All posts tagged: Rome

Why the right is so obsessed with Rome

Why the right is so obsessed with Rome

Published by Sam Flores

For every academic discipline, there’s something the public can’t get enough of that drives specialists nuts. If you’re an astronomer, it’s people confusing what you do with astrology. If you’re a researcher in psychology, it’s the popularity of the Myers-Briggs personality test. And if you’re an historian of ancient Greece and Rome, like I am, it’s the steady stream of comparisons between the modern world and the Roman Empire.  These analogies simplify more than they explain. They merely project modern anxieties onto the canvas of an imagined ancient Rome. And they’re so common that, most of the time, all you can do is roll your eyes and move on.  That’s harder to do when a major politician brings up Rome as a way to comment on Donald Trump’s war of choice in Iran. Just because such comparisons are almost laughably inept doesn’t mean they don’t have real world stakes. The politician in question is former British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who wrote an op-ed in The Times of London titled “To save the West, remember …

Rome unleashed an ancient ‘machine gun’ on Pompeii

Rome unleashed an ancient ‘machine gun’ on Pompeii

Published by Jenni Sidey

Get the Popular Science daily newsletter💡 Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. (Left), the axonometric hand drawing of the polybolos, by A.R., was partially colored by V.C. using the graphic post-production software GIMP 3.0.4.; (right), the 3D model by C. Formicola based on the surviving module of the Scorpion of Ampurias (highlighted in yellow, corresponding to an element of the propulsion system of the engine). Credit: Rossi, et al. Battlescars etched into the stone walls of Pompeii may offer the first known evidence of a mechanical weapon that was thousands of years ahead of its time. Archaeologists at Italy’s University of Campania believe Roman soldiers utilized a polybolos—a machine designed to fire multiple metal-tipped bolt projectiles in quick succession. Essentially, an ancient machine gun. Their argument is detailed in a recent study published in the journal Heritage. Pompeii is most famous for its destruction in the wake of the Mount Vesuvius eruption in 79 CE. Nearly 170 years earlier, however, its residents weathered another cataclysm.  In 89 BCE, Rome dispatched forces …

Zendaya ‘Borrowed’ Armani Gown From Cate Blanchett For Rome Premiere

Zendaya ‘Borrowed’ Armani Gown From Cate Blanchett For Rome Premiere

Published by Daniella Wilson

Zendaya’s method dressing streak for The Drama press tour has taken another chic turn. The Emmy Award-winning actress stepped out at the A24 film’s Rome premiere in a “borrowed” dress by Giorgio Armani Privé that was made for Cate Blanchett and most recently worn by the Oscar winner in another Italian city at the Venice Film Festival opening night ceremony in August 2025. But doubling down on the whole “borrowed” trend, Blanchett had also worn it before. A longtime muse of Giorgio Armani, Blanchett previously wore the Armani Privé look at the SAG Awards in 2022. She’s long been known to re-wear looks from her personal archive as a way to promote sustainability, eco-conscious moves made arm-in-arm with longtime stylist Elizabeth Stewart. Cate Blanchett and Zendaya (with Christian Louboutin shoes) Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images; Ernesto Ruscio/Getty Images As for the gown, the custom Giorgio Armani Privé black silk architectural column gown features a plunging neckline of onyx stones. As for the “borrowed” part, Zendaya stars opposite Robert Pattinson in The Drama, a film about a …

Lille beats Rome in race to host EU customs cops – POLITICO

Lille beats Rome in race to host EU customs cops – POLITICO

Published by Sam Flores

Front runner Lille was first out the blocks, launching its bid to host the authority in November by inviting officials from around the bloc to visit the modern building that could host the agency. Guests were shown the international school where EUCA staff could send their kids and plied with local delicacies. Rome’s bid was less fancied, with representatives of the center-right European People’s Party switching their votes in its favor to prevent Lille winning outright at the group stage, according to two officials. Despite leading 18 out of 27 EU governments and having 14 out of 51 MEPs on the European Parliament’s IMCO committee that took part in the voting, the EPP failed to heave its favored candidate — Warsaw — into the final round. France has a liberal government while Italy is headed by the right-wing European Conservatives and Reformists. Far away There was no luck — again — for candidates from further afield, like the Croatian capital Zagreb. That cemented the impression that, despite admitting a raft of new eastern European countries in recent …

Anarchists blew themselves up when building bomb in Rome

Anarchists blew themselves up when building bomb in Rome

Published by Sam Flores

Alessandro Mercogliano and Sara Ardizzone were found beneath the rubble of a cottage beside an ancient Roman aqueduct The bodies of an anarchist couple were found beneath the rubble of a cottage on the outskirts of Rome after they blew themselves up while making a bomb. Police believed Alessandro Mercogliano, 53, and 36-year-old Sara Ardizzone were plotting an attack against a police station and Leonardo, a defence contractor, which made parts for F-35 jets. Traces of ammonium nitrate, a chemical used to make explosives, were found in the debris of the abandoned building beside an ancient Roman aqueduct on Friday. Police said the pair were supporters of Alfredo Cospito, the jailed figurehead of a loosely organised anarchist network called the Informal Anarchist Federation. Cospito, 58, is serving a 20-year sentence for a series of parcel bombs and attacks targeting authorities. In 2012, he was sentenced to 10 years for kneecapping the head of the Italian nuclear power company Ansaldo Nucleare. ‘Risk of mass-casualty attacks’ Otello Lupacchini, a retired judge and mafia expert, said that the …

