Questions tagged [ancient-rome]
for questions about claims based in Ancient Rome, or limited in Ancient Rome.
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Did Julius Caesar say "If you can't defeat your enemy, have him as your friend"?
In my country (Italy) there's a popular saying that goes "Se non puoi sconfiggere il tuo nemico, fattelo amico", translated to english as "If you can't defeat your enemy, have him as ...
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Is Spartacus based on true story?
Spartacus (TV Series 2010–2013)
The inspiration behind this series is the Thracian Gladiator Spartacus, who led a slave uprising against the Roman Republic
Spartacus, 19th-century illustration.
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Did Emperor Nero burn Frankincense equal to Oman's annual production at his wife's funeral?
In a documentary about Oman -The Paradoxical Life In Muscat - Magnificent Megacities it is narrated that -
According to the legend, Emperor Nero burned the whole of Oman's annual production ...
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Did the Roman senate vote to declare Julius Caesar had been born of a virgin?
The narrator of a YouTube video, Jesus Christ Never Existed, makes this claim:
Julius Caesar, in the century before Jesus, was declared to have been born of a virgin, by a vote of the Roman senate, ...
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Are the locations of Roman roads still linked to higher prosperity today?
The Romans built a large number of roads across much of Europe. Their primary function was to aid military movement and communication. But they became useful routes for trade and were, therefore, ...
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Was there a co-regency of Tiberius and Augustus?
Caesar Augustus was the first Emperor of the Roman Empire. He succeeded the dictator Julius Caesar and was succeeded by Caesar Tiberius. Some claim Tiberius was co-regent with Augustus for a couple ...
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Is it true that 4th century Christians "destroyed all they could reach of ancient learning"?
On page 19 of Mathematics for the Nonmathematician, mathematician Morris Kline claims that:
In 313 A.D. Rome legalized Christianity and, under the emperor
Theodosius (379-395), adopted it as the ...
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Did Ancient Roman bureaucrats file data only by year?
In an aside in an article about the greatest human innovations where he proposes the relational database as a candidate, Tim Worstall quotes the following comment about the Roman Empire:
Finding ...
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Did the Roman army have more servants than soldiers?
In one of his essays Joel Spolsky (co-founder of Stack Exchange) wrote:
[...] the Roman army had a ratio of four
servants for every soldier.
Is this true?
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Did Christians seek out martyrdom during the Roman empire?
In the National Geographic series "Jesus: Rise To Power", it seemed as if some Christians actively sought out martyrdom. One anecdote it mentioned, featuring Arrius Antoninus, is also mentioned in ...
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Were Alpine glaciers much smaller in Roman times?
In a critique (or possibly a rant) against modern climate science, Swiss geologist Christian Schlüchter makes a very specific claim that Alpine glaciers were essentially non-existent (or very much ...
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Were Christians ever publicly executed for their faith in Ancient Rome?
It’s commonly known that early Christians were prosecuted for centuries in the Roman empire, up to execution via damnatio ad bestias, meaning they were made to fight lions and other beasts in deadly ...
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Were most gladiators volunteers?
Nicholas Taleb's Antifragile continues to surprise me with interesting claims made as asides during bigger arguments. The following statement appears late in the book:
The great historian Paul ...
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