Religious Freedom long Before John Locke's famous treatise: Lucius Caecilius Firmianus Lactantius

Recommendable!

"... More than a millennium before Locke, Lucius Caecilius Firmianus Lactantius (ca. 250 – ca. 325 AD) had already articulated a clearer and more coherent rejection of religious coercion. Writing in the early fourth century, during the final phase of Roman persecution and on the cusp of Christianity’s legalization, Lactantius was a rhetorician steeped in classical philosophy. With the support of Emperor Diocletian, he became a professor of rhetoric in Nicomedia, which also facilitated his entrance into the orbit of the imperial elite. We do not know precisely when Lactantius became a Christian, but his conversion almost certainly preceded Diocletian’s persecution of the Church. His career suffered as a result. Saint Jerome, who later praised his literary abilities, attests that Lactantius lived in poverty for years. However, his fortunes reversed when he came to the attention of Constantine, who appointed Lactantius as tutor to his son Crispus. He likely enjoyed imperial favor until the end of his life.

Lactantius draws a sharp contrast between two fundamentally different modes of engagement. Violence belongs to the realm of brute compulsion, whereas religion belongs to the realm of reasoned assent.

Lactantius’s major work, Divine Institutes, is a bold defense of Christian truth addressed to the Roman elite. He likely began writing it after losing his teaching post in Nicomedia. Although it does not reveal deep knowledge of Holy Scripture or particularly original theology, Divine Institutes was regarded by later Christian writers as a masterwork of Latin style. More importantly, it reveals a broad familiarity with Christian apologetics up to the point of Lactantius in history. What matters for us specifically is his argument for religious freedom.

Lactantius is widely regarded as having developed the first principled argument for liberty in matters of conscience. Given his later associations with Constantine, it is likely these ideas influenced the climate of opinion leading up to the Edict of Milan (313), which established toleration for Christianity. Ultimately, Lactantius’s condemnation of coercion in Divine Institutes is both more striking and philosophically serious than Locke’s.

Lactantius argues that coercion is inherently opposed to the nature of religion and to the dignity of the human person. “Religion cannot be imposed by force; the matter must be carried on by words rather than by blows.” But he goes even further. Coercion is not merely ineffective; it is irrational and degrading. “For religion is to be defended, not by putting to death, but by dying; not by cruelty, but by patient endurance; not by guilt, but by good faith.” ..."

Religious Freedom Before Locke – Alexander William Salter

Lactantius

Fourth-century mural possibly depicting Lactantius (or possibly Apuleius)

Beginning of Lactantius' Divinae institutiones in a Renaissance manuscript written in Florence ca. 1420–1430 by Guglielmino Tanaglia

This 2,200-year-old Roman wreck hid a repair story that rewrites how ancient ships survived long voyages

Amazing stuff! The abstract of this new research paper is disappointing! It is not even an abstract, but more of a teaser.

This paper even uses what appears to be computer vision to generate images presented in this paper! See below.

"Ever since humans have embarked on sea voyages, they needed to ensure vessels were waterproof, resistant to salty seawater, and could withstand microorganisms or sea-dwellers like worms. Until the mid-20th century, however, the study of non-wood materials used to build ships was overlooked. Even today, little work has been done on materials used for waterproofing.

Now, in a new ... study, researchers ... have examined the protective coating of the Roman Republic shipwreck Ilovik–Paržine that sank around 2,200 years ago off the coast of what is now Croatia. ...

"Studying the coatings, we found two different kinds on this vessel: one made of pine tar, also called pitch, and the other of a mixture of pine tar and beeswax. Analysis of pollen in the coating made it possible to identify the plant taxa present in the immediate environment during the construction or repairs of the ship." ...

The wreck was discovered in 2016 and since then the ship itself and its cargo has been examined multiple times. The current study, however, is the first to combine pollen and molecular analyses to characterize the ship's coating and vegetation present during its production and application on the hull. ..."

