Free Republic

On Saturday April 21, the city of Rome celebrated what is believed to be its 2,776th birthday during a traditional celebration called Natale di Roma. The founding of the Eternal City was marked on Saturday with parades of re-enactors dressed as ancient Roman soldiers and gladiators, as well as re-enactments of ancient Roman rituals. The ancient Romans themselves marked the day of their city’s foundation with the festival of the Parilia. During this festival, the Romans honored Pales, the enigmatic deity of shepherds, flocks, and livestock. Grecian Delight supports Greece Rome’s birthday celebrations Modern-day celebrations of Rome’s foundation take place...

Rome, 11 Dec. (AKI) - After decades of restorations, a series of well preserved frescoed rooms dating to the year 30 BC in the Roman Emperor Augustus's house are set to go on display next year in the Italian capital. The rooms are on Rome's Palatine hill, which is one of Rome's original seven hills and from which the word 'palace' is derived. Legend has it that the twin brothers Romulus and Remus founded Rome on the Palatine and its where many Roman emperors had their palaces built. Augustus's rooms were discovered in the late 1970s and were painted in...

A shrine dedicated to the legendary founder of Rome, Romulus, has been discovered after archaeologists excavated the Roman Forum and stumbled upon the discovery. The shrine includes an underground chamber containing a 55-inch sarcophagus, and what experts believe may be an altar. The sarcophagus dates to the 6th century B.C., according to experts. "This is an extraordinary discovery," Alfonsina Russo, director of the Colosseum Archaeological Park, told The Times of London. "The forum never ceases to yield amazing fresh treasures."

The prominent Michigan congressman who illegally forced congressional staffers to be personal servants and work on state and local campaigns is embroiled in a major sex scandal. Various media outlets report that John Conyers, the longest serving House member and ranking Democrat of the powerful Judiciary Committee, secretly settled a sexual harassment claim by an employee with taxpayer funds from his office budget. Additionally, multiple former staff members accuse the 88-year-old lawmaker of repeatedly making sexual advances toward female staff. Democratic colleagues have already called for a House Ethics Committee probe, but there’s little hope Conyers will be punished since...

Virgil's demi-god city 'found'Castor and Pollux fought Aeneas at Amyclae (ANSA) - Rome, April 6 - Italian archaeologists believe they have found an ancient city where the demi-gods Castor and Pollux fought Aeneas, the Trojan hero whose descendants founded Rome . Lorenzo and Stefania Quilici of Bologna and Naples universities claim the large, massive-walled settlement dating from the VI to III Century BCE was the city of Amyclae, believed by Renaissance scholars to be somewhere near Lake Fondi between Rome and Naples . "The road there is a perfectly preserved stretch of the ancient Via Appia," said Lorenzo Quilici ....

The temple built by Romulus to celebrate the hand of Jupiter giving Roman troops their unstoppable force has been found at the foot of the Palatine Hill, Italian archaeologists say. The ruins of the shrine to Jupiter Stator (Jupiter the Stayer), believed to date to 750 BC, were found by a Rome University team led by Andrea Carandini. "We believe this is the temple that legend says Romulus erected to the king of the gods after the Romans held their ground against the furious Sabines fighting to get their women back after the famous Rape (abduction)," Carandini said in the...

Rome Icon Actually Younger Than the City The icon of Rome's foundation, a life-size bronze statue of a she-wolf with two human infants suckling her, is about 1,700 years younger than its city, Rome's officials admitted on Saturday. The official announcement, made at the Capitoline Museums, where the 30 inch-high bronze is the centerpiece of a dedicated room, quashes the belief that the sculpture was adopted by the earliest Romans as a symbol for their city. "The new dating ranges between 1021 e il 1153," said Lucio Calcagnile, who carried radiocarbon tests at the University of Salento's Center for Dating...

A commercial kennel owner in New York destroyed 93 dogs using a hose connected to a farm engine and pumping carbon monoxide into a makeshift "gas chamber." David Yoder, owner of Black Diamond Acres kennel in Romulus, told a U.S. Department of Agriculture inspector during a July 15 inspection that he killed the dogs to "depopulate" the kennel. Yoder said he created an airtight chamber out of a wood whelping box (where nursing puppies are typically housed with their mothers) by fitting the opening with a metal door with a small hole for an exhaust pipe which was attached to...

ROMULUS, Mich. SNIPPET: "Delta Air Lines Inc. spokesman Kent Landers said flight 1721 left the Detroit airport in Romulus at about 7:30 p.m. Friday and returned about an hour later. He said the passenger was removed from the plane. FBI spokeswoman Sandra Berchtold said the female passenger wasn't arrested but wouldn't be allowed back on the plane."

The residence of Sextus Tarquinius, the prince who sparked the revolt that led to the foundation of the Roman Republic, may have been found. The palace was found at the site where, according to legend, Romulus and Remus were educated... The building dates to the sixth century B.C and boasts the highest intact walls from the period ever found in Italy, standing at around 6.56 feet high... Fabbri and colleagues from Rome's Archaeological Superintendency believe that the residence was furiously demolished, probably during the Roman revolt in 510 B.C. that ultimately led to the foundation of the Roman Republic. The...

A statue symbolising the mythical origins and power of Rome, long thought to have been made around 500BC, has been found to date from the 1200s... The statue of the wolf was carbon-dated last year, but the test results have only now been made public. The figures of Romulus and Remus have already been shown to be 15th Century additions to the statue... Rome's former top heritage official, Professor Adriano La Regina, said about 20 tests were carried out on the she-wolf at the University of Salerno... said the results of the tests gave a very precise indication that the...

Expert sceptical of sacred Roman cave By Silvia Aloisi in Rome November 24, 2007 A LEADING Italian archaeologist said that the grotto whose discovery was announced this week in Rome is not the sacred cave linked to the myth of the city's foundation by Romulus and Remus. The Culture Ministry and experts who presented the find said they were “reasonably certain” the cavern is the Lupercale - a sanctuary worshipped for centuries by Romans because, according to legend, a wolf nursed the twin brothers there. But Adriano La Regina, Rome's superintendent of archaeology from 1976 to 2004, said ancient descriptions...

Probes revealed a ceiling with a white eagle at the centre Enlarge Image Italian archaeologists say they have found the long-lost underground grotto where ancient Romans believed a female wolf suckled the city's twin founders.The cave believed to be the Lupercal was found near the ruins of Emperor Augustus' palace on the Palatine hill. The 8m (26ft) high cave decorated with shells, mosaics and marble was found during restoration work on the palace. According to mythology Romulus and Remus were nursed by a she-wolf after being left on the River Tiber's banks. The twin sons of the god Mars...

The story of Romulus and Remus is almost as old as Rome. The orphan twins were suckled by a she-wolf in a cave on the banks of the Tiber. Romulus grew up to found Rome in 753 B. C. Historians have long since dismissed the story as a charming legend. The 19th-century historian Theodor Mommsen said: “The founding of the city in the strict sense, such as the legend assumes, is of course to be reckoned out of the question: Rome was not built in a day.” Yet the legend is as imperishable as Mommsen’s skeptical verdict, and it has...

Jetliner just crashed in suburban Detroit (west) No details yet. Homes are being evacuated.

CNN) -- An explosion at a hazardous waste plant rocked suburban Detroit late Tuesday, sending fireballs and billowing smoke hundreds of feet in the air. There was no immediate word on injuries or fatalities. Authorities with the Romulus Police Department and the fire department said the explosion happened at a chemical plant shortly after 9 p.m. and that a half-mile radius around the facility has been evacuated, including a nearby Ford plant.