Roman Empire

Priscus and Verus were two gladiatorial rivals so evenly matched, that their fight lasted for hours. Eventually, both of them conceded their defeat to each other. Seeing their amazing skill and spirit, the roman emperor Titus awarded them with the rudis, and these slave fighters walked out of the arena as free men.

(Illustrative image)
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The story that Caligula made his favourite horse, Incitatus, a consul.

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The ancient evidence mentions a plan for making Incitatus consul. The office of consul was the highest magistracy in the Roman Republic. Under the empire, the position still existed, though it was primarily an honorific office, which emperors used to reward loyal senators. On the subject of Caligula’s horse, the ancient sources are unambiguous in their testimony: he was not made a consul.

The Roman biographer Suetonius (c. AD 69 – after AD 122) report that the emperor lavished gifts upon Incitatus, equipping him with a marble stall, ivory manger, purple blankets, luxurious furniture, and his own slaves.

The story therefore probably owes its origin to an off-hand remark made by Caligula that he would make Incitatus a consul (though he never followed through with it).
 
"This discovery of the skull impaled with a large spike dates back to the Roman era, around the 1st or 2nd century AD. The skull was found in a cemetery near the ancient Roman city of Bonn, which was known as "Bonna" in Roman times. The cemetery was discovered during excavations carried out in the 1980s and 1990s, and it contained the remains of over 250 individuals".

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"The discovery of the skull impaled with a spike was initially thought to be an execution, as it was a common practice during the Roman era to execute criminals in this way. However, further investigation revealed that the individual was not a criminal but rather a soldier, maybe by a treason, murder or desertion".
 
i read today...

"...During the First Punic War, on the eve of the naval battle of Drepanum, 249 BC. C., the Romans consulted the auspices to know the future. They resorted to the "ex tripudiis", a fairly simple auspice that generally predicted fortune for Rome.

In the "ex tripudiis" the appetite of a group of hens determined future success or failure. In fact, after converting the feed into the soil, the chickens were released. Fortune was favorable if these were fed. On the contrary, when they refused to eat, the auspices were unfavorable. You could easily avoid feeding the chickens for a few days so that once the "ex tripudiis" arrived, their appetite would be voracious and favor the auspices.

This was not the case prior to the battle of Drepanum. As seen in the illustration (down), the chickens had no appetite. In the center is the consul Publius Claudius Pulcro (283/246 AC), who, exasperated by the behavior of the chickens, made the decision to throw the chickens into the sea. According to Pulcro, since they refused to eat, perhaps they would prefer to drink.

The outcome of the battle was a catastrophe for the Roman fleet. Of Pulcro's approximately 120 ships, 93 were captured by the Carthaginians, in addition to having suffered 20,000 casualties..."

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Roman tombstone with the image of the head of a small child.
On the stone there is an inscription: “Here lies Tiberius Natronius Venustus. “I have lived 4 years, 4 months and 10 days.”

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It was discovered in the Via Triumphalis Necropolis, in Vatican City. There are more than two hundred tombs, both poor and rich people. It was excavated between 2009 and 2011.

In ancient times the infant mortality rate was high; it has been calculated that in Roman times there were approximately three hundred deaths for every thousand births during the first year of life. Likewise, current estimates establish that a third of newborns died before turning one year old, and half before turning five, like little Venusto in this case.
 
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