1.
Hadrian
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Hadrian was Roman emperor from 117 to 138. He is known for building Hadrians Wall, which marked the limit of Britannia. He also rebuilt the Pantheon and constructed the Temple of Venus, philhellene in most of his tastes, he is considered by some to have been a humanist, and he is regarded as the third of the Five Good Emperors. Hadrian was born Publius Aelius Hadrianus into a Hispano-Roman family, although Italica near Santiponce is often considered his birthplace, his actual place of birth remains uncertain. It is generally accepted that he came from a family with roots in Hispania. His predecessor, Trajan, was a cousin of Hadrians father. Trajan did not designate an heir officially, but according to his wife Pompeia Plotina, Trajans wife and his friend Licinius Sura were well disposed towards Hadrian, and he may well have owed his succession to them. During his reign, Hadrian travelled to every province of the Empire. An ardent admirer of Greece, he sought to make Athens the cultural capital of the Empire and he used his relationship with his Greek lover Antinous to underline his philhellenism, and this led to the establishment of one of the most popular cults of ancient times. Hadrian spent a deal of time with the military, he usually wore military attire and even dined. He ordered rigorous military training and drilling and made use of reports of attacks to keep the army on alert. On his accession to the throne, Hadrian withdrew from Trajans conquests in Mesopotamia, Assyria and Armenia, late in his reign he suppressed the Bar Kokhba revolt in Judaea, renaming the province Syria Palaestina. In 138 Hadrian adopted Antoninus Pius on the condition that he adopt Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus as his own heirs and they would eventually succeed Antoninus as co-emperors. Hadrian died the year at Baiae. In Hadrians time, there was already an established convention that one could not write a contemporary Roman imperial history for fear of competing with the emperors themselves. Information on the history of Hadrians reign comes mostly from later. A general account of his reign is Book 69 of the early 3rd century Roman History by Cassius Dio and his original Greek text of this book is lost, what survives is a brief, much later, Byzantine-era abridgment by the 11th century monk Xiphilinius. He selected from Dios account of Hadrians reign based on his religious interests
2.
Mausoleum
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A mausoleuma is an external free-standing building constructed as a monument enclosing the interment space or burial chamber of a deceased person or people. A monument without the interment is a cenotaph, a mausoleum may be considered a type of tomb, or the tomb may be considered to be within the mausoleum. A Christian mausoleum sometimes includes a chapel, the word derives from the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, the grave of King Mausolus, the Persian satrap of Caria, whose large tomb was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Historically, mausolea were, and still may be, large, however, smaller mausolea soon became popular with the gentry and nobility in many countries. In the Roman Empire, these were often ranged in necropoles or along roadsides, however, when Christianity became dominant, mausoleums were out of use. Later, mausolea became particularly popular in Europe and its colonies during the modern and modern periods. A single mausoleum may be permanently sealed, a mausoleum encloses a burial chamber either wholly above ground or within a burial vault below the superstructure. This contains the body or bodies, probably within sarcophagi or interment niches, modern mausolea may also act as columbaria with additional cinerary urn niches. Mausolea may be located in a cemetery, a churchyard or on private land, in the United States, the term may be used for a burial vault below a larger facility, such as a church. The Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles, California, for example, has 6,000 sepulchral and it is known as the crypt mausoleum. In Europe, these vaults are sometimes called crypts or catacombs. Mausoleum of Mohammed V Bourguiba mausoleum The Dr. John Garang De Mabior mausoleum in Juba, agostinho Netos Mausoleum in Luanda, Angola. Omar Bongos Mausoleum in Franceville, Gabon, kwame Nkrumah Mausoleum Marien Ngouabis mausoleum and Pierre Savorgnan de Brazzas mausoleum in Brazzaville, The Republic of Congo. Mausoleum of the late president Felix Houphouet-Boigny in Yamoussoukro, Côte dIvoire, laurent Kabilas mausoleum in Kinshasa, The Democratic Republic of Congo. The pyramids of ancient Egypt and Nubian pyramids are also types of mausolea, Abdel Nasser Mosque, is the Mausoleum of Gamal Abdel Nasser, in Cairo, Egypt. Unknown Soldier Memorial Royal Mausoleum of Mauretania Al Hussein Mosque, Cairo – Holy Shrine and mausoleum, Qalawun Mausoleum is the Mausoleum of Qalawun, Located in Cairo, Egypt, it was regarded by scholars as the second most beautiful medieval mausoleum ever to be built. Jedars - thirteen ancient monumental Berber mausoleums located south of Tiaret, Late President Eyademas Family Mausoleum in Kara, Togo. Kamuzu Banda Mausoleum, in Lilongwe, Malawi, Dr. Bingu wa Mutharika, President of Malawi built a mausoleum in which his late first wife and Bingu himself are buried
3.
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
4.
Roman emperor
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The Roman emperor was the ruler of the Roman Empire during the imperial period. The emperors used a variety of different titles throughout history, often when a given Roman is described as becoming emperor in English, it reflects his taking of the title Augustus or Caesar. Another title often used was imperator, originally a military honorific, early Emperors also used the title princeps. Emperors frequently amassed republican titles, notably Princeps Senatus, Consul, the first emperors reigned alone, later emperors would sometimes rule with co-Emperors and divide administration of the Empire between them. The Romans considered the office of emperor to be distinct from that of a king, the first emperor, Augustus, resolutely refused recognition as a monarch. Although Augustus could claim that his power was authentically republican, his successor, Tiberius, nonetheless, for the first three hundred years of Roman Emperors, from Augustus until Diocletian, a great effort was made to emphasize that the Emperors were the leaders of a Republic. Elements of the Republican institutional framework were preserved until the end of the Western Empire. The Eastern emperors ultimately adopted the title of Basileus, which had meant king in Greek, but became a title reserved solely for the Roman emperor, other kings were then referred to as rēgas. In addition to their office, some emperors were given divine status after death. The Western Roman Empire collapsed in the late 5th century, Romulus Augustulus is often considered to be the last emperor of the west after his forced abdication in 476, although Julius Nepos maintained a claim to the title until his death in 480. Constantine XI was the last Byzantine Roman emperor in Constantinople, dying in the Fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans in 1453, a Byzantine group of claimant Roman Emperors existed in the Empire of Trebizond until its conquest by the Ottomans in 1461. In western Europe the title of Roman Emperor was revived by Germanic rulers, the Holy Roman Emperors, in 800, at the end of the Roman Republic no new, and certainly no single, title indicated the individual who held supreme power. Insofar as emperor could be seen as the English translation of imperator, then Julius Caesar had been an emperor, however, Julius Caesar, unlike those after him, did so without the Senates vote and approval. Julius Caesar held the Republican offices of four times and dictator five times, was appointed dictator in perpetuity in 45 BC and had been pontifex maximus for a long period. He gained these positions by senatorial consent, by the time of his assassination, he was the most powerful man in the Roman world. In his will, Caesar appointed his adopted son Octavian as his heir, a decade after Caesars death, Octavians victory over his erstwhile ally Mark Antony at Actium put an end to any effective opposition and confirmed Octavians supremacy. His restoration of powers to the Senate and the people of Rome was a demonstration of his auctoritas, some later historians such as Tacitus would say that even at Augustus death, the true restoration of the Republic might have been possible. Instead, Augustus actively prepared his adopted son Tiberius to be his successor, the Senate disputed the issue but eventually confirmed Tiberius as princeps
5.
