Free Republic

Like empires before us, we have lost our cultural confidence and moorings, increasing the risk of being overrun by newcomers.No subject is as central to America’s future and no subject gets to the heart of the failure of our current regime more than immigration policy. As a result, few subjects are as riddled with taboos in their public discussion. What will happen when the ethnic composition of large parts of America is transformed in ways America’s European founders never could have foreseen? And in the interim, what will happen to whites as they continue to lose political power amid their...

A £560,000 prize was on offer for scholars who could read the ancient Roman texts buried when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79AD. Scrolls cocooned in volcanic ash that consumed the Roman city of Pompeii have been deciphered for the first time in 2,000 years. Using AI researchers were able to discern some meaning from the writings which were discovered in the doomed ancient Italian city that was destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79AD. ...In a statement the Vesuvius Challenge revealed some of the information hidden until now in the scrolls which appear to be philosophical treatises concerning...

March 11, 222 marked the downfall of the Roman emperor Elagabalus (or Heliogabalus, in the Greek rendering).* Notorious to posterity for lapping the field in outrageous sensuality, he was the 14-year-old cousin of the deposed brute Caracalla and stepped into the purple because his crafty grandma won the civil war that ensued Caracalla’s assassination. By family heredity he was by that time already the high priest of the Syrian sun-god Elagabalus,** in the city of Emesa (present-day Homs, Syria). History has flattered the youth with the name of his novel god, although in life the former was simply Marcus Aurelius...

While Pontius Pilate's wife, Claudia, has been glorified as a saint, what happened to Pontius Pilate himself? There are three writers from the Early Church who say he became a Christian. There is a similar tradition in Ethiopia, and sometimes there one can find icons of Pontius Pilate, together with his wife Claudia. The fate of Pontius Pilate after the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is disputed among historians. According to some, Pilate killed himself while in exile to Gallia. Others suggest that he was executed during the reign of Emperor Nero. According to legend, the bad omens accompanying...

The first rule of Islamic fight club is that non-Muslims aren’t allowed to talk about it. And if it must be talked about, it has to be treated as a local phenomenon. That means insisting that Hamas is attacking Israel for political reasons, the Houthis are shooting at ships for political reasons, the Fulani are massacring Christians in Nigeria for political reasons, the Pakistanis, the Taliban, the Iranians, the Syrians, the Iraqis, ISIS and Mohammed who decided to stab someone on a train are all doing it for completely unrelated reasons. On the other side, devout Islamic leaders focus on...

What are we usually missing from the ancient world? Wood! Fortunately, the eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79 preserved a lot of wooden objects- ranging from a bed and crib, to a table, bench, and shrine, and more! Usually, these items are not on display, but on the occasion of a new exhibit, we are now able to examine the world of carpentry through these objects of everyday life- and many other artifacts- rarely preserved from Antiquity. A truly unique collection of artwork from ancient Herculaneum.0:00 Introduction2:00 Fabri2:43 small boat3:15 Telephos relief wooden coffered ceiling (recently discovered)3:57 bed, table, crib,...

Step-by-step time-lapse video of how to make a Roman sword from what appears to be leaf stock.

More than 100 dodecahedrons have now been found in northwestern Europe, but archaeologists still don't know what they were used for.Amateur archaeologists in England have unearthed a stunning Roman dodecahedron — a mysterious class of objects that has baffled experts for centuries.The dodecahedron — a 12-sided metal shell about the size of a grapefruit — was found this past summer during a dig in a farmer's field near the Lincolnshire village of Norton Disney, located about 35 miles (56 kilometers) southeast of Sheffield.A previous geophysical survey, which had detected underground areas where the Earth's magnetic field had been disturbed, had...

The skeleton of a man was discovered with a nail through his heel in Fenstanton, Cambridgeshire, in 2017...The reconstruction of the man's face was revealed in a BBC Four programme, which explored details of his life.Prior to the Fenstanton discovery, the only other Roman crucified remains discovered had been in Israel, according to Ms Duhig, an osteologist from the university's Wolfson College.Other injuries were found, suggesting the man had suffered before he died, and his legs had signs of infection or inflammation caused by either a systemic disorder or by being bound or shackled.Analysis of the remains revealed he spent...

The greatest collapse of a mighty state, a large human so­ciety and a fruitful civilization of which we possess a reasonably ac­curate record, has been immortal­ized by Edward Gibbon’s histori­cal classic, The Decline and Fall of The Roman Empire. Henry Adams remarked that Gibbon did not really explain the fall; but this criticism is not altogether just. As the following excerpts from The Decline and Fall show, the philosophic historian offered a number of reflections on the symp­toms and causes of the drama which he set out to describe: "This long peace and the uni­form government of the Romans introduced...

