The Roman Empire

The Circus Maximus in Rome, after its rebuilding by Julius Caesar, could accommodate 150,000 people. It was enlarged again in the days of the early empire to admit an additional 100,000. [ Buildings and Monuments | The Roman Empire ] (source)

Vergil's quest for perfection nearly cost posterity his twelve-book Latin classic, the Aeneid, a national epic and a literary masterpiece. Generally accepted as the greatest of the Roman poets, Vergil left the instruction that when he died the manuscript should be burned because he had not had time to polish it. The Roman emperor Augustus - at whose request Vergil may have initiated work in the Aeneid - stepped in and countermanded Vergil's request. He had others apply what little polish was needed, and ordered the work published. [ Literature | Roman Empire ]

Though only a child, Gaius Caesar, son of the famous Roman general Germanicus (15 B.C.-19 A.D.) and his wife, Agrippina, travelled with his parents among the legions of Rome, and was wildly popular. The soldiers nicknamed him Caligula, or "Little Boots," and the sobriquet stuck with him right through the last unbalanced years of his sordid life. Caligula (12-41 A.D.) became Emperor of Rome (37-41 A.D.) and earned a reputation for ruthless cruelty, torture, and execution. He became so hated that he was assassinated by one of his own guards.

According to Roman historian Suetonius, it was rumoured that one consul and coregent of Rome was a horse - Emperor Caligula's favourite, Incitatus, who was accorded honour at every turn. Caligula's successor, Claudius, did not invite Incitatus in to dine, as had Caligula, but the horse was still decently treated, in his ivory manger, with a golden drinking goblet for partaking of wine. [ The Roman Empire | Animals ] (source)

The first volume of recipes was published in 62 A.D. by the Roman Apicius. Titled De Re Coquinaria, it described the feasts enjoyed by the Emperor Claudius. [ Food | Books and Literature | The Roman Empire ]

Roman Emperor Nero's last words were "Qualis artifex pereo"—roughly, "What an artist dies in me". [ Lasts | The Roman Empire ] (source)

During the hundred days of the opening games at the Colosseum in Rome, in 80 A.D., over 5,000 animals were killed, including elephants, tigers, lions, elks, hyenas, hippopotamuses, and giraffes. [ The Roman Empire | Sports and Games | Animals ] (source)

Modern archaeologists have not yet agreed on how large a crowd the Colosseum in Rome could hold in its glory days. One authority estimates 50,000, but around 45,000 is the generally accepted figure. [ Buildings and Monuments | The Roman Empire ] (source)

At the zenith of the Roman empire (2^nd century A.D.), the land area of the Roman Empire was roughly the size of the U.S. today. The population was at least 70 million and may have been in excess of 100 million. The city of Rome itself was home to more than 1 million inhabitants. The empire was knit together by 18,000 miles of roads.

When the Romans built Hadrian's wall, they built a moat, not only around the outside of the wall, but also around the inside, at a cost of a million days' labour. The exact purpose of the inside moat has never been determined. Only a few years after building it, the Romans decided to fill it in. [ The Roman Empire | Ancient Britain and Ireland ]

Commodus (161-192), emperor of Rome (180-192), fought and won 1,031 battles in the gladiatorial arena. [ The Roman Empire | Monarchs ]

One of the worst Roman emperors was Heliogabulus. He was proclaimed a god at the age of 14, and became the high priest at the pantheon of Baal, the Syrian sun-god. In 219, largely due to the scheming of his mother, Heliogabulus became emperor of Rome. He was a practical joker, a spendthrift and a gourmand. He never gave a banquet that cost less than 100,000 sesterces (about $10,000), and often he would pay up to 3,000,000 sesterces. Furthermore, he retired the ancient gods of Rome and replaced them with the Syrian customs familiar to him. The residents of Rome were offended by many of the eastern rites, which they felt to be obscene. Heliogabulus was assassinated in 222.

One of the causes of the decline of the Roman Empire may have been their use of slave labour. While the ancient Greeks had many impressive scientific and mathematical achievements, they never succeeded in applying any of their discoveries to any practical use, partly because slave labour was cheaper and easily available. By the end of the second century A.D., the ancient world's lack of industrial technology and labour-saving machines started to make it impossible for the Roman Empire to maintain both its military and a healthy civilian population. [ Roman Empire | Slavery ]

Around the end of the fourth century, about 20 great families in six large clans owned most of the land in Gaul (modern-day France) and Italy. (source)

When the Roman Empire "fell" in the fifth century, it was only the Western half that actually fell. The Eastern half, which would later become known as the Byzantine Empire, survived the fifth century intact, and would last for almost a millennium more, until Constantinople was captured by the Turks in 1453. (source)

The Italian city of Ravenna was once an important port on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. In 402 A.D., Honorius made it the capital of the Western Roman Empire. At the time it was strategically located, being surrounded by marshes and thus almost inaccessible by land, while it had a major port, Classis. Nowadays, Ravenna is five miles from the sea, and no longer a port. Sand and silt brought down from the plains of Lombardy by the River Po and washed up by sea currents slowly formed a huge sand bar, burying the harbour and forming new land beyond it.

