In John 1:42, Jesus renamed Simon, son of John, Cephas. The meaning in Aramaic is rock, signifying that Cephas was the foundation upon which the Christian church would be built. The Greek translation is Petros, and the English, Peter.

Vesuvius had not erupted for 1800 years, therefore the people of Pompeii were completely unaware of the looming danger. After August 24th, AD 79, the word volcano came into existence. It is derived from the word Vulcan, the Roman god of flame and metal forging.

Ancient Romans compared the tail of a comet to the long streaming hair from a woman's head. The Latin word for hairy stars is cometes, and was derived from the Greek word for hair, kometes.

Byblos was an ancient Phoenician port city on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea (current day Lebanon). Their principal article of trade was Papyrus, a form of paper. Eventually the Greeks took the city name, Byblos, as their word for book. The English word, bible, is derived from the Greek.

This 218 BC law forbade senators and their sons from owning a sea-going vessel larger than 7-tons (300 amphorae capacity). Mercantile activities were considered low-class, however wealth gained through landholdings, government positions, and profits from war were considered acceptable.

A span is a biblical measurement of length. It is the distance between the tip of the thumb and the tip of the little finger when the hand is fully extended. One span equals half a cubit.

There is said to have been 7 kings over a two hundred year period. The first was the mythical Romulus. Tradition holds that he founded the original city on Palatine Hill, April 21st, 753 BC.

In 65 BC, Julius Caesar commemorated the death of his father with a display of 350 pairs of silver clad gladiators. The Munera, or Gladiator Games, are thought to have originated with the Campanians and Etruscans. The earliest games served a sacrificial function by appeasing the dead with the slaughter of the living.

In Hebrew, the name Adam means man. It may have been derived from the word Hebrew word adamah, which means ground or dust. Both words, Adam and adamah, stem from the root edom, which means red. The Greeks called the region of Edom "Idumea, land of the red people" (modern day southwestern Jordan). Genesis 2:7: "And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground..."

Trajan's war on the Dacians (current Romania) was a defining event in his 19-year rule. The conquest yielded a half million pounds of gold and a million pounds of silver. To commemorate the victory, he commissioned a forum that included a large plaza and civic space, two libraries, and the Basilica of Trajan.