Scientists have cultivated plants from date palm seeds that languished in ancient ruins and caves for 2, years. This remarkable feat confirms the long-term viability of the kernels once ensconced in succulent Judean dates, a fruit cultivar lost for centuries. The results make it an excellent candidate for studying the longevity of plant seeds. From those date palm saplings, the researchers have begun to unlock the secrets of the highly sophisticated cultivation practices that produced the dates praised by Herodotus, Galen, and Pliny the Elder. In an ancient palace fortress built by King Herod the Great, and caves located in southern Israel between the Judean Hills and the Dead Sea, archaeologists retrieved hundreds of seeds from the date palm Phoenix dactylifera. Then, a team of scientists, led by Sarah Sallon of Hadassah Medical Organisation in Israel, sorted through this bounty. They selected 34 seeds they thought were the most viable. One was separated out as a control; the remaining 33 were carefully soaked in water and fertiliser to encourage germination. After this process, one more was found to be damaged, and was subsequently discarded; the remaining 32 seeds were planted. Guy Eisner.

Landmarks and Ruins in Rome

The Roman calendar was the calendar used by the Roman kingdom and republic. The term usually excludes the Alexandrian calendar of Roman Egypt , which continued the unique months of that land’s former calendar ; the Byzantine calendar of the later Roman Empire , which usually dated the Roman months in the simple count of the ancient Greek calendars ; and the Gregorian calendar , which refined the Julian system to bring it into still closer alignment with the tropical year. Roman dates were counted inclusively forward to the next of three principal days: the first of the month the kalends , a day shortly before the middle of the month the ides , and eight days—nine, counting inclusively—before this the nones.

Attributed to Romulus himself, the Roman calendar originally was determined by the third day before the Nones of September (Livy, History of Rome, XXXVII.4; XLIV). discrepancy existed between the seasons and their calendar date.

Establishing the date when an event occurred could be a challenge for those living in the ancient world. In many societies, dates were reckoned relative to the rule of a particular person. That person varied with where you lived. At the time of the Peloponnesian War, the Athenian writer, Thucydides, dated the events three ways: by the priestess of Hera at Argos, the archon of Athens, and the ephor of Sparta. The lists of the archons of Athens were well established in the fifth century BC.

A similar list of ephors was established in Sparta. Another list used for dating relied on the victors of the Olympic games, which were conducted every 4 years and drew participation from many Greek cities. The games that were held in BC were defined as the first, and each Olympiad lasted 4 years. The first year of the first Olympiad, ol.

Dates in the Roman Empire

The dating system presently adopted in most countries of the world, as well as many names too, such as those of months and weekdays, are largely based on the ones that were already in use well over years ago; the same word “calendar” comes from Kalendae , indicating the first day of each month. Some details of this system, though, would now appear very complicated and unpractical.

This page describes how the archaic systems developed into the present one, and its many connections with the city of Rome. This scheme, likely of Greek origin, was already in use by the time of Rome’s foundation, but it was obviously inaccurate; for this reason, an uncounted number of days was likely added, so that events for which a specific timing was required, such as sowing or gathering the harvest, could be carried out reasonably on time.

This year originally started with the month of March New Year’s Day fell on March 14 , probably because early spring is the period in which nature comes to new life again after the cold season. January and February, which had been added shortly earlier, were in fact the last months of the year.

Did the first Christian Roman emperor appropriate the pagan festival of of Saturnalia to December 25th, around the time of the date of the winter solstice.

In setting out to write this article, I have the modest goal of helping new collectors of Roman Imperial coins to interpret the inscriptions on their coins. I must state at the outset that there will be nothing new here, I travel the well marked path of the great numismatists who have gone before me. The two who have had the greatest influence on me have been David R. Sear and Zander H.

Reading and Dating Roman Imperial Coins by Zander Klawans has been the starting point for more Roman collectors than perhaps any other book of the last half century and the fact that it is still in print is a testament to it’s value. Many new collectors and even advanced students of Latin shy away from attempting to decipher the seemingly cryptic inscriptions found on most Roman coins.

The reason for this initial apprehension is that the ancient Romans were excessive abbreviators and that the legends were run together without stops or breaks. However, by learning less than a dozen abbreviations and developing a familiarity with that names used on Imperial coins the collector can easily attribute most coins that he will encounter provided the inscriptions are legible.

First we will look at the meaning of the more common abbreviations and then examine the names of the emperors as they appear on the coins. The ancient Romans were great lovers of titles. In order to fit the many titles of an emperor on a medium as small as a coin, it proved necessary to abbreviate those titles heavily.

Illustration of the Baths of Caracalla in Rome dating back to the Roman Empire.

