Roman Empire 
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SOURCE: Independent
5/30/2020
If Trump Is Caligula, There Could Be Some Unexpected Benefits
How the story of a Roman emperor planning to appoint his horse as consul relates to the Trump administration, with input from historian Aloys Winterling.
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4/19/2020
Has Italy Fallen, Again, to Dictatorship?
by Christopher Binetti
As a result of several factors--a tradition of temporary strongman leaders, a history of disguised dictatorship, and a unitary government for a regionally divided people--Italy has been more susceptible than other liberal democracies of falling into autocracy in the current COVID crisis.
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SOURCE: The Conversation
10-15-18
The Roman ‘Brexit’: how life in Britain changed after 409AD
by Will Bowden
One of the remarkable things about the first decades of the 5th century was the apparent speed with which the things we associate with Roman life disappeared.
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7/8/18
It’s Time to Rethink the Byzantine Legacy
by Michael Goodyear
It wasn’t Europe that gave us our idea of the Byzantines. They crafted their own Western European image.
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SOURCE: NYT
10-5-17
Bronze Arm Found in Famous Shipwreck Points to More Treasure Below
Marine archaeologists announced new findings from their most recent excavation of the roughly 2,000-year-old Antikythera wreck.
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SOURCE: Letter to the Editor of the Financial Times
11-30-15
Historian David Potter corrects the Dutch prime minister
In a letter to the editor of the Financial Times he says the Roman Empire didn’t collapse because of loose border controls.
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7-5-15
The Lesson of the Fall of the Roman Republic We Ignore at Our Peril
by Richard Alston
In the modern West, we assume loyalty to the state and thus fail to consider how states can secure the loyalty of their people. Rome teaches us why this is a mistake.
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3-29-15
The Fall of Rome and All that
by Douglas Boin
Our obsession with the Fall of Rome reflects our belief in the end times – a belief shared by the people of Rome.
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SOURCE: Telegraph
2-16-15
The best thing the Romans did for Britain was leave, historian claims
On average Britons lived for two years longer after the fall of the Roman Empire
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12-28-14
Are We More Like the Roman Empire than We Care to Admit?
by David M. Carr
That’s a good question to ask ourselves at the start of a new year. History doesn’t provide a comforting answer.
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SOURCE: Vox Media
8-19-14
Website publishes 40 amazing maps that show the Roman Empire's rise and fall
by Timothy B. Lee
Here are 40 maps that explain the Roman Empire — its rise and fall, its culture and economy, and how it laid the foundations of the modern world.
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SOURCE: The New Scientist
1-28-14
Plague of Justinian confirmed as Black Death
New DNA sequencing shows that the Plague of Justinian was in fact the bubonic plague.
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SOURCE: NBC News
1-15-14
Gladiators in London death pits were 'chewed by dogs'
New findings suggest corpses of defeated gladiators fed to dogs.
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SOURCE: Science & Scholarship in Poland
9-18-13
Polish archaeologists discovered a Roman garrison commander's house in the Crimea
Until now, researchers have speculated that this house was located at the citadel in nearby Chersonesus.
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SOURCE: AFP
7-5-13
Alarm sounded over state of Italy's historic monuments
ROME (AFP).- Alarm bells are ringing once more over the upkeep of Italy's historic monuments, from the Roman city of Pompeii to the Colosseum, with budget cuts hampering repairs and UNESCO issuing a stern rebuke."Over the last five years, the culture budget has been reduced by two thirds," Culture Minister Massimo Bray complained in an interview on Monday published in Italian newspapers.Italy is now lagging well behind its European counterparts: the country allocates just 1.1 percent of its budget to culture, compared to 7.4 percent in Ireland, 3.3 percent in Spain and 2.5 percent in France.The lack of funds is having a disastrous affect on the country's archaeological treasures, with many sites closed due to fears of rock collapses and others sporadically shut by protests and strikes....
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SOURCE: Discovery News
5-28-13
Child abuse evident in Roman Egypt
A 2- to 3-year-old child from a Romano-Christian-period cemetery in Dakhleh Oasis, Egypt, shows evidence of physical child abuse, archaeologists have found. The child, who lived around 2,000 years ago, represents the earliest documented case of child abuse in the archaeological record, and the first case ever found in Egypt, researchers say.The Dakhleh Oasis is one of seven oases in Egypt's Western Desert. The site has seen continuous human occupation since the Neolithic period, making it the focus of several archaeological investigations, said lead researcher Sandra Wheeler, a bioarchaeologist at the University of Central Florida. Moreover, the cemeteries in the oasis allow scientists to take a unique look at the beginnings of Christianity in Egypt....
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SOURCE: WaPo
5-14-13
Candida Moss debunks the ‘myth’ of Christian persecution
Growing up Catholic in England, Candida Moss felt secure in life, yet was told in church that Christians have been persecuted since the dawn of Christianity. Now, as an adult and a theologian, she wants to set the record straight.Too many modern Christians invoke, to lamentable effect, an ancient history of persecution that didn’t exist, Moss argues in her newly published book, “The Myth of Persecution: How Early Christians Invented A Story of Martyrdom.”Although anti-Christian prejudice was fairly widespread in the church’s first 300 years, she writes, “the prosecution of Christians was rare, and the persecution of Christians was limited to no more than a handful of years.”...
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SOURCE: Huffington Post
5-12-13
Plague helped end Roman Empire
Plague may have helped finish off the Roman Empire, researchers now reveal.Plague is a fatal disease so infamous that it has become synonymous with any dangerous, widespread contagion. It was linked to one of the first known examples of biological warfare, when Mongols catapulted plague victims into cities.The bacterium that causes plague, Yersinia pestis, has been linked with at least two of the most devastating pandemics in recorded history. One, the Great Plague, which lasted from the 14th to 17th centuries, included the infamous epidemic known as the Black Death, which may have killed nearly two-thirds of Europe in the mid-1300s. Another, the Modern Plague, struck around the world in the 19th and 20th centuries, beginning in China in the mid-1800s and spreading to Africa, the Americas, Australia, Europe and other parts of Asia. [In Photos: 14th-Century 'Black Death' Graveyard]....
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SOURCE: Catholic News
5-5-13
Christians have persecution complex, Candida Moss says
A historian claims that many stories about the persecution of early Christians were invented or exaggerated to further the religion. Candida Moss, a professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at the University of Notre Dame maintains Christianity is so laden with such tales that it has given rise to a myth of persecution among modern believers. A Catholic, Moss expects her claims to be the source of irritation to the faithful - but that they're missing the point.Moss, from South Bend, Indiana, claims only a handful of martyrdom stories ever actually occurred and there was no widespread Roman persecution. The stories were largely invented to inspire loyalty among the masses.Moss says that modern Christians to drop the victim complex inherited from them. "Christians were never the victims of sustained, targeted persecution. The idea of the persecuted church is almost entirely the invention of the 4th century and later," she adds....
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SOURCE: Archaeology News Network
3-12-13
Cirencester Roman cockerel 'best find' in 40 years
A restored Roman cockerel figurine is the best result from a Cirencester dig in decades, archaeologists have said.The enamelled object, which dates back as far as AD100, was unearthed during a dig in 2011 at a Roman burial site in the town.It has now returned from conservation work and finders Cotswold Archaeology said it "looks absolutely fantastic".The 12.5cm bronze figure was discovered inside a child's grave and is thought to have been a message to the gods....
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