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In a Latin manuscript from a monastery in Poland, a Latin scholar from Würzburg has found two new sermons by the Doctor of the Church, St Augustine. He is currently working with an edition company on the first edition. Augustine is considered one of the most important Christian Church Fathers. He left behind an extensive body of work that continues to engage scholars today. (Image: Renáta Sedmáková / Adobe Stock) One day in 2024, the telephone of Professor Christian Tornau, a Latin scholar at the University of Würzburg, rings: an employee of the Bad Doberan Monastery Association in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania...

What happened to the 50 tons of gold, silver and sacred treasures looted from Herod's Temple following the Roman legionnaires' sack of Jerusalem on Tisha b'Av in the year 70 CE? The Arch of Titus in Rome, erected shortly after the death of Titus who reigned as emperor from 79 to 81, clearly depicts Roman soldiers bearing on their shoulders the golden candelabrum, silver trumpets and bejewelled Table of the Divine Presence which the Roman emperor Vespasian and his son Titus carted back to Rome as trophies of war. Between 75 CE and the early 5th century, the treasure...