Michael (archangel)
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Michael is an archangel in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Anglican, and Lutheran traditions, he is called Saint Michael the Archangel, in the Oriental Orthodox and Eastern Orthodox traditions, he is called Taxiarch Archangel Michael or simply Archangel Michael. Michael is mentioned three times in the Book of Daniel, in the New Testament Michael leads Gods armies against Satans forces in the Book of Revelation, where during the war in heaven he defeats Satan. In the Epistle of Jude Michael is specifically referred to as the archangel Michael, by the 6th century, devotions to Archangel Michael were widespread both in the Eastern and Western Churches. Over time, teachings on Michael began to vary among Christian denominations, Michael is mentioned three times in the Hebrew Scriptures, all in the book of Daniel. The prophet Daniel experiences a vision after having undergone a period of fasting, Daniel 10, 13-21 describes Daniels vision of an angel who identifies Michael as the protector of Israel. At Daniel 12,1, Daniel is informed that Michael will arise during the time of the end, the Book of Revelation describes a war in heaven in which Michael, being stronger, defeats Satan. After the conflict, Satan is thrown to earth along with the fallen angels, in the Epistle of Jude 1,9, Michael is referred to as an archangel when he again confronts Satan. A reference to an archangel also appears in the First Epistle to the Thessalonians 4,16 and this archangel who heralds the second coming of Christ is not named, but is often associated with Michael. Michael, is one of the two mentioned in the Quran, alongside Jibreel. In the Quran, Michael is mentioned only, in Sura 2,98, Whoever is an enemy to God, and His angels and His messengers. Then, God is an enemy to the disbelievers, some Muslims believe that the reference in Sura 11,69 is Michael, one of the three angels who visited Abraham. Michaels enmity with Samael dates from the time when the latter was thrown down from heaven, Samael took hold of the wings of Michael, whom he wished to bring down with him in his fall, but Michael was saved by God. But appeal to Michael seems to have more common in ancient times. Thus Jeremiah is said to have addressed a prayer to him, the rabbis declare that Michael entered upon his role of defender at the time of the biblical patriarchs. Thus, according to Rabbi Eliezer ben Jacob, it was Michael who rescued Abraham from the furnace into which he had been thrown by Nimrod. It was Michael, the one that had escaped, who told Abraham that Lot had been taken captive, and he announced to Sarah that she would bear a son and he rescued Lot at the destruction of Sodom. It is said that Michael prevented Isaac from being sacrificed by his father by substituting a ram in his place, later Michael prevented Laban from harming Jacob
6.
Angel
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An angel, especially according to Abrahamic religions and Zoroastrianism, is a spiritual being superior to humans in power and intelligence. Most of them either as intermediaries between Heaven and Earth, or as guardian spirits. They are studied in the doctrine of angelology. In Christian Science, the angel is used to refer to an inspiration from God. In fine art, angels are depicted as having the shape of human beings of extraordinary beauty, they are often identified using the symbols of bird wings, halos. The word angel in English is a blend of Old English engel, both derive from Late Latin angelus messenger, which in turn was borrowed from Late Greek ἄγγελος ángelos. According to R. S. P. Beekes, ángelos itself may be an Oriental loan, the words earliest form is Mycenaean a-ke-ro attested in Linear B syllabic script. The ángelos is the default Septuagints translation of the Biblical Hebrew term mal’ākh denoting simply messenger without specifying its nature. In the Latin Vulgate, however, the meaning becomes bifurcated, if the word refers to some supernatural being, the word angelus appears. Such differentiation has been taken over by later vernacular translations of the Bible, early Christian and Jewish exegetes, in Zoroastrianism there are different angel-like figures. For example, each person has one guardian angel, called Fravashi and they patronize human beings and other creatures, and also manifest Gods energy. In the commentaries of Proclus on the Timaeus of Plato, Proclus uses the terminology of angelic, according to Aristotle, just as there is a First Mover, so, too, must there be spiritual secondary movers. The Torah uses the terms מלאך אלהים, מלאך יהוה, בני אלהים and הקודשים to refer to beings traditionally interpreted as angels, later texts use other terms, such as העליונים. The term מלאך is also used in books of the Tanakh. Depending on the context, the Hebrew word may refer to a messenger or to a supernatural messenger. Daniel is the first biblical figure to refer to individual angels by name, mentioning Gabriel in Daniel 9,21 and these angels are part of Daniels apocalyptic visions and are an important part of all apocalyptic literature. One of these is hāšāṭān, a figure depicted in the Book of Job, philo of Alexandria identifies the angel with the Logos inasmuch as the angel is the immaterial voice of God. The angel is something different from God himself, but is conceived as Gods instrument, in post-Biblical Judaism, certain angels took on particular significance and developed unique personalities and roles
7.
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
8.
Quadriga
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A quadriga is a car or chariot drawn by four horses abreast. It was raced in the Ancient Olympic Games and other contests and it is represented in profile as the chariot of gods and heroes on Greek vases and in bas-relief. The quadriga was adopted in ancient Roman chariot racing, quadrigas were emblems of triumph, Victory and Fame often are depicted as the triumphant woman driving it. In classical mythology, the quadriga is the chariot of the gods, Apollo was depicted driving his quadriga across the heavens, delivering daylight, the word quadriga may refer to the chariot alone, the four horses without it, or the combination. Originally erected in the Hippodrome of Constantinople, possibly on a triumphal arch, venetian Crusaders looted these sculptures in the Fourth Crusade and placed them on the terrace of St Marks Basilica. In 1797, Napoleon carried the quadriga off to Paris, due to the effects of atmospheric pollution, the original quadriga was retired to a museum and replaced with a replica in the 1980s. Located atop the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Germany, it was seized by Napoleon during his occupation of Berlin in 1806 and it was returned to Berlin by Field Marshal Gebhard von Blücher in 1814. Her olive wreath was subsequently supplemented with an Iron Cross, the iron cross was restored after German reunification in 1990. C.1815 - The Carrousel quadriga is situated atop the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel in Paris, the arch itself was built to commemorate the victories of Napoleon, but the quadriga was sculpted by Baron François Joseph Bosio to commemorate the Restoration of the Bourbons. The Restoration is represented by an allegorical goddess driving a quadriga, two winged Victory figures, each leading a horse, trumpet Columbias arrival. The sculptor was Frederick William MacMonnies and it was sculpted by Daniel Chester French and Edward Clark Potter. 1911-35 - The Monument to Vittorio Emanuele II in Rome, Italy features two statues of goddess Victoria riding on quadrigas,1912 - The Wellington Arch Quadriga is situated atop the Wellington Arch in London, England. It was designed by Adrian Jones, the sculpture shows a small boy leading the quadriga, with Peace descending upon it from heaven. 1919-23 - The former Banco di Bilbao headquarters at no.16 Calle de Alcalá in Madrid, now part of Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, the building was designed by Ricardo Bastida, with the sculptor of the chariot Higinio Basterras, and other sculptures by Quentin de la Torre. The charioteers are helmeted men standing on the handrails of the chariots, height to plinth, about 87 feet. 2002 - The Grand Theatre, Warsaw features a quadriga reflecting the original Antonio Corazzis 1833 plans for the building, horses of Saint Mark in Venice, remnants of a quadriga of Constantinople taken by Enrico Dandolo. Trigarium Troika Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Quadriga, university of Chicago Quadriga Berlin. de, Brandenburger Tor, Pariser Platz, Quadriga
9.
Baiae
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Baiae was a mineral springs and coastal resort on the northwest shore of the Gulf of Naples in ancient Italy. It was fashionable for centuries during antiquity, particularly towards the end of the Roman Republic, when it was reckoned as superior to Pompeii, Herculaneum and it was notorious for its hedonistic offerings and the attendant rumors of corruption and scandal. It later formed part of Port Julius, the base of the fleet of the Imperial Roman Navy. It was deserted and its ruins largely submerged by volcanic activity by the time of the Renaissance. What is left of Baia is now a frazione of the comune of Bacoli in the Campania region of Italy, Baiae was said to have been named after Baius, the helmsman of Odysseuss ship in Homers Odyssey, who was supposedly buried nearby. The adjacent Baian Gulf was named after the town and it now forms the western part of the Gulf of Pozzuoli. The settlement was mentioned in 178 BC under the name Aquae Cumanae. Baiae was built on the Cumaean Peninsula in the Phlegraean Fields and it perhaps originally developed as the port for Cumae. The bathhouses of Baiae were filled with mineral water directed to its pools from underground sulfur springs. Roman engineers were able to construct a complex system of chambers that channeled underground heat into facilities that acted as saunas. In addition to their function, the baths were used in Roman medicine to treat various illnesses. Baiae was particularly fashionable towards the end of the Roman Republic, marius, Lucullus, and Pompey all frequented it. Julius Caesar had a villa there, and much of the town became imperial property under Augustus, with its large swimming pools and domed casino, it continued to be a getaway for the elite. Nero had a villa constructed in the middle of the 1st century. It was also a spot of the emperor Septimius Severus. Caligula ordered a 3-mile-long pontoon bridge to be built from impounded ships of the area, fastened together and weighted with sand, clad in a gold cloak, he then crossed it upon a horse. Cassius Dios Roman History also includes the event, with the detail that the emperor ordered resting places and lodging rooms with potable water erected at intervals along the bridge. As late as the 18th century, scattered fragments were still being shown to tourists as the Bridge of Caligula. ”Baiae was notorious for the lifestyle of its residents and guests
10.
