The Nemi Ships (wiki) - so named because they were discovered in Lake Nemi, south of Rome: The ships were destroyed during WWII, when the purpose-built museum in which they were held caught fire.
"Why were the ships unique? The ships were monumental and full of amazing technology. They were over 70 meters long and 24 wide, a system of supplying hot and cold water (pipes with the name of the emperor), bathrooms and baths. Everything in marbles, gold and ivory. Undoubtedly they served the Emperor’s private pleasures – a large living room, kitchen or bedroom indicate that the ships were treated as mobile palaces.
People queuing in 1932 to see one of the two ships of Roman Emperor Caligula, which were recovered from Lake Nemi, Italy, on Mussolini's orders.
They contained Archimedes’ screws (the oldest known to us), an extremely rare anchor of admiralty at that time; piston pumps (discovered again only in the Middle Ages). Both had a system of moving sculptures (modelled on the theatre) with a ball bearing system."
The ships were destroyed by fire during World War II on the night of 31 May 1944. Several shells of the United States Army hit near the museum around 8 pm, causing little damage but forcing the German artillery to leave the area. There are conflicting views on whether the bomb started the fire or the Germans set as they left.
ICYMI, Monday's links are here, and include the practice of execution by cannon, ancient Rome's urine tax, more human feet washing up in British Columbia, and pigeons with cameras.
...he went away, and passing through what was called the house of Tiberius, went down into the forum, to where a gilded column stood, at which all the roads that intersect Italy terminate.
To illustrate, designers Benedikt Groß and Philipp Schmitt worked with digital geographer Raphael Reimann to select 486,713 starting points on a 26,503,452 km² grid of Europe. The image above is from their interactive map Roads to Rome - zoom in for detail.
If you're keeping a scorecard on the human feet being washed up in British Columbia, it's time for an update (spoiler - this is number 14).
ICYMI, Friday's links are here and are all Mother's Day related: good and bad animal and human moms, top sci-fi moms, how grandmothers gave humans longer lifespans, and gifts for your wino mom or wife. Not included but related: The Ultimate Guide to Bizarre Lies Your Mom Told You.
(It is not the custom of the Roman people to negotiate with an armed enemy.)
* N. B. Commentaerii de bello Gallico (English: Commentaries on the Gallic War) is Julius Caesar's firsthand account of the Gallic Wars, written as a third-person narrative.
Que volumnus et credimus libenter, et quae sentimus ipsi, reliquos sentire speramus.
~ Caesar (Commentaerii de bello civili, II, 27)
(What we desire we readily believe, and what we ourselves think we expect others to think.)
Satis diu vel naturae vixi, gloriae.
~ Caesar (reported in Cicero, Pro Marcello, VIII, as having been said by Caesar two years before his death.)
(I have lived long enough both in years and in accomplishments.)
This bridge over the River Fiumicino is believed by some to have been the crossing used by Caesar
A man of great common sense and good taste, meaning thereby a man without originality or moral courage.
~ George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) (of Caesar, in Notes to Caesar and Cleopatra)
Today is the anniversary of the day in 49 B.C. when Julius Caesar (wiki) - noting, Iacta alea esto ("The die is cast") - crossed the Rubicon River (wiki) with his legions to march on Rome in defiance of both the Senate and Roman law, which forbade any general from crossing the Rubicon and entering Italy proper with a standing army. To do so was treason. This tiny stream would reveal Caesar's intentions and mark the point of no return.
Born around 100 B.C. into one of the oldest patrician families of the republic, Caesar began his political career as a member of the popular party in 78 B.C., at first supported Pompey in his grasp for power, and served as governor of Spain.
In 63, as Pontifex Maximus (essentially the high priest of the Roman government), he was responsible for the institution of the Julian calendar and in 60 organized the coalition known as the First Triumvirate, with Pompey and Crassus, to rule the city. He fully established his military reputation in the Gallic Wars from 58 to 49 B.C., but with the demise of the triumvirate, civil war loomed, and Caesar "crossed the Rubicon" to join the struggle for power.
Coming up with his troops on the banks of the Rubicon, which was the frontier of his province, he halted for a while, and revolving in his mind the importance of the step he meditated, he turned to those about him, saying: 'Still we can retreat! But once let us pass this little bridge, - and nothing is left but to fight it out with arms!'
Even as he hesitated this incident occurred. A man of strikingly noble mien and graceful aspect appeared close at hand, and played upon a pipe. To hear him not merely some shepherds, but soldiers too came flocking from their posts, and amongst them some trumpeters. He snatched a trumpet from one of them and ran to the river with it; then sounding the "Advance!" with a piercing blast he crossed to the other side. At this Caesar cried out, 'Let us go where the omens of the Gods and the crimes of our enemies summon us! THE DIE IS NOW CAST!'
He quickly prevailed, pursuing Pompey to Egypt and establishing Cleopatra as a local satrap there. Upon his return to Rome, he used his influence over the people to become a populist autocrat and was appointed "dictator for life" in 44 B.C. However, his dictatorial powers aroused enormous resentment within the Senate, and he was assassinated there on the Ides of March of 44 by a conspiracy led by Cassius and Marcus Junius Brutus.
In addition to his skills as a statesman and general, Caesar was a brilliant writer and orator, leaving us such classics as his "Commentaries on the Gallic Wars(wiki).
Where is the Rubicon? Due to frequent flooding of the plains around the Rubicon, the river frequently changed its course and it became unclear which of three waterways it was.
ICYMI, Wednesday's links are here, and include recreating Stonehenge with old refrigerators, the number of iPhones necessary to stop an AK-47 round, all you never wanted to know about the poop-filled mites on your face, and the death of the inventor of pick plastic flamingos, who dressed in matching outfits with his wife for 37 years.
