Free Republic

In March of the year AD 538, the late Roman general, Belisarius, pulled off one of the most incredible feats in military history: he successfully defended the massive city of Rome—with its 12 miles of circuit walls—with a scant 5,000 soldiers, against a vast army of Goths that outnumbered his own some 15 or 20 to 1. Indeed, by the time the Gothic King Vitiges broke up the siege after twelve frustrating months, it had become unclear which side was the besieged and which was the besieger. Unable to prevent the Romans from bringing in supplies or leaving the city...

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...

A farmer has discovered one of the largest hauls of Roman coins to ever be found in Poland. Mariusz Dyl had been looking for abandoned antlers in a field near Cichobórz, south of Hrubieszów, Lublin, when he stumbled upon the 2,000-year-old coins scattered across 100 metres of the field. After calling in experts, the 1,753 coins weighing 5.5kg and which were found in 2019, were taken to the Hrubieszów Museum where they have now been analysed and their authenticity confirmed. Director of the Museum Bartlomiej Bartecki said... all the coins, had been originally placed in a wooden box or leather...

The sack of Rome, the Eternal City, by Alaric and his Goths occurred on this date, August 24, in anno Domini 410. This catastrophic event, caused as much by the inept diplomacy of the Romans as by the intrepidity of Alaric, was a major turning-point in history that shook the Roman Empire to its very core. Indeed, this event was such a profound shock that it inspired Augustine of Hippo to write his greatest and most influential work, The City of God, as a response. Writing later in a work called Retractiones, Augustine records the event and the immediate reaction...

In AD 303 on February 23, the Christian church of Nicomedia in Roman Bithynia was utterly destroyed. In this case, by “church” I am referring to the physical building as opposed to the human beings of Nicomedia who professed the Christian faith. Their destruction would come later. The pulling down of the church of Nicomedia marked the beginning of a violent, Roman Empire-wide repression of Christianity known to future generations as the Great Persecution. This state-sponsored attack would be the most violent, wide-ranging, and longest-lasting effort of the Roman government to wipe out the hated Christian sect. It would also...

Archaeologists have unearthed part of an unknown Roman Era public building in the southern Bulgarian city of Plovdiv which bears traces from the Invasion of the Roman Empire by the Goths in 250-251 AD when the Goths went as far south as Philipopolis (Plovdiv's predecessor) and ransacked it... emergency excavations at Plovdiv's Antiquity Odeon made headlines from the start when the archaeological team discovered a medieval grave from the 11th-12th century with an arrow in the chest of the buried person. Subsequent digs, however, revealed deeper a room from an unknown Antiquity building with three floor levels built one on...

Fragments of an ancient Greek text telling of an invasion of Greece by the Goths during the third century A.D. have been discovered in the Austrian National Library. The text includes a battle fought at the pass of Thermopylae. Researchers used spectral imaging to enhance the fragments, making it possible to read them. The analysis suggests the fragments were copied in the 11th century A.D. and are from a text that was written in the third-century A.D. by an Athens writer named Dexippus.

Fragments of an ancient Greek text telling of an invasion of Greece by the Goths during the third century A.D. have been discovered in the Austrian National Library. The text includes a battle fought at the pass of Thermopylae. Researchers used spectral imaging to enhance the fragments, making it possible to read them. The analysis suggests the fragments were copied in the 11th century A.D. and are from a text that was written in the third-century A.D. by an Athens writer named Dexippus. During Dexippus' life, Greece (part of the Roman Empire) and Rome struggled to repel a series of...

--snip-- But the attention of the emperor [Valens] was most seriously engaged, by the important intelligence which he received from the civil and military officers who were intrusted with the defence of the Danube. He was informed, that the North was agitated by a furious tempest; that the irruption of the Huns, an unknown and monstrous race of savages, had subverted the power of the Goths; and that the suppliant multitudes of that warlike nation, whose pride was now humbled in the dust, covered a space of many miles along the banks of the river. With outstretched arms, and pathetic...

If you punch a punk in Manchester, it could be a hate crime. Police in the English city announced Wednesday that they will begin recording offenses against members of alternative subcultures in the same way they do attacks based on race, religion, disability, sexual orientation or transgender identity. The Greater Manchester force—the first in Britain to take the step—says “Goths, emos, punks and metallers” and members of other alternative groups often endured abuse. … “Some people discriminate against somebody else because they are wearing a Slayer T-shirt or have long hair,” said Jay White, 23, referring to the thrash metal...

