Free Republic

Live Science reports that archaeologists have uncovered a villa at the edge of the ancient city of Fregellae, which the Roman army razed in 125 B.C. A layer of fire damage shows that the villa's buildings and the surrounding crops were destroyed at the same time as the city. A Roman military camp protected by a fortified wall and a moat has also been found nearby. Founded as a Roman colony, Fregellae was home to many Samnites, a non-Roman people who had once been enemies of the Roman Republic. The city's residents are known to have rebelled against Rome, according...

America has become an empire. Everyone says so. This is a surprise to most Americans, since few imagined that they were building such a thing. But, as historians such as Walter Nugent and Robert Kagan have recently taught us, Americans have been at this imperialist expansionism for quite some time — really since the beginning of the republic. How else to explain that the United States has gone from a handful of agrarian colonies to a world-spanning colossus in the space of only a few centuries? As you read this, American military might is deployed across the planet. The U.S....