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“Rest for the Weary” (Matthew 11:25-30; Romans 7:14-25a)“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Jesus here issues a wonderful invitation and makes a wonderful promise. “Come to me” is the invitation, and “I will give you rest” is the promise. And to whom does he address this invitation and this promise? To “all who labor and...

Archaeologists have dug up the skeletons of 16 horses and a two-wheeled chariot in a grave dating back to the Roman Empire in north-east Greece, the culture ministry announced today. Half of the horses were buried in pairs, whilst two human skeletons were also discovered in a dig near Lithohori, in the Kavala region. Near to the remains of six of the horses archaeologists found a shield, weapons and various other accessories... diggers found a grave and four tombs covered with a ceramic lid, which contained four bronze coins dating back to the fourth century AD. The chariot, dating from...

Romans were upper crust on daily bread May 21 2008 by Tony Henderson, The Journal WHEN it came to their daily bread, troops at a Northumberland Roman fort took no chances. Excavations at Vindolanda are revealing two massive granaries whose quality even outshone the nearby commanding officer’s quarters. The dig is also uncovering a magnificent flagged roadway next to the granaries. “The masonry of these granaries is far superior to that of the nearby commanding officer’s residence, and although some of the walls have suffered from stone robbing, others are standing to a height of around 5ft,” said director of...

The Romans carried out cataract ops By Jane Elliott Health reporter, BBC News An eye stamp: the equivalent of the modern medicine label Think of the Roman legacy to Britain and many things spring to mind - straight roads, under-floor heating, aqueducts and public baths. But they were also pioneers in the health arena - particularly in the area of eye care, with remedies for various eye conditions such as short-sightedness and conjunctivitis. Perhaps most surprisingly of all is that the Romans - and others from ancient times, including the Chinese, Indians and Greeks - were also able also to...

It’s a safe bet that most of you reading these words have been to a professional football game. Many of you—particularly those who live in Philadelphia—have probably witnessed the occasional brawls between the home crowd and those foolish enough to wear an opposing team’s colors. A few of you, I dare say, have been involved in such altercations. But how often have you witnessed football fans actually kill opposition partisans? Well, perhaps I should qualify that by saying American football fans. When was the last time you heard of agitated sports nuts rioting in the streets and burning down half...

A team of archaeologists from the University of Exeter has found a Roman fort dating from the 1st Century AD in fields in Cornwall. Several items of pottery have been excavated and a furnace which may have been used to smelt minerals. Researchers said the find at Calstock, close to a silver mine, could show for the first time the Romans' interest in exploiting Cornish minerals. Very little is known so far about the Roman occupation in Cornwall... Archaeologists became interested in the site when they found references in medieval documents to the smelting of silver "at the old castle"...

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

  A Byrd's eye look at the historic 'Israeli - Arab conflict' towards Annapolis 2007    Around 2,000 years ago, the Romans that have conquered Israel, the Jewish people, the Jewish land, (after killing Jesus) destroy Jews' second temple, massacre hundreds of thousands after a rebellion against Rome's oppression and prohibition on practicing Judaism and mass torture [an armed rebellion which was disapproved by the rabbis & any religious leaders], and expell majority of Jews out of the land [as was expected throught the Jewish prophets, because God expects from his people - the Jews much more than from other...

A superstitious Society Compare to modern society, the Romans seem extremely superstitious. But then today's major religions have all throughout their past discouraged, even combatted, superstitions. Also our sciences and our technological world allows little room for superstition. The Romans lived in an era previous to this. Their world was full of unexplained phenomena, darkness and fear. To Romans these superstitions were a perfectly natural part in the relationship between gods and men. The Roman habit of interpreting natural phenomena as signs from the beyond stemmed from the Etruscans. The Etruscans, who developed reading omens and auspices into a form...

Abstract The Kings of Rome were abolished because of the last King's immorality and tyranny. The replacing government, a Republic, balanced the powers and responsibilities between the people and the upper class. The surrounding tribes recognized the Romans' generosity: some surrendered to Rome because they would be better treated by the Romans than their existing government. As the state grew, the Romans became self-absorbed, and created enemies instead of allies. The upper class used entitlements to absorb the people's responsibilities and gained political superiority by manipulating the law and people’s elected representatives. Slave labor destroyed the peoples' need to...