From the abstract:

"Introduction: The construction of a vessel (from a boat to a large ship) and its maintenance requires waterproofing of its hull and protection against water corrosion and the aggression of microorganisms, worms and other pests. What could be more logical than using an easily accessible and applicable hydrophobic adhesive material?

Many substances have been used over time such as resins, bitumen, plant tars, pure or mixed with beeswax, fats, inorganic elements. Pliny the Elder already mentions zopissa, a mixture of pitch and beeswax (Natural History XVI, 23).

The strong expansion of shipbuilding between the 13th and 19th centuries generated a veritable industry of plant tars.

Methods: In this research work, a new interdisciplinary approach involving the combined use of molecular, palynological and statistical indicators has been implemented to characterize ancient waterproofing materials. This analytical strategy opens new fields of investigation in naval archaeology.

Results and discussion: Beyond the characterization of materials (nature, manufacturing processes, naval techniques, degree of alteration), it especially reveals information about the surrounding vegetation during the production or the application of the waterproofing material. This approach has been applied to the study of the protective coating of the Roman Republican wreck Ilovik–Paržine 1 (around the middle of the second c. BC) found in Paržine Bay (Ilovik Island, Croatia)."

This 2,200-year-old Roman wreck hid a repair story that rewrites how ancient ships survived long voyages

Adhesive coatings in naval archaeology: molecular and palynological investigations on materials from the Roman Republican wreck Ilovik–Paržine 1 (Croatia) (open access)

Fig. 1 View of the excavation of the bow area of the Ilovik-Paržine 1 shipwreck. In the foreground, the cargo of logs and amphoras can be seen. Archaeologists are working near the structure of the bow complex 

Lost mosaic reveals first image of female beast-fighter from the Roman era

Amazing stuff!

"... presents evidence that a 3rd-century Roman mosaic from Reims, which depicts a topless figure with prominent breasts battling a leopard, is actually a visual representation of a Roman female beast-fighter, or venatrix. This contradicts previous research, which read her role as that of an agitator, a clown-like arena staff member whose job was to whip the animals to make them attack during a hunt. ..."

From the abstract:

"Women fighting beasts in arena games are attested by the written sources, but no visual source is known to show their image. It is proposed that a figure in a mosaic found in Reims in 1860 but destroyed in World War I, and largely forgotten since then, depicts one of those women.

Evidence is presented proving that (1) she is a woman – whereas previous researchers only suggested that she might be a woman; and (2) she is a beast-fighter – a huntress, a venatrix – whereas previous researchers have wrongly identified her as an agitator, an inexistent arena role, or a paegniarius, a kind of clown with a whip.

The identification of the sole known visual source depicting a Roman female beasts-huntress alone is very important, but, additionally, since the mosaic dates to the third century, it adds a whole century to the history of those female arena huntresses, since venatrices are supposed to have disappeared soon after AD 100, and to the history of women in the Roman arena, since female gladiators disappeared in AD 200. Thus, she is a female arena fighter (and performer) recorded at a later date."

Lost mosaic reveals first image of female beast-fighter from the Roman era

New Evidence of Women Fighting Beasts in the Roman Arena: The Woman in the Mosaic from Reims (open access, a very long article covering all sorts of aspects)

Figure 1. Mosaic from Reims, third century. Found in Reims in 1860, destroyed in 1917 during WWI. Lost. Drawing from Loriquet 1862: planche XVIII.

Figure 2. The woman. (a) Drawing from Loriquet 1862: planche IX, n° 11. (b) Detail of the breasts.

The Sack of Rome in 410 Explained

Recommendable!

(143) The Sack of Rome in 410 Explained | BBC Timestamp - YouTube

Scientists used AI to decode the rules of a mysterious Roman-era board game

Amazing stuff! Maybe this game will become a next Christmas gift sensation! 😊 When in Rome, do as the Romans do!

"Scientists used artificial intelligence to decode the rules of a mysterious Roman-era board game found on a limestone disc in the Netherlands, revealing a strategy game where players hunt and trap opponents’ pieces."

