Roman basilicas – Architecture in ancient Rome
Basilica Aemilia, Rome What is a basilica? Sometimes the Romans had things they wanted to do in groups, but inside, out of the weather. Then they met in a basilica [...]
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08, 2017
Roman aqueducts – Pont du Gard, Segovia, and more
Aqueduct in the city of Rome - Roman aqueducts brought clean water to the people of Rome Why did the Romans build aqueducts? As Roman towns got bigger under the Roman [...]
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08, 2017
Roman amphitheaters – ancient Rome
The Colosseum - the Flavian Amphitheater - in Rome, Italy. Built in the 70s AD by the emperor Vespasian What were Roman amphitheaters for? Most people have heard of the Colosseum in [...]
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08, 2017
Maccabees – Jewish history
Alexander the Great (before the Maccabees) Alexander and the Jews Under the Persians the Jews did very well. They were able to worship their own God, and even to travel around the [...]
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08, 2017
First Jewish revolt – West Asian history
The Roman emperor Caligula: before the First Jewish Revolt The Romans conquer Israel The Roman conquest of Israel and Egypt in the last century BC brought many Jews into the Roman Empire (though many [...]
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08, 2017
Roman Christians persecute the Jews
A Jewish tombstone from the Roman Empire with Greek writing and menorahs (Vatican Museum, Rome) Jews in the Roman Empire From the end of the Second Jewish Revolt and the Diaspora, around 130 AD, [...]
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08, 2017
What is the Trinity? Christianity – Religion
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost (Perugino, about 1482 in Rome) Christian people all believed that there was one God. But many people thought God existed in three forms: God the Father, Jesus the [...]
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08, 2017
Christian saints – History of Christianity
St. Francis of Assisi, painted by Giotto in the early 1300s AD From early on, Christians believed that some holy people, when they died, not only went to heaven but [...]
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08, 2017
What is a Christian priest? History of Religion
Priest blessing people who have the plague Very soon after the crucifixion of Jesus, by around 40 or 50 AD, the early Christians began to choose leaders from among themselves. The Christians called these [...]
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08, 2017
What does it mean to be Pope? History of Christianity
Peter and Paul, in a mosaic from Ravenna (500s AD) In the later Roman Empire and the Middle Ages, the Pope was the leader of the Catholic Church. Whenever there was a question [...]