Marriage was regarded as a duty and a means of preserving families. Most marriage were arranged by fathers and set up as alliances between families with producing “legitimate” children as the primary goal. Roman men held marriage in low regard and when they married produced few children. Girls were often forced to marry when they were fourteen. It was not uncommon for a man to marry and divorce several time for his family to work their way up the social ladder.

This contempt for marriage kept the population of Rome relatively low while the population of non-Romans and Christians grew.

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What are the key dates in the timeline of Roman history? The story was that the twins Romulus and Remus, sons of the god Mars, were left to die by being put in a basket, set adrift on the river Tiber. The makeshift vessel eventually came ashore at the future site of Rome. Here, the babies were suckled by a she-wolf, then raised by a shepherd. When the twins reached adulthood, Romulus founded a city on the Palatine Hill.

When Remus jumped over the furrow that marked where the walls would be built, Romulus killed him. Yet despite the immense popularity of that divinely ordained — if bloodstained — foundation myth, it has no basis in fact. The name Romulus clearly was made up from that of Rome itself, and archaeology has revealed evidence of settlement on the Palatine Hill as early as 1, BC.

As with the foundation of the city, later Romans believed they knew the precise date of the beginning of the Republic: BC, when the seventh and last king of Rome, the tyrannical Tarquinius Superbus, was thought to have been ousted by an aristocratic coup. Although sources for the early Republic are better than those for the preceding regal period, the veracity of this tale is also in doubt. The Republican system itself was based around the idea that only an assembly of the people had the right to pass laws and elect magistrates.

Saturnalia

A number of important events took place at the end of the Roman Kingdom and beginning of the Roman Republic. The king of Clusium, Lars Porsenna, sieged Rome. The city signed a treaty of support with Carthage, the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus was consecrated and a new office, called consul, was created. The Fasti consulares documents with the names of the consuls or magistrates that described the main events of the period are essential to understand the Roman Republic from BC, from when they are considered credible.

Packed with ancient history, the Colosseum is one of the most recognised landmarks and ruins in Rome. Dating back over 2, years it was once the ground.

There was a stereotype of a Roman man at the time — commander of the world, women, slaves , bed and many others. On the other hand, wife, sons, freedmen or private slaves, were only the parts of his life. Awareness of being cheated on made the citizen a bad one which also meant being a bad master. How could he deal with the army during the battle if he was not able to deal with his own wife.

Thus, there is a significant implication between political and military matter. Master, on the other hand, could take his slaves and do with them whatever he wanted. Deflowering and homosexual practices were common. If a married man had children with his slave, no one could know that. Officially it was a secret, but in fact everybody knew. Marriage in ancient Rome was considered to be a duty which main aim was to provide new citizens. Affection between two young people did not bond their relationship.

Such relationships were very often simple deals focused on procreation. They were set on fathering a descendant and any signs of particular attention were seen as something highly extravagant. However, Roman women did not know how to entice their husbands.

A Long-Lost Legendary Roman Fruit Tree Has Been Grown From 2,000-Year-Old Seeds

Since love had nothing to do with a Roman marriage we are entitled to ask what was its purpose in their eyes. Citizenship was a precious designation given only to those who were born of two citizens legally married to each other. Anyone born outside of a legitimate marriage between citizens was inferior in the eyes of the law. Men were well aware that no matter how important they were or how much they loved life, they were not going to live for ever, and while a rich man might have a bag of coins hidden in a hole in the wall of his basement there was no stock market and no corporate or government bonds producing a regular income with little or no effort on the part of the owner.

Most real wealth was in the form of farm land or a commercial enterprise that produced an income only if some one paid attention to it, worked it and provided hands on management.

FINDING A DATE. IN ANCIENT ROME. OR. WHY SOME MEN WENT TO THE​. CHARIOT RACES. Ovid, The Art of Love – v ARS AMATORIA V.

The Roman calendar was counted Ab urbe condita “from the foundation of the city” , in BC; and it continued in use until the Anno Domini calendar was introduced in AD The monk who calculated AD from AUC forgot that the Emperor Augustus ruled for four years as Octavian before he changed his name, and this error remains in the system. Like the Christian calendar, it displaced earlier calendars such as the Zoroastrian one in Persia, which dates from about BC. The Jewish calendar has an even earlier starting point, 5, years ago, calculated as the date of the creation as described in scripture.

The other, used in historical works, was AUC, Ab urbe condita. He probably arrived at that date by looking up the recorded dates of incidents mentioned in the Christian gospels. Dionysius seems to have decided on a compromise, putting the birth of Jesus between the two ascertained dates, at AUC. I can do passable dogs, pigs, lions, snakes etc for the children, but what noise does a giraffe make? When it came to the giraffe there was a pause for thought, then she shouted “Tall! A giraffe is the only animal with no vocal chords, so makes no noise at all.

Source of this information — a quiz at the Dunelm Ridge, 29 December Who cares?

TO ROME FOR LOVE 🇮🇹