"... To get a clearer view of how the stone was used, Luk van Goor of restoration studio Restaura in Heerlen produced extremely detailed 3D scans. “Those scans reveal a lot of details of the lines, and they show that some of these lines are a fraction of a millimetre deeper than others. Those deeper lines were used more intensively. We also see that the stone’s edges are neatly finished, which indicates a final product rather than a piece awaiting further workmanship.” ..."

Friday, February 13, 2026 - Join The Flyover

Rules of mysterious ancient board game decoded by AI, scientists say

Thanks to AI, we can play a Roman game again

The Roman game stone photographed on a table

How Rome Built an Impenetrable Army

Very recommendable!

Romans used hot mixing for self-healing concrete unravelled in Pompeii

Amazing stuff! Pompeii keeps on giving!

"Construction material uncovered by archaeologists in Pompeii has revealed that the Romans used ‘hot mixing’ to make concrete, new chemical analyses suggest.1 The building materials and tools were discovered abandoned in rooms that were under construction when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79AD, destroying the city. ...

now reporting that concrete production at Pompei involved transporting quicklime and volcanic ash separately to a construction site, mixing the two dry powders and then adding water last to trigger an exothermic reaction that heated the mortar. ...

The MIT group previously [in 2023] analysed clumps of lime in ancient Roman mortars and proposed that they were the result of such hot mixing, which created hot spots in the forming concrete that could exceed 200°C. The researchers concluded that these clumps wouldn’t form if slaked lime was used and that this pointed to hot mixing as the method used to make these mortars. They came to this conclusion after chemically mapping the lime clasts and surrounding matrix and observing the microstructure of Roman mortars. ..."

From the abstract:

"Recent excavations at Pompeii’s Regio IX have uncovered an intact ancient construction site, offering insights into Roman building techniques at the time of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE.

Microstructural and chemical analysis of materials collected from previously constructed walls, walls under construction, and adjacent dry, raw material piles show unequivocally how quicklime was pre-mixed with dry pozzolan before adding water in the creation of Roman concrete.

This construction method, also known as hot mixing, results in an exothermic reaction within the mortar and the formation of lime clasts, key contributors to the self-healing and post-pozzolanic reactivity of hydraulic mortars. The analysis of reaction rims around volcanic aggregates demonstrate aggregate/matrix interfacial remodeling, where calcium ions originating from the dissolution of lime clasts diffuse and remineralize, producing amorphous phases and various polymorphs of calcium carbonate (including calcite and aragonite).

Furthermore, the parallel discovery of masonry materials and tools permits elucidation of the entire construction workflow, including the steps required to process binding mortars and larger aggregates (caementa).

These findings advance our understanding of ancient Roman construction and long-term material evolution, providing a scientific basis for developing more durable and sustainable concretes and restoration materials inspired by ancient practices."

Romans’ hot recipe for self-healing concrete unravelled in Pompeii | Research | Chemistry World

An unfinished Pompeian construction site reveals ancient Roman building technology (open access)

Fig. 1: Pompeii Archeological Park site map, with Regio IX denoted in light blue (upper, middle) and Domus IX 10, 1 shown in additional detail, with color-coded piles of raw construction materials (right): purple: debris; green: piles of dry pre-mixed materials; blue: piles of tuff blocks.

Fig. 7: Schematic summary of the ancient production of Roman concrete.

Each step in the schematic captures a specific part of the preparation and building process, highlighting both the materials and the tools used.

A Preparing the dry mortar mix: This process begins with a dry, pre-mixed pile of pozzolan and quicklime.

B Adding cocciopesto: To enhance the mortar’s water resistance and durability, Romans often added cocciopesto, a mix containing ground terracotta or pottery fragments.

C Hydrating the mortar: The dry mortar mixture is then hydrated, where workers would carefully add water to initiate a chemical reaction with the quicklime.

D Slaking lime: slaking, or hydration of quicklime to produce slaked lime before being added to the mortar mix, often took place in smaller vessels. This step was not included in the preparation of Roman concrete and was generally used in the preparation of finishing and repairing mortars and fresco decorations.

