History of Rome – Page 2 – General History

A Pair of Pious Popes (amended)

Pius XI / reformation.org

Pius XI was born in 1857 and was Pope from 1922 for eighteen years, during which he inadvertently caused the collapse of the Catholic Popular Party. He did not like the idea of mixing religion with politics anyway, and spoke out against such an idea. He saw the CPP as far too radical in its views, and forbade it utterly to form alliances with any other parties who wished to oppose the rise of Benito Mussolini. For this he was seen by all as a supporter of the Italian leader. (more…)

By Dean Swift| 2013-07-19T09:01:27+00:00 July 19th, 2013|Church history, History of Rome, Italian History, World History|0 Comments

The Middle Ages

Historians disagree about exact dates, but I believe it is generally accepted that the phrase ‘Middle Ages’ denotes the period in Europe from around 700 A.D. to around 1500. Before 700 were ‘The Dark Ages’ – dark in many senses but mainly because professional historians did not exist after the decline of the civilised Roman Empire in the west, and countless barbarian invasions/occupations in the 5^th and 6^th centuries after Christ. (more…)

By Dean Swift| 2019-01-15T18:35:31+00:00 June 21st, 2013|British History, Church history, English History, French History, German History, History of Rome, Italian History, The Arab races, World History|0 Comments

The Emperor Constantine (known as ‘the Great’)

The statue of Constantine before York Minster / york-united-kingdom.co.uk

Flavius Valerius Aurelius Constantinus was born around 274 AD. His was a patrician family in Rome and his father was Constantius I who died in the year 306, when our subject was thirty-two years old. He should have succeeded immediately, because the army declared him emperor, but there were, as always, complications; several other patricians rather thought they should rule, among them Licinius. Constantine showed consummate skill in staying alive, at the same time ‘removing’ the competition according to the ancient rules of the game. (more…)

By Dean Swift| 2013-04-16T10:19:47+00:00 April 16th, 2013|British History, Church history, History of Rome, History of Turkey, Jewish History, World History|0 Comments

The Roman emperor who died in Britain

Septimius Severus, died at York / heritagedaily.com

A few of you clever bloggers will deny it, but it is a fair bet that nobody knew that a Roman emperor died in Britain. Everybody knows that Hadrian, Julius Caesar and even Co-Clo-Claudius visited Britain, but Lucius Septimius Severus Pertinax, a.k.a. Septimius Severus (146 – 211 AD) breathed his last there. (more…)

By Dean Swift| 2013-03-29T12:12:17+00:00 March 29th, 2013|British History, History of Rome, World History|0 Comments

The time when there were THREE Popes

At this very moment the cardinals gathered in the Vatican are arguing about who shall be the next Pope, following Benedict XVI’s resignation on grounds of health. While the octogenarian Ratzinger rests ( and he certainly deserves to) in Castelgandolfo, dozens of seniors of the Catholic Church will shortly approach the moment when they must vote for the new Pontiff, and we will see white (or possibly) black smoke puffing from the famous chimney, installed again only two days ago. But many Catholic co-religionists do not even know that at the time of the Great Schism in the fourteenth century, there were at one time three popes! (more…)

By Dean Swift| 2013-03-11T11:09:59+00:00 March 11th, 2013|Church history, French History, History of Rome, Italian History, Today, World History|4 Comments

Frederick II (‘Stupor Mundi’)

To avoid confusion, one remembers that there were two Frederick IIs, Frederick ‘The Great’, an eighteenth century monarch, and our subject in this article, Frederick ‘Stupor Mundi’ a title given him by his courtiers, meaning ‘wonder of the world’.

He was born in 1194, son of Henry VI King of ‘Germany’ (Germany was divided into kingdoms, principalities, dukedoms, archdukedoms and palatinates) and a mother whose background was Sicilian. His grandfather was Frederick I, known as ‘Barbarossa’. (more…)

By Dean Swift| 2013-03-05T11:41:30+00:00 March 5th, 2013|German History, History of Rome, Italian History, World History|1 Comment

The Battle of Cannae

Cannae / forums.taleworlds.com

This was not just an armed, bloody struggle between fighting men. It was one of the classic victories in military history. Carthage’s general Hannibal (q.v.) faced a Roman army with larger infantry units, but Hannibal had more cavalry, well-trained and armed horsemen, kept out of sight. The armies were engaged at the village of Cannae, in southern Italy. (more…)

By Dean Swift| 2013-01-08T13:52:44+00:00 January 8th, 2013|History of Rome, Italian History, World History|2 Comments

Historians Polybius, Sallust, Seneca, Suetonius & Tacitus

POLYBIUS (204 – 122 BC) had the good luck (from the intellectual point of view) to be a historian during the rise of Rome after the 2^nd Punic War. He was a Greek of noble blood not without political importance, but he was taken toRome with several other Greeks as hostages. This happened after the Roman intervention in Athens by Aemilius Paullus and others. Polybius formed a circle of clever fellows around his captor who became his mentor. (more…)

By Dean Swift| 2012-12-10T10:47:36+00:00 December 10th, 2012|Greek History, History of Rome, Italian History, Spanish History, World History|0 Comments

Scipio, Aemilianus (Africanus Numantius)

Scipio / makethelist.net

This extraordinary Roman general was born in 185 BC, and was later adopted by Publius Cornelius Scipio. One must be careful to avoid confusion, because both adoptive grandfather Publius and our subject were nicknamed ‘Africanus’ for the same reason! Grandson Aemilianus earned the tribute for destroying Carthage during the 3^rd Punic War, and Publius for merely defeating Carthage in the 2^nd Punic War. The adoptive grandfather, born in 236 BC, was actually called ‘Africanus Major’. (more…)

By Dean Swift| 2012-11-26T09:58:22+00:00 November 26th, 2012|History of Rome, World History|0 Comments

Who were the Anglo-Saxons?

Anglo-Saxon men / fashion.era.com

They were Jutes, a Germanic tribe whose names are preserved today in Jutland and Juteborg. They invaded Britain in the 5^th century under the leadership of Hengist and Horsa. The Venerable Bede tells us they occupied the Isle of Wight, parts of the Hampshire coast, and Kent with its capital at Canterbury. They were also Saxons, (Germanic) though they came from the Danish peninsula, and lived partly from piracy from the 3^rd century AD to the 5^th, when they invaded Britain at the end of Roman supremacy. Their name survives in Wessex, Essex, Sussex and Saxony in Germany itself. The Saxons and Jutes were joined by the Angles, Germanic in origin who probably came from the area of Schleswig-Holstein or neighbouring Denmark. They settled down in East Anglia and Northumbria. Their name survives in the gradual metamorphosis from Anglo-Saxon England to Englaland and thence to England. (more…)

By Dean Swift| 2012-11-15T10:32:50+00:00 November 15th, 2012|British History, English History, German History, History of Rome, Scandinavian history, World History|1 Comment