If you have found a spelling error, please, notify us by selecting that text and pressing Ctrl+Enter.
The world of ancient Romans abounded in a number of amazing curiosities and information. The source of knowledge about the life of the Romans are mainly works left to us by ancient writers or discoveries. The Romans left behind a lot of strange information and facts that are sometimes hard to believe.
Cassius Dio mentions in his “Roman History” that in 172 CE the Roman army of Marcus Aurelius was trapped by the much larger German forces of Quadi. Roman legionaries suffered from scorching and thirst, but it was said that the god of rain caused the rain, which helped them.
Nero at the funeral of his second wife Poppea Sabina ordered to burn all-year production of Arabic incense. Interestingly, the ruler himself killed pregnant empress, whom he kicked in the stomach.
On December 31, 192 CE emperor Commodus, after 12 years of brutal rule, was poisoned with wine by his mistress Marcia. Unfortunately, the ruler vomited poison and conspirators with prefect Laetus hired a wrestler Narcissus to finish the work. The Roman wrestler strangled the emperor in the bathhouse. After his death, the Senate announced the erasure of Commodus from history (damnatio memoriae).
Eunus was a Roman slave of Syrian origin who was the leader of the first slave uprising in Sicily (135-132 BCE). According to Florus’s message, Eunus swore to the Syrian deity Atargatis (which he compared to Greek Demeter) that he would free slaves from oppression.
The First Punic War (264-241 BCE) between Rome and Carthage was the longest continuous war in the ancient world, which took place both on land, islands and the sea.
Battle of Tigranocerta was fought on October 6, 69 BCE. It was one of the greatest Roman victories in history. Consisting of nearly 40, 000 Roman army, commanded by Lucius Licinnius Lucullus, opposed the Armenian army under the command of Tigranes the Great, in the strength of 80-100 thousand soldiers. Interestingly, before the battle, both leaders were to say interesting words to their adversaries – although those were probably both apocryphal.