Vibia Sabina
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Vibia Sabina was a Roman Empress, wife and second cousin, once removed, to Roman Emperor Hadrian. She was the daughter of Matidia, and suffect consul Lucius Vibius Sabinus, after her father’s death in 84, Sabina, along with her half-sisters, went to live with their mothers mother, Marciana, and were raised in the household of Trajan with his wife Plotina. She married Hadrian in 100, at the Roman empress Plotinas request, for Hadrian to succeed her great uncle, sabinas mother Matidia was also fond of Hadrian and allowed him to marry her daughter. Sabina is rumored to have had an affair with Suetonius, a historian who was also Hadrians secretary, in the year 119, meanwhile, her husband was thought to be more sexually interested in his favourite Antinous and other male lovers, and he and Sabina had no children. In 128, she was awarded the title of Augusta, Vibia Sabina died before her husband, some time in 136 or early 137. Hadrians stone elegy for his wife depicts the apotheosis, or divine ascent of Sabina in accordance with her posthumous deification on the order of Hadrian. Vibia Aurelia Sabina, daughter and youngest child of Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius and her name was bestowed in honor of Sabina and her father. Minaud, Gérard, Les vies de 12 femmes d’empereur romain - Devoirs, Intrigues & Voluptés, Paris, L’Harmattan,2012,7, La vie de Sabine, femme d’Hadrien, p. 169-188. Coins of Sabina at Dirty Old Coins Media related to Vibia Sabina at Wikimedia Commons
11.
Lucius Aelius
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Lucius Aelius Caesar was the father of Emperor Lucius Verus. In the last year of his life, he was adopted by Hadrian and he died before Hadrian and never attained the throne. Aelius was born with the name Lucius Ceionius Commodus he became Lucius Aelius Caesar upon his adoption as Hadrians heir and he is often sometimes referred to as Lucius Aelius Verus, though this name is not attested outside the Augustan History and probably the result of a manuscript error. The young Lucius Ceionius Commodus was of the gens Ceionia and his father, also named Lucius Ceionius Commodus, was consul in 106, and his paternal grandfather, also of the same name, was consul in 78. His paternal ancestors were from Etruria, and were of consular rank and his mother was a Roman woman called Fundania Plautia. The Augustan History states that his grandfather and his maternal ancestors were of consular rank. Before 130, Lucius Commodus married Avidia Plautia, a well-connected Roman noblewoman who was the daughter of the senator Gaius Avidius Nigrinus, Verus would marry Lucilla, the second daughter of Marcus Aurelius and Faustina the Younger. Gaius Avidius Ceionius Commodus – he is known from an inscription found in Rome, Ceionia Fabia – at the time of Marcus Aureliuss adoption, she was betrothed, as part of the adoption conditions, to him. Ceionia Plautia For a long time, the emperor Hadrian had considered Lucius Julius Ursus Servianus as his unofficial successor, as Hadrians reign drew to a close, however, he changed his mind. Although the emperor certainly thought Servianus capable of ruling as an emperor after Hadrians own death, Servianus, Hadrians attentions turned to Servianus grandson, Gnaeus Pedanius Fuscus Salinator II. Hadrian promoted the young Salinator, his great-nephew, gave him status in his court. Servianus, who cherished the idea that his youthful grandson would one day succeed his brother-in-law, was overjoyed. However, in late 136, Hadrian almost died from a haemorrhage, convalescent in his villa at Tivoli, he decided to change his mind, and selected Lucius Ceionius Commodus as his new successor, adopting him as his son. The selection was done invitis omnibus, against the wishes of everyone, in particular, Servianus, even today, the rationale for Hadrians sudden switch is still unclear. It is possible Salinator went so far as to attempt a coup against Hadrian in which Servianus was implicated, in order to avoid any potential conflict in the succession, Hadrian ordered the deaths of Salinator and Servianus. Although Lucius had no experience, he had served as a senator. As part of his adoption, Lucius Ceionius Commodus took the name Lucius Aelius Caesar, after a years stationing on the Danube frontier, Aelius returned to Rome to make an address to the senate on the first day of 138. The night before the speech, however, he grew ill, on 24 January 138, Hadrian selected Aurelius Antoninus as his new successor
12.
Caracalla
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Caracalla, formally Marcus Aurelius Severus Antoninus Augustus, was Roman emperor from AD198 to 217. A member of the Severan Dynasty, he was the eldest son of Septimius Severus, Caracalla reigned jointly with his father from 198 until Severus death in 211. Caracalla then ruled jointly with his younger brother Geta, with whom he had a fraught relationship, Caracallas reign was marked by domestic instability and external invasions from the Germanic people. Caracallas reign was notable for the Antonine Constitution, also known as the Edict of Caracalla, the edict gave all the enfranchised men Caracallas adopted praenomen and nomen, Marcus Aurelius. Towards the end of his rule, Caracalla began a campaign against the Parthian Empire and he did not see this campaign through to completion due to his assassination by a disaffected soldier in 217. He was succeeded as emperor by Macrinus after three days, Caracalla is presented in ancient sources as a tyrant and cruel leader, an image that has survived into modernity. Dio Cassius and Herodian present Caracalla as a soldier first and emperor second, in the 12th century, Geoffrey of Monmouth started the legend of Caracallas role as the king of Britain. Later, in the 18th century, Caracallas memory was revived in the works of French artists due to the parallels between Caracallas apparent tyranny and that of King Louis XVI, Modern works continue to portray Caracalla as a psychopathic and evil ruler. His rule is remembered as being one of the most tyrannical of all Roman emperors, Caracalla was born Lucius Septimius Bassianus. He was renamed Marcus Aurelius Antoninus at the age of seven as part of his fathers attempt at union with the families of Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius. According to Aurelius Victor in his Epitome de Caesaribus, he became known by the agnomen Caracalla after a Gallic hooded tunic that he habitually wore and he may have begun wearing it during his campaigns on the Rhine and Danube. Dio generally referred to him as Tarautas, after a famously diminutive, Caracalla was born in Lugdunum, Gaul, on 4 April 188 to Septimius Severus and Julia Domna. He had a younger brother, Geta, who would briefly rule as co-emperor alongside him. Caracallas father, Septimius Severus, appointed Caracalla joint Augustus and full emperor from the year 198 onwards and his brother Geta was granted the same title in 210. In 202 Caracalla was forced to marry the daughter of Gaius Fulvius Plautianus, Fulvia Plautilla, by 205 Caracalla had succeeded in having Plautianus executed for treason, though he had probably fabricated the evidence of the plot himself. It was then that he banished his wife, whose later killing might have carried out under Caracallas orders. Caracallas father, Septimius Severus, died on 4 February 211 at Eboracum while on campaign in Caledonia, Caracalla and his brother, Publius Septimius Antoninus Geta, jointly inherited the throne upon their fathers death. Caracalla and Geta ended the campaign in Caledonia after concluding a peace with the Caledonians that returned the border of Roman Britain to the line demarcated by Hadrians Wall
13.
Ponte Sant'Angelo
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The bridge is faced with travertine marble and spans the Tiber with five arches, three of which are Roman, it was approached by means of ramp from the river. The bridge is now solely pedestrian, and provides a vista of the Castel SantAngelo. It links the rioni of Ponte, and Borgo, to whom the bridge administratively belongs, dante writes in his Comedy that during the jubilee of 1300, due to the large number of pilgrims going and coming from Saint Peter, two separate lanes were arranged on the bridge. During the 1450 jubilee, balustrades of the bridge yielded, due to the crowds of the pilgrims. In response, some houses at the head of the bridge as well as a Roman triumphal arch were pulled down in order to widen the route for pilgrims. For centuries after the 16th century, the bridge was used to expose the bodies of the executed in the nearby Piazza di Ponte, in 1669 Pope Clement IX commissioned replacements for the aging stucco angels by Raffaello da Montelupo, commissioned by Paul III. They are now in the church of SantAndrea delle Fratte, also in Rome, for the Great Jubilee in 2000, the Lungotevere on the right bank between the bridge and the castle became a pedestrian area. List of Roman bridges Roman architecture Roman engineering Notes Sources O’Connor, Colin, Roman Bridges, Cambridge University Press, satellite image Angels of the Passion Multimedia feature from Beliefnet. com
14.
