Free Republic

(ANSA) - Rome, July 15 - The ancients' version of Formula 1 could once again enliven the Italian capital, with a series of high-speed chariot races. The historical society Vadis Al Maximo hopes to stage a major event next year, which would reproduce the thrills and spills of competitive charioteering, beloved of both the Romans and Greeks. ''The event would last three days, starting on October 17, at the same period when the race took place in Roman times,'' explained Vadis Al Maximo head, Franco Calo. ''If possible, we hope to involve charioteers from all over the world''. The initiative...

America has become an empire. Everyone says so. This is a surprise to most Americans, since few imagined that they were building such a thing. But, as historians such as Walter Nugent and Robert Kagan have recently taught us, Americans have been at this imperialist expansionism for quite some time — really since the beginning of the republic. How else to explain that the United States has gone from a handful of agrarian colonies to a world-spanning colossus in the space of only a few centuries? As you read this, American military might is deployed across the planet. The U.S....

One lone church struggles to survive in a land where hundreds have been damaged or destroyed. But this is no ordinary land; it is the very area where Apostle Paul took his first missionary journey to proclaim salvation through Jesus Christ to the Roman Empire. (See image by going to the link:) St Mamas' church in Morphou Now, 2,000 years later, the small Mediterranean island of Cyprus is divided into two, with the northern third occupied by Turkey. In the span of three decades under Turkish control, more than 530 churches and monasteries have been pillaged, vandalized, or destroyed in...

Arab women had more rights at the time of the Romans than they have today. At that time, in fact, their capacity to conduct their own economic affairs was recognised, which is not true in Saudi Arabia today. This is maintained by a female Saudi scholar, Hatoon al-Fassi, in a book entitled "Women In Pre-Islamic Arabia", Barred from teaching at King Saud University in 2001, the scholar has examined the situation of Nabataea, a kingdom that at the beginning of the Christian era included parts of modern-day Jordan, Syria, and Saudi Arabia, and had its capital in Petra. "We now...

Sen. John McCain this weekend slammed Sen. Obama for his relationship with Rev. Wright, and noted some new comments surfacing about Obama's former pastor. Hear Rev. Wright in his own words: Wright: U.S. government lied about Pearl Harbor, AIDS Wright: U.S. Is a Terrorist Nation Wright: U.S. the Same as al-Qaida

Is Stonehenge Roman? Geoffrey Wainwright, the co-Director of the excavations. Geoffrey's friends will be glad to note that he has now recovered from his hip replacement, though he can still not get down the deep holes After a gap of some forty four years, Stonehenge is once again being excavated. Admittedly, this time it is only a very small hole, and is only being dug for a fortnight, but it is a very important hole, and on April the 9th, we were invited down to Stonehenge to inspect it. It was a wonderful trip, not least because the weather was...

She crucified her enemies and burnt London to the ground. Meet Britain's first feminist, Boadicea By PAUL JOHNSON Last updated at 21:32pm on 6th February 2008 Britain's history is rich in fiery queens, and the first such heroine, tall with red hair down to her waist, commanding and brave, was Boadicea, warrior leader of the ancient Britons. She lived at the same time as the emperors Claudius and Nero, and led a surprisingly successful British revolt against Roman rule in AD60-61 (which, for reference, was when St Paul was writing epistles and St Mark composing his Gospel). She was a...

A man with a metal detector has unearthed a Roman bronze coin so rare it bears the face of a mystery emperor who "ruled" Britain for a matter of days... It bears the face of Emperor Domitianus and is only the second coin ever found which bears the image of the self-proclaimed ruler of Britain and France in 271AD. A similar coin was found in France 100 years ago but until now its uniqueness had meant both Emperor Domitianus and the coin were dismissed as a hoax. Historians say the British discovery confirms the French find is genuine and...

Gold coins show ‘Emperor of Britain’January 24, 2008 Dalya Alberge Two “extremely important” gold coins that shed light on a little-known rebel Roman emperor from the 3rd century AD have been unearthed by a farmer in the Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire area. They relate to the Roman commander Carausius, who declared himself Emperor of Britain around 286 or 287 after the Emperor in Rome ordered his execution. He was overthrown in a coup d’état by his finance minister, Allectus, in 293. The coins were handed in to the Portable Antiquities Scheme and moved to the British Museum. The scheme is facing...

