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Curiosities of ancient Rome

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.

Wandering of Gaius Marius

After the Social War that devastated Italy, in 88 BCE there was another major political crisis in the Republic between the two largest players of the world at the time, L. Cornelius Sulla and G. Marius. As a result of Rome’s capture by Sulla’s army, a completely lonely Marius had to flee the capital in the company of only a few of his slaves.

Gaius Marius

Roman frieze showing carpenters at work

Roman frieze showing representatives of carpentry (ars fabri tignarii) at work. The carpenter’s college built the roof of the Jupiter Temple on the Capitoline Hill in the 6th century BCE and was responsible for its maintenance and conservation until the imperial times.

Roman frieze showing carpenters at work

Senators in Egypt

Octavian Augustus imposed on senators and higher rank of eques (equites inlustres) banned entry to the province of Egypt without explicit consent and established the prefect Egypt an eques, not a senator (as was adopted in other provinces).

Portrait of a Roman from Egypt

Animation showing ancient Rome by night

I encourage you to watch the fantastic animation made by the French team CIREVE (Le Center Interdisciplinaire de Réalité Virtuelle), where we can look at what ancient Rome looked like at night. For people who want to see only material – an interesting fragment is 19-39 min.

Animation showing ancient Rome at night

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