Unfortunately war is an activity too often in the history of men. Despite the violence it engenders and which develops, war is subject to rules and rites. The Roman people, very superstitious and ritualistic, has rituals for all activities, and also for war. War is an action so important that only “fetial” priests can declare.
The ancient Olympic Games
Among the many things that we owe to the Greeks, no less important is the creation of sporting competitions. The Greeks held the Olympic Games for over a thousand years, then the Olympics disappeared for more than 1600 years, and we have recovered them only a hundred years ago.
The first evidence of education of a deaf person
Well known is that infanticide and the exposure of children are admitted to practice in Greece and Rome either for religious reasons (disability as a punishment or consequence of the anger of the gods) or for reasons of political and cultural tradition.
Claudia made her wool (Claudia lanam fecit)
Certainly one of the first achievements of the men was making clothes for weather protection sometimes warm sometimes cold. In oldest archaeological deposits appear bone needles with a hole and slot on one end through which a fiber input, a strip of skin, a thread later. Making yarn of animal hair or wool or vegetable fiber was early and very important. It was a great human work.
Sandals or soles for horses (hiposoleae)
“Hiposolea” is a technical term used in archeology or ancient history to refer to the “sandals”, soles or protections that the ancient Greeks and Romans placed to the equine, horses or mules, in their hooves or paws
What does “leap-year” mean? Where does the term “twice sixth year” come from?
Translator´s Note that may help English- speaking readers to understand this text better: leap-year in Latin and modern Latin languages is called “bi sextum” year, like “twice sixth” year. This, as you will check later, is essential to be taken into account before starting to read this article in order to be able to understand it properly.
Cave canem
The eruption of the Vesuvius in the afternoon of the 24th of August of the year 79 (such an accurate date is in dispute) destroyed the lively and jovial city of Pompeii, near Naples (Neapolis = new city) and paradoxically preserved its ruins for centuries, until the year 1748.
The couvade
“Couvade” is a word derived from the French “couvade”; “couver” means “incubate” “brood.” This ethnographic term designates a rite of sympathetic magic or formula for newborn recognition of newborn, practiced in some villages at the time of the birth of a son; that is a kind of simulation of birth by the father, who lies in the bed with the baby.
The drunkenness begets deformed creatures
The philosopher, politician and writer Henri-Benjamin Constant, Swiss-born French (1767-1830) wrote in 1816 a famous speech or treatise entitled ‘The Liberty of the Ancients Compared with that of the Moderns’ (1819).
Greek masters studied with Egyptian teachers
The “classical” Greek culture is the result of plentiful and different historical influences.