An unexpected historical discovery has been made at Scottish Water's site at Glencorse, near Penicuik -- a Roman marching camp nearly 2000 years old. The revelation has provided another clue as to how the Romans organised their occupation of the Lothians. It had not been confirmed whether the site was, in fact, a Roman marching camp, which had previously only been suggested by aerial photographs... It is believed the site, which is part of a network of other bases, watchtowers and camps across lowland Scotland, was situated to guard a gap in the Pentland Hills to the northwest of Flotterstone...

A unique exhibition of 2,000-year-old paintings called Pompeian Red has opened at the National Museum of Rome.

Found in a farmer's field: The 2,000-year-old skeleton of the lost lady of Rome By CHRIS BROOKE Last updated at 09:14am on 23rd November 2007 In her lifetime she was a member of a wealthy family based in a bustling British outpost of the world's mightiest empire. The imperial glory has long faded. But, almost 2,000 years on, archaeologists have discovered a corner of an English field that is forever Rome. They have unearthed a coffin containing a remarkably well-preserved skeleton in the village of Aldborough, near Boroughbridge, North Yorkshire - once the site of a major Roman town, Isurium...

ROME - Archaeologists on Tuesday unveiled an underground grotto believed to have been revered by ancient Romans as the place where a wolf nursed the city's legendary founder Romulus and his twin brother Remus. Decorated with seashells and colored marble, the vaulted sanctuary is buried 52 feet inside the Palatine hill, the palatial center of power in imperial Rome, the archaeologists said at a news conference. In the past two years, experts have been probing the space with endoscopes and laser scanners, fearing that the fragile grotto, already partially caved-in, would not survive a full-scale dig, said Giorgio Croci, an...

(2007-10-12) — In the midst of a push by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-CA, to pass a resolution labeling the Ottoman (Turk) Empire genocidal for the death of 1.5 million Armenians in 1915, House Republicans have introduced a bill condemning the Roman Empire for “the wholesale slaughter and domination of most of the known world from about 41 B.C. to 476 A.D.” Rep. Pelosi, who often refers to her Italian heritage, called the GOP move “nothing short of a hate crime” and “a cynical effort by Republicans to overshadow what could be the first significant accomplishment of the Democrat Congressional...

The ethnic origins of General David Petraeus are apparently Dutch, which is a shame because there’s something sonorously classical about the family name of the commander of the US forces in Iraq. When you discover that his father was christened Sixtus, the fantasy really takes flight. Somewhere in the recesses of the brain, where memory mingles hazily with imagination, I fancy I can recall toiling through a schoolboy Latin textbook that documented the progress of one Petraeus Sixtus as he triumphantly extended the imperium romanum across some dusty plain in Asia Minor. The fantasy is not wholly inapt, of course....

Archeologists find ancient tunnel used by Jews to escape Roman conquest of Jerusalem The Associated PressPublished: September 9, 2007 JERUSALEM: Israeli archeologists on Sunday said they've stumbled upon the site of one of the great dramatic scenes of the Roman sacking of Jerusalem 2,000 years ago: the subterranean drainage channel Jews used to escape from the city's Roman conquerors. The ancient tunnel was dug beneath what would become the main road of Jerusalem in the days of the second biblical Temple, which the Romans destroyed in the year 70, the dig's directors, archaeology Professor Ronny Reich of the University of...

Learn from the fall of Rome, US warned By Jeremy Grant in WashingtonPublished: August 14 2007 00:06 | Last updated: August 14 2007 00:06The US government is on a ‘burning platform’ of unsustainable policies and practices with fiscal deficits, chronic healthcare underfunding, immigration and overseas military commitments threatening a crisis if action is not taken soon, the country’s top government inspector has warned.David Walker, comptroller general of the US, issued the unusually downbeat assessment of his country’s future in a report that lays out what he called “chilling long-term simulations”.These include “dramatic” tax rises, slashed government services and the large-scale...