Ancient Romans Preferred Fast Food Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News June 18, 2007 — Just as a U.S. Presidential state dinner does not reflect how most Americans eat and socialize, researchers think the formal, decadent image of wining and dining in ancient Rome mostly just applied to the elite. According to archaeologist Penelope Allison of the University of Leicester, the majority of the population consumed food "on the run." Allison excavated an entire neighborhood block in Pompeii, a city frozen in time after the eruption of volcano Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D. Historians often extend findings from Pompeii to other parts...

Ancient Romans built their towns based on astronomical grids Washington, May 9 : Ancient Romans built their towns using astronomically aligned grids, a recently concluded Italian study has revealed. As part of the study, researchers examined the orientation of some 38 towns in Italy, and found that all of them followed strong symbolic aspects linked to astronomy. "It emerged that these towns were not laid out at random. On the contrary, they were planned following strong symbolic aspects, all linked to astronomy," said Giulio Magli of the mathematics department at Milan's Polytechnic University. While ancient Roman writers, including Ovid and...

Gladiators' graveyard discovered By Monika Kupper and Huw Jones BBC Timewatch Gravestones helped identify the site as a gladiator graveyard Scientists believe they have for the first time identified an ancient graveyard for gladiators. Analysis of their bones and injuries has given new insight into how they lived, fought and died. The remains were found at Ephesus in Turkey, a major city of the Roman world, BBC Timewatch reports. Gladiators were the sporting heroes of the ancient world. Archaeological records show them celebrated in everything from mosaics to graffiti. Motifs of gladiators are found on nearly a third of all...

A HARDY band of Welshmen in red, who took on the might of the Italians 2,000 years ago, could prove inspirational for tomorrow's Welsh Six Nations warriors. A leading historian has documented the exploits of the ancient Silures tribe, who fought a long campaign against the Romans two millennia ago. Dr Ray Howell from the University of Wales, Newport, even says our penchant for wearing red may spring from the tribe's favourite battle colour. Dr Howell, a reader at the university's School of Education, has published an examination of the South-East Wales tribe, who came close to thwarting the Roman...

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...

'They Show No Respect for Their Caesars'by Gerald A. HonigmanDec 18, '06 / 27 Kislev 5767  E-mail This  Print  Homepage The year was 1887. An Egyptian woman discovered a treasure trove of over three hundred clay cuneiform tablets that would shake the world of religion and the study of ancient history. Named for a local Bedouin tribe, the Tel El-Amarna tablets (which can now be found mostly in the Berlin and British Museums) were mostly the official correspondence between Pharaoh Amenhotep IV - Akhenaten - and his governors and vassals from places such as Canaan, Syria, Babylonia, etc. They date mostly from...

By Carol Kaufmann Photographs by Arne Hodaliè Why did Romans, Celts, and even prehistoric settlers submerge their personal belongings, from swords to dishes, in a shallow river in Slovenia? Archaeologist Andrej Gaspari is haunted by pieces of the past. His hometown river, the Ljubljanica, has yielded thousands of them—Celtic coins, Roman luxuries, medieval swords—all from a shallow 12-mile (19 kilometers) stretch. Those who lived near and traveled along the stream that winds through Slovenia's capital of Ljubljana considered it sacred, Gaspari believes. That would explain why generations of Celts, Romans, and earlier inhabitants offered treasures—far too many to be...

Who doesn’t know the difference between right and wrong? Yet that essential knowledge, generally assumed to come from parental teaching or religious or legal instruction, could turn out to have a quite different origin. Primatologists like Frans de Waal have long argued that the roots of human morality are evident in social animals like apes and monkeys. The animals’ feelings of empathy and expectations of reciprocity are essential behaviors for mammalian group living and can be regarded as a counterpart of human morality. Marc D. Hauser, a Harvard biologist, has built on this idea to propose that people are born...

Haredim promise violence if parade takes place, tell J'lem police chief 'will not give up, dialogue or negotiate' Haredim keep threatening to strike the gay parade scheduled to take place in Jerusalem in two weeks. Most recently, Jerusalem Police Chief Maj. Gen. Ilan Franko met Sunday with Haredi leader Yitzhak Tuvia Weiss. Franko asked to learn about the stance of Haredi rabbis who declared their intent of a 'Million Man Protest' against the parade. Police did not release details of the meeting. A source close to the rabbi said that Weiss told Franko that he cannot promise the police chief...

