A marble inscription was recently excavated at Hadrian’s Villa bearing the text FVLGVR SVBMANIVM (‘lightning of Summano’). It is believed to mark the site of a nocturnal lightning strike and subsequent ritual reverence of the area. Random notes Summano (Summanus?) was an Italic divinity probably analogous to Jupiter who presided over, inter alia, nocturnal lightning…

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IN THE NEWS … A sacred well – The Past Archaeologists discover lost Roman settlement with evidence of mysterious fire The City That Invented Coins May Have Borrowed Its Fortress-Building Secrets from Assyria | Arkeonews A stone inscription reveals the secrets of a 2,000-year-old Roman temple in Bulgaria 8,000-Year-Old “Guardians of Grain” Discovered in a…

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Mercatus — stocking the cupboards after the ludi Romani 490 B.C. — battle of Marathon (yet another reckoning) 490 B.C. — the Athenian polemarch Callimachus dies during the Marathon campaign (contingent on the above, obviously) 19 B.C. — death of Publius Vergilius Maro (more likely than yesterday) 37 A.D. — the emperor Gaius (Caligula) is…

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IN THE NEWS … Scientists may have solved a 2,000-year-old Dead Sea Scrolls mystery | ScienceDaily Archaeologists Decode Rules of an Ancient Roman Board Game – The New York Times Ancient rock-cut tombs found beneath Roman camp in Egypt 2,000-Year-Old Roman Kitchen in Spain Reveals a Turmogi Grandmother’s Touch | Arkeonews Colourful Mosaics Unearthed Where…

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rites in honour of Latona at the Theatre of Marcellus Mercatus — those cupboards must have been really empty! 484 B.C. — Birth of Euripides (?) 480 B.C. — Athenian naval forces under Themistocles defeat Xerxes’ Persian force in the narrows of Salamis (one reckoning) 63 B.C. — birth of Octavius, the future emperor Augustus…

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