The US government is on a ‘burning platform’ of unsustainable policies and practices with fiscal deficits, chronic healthcare underfunding, immigration and overseas military commitments threatening a crisis if action is not taken soon, the country’s top government inspector has warned. David Walker, comptroller general of the US, issued the unusually downbeat assessment of his country’s future in a report that lays out what he called “chilling long-term simulations”. These include “dramatic” tax rises, slashed government services and the large-scale dumping by foreign governments of holdings of US debt. Drawing parallels with the end of the Roman empire, Mr Walker warned...

The US government is on a ‘burning platform’ of unsustainable policies and practices with fiscal deficits, chronic healthcare underfunding, immigration and overseas military commitments threatening a crisis if action is not taken soon, the country’s top government inspector has warned. David Walker, comptroller general of the US, issued the unusually downbeat assessment of his country’s future in a report that lays out what he called “chilling long-term simulations”. These include “dramatic” tax rises, slashed government services and the large-scale dumping by foreign governments of holdings of US debt.

“It is possible to govern based on an approach that is distinctly different from one of coercion, force and injustice,” wrote Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad recently in an open letter he thoughtfully scribed for the benefit of the American people. “It is possible to sincerely serve and promote common human values, and honesty and compassion. It is possible to provide welfare and prosperity without tension, threats, imposition or war.” These statements sound almost reasonable until it is remembered that they came from the pen of an individual whose repressive regime funds proxy paramilitary forces and outright terrorist groups in Iraq,...

22 March 2007 BBC Europe editor Mark Mardell on the contents of the Berlin Declaration to be signed at a summit this weekend, comparisons between the EU and the Roman empire, and two very different visions of the EU's future. The diary is published every Thursday - bookmarking this page will always take you to the latest issue. OUTSTANDING BLANDNESS"In the middle of the very grand room, one of the many grand rooms in the palace, stands a glass case, containing a book of 1,144 pages. In it are both dreams and nightmares, depending who is reading the book."...

English Heritage is conducting stabilisation work at the site Archaeologists have found traces of a Roman settlement at a 5,000-year-old landmark man-made hill in Wiltshire.English Heritage believes there was a Roman community at Silbury Hill about 2,000 years ago. The 130ft Neolithic mound near Avebury - one of Europe's largest prehistoric monuments - is thought to have been created some 3,000 years earlier. Experts carrying out a project to stabilise the hill say the site may have been a sacred place of pilgrimage. Human activity English Heritage geophysicist Dr Neil Linford said: "We are really excited by this discovery...

When the Roman Empire fell – and scholars still debate how hard, and why – much was lost, including arts, literacy, public works, and the rule of law; but the most significant was the loss of commerce. The archeological record shows a drastic drop in quantity and quality of goods and materials in the 5th century, indicating the loss of artisans and skills. Without the umbrella of security, commerce faltered, forcing regions to become more self-reliant. Specialized skills fell aside as sustainment skills became critical. Artisans and artists were replaced by the jack-of-all-trades. It would remain thus until the relative...

If I were to tell you that I know someone who thinks that George Bush is assuming imperial powers in the same manner as Augustus Caesar in ancient Rome, you would figure the person to be a kook left member of the Democratic Underground aka DUmmies. In addition, if I were to add that this same person also believes that our social and foreign policy must first be submitted to religious fundamentalists then you could also conclude that if not a DUmmie, then this same person could also be a Koo-Koo Daily Kos type. Well, what if I told...

FLOAT out beyond the Crusader city walls, Roman aqueduct and 19th-century mosque. Then descend through a cloud of quicksilver bubbles 20ft and 2,000 years to Herod The Great’s sunken harbour. Here, just off Caesarea port, a unique underwater archaeological park opened yesterday, showcasing 80,000sq m of a sunken harbour built by the biblical king of the Jews for Caesar Augustus. It is no ordinary “museum” — no chattering schoolchildren, no queues, no headphones, and the only sound that of boat propellers passing above your head as you swim around the “exhibits”. “I am excited. I think anyone in the field...

