Baths of Caracalla A good example of a Roman bath Roman emperors often built huge public bath buildings for the people of Rome to enjoy. The largest one, and one that also happens to [...]
The big cold swimming pool at the Baths of Caracalla in Rome. Why did Romans have public baths? Roman people usually didn't have hot baths in their houses, because it was [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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, [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
