The Roman Empire depended on slaves. It simply couldn’t function without them. As many as 33% of the population across the Empire were slaves. Inequality was an accepted part of life and freedom was not a right. Romans believed the freedom of some was possible only because of the slavery of others. The fact that slaves most often came from …
Rage of the Dog Star
Malaria is one of the world’s oldest and deadliest diseases. In 2017, 219 million cases of malaria claimed 435,000 lives. Malaria was no less brutal in the Roman Empire, where it was known as Roman Fever. Millions died in the first five or so centuries AD, and children, pregnant women, and the elderly were especially susceptible. In 2016, a British …
So Falls the World
One of the most iconic symbols of Rome is the Colosseum–a huge amphitheater in the center of Rome that could hold 50- 80,000 spectators who came to watch sporting events and games, including gladiatorial battles, mock sea battles, animal hunts, dramas, re-enactments of famous battles, and executions. Seats were arranged in tiers that reflected the status levels of Roman society. …
Please Wait, Wait a Minute, Mister Postman
The Apostle Paul wrote almost half the New Testament—all in the form of letters. (Although volume-wise, his beloved physician Luke wrote more.) We might imagine a thoughtful Paul sitting in a chair at a table in a darkened room. A single candle illuminates his workspace, a quill is posed over a piece of parchment. But that’s not exactly the way …
All Roads Really Did Lead to Rome
One of the reasons Christianity spread so quickly in the first centuries after Jesus’s death and resurrection was the sophisticated and extensive Roman road system. Copies of the gospels as well as Paul’s letters—later to become Holy Scripture—were carried throughout the Empire on these roads. They were built to serve the military. As the famed Roman legions conquered new regions, …
Ancient Words, Ancient Bibles
What image comes to mind when I say “book”? If you’re like most people, you think of separate pages bound together, with a cover. Known as the “codex,” this has been the most common form of a book for the past two millennia. The codex is a book constructed of a number of sheets of paper, vellum, papyrus, or similar …
Superfrauds
I don’t like blueberry muffins. Which is too bad, because they’re everywhere. Get a muffin basket? About half of then will be blueberry. Continental breakfast? They will be there, shoving their way to the front of the line.I don’t like blueberries to begin with. The texture is weird, and I don’t think they have a whole lot of flavor. Not …
Deep Calling Deep Releases Saturday!
Book 3 in The Psalm Series is almost here! Deep Calling Deep will be available September 1 in paperback and ebook, on all major retailer sites, for only 99¢ for the first week, September 1-7. To celebrate, both Prize of War and The Walls of Arad will be 99¢ each from September 1 through September 5. The audiobook version will be …
Meet Sextus
The hero of Deep Calling Deep is Sextus Afranius Burrus. Sextus was a real person, born around born AD 1 in Vasio, Gallia Narbonensis (now southern France). By all accounts, Sextus was an honorable man. In 51 AD, Nero’s mother Agrippina, then married to Claudius, chose him to be the sole Praetorian Prefect, going against the tradition of having two people fill the most important …
Two Are Better than One
Many try to make something of the fact that when Paul refers to the couple he usually places her name first—unusual for the time. We’d be better off noting that they are never mentioned separately.
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