Carfizzi
Carfizzi is an Arbëreshë comune in the Province of Crotone, Italy
Belvedere di Spinello
Belvedere di Spinello is a comune and town in the province of Crotone, in Calabria, southern Italy. It is formed by two separate villages and Spinello, unified into a single commune in 1863. Rho, since 2014 Erding, since 2014
Santa Severina
Santa Severina is a town and comune in the province of Crotone, in the Calabria region of southern Italy. The name derives from ancient Siberine. There is no Saint named Severina in the Roman calendar of saints, it is the birthplace of Pope Zachary and of Henry Aristippus, a religious scholar and writer at the court of the Norman Kingdom of Sicily. The bishopric -established around 400 AD- and -since around 100 AD- Metropolitan Archdiocese of Santa Severina was suppressed on 30 September 1986, its title and territory being merged into the Metropolitan Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Crotone–Santa Severina; the town is bordered by Belvedere di Spinello, Castelsilano, Rocca di Neto, San Mauro Marchesato and Scandale. There is a cultural festival, held each year in August in Santa Severina, focusing on traditional Italian music. Mangalia, Romania Summer festival in Santa Severina Official Homepage of Santa Severina
Cutro
Cutro is a town and comune in the province of Crotone, Calabria region, Italy. It's called "City of chess", it is the place of birth of Vincenzo Iaquinta, World Cup-winning footballer who played for Serie A club Juventus. Cutro was a Greek colony of Magna Graecia, with the name of Kyterion, it obtained the title of city in 1575 by the Spanish King Philip II, after the local chess champion Giò Leonardo Di Bona had won a contest at the Spanish court, become first international winner of chess. Cutro was destroyed by an earthquake on March 8, 1832, it remained the most populous centre of the region until the mid-20th century, when a strong emigration flow towards Germany and northern Italy reduced the number of inhabitants considerably. Giovanni Leonardo Di Bona Vincenzo Iaquinta Rino Gaetano Italian Wikipedia article
Calabria
Calabria, known in antiquity as Bruttium, is a region in Southern Italy. The capital city of Calabria is Catanzaro; the Regional Council of Calabria is based at the Palazzo Campanella in the city of Reggio Calabria. The region is bordered to the north by the Basilicata Region, to the west by the Tyrrhenian Sea, to the east by the Ionian Sea; the region has a population of just under 2 million. The demonym of Calabria is calabrese in Calabrian in English. In ancient times the name Calabria referred, not as in modern times to the toe, but to the heel tip of Italy, from Tarentum southwards, a region nowadays known as Salento. Starting in the third century BC, the name Calabria was given to the Adriatic coast of the Salento peninsula in modern Apulia. In the late first century BC this name came to extend to the entirety of the Salento, when the Roman emperor Augustus divided Italy into regions; the whole region of Apulia received the name Regio II Calabria. By this time modern Calabria was still known as Bruttium, after the Bruttians who inhabited the region.
In the seventh century AD, the Byzantine Empire created the Duchy of Calabria from the Salento and the Ionian part of Bruttium. Though the Calabrian part of the duchy was conquered by the Longobards during the eighth and ninth centuries AD, the Byzantines continued to use the name Calabria for their remaining territory in Bruttium; the modern name Italy derives from Italia, first used as a name for the southern part of modern Calabria. Over time the Greeks started to use it for the rest of the southern Italian peninsula as well. After the Roman conquest of the region, the name was used for the entire Italian peninsula and the Alpine region too; the region is known as the “toe” of the “boot” of Italy and is a long and narrow peninsula which stretches from north to south for 248 km, with a maximum width of 110 km. Some 42% of Calabria's area, corresponding to 15,080 km2, is mountainous, 49% is hilly, while plains occupy only 9% of the region's territory, it is surrounded by the Tyrrhenian seas.
