I’m not sure where these came from originally. I wrote them down in a journal in 1992 and did not cite the source, but I’m sure they could be verified easily if anyone was so inclined. For now, I just wanted to throw them up on the site as I once threw them into that journal. Consider the following as direct quotes from a book. If I can find the book, I’ll update this story to give proper credit.1. Because of the story in Genesis that Eve had been created out of Adam’s rib, it was widely believed during the Middle Ages that men had one rib fewer than women.

2. Everyone in the Middle Ages believed - as Aristotle had - that the heart was the seat of intelligence.

3. Jesus of Nazareth was born in the reign of Herod who died in 4 B.C. In 534, the first man to calculate the year of Jesus’ birth made an arithmetic error and we’ve been stuck with it since.

4. (not really ancient history, but funny) The original Bill of Rights by Congress as an addition to the Constitution contained twelve, not ten amendments. The two that failed to be ratified by the states were an amendment to set the size of the House of Representatives and one that would have prevented Congressmen and Senators from raising their own salaries.