1.
Rome
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Rome is a special comune and the capital of Italy. Rome also serves as the capital of the Lazio region, with 2,873,598 residents in 1,285 km2, it is also the countrys largest and most populated comune and fourth-most populous city in the European Union by population within city limits. It is the center of the Metropolitan City of Rome, which has a population of 4.3 million residents, the city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, within Lazio, along the shores of the Tiber. Romes history spans more than 2,500 years, while Roman mythology dates the founding of Rome at only around 753 BC, the site has been inhabited for much longer, making it one of the oldest continuously occupied sites in Europe. The citys early population originated from a mix of Latins, Etruscans and it was first called The Eternal City by the Roman poet Tibullus in the 1st century BC, and the expression was also taken up by Ovid, Virgil, and Livy. Rome is also called the Caput Mundi, due to that, Rome became first one of the major centres of the Italian Renaissance, and then the birthplace of both the Baroque style and Neoclassicism. Famous artists, painters, sculptors and architects made Rome the centre of their activity, in 1871 Rome became the capital of the Kingdom of Italy, and in 1946 that of the Italian Republic. Rome has the status of a global city, Rome ranked in 2014 as the 14th-most-visited city in the world, 3rd most visited in the European Union, and the most popular tourist attraction in Italy. Its historic centre is listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site, monuments and museums such as the Vatican Museums and the Colosseum are among the worlds most visited tourist destinations with both locations receiving millions of tourists a year. Rome hosted the 1960 Summer Olympics and is the seat of United Nations Food, however, it is a possibility that the name Romulus was actually derived from Rome itself. As early as the 4th century, there have been alternate theories proposed on the origin of the name Roma. There is archaeological evidence of occupation of the Rome area from approximately 14,000 years ago. Evidence of stone tools, pottery and stone weapons attest to about 10,000 years of human presence, several excavations support the view that Rome grew from pastoral settlements on the Palatine Hill built above the area of the future Roman Forum. Between the end of the age and the beginning of the Iron age. However, none of them had yet an urban quality, nowadays, there is a wide consensus that the city was gradually born through the aggregation of several villages around the largest one, placed above the Palatine. All these happenings, which according to the excavations took place more or less around the mid of the 8th century BC. Despite recent excavations at the Palatine hill, the view that Rome has been indeed founded with an act of will as the legend suggests in the middle of the 8th century BC remains a fringe hypothesis. Traditional stories handed down by the ancient Romans themselves explain the earliest history of their city in terms of legend and myth
2.
Aurelian Walls
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The Aurelian Walls are a line of city walls built between 271 AD and 275 AD in Rome, Italy, during the reign of the Roman Emperors Aurelian and Probus. They superseded the earlier Servian Wall built during the 4th century BC, the walls enclosed all the seven hills of Rome plus the Campus Martius and, on the right bank of the Tiber, the Trastevere district. The river banks within the city appear to have been left unfortified. The size of the enclosed area is 1,400 hectares. The full circuit ran for 19 kilometres surrounding an area of 13.7 square kilometres, the walls were constructed in brick-faced concrete,3.5 metres thick and 8 metres high, with a square tower every 100 Roman feet. In the 4th century, remodelling doubled the height of the walls to 16 metres, by 500 AD, the circuit possessed 383 towers,7,020 crenellations,18 main gates,5 postern gates,116 latrines, and 2,066 large external windows. By the third century AD, the boundaries of Rome had grown far beyond the area enclosed by the old Servian Wall, Rome had remained unfortified during the subsequent centuries of expansion and consolidation due to lack of hostile threats against the city. The citizens of Rome took great pride in knowing that Rome required no fortifications because of the stability brought by the Pax Romana and the protection of the Roman Army. However, the need for updated defences became acute during the crisis of the Third Century, when barbarian tribes flooded through the Germanic frontier and the Roman Army struggled to stop them. In 270, the barbarian Juthungi and Vandals invaded northern Italy, further trouble broke out in Rome itself in the summer of 271, when the mint workers rose in rebellion. Several thousand people died in the fighting that resulted. The construction of the walls was by far the largest building project that had taken place in Rome for many decades, the construction project was unusually left to the citizens themselves to complete as Aurelian could not afford to spare a single legionary for the project. The walls were built in the time of only five years. Progress was accelerated, and money saved, by incorporating existing buildings into the structure and these included the Amphitheatrum Castrense, the Castra Praetoria, the Pyramid of Cestius, and even a section of the Aqua Claudia aqueduct near the Porta Maggiore. As much as a sixth of the walls is estimated to have composed of pre-existing structures. An area behind the walls was cleared and sentry passages were built to enable it to be reinforced quickly in an emergency, the actual effectiveness of the wall is disputable, given the relatively small size of the citys garrison. The entire combined strength of the Praetorian Guard, cohortes urbanae, instead, they carried out hit-and-run raids against ill-defended targets. The wall was a deterrent against such tactics, parts of the wall were doubled in height by Maxentius, who also improved the watch-towers
3.
Colosseum
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The Colosseum or Coliseum, also known as the Flavian Amphitheatre, is an oval amphitheatre in the centre of the city of Rome, Italy. Built of concrete and sand, it is the largest amphitheatre ever built, the Colosseum is situated just east of the Roman Forum. Construction began under the emperor Vespasian in AD72, and was completed in AD80 under his successor, further modifications were made during the reign of Domitian. These three emperors are known as the Flavian dynasty, and the amphitheatre was named in Latin for its association with their family name, the building ceased to be used for entertainment in the early medieval era. It was later reused for purposes as housing, workshops, quarters for a religious order, a fortress, a quarry. Although partially ruined because of damage caused by earthquakes and stone-robbers, the Colosseum is also depicted on the Italian version of the five-cent euro coin. The Colosseums original Latin name was Amphitheatrum Flavium, often anglicized as Flavian Amphitheatre, the building was constructed by emperors of the Flavian dynasty, following the reign of Nero. This name is used in modern English, but generally the structure is better known as the Colosseum. The name Colosseum has long believed to be derived from a colossal statue of Nero nearby. This statue was later remodeled by Neros successors into the likeness of Helios or Apollo, Neros head was also replaced several times with the heads of succeeding emperors. Despite its pagan links, the statue remained standing well into the era and was credited with magical powers. It came to be seen as an symbol of the permanence of Rome. This is often mistranslated to refer to the Colosseum rather than the Colossus, however, at the time that the Pseudo-Bede wrote, the masculine noun coliseus was applied to the statue rather than to what was still known as the Flavian amphitheatre. The Colossus did eventually fall, possibly being pulled down to reuse its bronze, by the year 1000 the name Colosseum had been coined to refer to the amphitheatre. The statue itself was forgotten and only its base survives. The name further evolved to Coliseum during the Middle Ages, in Italy, the amphitheatre is still known as il Colosseo, and other Romance languages have come to use similar forms such as Coloseumul, le Colisée, el Coliseo and o Coliseu. The site chosen was an area on the floor of a low valley between the Caelian, Esquiline and Palatine Hills, through which a canalised stream ran. By the 2nd century BC the area was densely inhabited and it was devastated by the Great Fire of Rome in AD64, following which Nero seized much of the area to add to his personal domain
4.
Latin
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Latin is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. The Latin alphabet is derived from the Etruscan and Greek alphabets, Latin was originally spoken in Latium, in the Italian Peninsula. Through the power of the Roman Republic, it became the dominant language, Vulgar Latin developed into the Romance languages, such as Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, French, and Romanian. Latin, Italian and French have contributed many words to the English language, Latin and Ancient Greek roots are used in theology, biology, and medicine. By the late Roman Republic, Old Latin had been standardised into Classical Latin, Vulgar Latin was the colloquial form spoken during the same time and attested in inscriptions and the works of comic playwrights like Plautus and Terence. Late Latin is the language from the 3rd century. Later, Early Modern Latin and Modern Latin evolved, Latin was used as the language of international communication, scholarship, and science until well into the 18th century, when it began to be supplanted by vernaculars. Ecclesiastical Latin remains the language of the Holy See and the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church. Today, many students, scholars and members of the Catholic clergy speak Latin fluently and it is taught in primary, secondary and postsecondary educational institutions around the world. The language has been passed down through various forms, some inscriptions have been published in an internationally agreed, monumental, multivolume series, the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum. Authors and publishers vary, but the format is about the same, volumes detailing inscriptions with a critical apparatus stating the provenance, the reading and interpretation of these inscriptions is the subject matter of the field of epigraphy. The works of several hundred ancient authors who wrote in Latin have survived in whole or in part and they are in part the subject matter of the field of classics. The Cat in the Hat, and a book of fairy tales, additional resources include phrasebooks and resources for rendering everyday phrases and concepts into Latin, such as Meissners Latin Phrasebook. The Latin influence in English has been significant at all stages of its insular development. From the 16th to the 18th centuries, English writers cobbled together huge numbers of new words from Latin and Greek words, dubbed inkhorn terms, as if they had spilled from a pot of ink. Many of these words were used once by the author and then forgotten, many of the most common polysyllabic English words are of Latin origin through the medium of Old French. Romance words make respectively 59%, 20% and 14% of English, German and those figures can rise dramatically when only non-compound and non-derived words are included. Accordingly, Romance words make roughly 35% of the vocabulary of Dutch, Roman engineering had the same effect on scientific terminology as a whole
5.
Italian language
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By most measures, Italian, together with Sardinian, is the closest to Latin of the Romance languages. Italian is a language in Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City. Italian is spoken by minorities in places such as France, Montenegro, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Crimea and Tunisia and by large expatriate communities in the Americas. Many speakers are native bilinguals of both standardized Italian and other regional languages, Italian is the fourth most studied language in the world. Italian is a major European language, being one of the languages of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe. It is the third most widely spoken first language in the European Union with 65 million native speakers, including Italian speakers in non-EU European countries and on other continents, the total number of speakers is around 85 million. Italian is the working language of the Holy See, serving as the lingua franca in the Roman Catholic hierarchy as well as the official language of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. Italian is known as the language of music because of its use in musical terminology and its influence is also widespread in the arts and in the luxury goods market. Italian has been reported as the fourth or fifth most frequently taught foreign language in the world, Italian was adopted by the state after the Unification of Italy, having previously been a literary language based on Tuscan as spoken mostly by the upper class of Florentine society. Its development was influenced by other Italian languages and to some minor extent. Its vowels are the second-closest to Latin after Sardinian, unlike most other Romance languages, Italian retains Latins contrast between short and long consonants. As in most Romance languages, stress is distinctive, however, Italian as a language used in Italy and some surrounding regions has a longer history. What would come to be thought of as Italian was first formalized in the early 14th century through the works of Tuscan writer Dante Alighieri, written in his native Florentine. Dante is still credited with standardizing the Italian language, and thus the dialect of Florence became the basis for what would become the language of Italy. Italian was also one of the recognised languages in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Italy has always had a dialect for each city, because the cities. Those dialects now have considerable variety, as Tuscan-derived Italian came to be used throughout Italy, features of local speech were naturally adopted, producing various versions of Regional Italian. Even in the case of Northern Italian languages, however, scholars are not to overstate the effects of outsiders on the natural indigenous developments of the languages
6.
Roman roads
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They provided efficient means for the overland movement of armies, officials, and civilians, and the inland carriage of official communications and trade goods. Roman roads were of several kinds, ranging from local roads to broad, long-distance highways built to connect cities, major towns. These major roads were often stone-paved and metaled, cambered for drainage and they were laid along accurately surveyed courses, and some were cut through hills, or conducted over rivers and ravines on bridgework. Sections could be supported over marshy ground on rafted or piled foundations, at the peak of Romes development, no fewer than 29 great military highways radiated from the capital, and the late Empires 113 provinces were interconnected by 372 great roads. The whole comprised more than 400,000 kilometres of roads, in Gaul alone, no less than 21,000 kilometres of roadways are said to have been improved, and in Britain at least 4,000 kilometres. The courses of many Roman roads survived for millennia, some are overlaid by modern roads, livy mentions some of the most familiar roads near Rome, and the milestones on them, at times long before the first paved road—the Appian Way. Unless these allusions are just simple anachronisms, the referred to were probably at the time little more than levelled earthen tracks. Thus, the Via Gabina is mentioned in about 500 BC, the Via Latina in about 490 BC, the Via Nomentana, in 449 BC, the Via Labicana in 421 BC, and the Via Salaria in 361 BC. There is hardly a district to which we expect a Roman official to be sent, on service either civil or military. They reach the Wall in Britain, run along the Rhine, the Danube, and the Euphrates, and cover, as with a network, a road map of the empire reveals that it was generally laced with a dense network of prepared viae. Beyond its borders there were no paved roads, however, it can be supposed that footpaths, there were, for instance, some pre-Roman ancient trackways in Britain, such as the Ridgeway and the Icknield Way. For specific roads, see Roman road locations below, the Laws of the Twelve Tables, dated to about 450 BC, specified that a road shall be 8 Roman feet wide where straight and twice that width where curved. Actual practices varied from this standard, the Tables command Romans to build roads and give wayfarers the right to pass over private land where the road is in disrepair. Roman law defined the right to use a road as a servitus, the ius eundi established a claim to use an iter, or footpath, across private land, the ius agendi, an actus, or carriage track. A via combined both types of servitutes, provided it was of the width, which was determined by an arbiter. The default width was the latitudo legitima of 8 feet, Roman law and tradition forbade the use of vehicles in urban areas, except in certain cases. Married women and government officials on business could ride, the Lex Iulia Municipalis restricted commercial carts to night-time access in the city within the walls and within a mile outside the walls. Such roads led either to the sea, or to a town, or to a public river and these roads bear the names of their constructors
7.
