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Researchers used artificial intelligence to extract the first word from one of the first texts in a charred scroll from the ancient Roman city of Herculaneum, which has been unreadable since a volcanic eruption in AD 79 — the same one that buried nearby Pompeii...The Vesuvius Challenge, a contest with $1,000,000 (£821K) in prizes for those who can use modern technology to decipher the words of these scrolls, has awarded a 21-year-old undergraduate student at the University of Nebraska $40,000 (£32.8K) for being the first to read a word from one of the ancient Herculaneum scrolls.Luke Farritor, who is at...

The Forum in Rome, dedicated to Julius Caesar, was completed in 46 B.C. as a site for conducting public business generally related to the Roman Senate. Much later, during the 16th century, the site was still usable—Renaissance-era people used it as a hospital. Doctors of the time knew that diseases could be infectious, so they set up protocols for dealing with them and the clothes and tools used to treat ill patients.Prior research has shown that doctors and medical researchers in Italy played a major role in establishing protocols, such disposal of instruments after a single use, and disposing of...

Baiae is an archaeological park consisting of a partially sunken town from the Roman period, located on the shore of the Gulf of Naples in the present-day comune of Bacoli in Italy.Baiae developed into a popular Roman resort which was visited frequently by many notable Roman figures, such as Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus..., Julius Caesar, Gaius Marius, Lucius Licinius Lucullus, Hadrian, and Septimius Severus.The town would never attain a municipal status, but instead gained a reputation for a hedonistic lifestyle. This is supported by an account by Sextus Propertius, a poet of the Augustan age during the 1st century BC, who...

The Ides of March—a day of murder that forever changed history ​The assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 B.C still resonates as a day of infamy. Here's how the plot unfolded.Julius Caesar's bloody assassination on March 15, 44 B.C., forever marked March 15, or the Ides of March, as a day of infamy. It has fascinated scholars and writers ever since. For ancient Romans living before that event, however, an ides was merely one of several common calendar terms used to mark monthly lunar events. The ides simply marked the appearance of the full moon. But Romans would soon learn...

Today is the Ides Of March. Julius Caesar was assassinated on this day in 44 BC. In 1950 Charlton Heston gave a brilliant performance as Marc Antony in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. If Brutus was an honourable man, then so is Joe Biden in his ice cream dreams. Some poeticised thoughts from Heston on freedom follow .....

Early occupation of Ategua dates from the Chalcolithic period, with the emergence of a major settlement around the 8th and 7th centuries BC, consisting of orthogonal-plan dwellings defended by an outer wall.According to the De Bello Hispaniensi, a Latin work continuing Julius Caesar's commentaries, the city inhabitants sided with Pompey during Caesar's civil war in the late Republic Era, resulting in the city being besieged by the Caesarian army in 45 BC.Most of the current morphology of Ategua is from the Roman period, including several domus abandoned during the 2nd century AD, a civil building, bathhouses, and burials on the...

In this video, after discussing why certain ancient coins are worth millions, I meet the most valuable coin of all: the famous EID MAR aureus issued by Brutus to commemorate the assassination of Julius Caesar.This video was made possible by the generosity of Numismatica Ars Classica, who very kindly allowed me to visit their London office and handle these coins. You can find out more about NAC and the coins displayed in this video here: https://www.arsclassicacoins.com/Someone put a Hole in this Coin - now it's worth Millions (the EID MAR aureus)May 27, 2022 | toldinstone

There are some historical mysteries that may never be solved, from the date that Jesus was born to the identity of Jack the Ripper to the location of Cleopatra's tomb. Sometimes, that's because the relevant excavated material has been lost or an archaeological site has been destroyed. Other times, it's because new evidence is unlikely to come forward or the surviving evidence is too vague to lead scholars to a consensus. The lack of answers only makes these enigmas more intriguing. Here, Live Science takes a look at 14 of these historical questions that may never have definitive explanations. WAS...

The Iron Age coins—known as potins due to the copper, tin and lead alloy used to make them—each measure about 1.2 inches in diameter. They show stylized images representing the Greek god Apollo on one side and a charging bull on the other. In England, potins have mostly been found around Kent, Essex and Hertfordshire. People in Britain may have begun making the coins around 150 B.C. The earliest versions were bulky disks known as Kentish Primary, or Thurrock, types. Comparatively, the newly discovered potins—now dubbed the Hillingdon Hoard—are of the “flat linear” type, which uses simplified and abstracted images....