E Transporting mortar in broken amphorae: Broken amphorae, or pottery vessels, served as practical containers for moving mortar. These vessels were readily available on Roman construction sites and were a sustainable choice, repurposing broken pottery that would otherwise be discarded.

F Applying the mortar with a trowel: The mortar was then moved to the wall and applied with a trowel, carefully layering it between caementa and stones or bricks.

G Ensuring geometric and structural integrity with a plumb line: As construction progressed, workers used a plumb line to verify vertical alignment. This simple yet effective tool helped maintain precision during the construction process, which was essential for stability, especially in tall or expansive structures.

H Shaping aggregate with an ax: To create aggregate, an essential component of Roman concrete, workers used axs to break larger stones into smaller pieces.

The Roman Engineering Feat that Changed Everything - harbour system at Portus and Ostia

Very recommendable! Amazing stuff!

Roman soldiers helped spread domestic cats across Europe 2,000 years ago

Exciting news for cat lovers! The research abstract itself does not seem to mention Romans, but the study text does.

"Roman soldiers helped spread domestic cats across Europe 2,000 years ago, using them for rodent control along military routes, with cats reaching Britain by 100 CE, according to genome analysis of 70 ancient cats. ..."

From the editor's summary and abstract:

"Editor’s summary

Tracing the origins of domestic cats (Felis catus) has been limited by a lack of ancient DNA for these animals, as well by their morphological similarity to the African wildcat (F. lybica lybica) and European wildcat (F. sylvestris).

De Martino et al. generated low- to medium-coverage genomes for 87 ancient, museum, and modern cats (see the Perspective by Losos). They found that domestic cats are most genetically similar to African wildcats, although there has been widespread gene flow between wild and domestic populations. European samples that cluster with domestic cats only appear in the 1st century CE, suggesting a later dispersal of domestic cats than previously thought. Although broader sampling is needed, this study shows the complexity of population dynamics that is often revealed when looking beyond mitochondrial DNA. ...

Structured Abstract

INTRODUCTION

The domestic cat (Felis catus) originated from the African wildcat (Felis lybica lybica), which is presently distributed across North Africa and the Near East. It has since rapidly expanded to achieve a global distribution. Archaeozoological and iconographic evidence points to two possible centers of domestication: Neolithic Levant ~9500 years ago and Pharaonic Egypt ~3500 years ago.

Ancient mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) data support a dual-origin model for cat dispersal, indicating an initial spread from Anatolia to Europe by Neolithic farmers ~6400 years ago, followed by a second wave from Egypt ~2000 years ago.

RATIONALE

The timing and circumstances of cat domestication and dispersal remain uncertain owing to the limited number of ancient and modern genomes analyzed thus far. Questions remain about the natural distribution ranges of African and European (Felis silvestris) wildcats in the past and their potential admixture. A recent study showed that ancient gene flow might confound the reconstruction of cat dispersal, particularly when based on mtDNA. The origin of African wildcat populations in the Mediterranean islands of Sardinia and Corsica is also elusive. Present evidence suggests that they are not feral domestic cats but instead represent a separate wildcat lineage. To address these questions, we analyzed the genomes of 70 ancient cats from archaeological sites across Europe and Anatolia and 17 modern wildcats from Italy (including Sardinia), Bulgaria, and North Africa (Morocco and Tunisia).

RESULTS

We generated a genomic time transect spanning the past 11,000 years and found that cats previously identified as carrying a F. l. lybica mtDNA clade from Neolithic and Chalcolithic southeast Europe and Anatolia, dated between 9500 and 6300 years ago, were F. silvestris wildcats whose ancestors hybridized with F. l. lybica. Ancient genomes revealed an increasing trend of African wildcat ancestry ranging from 9 to 34% eastward, from Bulgaria to central Anatolia.