Roman Republic
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It was during this period that Romes control expanded from the citys immediate surroundings to hegemony over the entire Mediterranean world. During the first two centuries of its existence, the Roman Republic expanded through a combination of conquest and alliance, by the following century, it included North Africa, most of the Iberian Peninsula, and what is now southern France. Two centuries after that, towards the end of the 1st century BC, it included the rest of modern France, Greece, and much of the eastern Mediterranean. By this time, internal tensions led to a series of wars, culminating with the assassination of Julius Caesar. The exact date of transition can be a matter of interpretation, Roman government was headed by two consuls, elected annually by the citizens and advised by a senate composed of appointed magistrates. Over time, the laws that gave exclusive rights to Romes highest offices were repealed or weakened. The leaders of the Republic developed a tradition and morality requiring public service and patronage in peace and war, making military. Many of Romes legal and legislative structures can still be observed throughout Europe and much of the world in modern nation states, the exact causes and motivations for Romes military conflicts and expansions during the republic are subject to wide debate. While they can be seen as motivated by outright aggression and imperialism and they argue that Romes expansion was driven by short-term defensive and inter-state factors, and the new contingencies that these decisions created. In its early history, as Rome successfully defended itself against foreign threats in central and then northern Italy, with some important exceptions, successful wars in early republican Rome generally led not to annexation or military occupation, but to the restoration of the way things were. But the defeated city would be weakened and thus able to resist Romanizing influences. It was also able to defend itself against its non-Roman enemies. It was, therefore, more likely to seek an alliance of protection with Rome and this growing coalition expanded the potential enemies that Rome might face, and moved Rome closer to confrontation with major powers. The result was more alliance-seeking, on the part of both the Roman confederacy and city-states seeking membership within that confederacy. While there were exceptions to this, it was not until after the Second Punic War that these alliances started to harden into something more like an empire and this shift mainly took place in parts of the west, such as the southern Italian towns that sided with Hannibal. In contrast, Roman expansion into Spain and Gaul occurred as a mix of alliance-seeking, in the 2nd century BC, Roman involvement in the Greek east remained a matter of alliance-seeking, but this time in the face of major powers that could rival Rome. This had some important similarities to the events in Italy centuries earlier, with some major exceptions of outright military rule, the Roman Republic remained an alliance of independent city-states and kingdoms until it transitioned into the Roman Empire. It was not until the time of the Roman Empire that the entire Roman world was organized into provinces under explicit Roman control
8.
Brindisi
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Brindisi is a city in the region of Apulia in southern Italy, the capital of the province of Brindisi, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. Historically, the city has played an important role in trade and culture, due to its position on the Italian Peninsula. The city remains a port for trade with Greece and the Middle East. Brindisis most flourishing industries include agriculture, chemical works, and the generation of electricity, Brindisi is situated on a natural harbor, that penetrates deeply into the Adriatic coast of Apulia. Within the arms of the harbor islands are Pedagne, a tiny archipelago, currently not open. The entire municipality is part of the Brindisi Plain, characterized by agricultural uses of its land. It is located in the part of the Salento plains, about 40 kilometres from the Itria Valley. Not far from the city is the Natural Marine Reserve of the World Wide Fund for Nature of Torre Guaceto, the Ionian Sea is about 45 kilometres away. The development of agriculture, has caused an increase in the use of water resulting in an increase of indiscriminate use. There are several traditions concerning its founders, one of them claims that it was founded by the legendary hero Diomedes, Brindisi was an Ancient Greek settlement predating the Roman expansion. The Latin name Brundisium comes from the Greek Brentesion meaning deers head, in 267 BC it was conquered by the Romans. Herodotus spoke of the Mycenaean origin for these populations, the necropolis of Tor Pisana returned Corinthian jars in the first half of the 7th century BC. The Brindisi Messapia certainly entertained strong business relationships with the side of the Adriatic. After the Punic Wars it became a center of Roman naval power. In the Social War it received Roman citizenship, and was made a port by Sulla. It suffered, however, from a siege conducted by Caesar in 49 BC and was attacked in 42 and 40 BC. The poet Pacuvius was born here about 220 BC, and here the famous poet Virgil died in 19 BC. Under the Romans, Brundisium – a large city in its day with some 100,000 inhabitants – was a port, the chief point of embarkation for Greece
9.
Italy
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Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a unitary parliamentary republic in Europe. Located in the heart of the Mediterranean Sea, Italy shares open land borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, San Marino, Italy covers an area of 301,338 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate and Mediterranean climate. Due to its shape, it is referred to in Italy as lo Stivale. With 61 million inhabitants, it is the fourth most populous EU member state, the Italic tribe known as the Latins formed the Roman Kingdom, which eventually became a republic that conquered and assimilated other nearby civilisations. The legacy of the Roman Empire is widespread and can be observed in the distribution of civilian law, republican governments, Christianity. The Renaissance began in Italy and spread to the rest of Europe, bringing a renewed interest in humanism, science, exploration, Italian culture flourished at this time, producing famous scholars, artists and polymaths such as Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo, Michelangelo and Machiavelli. The weakened sovereigns soon fell victim to conquest by European powers such as France, Spain and Austria. Despite being one of the victors in World War I, Italy entered a period of economic crisis and social turmoil. The subsequent participation in World War II on the Axis side ended in defeat, economic destruction. Today, Italy has the third largest economy in the Eurozone and it has a very high level of human development and is ranked sixth in the world for life expectancy. The country plays a prominent role in regional and global economic, military, cultural and diplomatic affairs, as a reflection of its cultural wealth, Italy is home to 51 World Heritage Sites, the most in the world, and is the fifth most visited country. The assumptions on the etymology of the name Italia are very numerous, according to one of the more common explanations, the term Italia, from Latin, Italia, was borrowed through Greek from the Oscan Víteliú, meaning land of young cattle. The bull was a symbol of the southern Italic tribes and was often depicted goring the Roman wolf as a defiant symbol of free Italy during the Social War. Greek historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus states this account together with the legend that Italy was named after Italus, mentioned also by Aristotle and Thucydides. The name Italia originally applied only to a part of what is now Southern Italy – according to Antiochus of Syracuse, but by his time Oenotria and Italy had become synonymous, and the name also applied to most of Lucania as well. The Greeks gradually came to apply the name Italia to a larger region, excavations throughout Italy revealed a Neanderthal presence dating back to the Palaeolithic period, some 200,000 years ago, modern Humans arrived about 40,000 years ago. Other ancient Italian peoples of undetermined language families but of possible origins include the Rhaetian people and Cammuni. Also the Phoenicians established colonies on the coasts of Sardinia and Sicily, the Roman legacy has deeply influenced the Western civilisation, shaping most of the modern world
10.
Statius
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Publius Papinius Statius was a Roman poet of the 1st century AD. His surviving Latin poetry includes an epic in twelve books, the Thebaid, a collection of poetry, the Silvae, and an unfinished epic. He is also known for his appearance as a guide in the Purgatory section of Dantes epic poem The Divine Comedy, information about Statius life is almost entirely drawn from his Silvae and a mention by the satirist Juvenal. The poets father was a native of Velia but later moved to Naples, Statius declares in his lament for his father that his father was in his time equal to any literary task, whether in prose or verse. He mentioned Mevania, and may have spent time there, or been impressed by the confrontation of Vitellius, Statius father was a Roman eques, but may have lost his status because of money troubles. At Naples, he was a teacher of Greek and Roman literature who attracted many pupils who were destined for religious offices in Rome, from Pliny the Youngers Letters, it has recently been deduced that Statius also wrote under the pseudonym of Propertius. Less is known of the events of Statius life, for the Alban Festival, Statius composed a poem on the German and Dacian campaigns of Domitian which Juvenal lampoons in his seventh satire. Statius is thought to have moved to Rome c.90 after his fathers death where he published his epic poem the Thebaid c. In the capital, Statius seems to have many connections among the Roman aristocracy and court. He competed in the great Capitoline competition, although it is not known in what year, Statius failed to win the coveted prize, a loss he took very hard. The disappointment may have prompted his return to Naples around 94, in existence is a poem he addressed to his wife, Claudia, the widow of a famous singer who had a musically talented daughter by her first husband, on this occasion. Statius first three books of the Silvae seem to have received criticism, and in response he composed a fourth book at Naples. During this period at Naples, Statius maintained his relations with the court and his patrons, earning himself another invitation to a palace banquet. He seems to have taken an interest in the marriage and career of his stepdaughter and he took a young slave boy under his wing, as he was childless. In that same year Statius embarked on a new epic, the Achilleid, giving recitations of his work only to complete a book. His fifth book of Silvae were published after his death c, as a poet, Statius was versatile in his abilities and contrived to represent his work as otium.94. Based on Statius own testimony, the Thebaid was written c.80 – c.92 AD, beginning when the poet was around 35, the poem is divided into twelve books in imitation of Virgils Aeneid and is composed in dactylic hexameter. In the Silvae, Statius speaks of his work in polishing and revising the Thebaid
11.
Appius Claudius Caecus
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Appius Claudius Caecus was a Roman politician from a wealthy patrician family. He was the son of Gaius Claudius Crassus, as censor he was responsible for the construction of Romes first aqueduct and major road project. Appius Claudius Crassus was a censor in 312 BC, although he had not previously been consul which later was effectively a prerequisite for the office. He sought support from the classes, allowing sons of freedmen to serve in the Senate. During the Second Samnite War, he advocated the founding of Roman colonies throughout Latium and Campania to serve as fortifications against the Samnites and he later served as consul twice, in 307 BC and 296 BC, and in 292 BC and 285 BC he was appointed Dictator. According to Livy, he had gone blind because of a curse, in 279, he gave a famous speech against Cineas, an envoy of Pyrrhus of Epirus, declaring that Rome would never surrender. This is the earliest known political speech in Latin, and is the source of the every man is the architect of his own fortune. Appius wrote a book called Sententiae, based upon a verse of Greek model and it was the first Roman book of literary character. He was also concerned with literature and rhetoric, and instituted reforms in Latin orthography and his sons included Gaius Claudius Centho and the first Tiberius Claudius Nero. Centho, his son, was the consul in 240 BC and father of Appius Claudius Caudex and Publius Claudius Pulcher, consul in 249 BC, Appius Claudius Caecus is used in Ciceros Pro Caelio as a stern and disapproving ancestor to Clodia. Caecuss achievements, such as the building of the Appian Way, Claudius Quotations related to Appius Claudius Caecus at Wikiquote
12.
Roman censor
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The censor was an officer in ancient Rome who was responsible for maintaining the census, supervising public morality, and overseeing certain aspects of the governments finances. The censors regulation of morality is the origin of the modern meaning of the words censor. The census was first instituted by Servius Tullius, sixth king of Rome, after the abolition of the monarchy and the founding of the Republic, the consuls had responsibility for the census until 443 BC. It would not be uncommon for the patrician consulars of the republic to intersperse public office with agricultural labour. In Cicero’s words, in agris erant tum senatores, id est senes, ‘In those days senators—that is and this practice was obsolete by the 2nd century. The magistracy continued to be controlled by patricians until 351 BC, twelve years later, in 339 BC, one of the Publilian laws required that one censor had to be a plebeian. Despite this, no plebeian censor performed the solemn purification of the people until 280 BC, in 131 BC, for the first time, both censors were plebeians. The reason for having two censors was that the two consuls had previously taken the census together, if one of the censors died during his term of office, another was chosen to replace him, just as with consuls. This happened only once, in 393 BC, however, the Gauls captured Rome in that lustrum, and the Romans thereafter regarded such replacement as an offense against religion. From then on, if one of the died, his colleague resigned. The censors were elected in the Centuriate Assembly, which met under the presidency of a consul, as a general principle, the only ones eligible for the office of censor were those who had previously been consuls, but there were a few exceptions. At first, there was no law to prevent a person being censor twice, in that year, he originated a law stating that no one could be elected censor twice. In consequence of this, he received the cognomen of Censorinus, the censorship differed from all other Roman magistracies in the length of office. The censors were also unique with respect to rank and dignity and they had no imperium, and accordingly no lictors. Their rank was granted to them by the Centuriate Assembly, and not by the curiae, and in that respect they were inferior in power to the consuls and praetors. Notwithstanding this, the censorship was regarded as the highest dignity in the state, with the exception of the dictatorship, it was a sacred magistracy, to which the deepest reverence was due. In the exercise of power, they were regulated solely by their own views of duty. The censors possessed the official called a curule chair
13.
