General

CALIGULA: HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

Barbara F. McManus, The College of New Rochelle...

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Lead and the Fall of Rome: A Bibliography

Since the nineteenth century, there have been sporadic suggestions that the large-scale use of lead in antiquity contributed to the fall of Rome through heavy-metal poisoning....

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Hannibal The African Warrior

In 218 B.C., Hannibal began the most daring military move in history, that of invading Rome by way of the Alps. But why did this African military genius decide to war against Rome? Before Hannibal's birth, the Romans ruled Italy, and the Carthaginians ruled Carthage in North Africa. The Carthaginians also ruled the Mediterranean Islands of Cors...

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School Time and Play Time for Roman Children

Most Roman kids did not go to school. Like their parents, they worked in the fields hoeing and weeding and plowing as soon as they were old enough. Their parents needed them to work, to get enough to eat. They did not learn to read or write or do math....

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History House: Stories: Circus Maximus-Rome's Astrodome

The races were on, a type of spectacle which has never had the slightest attraction for me. I can find nothing new or different in them: once seen is enough, so it surprises me all the more that so many thousands of adult men should have such a childish passion for watching galloping horses and drivers standing in chariots, over and over again.... ...

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