs for the populace. The senior senator protests, arguing that such efforts would be too expensive. "Only to those few rich men that own all the land," Antony replies, "and they will have the consolation of doing something eminently patriotic." Niobe...

Episode 4 and 5 tonight in HD! Episode 4: Stealing from Saturn: Here we are, refugees in our own land," Cicero says to Pompey and his supporters, anxiously settling into their makeshift camp south of Rome. "We are not refugees, we are maneuvering," Pompey responds sharply, before explaining his strategy to the men: without gold, Caesar will have to resort to violence, and once the blood starts to spill, the people will turn on him with a vengeance. "While he is fighting mobs in the forum, I will be gathering an army the like of which he has never seen!"...

LADIES & GENTLEMEN: TODAY IS THAT MOST INFAMOUS IN ALL OF HISTORY, THE ASSASSANATION OF OUR BELOVED JULIUS CAESAR on the Ides of March, March 15, 44 BC in Imperial Rome. Please read on as an account of the activities of that gruesome day are recounted by Mr. Samuel L. Clemens aka Mark Twain: The Killing of Julius Caesar "Localized" By Mark Twain From The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County and Other Sketches (New York: C. H. Webb, 1867). BEING THE ONLY TRUE AND RELIABLE ACCOUNT EVER PUBLISHED; TAKEN FROM THE ROMAN "DAILY EVENING FASCES," OF THE DATE OF...

Body of missing Okemah woman found in a ditch in Hughes County The family of a missing Okemah woman talks about the baby, and the future she'll never have. It's a bizarre case that's taken authorities to Okfuskee and Hughes Counties. Authorities say 21-year-old Carolyn Simpson of Okemah may have been killed for her baby. Simpson had been missing since last Monday. Her body was found in a Hughes County ditch by a hunter. She'd been shot in the head. Authorities say her attacker carved her baby from her body. Simpson's family is in shock over what's happened. "Disbelief...

Americas Amber Alert News Center (Skidmore Missouri USA) AP--Breaking News Update A Skidmore woman is dead tonight and the search begins for the unborn baby cut from her womb. Nodaway County authorities ask for help to find the baby and the person or persons responsible. The Nodaway County sheriff says a 23 year old white woman was murdered this afternoon in her home and her unborn baby girl was removed from her body. Police believe the child could still be alive. U.S. authorities release Amber alerts when they believe immediate widespread publicity will help solve abduction cases.The Amber abduction...

BORDEAUX, France (AFP) - French archaeologists said this week they had discovered an exceptional Gallic war treasure in the south of the country, including rare war trumpets and ornate helmets. The some 470 objects, or fragments of objects, were found at the end of September during a dig at Naves, in the department of Correze in southern France, in a ditch hollowed out of a Gallic-Roman temple, they said. "The exceptional character of this discovery lies mainly in the presence of five almost complete carnyx," Christophe Maniquet, an archeologist at Inrap, France's national institute for Archeological studies, said. "They are...

The History Channel is going to air a new historical series entitled DECISIVE BATTLES including some classic wars between ancient Persian armies and Roman and Greek ones. The History Channel goes on location to the actual battlefields and integrates cutting-edge videogame technology to bring history and imagination together in the new series DECISIVE BATTLES. The half-hour series DECISIVE BATTLES premieres Friday, July 23 at 9-9:30pm ET/PT. The series is hosted by Matthew Settle (Band of Brothers) on location at the ancient battlefields and features expert commentary from the world©s foremost historians. DECISIVE BATTLES is unlike any series The History Channel...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2004 February 29 Julius Caesar and Leap Days Credit: Rune Rysstad Explanation: Today, February 29th, is a leap day - a relatively rare occurrence. In 46 BC, Julius Caesar, pictured above in a self-decreed minted coin, created a calendar system that added one leap day every four years. Acting on advice by Alexandrian astronomer Sosigenes, Caesar did this to make up for the fact that the Earth's year...

The forced march to Bethlehem -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted: December 24, 2003 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2003 WorldNetDaily.com Some people may interpret this column as shameless politicization of the Christmas story. I think of it as an effort to de-politicize a beautiful and important truth distorted by the prism of modernity. When I listen to certain unnamed, misguided humanist prophets use the story of Joseph, Mary and Jesus, it is often used as a segue into their phony compassion for the "homeless." You've heard them. They tell us, with a straight face, that Joseph and Mary were poor, homeless people. I've even...

According to European "anti-war" protesters, the United States is a new Rome, seeking to dominate the world through sheer military power, bent on conquest of the oil-rich Middle East and making it part of the new American Empire. If President Bush is a new Caesar, some comparisons are in order. American war-planners fretted about Saddam Hussein's plans to withdraw his troops into the cities, forcing U.S. troops into urban warfare that would mean a heavy toll in civilian casualties. The deaths of innocent Iraqi civilians would be a terrible thing, and the U.S. military is making every effort to minimize...

Reports on radio stations,in newspapers and on television flooded across the land in the middle of the week 12 days before Christmas Eve. Is an Oregon political savoir about to be born? Let us tally the signs and portents. He resides in the holy city of Salem, namesake descendant of the equally holy (and even more political) city of Jeru-Salem...(snip) For Complete Article, Click Here.

America... ALL HAIL **HILLARY CAESAR!** Hillary has a "Caesar Complex" unlike any politician in known recent history!!! Hillary filled up her lungs with *HOT AIR* and bellowed in loooong drawn-out syllables (very much in a John Kennedy New England style of speech, by the way!) these words (and oh, so many others!), in her mission to berate our President on the Senate Floor the other day... "MMMMYYYYYY constituents want answers!" the Junior Senate roared through the Senate Chambers as she waved a copy of the morning headline. As only one (1) Senator, and a "junior one" at that, isn't it...