LONDON (Reuters) - Gladiators may have fought and died to entertain others in the brutality of the Roman arena but they appear to have abided by a strict code of conduct which avoided savage violence, forensic scientists say. Tests on the remains of 67 gladiators found in tombs at Ephesus in Turkey, center of power for ancient Rome's eastern empire, show they stuck to well defined rules of combat and avoided gory free-for-alls. Injuries to the front of each skull suggested that each opponent used just one type of weapon per bout of face-to-face contact, two Austrian researchers report in...

This one has to be reproduced in entire, and it won't fit here, so it will be below. This Carausius topic came to mind as an idea due to Blam's topic on 15,000 wrecks in Irish waters (even though Carausius probably didn't operate there; he may have, but I've seen nothing). Just adding this to the GGG catalog, not sending a general distribution. To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. Thanks. Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on or off the Gods, Graves, Glyphs PING list or GGG weekly digest...

The Alemanni, Juthungi and Marcomanni invaded the empire in force, before even the Vandals had finished withdrawing. Once more northern Italy had to endure a force of barbarians descending upon it from the Alps... Aurelian rushed back to... Placentia. But the legions were no match for the barbarians this time and Aurelian suffered a severe defeat (AD 271)... If Aurelian had suffered a setback, he was still far from beaten. The barbarians now made one crucial mistake. In order to cover more ground - and so reap more plunder - they split up their huge army into several smaller forces....

The Lessons of the Roman Empire for America Today by J. Rufus Fears, Ph.D. December 19, 2005 Heritage Lecture #917 I am honored to give a lecture named after Russell Kirk, who told us to ponder the permanent things, such as history and human nature. It is about human nature and history that I want to speak to you this afternoon. We are on patrol today in Iraq. Men and women of the United States armed forces in armored vehicles patrol the streets of Baghdad. They pass in the way of so many who have come before them: the Egyptian...

The BBC is about to broadcast the most violent and sexually explicit programme ever to be shown on British television - and at £58 million for 12 episodes it is also the most expensive. Rome, a drama set in the dying days of the Roman Empire, contains full frontal male and female nudity and depictions of violent sex. The Sunday Telegraph has seen the first six episodes of the blood-soaked drama - a co-production between the corporation and the American broadcaster HBO - which contains nudity within its opening minutes. The show, which premieres in America next Sunday and hits...

Norfolk acted as a hub of resistance against Roman occupation, new analysis of archaeological finds has revealed. But the empire's military might eventually eclipsed native East Anglians in a brutal crackdown described as a "lost holocaust". A sprawling Celtic 'proto-city', as significant to its Iceni occupants as modern-day London, sprawled across eight square miles of West Norfolk, almost certainly providing a regular home to Boudicca. David Thorpe, from the Sedgeford Historical and Archaeological Research Project (Sharp), is excavations director for the site - the exact location of which is not being disclosed. Speaking yesterday, he explained the team have discovered...

In 1984 a German scholar worked out that 210 reasons had been advocated for the fall of the Roman empire. Peter Jones enjoys a "fine narrative history" that concentrates on just one.Peter Jones reviews and The Fall of the Roman Empire by Peter Heather and The Fall of Rome and the End of Civilization by Bryan Ward-PerkinsIn 1984 a German scholar worked out that 210 reasons had been advocated for the fall of the Roman empire in the West in the fifth century AD - from bureaucracy to deforestation, from moral decline to over-hot public baths, from female emancipation to...

The EU superstate- future base of Antichrist. by British newspaper editor Alan Franklin Major Prophecies in Daniel 2 and 7 indicate that the Holy Roman Empire will be the dominant force in the world when our Lord returns. Twenty five hundred years ago Daniel saw the Roman Empire revived from the dead in the end times. Those prophecies are today being fulfilled in Europe. I have often spoken about the rebirth of the Roman Empire in the form of The European Union, the superstate of 25 nations that has replaced most of the individual countries of Europe, a country with...

