Free Republic

You don’t need to be the biggest ancient history buff to know that the Roman army was among the greatest military forces the world has even seen. When it came to conquering territory, they were remarkably efficient. The empire swelled to more than five million square kilometers in size, before ultimately collapsing because its sheer size made it utterly impractical to defend and administer. Along the way, the Romans conquered Greece, Gaul, and so many other regions in between. Needless to say, they fought numerous bloody wars to claim and maintain control over such lands. As successful as they tended...

The writings of the historian Plutarch form a significant portion of our information concerning the rise of the Roman Republic, and its eventual end. In one of those texts, Plutarch's "Lives", he recounts something rather strange--the appearance in the sky of a bright flash of light and, apparently, a cylindrical object whose color is "like molten silver". What exactly was he describing? Was it a UFO, as some people (apparently including at least professional scholars) believe? Or something else?Did Ancient Romans See a UFO? I A strange account from Plutarch | 5:57The Historian's Craft | 74.2K subscribers | 31K views...

Prof. Dr. Christian Marek... said that according to inscriptions, Roman emperors also participated in these festivals, most of which were religious. Marek said several competitions, shows and plays had been held within the scope of these festivals which had been started by Roman Emperor Alexander Severus... The antique city of Pompeipolis is situated in the county of Taskopru of the province of Kastamonu. According to the historical records, the Romans after winning the battle against Mitridates. Pontus Pilate and his army in the northern valley of Gökirmak in 64 B.C. settled in this region. The Roman commander Pompeius built...

The Antikythera mechanism was an arrangement of calibrated differential gears inscribed and configured to produce solar and lunar positions in synchronization with the calendar year. By rotating a shaft protruding from its now-disintegrated wooden case, its owner could read on its front and back dials the progressions of the lunar and synodic months over four-year cycles. He could predict the movement of heavenly bodies regardless of his local government's erratic calendar. From the accumulated inscriptions and the position of the gears and year-ring, Price deduced that the device was linked closely to Geminus of Rhodes, and had been built on...