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Pompeii: new fresco with Leda and the swan

In Pompeii, another marvelous discovery was made during the excavations in the Regio V in a domus located along the road in the direction of Porta Vesuvio where, removing the layers of ash, a cubiculum frescoed wall appeared with a depicting of Leda and the Swan myth ...

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Pompeii: the Vesuvius eruption occurred in October

An inscription found during the excavations underway in the Regio V tells that on October 17 of 79 AD. the inhabitants of Pompeii were living a normal day. It is an exceptional discovery because it carries on two months the date of the eruption of Vesuvius, which was commonly accepted as derived from the letter of Pliny the Younger to Tacitus. That 17 of October of 79 d.C. a worker was working in a cubiculum adjacent to the atrium of the Domus with Garden and left a note in charcoal on the wall where he would then perhaps have to make frescoes similar to those found in other rooms, and that would then cover it. How often were the graffiti was just a cheerful note ...

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Discovered a mysterious building on the Tiber banks

Some rooms of the late imperial age with splendid floors in opus sectile have been found along the banks of the Tiber, near Ponte Milvio, In the spring of last year, during works along the Tiber cycle path, in the area of the Foro Italico in the direction of Ponte Milvio, the workers removing the earth suddenly saw what looked like a floor mosaic ...

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Tomb of the strigils

An inviolate tomb dating back to the fourth century was found in Rome along the Via Tiburtina, in an area where there was no known presence of that type; the exceptionality of the discovery lies in the integrity of the burial ...

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Discovery Historia of Seneca in a papyrus of Herculaneum

A new technology and the expertise and patience of Valeria Piano have given back to the world an important text by Anneo Seneca the Elder: "Historiae ab initio bellorum civileum", a historical work related to events from the period of civil wars to Emperor Tiberius, probably the last work written by the historian who died in 37 AD; until today expected the work lost instead it was hidden among the charred papyri in the library of the Pisons Villa in Herculaneum ...

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Focus

Insula Volusiana
During works of arrangement of the sacred area of S. Omobono in Foro Boario, a stone was found containing an epigraph that provides information on construction of the Insula Volusiana ...

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Roman aristocracy in the third century. B.C.
In the third century BC the Roman vir nobiles belonged to about 20 patrician and plebeian families; among these the most influential were the gens Fabia, the most illustrious and important patrician family, flanked by the gens Aemilia and the gens Cornelia all three of Latin origin, then there were the powerful Claudii and Valerii families of Sabine origin ...

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Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus
The most important temple in Rome was located on the Capitoline Hill, it was dedicated to Jupiter Optimus Maximus and Juno and Minerva, or the Capitoline Triad; it was built for the vow made by Tarquinius Priscus during the wars against the Sabini ...

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The bacchanal scandal of 186
One of the most important inscriptions from the Republican age that have been found is the Senatusconsultum de bachanalibus, discovered in the 17th century in the territory of Bruttium (today's Calabria). It is an edict issued by the consuls of the year who implemented the rules indicated as appropriate by the Senate of Rome and thus from the Idi of October 186 BC. The orgiastic rites were forbidden in the Bacchanalia ...

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Sulpicia, poetry and eroticism
The poets in Rome did not have an easy life, they had to have a protector, a patron and the luckiest were those who lived in the first century of the Empire when the convivialities were cheered by the declamations of Virgil, Ovid, Catullus, Martial who composed praising poems to virtues, to the country but also to feelings and above all to love. But two poetesses also sang of love, both of whom are remembered with the name of Sulpicia ...

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Agrippa Postumus (12 B.C. – 14 A.D.)
When Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa died in March 12 B.C. in Campania, his wife Julia was expecting a child who was born 5 months after the death of his father and was named Agrippa Postumus; it was customary for the Romans to give the name of Postumus to children born after the death of their father ...

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Villa Torlonia
Where the ancient Romans had built their suburban villas, the great and powerful families of the Roman nobility in nineteenth century built their hunting lodges, having their parks and gardens designed by the greatest architects of their time; today the municipality of Rome has become the owner of this admirable artistic heritage but also of a great green heritage that makes Rome one of the greenest cities in the world ...

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Villa Sciarra, Villa of the white peacocks
Along the slopes of the Janiculum at the time of ancient Rome there were lucus and hortus and the area at the end of the 1st century B.C. was part of the Horti of Caesar; here was the suburban villa where Cleopatra spent her Roman stay. Probably, the first temple dedicated to oriental divinities was built for her and above that was erected, in the fourth century AD, the one of which testimonies were found about a century ago during some works ...