It is separated from Sicily by the Strait of Messina, where the narrowest point between Capo Peloro in Sicily and Punta Pezzo in Calabria is only 3.2 km. Three mountain ranges are present: Pollino, La Sila and Aspromonte. All three mountain ranges are unique with their own fauna; the Pollino Mountains in the north of the region are rugged and form a natural barrier separating Calabria from the rest of Italy. Parts of the area are wooded, while others are vast, wind-swept plateaus with little vegetation; these mountains are home to a rare Bosnian Pine variety and are included in the Pollino National Park. The Pollino National Park has the distinction of being the largest national park in Italy and covers about 1,925.65 square kilometres. La Sila, referred to as the "Great Wood of Italy", is a vast mountainous plateau about 1,200 metres above sea level and stretches for nearly 2,000 square kilometres along the central part of Calabria; the highest point is Botte Donato. The area boasts dense coniferous forests.
La Sila has some of the tallest trees in Italy which are called the "Giants of the Sila" and can reach up to 40 metres in height. The Sila National Park is known to have the purest air in Europe; the Aspromonte massif forms the southernmost tip of the Italian peninsula bordered by the sea on three sides. This unique mountainous structure reaches its highest point at Montalto, at 1,995 metres, is full of wide, man-made terraces that slope down towards the sea. In general, most of the lower terrain in Calabria has been agricultural for centuries, exhibits indigenous scrubland as well as introduced plants such as the prickly pear cactus; the lowest slopes are rich in citrus fruit orchards. The Diamante citron is one of the citrus fruits. Moving upwards and chestnut trees appear while in the higher regions there are dense forests of oak, pine and fir trees. Calabria's climate is influenced by mountains; the Mediterranean climate is typical of the coastal areas with considerable differences in temperature and rainfall between the seasons, with an average low of 8 °C during the winter months and an average high of 30 °C during the summer months.
Mountain areas have a typical mountainous climate with frequent snow during winter. Erratic behavior of the Tyrrhenian Sea can bring heavy rainfall on the western slopes of the region, while hot air from Africa makes the east coast of Calabria dry and warm; the mountains that run along the region influence the climate and temperature of the region. The east coast has wider temperature ranges than the west coast; the geography of the region causes more rain to fall along the west coast than that of the east coast, which occurs during winter and autumn and less during the summer months. Below are the two extremes of climate present in Calabria, both the warm mediterranean subtype on the coastline and the highland climate of Monte Scuro; when describing the geology of Calabria, it is considered as part of the "Calabrian Arc", an arc-shaped geographic domain extending from the southern part of the Basilicata Region to the northeast of Sicily, including the Peloritano Mountains. The Calabrian area shows basement of Paleozoic
Crotone
Crotone is a city and comune in Calabria. Founded c. 710 BC as the Achaean colony of Kroton, it was known as Cotrone from the Middle Ages until 1928, when its name was changed to the current one. In 1992, it became the capital of the newly established Province of Crotone; as of August 2018, its population was about 65,000. Croton's oikistes was Myscellus who came from the city of Rhypes in Achaea in the northern Peloponnese, he established the city in c. 710 BC and it soon became one of the most flourishing cities of Magna Graecia with a population between 50,000 and 80,000 around 500 BC. Its inhabitants were famous for the simple sobriety of their lives. From 588 BC onwards, Croton produced many generations of victors in the Olympics and the other Panhellenic Games, the most famous of whom was Milo of Croton. According to Herodotus, the physicians of Croton were considered the foremost among the Greeks, among them Democedes, son of Calliphon, was the most prominent in the 6th century BC. Accordingly, he traveled around Greece and ended up working in the court of Polycrates, tyrant of Samos.
After the tyrant was murdered, Democedes was captured by the Persians and brought to King Darius, curing him of a dislocated ankle. Democedes' fame was, according to the basis for the prestige of Croton's physicians. Pythagoras founded his school, the Pythagoreans, at Croton c. 530 BC. Among his pupils were the early medical theorist Alcmaeon of Croton and the philosopher and astronomer Philolaus; the Pythagoreans acquired considerable influence with the supreme council of one thousand by which the city was ruled. Sybaris was the rival of Croton until 510 BC, when Croton sent an army of one hundred thousand men, commanded by the wrestler Milo, against Sybaris and destroyed it. Shortly afterwards, however, an insurrection took place, led by a prominent citizen, Cylon, by which the Pythagoreans were driven out and a democracy established. In 480 BC, Croton sent a ship in support of the Greeks at the Battle of Salamis, but the victory of Locri and Rhegium over Croton in the same year marked the beginning of its decline.