Samnite Wars
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The First, Second, and Third Samnite Wars were fought between the Roman Republic and the Samnites, who lived on a stretch of the Apennine Mountains to the south of Rome and the north of the Lucanians. The first of these wars was the result of Romes intervening to rescue the Campanian city of Capua from a Samnite attack. The second one was the result of Romes intervention in the politics of the city of Naples and developed into a contest over the control of much of central, the third war also involved a struggle over the control of this part of Italy. The Samnites were one of early Romes most formidable rivals, by the time of the first of these wars, the southward expansion of Rome’s territory had reached the River Liris, which was the boundary between Latium and Campania. This river is now called Garigliano and it is the boundary between the regions of Lazio and Campania. In those days the name Campania referred to the plain between the coast and the Apennine Mountains which stretched from the River Liris down to the bays of Naples, the northern part of this area was inhabited by the Sidicini, the Aurunci and the Ausoni. The central and southern part was inhabited by the Campanians, who were people who had migrated from Samnium and were related to the Samnites. The Samnites were a confederation of four tribes who lived on the mountains to the east of Campania and were the most powerful people in the area, the Samnites, Campanians and Sidicini spoke Oscan languages. Their languages were part of the Osco-Umbrian linguistic family which also included Umbrian, the Lucanians who lived to the south were also Oscan speakers. Diodorus Siculus and Livy report that in 354 BC Rome and the Samnites concluded a treaty, modern historians have proposed that the treaty established the river Liris as the boundary between their spheres of influence, with Romes lying to its north and the Samnites to its south. This arrangement broke down when the Romans intervened south of the Liris to rescue the Campanian city of Capua from an attack by the Samnites. Livy is the only preserved source to give an account of the war which has become known in modern historiography as the First Samnite War. In addition, the Fasti Triumphales records two Roman triumphs dating to this war and some of the described by Livy are also mentioned by other ancient writers. According to Livy, the First Samnite War started not because of any enmity between Rome and the Samnites, but due to outside events, the spark came when the Samnites without provocation attacked the Sidicini, a tribe living north of Campania with their chief settlement at Teanum Sidicinum. Unable to stand against the Samnites, the Sidicini sought help from the Campanians, However, Livy continues, the Samnites defeated the Campanians in a battle in Sidicine territory and then turned their attention toward Campania. First they seized the Tifata hills overlooking Capua and, having left a force to hold them. There they defeated the Campanians in a battle and drove them within their walls. This compelled the Campanians to ask Rome for help, at Rome, the Campanian ambassadors were admitted to an audience with the Senate
14.
Etruscan civilization
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The Etruscan civilization is the modern name given to a powerful and wealthy civilization of ancient Italy in the area corresponding roughly to Tuscany, western Umbria, and northern Lazio. Culture that is identifiably Etruscan developed in Italy after about 800 BC, the latter gave way in the 7th century BC to a culture that was influenced by ancient Greece, Magna Graecia, and Phoenicia. The decline was gradual, but by 500 BC the political destiny of Italy had passed out of Etruscan hands, the last Etruscan cities were formally absorbed by Rome around 100 BC. Politics were based on the city, and probably the family unit. In their heyday, the Etruscan elite grew very rich through trade with the Celtic world to the north and the Greeks to the south, archaic Greece had a huge influence on their art and architecture, and Greek mythology was evidently very familiar to them. The study also excluded recent Anatolian connection, the ancient Romans referred to the Etruscans as the Tuscī or Etruscī. Their Roman name is the origin of the terms Tuscany, which refers to their heartland, and Etruria, which can refer to their wider region. In Attic Greek, the Etruscans were known as Tyrrhenians, from which the Romans derived the names Tyrrhēnī, Tyrrhēnia, the word may also be related to the Hittite Taruisa. The Etruscans called themselves Rasenna, which was syncopated to Rasna or Raśna, the origins of the Etruscans are mostly lost in prehistory, although Greek historians as early as the 5th century BC, repeatedly associated the Tyrrhenians with Pelasgians. Strabo as well as the Homeric Hymn to Dionysus make mention of the Tyrrhenians as pirates, pliny the Elder put the Etruscans in the context of the Rhaetian people to the north and wrote in his Natural History, Adjoining these the Noricans are the Raeti and Vindelici. All are divided into a number of states, the Raeti are believed to be people of Tuscan race driven out by the Gauls, their leader was named Raetus. Historians have no literature and no original Etruscan texts of religion or philosophy, therefore, much of what is known about this civilization is derived from grave goods, another source of genetic data on Etruscan origins is from four ancient breeds of cattle. Analyzing the mitochondrial DNA of these and seven other breeds of Italian cattle, the other Italian breeds were linked to northern Europe. Etruscan expansion was focused both to the north beyond the Apennine Mountains and into Campania, some small towns in the sixth century BC disappeared during this time, ostensibly consumed by greater, more powerful neighbours. However, it is certain that the structure of the Etruscan culture was similar to, albeit more aristocratic than. The mining and commerce of metal, especially copper and iron, led to an enrichment of the Etruscans and to the expansion of their influence in the Italian peninsula and the western Mediterranean Sea. Here, their interests collided with those of the Greeks, especially in the sixth century BC and this led the Etruscans to ally themselves with Carthage, whose interests also collided with the Greeks. Around 540 BC, the Battle of Alalia led to a new distribution of power in the western Mediterranean, from the first half of the 5th century BC, the new political situation meant the beginning of the Etruscan decline after losing their southern provinces
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Itinerarium
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An itinerarium was an Ancient Roman road map in the form of a listing of cities, villages and other stops, with the intervening distances. One surviving example is the Peutinger Table, another is the Antonine Itinerary, the Romans and ancient travelers in general did not use maps. They may have existed as specialty items in some of the libraries, on the Roman road system, however, the traveller needed some idea of where he was going, how to get there, and how long it would take. It was only a step from lists to a master list. To sort out the lists, the Romans drew diagrams of parallel lines showing the branches of the roads, parts of these were copied and sold on the streets. The very best featured symbols for cities, way stations, water courses, the maps did not represent landforms but they served the purpose of a simple schematic diagram for the user. The Roman government from time to time undertook to produce a master itinerary of all Roman roads, julius Caesar and Mark Antony commissioned the first known such effort in 44 BC. Zenodoxus, Theodotus, and Polyclitus, three Greek geographers, were hired to survey the system and compile a master itinerary and this task required over 25 years. The result was a stone engraved master itinerarium set up near the Pantheon, from which travelers, archaeology has turned up some itinerary material in unexpected places. The Cups of Cadiz, four silver cups found by excavating a foundation at Bracciano in 1852, are engraved with the names and distances of stations between Cadiz and Rome. The term itinerary changed meaning over the centuries, in the Itinerarium Burdigalense, the itinerary is a description of what route to take to the Holy Land. The Itinerarium Alexandri is a list of the conquests of Alexander the Great, today it means either a travel journal or a list of recommended stops. The term also refers to medieval guide-books written by travellers, most of these are accounts of pilgrimages to the Holy Land, Antonine Itinerary Itinerarium Burdigalense Tabula Peutingeriana Periplus
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Campania
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Campania is a region in Southern Italy. Located on the Italian Peninsula, with the Mediterranean Sea to the west, it includes the small Phlegraean Islands, Campania was colonised by Ancient Greeks and was part of Magna Græcia. During the Roman era, the area maintained a Greco-Roman culture, the capital city of Campania is Naples. Campania is rich in culture, especially in regard to gastronomy, music, architecture, archeological and ancient sites such as Pompeii, Herculaneum, Paestum and Velia. The name of Campania itself is derived from Latin, as the Romans knew the region as Campania felix, the rich natural sights of Campania make it highly important in the tourism industry, especially along the Amalfi Coast, Mount Vesuvius and the island of Capri. During the 8th century BC, people from Euboea in Greece, known as Cumaeans, another Oscan tribe, the Samnites, moved down from central Italy into Campania. The Roman consul Quintus Publilius Filo recaptured Neapolis by 326 BC, the Second Samnite War ended with the Romans controlling southern Campania and additional regions further to the south. Campania was a part of the Roman Republic by the end of the 4th century BC, valued for its pastures. Its Greek language and customs made it a centre of Hellenistic civilization, during the Pyrrhic War the battle took place in Campania at Maleventum in which the Romans, led by consul Curius Dentatus, were victorious. They renamed the city Beneventum, which grew in stature until it was only to Capua in southern Italy. During the Second Punic War in 216 BC, Capua, in a bid for equality with Rome, the rebellious Capuans were isolated from the rest of Campania, which remained allies of Rome. Naples resisted Hannibal due to the imposing walls, Capua was eventually starved into submission in the Roman retaking of 211 BC, and the Romans were victorious. The rest of Campania, with the exception of Naples, adopted the Latin language as official and was Romanised. As part of the Roman Empire, Campania, with Latium, Roman Emperors chose Campania as a holiday destination, among them Claudius and Tiberius, the latter of whom is infamously linked to the island of Capri. It was also during this period that Christianity came to Campania, Two of the apostles, St. Peter and St. Paul, are said to have preached in the city of Naples, and there were also several martyrs during this time. Unfortunately, the period of calm was violently interrupted by the epic eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 which buried the cities of Pompeii. The area had many duchies and principalities during the Middle Ages, in the hands of the Byzantine Empire, under the Normans, the smaller independent states were brought together as part of the Kingdom of Sicily, before the mainland broke away to form the Kingdom of Naples. It was during this period elements of Spanish, French
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Samnites
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The Samnites were an ancient Italic people who lived in Samnium in south-central Italy. They became involved in wars with the Roman Republic until the 1st century BC. An Oscan-speaking people, the Samnites probably originated as an offshoot of the Sabines, the Samnites formed a confederation, consisting of four tribes, the Hirpini, Caudini, Caraceni, and Pentri. They allied with Rome against the Gauls in 354 BC, despite an overwhelming victory over the Romans at the Battle of the Caudine Forks, the Samnites were eventually subjugated. Although severely weakened, the Samnites later helped Pyrrhus and Hannibal in their wars against Rome, by 82 BC, the Roman dictator Lucius Cornelius Sulla conducted an ethnic cleansing campaign against the Samnites, after which they disappeared from history. The population of Samnium were called Samnites by the Romans and their own endonyms were Safinim for the country and Safineis for the people. Etymologically, the name Samnium is generally recognized to be a form of the name of the Sabines, from Safinim, Sabinus, Sabellus and Samnis, an Indo-European root can be extracted, *sabh-, which becomes Sab- in Latino-Faliscan and Saf- in Osco-Umbrian, Sabini and *Safineis. The eponymous god of the Sabines, Sabus, seems to support this view, the Greek terms, Saunitai and Saunitis, remain outside the group. Nothing is known of their origin, at some point in prehistory, a population speaking a common language extended over both Samnium and Umbria. Salmon conjectures that it was common Italic and puts forward a date of 600 BC and this date does not necessarily correspond to any historical or archaeological evidence, developing a synthetic view of the ethnology of proto-historic Italy is an incomplete and ongoing task. Linguist Julius Pokorny carries the etymology somewhat further back, the earliest written record of the people is a treaty with the Romans from 354 BC, which set their border at the Liris River. Shortly thereafter, the Samnite Wars broke out, they won an important battle against the Roman army in 321 BC, by 290 BC, the Romans were able to break the Samnites power after some hard fought battles. The Samnites were one of the Italian peoples that allied with King Pyrrhus of Epirus during the Pyrrhic War and they joined and aided Hannibal during the Second Punic War. The Samnites were the last tribal group holding out against Rome in the Social War, by 82 BC, the Roman dictator Lucius Cornelius Sulla conducted an ethnic cleansing campaign against this most stubborn and persistent of Romes adversaries and forced the remnant to disperse. So great was the destruction brought upon them that it was recorded that the towns of Samnium have become villages, Caraceni Caudini Frentani Hirpini Pentri Gaius Pontius ca. 320s BC Gellius Egnatius ca.296 BC Gaius Papius Mutilus 90-89 with, Pontius Telesinus - Samnite commander to Papius Pontius Pilate - the 5th Prefect of the Roman province of Judaea from AD 26–36
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Capua
