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Archeologists say that they have found the underground passage in which the Emperor Caligula was murdered by his own Praetorian Guard to put an end to his deranged reign of terror. Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (AD12–AD41), known by his nickname Caligula (Little Boots), was the third emperor of the Roman Empire after Augustus and Tiberius, and like them a member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. His assassination was the result of a conspiracy by members of the Senate who hoped to restore the Roman Republic. However the Praetorian Guard declared Caligula’s uncle Claudius emperor instead, thus preserving the monarchy. Maria...

Imagine the outrage in feminist circles if a conservative columnist had mockingly analogized a sitting Dem governor to an animal. But Richard Cohen has said as much of Sarah Palin. And I predict you won't hear a peep from the Kim Gandys or Naomi Wolffs of the world—much less from their allies in the MSM. Cohen begins his WaPo column of today by dismissing Palin as "a sitcom of a vice presidential choice and a disaster movie if she moves up to the presidency." After noting Newt's defense of her nomination, Cohen continues [emphasis added]: "It's a pity Gingrich was...

Robinson report - Download 606K Listen to Robinson report Experts are urging the Bush administration to use patience and caution in its approach to Iran over its nuclear ambitions.  The comments by former U.S. weapons inspector David Kay and others at an event on Capitol Hill Wednesday came as President Bush and other officials reiterated a call for Iran to end its uranium enrichment efforts and reach a peaceful and negotiated solution.  David Kay (file photo) David Kay, who has been critical of the Bush administration's faulty pre-war intelligence on weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, says Washington needs to...

The Portraiture of Caligula in Right Profile- AR Denarii: The Imagery and Iconography By Joe Geranio For photos at portraitsofcaligula.con under basesclaudius tab For some time now I have been fascinated with the portraiture of Caligula in the round! He has typically been portrayed in the round (typology)1 , and his physiognomy. as follows, but first Most of these portraits are based upon official portraits, we can assume as Caligula (Princeps) wished to be portrayed some twelve to 30 sculptural likenesses of Caligula have survived,2 but these identifications can be quite subjective due to familial assimilation. Caligula’s characteristics typical are:...

[ . . . ] 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...

Ex-president Bill Clinton sounded confident on Monday when he told a Philadelphia crowd that John Kerry would win the White House and "make America the comeback country." But yesterday in Florida, the recuperating heart patient sounded a little less certain. "I think it is slightly more likely that he will win, but this thing is tight as a tick," Clinton told the Magazine Publishers of American gathering in Boca Raton. One reason for the uncertainty: Dubya enjoys "negative campaigning" in a way his father, who Clinton defeated 12 years ago, never did. "It was a pretty negative campaign, but I...

I used to do two series of threads. One was about politics and government in the Greco-Roman civilization, and the other was my own columns. Here's a list of them: Ancient Politics and Government The Athenian Constitution, Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four, and Part Five by Aristotle Chapter One of Polybius and the Founding Fathers by Marshall Davies Lloyd Deeds of Augustus by Caesar Augustus Cicero by Plutarch The Conspiracy of Catiline by Sallust Lives of the Twelve Caesars by Suetonius JuliusAugustusTiberiusCaligulaClaudiusNeroGalbaOtho The American Constitutionalist-In Defense of "Underage" Drinking -Anarchy vs. the Right to Life -Calling a...

Don't Throw Away Liberty Probably one of the most chilling statements ever made by a tyrant was Caligula's warning: "Remember, I can do anything to anybody." Few tyrants have ever had such total power. Even in Caligula's case, he wielded such power for a relatively short time before he was killed. The only tyrants in our time who could have made such a statement were Joe Stalin and his admiring fan, Saddam Hussein. In both cases, they literally could do anything to anybody, provided, of course, they could get their hands on them. Stalin was by far the greater monster,...

Did Caligula have a God complex?Stanford, Oxford archaeologists find evidence that depraved tyrant annexed sacred temple BY JOHN SANFORD Archaeologists from Stanford, Oxford and the American Institute for Roman Culture have unearthed evidence that Caligula, in an act of astonishing hubris, extended his palace to the podium of a sacrosanct temple. The discovery, made during the final weeks of a month-and-a-half-long dig this summer in the Roman Forum, appears to support accounts by some ancient historians that the profligate but short-lived emperor was a megalomaniac. "It's the equivalent of Queen Elizabeth taking over St. Paul's Cathedral as an anteroom,"...

British and American archaeologists digging in the Roman Forum said yesterday they had uncovered evidence to suggest that the emperor Caligula really was a self-deifying megalomaniac, and not the misunderstood, if eccentric, ruler that modern scholars have striven to create. For several decades historians have been lifting their eyebrows at the Latin authors' portrait of Caligula as a madman who came to believe he was a god. But Darius Arya of the American Institute for Roman Culture said a 35-day dig by young archaeologists from Oxford and Stanford universities had reinstated a key element in the traditional account. "We have...

ROME, Aug. 11 — For centuries scholars have debated whether Caligula, the Roman empire’s eccentric third ruler, was a megalomaniac who dared to defy the gods or a maligned emperor whose caprices were exaggerated after his death. NOW A GROUP of archaeologists digging up Caligula’s ancient palace say they have finally found concrete evidence that he was indeed a “maniac” who turned one of Rome’s most revered temples into the front porch of his residence. “Everyone knows this guy was a little crazy. But now we have proof that he was completely off his rocker, that he thought he was...

MONTREAL -- Swingers clubs will spring up across Canada because of a judge ruling their activities are not necessarily illegal, the head of a swingers group said yesterday. Municipal court Judge Denis Boisvert found five people guilty of swinging-related offences, but decided "contemporary Canadian society tolerates swinging and swingers clubs if the sexual acts take place in private." Jean Hamel, president of the 8,000-member Quebec Swingers Association, said Boisvert's ruling will have national significance. "I don't think more clubs will open in Quebec but I think it will open doors for other places in Canada, like Toronto." Judge Boisvert found...