Free Republic

The dominant literary culture of the late 20th century loved to tear down the heroes of the past, focusing almost entirely on their flaws while belittling the virtues, beliefs, and deeds that made them worthy of admiration in the first place. I have written about this annoying tendency previously on several occasions, including here and here. In our own time, we are afflicted with a slightly different problem: cultural arbiters who know almost nothing about the great men and women who went before them, save the cherry-picked anecdotes that magically seem to support their political cause of the moment. It...

A Soothsayer uttered this ominous warning to Julius Caesar shortly before his assassination by the hand of Brutus in 44 BC. How timely is this quotation for DC SWAMP dwellers, seeing that Dan Bongino will assume his position with the FBI just after the Ides of March 2025! Lets scour our memories to find candidates for Asst. Director Bongino and Director Patel to consider --- especially those for whom the statute of limitations is about to expire and have not been awarded a Presidential Pardon (by whomever was impersonating Joe Biden for that exercise). He surely overlooked a few VERY...

Not everyone is convinced.-Archaeologist Kathleen Martinez, who has been on the hunt for Cleopatra VII’s tomb for nearly 20 years, believes she’s found a bust that depicts the Egyptian queen. -The claim has put some at odds with Martinez, as other experts say the bust looks nothing like Cleopatra. -Along with the marble statue, the team also discovered 337 coins—some of which (less controversially) depict Cleopatra. Lawyer-turned-archaeologist Kathleen Martinez has been on the hunt for Cleopatra VII’s tomb for nearly two decades. And now, she believes that she and her team have just unearthed a small marble bust of the...

He may not have ruled the Roman Republic for very long, but Julius Caesar left behind a towering legacy. From his early days as a young aristocrat to his rise as a triumphant military leader, Caesar’s lofty aspirations, unrelenting conquests, and political reforms made him a revered leader. Almost as quickly as he ascended to unrivaled authority, he was dramatically assassinated, leading to civil upheaval and the demise of the Roman Republic — which ultimately heralded the start of the Roman Empire. Caesar remains respected for his strategic brilliance and studied for the far-reaching implications his actions had on Western...

Modern society's focus on credentials has created a two-tiered system, where multi-talented individuals are criticized, and elites oversee a dependent underclass. The songwriter, actor, country/western singer, musician, U.S. Army veteran, helicopter pilot, accomplished rugby player and boxer, Rhodes scholar, Pomona College and University of Oxford degreed, and summa cum laude literature graduate, Kris Kristofferson, recently died at 88. Americans may have known him best for writing smash hits like “Me and Bobby McGee” and “For the Good Times,” his wide-ranging, star-acting roles in A Star is Born and Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, his numerous solo albums, especially with...

A lot of history’s famous quotes are either misattributed or were never spoken in the first place. In addition to the fact that Gandhi never said, “Be the change you wish to see in the world,” and no one aboard Apollo 13 ever uttered the phrase, “Houston, we have a problem,” Julius Caesar didn’t say, “Et tu, Brute?” (“You too, Brutus?”) as he was stabbed to death by a group of Roman senators that included his supposed bestie. The line comes from Shakespeare’s play The Tragedy of Julius Caesar and is followed by its protagonist’s last words, “Then fall, Caesar”...

CURIA OF POMPEY, ROME — As details from the recent Senatorial scuffle continue to be investigated, official sources from the Senate say that Senator Gaius Cassius has come forward, bloody knife in hand, to affirm that the senators of the Roman Republic "applaud former Dictator Julius Caesar for his decision to do the right thing and step down." Cassius and his fellow senator Marcus Junius Brutus, who were both present at a hastily organized retirement party for Caesar, said that the former Emperor who had not been seen for the last six days displayed "true patriotism" in selflessly bowing out....

The Battle of Pharsalus was the decisive battle of Caesar's Civil War fought on 9 August 48 BC near Pharsalus in central Greece. Julius Caesar and his allies formed up opposite the army of the Roman Republic under the command of Pompey. Pompey had the backing of a majority of Roman senators and his army significantly outnumbered the veteran Caesarian legions.Caesars Romans Vs Pompeys Romans: The Historical Battle of Pharsalus 48 BC | Cinematic | 15:15Bellum et Historia | 251K subscribers | 361,505 views | November 5, 2023

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.