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Capua is a city and comune in the province of Caserta, Campania, southern Italy, situated 25 km north of Naples, on the northeastern edge of the Campanian plain. Ancient Capua was situated where Santa Maria Capua Vetere is now, the name of Capua comes from the Etruscan Capeva. The meaning is City of Marshes and its foundation is attributed by Cato the Elder to the Etruscans, and the date given as about 260 years before it was taken by Rome. If this is true it refers not to its capture in the Second Punic War but to its submission to Rome in 338 BC, placing the date of foundation at about 600 BC, while Etruscan power was at its highest. In the area several settlements of the Villanovian civilization were present in prehistoric times, Etruscan supremacy in Campania came to an end with the Samnite invasion in the latter half of the 5th century BC. About 424 BC it was captured by the Samnites and in 343 BC besought Roman help against its conquerors, the citizens of Capua received the civitas sine suffragio. In the second Samnite War with Rome, Capua proved an untrustworthy Roman ally, so that after the defeat of the Samnites and it was the capital of Campania Felix. In 312 BC, Capua was connected with Rome by the construction of the Via Appia, the most important of the military highways of Italy. The gate by which it left the Servian walls of Rome bore the name Porta Capena, livy and others have suggested that the luxurious conditions were Hannibals Cannae because his troops became soft and demoralized by luxurious living. Historians from Bosworth Smith onwards have been skeptical of this, observing that his troops gave as good an account of themselves in battle after that winter as before. Considerable difficulties occurred in preventing illegal encroachments by private persons, and it was, after that period, let, not to large but to small proprietors. Frequent attempts were made by the leaders to divide the land among new settlers. Brutus in 83 BC actually succeeded in establishing a colony, but it was soon dissolved, the town of Capua belonged to none of these organizations, and was entirely dependent on the praefecti. Its luxury remained proverbial, and Campania is especially spoken of as the home of gladiatorial combats, from the gladiatorial schools of Campania came Spartacus and his followers in 73 BC. The number of colonists was increased by Mark Antony, Augustus, in the war of 69 it took the side of Vitellius. Under Constantine we hear of the foundation of a Christian church in Capua, in 456 it was taken and destroyed by the Vandals under Gaiseric, but must have been soon rebuilt. During the Gothic War, Capua suffered greatly, when the Lombards invaded Italy in the second half of the 6th century, Capua was ravaged, later, it was included in the Duchy of Benevento, and ruled by an official styled gastald. In 839, the prince of Benevento, Sicard, was assassinated by Radelchis I of Benevento, sicards brother Siconulf was proclaimed independent prince in Salerno and the gastald of Capua declared himself independent
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Italic languages
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The Italic languages are a subfamily of the Indo-European language family, originally spoken by Italic peoples. They include Latin and its descendants as well as a number of languages of the Italian Peninsula, including Umbrian, Oscan, Faliscan. With over 800 million native speakers, the Italic languages constitute the second most widely spoken branch of the Indo-European family, in the past, various definitions of Italic have prevailed. This article uses the classification presented by the Linguist List, Italic includes the Latin subgroup as well as the ancient Italic languages, venetic, as revealed by its inscriptions, shared some similarities with the Italic languages and is sometimes classified as Italic. However, since it shares similarities with other Western Indo-European branches. In the extreme view, Italic did not exist, but the different groups descended directly from Indo-European and this view stems in part from the difficulty in identifying a common Italic homeland in prehistory. Moreover, there are similarities between groups, although how these similarities are to be interpreted is one of the major debatable issues in the historical linguistics of Indo-European. The linguist Calvert Watkins went so far as to suggest, among ten major groups and these he considered dialectical divisions within Proto-Indo-European which go back to a period long before the speakers arrived in their historical areas of attestation. The main debate concerning the origin of the Italic languages is the same as that which preoccupied Greek studies for the last half of the 20th century, the Indo-Europeanists for Greek had hypothesized that Greek originated outside Greece and was brought in by invaders. The issue was settled in favour of the origin of Greek being that of a language which had developed from all of these elements and then also taken its recognisable form all within Greece. A proto-Italic homeland outside Italy is just as elusive as the home of the hypothetical Greek-speaking invaders, no early form of Italic is available to match Mycenaean Greek. The Italic languages are first attested in writing from Umbrian and Faliscan inscriptions dating to the 7th century BC, the alphabets used are based on the Old Italic alphabet, which is itself based on the Greek alphabet. The Italic alphabets themselves show minor influence from the Etruscan and somewhat more from the Ancient Greek alphabet, the intermediate phases between Italic and Indo-European are still in deficit, with no guarantee that they ever will be found. The question of whether Italic originated outside Italy or developed by assimilation of Indo-European and other elements within Italy, approximately on or within its current range there, remains. Silvestri says. Common Italic. is certainly not to be seen as a language that can largely be reconstructed. Bakkum defines Proto-Italic as a stage without an independent development of its own, but extending over late PIE. Meisers dates of 4000 BC to 1800 BC he describes as as good a guess as anyones, the Roman conquests eventually spread it throughout the peninsula and beyond in the Roman Empire. It is unknown whether the language spoken by the Sicels in Sicily was Italic or not, from Vulgar Latin the Romance languages emerged
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Greece
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Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, historically also known as Hellas, is a country in southeastern Europe, with a population of approximately 11 million as of 2015. Athens is the capital and largest city, followed by Thessaloniki. Greece is strategically located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, situated on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, the Republic of Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to the northeast. Greece consists of nine regions, Macedonia, Central Greece, the Peloponnese, Thessaly, Epirus, the Aegean Islands, Thrace, Crete. The Aegean Sea lies to the east of the mainland, the Ionian Sea to the west, the Cretan Sea and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. Greece has the longest coastline on the Mediterranean Basin and the 11th longest coastline in the world at 13,676 km in length, featuring a vast number of islands, eighty percent of Greece is mountainous, with Mount Olympus being the highest peak at 2,918 metres. From the eighth century BC, the Greeks were organised into various independent city-states, known as polis, which spanned the entire Mediterranean region and the Black Sea. Greece was annexed by Rome in the second century BC, becoming a part of the Roman Empire and its successor. The Greek Orthodox Church also shaped modern Greek identity and transmitted Greek traditions to the wider Orthodox World, falling under Ottoman dominion in the mid-15th century, the modern nation state of Greece emerged in 1830 following a war of independence. Greeces rich historical legacy is reflected by its 18 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, among the most in Europe, Greece is a democratic and developed country with an advanced high-income economy, a high quality of life, and a very high standard of living. A founding member of the United Nations, Greece was the member to join the European Communities and has been part of the Eurozone since 2001. Greeces unique cultural heritage, large industry, prominent shipping sector. It is the largest economy in the Balkans, where it is an important regional investor, the names for the nation of Greece and the Greek people differ from the names used in other languages, locations and cultures. The earliest evidence of the presence of human ancestors in the southern Balkans, dated to 270,000 BC, is to be found in the Petralona cave, all three stages of the stone age are represented in Greece, for example in the Franchthi Cave. Neolithic settlements in Greece, dating from the 7th millennium BC, are the oldest in Europe by several centuries and these civilizations possessed writing, the Minoans writing in an undeciphered script known as Linear A, and the Mycenaeans in Linear B, an early form of Greek. The Mycenaeans gradually absorbed the Minoans, but collapsed violently around 1200 BC and this ushered in a period known as the Greek Dark Ages, from which written records are absent. The end of the Dark Ages is traditionally dated to 776 BC, the Iliad and the Odyssey, the foundational texts of Western literature, are believed to have been composed by Homer in the 7th or 8th centuries BC. With the end of the Dark Ages, there emerged various kingdoms and city-states across the Greek peninsula, in 508 BC, Cleisthenes instituted the worlds first democratic system of government in Athens
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Naples
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Naples is the capital of the Italian region Campania and the third-largest municipality in Italy, after Rome and Milan. In 2015, around 975,260 people lived within the administrative limits. The Metropolitan City of Naples had a population of 3,115,320, Naples is the 9th-most populous urban area in the European Union with a population of between 3 million and 3.7 million. About 4.4 million people live in the Naples metropolitan area, Naples is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. Bronze Age Greek settlements were established in the Naples area in the second millennium BC, a larger colony – initially known as Parthenope, Παρθενόπη – developed on the Island of Megaride around the ninth century BC, at the end of the Greek Dark Ages. Naples remained influential after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, thereafter, in union with Sicily, it became the capital of the Two Sicilies until the unification of Italy in 1861. Naples was the most-bombed Italian city during World War II, much of the citys 20th-century periphery was constructed under Benito Mussolinis fascist government, and during reconstruction efforts after World War II. The city has experienced significant economic growth in recent decades, and unemployment levels in the city, however, Naples still suffers from political and economic corruption, and unemployment levels remain high. Naples has the fourth-largest urban economy in Italy, after Milan, Rome and it is the worlds 103rd-richest city by purchasing power, with an estimated 2011 GDP of US$83.6 billion. The port of Naples is one of the most important in Europe, numerous major Italian companies, such as MSC Cruises Italy S. p. A, are headquartered in Naples. The city also hosts NATOs Allied Joint Force Command Naples, the SRM Institution for Economic Research, Naples is a full member of the Eurocities network of European cities. The city was selected to become the headquarters of the European institution ACP/UE and was named a City of Literature by UNESCOs Creative Cities Network, the Villa Rosebery, one of the three official residences of the President of Italy, is located in the citys Posillipo district. Naples historic city centre is the largest in Europe, covering 1,700 hectares and enclosing 27 centuries of history, Naples has long been a major cultural centre with a global sphere of influence, particularly during the Renaissance and Enlightenment eras. In the immediate vicinity of Naples are numerous culturally and historically significant sites, including the Palace of Caserta, culinarily, Naples is synonymous with pizza, which originated in the city. Neapolitan music has furthermore been highly influential, credited with the invention of the romantic guitar, according to CNN, the metro stop Toledo is the most beautiful in Europe and it won also the LEAF Award 2013 as Public building of the year. Naples is the Italian city with the highest number of accredited stars from the Michelin Guide, Naples sports scene is dominated by football and Serie A club S. S. C. Napoli, two-time Italian champions and winner of European trophies, who play at the San Paolo Stadium in the south-west of the city, the Phlegraean Fields around Naples has been inhabited since the Neolithic period. The earliest Greek settlements were established in the Naples area in the second millennium BC, sailors from the Greek island of Rhodes established a small commercial port called Parthenope on the island of Megaride in the ninth century BC
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Isis
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Isis is a goddess from the polytheistic pantheon of Egypt. She was first worshiped in ancient Egyptian religion, and later her worship spread throughout the Roman Empire, Isis was worshipped as the ideal mother and wife as well as the patroness of nature and magic. She was the friend of slaves, sinners, artisans and the downtrodden, Isis is often depicted as the mother of Horus, the falcon-headed deity associated with king and kingship. Isis is also known as protector of the dead and goddess of children, as the personification of the throne, she was an important representation of the pharaohs power. The pharaoh was depicted as her child, who sat on the throne she provided. Her cult was popular throughout Egypt, but her most important temples were at Behbeit El Hagar in the Nile delta, and, beginning in the reign with Nectanebo I, on the island of Philae in Upper Egypt. In the typical form of her myth, Isis was the first daughter of Geb, god of the Earth, and Nut, goddess of the Sky and she married her brother, Osiris, and she conceived Horus with him. Isis was instrumental in the resurrection of Osiris when he was murdered by Set, using her magical skills, she restored his body to life after having gathered the body parts that had been strewn about the earth by Set. This myth became very important during the Greco-Roman period, for example, it was believed that the Nile River flooded every year because of the tears of sorrow which Isis wept for Osiris. Osiriss death and rebirth was relived each year through rituals, the worship of Isis eventually spread throughout the Greco-Roman world, continuing until the suppression of paganism in the Christian era. The popular motif of Isis suckling her son Horus, however, the Greek name version of Isis is close to her original, Egyptian name spelling. Isis name was written with the signs of a throne seat. The grammar, spelling and used signs of Isis name never changed during time in any way, however, the symbolic and metaphoric meaning of Isis name remains unclear. The throne seat sign in her name might point to a role as a goddess of kingship. Thus, her name could mean she of the kings throne, but all other Egyptian deities have names that point to clear cosmological or nature elemental roles, thus the name of Isis shouldnt be connected to the king himself. The throne seat symbol might alternatively point to a meaning as throne-mother of the gods and this in turn would supply a very old existence of Isis, long before her first mentioning during the late Old Kingdom, but this hypothesis remains unproven. A third possible meaning might be hidden in the egg-symbol, that was used in Isis name. The egg-symbol always represented motherhood, implying a role of Isis