The earliest cat belonging to the genetic cluster of as F. l. lybica and F. catus in Europe originates from the site of Genoni, in Sardinia (Italy), and is dated to ~2200 years ago. This cat is genetically similar to present-day wildcats in Sardinia, and they all appear to be closely related to a F. l. lybica wildcat from Morocco.

All other archaeological cats from Europe and Anatolia included in the cluster of F. l. lybica and F. catus are dated from ~2000 years ago onward. They possessed the typical gene pool of modern domestic cats and shared more affinities with modern African wildcats than with their Levantine relatives. Their rapid dispersal across the Mediterranean in the past 2000 years marked a demographic expansion recorded in their maternal ancestries.

CONCLUSION

Our findings challenge the commonly held view of a Neolithic introduction of domestic cats to Europe, instead placing their arrival several millennia later. We redefine the timing of cat dispersal by identifying at least two waves of introduction to Europe. The first dispersal most likely featured wildcats from Northwest Africa that were introduced to Sardinia and founded the island’s present-day wild population. A distinct and yet-unknown population in North Africa sourced a second dispersal not later than 2000 years ago that established the gene pool of modern domestic cats in Europe."

"... Phoenicians and later the Punic people established and maintained colonies in Northwest Africa, Sardinia and the southeastern Iberian Peninsula from the 9th c. BCE until their defeat by the Romans in the Third Punic War in 146 BCE (38, 39). Because Sardinia had been under Roman supremacy since 238 BCE (40), the translocation of F. l. lybica to Sardinia could have been carried out by either the Phoenicians and Punic people or by the Romans before the Imperial period starting 27 BCE (41).

Subsequently, since the Roman Imperial era, cats more genetically similar to present-day domestic cats were spread across Europe from a distinct North African population. The earliest sample carrying the ancestry found in present-day domestic cats was dated to 50 cal. BCE-80 cal. CE, from the site of Mautern, in Austria. Cats with this ancestry were then identified in Italy (n=4) and in Roman Imperial military sites along the Danube Limes in Austria and Serbia (n=6) (42–45), confirming previous claims that the Roman army and its entourage played a role in spreading domestic cats to central and eastern Europe (1, 46). This dispersal reached northern Europe relatively early in the Roman Imperial era, as testified by the genome of a cat from the site of Fishbourne, Britain, dated to 24-123 cal. CE (15). The ancestry typical of present-day domestic cats is then found continuously in all cats from Europe and Anatolia from the Byzantine era (n=7), the Medieval (n=23) and post-Medieval periods (n=2) until present-day (Fig. 1D). ..."

Tuesday, December 2, 2025 - Join The Flyover

Roman military helped bring cats to Europe "Military roads helped the felines domesticate about 2,000 years ago."

The dispersal of domestic cats from North Africa to Europe around 2000 years ago (no public access)

The dispersal of domestic cats from Northern Africa and their introduction to Europe over the last two millennia (preprint, open access)

The introduction of domestic cats to Europe.

The genomes of ancient cats from archaeological sites across Europe and Anatolia (dark circles in the map) revealed that domestic cats were introduced to Europe from North Africa starting at ~2 thousand years ago (kya), several millennia after the onset of the Neolithic in Europe. African wildcats in Sardinia originate from a distinct wildcat population in Northwest Africa.

A cat sits on ruins of the ancient city of Ephesus in present day Izmir, Turkey.

Reimagining Rome’s water system

Very recommendable! The Terme di Caracalla is one of the architectural wonders of the world!

Was ‘Aeneid’ critiquing or glorifying empire?

Recommendable! Those ancient heroes and Homer!

Was ‘Aeneid’ critiquing or glorifying empire? — Harvard Gazette "Authors of new translation dig into lasting impact of epic that Virgil wanted burned"

An anthropologist finds a WWII souvenir (a Roman tombstone) in her backyard in New Orleans. FBI is investigating

Amazing stuff!

"A Tulane professor digging in her New Orleans backyard unearthed a 2nd-century Roman tombstone that had been missing since World War II, sparking an international investigation.