A SATANIST obsessed with teenage schoolgirls invented a fake gothic society online to groom them for sex in the grounds of Sydney's Rookwood Cemetery. Daniel William Peckham, 24, lured at least three girls, aged from 13 to 17, into the cemetery on his MySpace blog, "Rookwood Gothic Society". A message on the site read: "If you have hang-ups about getting naked ... you are not welcome." Peckham pleaded guilty yesterday to the aggravated sexual assault of a 15-year-old girl and to using the internet to solicit and transmit naked pictures of young girls between 2005 and 2007. The opening day...

Spanish Prime Minister's Daughters Pictured For The First Time... Looking Like Goths [Pic in URL] [Pictures taken of the Spanish prime minister with his wife and daughters alongside Michelle and Barack Obama have caused a stir, not least because the teenagers look like goths] By Daily Mail Reporter 29th September 2009 The official photos, taken at the Museum of Modern Art where the Obamas were hosting a dinner, were uploaded onto the U.S. state department's Flickr page. Unlike the Obamas, Spanish prime minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has always tried to keep his daughters, Laura, 16, and Alba, 13, out...

A goth who leads his girlfriend around with a dog lead and collar was stopped from getting on a bus amid fears for passenger safety, a bus firm confirmed. Dani Graves, 25, and his fiancee Tasha Maltby, 19, of Dewsbury, West Yorks, claim they have been discriminated against by bus firm Arriva Yorkshire. The black-clad couple said they had been told to leave one bus and prevented from boarding another. The bus firm said safety came first, but it was investigating the complaint. Bus operator Arriva claimed other passengers could be put at risk if the bus braked sharply. Operations...

Some of the kids called him Jack Black, the loud, chubby, long-haired actor in the movie "School of Rock." He could be loud sometimes, all right, and his appearance cried for attention: his shock of wavy brown hair, his fingernails painted black, the dog collar around his neck, his faded rock concert T-shirts under a trench coat. But there was another Asa Coon, an Asa Coon far more menacing than the loopy kid with the unkempt hair and faux Gothic look. This was the Asa who always seemed to be in fights at school. This was the Asa who slapped...

As an exotic dancer at Hott 22 in Union, Linda Kay's persona was that of a dark and ghoulish Goth girl. In real life, police say, her interest in the macabre was more than just an act. Officers responding to a report of a suicidal individual at Kay's South Plainfield home discovered a severed hand in a glass mason jar of formaldehyde and six skulls -- all human, according to the Middlesex County medical examiner. Kay, 31, was arrested and charged with improper disposition of human remains. She has so far refused to tell police where or how she obtained...

POSTED: 1/26/05 9:17 AM UPDATED: 1/26/05 4:34 PM By Chris Minor EAST MOLINE, Illinois -- The dismembered body of a missing East Moline teenager has been found, and a classmate tonight is under arrest for her brutal murder. Sarah Kolb is charged with first degree murder in the death of Adrianne Reynolds, 16. Prosecutors announced the murder charge at a news conference at Illinois State Police Headquarters this morning. Authorities believe Adrianne was strangled and beaten with a wooden handle in a car in broad daylight at a Taco Bell parking lot in Moline. Later, her body was taken to...

A personal tale of how I discovered individualist freedom in a world of conformist collectivism.You have probably seen them, skulking around the city doing their best to look as horribly depressed as they can. You may even laugh at them, or think that they cut themselves or worship the devil. If you are of the evangelical persuasion, you will probably demand that they accept your religion or they will spend their lives burning in the fires of hell. Either way, you observe this strange species, his or her (trust me, its hard to tell) meticulously done black eyeliner, painted fingernails...

The History Channel is going to air a new historical series entitled DECISIVE BATTLES including some classic wars between ancient Persian armies and Roman and Greek ones. The History Channel goes on location to the actual battlefields and integrates cutting-edge videogame technology to bring history and imagination together in the new series DECISIVE BATTLES. The half-hour series DECISIVE BATTLES premieres Friday, July 23 at 9-9:30pm ET/PT. The series is hosted by Matthew Settle (Band of Brothers) on location at the ancient battlefields and features expert commentary from the world©s foremost historians. DECISIVE BATTLES is unlike any series The History Channel...

This was never formally announced, but a new site for conservatives and libertarians in the Goth community was launched a little over a week ago: The site has original commentary (much of it by yours truly), plus creative writing, humour, music reviews and more. Hope you enjoy. Regards, Ivan

BLUE SPRINGS, Mo. (AP) -- Almost half of a $273,000 grant awarded in 2002 to fight the Goth culture in Blue Springs has been returned because of a lack of interest -- and the absence of a real problem. Blue Springs received the grant two years ago from the Youth Outreach Unit, money the city and U.S. Rep. Sam Graves trumpeted proudly as a way to fight a perceived Goth problem. But $132,000 of the grant was returned because officials never found much of a problem with the Goth culture, which some students called a fad that most people eventually...