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San Sebastiano fuori le mura
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San Sebastiano fuori le mura, or San Sebastiano ad Catacumbas, is a basilica in Rome, central Italy. Up to the Great Jubilee of 2000, San Sebastiano was one of the Seven Pilgrim Churches of Rome, built originally in the first half of the 4th century, the basilica is dedicated to St. Sebastian, a popular Roman martyr of the 3rd century. The dedication to Sebastian dates to the 9th century, sebastians remains were moved here around 350. They were transferred to St. Peters in 826, fearing a Saracen assault, the latter, in fact, materialized, and the church was destroyed. The building was refounded under Pope Nicholas I, while the altar was reconsecrated by Honorius III, by request of the Cistercians. In the 13th century the arcade of the nave was walled in. The statue of St Sebastian at the altar in the first chapel on the left is by Giuseppe Giorgetti, noteworthy is the Albani Chapel and designed by Carlo Maratta, Alessandro Specchi, Filippo Barigioni and Carlo Fontana, commissioned by Pope Clement XI, and dedicated to Pope Fabian. Fabian had been Bishop of Rome during the persecution of Decius, flanking the altar, busts of Saints Peter and Paul by Nicolò Cordier recall the first dedication of the basilica. Quirinus of Sescia Pope Fabian St. Sebastian San Sebastiano al Palatino Paolo Coen, Le basiliche giubilari romane, Newton Compton, Rome,1994. Claudio Rendina, Enciclopedia di Roma, Newton Compton, Rome,2000, San Sebastiano fuori le Mura, by Chris Nyborg. San Sebastiano fuori le Mura site
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Pontine Marshes
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The northwestern border runs approximately from the mouth of the river Astura along the river and from its upper reaches to Cori in the Monti Lepini. The former marsh is a low tract of agricultural land created by draining and filling. The area amounts to about 80,000 ha, the Via Appia, a Roman military road constructed in 312 BC, crosses the inland side of the former marsh in a long, straight stretch flanked by trees. Before then, travelers had to use the Via Latina along the flanks of the mountains and it was part of ancient Latium adiectum and still belongs to Lazio. Bordered by the Aurunci Mountains, this land is reclaimed, as well. Leaving Terracina, the Via Appia crosses it, as well, the marsh was an extensive alluvial plain at about sea level created by the failure of the streams draining the mountains to find clearly defined outlets to the sea through the barrier dunes. Above sea level, it was a swamp, below, it was mud flats. Sparsely inhabited throughout much of their history, the Pontine Marshes were the subject of land reclamation work performed periodically. The tribe of the Volsci began with minor draining projects in the vicinity of Tarracina in connection with their occupation of it in the pre-Roman period, the road proved difficult to keep above water. Under Augustus, a compromise was reached with the construction of a parallel canal, the part of the marsh above sea level was successfully drained by channels, and new agricultural land of legendary fertility came into being. Whenever the channels were not maintained, the swamp reappeared, meanwhile, frequent epidemics of malaria at Rome and elsewhere kept the reclamation issue alive. Under Benito Mussolinis regime in the 1930s, the problem was solved by placing dikes. It continues to need constant maintenance, Italian confidence in the project was so high, the city placed by Mussolini in 1932 in the center of the marsh, Latina, became the capital of a new province, Latina. The marsh itself was located in Latium Novum, the part of the region. The two terms create some confusion in the literature, as the region was heavily settled. The underlying land form is a horst–graben, in expansion of the crust causes a section to drop. Underneath the marsh is such a valley, while the steeply sided Volscian Mountains, the graben was formed over a period approximated by the end of the Pliocene about 2.588 million years ago. The natural outcome of this topography was the creation of outer barrier islands
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Swamp
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A swamp is a wetland that is forested. Many swamps occur along rivers where they are critically dependent upon natural water level fluctuations. Other swamps occur on the shores of large lakes, some swamps have hammocks, or dry-land protrusions, covered by aquatic vegetation, or vegetation that tolerates periodic inundation. The two main types of swamp are true or swamp forests and transitional or shrub swamps, in the boreal regions of Canada, the word swamp is colloquially used for what is more correctly termed a bog or muskeg. The water of a swamp may be water, brackish water or seawater. Some of the worlds largest swamps are found along rivers such as the Amazon, the Mississippi. Swamps are characterized by slow-moving to stagnant waters and they are usually associated with adjacent rivers or lakes. Swamps are features of areas with very low topographic relief, historically, humans have drained swamps to provide additional land for agriculture and to reduce the threat of diseases borne by swamp insects and similar animals. Many swamps have also undergone intensive logging, requiring the construction of drainage ditches and these ditches and canals contributed to drainage and, along the coast, allowed salt water to intrude, converting swamps to marsh or even to open water. Large areas of swamp were therefore lost or degraded, louisiana provides a classic example of wetland loss from these combined factors. Europe has probably lost nearly half its wetlands, New Zealand lost 90 percent of its wetlands over a period of 150 years. Ecologists recognise that swamps provide valuable ecological services including flood control, fish production, water purification, carbon storage, in many parts of the world authorities protect swamps. In parts of Europe and North America, swamp restoration projects are becoming widespread, often the simplest steps to restoring swamps involve plugging drainage ditches and removing levees. Swamps and other wetlands have traditionally held a very low property value compared to fields, prairies and they have a reputation for being unproductive land that cannot easily be utilized for human activities, other than perhaps hunting and trapping. Farmers, for example, typically drained swamps next to their fields so as to more land usable for planting crops. Many societies now realize that swamps are important to providing fresh water and oxygen to all life. Indeed, floodplain swamps are important in fish production. Government environmental agencies are taking steps to protect and preserve swamps, in Europe, major effort is being invested in the restoration of swamp forests along rivers
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Ostia Antica
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Ostia Antica is a large archeological site, close to the modern suburb of Ostia, that was the location of the harbour city of ancient Rome, which is approximately 30 kilometres to the northeast. Ostia is a derivation of os, the Latin word for mouth, at the mouth of the River Tiber, Ostia was Romes seaport, but due to silting the site now lies 3 kilometres from the sea. The site is noted for the excellent preservation of its ancient buildings, magnificent frescoes, Ostia may have been Romes first colonia. An inscription seems to confirm the establishment of the old castrum of Ostia in the 7th century BC, the oldest archaeological remains so far discovered date back to only the 4th century BC. The most ancient buildings currently visible are from the 3rd century BC, notably the Castrum, Ostia was a scene of fighting during the period of the civil wars Sullas first civil war between Gaius Marius and Sulla during the 1st century BC. In 87 BC, Marius attacked the city in order to cut off the flow of trade to Rome, forces led by Cinna, Carbo and Sertorius crossed the Tiber at three points before capturing the city and plundering it. After his victory here, Marius moved on to attack and capture Antium, Aricia, in 68 BC, the town was sacked by pirates. During the sack, the port was set on fire, the war fleet was destroyed. Within a year, the pirates had been defeated, the town was then re-built, and provided with protective walls by the statesman and orator Marcus Tullius Cicero. During Julius Caesars time as Dictator, one of his improvements to the city was his establishment of better supervision of the supply of grain to Rome and he proposed better access to grain by the use of a new harbor in Ostia along with a canal from Tarracina. The town was developed during the first century AD under the influence of Tiberius. The town was also enriched by the construction of a new harbor on the northern mouths of the Tiber. The new harbor, not surprisingly called Portus, from the Latin for harbor, was excavated from the ground at the orders of the emperor Claudius. This harbor became silted up and needed to be supplemented later by a built by Trajan finished in the year 113 AD, it has a hexagonal form. Moreover, it must remember also that at a short distance. These elements took business away from Ostia itself and began its commercial decline, Ostia itself was provided with all the services a town of the time could require, in particular, a famous lighthouse. By 1954 eighteen mithraea had been discovered, Mithras had his largest following among the population that were the majority of this port town. Archaeologists also discovered the public latrinae, organised for collective use as a series of seats that allow us to imagine today that their function was also a social one
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Tiber
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It drains a basin estimated at 17,375 square kilometres. The river has achieved lasting fame as the watercourse of the city of Rome. The river rises at Mount Fumaiolo in central Italy and flows in a southerly direction past Perugia. However, it does not form a delta, owing to a strong north-flowing sea current close to the shore, to the steep shelving of the coast. The source of the Tiber consists of two springs 10 metres away from each other on Mount Fumaiolo and these springs are called Le Vene. The springs are in a beech forest 1,268 metres above sea level, during the 1930s, Benito Mussolini placed an antique marble Roman column at the point where the river arises, inscribed QUI NASCE IL FIUME SACRO AI DESTINI DI ROMA. There is an eagle on the top of this column, the first miles of the Tiber run through Valtiberina before entering Umbria. It is probable that the genesis of the name Tiber was pre-Latin, like the Roman name of Tibur, the same root is found in the Latin praenomen Tiberius. There are also Etruscan variants of this praenomen in Thefarie and Teperie, the legendary king Tiberinus, ninth in the king-list of Alba Longa, was said to have drowned in the river Albula, which was afterward called Tiberis. Yet another etymology is from *dubri-, water, considered by Alessio as Sicel and this root *dubri- is widespread in Western Europe e. g. Dover, Portus Dubris. According to the legend, Jupiter made him a god and guardian spirit of the river and this gave rise to the standard Roman depiction of the river as a powerfully built reclining god, also named Tiberinus, with streams of water flowing from his hair and beard. The Tiber was also believed to be the river into which Romulus and Remus were thrown as infants, according to legend, the city of Rome was founded in 753 BC on the banks of the Tiber about 25 kilometres from the sea at Ostia. The island Isola Tiberina in the centre of Rome, between Trastevere and the ancient center, was the site of an important ancient ford and was later bridged. Legend says Romes founders, the twin brothers Romulus and Remus, were abandoned on its waters, the river marked the boundary between the lands of the Etruscans to the west, the Sabines to the east and the Latins to the south. Benito Mussolini, born in Romagna, adjusted the boundary between Tuscany and Emilia-Romagna, so that the springs of the Tiber would lie in Romagna and it was later used to ship stone, timber and foodstuffs to Rome. During the Punic Wars of the 3rd century BC, the harbour at Ostia became a key naval base and it later became Romes most important port, where wheat, olive oil, and wine were imported from Romes colonies around the Mediterranean. Wharves were also built along the riverside in Rome itself, lining the riverbanks around the Campus Martius area, the Romans connected the river with a sewer system and with an underground network of tunnels and other channels, to bring its water into the middle of the city. Wealthy Romans had garden-parks or horti on the banks of the river in Rome up through the first century BC and these may have been sold and developed about a century later
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Via Latina
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The Via Latina was a Roman road of Italy, running southeast from Rome for about 200 kilometers. It led from the Porta Latina in the Aurelian walls of Rome to the pass of Mons Algidus and it follows, too, a far more natural line of communication, without the engineering difficulties that the arrow-straight Via Appia had to overcome. As a through-route, it preceded the Via Labicana, though the latter may have been preferred in later times, at Fregellae, it crossed the Liri, and then passed through Aquino and Cassino, both comparatively low-lying towns. In later times, however, there was in all probability a shortcut by Rufrae along the line taken by the modern highroad and railway. The distance from Rome to Casilinum was 129 Roman miles by the Via Appia,135 Roman miles by the old Via Latina through Venafrum,126 Roman miles by the shortcut past Rufrae. Tombs of Via Latina This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Latina. T. Ashby in Papers of the British School at Rome iv
29.
Monti Lepini
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The Monti Lepini are a mountain range which belongs to the Anti-Apennines of the Lazio region of central Italy, between the two provinces of Latina and Rome. The range borders to the north with the Colli Albani, to the east with the Ciociaria, to the south with the Monti Ausoni, the highest peak is the Monte Semprevisa. The name derives probably from the Latin lapis, referring to the limestone rocks. In ancient times the area was settled by the Volsci, the most striking natural feature is the Gardens of Ninfa. There are also numerous grottoes, including some of the most significant in central Italy, the wildlife of the mountains includes peregrine falcons, griffons and Apennine wolves
30.
