As Pliny says in his Natural History, Book 33, dedicated to metals, there existed in antiquity a real gold rush. See http://www.antiquitatem.com/en/the-gold-rush-in-antiquity-minery-pliny
Caius Gracchus: “this is only interesting for political speakers, own interest”
Aulus Gellius, in Book XI, Chapter 9 of his Attic Nights, tells how the famous Greek orator Demosthenes leave buy for a good amount of money for not a speech against the Macedonian Harpalus. In the next chapter 10 gives us another version now attributed to a speech of Gaius Gracchus. But the interest of this text goes beyond the different allocation, because Gracchus reveals starkly how political speakers and advocates seek above all profit and benefit.
Exposure of corpses
Human beings, unlike other animals, attend their dead and their corpses. This is attested since the Palaeolithic. The ways and customs of the various peoples referred to the fact of death and to treat the bodies, are many and varied. No doubt these rites are the result of confusion that causes death in all living beings; people seek immortality but man finds the decomposition of the body. It is therefore necessary to perform rites to avoid the process of decomposition . In expression of Walter Burkert, the Homo sapiens is a homo sepeliens (from Latin sepelio, burial), a man who buries his dead comrades.
The “Sacred Truce” made possible the continuity of the Olympics for 1.170 years
The ancient Olympic events have an obvious connection with several war and military activities, but the Olympics were only possible because the various Greek states, in permanent confrontation, agreed to a temporary truce of peace.
The names of the months are Roman
Among the many things that the Romans have left us no less important is the calendar with the names of the months, days and seasons. To understand the logic and coherence of the names “september= September; october= October; november= November and december= December,” which etymologically means “seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth” we must know that the primitive Roman year had ten months and began in March.
If you want love, do not make war
Love and war seem incompatible, at least for Greek women
A bridge from Italy to Greece
Today there are great bridges that fill us with wonder by its length: the Akashi-Kaikyo with 1991 mts. in Japan, or the Great Belt East with 1624mts. in Denmark, or Runyang with 1490 mts. in China. They are the world’s largest cable-stayed bridges. In ancient times the Romans were great builders of bridges.
In Rome the declaration of war is a sacred act that only “fetial” priests can perform.
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.
A body without a name (sine nomine corpus)
One of the more intensely poetic passages of the Aeneid is one in which Virgil (70-19 BC) tells us the death and the end of Priam , the aged king of Troy, in the Book II.