Prophecy, I think for the most part because of the book of Daniel and the kings dream. The statue represents (Daniel 2; 40-43) the kingdoms of the earth, And all preachers alike are saying we are waiting on the pope to be the false prophet and an empire likened to Rome. Well this same theory of what Daniel says has been around for as long as I can remember. So for me I decided to take God for one moment out of a box. And open my mind to what else it might say. Well I found That the U.N....

Carthage tries to live down image as site of infanticide Thursday, May 26, 2005 By Andrew Higgins, The Wall Street Journal CARTHAGE, Tunisia -- Mhamed Hassine Fantar has a bone to pick with the Roman Empire, French writer Gustave Flaubert and a group of Americans who specialize in digging up old graves. An expert on ancient Carthage -- a city obliterated by the Romans more than 2,000 years ago -- Mr. Fantar is campaigning to clear his forefathers of a nasty stigma: a reputation for infanticide. "We didn't do it," says the 69-year-old archaeologist, rejecting accusations that the ancient citizens...

With John Paul II’s death, speculation over his successor grows. Could Joseph Ratzinger be a coming German pope? Pope John Paul recent death has fueled speculation on who will be his successor. Although, officially, the Vatican cannot comment on the matter, insiders and observers are naming the major contenders. The Trumpet has pointed out many times over recent years that the pope to replace John Paul ii will be an arch-conservative and almost certainly the man to bring to fruition some of the most dreadful of end-time biblical prophecies. Our June 2002 issue stated of the next pope: Right wing...

The archaeological season has begun at the Roman site of Vindolanda, bringing in volunteers from all over the world. Jamie Diffley went along to ask why they dig it.Pressed down in the clay, almost completely covered by the dirt, lies an object. Could be a piece of Roman pottery, perhaps some glass. To the untrained eye it could just be a piece of ordinary rubble. "It is ordinary rubble," says archaeologist Andrew Birley, loading it into a wheelbarrow, which will then be dumped by the side. Unlike me Andrew does have a trained eye. Indeed he has two. They're trained...

NPR.org, April 2, 2005 · "Tip O'Neill was correct," says Father Tom Reese, editor in chief of America, the Catholic weekly magazine. "All politics is local... even in the Catholic Church." Reese suggests that instead of focusing on the possible papal candidates as a bookie would look at horses in the starting gate, try to think about the election from the point of view of the electors, the cardinals who cast the votes. "Each cardinal is thinking, how will this candidate go over in my diocese?" Reese says. "If you're from the Third World, you're concerned with people who are...

Zoe Adjonyoh pulled her fedora down and made for Oxford in search of buried treasure. A very rare and exciting Roman discovery is now on show at Oxford's Ashmolean Museum. One year ago, 5000 Roman coins were found in a field in Oxfordshire. When British Museum experts examined the hoard, they were surprised to find a coin that confirms the existence of the ‘lost’ Emperor Domitianus. The coin was unearthed by local treasure hunter Brian Malin in April 2004, in a field ten miles south-east of Oxford with the aid of his trusty metal detector. Mr Malin swiftly took the...

COLCHESTER, England (Reuters) - It is the home of Humpty Dumpty, Old King Cole and Camelot -- or so legend has it. But archeologists raking over the past can now go one better for the English city of Colchester. After painstaking excavation work they have proof of real heroes from the ancient world. Last month they revealed the remains of a Roman Circus or chariot racing track. In the past 30 years archeologists in the city have unearthed evidence dating back to Roman rule over 2,000 years ago, rewriting British history along the way. The circus underlines the city's importance...

This passage, from Vito Fumagalli's Landscapes of Fear: Perceptions of Nature and the City in the Middle Ages, looks at how Medieval Christians looked at the ruins of the Roman Empire, both physical and spiritual, and used them to make monasteries.. Everywhere towns had decayed and had lost their central position. The ancient world had created a highly sophisticated and essentially urban civilization: the Romans, like the Etruscans before them, had been city builders and the vast and complex network of their towns had had a profound influence on the landscape. ... Over time, however, the vast reaches of...

