Free Republic

Sometimes history is history, sometimes history is a harbinger and sometimes history is current events. The story of Roman Emperor Aurelian is all three… Aurelian took power in 270 AD. The previous 35 years had been nothing short of a disaster for the Empire on a variety of fronts. The trouble began with the (well deserved) assassination of Commodus in 192 AD. Always a force to be reckoned with, from that point forward the army required ever increasing bribes to remain loyal. Not surprisingly, the power of the army increased accordingly. At the same time, the treasury had been reducing...

In 2009 or 2010, three looted sculptures were taken from the ancient city of Palmyra. Several years later, customs officers in Switzerland seized them at a Geneva freeport. At last, they’re heading home to Syria, the Art Newspaper reports. The three sculptures date back to the second and third centuries B.C.E., when Palmyra was still a nexus of trade, possibly during the rule of Queen Zenobia. One of the sculptures is a bust of a priest wearing a ceremonial headpiece. The sculpture was badly damaged by the looters when they removed it from the site, as the head once had...

Ongoing hostilities in Syria are now placing the remarkable ancient monumental ruins of Palmyra in the line of fire. Since the violence that erupted in Syria nearly one year ago -- a war that has so far left thousands dead and become one of the world's biggest stories -- the damage to the country's ancient cities and cultural sites as a result of the conflict has remained largely unknown. One report to surface last week, however, tells the story of Palmyra, where residents say the Syrian Army has set up camp in a citadel that overlooks both the modern city...

Polish and Syrian archaeologists have uncovered a 1,500-year-old Christian church in the famed Roman-era desert city of Palmyra, the director of the Palmyra museum said on Thursday. The discovery was made during a dig at the site 220 kilometres (135 miles) northeast of the capital Damascus, Walid Assaad told AFP. "Christianity came to Palmyra in the year 312, at a time when Christians had begun to build churches," he said. "And this one is huge -- the biggest ever found in Syria. It dates to the fourth or fifth centuries after Jesus Christ." The rectangular building measures 12 metres by...