Departments

;

Roman Empire

  • SOURCE: Smithsonian
    1/10/2023

    The Roman Empress Who Willed Herself to Power Amid Chaos

    Galla Placidia was the only member of the imperial family who remained in Rome in 410 AD when the Visigoths approached the city. Her role in what happened next has been misrepresented or ignored by historians for centuries. 

  • 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. 

  • 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.

  • 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....

  • 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....

  • 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.”...