Free Republic

['Civ: spoiler alert, nah.]Boudica Is Buried Under This Roundabout. | 12:42 History on Your Doorstep | 1.39K subscribers | 66,248 views | August 30, 2025 Edited & Produced by Niamh McGrath With Thanks to Duncan Mackay St Albans Museums

More than two decades ago, Ukrainian and Polish archaeologists unearthed an exquisitely carved marble head of a female statue at the ancient Greek site of Chersonesus on the Crimean Peninsula. The artist skillfully rendered the woman's features with a hint of both Greek idealism and Roman realism, which prompted researchers to wonder who exactly the sculpture was meant to depict. La Brújula Verde reports that researchers have recently scrutinized many aspects of the sculpture -- including its date, design, execution, and archaeological context -- to finally ascertain the mystery woman's identity. Researchers determined the statue likely represents an aristocratic woman...

Archaeologists have discovered an intact Roman helmet while conducting an underwater study near the Aegadian Islands off Sicily’s western coast. The helmet dates from the time of the First Punic War (264–241 BC), the first of three major wars fought between the Roman Republic and Carthage, the two main superpowers competing for domination of the western Mediterranean. The conflict was mostly fought on and around Sicily, resulting in the island being annexed as a Roman province and Carthage forced to pay large reparations. Remarkably preserved with both cheekpieces still intact, the helmet has been identified as a Montefortino type –...

How ancient Rome was excavated in Italy in the 1920s. Unique rare videos and photos. | 10:03 World Treasures | 16.8K subscribers | 582,835 views | June 11, 2021

Explore the concept of fast food in ancient Rome, focusing on the thermopolia—small bars and eateries that catered to busy city dwellers. These establishments were especially important for those who didn’t have kitchens at home, offering pre-prepared food like grilled meats, vegetables, cheese, and even heated wine. The thermopolia were found near busy urban areas like the forum and the baths, providing a quick and affordable dining experience for Romans on the go. We visit Ostia Antica, the port city of Rome, where frescoes still depict typical menu items, such as olives, eggs, and cheese. These establishments also featured large...

A well-preserved Roman mausoleum, modeled after the famous Mausoleum of Augustus in Rome, was discovered by archaeologists in Saint-Romain-en-Gal, near Lyon, France. Constructed around 50 CE, the interior of the structure measures more than 50 feet in diameter and is thought to have had 20-foot-tall ceilings. It would have been visible to those in the Roman colony Vienna and can be seen along the Rhône River. “This was a person who, even in death, remained present in the world of the living,” Giulia Ciucci, archaeologist and scientific director of the Saint-Romain-en-Gal museum site, told Arkeonews. “The resemblance to the emperor’s...

The Bolton News reports that an exceedingly rare, once decrepit ancient Roman sun hat has recently been brought back to life thanks to the work of skilled conservators and is set to go on public display for the first time at England's Bolton Museum. The woolen cap is only one of three similar Roman headpieces known to still survive. It dates to around a.d. 200 and was likely made for a member of the Roman military who was stationed in Egypt following Rome's conquest of the territory in the first century b.c. Although it resembles other contemporary Roman hats in...

It was one of many cool finds in a luxurious residence in Sicily. Here’s what you’ll learn when you read this story: A famed Roman villa offers a surprising find of a flip-flop-like sandal shown in ancient mosaics. Archaeologists continue to excavate what was once a luxurious residence in Sicily, Italy. The discovery comes alongside one of the most famous mosaic-filled Roman villas in the world. Discovering a fourth century A.D. mosaic of what appears to be modern-day flip-flops wasn’t what anyone expected during the excavation of a famed Roman villa in Sicily, Italy. But then again, this is the...

[Catholic Caucus] Society of Saint Pius X Jubilee Pilgrimage ImagesThe Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX) is gathering faithful from around the world in their 2025 Jubilee Rome pilgrimage this week. Here are some images and video:

Failed Prosecutor John Durham’s report on the Hillary Clinton campaign plot to convince the American electorate and U.S. allies that Donald Trump was a stooge of Russia totally ignores the role that intelligence operatives from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Israel played in helping set the stage to provide the FBI with the pretext of predication for launching its now discredited Crossfire Hurricane investigation of the Trump Campaign. Let me take you back to an article I wrote in May 2019. John Durham and his team failed to address any of the issues and leads I raised:...

A month before the 2016 presidential election, the FBI met Christopher Steele in Rome and apparently unlawfully shared with the foreign opposition researcher some of the bureau’s most closely held secrets, according to unpublicized disclosures in the recent Justice Department Inspector General report on abuses of federal surveillance powers. What’s more, Steele, the former British spy who compiled the “dossier” of conspiracy theories for the Hillary Clinton campaign, was promised $15,000 to attend the briefing by FBI agents eager to maintain his cooperation in their Trump-Russia collusion investigation codenamed Crossfire Hurricane. That investigation was so closely guarded that only a...

