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The Fezzan is an area of approximately 212,000 square miles of unforgiving desert and valleys. Situated in the south west of modern day Libya it’s not an area you’d easily traverse, let alone live in. Yet in the 1st millennium BCE a people did exactly that. They created art, irrigated the baked earth and sustained a culture. One of the earliest surviving references to the Garamantes is found in Herodotus’ Histories, written in the 5th century BCE[1]. Herodotus’ description was contradictory, they had no weapons, but they hunted a cave dwelling tribe nearby using chariots. He also went on to...

LIMA — It was more than just an answer to prayer. A US military mission that cornered and killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan was nothing short of a miracle, said Peru's President Alan Garcia, who attributed the divine intervention to newly beatified pontiff John Paul II. "His first miracle has been to rid the world of this incarnation of evil, this demon of hatred and criminality," the Peruvian leader said, referring to the Al-Qaeda leader. The late John Paul II showed uncanny timing, with his miracle falling on the very same day as a Rome ceremony beatifying him. Pope...

[Catholic Caucus] Bergoglian Nuncio demands that Benedict return to Prison tomorrow! Pope Benedict XVI departure from the Vatican had all the marks of an operation done without the approval of Bergoglio. No announcement to leading journalists of the impending voyage.Help of Gianni, former Head of the Vatican Police, ousted by Bergoglio for his daring raid on the Secretary of State’s corrupt real estate investment office.Use of Italian Secrete Police and Italian Military aircraft without any public notice in the Italian Papers.Statement of the Diocese of Regensburg, that the Pope had no immediate or definitive plans to return to the Vatican.Statement...

Unlike in the progressive modern world where one can become a part of the high-society and idolized by mindless plebs simply by the merit of being a (famous) actor, the ancient Romans had the exact opposite stance. Actors in the Roman world were considered the lowest of the low, being on roughly the same social status as slaves. That the Romans had a low opinion on actors should not come as a surprise, as actors by definition, act. In a society where honesty, merit, personal accomplishments and pursuit of civic virtue were in high regard, it is thus understandable that...

Today in history, on May 29, 1453, the sword of Islam conquered Constantinople. Of all Islam's conquests of Christian territory, this was by far the most symbolically significant. Not only was Constantinople a living and direct extension of the old Roman Empire and contemporary capital of the Christian Roman Empire (or Byzantium), but its cyclopean walls had prevented Islam from entering Europe through its eastern doorway for the previous seven centuries, beginning with the First Arab Siege of Constantinople (674–678). Indeed, as Byzantine historian John Julius Norwich puts it, "[h]ad the Saracens captured Constantinople in the seventh century rather than...

Archaeologists of the Superintendence of Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape of Verona are bringing to light the magnificent floor mosaics and foundations of a Roman villa dating back to the third century AD. The villa, which was first discovered in the 1920s at Negrar di Valpolicella, near Verona, had remained buried since then and was all but forgotten. In summer 2019 the technicians of the Superintendence of Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape of Verona returned to the site after almost a century, under the direction of the archaeologist Gianni de Zuccato. The investigations continued in October 2019 and in February...

The sinkhole, located in the Piazza della Rotonda, is almost 10 square feet (1 square meter) big and just over 8 feet (2.5 m) deep. Inside the hole, archaeologists found seven ancient slabs made of travertine, a type of sedimentary rock. Luckily, no one was hurt when the sinkhole collapsed on the afternoon of April 27, because the normally crowded piazza was empty due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Sinkholes like this one, however, are becoming an increasingly common problem in Rome. The stones uncovered by the sinkhole were created around the same time that the Pantheon was built, from 27...

The power of the word classic cannot be underestimated, communicating as it does the idea of excellence, truth, order, discipline, and beauty. The word “classic” brings to mind something that has withstood the test of time, and by virtue of this fact, participates in some way in the timeless and the eternal. And what is the only thing we know of with these attributes but God and His Eternal Word? When looked at this way, every Christian should want a classical education for their children: It has everything we instinctively want. But when we examine this word “classic,” we find...

A man scales the all-glass facade of Trump Tower, Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2016, in New York. A police spokeswoman says officers responded to Donald Trump's namesake skyscraper on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. The 58-story building is headquarters to the Republican presidential nominee's campaign. He also lives there. NEW YORK (AP) — A man who said he was seeking “a private audience” with Donald Trump by climbing the Republican presidential candidate’s skyscraper was hospitalized on Thursday after his arrest a day earlier on charges of reckless endangerment and trespassing. The New York Police Department identified the climber as 19-year-old Stephen Rogata,...

Newly declassified documents spotlight the role of John Kerry’s State Department in fueling the FBI’s dubious Russia collusion probe, showing it was the State Department that provided “information” leading to the controversial surveillance of Carter Page. Last Thursday, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham released a trove of documents from the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane investigation into Trump’s campaign, including a less redacted version of the Obama administration’s FISA warrant applications to spy on Page, who served as a tangential adviser to Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.

