CIRCE ,THE GODNESS OF .....THE NEWS

Susanna Viljanen   It is very likely Jesus spoke at least four languages: Aramaic, Hebrew (the language of the Scripture - he was able to debate the rabbis in the age of his  bar mitzva ), Greek and Latin. Greek was the  lingua franca  of the era in education, philosophy, culture and arts, and Latin was the language of the administration, law and enforcement. Some of the phrases of the discourse make sense only in Latin - it is likely they discussed in Latin, but it  may  be coincidence, and they discussed in Greek instead. Certainly they both spoke Greek, as that was also the language of the Jewish elites in Iudaea in the era. There is one chapter in the Gospels which clearly suggests Jesus knew Latin:  he was able to make puns which work only in Latin .  See Matthew 16:18 : And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. Et ego dico tibi, quia tu es  Petrus , et super ...

  Adopted from the earlier Etruscans, perhaps by way of Campania, gladiatorial games ( munera ) originated in the rites of sacrifice due the spirits of the dead and the need to propitiate them with offerings of blood. They were introduced to Rome in 264 BC, when the sons of Junius Brutus honored their father by matching three pairs of gladiators. Traditionally,  munera  were the obligatory funerary offerings owed aristocratic men at their death, although the games did not have to be presented then. Elected  aedile  in 65 BC, Julius Caesar commemorated his father, who had died twenty years before, with a display of 320 pairs of gladiators in silvered armor (Pliny,  Natural History , XXXIII.53: Plutarch,  Life of Julius Caesar , V.9). Still mindful of the rebellion of Spartacus, a nervous Senate limited the number of gladiators allowed in Rome (Suetonius,  Life of Julius Caesar , X.2). In 46 BC, after recent victories in Gaul and Egypt, Caesar again...