Romans invent Christmas

The ruins of the Temple of Saturn still dominate the west end of the Forum in Rome

“Io Saturnalia!” Two thousand years ago this was the seasonal greeting which would have chimed out across most of Europe, not “Merry Christmas”. The Roman mid-winter festival of misrule has heavily influenced many Christmas traditions – including the time of year we celebrate.

Archaeologists have discovered 1,500 years old Ancient Amulet

The amulet contains a Greek inscription, 59 letters long, which reads the same backwards as it does forwards, a feature known as a palindrome. The three letters at the very bottom, ΕΑΙ, were squeezed in and are hard to read. The amulet is about 1.4 inches by 1.6 inches (34.9 millimeters by 41.2 millimeters) in size. The inscription translates as “Iahweh is the bearer of the secret name, the lion of Re secure in his shrine.” Although the translation doesn’t read as a palindrome, the original ancient Greek text does.
Credit: Photo by Marcin Iwan, artifact from the excavations of Jagiellonian University in Krakow at Paphos Agora