Baroque
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The style began around 1600 in Rome and Italy, and spread to most of Europe. The aristocracy viewed the dramatic style of Baroque art and architecture as a means of impressing visitors by projecting triumph, power, Baroque palaces are built around an entrance of courts, grand staircases, and reception rooms of sequentially increasing opulence. However, baroque has a resonance and application that extend beyond a reduction to either a style or period. It is also yields the Italian barocco and modern Spanish barroco, German Barock, Dutch Barok, others derive it from the mnemonic term Baroco, a supposedly laboured form of syllogism in logical Scholastica. The Latin root can be found in bis-roca, in informal usage, the word baroque can simply mean that something is elaborate, with many details, without reference to the Baroque styles of the 17th and 18th centuries. The word Baroque, like most periodic or stylistic designations, was invented by later critics rather than practitioners of the arts in the 17th, the term Baroque was initially used in a derogatory sense, to underline the excesses of its emphasis. In particular, the term was used to describe its eccentric redundancy and noisy abundance of details, although it was long thought that the word as a critical term was first applied to architecture, in fact it appears earlier in reference to music. Another hypothesis says that the word comes from precursors of the style, Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola and he did not make the distinctions between Mannerism and Baroque that modern writers do, and he ignored the later phase, the academic Baroque that lasted into the 18th century. Long despised, Baroque art and architecture became fashionable between the two World Wars, and has remained in critical favour. In painting the gradual rise in popular esteem of Caravaggio has been the best barometer of modern taste, William Watson describes a late phase of Shang-dynasty Chinese ritual bronzes of the 11th century BC as baroque. The term Baroque may still be used, usually pejoratively, describing works of art, craft, the appeal of Baroque style turned consciously from the witty, intellectual qualities of 16th-century Mannerist art to a visceral appeal aimed at the senses. It employed an iconography that was direct, simple, obvious, germinal ideas of the Baroque can also be found in the work of Michelangelo. Even more generalised parallels perceived by some experts in philosophy, prose style, see the Neapolitan palace of Caserta, a Baroque palace whose construction began in 1752. In paintings Baroque gestures are broader than Mannerist gestures, less ambiguous, less arcane and mysterious, more like the stage gestures of opera, Baroque poses depend on contrapposto, the tension within the figures that move the planes of shoulders and hips in counterdirections. Baroque is a style of unity imposed upon rich, heavy detail, Baroque style featured exaggerated lighting, intense emotions, release from restraint, and even a kind of artistic sensationalism. There were highly diverse strands of Italian baroque painting, from Caravaggio to Cortona, the most prominent Spanish painter of the Baroque was Diego Velázquez. The later Baroque style gradually gave way to a more decorative Rococo, while the Baroque nature of Rembrandts art is clear, the label is less often used for Vermeer and many other Dutch artists. Flemish Baroque painting shared a part in this trend, while continuing to produce the traditional categories
15.
Passion of Jesus
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Those parts of the four Gospels that describe these events, as well as the non-canonical Gospel of Peter, are known as the Passion narratives. In the liturgical calendar of the Roman Catholic Church, the Passion is commemorated in Holy Week, beginning on Friday of Sorrows, the Palm Sunday and culminating on his death on Good Friday. The word passion has taken on a more general application and now may also apply to accounts of the suffering and death of Christian martyrs. The accounts of the Passion are found in the four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke. Three of these, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, known as the Synoptic Gospels, the Gospel of John accounts varies slightly. The events include, The conspiracy against Jesus by the Jewish Sanhedrin priests, triumphal entry into Jerusalem, his anger and outburst at the Cleansing of the Temple A meal a few days before Passover. He says that for this she always be remembered. In Jerusalem, the Last Supper shared by Jesus and his disciples, Jesus gives final instructions, predicts his betrayal, and tells them all to remember him. On the path to Gethsemane after the meal, Jesus tells them they will all fall away that night, after Peter protests he will not, Jesus says Peter will deny him three times before the cock crows. Gethsemane, later that night, Jesus prays, meanwhile, the disciples rest, during the arrest in Gethsemane, someone takes a sword and cuts off the ear of the high priests servant, Malchus. The high priests palace, later that night, According to Matthews Gospel, the court then spat in his face and struck him with their fists. They then send him to Pontius Pilate, According to the synoptic gospels, the high priest who examines Jesus is Caiaphas, in John, Jesus is also interrogated by Annas, Caiaiphas father-in-law. The courtyard outside the high palace, the same time. Peter has followed Jesus and joined the mob awaiting Jesus’ fate, they suspect he is a sympathizer, suddenly, the cock crows and Peter remembers what Jesus had said. Pilate, the Roman governor, examines Jesus, decides he is innocent, the Jewish leaders and the crowd demand Jesus’ death, Pilate gives them the choice of saving Barabbas, in response to the screaming mob Pilate sends Jesus out to be crucified. According to the Gospel of Matthew, Judas, the betrayer, is filled with remorse, when the high priests say that that is his affair, Judas throws the money into the temple, goes off, and hangs himself. Golgotha, a hill outside Jerusalem, later morning through mid afternoon, the Gospel of Luke states that Pilate sends Jesus to be judged by Herod Antipas because as a Galilean he is under his jurisdiction. Herod is excited at first to see Jesus and hopes Jesus will perform a miracle for him, he asks Jesus several questions, Herod then mocks him and sends him back to Pilate after giving him an elegant robe to wear
16.
Fortification
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Fortifications are military constructions or buildings designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and also used to solidify rule in a region during peace time. Humans have constructed defensive works for many thousands of years, in a variety of increasingly complex designs, the term is derived from the Latin fortis and facere. From very early history to modern times, walls have been a necessity for cities to survive in a changing world of invasion. Some settlements in the Indus Valley Civilization were the first small cities to be fortified, in ancient Greece, large stone walls had been built in Mycenaean Greece, such as the ancient site of Mycenae. A Greek Phrourion was a collection of buildings used as a military garrison. These construction mainly served the purpose of a tower, to guard certain roads, passes. Though smaller than a fortress, they acted as a border guard rather than a real strongpoint to watch. The art of setting out a camp or constructing a fortification traditionally has been called castramentation since the time of the Roman legions. Fortification is usually divided into two branches, permanent fortification and field fortification, there is also an intermediate branch known as semi-permanent fortification. Castles are fortifications which are regarded as being distinct from the fort or fortress in that they are a residence of a monarch or noble. Roman forts and hill forts were the antecedents of castles in Europe. The Early Middle Ages saw the creation of towns built around castles. Medieval-style fortifications were made obsolete by the arrival of cannons in the 14th century. Fortifications in the age of black powder evolved into much lower structures with greater use of ditches and earth ramparts that would absorb, Walls exposed to direct cannon fire were very vulnerable, so were sunk into ditches fronted by earth slopes. The arrival of explosive shells in the 19th century led to yet another stage in the evolution of fortification, steel-and-concrete fortifications were common during the 19th and early 20th centuries. However the advances in warfare since World War I have made large-scale fortifications obsolete in most situations. Demilitarized zones along borders are arguably another type of fortification, although a passive kind, many military installations are known as forts, although they are not always fortified. Larger forts may be called fortresses, smaller ones were known as fortalices
17.
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
18.
Honorius (emperor)
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Honorius was Western Roman Emperor from 393 to 423. He was the son of emperor Theodosius I and his first wife Aelia Flaccilla, and brother of Arcadius. Even by the standards of the rapidly declining Western Empire, Honoriuss reign was precarious and his reign was supported by his principal general, Stilicho, who was successively Honoriuss guardian and his father-in-law. Stilichos generalship helped preserve some level of stability, but with his execution in 408, Honorius is widely considered as one of the worst of the emperors, it was during his reign that Rome was sacked for the first time in 800 years. When Theodosius died, in January 395, Honorius and Arcadius divided the Empire, during the first part of his reign Honorius depended on the military leadership of the general Stilicho, who had been appointed by Theodosius and was of mixed Vandal and Roman ancestry. To strengthen his bonds with the emperor, Stilicho married his daughter Maria to him. The epithalamion written for the occasion by Stilichos court poet Claudian survives, Honorius was also greatly influenced by the Popes of Rome, who sought to extend their influence through his youth and weak character. So it was that Pope Innocent I contrived to have Honorius write to his brother, while the new capital was easier to defend, it was poorly situated to allow Roman forces to protect central Italy from the increasingly regular threat of barbarian incursions. It was significant that the Emperors residence remained in Ravenna until the overthrow of the last western Roman Emperor in 476. That was probably the reason why Ravenna was chosen not only as the capital of the Ostrogothic Kingdom in Italy, Honorius reign was plagued by almost constant barbarian incursions into Gaul, Italy and Hispania. At the same time, a host of usurpers rose up due to the apparent inability of the Emperor to see to the Empires defences. The first crisis faced by Honorius was a led by Gildo, the Comes Africae and Magister utriusque militiae per Africam, in Northern Africa. It was eventually subdued by Stilicho, under the command of Mascezel. The next crisis was the Visigoth invasion of Italy in 402 under the command of their king. Stilicho hurried back to protect Honorius and the legions of Gaul, Honorius, slumbering at Milan, was caught unaware and quickly fled to Asti, only to be pursued by Alaric, who marched into Liguria. Stilicho defeated Alaric at Pollentia, on the river Tanarus on Easter Day, Alaric retreated to Verona, where Stilicho attacked him again. The Visigoths, weakened, were allowed to back to Illyricum. In 405 Stilicho met an invasion of Italy led across the Danube by Radagaisus and they brought devastation to the heart of the Empire, until Stilicho defeated them in 406 and recruited most of them into his forces
19.