CHICAGO - (KRT) - One imagines the Persian queen smiling warmly as she passes the food down the table to her daughter-in-law. Queen Parysatis, during the reign of her son, Artaxerxes II (405 to 359 B.C.), was trying to influence a power struggle within the kingdom and had felt the need to be rid of her daughter-in-law. She poisoned one side of a knife that then was used to bisect a roast bird at dinner. Taking the untainted half for herself, she passed the rest, knowing - hence the smile - that her problem was all but solved. Recorded instances...

Ancient and Modern - It was tribalism that finished Rome, and it will finish Brussels too Peter Jones Whenever the subject of the EU comes up, someone is bound to compare it to the Roman empire. If the comparison relates to the beginning and subsequent development of that empire, it fails. But the end of the Roman empire in the West in the 5th century ad may well offer quite a good model of how EUthanasia will set in. Rome entered the imperial stakes after defeating Carthage in the first Punic war (264–241 bc). The two greatest powers of the...

There's an old story worth retelling about a band of wild hogs which lived along a river in a secluded area of Georgia. These hogs were a stubborn, ornery, independent bunch. They had survived floods, fires, freezes, droughts, hunters, dogs, and everything else. No one thought they could ever be captured. One day a stranger came into town not far from where the hogs lived and went into the general store. He asked the storekeeper, "Where can I find the hogs? I want to capture them." The storekeeper laughed at such a claim but pointed in the general direction. The...

Could the EU be the new Roman Empire? For the past couple of years member nations in the European Union have been hammering out a new constitution for all of Europe . Bible prophecy enthusiasts have been watching this process carefully. This past week marked a watershed in the development of the EU and its new constitution.. On Friday October 29, 2004 leaders of all 25 European Union nations signed the new document. With great pomp and fanfare, and Bach playing in the background, the signing took place on Capitoline Hill in Rome . Capitoline Hill is one of the...

VATICAN CITY -- When European Union leaders gather in Rome to sign their new constitution, they will be rebuffing Pope John Paul II and his effort to acknowledge Christianity in the historic document. The Roman Catholic pontiff has often voiced concern about Europe's increasingly secular society, and with Friday's signing of a constitution that does not acknowledge Europe's religious history, the Vatican sees proof that the EU is distancing itself from Christianity in general and Catholicism in particular. The drafters of the constitution have made it clear for months that they would ignore the pope's tireless 21/2-year campaign for explicit...

CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy (AP) -- Pope John Paul II denounced the "imbalance" between the world's rich and poor Sunday and applauded efforts to eliminate hunger, like the recent U.N. initiative to increase funds for development. The 84-year-old pontiff had to stop for breath every few words as he spoke to a few hundred pilgrims and tourists in his last Sunday appearance this season at his summer palace in the hill town of Castel Gandolfo. John Paul has Parkinson's disease, making it difficult for him to walk and to pronounce his words. The pontiff said Sunday's Gospel passage about Lazarus, an...

This study evolved from the Threat Matrix Thread to the Threat Potentials Thread. The study is becoming detailed and I thought it needed it's own thread to make easier access to the information. I am going to copy and paste the first seven chapters and comments. Feel free to comment at any time on any verse and or cross reference. May GOD Bless us with His divine wisdom. Amen

Why Morality Matters by Steven C. Bonta, Ph.D. It is my conviction that the greatest threat to our free republic is moral decline. It is becoming fashionable nowadays to discount or ignore completely the relationship between morality and political liberty. Perhaps this is because the deteriorating moral culture in the modern United States of America seeks to be its own justification. Freedom, some believe, can flourish independently of moral standards, as long as we allow every man uninhibited license in his so-called “personal lifestyle choices.” This badly flawed notion is going to be the death of our republic, unless...

SAN FRANCISCO, June 25 — Cellphones are chock-full of features like built-in cameras, personalized ring tones and text messaging. They also gave a real boost to Kenny Hall's effort to cheat on his girlfriend. Mr. Hall, a 20-year-old college student in Denver, decided in March to spend a weekend in nearby Boulder with another woman. He turned to his cellphone for help, sending out a text message to hundreds of other cellphone users in an "alibi and excuse club," a network of 3,400 strangers who help each other skip work, get out of dates or give a loved one the...