It was replaced by Heraclea as headquarters of the Italiote League. Dionysius, the tyrant of Syracuse, aiming at hegemony in Magna Graecia, captured Croton in 379 BC and held it for twelve years. Croton was occupied by the Bruttii, with the exception of the citadel, in which the chief inhabitants had taken refuge. In 295 BC, Croton fell to Agathocles; when Pyrrhus invaded Italy, it was still a considerable city, with twelve miles of walls, but after the Pyrrhic War, half the town was deserted. What was left of its population submitted to Rome in 277 BC. After the Battle of Cannae in the Second Punic War, Croton was betrayed to the Brutii by a democratic leader named Aristomachus, who defected to the Roman side. Hannibal made it his winter quarters for three years and the city was not recaptured until 205 or 204 BC. In 194 BC, it became the site of a Roman colony. Little more is heard of it during the Republican and Imperial periods, though the action of one of the more significant surviving fragments of the Satyricon of Petronius is set in Croton.
Around 550, the city was unsuccessfully besieged by king of the Ostrogoths. At a date it became a part of the Byzantine Empire. Around 841, the Republic of Venice sent a fleet of 60 galleys to assist the Byzantines in driving the Arabs from Crotone, but it failed. About 870, it was sacked by the Saracens, who put to death the bishop and many people who had taken refuge in the cathedral but were not able to occupy the city. Over a hundred years Otto II, Holy Roman Emperor, mounted a campaign in southern Italy to reduce the power of the Byzantines. On Crotone was conquered by the Normans. In 1806, it was occupied and sacked by the English, on by the French. Thereafter it shared the fate of the Kingdom of Naples—including the period of Spanish rule of which the 16th-century castle of Charles V, overlooking modern Crotone, serves as a reminder—and its successor, the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, conquered by the Kingdom of Sardinia in 1860 and incorporated into the new Kingdom of Italy in 1861. Crotone's location between the ports of Taranto and Messina, as well as its proximity to a source of hydroelectric power, favored industrial development during the period between the two World Wars.
In the 1930s its population doubled. However, after the two main employers, Pertusola Sud and Montedison, collapsed by the late 1980s, Crotone was in economic crisis, with many residents losing their jobs and leaving to find work elsewhere. In 1996, the river Esaro flooded the city. Since that low point, the city has risen in quality-of-life rankings. Crotone enjoys a Mediterranean climate; the Cathedral from the 9th to 11th centuries, but rebuilt. It has a neo-classical façade, while the interior has a nave with two aisles, with Baroque decorations. Noteworthy are a baptismal font and the Madonna di Capo Colonna, the icon of the Black Madonna which, according to the tradition, was brought from East in the first years of the Christian era; the 16th-century Castle of Charles V. It houses the Town Museum, with findings excavated in the ancient site of Kroton. Notable are the remnants of the walls, of the same century, of various watchtowers; the ancient castle built on an island, with accessibility
Cicco Simonetta
Francesco Simonetta was an Italian Renaissance statesman. He is remembered for composing an early treatise on cryptography. Francesco, nicknamed Cicco, was born in Caccuri and received a fine education, he studied Latin, Greek and other languages and graduated in civil and canonic law in Naples. As a young man, he entered the service of the Sforza family as a secretary to condottiero Francesco Sforza and rose to the top of the administration, he was soon placed in charge of the city of Lodi. In 1441, Francesco Sforza married Bianca Maria Visconti, illegitimate daughter of Filippo Maria Visconti, 3rd Duke of Milan. On Filippo’s death, the so-called Ambrosian Republic had been set up in Milan by the patrician families. In 1450, Francesco Sforza, backed by the Venetians, laid siege to Milan to combat the aristocrats; the city surrendered after eight months and Francesco made himself ‘‘Capitano del popolo.’’ He was proclaimed duke by the people and by right of his wife. Simonetta entered the ducal chancellery.