First Samnite War
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The First, Second, and Third Samnite Wars were fought between the Roman Republic and the Samnites, who lived on a stretch of the Apennine Mountains to the south of Rome and the north of the Lucanians. The first of these wars was the result of Romes intervening to rescue the Campanian city of Capua from a Samnite attack. The second one was the result of Romes intervention in the politics of the city of Naples and developed into a contest over the control of much of central, the third war also involved a struggle over the control of this part of Italy. The Samnites were one of early Romes most formidable rivals, by the time of the first of these wars, the southward expansion of Rome’s territory had reached the River Liris, which was the boundary between Latium and Campania. This river is now called Garigliano and it is the boundary between the regions of Lazio and Campania. In those days the name Campania referred to the plain between the coast and the Apennine Mountains which stretched from the River Liris down to the bays of Naples, the northern part of this area was inhabited by the Sidicini, the Aurunci and the Ausoni. The central and southern part was inhabited by the Campanians, who were people who had migrated from Samnium and were related to the Samnites. The Samnites were a confederation of four tribes who lived on the mountains to the east of Campania and were the most powerful people in the area, the Samnites, Campanians and Sidicini spoke Oscan languages. Their languages were part of the Osco-Umbrian linguistic family which also included Umbrian, the Lucanians who lived to the south were also Oscan speakers. Diodorus Siculus and Livy report that in 354 BC Rome and the Samnites concluded a treaty, modern historians have proposed that the treaty established the river Liris as the boundary between their spheres of influence, with Romes lying to its north and the Samnites to its south. This arrangement broke down when the Romans intervened south of the Liris to rescue the Campanian city of Capua from an attack by the Samnites. Livy is the only preserved source to give an account of the war which has become known in modern historiography as the First Samnite War. In addition, the Fasti Triumphales records two Roman triumphs dating to this war and some of the described by Livy are also mentioned by other ancient writers. According to Livy, the First Samnite War started not because of any enmity between Rome and the Samnites, but due to outside events, the spark came when the Samnites without provocation attacked the Sidicini, a tribe living north of Campania with their chief settlement at Teanum Sidicinum. Unable to stand against the Samnites, the Sidicini sought help from the Campanians, However, Livy continues, the Samnites defeated the Campanians in a battle in Sidicine territory and then turned their attention toward Campania. First they seized the Tifata hills overlooking Capua and, having left a force to hold them. There they defeated the Campanians in a battle and drove them within their walls. This compelled the Campanians to ask Rome for help, at Rome, the Campanian ambassadors were admitted to an audience with the Senate
31.
Latin League
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The Latin League was an ancient confederation of about 30 villages and tribes in the region of Latium near the ancient city of Rome, organized for mutual defense. The term Latin League is one coined by modern historians with no precise Latin equivalent and it was originally created for protection against enemies from surrounding areas under the leadership of the city of Alba Longa. An incomplete fragment of a recorded by Cato the Elder tells us that at one time the league included Tusculum, Aricia, Lanuvium, Lavinium, Cora, Tibur, Pometia. During the reign of Tarquinius Superbus, the Latins were persuaded to acknowledge the leadership of Rome. The treaty with Rome was renewed, and it was agreed that the troops of the Latins would attend on a day to form a united military force with the troops of Rome. That was done, and Tarquin formed combined units of Roman, the early Roman Republic formed an alliance with the Latin League in 493 BC. According to Roman tradition, the treaty, the foedus Cassianum and it provided that both Rome and the Latin League would share loot from military conquests and that any military campaigns between the two would be led by Roman generals. The alliance helped repel attacks from such peoples as the Aequi and the Volsci, tribes of the Apennine Mountains and it is still unclear if the Latins had accepted Rome as one into the League, or if the treaty had been signed as between Rome and the Latin League. The increasing power of Rome gradually led to its domination of the league, the renewal of the original treaty in 358 BC formally established Roman leadership and eventually triggered the outbreak of the Latin War. Following the Roman victory, the league was dissolved, after 338 BC, the end of the Latin league, Rome renamed the cities municipia and established coloniae inside them. This meant that the towns were now ruled by Rome and that the living there were considered Roman colonists. Alba Longa, Ardea, Aricia, Cora, Lanuvium, Lavinium, Pometia, Tibur, and Tusculum
32.
Samnium
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Samnium is a Latin exonym for a region of Southern Italy anciently inhabited by the Samnites. Their own endonyms were Safinim for the country and Safineis for the people, the language of these endonyms and of the population was the Oscan language. However, not all the Samnites spoke Oscan, and not all the Oscan-speakers lived in Samnium, the ancient geographers were unable to relay a precise definition of Samniums borders. Moreover, the areas it included vary depending on the period considered. The main configurations are the borders it had during the floruit of the Oscan speakers, from about 600 BC to about 290 BC and this originary Samnium should not be confused with the later territory of the same name. Romes first Emperor, Augustus, divided Italy into 11 regions, although these entities only served administrative purposes, and were identified with the sole numeral, by scholarly convention the Regio IV has been dubbed Samnium. Ancient Samnium had actually split up into three of the Augustan regions. The name survives in Italian today, but it only a small portion of what it once was - virtually, only the Province of Benevento. Etymologically the name Samnium is generally recognized to be a form of the name of the Sabines, from Safinim, Sabinus, Sabellus and Samnis an Indo-European root can be extracted, *sabh-, which becomes Sab- in Latino-Faliscan and Saf- in Osco-Umbrian, Sabini and *Safineis. The eponymous god of the Sabines, Sabus, seems to support this view, the Greek terms, Saunitai and Saunitis, remain outside the group. Nothing is known of their origin, at some point in prehistory, a population speaking a common language extended over both Samnium and Umbria. Salmon conjectures that it was common Italic and puts forward a date of 600 BC and this date does not necessarily correspond to any historical or archaeological evidence, developing a synthetic view of the ethnology of proto-historic Italy is an incomplete and ongoing task. The linguist, Julius Pokorny, carries the etymology somewhat further back, the general concept is our own kith and kin, Pokornys von eigener Art, Gesamtheit der eigenen Leute, Liebe, Sippegenossen, Sippenangehörigen, and the like. Samnium mostly lay on the Apennine area, it was delimited by Latium to the north, by Lucania to the south, by Campania to the west, and by Apulia to the east. The principal cities of the region were Bovaiamom, renamed Bovianum by Latins and Maleventum, for most of their history the Samnites were landlocked, but during a brief period they controlled parts of both coasts of the Italian peninsula. The Samnites were composed of at least four tribes, the Pentri, the Caraceni, the Caudini and they may have later been joined by the Frentani. The earliest written record of the people is a treaty with the Romans from 354 BC, which set their border at the Liris River. Shortly thereafter the Samnite Wars broke out, they won an important battle against the Roman army in 321 BC, by 290 BC, the Romans were able to break the Samnites power after some hard fought battles
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Colony
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In politics and history, a colony is a territory under the immediate political control of a state, distinct from the home territory of the sovereign. For colonies in antiquity, city-states would often found their own colonies, some colonies were historically countries, while others were territories without definite statehood from their inception. The metropolitan state is the state that rules the colony, in Ancient Greece, the city that founded a colony was known as the metropolis. Mother country is a reference to the state from the point of view of citizens who live in its colony. There is a United Nations list of Non-Self-Governing Territories, unlike a puppet state or satellite state, a colony has no independent international representation, and its top-level administration is under direct control of the metropolitan state. The term informal colony is used by historians to refer to a country under the de facto control of another state. The word colony comes from the Latin word colōnia and this in turn derives from the word colōnus, which means colonist but also implies a farmer. Cologne is an example of a settlement preserving this etymology, other, less obvious settlements that began as Roman colonia include cities from Belgrade to York. A tell-tale sign of a settlement once being a Roman Colony is a city centre with a grid pattern. The terminology is taken from architectural analogy, where a column pillar is beneath the head capital, so colonies are not independently self-controlled, but rather are controlled from a separate entity that serves the capital function. Roman colonies first appeared when the Romans conquered neighbouring Italic peoples and these were small farming settlements that appeared when the Romans had subdued an enemy in war. A colony could take many forms, as a trade outpost or a base in enemy territory. Its original definition as a settlement created by migrating from a central region to an outlying one became the modern definition. Kandahar formed as a Greek colony during the Hellenistic era by Alexander the great in 330 BC, alaska, a colony of Russia from the middle 18th century until sold to the United States in 1867. It became the 49th American state in 1959, angola, a colony of Portugal since the 16th century. Australia was formed as an independent country in 1901 from a federation of six distinct British colonies which were founded between 1788 and 1829, barbados, was a colony of Great Britain important in the Atlantic slave trade. It gained its independence in 1966, brazil, a colony of Portugal since the 16th century. Canada, colonized first by France as New France, then under British rule, congo, Democratic Republic of the, a colony of Belgium from 1908 to 1960
34.
Cales
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Cales was an ancient city of Campania, in todays comune of Calvi Risorta in southern Italy, belonging originally to the Aurunci/Ausoni, on the Via Latina. The Romans captured it in 335 BC and established a colony with Latin rights of 2,500 citizens, cales was initially the centre of the Roman dominion in Campania. To the period after 335 belong numerous silver and bronze coins with the inscription Caleno and it was an important base in the war against Hannibal, and at last refused further contributions for the war. Before 184 BC more settlers were sent there, after the Social War it became a municipium. The fertility of its territory and its manufacture of glazed pottery. At the end of the 3rd century BC it appears as a colony, and in the 5th century it became an episcopal see, which it still is, though it is now a mere village. The cathedral, of the 12th century, has a carved portal, near it are two grottos, which have been used for Christian worship and contain frescoes of the 10th and 11th centuries. Inscriptions name six gates of the town, and there are remains of antiquity, especially of an amphitheatre and theatre, of a supposed temple. A number of tombs belonging to the Roman necropolis were discovered in 1883, aurunca, another city of the Ausones/Aurunci Ausona, another city of the Ausones/Aurunci Attribution This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Ashby, Thomas
35.
Greeks
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The Greeks or Hellenes are an ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus, southern Albania, Turkey, Sicily, Egypt and, to a lesser extent, other countries surrounding the Mediterranean Sea. They also form a significant diaspora, with Greek communities established around the world, many of these regions coincided to a large extent with the borders of the Byzantine Empire of the late 11th century and the Eastern Mediterranean areas of ancient Greek colonization. The cultural centers of the Greeks have included Athens, Thessalonica, Alexandria, Smyrna, most ethnic Greeks live nowadays within the borders of the modern Greek state and Cyprus. The Greek genocide and population exchange between Greece and Turkey nearly ended the three millennia-old Greek presence in Asia Minor, other longstanding Greek populations can be found from southern Italy to the Caucasus and southern Russia and Ukraine and in the Greek diaspora communities in a number of other countries. Today, most Greeks are officially registered as members of the Greek Orthodox Church, the Greeks speak the Greek language, which forms its own unique branch within the Indo-European family of languages, the Hellenic. They are part of a group of ethnicities, described by Anthony D. Smith as an archetypal diaspora people. Both migrations occur at incisive periods, the Mycenaean at the transition to the Late Bronze Age, the Mycenaeans quickly penetrated the Aegean Sea and, by the 15th century BC, had reached Rhodes, Crete, Cyprus and the shores of Asia Minor. Around 1200 BC, the Dorians, another Greek-speaking people, followed from Epirus, the Dorian invasion was followed by a poorly attested period of migrations, appropriately called the Greek Dark Ages, but by 800 BC the landscape of Archaic and Classical Greece was discernible. The Greeks of classical antiquity idealized their Mycenaean ancestors and the Mycenaean period as an era of heroes, closeness of the gods. The Homeric Epics were especially and generally accepted as part of the Greek past, as part of the Mycenaean heritage that survived, the names of the gods and goddesses of Mycenaean Greece became major figures of the Olympian Pantheon of later antiquity. The ethnogenesis of the Greek nation is linked to the development of Pan-Hellenism in the 8th century BC, the works of Homer and Hesiod were written in the 8th century BC, becoming the basis of the national religion, ethos, history and mythology. The Oracle of Apollo at Delphi was established in this period, the classical period of Greek civilization covers a time spanning from the early 5th century BC to the death of Alexander the Great, in 323 BC. It is so named because it set the standards by which Greek civilization would be judged in later eras, the Peloponnesian War, the large scale civil war between the two most powerful Greek city-states Athens and Sparta and their allies, left both greatly weakened. Many Greeks settled in Hellenistic cities like Alexandria, Antioch and Seleucia, two thousand years later, there are still communities in Pakistan and Afghanistan, like the Kalash, who claim to be descended from Greek settlers. The Hellenistic civilization was the period of Greek civilization, the beginnings of which are usually placed at Alexanders death. This Hellenistic age, so called because it saw the partial Hellenization of many non-Greek cultures and this age saw the Greeks move towards larger cities and a reduction in the importance of the city-state. These larger cities were parts of the still larger Kingdoms of the Diadochi, Greeks, however, remained aware of their past, chiefly through the study of the works of Homer and the classical authors. An important factor in maintaining Greek identity was contact with barbarian peoples and this led to a strong desire among Greeks to organize the transmission of the Hellenic paideia to the next generation
36.
