Telling the story (with a dash of dramatic license) of the murder of L. Cornelius Lentulus, governor of Africa Proconsularis in the early first century C.E., and of how an innovative clause in his last will and testament prompted the emperor Augustus to amend Roman law, thus affecting the lives of millions of Roman citizens until the fall of the empire, and perhaps still affects some people’s lives today.

Travelogue, or memoirs of a visit to Sabinium that I was lucky enough to undertake in the first week of July 2008.

Résumé : He was beautiful, a god of light, of learning, of music and poetry, the one to whom the Muses deferred. Like his father Zeus, divine Apollo seduced many, mortals and immortals. Why then did he have so many unhappy love affairs ? The water-nymph Daphne, the kings’ daughters Marpessa and Coronis, the youths Hyacinth and Cyparissos, are all famous characters out of Apollo’s unhappy love myths. After a brief résumé of these stories, this article looks at them from a theological perspective. It asks what the Ancients thought about their gods, what theology their religion was based on, and throws a bridge across the cultural gap that separates two radically different definitions of divinity.

The Pythian Oracle of Apollo at Delphi was for centuries a rallying-point for all who claimed to be free Greeks interested in knowing what advice the god might give on matters private and public. Non-Greeks too, and Romans in particular, held the oracle in great esteem. The Sibylline Books, a collection of Apollonian oracles kept in Rome, were a sort of holy scripture more easily accessible to Romans than the Pythia. What was the extent of Rome\'s devotion to the Delphic Apollo ? This article looks at the legends and the history of Romans at Delphi.

The end of the Seleucid Empire is often dated to the year 64 B.C.E. in which the great Roman soldier Pompey decided to attach the tattered remains of the Seleucid Empire to Rome’s growing list of provinciae. Another Roman General, Lucullus, had recently restored the Seleucid monarchy after chasing Mithridates VI Eupator out of Pontus and Tigranes II of Armenia out of Syria. Why the change in policy towards this dying Near Eastern kingdom ? This article looks at the way Rome understood “imperium” as not only compatible with, but also a guarantee of “freedom.”

The solution to the quiz from the convivium Saturnalicium taking place at the Fauces, Bank of the Furii.