Visigoths
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The Visigoths were the western branches of the nomadic tribes of Germanic peoples referred to collectively as the Goths. These tribes flourished and spread throughout the late Roman Empire in Late Antiquity, the Visigoths emerged from earlier Gothic groups who had invaded the Roman Empire beginning in 376 and had defeated the Romans at the Battle of Adrianople in 378. Relations between the Romans and the Visigoths were variable, alternately warring with one another and making treaties when convenient, the Visigoths invaded Italy under Alaric I and sacked Rome in 410. The Visigoths first settled in southern Gaul as foederati of the Romans – a relationship established in 418, however, they soon fell out with their Roman hosts and established their own kingdom with its capital at Toulouse. They next extended their authority into Hispania at the expense of the Suebi, in 507, however, their rule in Gaul was ended by the Franks under Clovis I, who defeated them in the Battle of Vouillé. After that, the Visigoth kingdom was limited to Hispania, in or around 589, the Visigoths under Reccared I converted from Arianism to Nicene Christianity, gradually adopting the culture of their Hispano-Roman subjects. Their legal code, the Visigothic Code abolished the practice of applying different laws for Romans. Once legal distinctions were no longer being made between Romani and Gothi, they became known collectively as Hispani, in the century that followed, the region was dominated by the Councils of Toledo and the episcopacy. In 711 or 712, a force of invading African Moors defeated the Visigoths in the Battle of Guadalete and their king and many members of their governing elite were killed, and their kingdom rapidly collapsed. During their governance of the Kingdom of Hispania, the Visigoths built several churches that survive and they also left many artifacts, which have been discovered in increasing numbers by archaeologists in recent times. The Treasure of Guarrazar of votive crowns and crosses is the most spectacular and they founded the only new cities in western Europe from the fall of the Western half of the Roman Empire until the rise of the Carolingian dynasty. Many Visigothic names are still in use in modern Spanish and Portuguese, contemporaneous references to the Gothic tribes use the terms Vesi, Ostrogothi, Thervingi, and Greuthungi. Most scholars have concluded that the terms Vesi and Tervingi were both used to refer to one particular tribe, while the terms Ostrogothi and Greuthungi were used to refer to another. In addition, the Notitia Dignitatum equates the Vesi with the Tervingi in a reference to the years 388–391, the earliest sources for each of the four names are roughly contemporaneous. The first recorded reference to the Tervingi is in a eulogy of the emperor Maximian, delivered in or shortly after 291 and it says that the Tervingi, another division of the Goths, joined with the Taifali to attack the Vandals and Gepidae. The first known use of the term Ostrogoths is in a document dated September 392 from Milan and this would explain why the latter terms dropped out of use shortly after 400, when the Goths were displaced by the Hunnic invasions. Wolfram believes that the people Zosimus describes were those Tervingi who had remained behind after the Hunnic conquest, for the most part, all of the terms discriminating between different Gothic tribes gradually disappeared after they moved into the Roman Empire. The last indication that the Goths whose king reigned at Toulouse thought of themselves as Vesi is found in a panegyric on Avitus by Sidonius Apollinaris dated 1 January 456, most recent scholars have concluded that Visigothic group identity emerged only within the Roman Empire
20.
Alaric I
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Alaric I was the first King of the Visigoths from 395–410, son of chieftain Rothestes. Alaric is best known for his sack of Rome in 410, Alaric began his career under the Gothic soldier Gainas and later joined the Roman army. Alarics first appearance was as the leader of a band of Goths. In 394 he led a Gothic force of 20,000 that helped the Eastern Roman Emperor Theodosius defeat the Frankish usurper Arbogast at the Battle of Frigidus, despite sacrificing around 10,000 of his men, Alaric received little recognition from the Emperor. Disappointed, he left the army and was elected reiks of the Visigoths in 395 and he then moved southward into Greece, where he sacked Piraeus and destroyed Corinth, Megara, Argos, and Sparta. As a response, the Eastern emperor Flavius Arcadius appointed Alaric magister militum in Illyricum, in 401 Alaric invaded Italy, but he was defeated by Stilicho at Pollentia on April 6,402. A second invasion that year also ended in defeat at the Battle of Verona. During Radagaisus Italian invasion in 406, Alaric remained idle in Illyria, in 408, Western Emperor Flavius Honorius ordered the execution of Stilicho and his family, amid rumours that the general had made a deal with Alaric. Honorius then incited the Roman population to massacre tens of thousands of wives, subsequently, around 30,000 Gothic soldiers defected to Alaric, and joined his march on Rome to avenge their murdered families. Moving swiftly along Roman roads, Alaric sacked the cities of Aquileia and Cremona, the Visigothic leader thereupon laid siege to Rome in 408. Eventually, the Senate granted him a substantial subsidy, in addition, Alaric forced the Senate to liberate all 40,000 Gothic slaves in Rome. Honorius, however, refused to appoint Alaric as the commander of the Western Roman Army, Alaric lifted his blockade after proclaiming Attalus Western Emperor. Attalus appointed him magister utriusque militiae but refused to him to send an army into Africa. Negotiations with Honorius broke down, and Alaric deposed Attalus in the summer of 410, allies within the capital opened the gates for him on August 24, and for three days his troops sacked the city. Although the Visigoths plundered Rome, they treated its inhabitants humanely, having abandoned a plan to occupy Sicily and North Africa after the destruction of his fleet in a storm, Alaric died as the Visigoths were marching northward. Born on Peuce Island at the mouth of the Danube Delta in present-day Romania, the Goths suffered setbacks against the Huns, made a mass migration across the Danube, and fought a war with Rome. Alaric was probably a child during this period, during the fourth century, the Roman emperors commonly employed foederati, irregular troops under Roman command, but organized by tribal structures. To spare the provincial populations from excessive taxation and to save money, the largest of these contingents was that of the Goths, who in 382, had been allowed to settle within the imperial boundaries, keeping a large degree of autonomy
21.
Sack of Rome (410)
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The Sack of Rome occurred on August 24,410. The city was attacked by the Visigoths led by King Alaric, at that time, Rome was no longer the capital of the Western Roman Empire, having been replaced in that position first by Mediolanum in 286 and then by Ravenna in 402. Nevertheless, the city of Rome retained a paramount position as the eternal city, the sack was a major shock to contemporaries, friends and foes of the Empire alike. This was the first time in almost 800 years that Rome had fallen to a foreign enemy, the previous sack of Rome had been accomplished by the Gauls under their leader Brennus in 390 or 387/6 BC. The sacking of 410 is seen as a landmark in the fall of the Western Roman Empire. St. Jerome, living in Bethlehem at the time, wrote that The City which had taken the world was itself taken. The Germanic tribes had undergone massive technological, social, and economic changes after four centuries of contact with the Roman Empire, the Goths, one of the Germanic tribes, had invaded the Roman Empire on and off since 238. But in the late 4th century, the Huns began to invade the lands of the Germanic tribes, in 376, the Huns forced many Therving Goths led by Fritigern and Alavivus to seek refuge in the Eastern Roman Empire. Soon after, starvation, high taxes, hatred from the Roman population, the Goths rebelled and began looting and pillaging throughout the eastern Balkans. A Roman army, led by the Eastern Roman Emperor Valens, at the Battle of Adrianople in 378, Fritigern decisively defeated emperor Valens, who was killed in battle. Peace was eventually established in 382 when the new Eastern Emperor, Theodosius I, signed a treaty with the Thervings, the treaty made the Visigoths subjects of the empire as foederati. In 391, a Gothic chieftain named Alaric was declared king by a group of Visigoths, though the time this happened. He then led an invasion into Eastern Roman territory outside of the Goths designated lands, Alaric was defeated by Theodosius and his general Flavius Stilicho in 392, who forced Alaric back into Roman vassalage. In 394, Alaric led a force of Visigoths as part of Theodosius army to invade the Western Roman Empire, at the Battle of the Frigidus, around half the Visigoths present died fighting the Western Roman army led by the usurper Eugenius and his general Arbogast. Alaric was also enraged he had not been granted a higher office in the Imperial administration, when Theodosius died on January 17,395, the Visigoths considered their 382 treaty with Rome at an end. The Huns, at the moment, invaded Asia Minor. Theodosius had left power to men, but Stilicho claimed that Theodosius had awarded him with sole guardianship on the Emperors deathbed. Rufinus negotiated with Alaric to get him to withdraw from Constantinople, whatever the case, Alaric did march away from Constantinople to Greece, looting the diocese of Macedonia
22.