This appointment was the beginning of his undisputed domination of the political situation for thirty years. As a reward for his services, he was given the fief of Sartirana, in Lomellina, which he administered with competency and care, he soon became a member of the Secret Council. When he married Elisabetta Visconti in 1452 his fame was widespread. In 1456, he received the honorary citizenship of Novara, followed by those of Lodi and Parma. In 1465, he wrote the Constitutiones et Ordines as a contribution to a better organization of the chancellery, over which he now had complete control. At the death of Francesco Sforza his son Galeazzo Maria succeeded him, his mother Bianca Maria and the other influential families did not approve of his capricious conduct of the state affairs, but Simonetta sided with Galeazzo. In 1474 Simonetta wrote his Rules for Decrypting Enciphered Documents Without a Key for use by his collaborators, although no evidence exists of actual utilization of these rules in the field.
In 1476, Galeazzo was succeeded by his 7-year-old son Gian Galeazzo. His tutor was Bona of Savoy. In this period of unrest, Simonetta's diplomatic activity was intense, he maneuvered in order to maintain stability in the Milanese state during the endemic conflicts between Guelphs and the various wars and interstate alliances. The next year he became ducal secretary, with the powers of a prime minister. Simonetta's power provoked the hatred of Ludovico il Moro, one of the younger brothers of Galeazzo, who plotted to seize the duchy; the main obstacle to his project was the presence of Cicco Simonetta in the city government. After many personal vicissitudes, Ludovico managed to gain the confidence of the duchess and convinced her to arrest Simonetta, he was accused falsely of treason and tortured in Pavia. His house and assets were pillaged, he was beheaded in the tower of the castle, his body was buried in the cloister of Sant’Apollinare, outside the Milan city walls, to mark the end of his influence in the Milanese politics.
During the Sforza rule, the duchy had enjoyed years of prosperity and great expansion despite the political turmoil. Important buildings were erected in the cities. Along with the advent of printing Milan had become a cultural center unequaled in all Europe, until it fell into foreign hands after the death of Ludovico il Moro. Presently a fragment of his tombstone and the name of a narrow street in Milan are the only visible testimonials of this outstanding public figure in the tumultuous scenery of the 15th century in Italy. Cicco Simonetta has been described in the cryptological literature as an important cryptanalyst in consideration of his rules, his work is in reality a collection of hints for solving ciphers that were rather old-fashioned at that time. Contemporary cipher clerks were well equipped to defy the tricks. Nomenclators were in general use, combining small codebooks and large substitution tables with homophones and nulls, his cipher-breaking rules are applicable to dispatches with word divisions, without homophones, nulls or code words.
He says the existence of nomenclators. His notes were anticipated by Leon Battista Alberti in his theoretical, but more comprehensive treatise De Cifris, which earned him the title of Father of Western Cryptology, it was only a century that a scientific treatise devoted to cryptanalysis was written by the French mathematician François Viète. Simonetta might have been involved in cipher work in his early career, but no evidence of such activity has been found. Buonafalce, A. “Cicco Simonetta’s Cipher-Breaking Rules”, Cryptologia XXXII: 1. 62-70. 2008. Colussi, P. Cicco Simonetta, Capro Espiatorio di Ludovico il Moro. Storia di Milano Vol. VII, Milano 1957. Natale, A. R. Ed. I Diari di Cicco Simonetta, Milano 1962. Perret, P.-M. "Les règles de Cicco Simonetta pour le déchiffrement des écritures secrètes" Paris Bibliothèque de l’École des chartes 51 516-525. Pesic, P. “François Viète. Father of Modern Cryptanalysis—Two New Manuscripts”, Cryptologia XXI: 1. 1-29. 1997. Sacco, L. "Un Primato Italiano. La Crittografia nei Secoli XV e XVI", Bollettino dell'Istituto Storico e di Cultura dell'Arma del Genio, December 1947.
Smith, Rev. J. Ed; the Life and Correspondence of Samuel Pepys. 275. 1841. Works by Francesco Simonetta at Project Gutenberg