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Oil lamps, ancient gadgets
The lamp is the first real technological tool used by man to illuminate and the first known examples date back to the second millennium BC; they were simple bowls filled with oil and with the wick resting on the rim. Over the centuries, the instrumentum underwent a notable evolution of technical characteristics such as the waterproofing of materials, such as terracotta and ceramic, or the application of a loop to handle it better, but also aesthetic according to the tastes of peoples and different geographical areas ...

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Julia Soemia
Julia Soemia Bassiana was in fact empress as regent for the young Elagabalus whom she joined in the short years of reign and whose death she shared. Her name is linked to the Severi dynasty to which it belonged because she was the niece of Julia Domna, wife of Septimius Severus and both were Syrian women having been born in Emesa from the rich and powerful family that descended from Gaius Julius Bassianus or Bassus, priest-king of Armenia and clientes of Rome; she her full name was Julia Soaemias Bassiana and she was born in 180 AD ...

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The most popular arguments

Augustus treasure in Campo Martio
In the tenth century there were many pilgrims who for fear of world ending in the year Thousand went like penitents in St. Peter, but among them were also ...

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The small fountain of lovers
Near the most famous fountain in the world, Trevi Fountain, there is a small fountain that the architect Nicola Salvi created next to the monumental ...

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UFO in Ancient Rome
In the sky of Ancient Rome they were sighted UFOs since archaic times. Two thousand years ago the historian Livy in his Ab Urbe condita, says ...

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The Hercules and Cacus myth
The Hercules and Cacus myth expresses the progressive insertion of the Hellenistic culture on the primordial Italic cultures: Hercules is the ...

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Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus
The most important temple in Rome was located on the Capitoline Hill, it was dedicated to Jupiter Optimus Maximus and Juno and Minerva, or the Capitoline Triad; it was built for the vow made by Tarquinius Priscus during the wars against the Sabini ...

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The Knights Templar in Rome
At the beginning of the 12th century Rome was a small city with 20,000 inhabitants where the Pope lived "perched" in the Palaces of the Lateran; Hugues de Payns presented himself here to ask Honorius II for the approval of the new order rule which had been written by Bernard of Clairvaux. Hugues de Payns was accompanied by Godefroy de Saint Omer, both had been among the knights of the First Crusade, the one wanted by Urban II and who had conquered the Holy City and founded the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Since then pilgrims flocked from all over Europe to places of faith but the journey was long and they had to cross difficult lands for the climate and for the populations, hostile to the Christians, who lived there ...

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Aurelia Cotta - The mother of Julius Caesar
She was born in Rome on May 21, 120 BC, daughter of Lucius Aurelius Cotta who was consul in the year after hers birth; the mother was called Rutilia and even her family was of consular rank. The gens Aurelia had cognomina Cotta, Scaurus, and Orestes and, in the first century, a branch was called Fulvus, to this belonged Titus Aurelius Fulvus who became emperor under the name of Antoninus Pius ...

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Legends of Myrtle
One of the legendary plants of Rome is the myrtle, because it was with the Myrthus that Romans and Sabines purified themselves when the war caused by the Rape of the Sabine women ended with the merger of the two peoples. Legend has it that they did the same place where the collision had occurred and where it was later erected the shrine of Venus Cloacina, the purifying goddess whose plan was just the myrtle. ...

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Villa of Quintilii
The brothers Sextus Quintilius Condianus and Sextus Quintilius Valerius Maximus, belonging to an important senatorial family, very rich and highly educated, when they had to choose the area where to build their suburban villa, wanted the site at 5th mile of the Appian Way, to represent them and their origins. The Quintilii descended from the Quintii (Coarelli), an important family of Albalonga who became part of the Roman patrician class when their original city was destroyed; They then chose the area of the Fossae Cluilae where the three Curiatii, the hero brothers of Albalonga, had set up their camp for the duel with the Horatii, the champion brothers of Rome ...

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The prophecy of Colosseum
In the eighth century, in a Benedictine monastery in Sunderland, the monk Beda the Venerable then Doctor of the Catholic Church, in addition to writing ecclesiastical books and scientific treatises, rearranging texts of classical Latin authors, collected and reported the stories and prophecies of his time in the book "Collectanea" which reports the following obscure prophecy ...

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Quotes

"In civitate libéra linguam mentemque libéras esse debere"
(Gaius Svetonius Tranquillus, De Vita Caesarum, Tiberius 3,28)
"In a free state there should be freedom of speech and thought"

"Aut regem aut fatuum nasci oportere"
(Lucius Annaeus Seneca - Apocolocyntosis, I)
"One ought to be born a king or a fool"

"Amicitiae nostrae memoriam spero sempiternam fore"
(Cicero - Laelius de amicitia - 15)
"I hope that the memory of our friendship will be everlasting"

"Nihil est dictu facilius"
(Terenzio - Phormio, 300)
"Nothing is easier to say"

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