Goths
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The Goths were an East Germanic people, two of whose branches, the Visigoths and the Ostrogoths, played an important role in the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the emergence of Medieval Europe. In the Gothic language they were called the Gut-þiuda, most commonly translated as Gothic people, gut-þiudai, or Gutans Inferred from gen. pl. gutani in Pietroassa inscription. In Old Norse they were known as the Gutar or Gotar, in Latin as the Gothi, the exact origin of the ancient Goths is unknown. Evidence of them before they interacted with the Romans is limited, Modern academics have generally abandoned this theory. Today, the Wielbark culture is thought to have developed from earlier cultures in the same area, archaeological finds show close contacts between southern Sweden and the Baltic coastal area on the continent, and further towards the south-east, evidenced by pottery, house types and graves. Rather than a migration, similarities in the material cultures may be products of long-term regular contacts. However, the record could indicate that while his work is thought to be unreliable. Sometime around the 1st century AD, Germanic peoples may have migrated from Scandinavia to Gothiscandza, early archaeological evidence in the traditional Swedish province of Östergötland suggests a general depopulation during this period. However, there is no evidence for a substantial emigration from Scandinavia. Upon their arrival on the Pontic Steppe, the Germanic tribes adopted the ways of the Eurasian nomads, the first Greek references to the Goths call them Scythians, since this area along the Black Sea historically had been occupied by an unrelated people of that name. The earliest known material culture associated with the Goths on the southern coast of the Baltic Sea is the Wielbark culture, centered on the modern region of Pomerania in northern Poland. This culture replaced the local Oxhöft or Oksywie culture in the 1st century, the culture of this area was influenced by southern Scandinavian culture beginning as early as the late Nordic Bronze Age and early Pre-Roman Iron Age. In Eastern Europe they formed part of the Chernyakhov culture and it has been suggested that the Goths maintained contact with southern Sweden during their migration. In the first attested incursion in Thrace, the Goths were mentioned as Boranoi by Zosimus, the first incursion of the Roman Empire that can be attributed to Goths is the sack of Histria in 238. Several such raids followed in subsequent decades, in particular the Battle of Abrittus in 251, led by Cniva, at the time, there were at least two groups of Goths, the Thervingi and the Greuthungs. Goths were subsequently recruited into the Roman Army to fight in the Roman-Persian Wars. The Moesogoths settled in Thrace and Moesia, the first seaborne raids took place in three subsequent years, probably 255-257. An unsuccessful attack on Pityus was followed in the year by another
23.
Procopius
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Procopius of Caesarea was a prominent late antique scholar from Palaestina Prima. He is commonly held to be the last major historian of the ancient Western world, apart from his own writings, the main source for Procopius life is an entry in the Suda, a Byzantine encyclopaedia, written sometime after 975, which tells everything about his early life. He was a native of Caesarea in the Roman Province Palaestina Prima and he evidently knew Latin, as was natural for a man with legal training. In 527, the first year of Eastern Roman Emperor Justinians reign, he became the adsessor for Belisarius, Procopius was with Belisarius on the eastern front until the latter was defeated at the Battle of Callinicum in 531 and recalled to Constantinople. Procopius witnessed the Nika riots of January,532, which Belisarius, Procopius recorded a few of the extreme weather events of 535–536, although these were presented as a backdrop to Roman military activities, such as a mutiny, in and near Carthage. He rejoined Belisarius for his campaign against the Ostrogothic kingdom in Italy and experienced the Gothic siege of Rome that lasted a year and nine days and he witnessed Belisarius entry into the Gothic capital, Ravenna, in 540. Book Eight of the Wars of Justinian, and the Secret History, suggest that his relationship with Belisarius seems to have cooled thereafter. When Belisarius was sent back to Italy in 544 to cope with a renewal of the war with the Goths, now led by the able king Totila, Procopius appears to have no longer been on Belisarius staff. As magister militum, Belisarius was a vir illustris, and Procopius, as his adsessor, must and he thus belonged to the middle-ranking group of the ordo senatorius. However, the Suda, which is well informed in such matters. Should this information be correct, then Procopius had a seat in the senate of Constantinople and it is not known when Procopius himself died, and many historians date his death to 554, but in 562 there was an urban prefect of Constantinople who happened to be called Procopius. In that year, Belisarius was implicated in a conspiracy and was brought before this urban prefect, the writings of Procopius are the primary source of information for the rule of the Eastern Roman emperor Justinian. Procopius Wars of Justinian is clearly his most important work, although it is not as known as the Secret History. The first two deal with the conflict between the Romans and Sassanid Persia in Mesopotamia, Syria, Armenia, Lazica and Caucasian Iberia. They also cover the early career of the Roman general Belisarius, Procopius patron, the next two books, the Vandal War, cover Belisarius successful campaign against the Vandal kingdom in Roman Africa. The remaining books cover the Gothic War, the campaigns by Belisarius and others to recapture Italy and this includes accounts of the sieges of Naples and Rome. Later, Procopius added a book, which brings the history to 552/553. This eighth book covers both in Italy and on the Eastern frontier
24.
Old St. Peter's Basilica
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Old St. Peters Basilica was the building that stood, from the 4th to 16th centuries, on the spot where the new St. Peters Basilica stands today in Vatican City. Construction of the basilica, built over the site of the Circus of Nero. The name old St. Peters Basilica has been used since the construction of the current basilica to distinguish the two buildings, construction began by orders of the Roman Emperor Constantine I between 318 and 322, and took about 30 years to complete. Over the next centuries, the church gradually gained importance. Papal coronations were held at the basilica, and in 800, in 846, Saracens sacked and damaged the basilica. The raiders seem to have known about Romes extraordinary treasures, some holy – and impressive – basilicas, such as St. Peters Basilica, were outside the Aurelian walls, and thus easy targets. They were filled to overflowing with rich liturgical vessels and with jeweled reliquaries housing all of the relics recently amassed, as a result, the raiders pillaged the holy shrine. In response Pope Leo IV built the Leonine wall and rebuilt the parts of St. Peters that had been damaged, in 1099, Urban II convened a council including St Anselm. Among other topics, it repeated the bans on lay investiture, by the 15th century the church was falling into ruin. Discussions on repairing parts of the structure commenced upon the return from Avignon. The whole stretch of wall has been pierced by too many openings, as a result, the continual force of the wind has already displaced the wall more than six feet from the vertical, I have no doubt that eventually some. Slight movement will make it collapse, at first Pope Julius II had every intention of preserving the old building, but his attention soon turned toward tearing it down and building a new structure. Many people of the time were shocked by the proposal, as the building represented papal continuity going back to Peter, the original altar was to be preserved in the new structure that housed it. Constantine went to pains to build the basilica on the site of Saint Peters grave. The Vatican Hill, on the west bank of the Tiber River, was leveled. Notably, since the site was outside the boundaries of the ancient city, the exterior however, unlike earlier pagan temples, was not lavishly decorated. The church was capable of housing from 3,000 to 4,000 worshipers at one time and it consisted of five aisles, a wide central nave and two smaller aisles to each side, which were each divided by 21 marble columns, taken from earlier pagan buildings. It was over 350 feet long, built in the shape of a Latin cross, and had a roof which was timbered on the interior
25.