The marble marker, belonging to a Roman Imperial Navy officer, vanished from a museum in Civitavecchia, Italy, after a 1943 bombing.

Experts from Tulane and the University of New Orleans confirmed its authenticity, and the artifact has been turned over to the FBI Art Crime Team for repatriation.

Italy plans to officially receive the stone back in a ceremony slated for summer 2026."

Monday, October 13, 2025 - Join The Flyover

The FBI is now working to get an ancient headstone back to its rightful owner in Italy after a team of experts started digging for clues in this international mystery

Wie überlistete der "Germane" Arminius die Römer? Die Varusschlacht!

Empfehlenswert!

Google AI tool Aeneas assists historians to interpret ancient, fragmentary texts

Good news!

"Google DeepMind has developed an AI tool called Aeneas that can help historians decode and restore ancient Roman inscriptions. Trained on data from nearly 200,000 Latin texts, Aeneas can suggest missing words, date inscriptions within 13 years, and identify the province of origin with a fair level of accuracy."

"... Often, these texts are fragmentary, weathered or deliberately defaced. Restoring, dating and placing them is nearly impossible without contextual information, especially when comparing similar inscriptions.

Today, we’re publishing a paper in Nature introducing Aeneas, the first artificial intelligence (AI) model for contextualizing ancient inscriptions.

When working with ancient inscriptions, historians traditionally rely on their expertise and specialized resources to identify “parallels” — which are texts that share similarities in wording, syntax, standardized formulas or provenance.

Aeneas greatly accelerates this complex and time-consuming work. It reasons across thousands of Latin inscriptions, retrieving textual and contextual parallels in seconds that allow historians to interpret and build upon the model’s findings. ..."

From the abstract:

"Human history is born in writing. Inscriptions are among the earliest written forms, and offer direct insights into the thought, language and history of ancient civilizations. Historians capture these insights by identifying parallels—inscriptions with shared phrasing, function or cultural setting—to enable the contextualization of texts within broader historical frameworks, and perform key tasks such as restoration and geographical or chronological attribution1. However, current digital methods are restricted to literal matches and narrow historical scopes. Here we introduce Aeneas, a generative neural network for contextualizing ancient texts. Aeneas retrieves textual and contextual parallels, leverages visual inputs, handles arbitrary-length text restoration, and advances the state of the art in key tasks. To evaluate its impact, we conduct a large study with historians using outputs from Aeneas as research starting points. The historians find the parallels retrieved by Aeneas to be useful research starting points in 90% of cases, improving their confidence in key tasks by 44%. Restoration and geographical attribution tasks yielded superior results when historians were paired with Aeneas, outperforming both humans and artificial intelligence alone. For dating, Aeneas achieved a 13-year distance from ground-truth ranges. We demonstrate Aeneas’ contribution to historical workflows through analysis of key traits in the renowned Roman inscription Res Gestae Divi Augusti, showing how integrating science and humanities can create transformative tools to assist historians and advance our understanding of the past."

Doomslayer: Weekly Progress Roundup - by Malcolm Cochran

Google AI Tool That Fills Missing Words in Roman Inscriptions

Aeneas transforms how historians connect the past "Introducing the first model for contextualizing ancient inscriptions, designed to help historians better interpret, attribute and restore fragmentary texts."

Contextualizing ancient texts with generative neural networks (open access)

Fig. 1: Restoration of a damaged inscription.

Fig. 3: Geographical attribution performance analysis (LED testing set).

The Ancient Roots of Western Self-Criticism

Recommendable! 

It is very curious why this article omitted to mention Socrates (470 – 399 BC). It was he who stated “The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.” Such humbleness and humility. It was him who refused the opportunity to escape from his death sentence by drinking the poison. He obeyed the law although he knew it was flawed!

The Ancient Roots of Western Self-Criticism "The West’s enduring success is rooted in its awareness of its own faults and constant striving to be better."

Socrates

Roman-era 'fast food' discovered in ancient urban trash heap on the Spanish island of Mallorca

This tells you what an advanced civilization well ahead of its time the Romans were! Just kidding!