Vladimir Putin is heading for victory in a referendum that could extend his rule until 2036 as Russia enters its final day of voting today. The Kremlin strongman would normally reach his term limit in 2024, but voters are set to back a plan to reset his tally to zero and allow him to run for two more terms. The package of constitutional changes would also increase Putin's powers to dissolve parliament and expand his influence over courts and prosecutors.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russians opened the door to Vladimir Putin staying in power until 2036 by voting overwhelmingly for constitutional changes that will allow him to run again for president twice, but critics said the outcome was falsified on an industrial scale. Official results published on Thursday, after 100% of ballots had been counted, showed that the former KGB officer who has ruled Russia for more than two decades as president or prime minister had easily won the right to run for two more six-year terms after the current one ends in 2024. That means Putin, 67, could rule until...

Scientists say a massive volcanic eruption in Alaska more than 2,500 years ago triggered a global climate shock on the other side of the Earth that led to the fall of the Roman Republic. The eruption of Mount Okmok on an Alaskan island in the year 43 BC – an event known as 'Okmok II' – spewed ash particles that cooled the planet by shading incoming solar radiation. Scientists say this caused with a spell of extreme cold in the Mediterranean during the European summer – the second-coldest of the last 2,500 years.

A pair of 2,000-year-old Roman scrolls believed to have belonged to the family of Julius Caesar, and were buried and charred during Vesuvius’ eruption, have been virtually “unwrapped” for the first time ever. The scrolls, known as the Herculaneum Scrolls, are too fragile to be handled by hand, so researchers needed to use the X-ray beam at Diamond Light Source, as well as a “virtual unwrapping” software to detect the carbon ink on them. “Texts from the ancient world are rare and precious, and they simply cannot be revealed through any other known process,” University of Kentucky professor Brent Seales,...

This is what most of us know about the death of Julius Caesar, half-remembered from movies and plays: Some soothsayer said, "Beware the Ides of March." A few idealistic Romans decided to win back Rome for the people.Caesar got stabbed by Brutus with a big sword, said "Et tu, Brute?" and died nobly. All of that is wrong.

ACT I SCENE I. Rome. A street. Enter FLAVIUS, MARULLUS, and certain Commoners FLAVIUS Hence! home, you idle creatures get you home: Is this a holiday? what! know you not, Being mechanical, you ought not walk Upon a labouring day without the sign Of your profession? Speak, what trade art thou? First Commoner Why, sir, a carpenter. MARULLUS Where is thy leather apron and thy rule? What dost thou with thy best apparel on? You, sir, what trade are you? Second Commoner Truly, sir, in respect of a fine workman, I am but, as you would say, a cobbler. MARULLUS...

The Great Theater at Apamea in northern Syria vies with the Large Theater at Ephesus, Turkey for the honor of being the largest extant Roman edifice of its type to have survived the ravages of time. Both buildings are estimated to have held audiences of over 20,000 persons, and both may have had their origins in an earlier Greek Hellenistic structure that was overbuilt in the Roman Era. Only one other theater, the Theater of Pompey in Rome, is known to have been larger. However, Pompey's lavish building is buried under the modern streets of the city, and its surviving...

The ancient square, the site where Julius Caesar was murdered, is to get a make-over courtesy of fashion house Bulgari, which plans to spend some €800,000 restoring the ruins to an accessible state. Currently visitors can only admire the square from above. It is closed to all except a colony of stray cats and the human volunteers who operate a sanctuary for them in the south-west corner... Off-limits and overgrown, its archaeological remains stacked into piles, the area needs considerable work to make it accessible to the public, including securing the ruins, installing walkways and building public bathrooms... There have...

Today is the anniversary of the day in 49 B.C. when Julius Caesar - noting, Iacta alea esto ("The die is cast") - crossed the Rubicon River with his legions to march on Rome in defiance of both the Senate and Roman law, which forbade any general from crossing the Rubicon and entering Italy proper with a standing army. To do so was treason. This tiny stream would reveal Caesar's intentions and mark the point of no return. Born around 100 B.C. into one of the oldest patrician families of the republic, Caesar began his political career as a member...

Archaeologists have pinpointed an obscure spot in Kent as the scene of the first encounter between Rome and ancient Britons. Pegwell Bay on the Isle of Thanet is believed to be where Caesar first attempted to land in 55 BC, and later more successfully in 54 BC. Now the site is more than half a mile inland - but at the time it was closer to the coast. The location matches Caesar's own account as it was visible from the sea with a large open bay and was overlooked by higher ground. His army immediately built a fort on the...

Julius Caesar is dead (again). Long live "Julius Caesar." Whether the famous dead Roman is a lookalike for President Donald Trump, with a blond comb-over and a long red tie; a cool black dude in a tailored suit suggesting former President Barack Obama; or a 1930s Orson Welles with a Sam Browne belt resembling Benito Mussolini, the character has captured the imagination of the public and the players since Shakespeare wrote the play more than four centuries ago. The spectacle changes with fresh costumes and new sets to emphasize contemporary issues for specific audiences, but the words continue to plumb...