Viggen

The story of Pilate’s wife begins with a girl, Claudia, born into a family of privilege during the reign of the Roman Empire. Claudia’s father and uncle are prominent leaders in the roman army. As a young girl her family is stationed in Monokos but her father and uncle travel often for battle. Claudia’s family spends a lot of time with her Aunt Agrippina and her children since both fathers were often away at battle. When she is young Claudia often dreams of things that come to pass and this “gift” becomes both a blessing and a curse at various times during her life.... ...to the full review of Pilate's Wife: A Novel of the Roman Empire by Antoinette May

(Disclaimer: We at India.com do not endorse blood sports, slavery, public bathing, pillaging or gluttony.) ...thanks for pointing that out... http://www.india.com/top-n/5-reasons-to-move-to-the-roman-empire-38923/

As Italian capital approaches 2,767th birthday, excavation reveals wall built long before official founding year of 753BC. Next week, the city will celebrate its official, 2,767th birthday. According to a tradition going back to classic times, the brothers Romulus and Remus founded the city on 21 April in the year 753BC. But on Sunday it was reported that evidence of infrastructure building had been found, dating from more than 100 years earlier. The daily Il Messagero quoted Patrizia Fortini, the archaeologist responsible for the Forum, as saying that a wall constructed well before the city's traditional founding date had been unearthed... ...more at the Guardian

A fragment of papyrus, known as the “Gospel of Jesus’s Wife,” has been analyzed by professors at Columbia University, Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who reported that it resembled other ancient papyri. Skepticism about the tiny scrap of papyrus has been fierce because it contained a phrase never before seen in any piece of Scripture: “Jesus said to them, ‘My wife...’ ” Too convenient for some, it also contained the words “she will be able to be my disciple,” a clause that inflamed the debate in some churches over whether women should be allowed to be priests. The test results do not prove that Jesus had a wife or disciples who were women, only that the fragment is more likely a snippet from an ancient manuscript than a fake, the scholars agree... ...more at the NY Times

Archaeologists believe they might have stumbled across an Iron Age mint which produced gold and silver coins for the coveted Hallaton Treasure. The dig at Blackfriars, in the city, unearthed coin mould fragments which, combined with evidence from previous excavations, seems to confirm the site was a 2,000-year-old Corieltauvi tribe mint. The tiles were found within a Roman townhouse, which dates from about 100AD. ...more at Leicester Mercury

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Archaeologists uncover buried structural remains and artifacts that help tell the story of an ancient Roman port system in Italy. Known as Vada Volaterrana, it has been identified as a key port system located in present-day Tuscany, Italy, used anciently by the Romans of the city of Volaterrae (today's Volterra) for the import and export of trade goods throughout the Mediterranean. The main harbor was located north of the mouth of the Cecina river, at S. Gaetano di Vada. Here, the University of Pisa has been excavating, since the 1980s, a significant commercial quarter that has yielded major structures and numerous artifacts that have testified to a facility built during the Augustan age but lasting through to the sixth-seventh centuries, C.E.... more at Popular Archaeology

from Wikipedia: Dumnonia is the Latinised name for the Brythonic kingdom in sub-Roman Britain between the late 4th and late 8th centuries, in the more westerly parts of South West England. It was centred in the area later called Devon, but included Cornwall and parts of Somerset and Dorset, with its eastern boundary changing over time as the gradual westward expansion of the neighbouring Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex ate away at its territory. ...so in 700AD i assume they felt very different to the Anglo/Saxons, but did they had any Roman traditions left?

thanks for the info, i look into it... cheers viggen

...what makes you think that this was the "last" act of the "Roman" senate`?

fascinating... especially this part intrigues me "....and was suffering the effects of a poor diet." What does that mean; fast food? Too much sugar? Too much fat? Too one sided?

Hundreds of years before asbestos became ubiquitous in the construction industry, Byzantine monks used the fibrous material in plaster coatings underlying their wall paintings during the late 1100s, new research shows. Asbestos is a type of natural, rock-forming mineral known for its ability to separate into long, flexible fibers. It has long been thought that asbestos fibers, which are corrosion- and combustion-resistant, were first integrated into such things as plaster, finish coatings and floors after the Industrial Revolution... ...more at LiveScience

Ground sensors and satellites will be deployed in a new bid to keep the ancient Roman city of Pompeii from crumbling following a series of recent collapses at the sprawling and long-neglected site near Naples. Italian aerospace and defence giant Finmeccanica on Thursday said it was donating the technology to the culture ministry in a 1.7 million euro ($2.3 million) project entitled "Pompeii: Give it a Future". The main aims are to assess "risks of hydrogeological instability" at the sprawling site, boost security and test the solidity of structures, as well as set up an early warning system to flag up possible collapses.... ....more at PhysOrg

...i wonder what difference location would make, a villa in southern spain compared to one in sicily, belgium or britain?

...when in 2000 years someone asks what did soccer players do for England, what will they say? Entertain? Killing time over the weekend? When you look on the old grafitti, those gladiators were on the mind of the public alot, just like the sportsmen of today...

...not sure if you know the Val Canale/Kanaltal between Austria and Italy, its a series of tunnels through really high and steep mountains, and i cant get my head over it how on earth anyone was able to get from north to south. Must have taken weeks, just to pass that damm valley that is not more than 20 miles...

very cool, pitty it doesnt show how long a trip will take, or do i miss that part?

Book Review by Philip Matyszak Almost everyone these days has a calendar close to hand, either displayed on the wall or digitally on an electronic device. We seldom think of a calendar as anything other than a means of reckoning the date, but as this book points out, calendars are much more than this. Sacha Stern takes us back to a time when the date was pretty much a matter of opinion, and the days of the months varied from city to city - as indeed did the names and lengths of the actual months. Sometimes the number of months was insufficient to fill the actual year, so that the calendar fell out of synchronization with the seasons, and at other times the year was extended at the whim of a ruling politician... ...go to the review of Calendars in Antiquity by Sacha Stern

Campus Martius, also known as the Campus of Mars, was built by the Roman Senate just outside the ancient Rome city walls back in 9 BCE. It was built to celebrate the peace brought upon the Roman people as a result of Emperor Agustus’s military conquests. Thanks to a complex computer simulation created by the Institute for Digital Intermedia Arts (IDIA) for Indiana University's School of Informatics and Computing, it is now possible to verify if and how solar alignments influenced the positioning of the different objects on site.... more at Gizmag

...what do all empires have in common? They eventually break up into smaller unites. Be it because of internal or external reasons. I believe its in the human nature to prefer to be ruled from people near by.. The USA is in that respect a bit different than europe but i would bet that in a few hundred years the US will break up into smaller units as well....

...considering how Italy is watching Pompeii slowly decaying i have my doubts, but good if it works out...

He was Rome's first emperor, the founder of a world-dominating imperial dynasty, and a builder of roads and stunning temples who brought peace to a far-flung empire; a man so powerful the Roman senate named a month after him. Now, on the 2,000th anniversary of the death of the emperor Augustus, the city of Rome is getting ready to honour its favourite son by saving his mausoleum from shocking neglect.... ...more at the Guardian

I can like now your blog too