Diggings

> This year Greek archeologists have been exploring the site of Thermopylae, heroically defended in 480 B.C. by King Leonidas with 2.000 soldiers against Xerxes' Persian hordes. Recently they found spears, arrows and other weapons on the site (TIME, May 22). Last week word came from Athens that the diggers had identified the hill to which, according to Historian Herodotus, a handful of Spartans withdrew with the body of Leonidas, later beheaded and crucified at Xerxes' orders. The diggers also found four tombs, one of which was believed to be that of Hero Leonidas himself.

> Distinctly not one of the gay-blade emperors of Imperial Rome was Tiberius Claudius Nero (42 B.C.-A.D. 37). Son of one of Julius Caesar's officers and a gifted mother, he was an impenetrable man with a powerful but slow-moving mind, a love of tranquil study. As a military commander he distinguished himself in the field, particularly against Germanic tribes in Gaul. According to Suetonius, the Senate erected a triumphal arch to Tiberius in 16 A.D.

Archeologists digging this year near the Chancellery building in Vatican City came upon five sculptured panels. By last week these were generally believed to be part of the Triumphal Arch of Tiberius. One of the carvings bore the only likeness of the studious emperor as an old man (he did not ascend the throne until he was 56).

Pope Pius XII manifested great interest in the discovery, directed the diggers to proceed with the excavation. Tiberius was the ruler Jesus referred to when He said: Render therefore unto Caesar the things hat are Caesar's. . . .

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