ROME - Computer experts on Monday unveiled a digital reproduction of ancient Rome as it appeared at the peak of its power in A.D. 320 — what they called the largest and most complete simulation of a historic city ever created. Visitors to virtual Rome will be able to do even more than ancient Romans did: They can crawl through the bowels of the Colosseum, filled with lion cages and primitive elevators, and fly up for a detailed look at bas-reliefs and inscriptions atop triumphal arches. "This is the first step in the creation of a virtual time machine, which...

Video A viral social media video shows hundreds of men dressed in black standing in a central street in Rome and performing the Nazi salute several times. The gathering was held in memory of three neo-fascist activists who were killed in 1978. The three were members of the ‘Italian Social Movement’ and two of them were killed, presumably, by left-wing activists, with the third killed by a police officer after a riot broke out in that spot. The video has caused controversy in Italy. Italian authorities have announced they are opening a criminal investigation. The ceremony is held each year...

A letter written by a Roman emperor helped lead a team of archaeologists to an ancient temple that "adds significant insights into the social changes" from pagan beliefs to Christianity in the Roman Empire, experts announced recently. The lead archaeologist on the expedition, Douglas Boin, Ph.D., announced the "monumental discovery" at the annual meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America, according to a news release from St. Louis University, where Boin is a professor of history. Boin said he and his team discovered "three walls of a monumental structure" that appears to have been a Roman temple from the Constantine...

Nobody does political cynicism like the Italians. As a country it hasn't been crucial since the fifth century AD, but it knows more about how politics works – and more importantly how it doesn't work – than any other nation on the planet. After refining Greek democracy into a workable system for a growing empire, Rome set about discovering all the ways government could corrupt itself, then descended into over a millennia of decline and division. The moment – brief, hopeful and doomed – when Italy struggled to reemerge as a national entity again is the setting for this week's...

The Pantheon is the best preserved temple of Ancient Rome, but in this episode we'll explore some huge, structural rooms of the Pantheon (the grottoni) that are rarely accessed. Indeed, most people don't even know they exist! How is this possible? What purpose did they serve? Let's explore!0:00 Introduction1:14 Pantheon's secret rooms (the grottoes- grottoni)- floor plan; grottoni rooms and Basilica of Neptune: engineering necessities of Pantheon4:13 Tour of the grottoni rooms6:42 Pantheon brickstamps and Basilica of Neptune decorations8:09 Grottoni vaultingExplore the secret rooms of the Pantheon | 11:00Darius Arya Digs | 17.6K subscribers | 127,898 views | January 7,...

The ruins of an ancient Roman pagan temple have been uncovered by a team of archaeologists in Spello, a hilltop town in northern Italy. At the site, which is located near a religious sanctuary, researchers identified three walls that are part of a massive structure with four-foot wide foundations. These foundations suggest evidence of a Roman temple dating to the 330s, during reign of Constantine (306–337 CE), the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity. These finds further illuminate the transition from pagan to Christian worship within the Roman Empire. The results of excavations conducted this summer were presented by...

Georgia congresswoman has been targeted multiple times by prank calls, has a security detail. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene reported her home was “swatted” Monday on Christmas with a fake emergency call, as she praised police for their professionalism as they responded to the latest in dangerous pranks targeting the Georgia Republican. “I was just swatted. This is like the 8th time. On Christmas with my family here. My local police are the GREATEST and shouldn’t have to deal with this,” she wrote on the X social media platform. A spokesperson for the Rome, Ga., police told The Hill that multiple...

The Osage Nation won a massive ruling in Tulsa federal court on Wednesday that requires Enel to dismantle a 150-megawatt wind project it built in Osage County despite the tribe’s repeated objections. The tribe’s fight against Rome-based Enel began in 2011 and is the longest-running legal battle over wind energy in American history. As reported by Curtis Killman in the Tulsa World on Thursday, the ruling grants the United States, the Osage Nation, and Osage Minerals Council permanent injunctive relief via “ejectment of the wind turbine farm for continuing trespass.” The decision by U.S. Court of International Trade Judge Jennifer...

The world's only intact Roman shield and body armour that was found in a German field after being buried for more than 2,000 years are set to go on display in a new exhibition at the British Museum.The shield, which is on its maiden transatlantic loan from Yale University in the US, was found in Syria in the 1930s.Although discovered in pieces, it was restored to its former glory by experts and will be seen by the British public for the first time in the Legion: life in the Roman army exhibition, which opens on February 1 next year.The segmental...

When Justinian secured the so-called "Eternal Peace" with the Persians in AD 532 after the Battle of Daras, it is likely that he realized that the peace on his eastern frontier would not actually be perpetual. But he probably thought it would last longer that seven or eight years. In any event, the emperor made the most the respite, gathering his substantial forces from the east which had previously been on station to face down the Persian menace, and readying them for a thrust to the West. His first target was the Vandal Kingdom which had ruled Roman Africa for...