Taranto
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Taranto is a coastal city in Apulia, Southern Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Taranto and is an important commercial port as well as the main Italian naval base and it is the third-largest continental city of Southern Italy, according to 2011 population census, it has a population of 200,154. Taranto is an important commercial and military port and it has well-developed steel and iron foundries, oil refineries, chemical works, some shipyards for building warships, and food-processing factories. In ancient times around 500 BC the city was one of the largest in the world with population estimates up to 300,000 people, Tarantos pre-history dates back to 706 BC when it was founded as a Greek colony, established by the Spartans. The islets of S. Pietro and S. Paolo, collectively known as Cheradi Islands, protect the bay, called Mar Grande, another bay, called Mar Piccolo, is formed by the peninsula of the old city, and has flourishing fishing. Mar Piccolo is a port with strategic importance. At the end of the 19th century, a channel was excavated to allow ships to enter the Mar Piccolo harbour. In addition, the islets and the coast are strongly fortified, because of the presence of these two bays, Taranto is also called the city of the two seas. The Greek colonists from Sparta called the city Taras, after the mythical hero Taras, while the Romans, the natural harbor at Taranto made it a logical home port for the Italian naval fleet before and during the First World War. During World War II, Taranto became famous as a consequence of the November 1940 British air attack on the Regia Marina naval base stationed here, which today is called the Battle of Taranto. Taranto is also the origin of the name of the Tarantula spider family, Theraphosidae. In ancient times, residents of the town of Taranto, upon being bitten by the large local Wolf Spider, Lycosa tarentula and this was done in order to sweat the venom out of their pores, even though the spiders venom was not fatal to humans. The frenetic dance became known as the Tarantella, in geology, Taranto gives its name to the Tarantian Age of the Pleistocene Epoch. It is 14.5 metres above sea level and it was built on a plain running north/north-west–southeast, and surrounded by the Murgia plateau from the north-west to the east. Its territory extends for 209.64 square kilometres and is mostly underwater and it is characterised by three natural peninsulas and a man-made island, formed by digging a ditch during the construction of Aragon Castle. The Big Sea is frequently known as the Big Sea bay as that is where ships harbour and it is separated from the Little Sea by a cape which closes the gulf, leading to the artificial island. This island formed the heart of the city and it is connected to the mainland by the Ponte di Porta Napoli. The latter form an archipelago which closes off the arc creating the natural Big Sea bay
37.
Claudia (gens)
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The gens Claudia, sometimes written Clodia, was one of the most prominent patrician houses at Rome. The gens traced its origin to the earliest days of the Roman Republic, plebeian Claudii are found fairly early in Romes history. Some may have descended from members of the family who had passed over to the plebeians. Writing several decades after the fall of the so-called Julio-Claudian dynasty, the patrician Claudii were noted for their pride and arrogance, and intense hatred of the commonalty. In his History of Rome, Niebuhr writes, That house during the course of centuries produced several very eminent, few great men, in all ages it distinguished itself alike by a spirit of haughty defiance, by disdain for the laws, and iron hardness of heart. According to legend, the first of the Claudii was a Sabine, by the name of Attius Clausus, who came to Rome with his retainers in 504 BC, the sixth year of the Republic. At this time, the fledgling Republic was engaged in warfare with the Sabines. When his efforts failed, he defected to the Romans, bringing with him no fewer than five hundred men able to bear arms, according to Dionysius. Clausus, who exchanged his Sabine name for the Latin Appius Claudius, was enrolled among the patricians, the emperor Claudius is said to have referred to these traditions in a speech made before the Roman Senate, in which he argued in favor of admitting Gauls to that body. My ancestors, the most ancient of whom was made at once a citizen, by imperial times, the influence of the Claudii was so great that the poet Virgil flattered them by a deliberate anachronism. In his Aeneid, he makes Attius Clausus a contemporary of Aeneas, to whose side he rallies with a host of quirites, the nomen Claudius, originally Clausus, is usually said to be derived from the Latin adjective claudus, meaning lame. As a cognomen, Claudus is occasionally found in other gentes, however, since there is no tradition that any of the early Claudii were lame, the nomen might refer to some ancestor of Attius Clausus. It could also have been metaphorical, or ironic, and the possibility remains that this derivation is erroneous. The metathesis of Clausus into Claudius, and its common by-form, Clodius, involves the alternation of o and au, which seems to have been common in words of Sabine origin. The alternation of s and d occurs in words borrowed from Greek, Latin rosa from Greek rhodos, the name could have come from Greek settlers in Latium, but there is no evidence in favor of this hypothesis. The early Claudii favored the praenomina Appius, Gaius, and Publius and these names were used by the patrician Claudii throughout their history. Tiberius was used by the family of the Claudii Nerones, while Marcus, the plebeian Claudii seem to have used all of the praenomina that the patrician Claudii used, as well as Quintus, Sextus, and at least occasionally Lucius. The praenomen Appius is often said to have unique to the Claudii
38.
Sabines
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The Sabines were an Italic tribe which lived in the central Apennines of ancient Italy, also inhabiting Latium north of the Anio before the founding of Rome. The above names, English, Latin, and Greek, are all exonyms, the Sabines divided into two populations just after the founding of Rome, which is described by Roman legend. The division, however it came about, is not legendary, the population closer to Rome transplanted itself to the new city and united with the pre-existing citizenry, beginning a new heritage that descended from the Sabines but was also Latinized. The second population remained a mountain tribal state, coming finally to war against Rome for its independence along with all the other Italic tribes, after losing, it became assimilated into the Roman Republic. There is little record of the Sabine language, however, there are some glosses by ancient commentators, there are also personal names in use on Latin inscriptions from Sabine country, but these are given in Latin form. Robert Seymour Conway, in his Italic Dialects, gives approximately 100 words which vary from being well attested as Sabine to being possibly of Sabine origin, in addition to these he cites place names derived from the Sabine, sometimes giving attempts at reconstructions of the Sabine form. Based on all the evidence, the Linguist List tentatively classifies Sabine as a member of the Umbrian Group of Italic languages of Indo-European family, latin-speakers called the Sabines original territory, straddling the modern regions of Lazio, Umbria, and Abruzzo, Sabinium. To this day, it bears the ancient tribes name in the Italian form of Sabina, within the modern region of Lazio, Sabina constitutes a sub-region, situated north-east of Rome, around Rieti. According to Dionysius of Halicarnassus, many Roman historians regarded the origins of indigenous Romans to be Greek, the Sabines, specifically, were first mentioned in Dionysiuss account for having captured by surprise the city of Lista, which was regarded as the mother-city of the Aborigines. Ancient historians were still debating the specific origins of the Sabines, zenodotus of Troezen claimed that the Sabines were originally Umbrians that changed their name after being driven from the Reatine territory by the Pelasgians. However, Porcius Cato argued that the Sabines were a populace named after Sabus, in another account mentioned in Dionysiuss work, a group of Lacedaemonians fled Sparta since they regarded the laws of Lycurgus as too severe. In Italy, they founded the Spartan colony of Foronia and some from that colony settled among the Sabines, according to the account, the Sabine habits of belligerence and frugality were known to have derived from the Spartans. Plutarch also states in the Life of Numa Pompilius, Sabines, legend says that the Romans abducted Sabine women to populate the newly built Rome. The resultant war ended only by the women throwing themselves and their children between the armies of their fathers and their husbands, the Rape of the Sabine Women became a common motif in art, the women ending the war is a less frequent but still reappearing motif. According to Livy, after the conflict, the Sabine and Roman states merged, three new centuries of Equites were introduced at Rome, including one named Tatienses, after the Sabine king. A variation of the story is recounted in the book of Jasher. Tradition suggests that the population of the early Roman kingdom was the result of a union of Sabines, some of the gentes of the Roman republic were proud of their Sabine heritage, such as the Claudia gens, assuming Sabinus as a cognomen or agnomen. Ancient peoples of Italy Hostus Hostilius Ovid, Fasti Ovid, Ars Amatoria Livy, Ab urbe condita Cicero, De Republica Plutarch, Parallel Lives Juvenal, Satires Donaldson, John William
39.
Aqua Appia
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The Aqua Appia was the first Roman aqueduct, constructed in 312 BC by the co-censors Gaius Plautius Venox and Appius Claudius Caecus, the same Roman censor who also built the important Via Appia. The Appia fed the city with an estimated 73,000 cubic metres of water per day and its source was said by Frontinus to be about 780 paces away from via Praenestina. It flowed for 16.4 km to Rome from the east, after entering the hilly area of Rome, the aqueduct alternated between tunnels through the Caelian and Aventine Hills and an elevated section. A detailed modern model of ancient Rome shows the running along the top of the Servian Wall above the Porta Capena. It dropped only 10 m over its length, making it a remarkable engineering achievement for its day. The Appia ended at the Clivus Publicus at a place called Salinae below the Aventine Hill, the water was distributed to twenty reservoirs through piping. Romes first aqueduct was in response to the city and population which may have suffered a prolonged drought. The Aqua Appia was the first test of Roman engineering of its type and is quite unsophisticated in comparison to Romes ten other aqueducts, raffaelo Fabretti, one of the first to excavate the Appia, characterises it as The first fruits of Romes Foresight and greatness. Nevertheless the Appia was kept in use into the era of Augustus Caesar through regular maintenance, renovations, although there were no formal Roman predecessors for the Aqua Appia, there were plenty of examples that existed in the Greek and Etruscan world. Greek influence came from their use of pipes that were laid along the bottom of a channel or a large tunnel. This technique relates to the Roman technique in that it uses a channel within a larger tunnel. A. Etruscan water channels are generally believed to have a great amount of influence on the Roman Aqua Appia. Their expertise in underground tunnelling served the function of draining water rather than supplying water, nevertheless, undoubtedly the Romans gained much practical knowledge in underground water channelling from the Etruscans. However, Appius kept his position by various subterfuges in order to extend his term to finish the Via Appia, nevertheless, the exact location of the source is unknown but the general location can be pinpointed. It is probable that the Appia had as a one group of springs with a single collecting basin or reservoir. The source is thought to have come from the bottom of the Alban Hills in which a stretch of marshland held the springs fed the Appia. From the reservoir of the source of the Appia, the water was directed into a conduit which ran for 10 1/3 miles into the city. The conduit was carved out of the bedrock and the walls of the channel were lined with carved tufa stone, furthermore, the stones were poorly cut and poorly fitted which speaks to the structural integrity of the conduit
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Roman consul
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A consul was the highest elected political office of the Roman Republic, and the consulship was considered the highest level of the cursus honorum. Each year, two consuls were elected together, to serve for a one-year term, the consuls alternated in holding imperium each month, and a consuls imperium extended over Rome, Italy, and the provinces. Originally, consuls were called praetors, referring to their duties as the military commanders. By at least 300 BC the title of Consul was being used, in Greek, the title was originally rendered as στρατηγός ὕπατος, strategos hypatos, and later simply as ὕπατος. The consul was believed by the Romans to date back to the establishment of the Republic in 509 BC. These remained in place until the office was abolished in 367/366 BC, consuls had extensive powers in peacetime, and in wartime often held the highest military command. Additional religious duties included certain rites which, as a sign of their formal importance, consuls also read auguries, an essential step before leading armies into the field. Two consuls were elected each year, serving together, each with power over the others actions. It is thought that only patricians were eligible for the consulship. Consuls were elected by the Comitia Centuriata, which had a bias in its voting structure which only increased over the years from its foundation. If a consul died during his term or was removed from office, a consul elected to start the year - called a consul ordinarius - held more prestige than a suffect consul, partly because the year would be named for ordinary consuls. The first plebeian consul, Lucius Sextius, was elected the following year and it is possible that only the chronology has been distorted, but it seems that one of the first consuls, Lucius Junius Brutus, came from a plebeian family. Another possible explanation is that during the 5th century social struggles, during times of war, the primary qualification for consul was military skill and reputation, but at all times the selection was politically charged. With the passage of time, the became the normal endpoint of the cursus honorum. When Lucius Cornelius Sulla regulated the cursus by law, the age of election to consul became. Beginning in the late Republic, after finishing a year, a former consul would usually serve a lucrative term as a proconsul. The most commonly chosen province for the proconsulship was Cisalpine Gaul, throughout the early years of the Principate although the consuls were still formally elected by the Comitia Centuriata, they were in fact nominated by the princeps. It was a post that would be occupied by a man halfway through his career, in his early thirties for a patrician, emperors frequently appointed themselves, or their protégés or relatives, consuls, even without regard to the age requirements
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Mortar (masonry)