The remains of a 2000-year-old city have been discovered under Inverness and it is being hailed as one of the most important recent discoveries in Scotland. The find near Inverness Royal Academy was uncovered by a team who spent almost a year excavating the remains of seven large roundhouses and almost a dozen iron kilns... the ancient city's "industrial estate" where iron was smelted, bronze was cast and glass was produced... Among the items found below a site near Inverness Royal Academy, now being developed by Tulloch Homes, were part of a bronze horse harness, an enamelled bronze brooch, dozens...

Although Bonhams auction house, which will display the Sevso Hoard, insists no sale is planned, the Marquess of Northampton who bought the silver for an undisclosed sum in the 1980s recently said he "hopes" the silver will be sold, and that it has "cursed" his family. It now belongs to a trust he founded... The marquess, whose estates include more than 30,000 acres and magnificent stately homes in Oxfordshire and Warwickshire, sued his legal advisers after the Sotheby's auction was abandoned, and received a substantial but undisclosed settlement out of court. The 14 pieces of fabulous silver include four enormous...

A ceramic bobblehead doll of the Prophet Muhammed - created to resemble the infamous caricature published by a Danish newspaper - is being hawked online for $22.99 a pop by an ex-Marine. The unapologetic creator, Timothy Ames, 28, said the bobblehead is similar to "dashboard Jesus" figurines that can be stuck with adhesive to flat surfaces. "I thought, 'If they flipped out over some cartoons what will they do with a dashboard Muhammed?'" Ames said from his home in Hawaii. But Islamic experts are not amused, saying the bobbleheads could anger Muslims, whose religion strictly prohibits depictions of the prophet....

After eight years of war, Gaius Julius Caesar has finally completed his bloody conquest of Gaul. Just as he is prepared to celebrate a resounding victory and return to Rome with his army, he receives word that his daughter Julia has died in childbirth.

2005: Boob tube at its worst New reality shows bite in bottom 10 'Daddy' Dearest: T.J. Myers sought her biological father in the Fox fiasco. Oops, She Did It Again: Britney Spears bombed with her 'Chaotic' show. Developing a list of the best television programming during the past 12 months is a daunting task. Assembling a lineup of the worst TV programs of 2005, is even more Herculean. So many choices, so few slots ... It's a sin, for example, that certain awful TV shows should escape the end-of-year tally unscathed simply because there are other, worse contenders beneath them...

Ancient Rome provides a handy non-offensive stereotype for us to define ourselves against The best way to judge a modern recreation of ancient Rome - in film or fiction - is to apply the simple "dormouse test". How long is it before the characters adopt an uncomfortably horizontal position in front of tables, usually festooned with grapes, and one says to another: "Can I pass you a dormouse?" The basic rule of thumb is this: the longer you have to wait before this tasty little morsel appears on the recreated banquet, the more subtle the reconstruction is likely to be....

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.

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 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.

There's a gag in one of the old "Treehouse of Horror" episodes of "The Simpsons," in which Homer and Marge attend a parents meeting at Springfield Elementary School on the "thirteenth hour of the thirteenth day of the thirteenth month." The meeting, of course, is to discuss misprinted calendars; as Homer walks in from the wintry outdoors he glances at one hanging nearby and grouses, "lousy Smarch weather." Well, the DVD calendar now has its very own Smarch. Until recently, video releases have followed essentially the same schedule as theatrical openings, just shifted forward three or four months: The studios'...

On the elegant office set representing the headquarters of Ari Gold’s new palatial Hollywood talent agency, Doug Ellin sat in the glass-walled ersatz conference room, about where the fictional über-agent Ari might sit, talking about the utterly unexpected phenomenon of the series he created, HBO’s “Entourage.”

LOS ANGELES -- The fall of "Rome" will happen sometime in early 2007. HBO announced Wednesday that the second season of its epic series set in the time of Caesar will debut Jan. 7. At the same time, the network says next season will be the last for the show. Filming on season two is currently taking place at the Cinecitta Studios in Rome and will wrap in October. Once that's done, though, the show -- a co-production with the BBC -- will call it quits. "Rome" was one of the most expensive projects in TV history -- reports pegged...

Warning: this thread will contain talk of sex, nudity, and violence. If any of this is offensive please read on. Which Character on "Rome" Are most like? Men: Julius Caesar - Strong, never in doubt, decisive. Plus the women love him. Has slept with Servilia and Cleopatria. Nice job. Lucius - Duty always comes before self. Must be a strong willed man to have resisted Cleopatria. Titus Pullo - A Man's Man; personnal demons and obsession with a slave girl may be his own end. Oh so willing to use violence. Mark Antony. Male version of Atia. Willing to do...