At the twilight of the Roman republic, few figures loom larger -- or cast darker shadows -- then Lucas Cornelius Sulla. Born into a once proud but impoverished family Sulla's journey from obscurity to unmatched power is one of the most tumultuous, ruthless, and consequential sagas in Roman history. His life traverses a landscape of war, betrayal, political manipulation, and personal ambition- all set against the backdrop of a crumbling Republic and the rising intentions that would ultimately birth an Empire.This episode doesn't just recount Sulla's meteoric rise; it explores the deeper currents that carried him forward in the...

...Gibbon’s Causes: Decline and Fall of Rome First, there are the external threats Gibbon believes that even more damaging were the internal threats that existed within Roman society and administration. In Gibbon’s view, these causes are all interconnected and grow off one another. They start with the fall of the Antonines, when imperial power became dependent on military support over constitutional appointment. This made the army kingmakers with the power to extort the empire’s leadership. This resulted in repeated civil wars as generals vied for power with the support of their men, resulting in significant instability. Alongside this, Gibbon points...

A little over 2,500 years ago, there lived a man named Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus. If his name seems familiar, that's because one of the United States' great cities is named after him. Cincinnatus had served the Roman Republic in several capacities, including Consul of the Senate of Rome. But in 458 BC, the Roman Army was struggling to defeat the Aequi, an Italic tribe to the east of the city of Rome. Cincinnatus had retired to a farm, but when Rome called, he answered. He was appointed Dictator by the Roman Senate, giving him absolute power over the city -...

The far left’s disgraceful response to September 11—it has temporized about terror, embraced moral equivalence between the Islamist fanatics who killed thousands of innocent Americans and the military actions of the democratically elected U.S. government, and even blamed the U.S. for the atrocity—shows that its hatred of democratic capitalism and, more broadly, Western civilization itself remains fierce more than a decade after the collapse of socialism. The intensity of this hatred will come as no surprise, however, to anyone who has paid attention to the praise that the academic left and its sympathizers in the liberal media have been showering ...

Golden State Warriors guard Buddy Hield was not entertained when he visited the Colosseum in Rome. Hield was at an NBA Summer League game to watch the young players on the Warriors’ roster take on the Utah Jazz on Sunday night. The Warriors won the game 103-93, but it was Hield’s comments on his trip to Italy that caught the attention of the internet. "I was a little disappointed when I went to the Colosseum because I watched ‘Gladiator’ and I thought Maximus was a real warrior," he explained on the ESPN broadcast. "So, I’m going into the Colosseum screaming,...

A colossal marble head was uncovered beneath Rome's Via Alessandrina, according to a report by the Greek Reporter. The discovery was made during archaeological work near the heart of the ancient city that is aimed at removing a modern section of road separating the forums of Augustus, Trajan, and Nerva. The statue head was embedded in a layer of medieval brick and mortar, which suggests that it had been reused as building material centuries after the fall of Rome. Archaeologists believe that the sculpture dates to the reign of Trajan (a.d. 98–117) and may have once stood in his forum...

In the Louvre there’s a famous painting by the French Artist Jacques-Louis David depicting the Intervention of the Sabine Women. In it the Sabine men, whose daughters were stolen by and then married to Romans in the mid-8th century BC, returned to avenge Roman treachery and retrieve their offspring. The scene depicts a woman standing between the belligerents, imploring them to cease fighting: "If you are weary of these ties of kindred, these marriage-bonds, then turn your anger upon us; it is we who are the cause of the war, it is we who have wounded and slain our husbands...

The fall of the Western Roman Empire was an era, not an event. But those who lived through it had no doubt that it was a catastrophe. What was it like to live through the Fall of the Roman Empire? | 10:34 toldinstone | 583K subscribers | 316,756 views | August 19, 2022 0:00 Introduction 0:55 Reactions to the Fall of Rome 2:09 St. Germanus and Britain 3:27 St. Severinus and Noricum 4:39 HelloFresh 5:46 St. Severinus (cont.) 6:56 Sidonius Apollinaris and southern Gaul 8:31 Boethius and Italy

Israeli archaeologists working at a site outside of Caesarea uncovered an exquisitely carved marble sarcophagus that had been buried for nearly 1,700 years, according to a statement released by the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA). The Roman era coffin -- the first of its kind ever discovered in the region -- depicts a famous scene from mythology: a drinking contest between the god of wine, Dionysus (or Bacchus), and the legendary hero Hercules. A victorious Dionysus is surrounded by a lively retinue of attendants that includes lions, tigers, satyrs, Maenads, and the god Hermes. According to IAA archaeologist Nohar Shahar, the...