Francis Foster

We know the Act of Diana exists only because of quotations from various Roman writers who do have copies of their work.

But we do know that these were put up fresh every day for about a 200-year period, starting in BC and ending

depending on what sources you see, 180 or 220 AD.

And they announce far-off victories or defeats, sometimes other news, gossip that would make the Daily Mail blush, senators, mistresses caught in embarrassing situations.

But these are put up in the forum and in other public places, and then sometimes read aloud to the illiterate.

kind of like town criers that you'd see much later in history.

So it has the mix that we would recognize, right?

It has gossip, it has politics, it has a bit of economics, it has foreign affairs, but it's controlled by the government.

And it is not really accountable publicly.

The audience doesn't have a say.

And only senators and tribunes, and tribunes, the Romans were ruled by a two-house Congress or Parliament, right?

The senators and the tribunes.

So the famous abbreviation you see everywhere, SPQR, is the Senate and the people of Rome, while the people is represented in the House of the Tribunes.

Anyway, a tribune, an elected official, or a senator, another elected official, largely inherited as well, they could object.

That was it.

And there was no correction process, you couldn't sue, there was no libel, there was no slander.

But it's the beginning of news.

Now, why do the Romans do it?

No other ancient people had really done it this way before.

And it's because they were trying to control rumors and speculation.