One man's trash is another man's treasure! 😊

From the abstract:

"In the Roman city of Pollentia (Mallorca, Western Mediterranean), an exceptional zooarchaeological assemblage was recovered from a cesspit dated between the first century BC and the first century ad. The structure, situated in a commercial area adjacent to the forum, was connected to a food shop (taberna) via an underground drainage system used for waste disposal.

The faunal remains from the cesspit include mammals, fish, reptiles, and birds, with song thrushes (Turdus cf. philomelos) constituting the most abundant avian species. The unique depositional context and zooarchaeological indicators, such as skeletal part representation, provide valuable insights into the preparation and consumption of these small birds.

This evidence suggests that thrushes were commonly sold and consumed in Roman urban spaces, challenging the prevailing notion based on written sources that thrushes were exclusively a luxury food item for elite banquets.

The study offers new perspectives on the role of street food and everyday culinary practices in the Roman Mediterranean."

Roman-era 'fast food' discovered in ancient trash heap on Mallorca | Live Science "Songbird bones found in a Roman-era trash pit on Mallorca suggests they were a tasty tweet."

Urban Consumption of Thrushes in the Early Roman City of Pollentia, Mallorca (Spain) (open access)

Credits: The Flyover

Fig. 1 Site location, excavation plan, and stratigraphic section of cesspit E-107 in Pollentia

An Entire Roman City Is Hidden Beneath London | Walking Tour

Very recommendable!

A restored, painted shield once wielded by Roman soldiers in Syria

Amazing stuff!

"This Roman scutum, the only known surviving example of the shields used by Roman legionaries, was found in Syria at Dura-Europos, once a Roman garrison, and dates to around 256 C.E. (Soon after that date, the city was abandoned and left to be covered by sand and mud, which helped preserve the artifacts left behind.) The shield’s painted surface depicts the Roman iconography of victory: an eagle with a laurel wreath, winged Victories, and a lion."

A painted shield once wielded by Roman soldiers | Yale News

More evidence a cold spell helped doom the Roman Empire

Yes, the climate on Earth keeps on changing from warm to cold and vice versa over the centuries! Why should it now be different? Because some demagogues or charlatan scientists call it now "human-driven" or even "anthropogenic"?

After the Little Antique Ice Age (from about 536 CE to 660 CE) followed the Medieval Warm Period (from about 950 CE to 1250 CE) and the Little Ice Age (from about 1650 CE to 1850 CE) etc. We all should be happier as it is a little warmer now! 😊

"Historians have long debated the reasons why the Roman Empire—which once stretched across the Mediterranean sea and from northern Africa to the U.K.—collapsed. Recently, some have pointed to a sudden period of cooling called the Late Antique Little Ice Age. This cold spell could have hindered agricultural production, facilitated disease outbreaks, and driven people to migrate. According to a new paper, serendipitously discovered rocks on the shore of Iceland add to the evidence for this chilly period. ...

Analyses indicated that the rocks came from Greenland—most likely carried by icebergs that broke off from the island’s glaciers. The layer of soil the granite rocks were found in dates back to roughly 500 to 700 C.E., which is around the time Rome fell. For so many rocks to have moved at that time, there must have been tons of icebergs, which would occur if cold temperatures were promoting glacier growth.

If that’s the case, the change in climate may have compounded the troubles of an empire that was already in decline. “When it comes to the fall of the Roman empire, this climate shift may have been the straw that broke the camel’s back,” ..."

From the abstract: (I skipped, because the abstract is too technical and narrow focused)

ScienceAdviser

Ancient rocks boost case for mini ice age linked to fall of Rome "Unusual rocks on an Icelandic beach were dropped there by icebergs, adding to evidence that an unusually cool period preceded the collapse of the Roman Empire"

Greenlandic debris in Iceland likely tied to Bond event 1 ice rafting in the Dark Ages (no public access)

What Archeology Reveals About Fast Food in the Roman Empire

Recommendable!