The engravings, which were discovered close to the Amoud al-Sawari monument, are said to date back to the times of Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius (ruled 161-180 AD.)... are six lines long and were found etched on an artefact measuring 50 centimetres long and 36 centimetres wide, which may perhaps be part of an ancient altar. The engravings are said to be writings glorifying the supreme ancient Greek deity Zeus along with several other Greek gods. The Amoud al-Sawari monument - also known as the Column of the Horsemen, or Pompey's Pillar - is located in the Karmouz district, which is...

The marine branch of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has discovered Roman artefacts dating back to the 5th and 6th centuries from the inter-tidal zone (the area between the high-tide and low-tide lines) of Elephanta Island. The find, made last winter, includes artefacts like wine amphorae (vases), pot sheds, storage devices, and stone anchors. The discovery shows that trade between Rome and India continued much later than previously thought... Alok Tripathi, ASI's head of underwater archaeology, said, "The entire Maharashtra coast has evidence of Roman contact on a large scale. We are particularly interested in Elephanta, Sindhudurg, Malvan, and...

Etruscan ruins show how ancients lived April 07 2002 at 11:34AM By Shasta Darlington Rome - The ruins of an Etruscan mining city abandoned almost 3 000 years ago are giving archaeologists an unprecedented look at one of Italy's first and most mysterious civilisations. Since stumbling across the ruins of a single stone dwelling in the early 1980s, archaeologists have found the region, on the shores of a lake in central Italy, was once the site of an Etruscan city in 700 BC and 600 BC. "It's an extraordinary find because almost all Etruscan ruins are necropoli," said Giovannangelo Camporeale,...

Archaeologists digging near the central Italian town of Orvieto believe they have discovered the 2 500-year-old ruins of the main sanctuary of the Etruscan federation, a central meeting point where political and religious leaders gathered once a year to discuss important matters. The University of Macerata announced on Friday that the site at the foot of the Umbrian town was probably the location of the Fanum Voltumnae, the federal sanctuary for the 12 Etruscans towns. But the project's lead archaeologist, Simonetta Stopponi, warned that the ultimate confirmation would only come with the discovery of an inscription to the Etruscan god...

When is asking "is it good for Israel" not so good for Israel? Democrats and Republicans, politicking hard ahead of midterm elections that could end Republican control of the US Congress, are battling over which party was more supportive of Israel in its war with Hizbullah in Lebanon. "Republicans only offer support to Israel when they think that they'll get something for it," Democrats howled after the Republican-led Congress feted Nouri al-Maliki, Iraq's prime minister who stood with Hizbullah in the recent conflict. A ranking Democrat "is publicly supporting a terrorist organization," Republicans barked back after Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.)...

The Cultural Heritage announced that after almost fifty years of silence, one of Malta's most fascinating Roman catacombs has been re-discovered by officers of the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage within a traffic roundabout close to the Malta International Airport.

Paris (dpa) - European countries had begun evacuating their citizens from Lebanon Saturday in the face of the ongoing military Israeli offensive and blockade on the country. Italy and Spain had already acted to move their citizens to safety, while Britain and France were preparing similar operations. The Italian Embassy in Beirut had helped 420 foreigners, including 300 Italians, to evacuate from Beirut by bus to safer areas in northern Lebanon, Italian state television reported. Some 1,300 Italians live in Lebanon, most of whom "have been living in the country for years and want to remain there," the embassy said....

Marching down Marylebone Road I counted 26 neoclassical columns, then my mobile phone rang: a TV researcher was asking why film fetishises the Roman experience. Past the reconstructed remains of a Temple of Mithras in Queen Victoria Street, a billboard announced that new Romano- British artefacts had been unearthed by London developers, adding to those recently turned up by the Jubilee Line extension. One favourite was a lamp in the shape of a soldier’s foot, the wick lit on the big toe. It was a 40-minute journey that sang out Vivat Londinium! Romanis Victoria! In truth I had also travelled...

"The building has a highly irregular plan, with stone foundations 3 or 4 feet thick," she said. "One wing of the building is about 60 feet long, flanking a space that has walls running at right angles. Some walls run on a diagonal to the grid, or are curved. There are paved areas alternating with beaten earth floors and what I believe to be a large courtyard in the middle. Some of the foundations are so heavy and thick that they could easily have supported multistoried elements. Within the building's courtyard, de Grummond said, is a freestanding sandstone platform that...