Otto II, Holy Roman Emperor
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Otto II, called the Red, was Holy Roman Emperor from 973 until his death in 983. A member of the Ottonian dynasty, Otto II was the youngest and sole surviving son of Otto the Great, Otto II was made joint-ruler of Germany in 961, at an early age, and his father named him co-Emperor in 967 to secure his succession to the throne. His father also arranged for Otto II to marry the Byzantine Princess Theophanu, when his father died after a 37-year reign, the eighteen-year-old Otto II became absolute ruler of the Holy Roman Empire in a peaceful succession. Otto II spent his reign continuing his fathers policy of strengthening Imperial rule in Germany, Otto II also continued the work of Otto I in subordinating the Catholic Church to Imperial control. Early in his reign, Otto II defeated a revolt against his rule from other members of the Ottonian dynasty who claimed the throne for themselves. His victory allowed him to exclude the Bavarian line of Ottonians from the line of Imperial succession and this strengthened his authority as Emperor and secured the succession of his own son to the Imperial throne. With domestic affairs settled, Otto II would focus his attention from 980 onward to annexing the whole of Italy into the Empire and his conquests brought him into conflict with the Byzantine Empire and with the Muslims of the Fatimid Caliphate, who both held territories in southern Italy. While he was preparing to counterattack Muslim forces, an uprising by the Slavs broke out in 983. Otto II died suddenly in 983 at the age of 28 after a ten-year reign and he was succeeded as Emperor by his three-year-old son Otto III, plunging the Empire into a political crisis. Otto II was born in 955, the son of the King of Germany Otto I. By 957, Otto IIs older brothers Henry and Bruno had died, as well as Otto Is son from his first wife Eadgyth, with his older brothers dead, the two-year-old Otto IIs became the Kingdoms crown prince and Otto Is heir apparent. Otto I entrusted his son, Archbishop William of Mainz, with Otto IIs literary. Margrave Odo, commander of the Eastern March, taught the young prince the art of war. Needing to put his affairs in order prior to his descent into Italy, Otto I summoned a Diet at Worms and had Otto II elected, at the age of six, co-regent in May 961. Otto II was later crowned by his uncle Bruno the Great, Archbishop of Cologne, while Otto I had secured succession of the throne, he had violated the Kingdoms unwritten law that succession rights could only be granted to a child who has reached the age of majority. He was likely motivated by the associated with his expedition into Italy to claim the Imperial title from the Pope. Otto I crossed the Alps into Italy, while Otto II remained in Germany, after three and a half year absence in Italy, Otto I returned to Germany early in 965 as Holy Roman Emperor. In order to give the hope of dynastic continuity after his death, Otto I again confirmed Otto II as his heir on February 2,965, though Otto I was crowned Emperor in 962 and returned to Germany in 965, the political situation in Italy remained unstable
26.
Renaissance
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The Renaissance was a period in European history, from the 14th to the 17th century, regarded as the cultural bridge between the Middle Ages and modern history. It started as a movement in Italy in the Late Medieval period and later spread to the rest of Europe. This new thinking became manifest in art, architecture, politics, science, Early examples were the development of perspective in oil painting and the recycled knowledge of how to make concrete. Although the invention of movable type sped the dissemination of ideas from the later 15th century. In politics, the Renaissance contributed to the development of the customs and conventions of diplomacy, the Renaissance began in Florence, in the 14th century. Other major centres were northern Italian city-states such as Venice, Genoa, Milan, Bologna, the word Renaissance, literally meaning Rebirth in French, first appeared in English in the 1830s. The word also occurs in Jules Michelets 1855 work, Histoire de France, the word Renaissance has also been extended to other historical and cultural movements, such as the Carolingian Renaissance and the Renaissance of the 12th century. The Renaissance was a movement that profoundly affected European intellectual life in the early modern period. Renaissance scholars employed the humanist method in study, and searched for realism, however, a subtle shift took place in the way that intellectuals approached religion that was reflected in many other areas of cultural life. In addition, many Greek Christian works, including the Greek New Testament, were back from Byzantium to Western Europe. Political philosophers, most famously Niccolò Machiavelli, sought to describe life as it really was. Others see more competition between artists and polymaths such as Brunelleschi, Ghiberti, Donatello, and Masaccio for artistic commissions as sparking the creativity of the Renaissance. Yet it remains much debated why the Renaissance began in Italy, accordingly, several theories have been put forward to explain its origins. During the Renaissance, money and art went hand in hand, Artists depended entirely on patrons while the patrons needed money to foster artistic talent. Wealth was brought to Italy in the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries by expanding trade into Asia, silver mining in Tyrol increased the flow of money. Luxuries from the Eastern world, brought home during the Crusades, increased the prosperity of Genoa, unlike with Latin texts, which had been preserved and studied in Western Europe since late antiquity, the study of ancient Greek texts was very limited in medieval Western Europe. One of the greatest achievements of Renaissance scholars was to bring this entire class of Greek cultural works back into Western Europe for the first time since late antiquity, Arab logicians had inherited Greek ideas after they had invaded and conquered Egypt and the Levant. Their translations and commentaries on these ideas worked their way through the Arab West into Spain and Sicily and this work of translation from Islamic culture, though largely unplanned and disorganized, constituted one of the greatest transmissions of ideas in history
27.
Baptistery
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In Christian architecture the baptistery or baptistry is the separate centrally planned structure surrounding the baptismal font. The baptistery may be incorporated within the body of a church or cathedral, in the early Church, the catechumens were instructed and the sacrament of baptism was administered in the baptistery. The sacramental importance and sometimes architectural splendor of the baptistery reflect the importance of baptism to Christians. The octagonal plan of the Lateran Baptistery, the first structure built as a baptistery, provided a widely followed model. In a narthex or anteroom the catechumens were instructed and made their confession of faith before baptism, the main interior space centered upon the baptismal font, in which those to be baptized were immersed thrice. Three steps led down to the floor of the font, the iconography of frescos or mosaics on the walls were commonly of the scenes in the life of Saint John the Baptist. The font was at first always of stone, but latterly metals were often used, the Lateran baptisterys font was fed by a natural spring. When the site had been the dwelling of the Laterani, before Constantine presented it to Bishop Miltiades. It will be quickly apprehended that as the requirements for Christian baptisteries expanded, there are also examples of the transition from miraculous springs to baptisteries from Gregory of Tours and Maximus, bishop of Turin. Baptisteries belong to a period of the church when great numbers of adult catechumens were baptized, after the 9th century, with infant baptism increasingly the rule, few baptisteries were built. Some of the older baptisteries were very large, so large that we hear of councils, during the months when there were no baptisms the baptistery doors were sealed with the bishops seal, a method of controlling the orthodoxy of all baptism in the diocese. Some baptisteries were divided into two parts to separate the sexes, sometimes the church had two baptisteries, one for each sex, a fireplace was often provided to warm the neophytes after immersion. Though baptisteries were forbidden to be used as burial-places by the Council of Auxerre they were not uncommonly used as such, the Florentine Antipope John XXIII was buried in the Baptistery facing Florences Duomo with great ceremony and a tomb erected. Many of the archbishops of Canterbury were buried in the baptistery at Canterbury. Baptisteries, we find from the records of early councils, were first built, as soon as Christianity made such progress that baptism became the rule, and as soon as immersion gave place to sprinkling, the ancient baptisteries were no longer necessary. They are still in use, however, in Florence. The baptistery of the Lateran must be the earliest ecclesiastical building still in use, a large part of it remains as built by Constantine. Attached to one side, towards the Lateran basilica, is a porch with two noble porphyry columns and richly carved capitals, bases and entablatures
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Spolia
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The practice was common in late antiquity. Entire obsolete structures, including foundations, are known to have been demolished to enable the construction of new structures. According to Baxter, two churches in Worcester are thought to have been deconstructed so that their stone could be repurposed by St. Wulstan to construct a cathedral in 1084. And the parish churches of Atcham, Wroxeter, and Upton Magna are largely built of stone taken from the buildings of Viroconium Cornoviorum, Spolia in the medieval Islamic world include the columns in the hypostyle mosques of Kairouan, Gaza and Cordoba. Interpretations of spolia generally alternate between the ideological and the pragmatic, ideological readings might describe the re-use of art and architectural elements from former empires or dynasties as triumphant or as revivalist. Pragmatic readings emphasize the utility of re-used materials, if there is a supply of old marble columns available, for example. Clive Foss has noted that in the fifth century crosses were inscribed on the stones of buildings, as at Ankara. Clive Foss suggests that the purpose of this was to ward off the daimones that lurked in stones that had been consecrated to pagan usage and it is a way of acquiring the power of rival gods for ones own benefit, Liz James observes. Inscribing a cross works similarly, sealing the object for Christian purposes, crisis of the 3rd Century Roman Empire#Tetrarchy and Constantine the Great Dominate Palimpsest, the practice of erasing old texts from scarce old vellum to write new text. Diocletians Palace, a Roman Imperial palace in Split, re-purposed by later inhabitants as a town, there is a large modern literature on spolia, and the following list makes no claim to be comprehensive. J. Alchermes, Spolia in Roman Cities of the Late Empire, Legislative Rationales and Architectural Reuse, Dumbarton Oaks Papers 48, S. Bassett, The urban image of late antique Constantinople. L. Bosman, The power of tradition, Spolia in the architecture of St. Peters in the Vatican, brenk, Spolia from Constantine to Charlemagne, Aesthetics versus Ideology, Dumbarton Oaks Papers 41, 103–09. Brenk, Sugers Spolien, Arte Medievale 1, 101–107, R. Brilliant, I piedistalli del giardino di Boboli, spolia in se, spolia in re, Prospettiva 31, 2–17. Bruzelius, Columpnas marmoreas et lapides antiquarum ecclesiarum, The Use of Spolia in the Churches of Charles II of Anjou, in Arte dOccidente, studi in onore di Angiola Maria Romanini, 187–95. F. W. Deichmann, Die Spolien in der spätantike Architektur, J. Elsner, From the Culture of Spolia to the Cult of Relics, The Arch of Constantine and the Genesis of Late Antique Forms, Papers of the British School at Rome 68, 149–84. A. Esch, Spolien, Zum Wiederverwendung antike Baustücke und Skulpturen in mittelalterlichen Italien, Archiv für Kunstgeschichte 51, flood, The Medieval Trophy as an Art Historical Trope, Coptic and Byzantine Altars in Islamic Contexts, Muqarnas 18. J. M. Frey, Spolia in Fortifications and the Common Builder in Late Antiquity M. Greenhalgh, M. Greenhalgh, Spolia in fortifications, Turkey, Syria and North Africa, in Ideologie e pratiche del reimpiego nellalto medioevo. M. Fabricius Hansen, The eloquence of appropriation, prolegomena to an understanding of spolia in early Christian Rome, kiilerich, Making Sense of the Spolia in the Little Metropolis in Athens, Arte medievale n. s. anno IV,2,2005, 95-114
29.
