Today (February 23) is the festival of Terminalia, named after the Roman god of boundaries, Terminus. Terminus is likely one of the older Roman gods, reportedly introduced by Romulus himself at the founding of Rome.

According to legend, the last king of Rome, Tarquin, AKA Lucius Tarquinius Superbus (534-509 B.C.), sought to leave a legacy to his “superb-ness”, so he decided to reshape Rome with a large-scale building campaign. A key part of this effort was the reconstruction of the Temple of Jupiter on Capitol Hill.

It’s well-known that a number of our presidents were surveyors – Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and even Roosevelt (kind of).

Did you ever wonder how the early surveyors learned how to survey? Many biographies say these men were “self-taught” . . . for Washington and Jefferson, this means they got a copy of “Geodaesia,” the first surveying book created for the New World surveyor.