April 26 is the feast day of one of the most enigmatic Popes, Saint Marcellinus, who perished at the height of the Great Persecution in AD 304. Because his reign took place during a time when the Church was under extreme duress, the facts surrounding his pontificate are hazy. Similarly hazy is his fate. Following is the complete brief biography of Pope Saint Marcellinus as contained in the Liber Pontificalis, that useful if occasionally confused catalog of all the ancient popes prior to Saint Gregory the Great that was compiled in the late 6th century: Marcellinus, by nationality a Roman,...

The walls stand up to 20 feet tall. It was built at the start of the 4th century AD, as part of defensive works for a limes Arabicus, and held a cavalry unit of perhaps 120-150 men. The building inscription survives:Optimis maximisque principibus nostris Caio AurelioValerio Diocletiano Pio Felici Invicto Augusto etMarco Aurelio Valerio Maximiano Pio Felici Invicto Augusto etFlavio Valerio Constantio et Galerio Valerio Maximianonobilissimis Caesaribus Castra Praetorii Mobeni fossamentisAurelius Asclepiades praeses provinciae Arabiaeperfici curavit.Which tells us that the fort was called Mobene, and was constructed by the Praeses of the province of Arabia, a chap named Aurelius Asclepiades,...

A farmer has discovered one of the largest hauls of Roman coins to ever be found in Poland. Mariusz Dyl had been looking for abandoned antlers in a field near Cichobórz, south of Hrubieszów, Lublin, when he stumbled upon the 2,000-year-old coins scattered across 100 metres of the field. After calling in experts, the 1,753 coins weighing 5.5kg and which were found in 2019, were taken to the Hrubieszów Museum where they have now been analysed and their authenticity confirmed. Director of the Museum Bartlomiej Bartecki said... all the coins, had been originally placed in a wooden box or leather...

Raphael died in Rome 500 years ago today. Rome was to have been the focal point in the global celebrations of the 500th anniversary of the death of the High Renaissance artist and architect Raphael, hosting an "unprecedented" exhibition, the greatest Raphael show the world had ever seen. The Raphael exhibition saw a boom in the purchase of pre-sale tickets, with thousands of people around the world planning a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Italy to see the groundbreaking show, featuring no less than 100 paintings by the Renaissance master, with 40 masterpieces on loan from the Uffizi in Florence. Raphael's much-anticipated...

Pope Francis on Friday reversed a decision to close all the Catholic churches in Rome amid Italy's coronavirus outbreak. The pope on Thursday had made the decision to close all churches to prevent the disease's further spread. But after further conversation about the matter, he decided that leaving churches closed would pose the spiritual risk of making people "feel more isolated." Priests in Rome are now advised to discern for themselves whether or not to remain open. "Be very close to the people of God, make each one feel loved and accompanied, help everyone to perceive that the Church does...

As the novel coronavirus rapidly spread worldwide and concern continues to grow, a number of international sporting events have been impacted, including several professional running events. One of the first major events to see a shift in schedule was the Tokyo Marathon at the beginning of March; the marathon was only held for the elites, and the non-elite runners were given entry to the 2021 race. With the global crisis becoming more dire, race organizers have proactively started to reschedule or altogether cancel races set to take place in the next few weeks, due to the uncertainty of the virus’s...

Pope Benedict XVI said last night that bone fragments found inside the tomb of St Paul in Rome had been carbon dated for the first time, "confirming the unanimous and uncontested tradition that they are the mortal remains of the Apostle Paul". He said that archaeologists had inserted a probe into the white marble sarcophagus under the Basilica of St Paul's Outside the Walls which has been revered for centuries as the tomb of St Paul. The pontiff said: "Small fragments of bone were carbon dated by experts who knew nothing about their provenance and results showed they were from...

ROME (AP) -- The first-ever scientific tests on what are believed to be the remains of the Apostle Paul "seem to conclude" that they do indeed belong to the Roman Catholic saint, Pope Benedict XVI said Sunday. Archaeologists recently unearthed and opened the white marble sarcophagus located under the Basilica of St. Paul's Outside the Walls in Rome, which for some 2,000 years has been believed by the faithful to be the tomb of St. Paul. Benedict said scientists had conducted carbon dating tests on bone fragments found inside the sarcophagus and confirmed that they date from the first or...

A Roman tomb believed to be that of St Paul may be opened for the first time in 2000 years, the archpriest of the cathedral where it is located said Friday. ''We've been thinking of opening St Paul's sarcophagus for a while and Pope Benedict XVI has not ruled out ordering a thorough analysis of the tomb,'' said Cardinal Andrea Cordero Lanza di Montezemolo of St Paul's Outside the Walls. ''We've also studied how we could do it. You have to bear in mind that this sarcophagus has been there for 20 centuries and has never been opened,'' he said....

Eighteen months after the sarcophagus believed to have once contained the remains of St. Paul the apostle was positively identified by Vatican archaeologists, Pope Benedict XVI has given his approval to plans by investigators to examine the interior of the ancient stone coffin with an optical probe, according to a German Catholic paper. As WND reported in 2005, the sarcophagus was discovered during excavations in 2002 and 2003 around the basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls in south Rome. "The tomb that we discovered is the one that the popes and the Emperor Theodosius [A.D. 379-395] saved and presented...