Free Republic

A concrete structure of three meters wide and over two meters high, placed by order of Augustus (adoptive son and successor of Julius Caesar) to condemn the assassination of his father, has given the key to the scientists. This finding confirms that the General was stabbed right at the bottom of the Curia of Pompey while he was presiding, sitting on a chair, over a meeting of the Senate. Currently, the remains of this building are located in the archaeological area of Torre Argentina, right in the historic centre of the Roman capital... Classical sources refer to the closure (years...

Being the only true and reliable account ever published; taken from the Roman "Daily Evening Fasces," of the date of that tremendous occurrence. Nothing in the world affords a newspaper reporter so much satisfaction as gathering up the details of a bloody and mysterious murder and writing them up with aggravating circumstantiality. He takes a living delight in this labor of love--for such it is to him, especially if he knows that all the other papers have gone to press, and his will be the only one that will contain the dreadful intelligence. A feeling of regret has often come...

Theodor Mommsen (1817-1903), the greatest classical historian of the nineteenth century, was born in Garding, Schleswig, the son of a Protestant minister. He read law and classics at Kiel from 1838-43, and after a few years in France and Italy and a short career in journalism, he became a professor of law at the University of Leipzig. His involvement in the revolution of 1848-49 led to his dismissal in 1850. After holding academic positions at the universities of Zürich and Breslau he was appointed to the chair of Ancient History at the University of Berlin in 1858. He was permanent...

oooooooooo....... It's the Ides of March.

Thanks (I think) to Ace of Spades for pointing out a 1973 video of William Shatner singing Harry Chapin's "Taxi" on the Dinah Shore show.  If that's not enough for you, have a gander at multiple William Shatners singing Elton John's "Rocketman."If you're really brave, watch Shatner rap something about Julius Caesar.For an encore, see this music video set to a excerpt of Shatner singing "Lucy in the sky with Diamonds."Don't ever say that I don't bring you guys true entertainment.

Two of my ministers have regularly conducted “mini-sermons” for the children in the church. When they do that, they demonstrate a universal truth. No one really understands a subject until he can explain it in plain English to a ten year old. I think the question of appointing new Justices to the Supreme Court cries out for that treatment. The Fry Cook Rule may provide the answer. One member of the Supreme Court has already resigned, Justice O’Connor. Three others may not be long behind her, Chief Justice Rehnquist, and Justices Ginsburg and Stevens. I won’t repeat what I’ve said...

No, this is not a blonde joke. If you want one of those, go to this week’s Humor File. Cleopatra was in fact a blonde. That’s because she was not Egyptian. She was a Macedonian Greek, with hair as blonde as Alexander’s. Alexander conquered Egypt in 332 BC, then went on to subdue all of the Middle East. When he died nine years later, his just-conquered empire was fought over and carved up by his generals. The one who ended up running Egypt was Ptolemy (367-283 BC). Declaring himself Pharaoh, he founded the Ptolemaic Dynasty, with twelve Ptolemies in succession,...

The failure of "Alexander," the newspaper wrote, has "brutally exposed the cultural and moral divide which slices America in two." Uh-huh. "It is being suggested that a film about a global warrior with dyed blond hair and waxed legs was never going to conquer an America fresh out of a presidential election in which gay rights became a major issue." Is there another America they might be talking about? Major issue? Brutally exposed? The last thing an American movie brutally exposed was Kathy Bates in the hot-tub scene of "About Schmidt."

    For the freedom you enjoyed yesterday... Thank the Veterans who served in The United States Armed Forces.     Looking forward to tomorrow's freedom? Support The United States Armed Forces Today!     ANCIENT WARFARE ANCIENT ROMAN MILITARY(Conclusion) Julius Caesar   Image, Jean-Leon Gerome's "The Death of Caesar," 1867 ”…according to him, our problems are insoluble: ‘for if a man of Caesar’s genius could find no way out, who will find one now?" Cicero to Atticus, April 7, 44 BC  In the last five years of his life, Caesar prevailed in Civil Wars in Asia and Spain,...

    For the freedom you enjoyed yesterday... Thank the Veterans who served in The United States Armed Forces.     Looking forward to tomorrow's freedom? Support The United States Armed Forces Today!     ANCIENT WARFARE ANCIENT ROMAN MILITARY(continuation) Julius Caesar   EXPEDITIONS TO BRITAIN 55-54 BC"But his expedition into Britain was the most famous testimony of his courage. For he was the first who brought a navy into the western ocean, or who sailed into the Atlantic with an army to make war; and by invading an island, the reported extent of which had made its existence...

    For the freedom you enjoyed yesterday... Thank the Veterans who served in The United States Armed Forces.     Looking forward to tomorrow's freedom? Support The United States Armed Forces Today!     ANCIENT WARFARE ANCIENT ROMAN MILITARY(continuation) Julius Caesar   Winter Rebellion, 54-53 BC It can be argued that, after the apparent pacification of Gaul from 58-54, a second wave of rebellion began in the winter of 54-53 which would lead to the great campaigns of 52 BC by a united Gaul under Vercingetorix. The more thoroughly Caesar tried to eradicate the spirit of resistance, the...

    For the freedom you enjoyed yesterday... Thank the Veterans who served in The United States Armed Forces.     Looking forward to tomorrow's freedom? Support The United States Armed Forces Today!     ANCIENT WARFARE ANCIENT ROMAN MILITARY(continuation)   Julius Caesar: The Gallic Wars "I am bound to suspect, Caesar, that your friendship is a sham and that your army here in Gaul is for no other purpose than to crush me. So if you do not get out of this area and take your army with you, I shall treat you not as a friend but...

    For the freedom you enjoyed yesterday... Thank the Veterans who served in The United States Armed Forces.     Looking forward to tomorrow's freedom? Support The United States Armed Forces Today!     ANCIENT WARFARE ANCIENT ROMAN MILITARY(continuation)   PART II-D: Julius Caesar (100 - 44 B.C. )The Civil War "…they [Caesar and Pompey] were both reaching out after the supreme power and were influenced greatly by native ambition and greatly also by acquired rivalry, - since men can least endure to be outdone by their equals and intimates; hence they were not willing to make any...

    For the freedom you enjoyed yesterday... Thank the Veterans who served in The United States Armed Forces.     Looking forward to tomorrow's freedom? Support The United States Armed Forces Today!     ANCIENT WARFARE ANCIENT ROMAN MILITARY(continuation)   PART II-D: Julius Caesar (100 - 44 B.C. )Gaul to the Rubicon "Vercingetorix Throws Down His Arms At the Feet of Caesar" L. Royer, 1888. By kind permission of Forum Romanum. "For himself he wanted a high command, an army, and a war in some field where his gifts could shine in all their brightness." Sallust, Conspiracy of...

    For the freedom you enjoyed yesterday... Thank the Veterans who served in The United States Armed Forces.     Looking forward to tomorrow's freedom? Support The United States Armed Forces Today!     ANCIENT WARFARE ANCIENT ROMAN MILITARY(continuation)   PART II-D: Julius Caesar (100 - 44 B.C. )Youth to Consulate Descended from an impoverished patrician family which had long been attached to the senatorial clique, Caesar's immediate forbears had fallen from prominence in the decades before his birth and there had been no Consuls in his immediate family for generations. The office of Consul - one of...

QUESTION: Was Erasmus, the editor of the Textus Receptus, a "good" Roman Catholic? ANSWER: Erasmus, who edited the Greek text which was later to be known as the Textus Receptus, was an embarassment to the pope and a poor example of a "good" Roman Catholic.