Roman Emperor Theodosius II built a triple wall from the Golden Horn to the Sea of Marmara, blocking the landward side of Constantinople by a very strong barrier. The walls took over 30 years to construct, from 413-47 A.D. On the far side of the wall was a moat, sixty feet wide and twenty-two feet deep, which the enemy would have to cross in order simply to reach the first wall. Behind the low first wall, crouching archers could securely pick off attackers. If the moat was passed and the first wall breached, there were two additional walls: the middle wall was twenty-seven feet tall, and the third wall was seventy feet tall; from the third, the defenders could shoot their arrows and catapult their stones. The ruins are still impressive over 1,500 years later. [ Byzantine Empire | Roman Empire ] (source)

The word "mile" comes from the Roman milia, "thousands". The Romans measured distances in paces, which were about five feet. So, milia passum, 1,000 paces or about 5,000 feet, was the length of a mile. [ The Roman Empire | English Words | Numbers and Measurement ] (source)

The Romans used poisonous lead as a sweetening agent.

Cyprus was one of the world's important mining centres in ancient times, but for reasons still unknown the Romans halted operations there and sealed the tunnels. Many of the tunnels were found and reopened in the 20^th century, thanks to clever detective work by an American mining engineer, D. A. Gunther. In the New York Public Library, he had happened to find an ancient account of the mines. Years of ingenious search in Cyprus led him to the tunnels, which he found complete with usable support timbers and oil lamps. Cyprus became an important mining centre again. (source)

The Byzantines never called themselves "Byzantines". This term was first used during the Renaissance, and was derived from Byzantium, the former name of the city of Constantinople (now Istanbul). They called themselves Romans, while Western Europeans called them Greeks.

The Roman Empire and Persia both agreed to sign "The Endless Peace" treaty in 533. Seven years later, they were back at war with each other. (source)

In the year 534, Dionysius Exiguus (also known as Dennis the Little), created the system, still used today, of counting the years starting with the birth of Christ. Unfortunately, he made some errors in calculation, so the birth of Jesus probably took place around 6 B.C. (Herod the Great, who is mentioned in the stories of Jesus' birth in the bible, died in 4 B.C.) [ Byzantine Empire | Calendars ] (source)

To celebrate, in 537, the dedication of the new church Hagia Sophia (Holy Wisdom), which is recognized as the supreme product of Byzantine art and architecture, the Emperor Justinian held a banquet for which 6,000 sheep, 1,000 oxen, 1,000 pigs, 1,000 chickens, and 500 deer were slaughtered. (source)

The plague that swept through most of the civilized world in 542-3 A.D. was reported by Procopius (who, admittedly, wasn't always a reliable witness) to have killed up to 10,000 people a day in Constantinople alone at the height of its virulence. Emperor Justinian caught the disease, but recovered. [ Byzantine Empire | Medicine ] (source)

In 554, at the age of 74, the eunuch Narses destroyed the Ostrogoths and re-established Roman rule over all of Italy. When he was 90 years old, he was still governing Italy from Ravenna.

Emperor Justinian bribed two Persian monks who had lived in China to return there and smuggle back silkworm eggs in hollow bamboo canes. Thus, Constantinople was able to begin silk production around 550 A.D. From those worms were descended all the silk-producing caterpillars in Europe down to modern times. (source)

The great cathedral of Hagia Sophia at Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul), after its great dome was rebuilt in 562 after previously collapsing in 558, has sustained what was until recently the largest self-supporting dome ever constructed, and in an active seismic region at that. [ Famous Buildings | Byzantine Empire ] (source)

An authentic "lost weapon" is Greek fire, which the Byzantine Empire used on several occasions between the seventh and ninth centuries to defend Constantinople against attacking Muslims. Constantinople might have fallen but for Greek fire, and conceivably the Muslims might have taken over a weak and divided Europe. To this day, we don't know exactly what the "recipe" for Greek fire was. All we know is that it burned all the more fiercely when wet (hence it likely contained some sort of petrol compound), and that it could be floated toward the enemy's wooden ships. [ Byzantine Empire | Weapons ] (source)

In 695, Leontius, the leader of a group of rebellious Constantinopolitans, seized the emperor, Justinian II, and had Justinian's nose cut off in the belief that, being disfigured, Justinian would never again attempt to regain the throne. Three years later, in 698, Leontius was himself overthrown by troops under General Tiberius, who became Emperor Tiberius III, and who then cut off Leontius' nose. Seven years after that, Justinian II then retook the throne and publicly humiliated and executed both Leontius and Tiberius III. [ Royalty | Byzantine Empire ] (source)

In the ninth century, Vikings (known as Varangians in the East) were raiding Constantinople, at the mouth of the Black Sea. These expeditions were launched from Kiev via the Dnieper River. [ Byzantine Empire | Vikings ]

In 1014, Byzantine emperor Basil II decided to end for once and for all a war that had already lasted forty years. To break the spirit of the hated Bulgarians, he blinded all but 150 of 15,000 prisoners. The "lucky" 150 were blinded in one eye only. Every 100 blind men were guided by a one-eyed leader back to the Bulgarian capital of Ohrid, whose ruler, Samuel, had received word that his army was returning to him. Samuel hastened to meet his men - and found himself staring at thousands of helpless blind men. The sight was fatal. Samuel suffered a stroke on the spot, and died two days later. (Basil II received the title Bulgaroktonis, meaning "slayer of Bulgarians.") (source)