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In its broadest sense mortar includes pitch, asphalt, and soft mud or clay, such as used between mud bricks. Mortar comes from Latin mortarium meaning crushed, mortars are typically made from a mixture of sand, a binder, and water. The most common binder since the early 20th century is Portland cement, there are several types of cement mortars and additives. The first mortars were made of mud and clay, because of a lack of stone and an abundance of clay, Babylonian constructions were of baked brick, using lime or pitch for mortar. According to Roman Ghirshman, the first evidence of using a form of mortar was at the Mehrgarh of Baluchistan in Pakistan. The ancient sites of Harappan civilization of third millennium BCE are built with kiln-fired bricks, gypsum mortar, also called plaster of Paris, was used in the construction of the Egyptian pyramids and many other ancient structures. It is made from gypsum, which requires a firing temperature. It is therefore easier to make lime mortar and sets up much faster which may be a reason it was used as the typical mortar in ancient, brick arch. Gypsum mortar is not as durable as other mortars in damp conditions, in early Egyptian pyramids, which were constructed during the Old Kingdom, the limestone blocks were bound by mortar of mud and clay, or clay and sand. In later Egyptian pyramids, the mortar was made of gypsum or lime. Gypsum mortar was essentially a mixture of plaster and sand and was quite soft, in the Indian subcontinent, multiple cement types have been observed in the sites of the Indus Valley Civilization, such as the Mohenjo-daro city-settlement that dates to earlier than 2600 BCE. Bitumen mortar was used at a lower-frequency, including in the Great Bath at Mohenjo-daro. Historically, building with concrete and mortar next appeared in Greece, the excavation of the underground aqueduct of Megara revealed that a reservoir was coated with a pozzolanic mortar 12 mm thick. This aqueduct dates back to c.500 BCE, pozzolanic mortar is a lime based mortar, but is made with an additive of volcanic ash that allows it to be hardened underwater, thus it is known as hydraulic cement. The Greeks obtained the volcanic ash from the Greek islands Thira and Nisiros, or from the then Greek colony of Dicaearchia near Naples, the Romans later improved the use and methods of making what became known as pozzolanic mortar and cement. Even later, the Romans used a mortar without pozzolana using crushed terra cotta, introducing aluminum oxide and this mortar was not as strong as pozzolanic mortar, but, because it was denser, it better resisted penetration by water. Hydraulic mortar was not available in ancient China, possibly due to a lack of volcanic ash, around 500 CE, sticky rice soup was mixed with slaked lime to make an inorganic−organic composite mortar that had more strength and water resistance than lime mortar. It is not understood how the art of making hydraulic mortar and cement, during the Middle Ages when the Gothic cathedrals were being built, the only active ingredient in the mortar was lime
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Circus of Maxentius
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The Circus of Maxentius is an ancient structure in Rome, Italy, it is part of a complex of buildings erected by emperor Maxentius on the Via Appia between AD306 and 312. It is part of the Parco Regionale Appia Antica, the Circus itself is the best preserved in the area of Rome, and is second only in size to the Circus Maximus in Rome. The only games recorded at the circus were its inaugural ones and they would have been held in honour of Maxentius son Valerius Romulus, who died in AD309 at a very young age and who was probably interred in the adjacent cylindrical tomb. The complex was never used after the death of Maxentius in AD312. The circus is constructed, after the fashion of many Roman buildings of this period, the putlog holes which held the scaffolding are evident in many places in the walls, which stand several metres high in places. The modern-day visitor enters the circus from the west end, where the remains of the two still imposing towers are located and these would have contained the mechanism for raising the carceres, which were positioned on an arcuated course between the towers. Once out of the gates, the chariots would race down the track, the track was excavated in the 19th century by Antonio Nibby, whose discovery of an inscription to the divine Romulus led to the circus being positively identified with Maxentius. The spina, the running down the middle of the track, is exactly 1000 Roman feet long. Its many ornaments, including cones, metae and obelisks, would have cast strange, in the centre stood the Obelisk of Domitian which Maxentius presumably had moved from the Isaeum as part of the tribute to his son. Covered in hieroglyphs and lying broken in five pieces it was discussed during the Renaissance. At the east end of the track is a triumphal arch. The judges box was located about two-thirds of the way down on the side of the track. The imperial box, the remains of which are identifiable, was situated in the fashion to give the most dramatic views of the race. Directly opposite the box, in the south track wall, there is a small arch. The progenitor of these residences was of course the Palatine complex in Rome, the most instructive imperial parallel for the Via Appia complex is that of Maxentiuss contemporary Galerius at Thessaloniki, though Diocletians Palace at Split furnishes some useful comparisons. The inaugural games became funeral games, and these, like the circus, were dedicated to the now deified Romulus. Maxentius died just three years after Romulus, at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge, when he was defeated by Constantine the Great, the circus is under the care of the Soprintendenza Archeologica di Roma, and is open to the public. It is accessible via a bus runs regularly from the Metropolitana stop called Colli Albani
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Roman Forum
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The Roman Forum is a rectangular forum surrounded by the ruins of several important ancient government buildings at the center of the city of Rome. Citizens of the ancient city referred to this space, originally a marketplace, as the Forum Magnum, here statues and monuments commemorated the citys great men. The teeming heart of ancient Rome, it has called the most celebrated meeting place in the world. Many of the oldest and most important structures of the ancient city were located on or near the Forum, the Roman kingdoms earliest shrines and temples were located on the southeastern edge. Other archaic shrines to the northwest, such as the Umbilicus Urbis and this is where the Senate—as well as Republican government itself—began. The Senate House, government offices, tribunals, temples, memorials, over time the archaic Comitium was replaced by the larger adjacent Forum and the focus of judicial activity moved to the new Basilica Aemilia. Some 130 years later, Julius Caesar built the Basilica Julia, along with the new Curia Julia, eventually much economic and judicial business would transfer away from the Forum Romanum to the larger and more extravagant structures to the north. The reign of Constantine the Great saw the construction of the last major expansion of the Forum complex—the Basilica of Maxentius and this returned the political center to the Forum until the fall of the Western Roman Empire almost two centuries later. This is the case despite attempts, with success, to impose some order there, by Sulla, Julius Caesar, Augustus. By the Imperial period, the public buildings that crowded around the central square had reduced the open area to a rectangle of about 130 by 50 metres. Its long dimension was oriented northwest to southeast and extended from the foot of the Capitoline Hill to that of the Velian Hill, the Forums basilicas during the Imperial period—the Basilica Aemilia on the north and the Basilica Julia on the south—defined its long sides and its final form. The Forum proper included this square, the buildings facing it and, sometimes, originally, the site of the Forum had been a marshy lake where waters from the surrounding hills drained. This was drained by the Tarquins with the Cloaca Maxima, because of its location, sediments from both the flooding of the Tiber and the erosion of the surrounding hills have been raising the level of the Forum floor for centuries. Excavated sequences of remains of paving show that sediment eroded from the hills was already raising the level in early Republican times. As the ground around buildings rose, residents simply paved over the debris that was too much to remove and its final travertine paving, still visible, dates from the reign of Augustus. Excavations in the 19th century revealed one layer on top of another, the deepest level excavated was 3.60 metres above sea level. Archaeological finds show human activity at that level with the discovery of carbonised wood, an important function of the Forum, during both Republican and Imperial times, was to serve as the culminating venue for the celebratory military processions known as Triumphs. Victorious generals entered the city by the western Triumphal Gate and circumnavigated the Palatine Hill before proceeding from the Velian Hill down the Via Sacra, from here they would mount the Capitoline Rise up to the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus on the summit of the Capitol
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Servian Wall
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The Servian Wall was an ancient Roman defensive barrier constructed around the city of Rome in the early 4th century BC. It is presumed that the wall is named after the sixth Roman King, due to the ease with which the Gauls entered the city, it is conjectured that at some time previous to this, Rome had been forced by its Etruscan rulers to dismantle any significant prior defenses. The wall was built from blocks of tuff quarried from the Grotta Oscura quarry near Romes early rival Veii. In addition to the blocks, some sections of the structure incorporated a deep fossa, or ditch in front of it, along part of its topographically weaker northern perimeter was an agger, a defensive ramp of earth heaped up to the wall along the inside. This thickened the wall, and also gave defenders a base to stand while repelling any attack, the wall was also outfitted with defensive war engines, including catapults. The Servian Wall was formidable enough to repel Hannibal during the Second Punic War, Hannibal famously invaded Italy across the Alps with elephants, and had crushed several Roman armies in the early stages of the war. However, the wall was never put to the test as Hannibal only once, in 211 BC, brought his Carthaginian army to Rome as part of a feint to draw the Roman army from Capua. When it was clear that this had failed, he turned away, without approaching closer than 3 miles to Rome, as a Roman army sallied out of the Servian walls, during the Roman civil wars, the Servian walls were repeatedly overrun. The wall was maintained through the end of the Republic. By this time, Rome had already begun to grow outside the original Servian Wall. The organization of Rome into regions under Augustus placed regions II, III, IV, VI, VIII, X, the wall became unnecessary as Rome became well protected by the ever-expanding military strength of the Republic and of the later Empire. As the city continued to grow and prosper, it was essentially unwalled for the first three centuries of the Empire, when German tribes made further incursions along the Roman frontier in the 3rd century AD, Emperor Aurelian had the larger Aurelian Walls built to protect Rome. Sections of the Servian Wall are still visible in various locations around Rome, the largest section is preserved just outside Termini Station, the main railway station in Rome. Another notable section on the Aventine incorporates an arch for a defensive catapult from the late Republic, the following lists the gates that are believed to have been built, clockwise from the westernmost. Porta Flumentana – this gate was where the via Aurelia entered Rome after crossing the Tiber River, porta Carmentalis – the western end of the Capitoline. Porta Fontinalis – led from the end of the Capitoline into the Campus Martius along the via Lata. Porta Sanqualis – on the Quirinal, porta Salutaris – on the Quirinal. Porta Quirinalis – on the Quirinal, porta Collina – the northernmost gate, on the Quirinal, leading to the via Salaria
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Porta Capena
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The Porta Capena was a gate in the Servian Wall near the Caelian Hill, in Rome, Italy according to Roman tradition the sacred grove where Numa Pompilius and the nymph Egeria would meet. It was one of the entries to the city of Rome. The origin of the name is unknown, although it may refer to the fact that the leads to Capua. A well at the Porta Capena provided holy water for the ceremony of Mercuralia. According to 1st century AD writer Juvenal, the Porta Capena was frequented by beggars, in particular, he says that it was a common place for Jewish beggars. Porta Capena square hosts the FAO headquarters, between 1937 and 2004, it was home to the obelisk of Axum. The Porta Capena was featured as a location visited by the Cornelii family in the popular Latin textbook series, Ecce Romani
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Aurelian Wall
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The Aurelian Walls are a line of city walls built between 271 AD and 275 AD in Rome, Italy, during the reign of the Roman Emperors Aurelian and Probus. They superseded the earlier Servian Wall built during the 4th century BC, the walls enclosed all the seven hills of Rome plus the Campus Martius and, on the right bank of the Tiber, the Trastevere district. The river banks within the city appear to have been left unfortified. The size of the enclosed area is 1,400 hectares. The full circuit ran for 19 kilometres surrounding an area of 13.7 square kilometres, the walls were constructed in brick-faced concrete,3.5 metres thick and 8 metres high, with a square tower every 100 Roman feet. In the 4th century, remodelling doubled the height of the walls to 16 metres, by 500 AD, the circuit possessed 383 towers,7,020 crenellations,18 main gates,5 postern gates,116 latrines, and 2,066 large external windows. By the third century AD, the boundaries of Rome had grown far beyond the area enclosed by the old Servian Wall, Rome had remained unfortified during the subsequent centuries of expansion and consolidation due to lack of hostile threats against the city. The citizens of Rome took great pride in knowing that Rome required no fortifications because of the stability brought by the Pax Romana and the protection of the Roman Army. However, the need for updated defences became acute during the crisis of the Third Century, when barbarian tribes flooded through the Germanic frontier and the Roman Army struggled to stop them. In 270, the barbarian Juthungi and Vandals invaded northern Italy, further trouble broke out in Rome itself in the summer of 271, when the mint workers rose in rebellion. Several thousand people died in the fighting that resulted. The construction of the walls was by far the largest building project that had taken place in Rome for many decades, the construction project was unusually left to the citizens themselves to complete as Aurelian could not afford to spare a single legionary for the project. The walls were built in the time of only five years. Progress was accelerated, and money saved, by incorporating existing buildings into the structure and these included the Amphitheatrum Castrense, the Castra Praetoria, the Pyramid of Cestius, and even a section of the Aqua Claudia aqueduct near the Porta Maggiore. As much as a sixth of the walls is estimated to have composed of pre-existing structures. An area behind the walls was cleared and sentry passages were built to enable it to be reinforced quickly in an emergency, the actual effectiveness of the wall is disputable, given the relatively small size of the citys garrison. The entire combined strength of the Praetorian Guard, cohortes urbanae, instead, they carried out hit-and-run raids against ill-defended targets. The wall was a deterrent against such tactics, parts of the wall were doubled in height by Maxentius, who also improved the watch-towers
[physics.hist-ph].
