Today, April 4, 2018, is the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” “La nostra vita comincia a finire il giorno che diventiamo silenziosi sulle cose che contano” “Notre vie commence à s’arrêter le jour où… Read More Martin Luther King, Jr.
On 15 March 44 BC, Julius Caesar, dictator of Rome, was stabbed to death in the Roman Senate house by 60 conspirators led by Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus. A haruspex, Spurinna, on Ferbrary 15 had warned him that his life would be in danger for a period of 30 days, which… Read More The Ides of March
In the film “Allied” there are many references to the film “Casablanca” : World War II, spies, Vichy France, Nazis, “La Marseillaise,” a piano, romance, an airport scene. And Casablanca itself, celebrated at the intersection of love and war. World War II was still far from its conclusion and Morocco was under the control of… Read More From “Allied” to “Casablanca”
“Mutiny on the Bounty” – the 1962 American historical drama film starring Marlon Brando – and “The Bounty” – the 1984 British film starring Mel Gibson and Anthony Hopkins – are two films dealing with the story of a sailing ship crew that is fed up with their captain’s harsh discipline and decides to take… Read More HMS Bounty
Son of Saul is a Hungarian drama film directed by László Nemes. It is set in the Auschwitz -Birkenau concentration camp in 1944 and follows a day-and-a-half in the life of Saul , a Jewish- Hungarian prisoner, member of the Sonderkommando, a group of prisoners with a macabre task: they have to burn the corpses… Read More Sonderkommando
First They Came for the Jews First they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. Then they came for the Communists and I did not speak out because I was not a Communist. Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak… Read More First they came for the…
The Latin name of the Villa is Ad Gallinas Albas, (by the white hen) and it comes from a well-known legend. On the day of her wedding with Octavian, an eagle dropped a white hen it detained in its clutches into Livia’s lap. The chicken held a branch of laurel in its beak. Advised… Read More The Villa of Livia (Ad Gallinas Albas)
The Villa of Livia is an ancient Roman villa 12 km north of Rome along the Via Flaminia, which was used as her country residence, along with her house on the Palatine Hill in Rome. The Villa had three vaulted subterranean rooms, the largest of which contained superb illusionistic frescoes of garden views (30… Read More Livia’s Painted Garden
Livia (30 January 58 BC – 28 September 29 AD), the third wife of emperor Augustus of Rome, had two sons – Drusus and Tiberius – by her first husband, Tiberius Claudius Nero. a member of the very old and prominent Claudian clan, who unfortunately supported the wrong party. When Octavian ( the adopted-son of… Read More Livia
Livia Drusilla (30 January 58 BC – 28 September 29 AD) was the third wife of the Roman Emperor Augustus, mother of emperor Tiberius, grandmother of emperor Claudius, great-grandmother of emperor Caligula, and great-great-grandmother of emperor Nero. She was deified by Claudius who acknowledged her title of Augusta. She was depicted in imperial propaganda as… Read More Livia Drusilla: First Lady of Imperial Rome
