Ancient Rome news stories on Newser

Ancient Sewer Reveals Roman Diet

Tim Karan — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 19:00:05 CDT

Researchers have discovered the biggest load of crap from ancient Rome, and they're using it to determine how Romans lived 2,000 years ago. After sifting through 750 sacks of human excrement discovered in the sewers below the town of Herculaneum, scientists have deduced that Romans ate a lot of...

Roman Tomb Found Beneath Toxic Dump

Mary Papenfuss — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 05:04:00 CDT

It's enough to make Caesar roll over in his grave. An ancient Roman mausoleum has been discovered beneath an illegal toxic waste dump outside Naples. The huge, vividly decorated 2nd-century tomb was found beneath some 60 tons of refuse dumped on ruins at Pizzuoli, site of the ancient Roman seaside...

Roman Soldiers Likely Hit by Chemical Weapon

Kevin Spak — Sun, 13 Mar 2011 10:52:05 CDT

When archaeologists first found the bones of the 19 ancient Roman soldiers and one Persian buried under the ancient Syrian city of Dura-Europos in the 1930s, they assumed they’d died in some kind of fierce underground melee—when the Persians attacked the city, they’d dug tunnels under the walls. But...

Sorry, Folks, Caligula's Tomb Isn't Found

John Johnson — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 19:29:12 CST

The quirky story out of Rome about police stumbling onto the lost tomb of Caligula grabbed headlines, but Cambridge professor Mary Beard isn't buying it. The key evidence is that cops caught a guy with a looted statue near Lake Nemi, and the statue was, gasp, wearing the same "caligae"...

More Pompeii Ruins Collapse

Nick McMaster — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 17:39:26 CST

Two thousand years after that volcano did a number on Pompeii, the ancient Roman city is having another rough stretch. Two more walls collapsed today, reports the BBC . It's the second collapse this week and follows the collapse of the famous gladitorial house last month. The latest ruins to fall...

Gladiators Will Fight Again in Coliseum

Will McCahill — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 17:55:01 CST

Gladiators will return to Rome’s Coliseum next year, the Times of London reports, marking the 2,000th anniversary of the birth of the emperor who ordered the landmark constructed. A series of shows will recreate “the sights, sounds and smells” of Ancient Rome, one archaeologist said, promising authenticity. “The gladiators...

Google Unearths 3D Ancient Rome

Peter Fearon — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 07:07:40 CST

Google Earth is providing users the opportunity to surf the streets of Ancient Rome via a 3D virtual reconstruction of the city as it was in the 4th century. Users can "enter" the Forum, stand in the sands of the Colosseum, or swoop over any of 6,700 buildings of...

Cave of Romulus and Remus Comes to Light

Sam Gale Rosen — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 15:28:41 CST

Archaeologists have found the cave worshiped by ancient Romans as the site where a wolf nursed the infant twins Romulus and Remus, who later founded the city. The cave, called the Lupercale, was found underground in an unexplored site near the palace of Augustus. "You can imagine our amazement, we...

Is America Rome?

NewsDude — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 21:28:02 CDT

The Roman Emperor Valerian was taken captive by the Persian king, who is reputed to have used him as a footstool for mounting his horse, notes Adam Goodheart in his essay on the similarities of Rome and America. This happened in Mesopotamia, now known as Iraq. Could that part of...