THE Roman emperor Nero, a byword for cruelty and excess, has been falsely blamed for burning down Rome by propagandists covering up for Christian and Jewish saboteurs, according to new research. The fire, which destroyed most of the ancient city in AD64, has traditionally been blamed on a plot by Nero to destroy his opponents. However, Gerhard Baudy, professor of antiquities at Konstanz University in Bavaria, claims the fire was part of a revolt to overthrow the Roman empire by a group who believed they were fulfilling divine prophecies. “It was highly unlikely this fire was an accident,” said Baudy. ...

Archaeologists repairing a Roman catacomb have discovered an unusual network of underground burial chambers containing the elegantly dressed corpses of more than 1,000 people... The rooms appear to date back to the second century and are thought to be a place of early Christian burial. Because of the large number of bodies deposited over a relatively short period, experts believe a natural disaster or epidemic may have occurred at the time. The corpses, dressed in fine clothes embroidered with gold thread, were carefully wrapped in sheets and covered in lime. Balsamic fragrances were also applied, according to Raffaella Giuliani, chief...

for 10 years, an Italian team has been beavering away underground to reveal the wonders of Pozzuoli, once the port of ancient Rome, which is buried under a 16th century city. Excavators at Pompeii, entombed in ash and toxic debris by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79, were able to remove the volcanic material and expose the city to the open air. But in Pozzuoli, whose beauty was such that the great Roman orator Cicero called it "little Rome," the ancient streets were encased in the foundations of a new city built by the Spanish in the 1500s,...

When in Vietnam, Build Boats as the Romans Do Richard Stone INDO-PACIFIC PREHISTORY ASSOCIATION CONGRESS, 20-26 MARCH 2006, MANILA In December 2004, researchers drained a canal in northern Vietnam in search of ancient textiles from graves. They found that and a whole lot more. Protruding from the canal bank at Dong Xa was a 2000-year-old log boat that had been used as a coffin. After a closer look at the woodwork, archaeologists Peter Bellwood and Judith Cameron of Australia National University in Canberra and their colleagues were astounded to find that the method for fitting planks to hull matched that...

Punta Scario is opposite to and only twenty minutes by sail from, the Egadi Islands which gave their name to the Roman naval victory that took place on the morning of March the 10th, 241 BC and ended the First Punic War. The wreck's contents, epigraphy and Carbon 14 determinations are consistent with this period, while circumstantial evidence points to a connection with the Battle itself. The Ship's architecture and contents show that it was not a merchantman, but some kind of hastily built auxiliary warship, possibly a Liburnian. After the Battle the wind had changed direction, so that by...

JERUSALEM - Underground chambers and tunnels used during a Jewish revolt against the Romans nearly 2,000 years ago have been uncovered in northern Israel, archaeologists said Monday. The Jews laid in supplies and were preparing to hide from the Romans during their revolt in A.D. 66-70, the experts said. The pits, which are linked by short tunnels, would have served as a concealed subterranean home. Yardenna Alexandre of the Israel Antiquities Authority said the find shows the ancient Jews planned and prepared for the uprising, contrary to the common perception that the revolt began spontaneously. "It definitely was not spontaneous,"...

Kent was probably the most cosmopolitan region in the country at this time and Saxons and Jutes have left evidence of their culture here. In the last 30 years or so, a number of objects of Visigothic design have come to light, mainly in south-east England. Now this brooch adds to the evidence for connections between the people of Kent and the small number of Visigothic groups known to have lived in northern France at the time.

[ . . . ] The Romans were the first to use wine as a finely calibrated social yardstick - and thus inaugurated centuries of wine snobbery . . . Pliny the Younger, writing in the late first century A.D., described a dinner at which the host and his friends were served fine wine, second-rate wine was served to other guests, and third-rate wine was served to former slaves. [ . . . ] Just how seriously the Romans took the business of wine classification can be seen from the story of Marcus Antonius, a Roman politician who in 87...

Romans may have learned from Chinese Great Wall: archaeologists The construction of the Roman Limes was quite possibly influenced by the concept of the Great Wall in China, though the two great buildings of the world are far away from each other, said archaeologists and historians. Although there is no evidence that the two constructions had any direct connections, indirect influence from the Great Wall on the Roman Limes is certain, said Visy Zsolt, a professor with the Department of Ancient History and Archaeology of the University of Pecs in Hungary. Visy made the remarks in an interview with Xinhua...