#930 Why is there an obelisk in Rome?
Why is there an obelisk in Rome? There is more than one and the Romans took them from Egypt as a show of power. During the Roman Empire, 50 obelisks…
Why is there an obelisk in Rome? There is more than one and the Romans took them from Egypt as a show of power. During the Roman Empire, 50 obelisks…
What is the Ides of March? It is the 74th day of the Roman calendar, which is March 15th. When we think about the Ides of March, we imagine that…
Why did Michelangelo hide in a cellar? He had been sentenced to death by Pope Clement VII. Michelangelo was born near Florence in 1475. At the time, Florence was a…
When were AD and BC decided? AD probably started in AD 525 and BC probably started in AD 731. All of these are “probably” because there is no concrete evidence.…
What is a codex? A codex is a collection of ancient manuscripts in book form. The term originally just meant a book, but today we use it only to refer…
How did the Vatican become a country? Benito Mussolini gave it to the Roman Catholic church in 1929. The Vatican is the world’s smallest country. It has a population of…
When was the Roman forum built? In the 7th century BC. The beginning of the Roman forum is difficult to get a grip on because the Romans liked to embellish…
I learned this today. Rome became a republic because the last king of the Roman Kingdom was overthrown. The Kingdom of Rome was founded in 753 BC. There is no…
I learned this today. Julius Caesar is supposed to have burned the library of Alexandria down in 48 BC, but it appears that it wasn’t destroyed and probably survived for…
I learned this today. It is impossible to know if the emperor Nero was as bad as people say because all of the contemporary sources were destroyed. Nero became emperor…