A hidden cloister in the center of Rome has a turbulent past etched on its walls

A hidden cloister in the center of Rome has a turbulent past etched on its walls

Published by Sam Flores

ROME (AP) — A hidden cloister just a few steps from Rome’s Pantheon is a peaceful place for silent meditation — if the millions of tourists who trudge past even know it’s there. Behind the large wooden door, its frescoed walls closed to the general public reveal details of the compound’s dramatic history, including papal conclaves and the Inquisition interrogation of Galileo Galilei. At the center is a pond with goldfish and turtles surrounded by olive trees, two large palms and a tree laden with bright oranges that the friars use to make marmalade. Well-fed cats lounge about in sunny spots on the grass. There are still 20 friars who live in the convent around the cloister carrying out their duties. “It is designed to be a place of prayer, of meditation and therefore in some way to encourage prayer and the meditation of the friars,” said Friar Aucone. Over the centuries, this space has attracted important figures, St. Catherine of Siena and the Renaissance painter Fra Angelico, both of whom are buried in the …

AI Figures Out the Rules of a Mysterious 2,000-Year-Old Board Game from Ancient Rome

AI Figures Out the Rules of a Mysterious 2,000-Year-Old Board Game from Ancient Rome

Published by José Betancourt

Image by Wal­ter Crist As far as enthu­si­asm for board games goes, no con­ti­nent has yet out­done Europe. Its advan­tage could lie in the high­ly devel­oped cul­ture of low-cost leisure evi­dent in quite a few of its soci­eties; it could also owe to the fact that board games seem to have been played there con­tin­u­ous­ly since antiq­ui­ty. We’ve long had evi­dence of exam­ples like the “Roman mill game,” bet­ter known today as nine men’s mor­ris, which Ovid appears to men­tion in his Ars Ama­to­ria of the very ear­ly first cen­tu­ry. Not that mod­ern knowl­edge of Roman table­top gam­ing is com­plete. In one puz­zling case, the stone board above was unearthed in a for­mer Roman town in the Nether­lands, but how a game was played on it remained a mys­tery — until machine learn­ing came along. “To exam­ine whether the object may have been used as a game board, we per­formed use-wear analy­sis to iden­ti­fy evi­dence for game­play and we sim­u­lat­ed play using arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence (AI),” write the team of researchers who recent­ly pub­lished a paper on …

Seven Wonders of the Ancient World: From the Walls of Babylon to the Sewers of Rome

Seven Wonders of the Ancient World: From the Walls of Babylon to the Sewers of Rome

Published by José Betancourt

You may not be able to name all, or even most, of the sev­en won­ders of the ancient world. But you almost cer­tain­ly know that there were sev­en of them. In a way, that aligns well enough with the world­view of the Greeks who first made ref­er­ence to such a list, giv­en their near-rev­er­ence for that num­ber. Sev­en were the strings of the lyre (unless there hap­pened to be eight or nine), sev­en were the gates of Thebes, and sev­en were the “wan­der­ing stars” in the night sky (if you count the sun and moon). The iden­ti­ty of the won­ders was less impor­tant than the length of their list, and indeed, as ancient-his­to­ry YouTu­ber Gar­rett Ryan explains in his Told in Stone video above, addi­tions and changes were pro­posed since the begin­ning. The clas­sic sev­en-won­ders ros­ter includes the Hang­ing Gar­dens of Baby­lon, the Stat­ue of Zeus at Olympia, the Tem­ple of Artemis at Eph­esus, the Mau­soleum at Hali­car­nas­sus, the Colos­sus of Rhodes, the Light­house of Alexan­dria, and the Great Pyra­mid of Giza, that last being …

Rome in 1890 Captured in Color Photographs: The Colosseum, Forum, Trevi Fountain & More

Rome in 1890 Captured in Color Photographs: The Colosseum, Forum, Trevi Fountain & More

Published by José Betancourt

For almost two hun­dred years, Eng­lish gen­tle­men could not con­sid­er their edu­ca­tion com­plete until they had tak­en the “Grand Tour” of Europe, usu­al­ly cul­mi­nat­ing in Naples, “raga­muf­fin cap­i­tal of the Ital­ian south,” writes Ian Thom­son at The Spec­ta­tor. Italy was usu­al­ly the pri­ma­ry focus, such that Samuel John­son remarked in 1776, per­haps with some irony, “a man who has not been to Italy is always con­scious of an infe­ri­or­i­ty.” The Roman­tic poets famous­ly wrote of their Euro­pean sojourns: Shel­ley, Byron, Wordsworth… each has his own “Grand Tour” sto­ry. Shel­ley, who trav­eled with his wife Mary God­win and her step­sis­ter Claire Clair­mont, did not go to Italy, how­ev­er. And Byron sailed the Mediter­ranean on his Grand Tour, forced away from most of Europe by the Napoleon­ic wars. But in 1817, he jour­neyed to Rome, where he wrote the Fourth Can­to of Childe Harold’s Pil­grim­age: Oh Rome! my coun­try! city of the soul!The orphans of the heart must turn to thee,Lone moth­er of dead empires! And con­trolIn their shut breasts their pet­ty mis­ery. For the trav­el­ing artist and philoso­pher, …