Giorgio Vasari
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Vasari was born in Arezzo, Tuscany. Recommended at an age by his cousin Luca Signorelli, he became a pupil of Guglielmo da Marsiglia. He was befriended by Michelangelo whose painting style would influence his own, in 1529, he visited Rome where he studied the works of Raphael and other artists of the Roman High Renaissance. Vasaris own Mannerist paintings were admired in his lifetime than afterwards. In 1547 he completed the hall of the chancery in Palazzo della Cancelleria in Rome with frescoes that received the name Sala dei Cento Giorni and he was consistently employed by members of the Medici family in Florence and Rome, and worked in Naples, Arezzo and other places. He also helped to organize the decoration of the Studiolo, now reassembled in the Palazzo Vecchio, aside from his career as a painter, Vasari was also successful as an architect. In Florence, Vasari also built the long passage, now called Vasari Corridor, the enclosed corridor passes alongside the River Arno on an arcade, crosses the Ponte Vecchio and winds around the exterior of several buildings. He also renovated the medieval churches of Santa Maria Novella and Santa Croce, at both he removed the original rood screen and loft, and remodelled the retro-choirs in the Mannerist taste of his time. In Santa Croce, he was responsible for the painting of The Adoration of the Magi which was commissioned by Pope Pius V in 1566 and it was recently restored, before being put on exhibition in 2011 in Rome and in Naples. Eventually it is planned to return it to the church of Santa Croce in Bosco Marengo, in 1562 Vasari built the octagonal dome on the Basilica of Our Lady of Humility in Pistoia, an important example of high Renaissance architecture. In Rome, Vasari worked with Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola and Bartolomeo Ammanati at Pope Julius IIIs Villa Giulia, the Lives also included a novel treatise on the technical methods employed in the arts. The book was rewritten and enlarged in 1568, with the addition of woodcut portraits of artists. The work has a consistent and notorious bias in favour of Florentines, and tends to attribute to them all the developments in Renaissance art – for example, Venetian art in particular, is systematically ignored in the first edition. Between the first and second editions, Vasari visited Venice and while the edition gave more attention to Venetian art. Vasaris biographies are interspersed with amusing gossip, with a few exceptions, however, Vasaris aesthetic judgement was acute and unbiased. He did not research archives for exact dates, as art historians do, and naturally his biographies are most dependable for the painters of his own generation. Modern criticism – with new materials opened up by research – has corrected many of his traditional dates and attributions. Vasari includes a sketch of his own biography at the end of the Lives, according to the historian Richard Goldthwaite, Vasari was one of the earliest authors to use the term competition in its economic sense
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Pope Gregory I
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Pope Saint Gregory I, commonly known as Saint Gregory the Great, was pope of the Catholic Church from 3 September 590 to his death in 604. Gregory is famous for instigating the first recorded large-scale mission from Rome to convert a pagan people to Christianity, Gregory is also well known for his writings, which were more prolific than those of any of his predecessors as pope. He is also known as the Great Visionary of Modern Educational System, for his writings, the epithet Saint Gregory the Dialogist has been attached to him in Eastern Christianity because of his Dialogues. For this reason, English translations of Eastern texts will sometimes list him as Gregory Dialogos or the Latinized equivalent Dialogus. A senators son and himself the Prefect of Rome at 30, Gregory tried the monastery but soon returned to public life, ending his life. Although he was the first pope from a background, his prior political experiences may have helped him to be a talented administrator. Gregory regained papal authority in Spain and France, and sent missionaries to England, the realignment of barbarian allegiance to Rome from their Arian Christian alliances shaped medieval Europe. Gregory saw Franks, Lombards, and Visigoths align with Rome in religion, throughout the Middle Ages he was known as the Father of Christian Worship because of his exceptional efforts in revising the Roman worship of his day. His contributions to the development of the Divine Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts, Gregory is a Doctor of the Church and one of the Latin Fathers. He is considered a saint in the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, Anglican Communion, immediately after his death, Gregory was canonized by popular acclaim. The Protestant reformer John Calvin admired Gregory and declared in his Institutes that Gregory was the last good pope and he is the patron saint of musicians, singers, students, and teachers. The exact date of Gregorys birth is uncertain, but is estimated to be around the year 540. The medieval writer who provided this etymology did not hesitate to apply it to the life of Gregory, aelfric states, He was very diligent in Gods Commandments. Gregory was born into a wealthy patrician Roman family with connections to the church. Gregorys mother, Silvia, was well-born, and had a sister, Pateria. His mother and two aunts are honored by Catholic and Orthodox churches as saints. Gregorys great-great-grandfather had been Pope Felix III, the nominee of the Gothic king, Gregorys election to the throne of St Peter made his family the most distinguished clerical dynasty of the period. The family owned and resided in a villa suburbana on the Caelian Hill, the north of the street runs into the Colosseum, the south, the Circus Maximus
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Sant'Agata dei Goti
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SantAgata dei Goti is a church in Rome, Italy, dedicated to the martyr Saint Agatha. It is the assigned to Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke, patron of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. The church was built by Ricimer for the Goths c, the Goths were Arians, so when Arianism was suppressed in Rome, the building was taken over by the Catholic Church, in 592 or 593, and reconsecrated by Pope Gregory the Great. It was restored in the 9th century, and a Benedictine monastery was founded next to it, the apse of the church collapsed in 1589, and it was partially rebuilt in 1633, without major changes to the building itself apart from the new apse. The small courtyard outside the church was laid out at this time, the church has been served by the Stigmatines since 1926. Their generalate is adjacent to it and it is the only Arian church that has been preserved in Rome. The façade was rebuilt by Francesco Ferrari in 1729, the relief above the door shows St. Agatha holding her severed breast on a plate, her torturers severed her breasts when she refused to renounce her faith in Christ. The entrance from Via Mazzarino opens on a 17th-century courtyard, from 1836 to 1926, it belonged to the Irish College. Cardinal Paul Cullen, a former Rector of the Irish College, the Romanesque campanile was built in the 12th century. Although it was redecorated in the Baroque style and has some 19th-century additions, it is possible to see traces of the 5th-century plan. The granite columns separating the naves are ancient, the fresco in the apse shows the Glory of St Agatha, made by Paolo Gismondi in the 17th century. There is a 12th- or 13th-century canopy above the altar, reassembled and erected here in 1933 and it has four columns of pavonazzetto marble, all decorated with Cosmatesque mosaic, and a temple roof. The former canopy was destroyed in 1589, fragments can be seen in the ceiling of the chapel on the left-hand side. The 15th-century Cosmatesque pavement in the middle of the nave has an unusual and it is a very late example of the style. The rectangular windows were installed in the 17th century at the request of the Cardinals Francesco, by the altar of St Agatha is a large statue of the saint. Ricimer, who was buried in the church, had a mosaic installed and this was unfortunately destroyed in 1589, when the apse collapsed. The Greek humanist John Lascaris is interred in the church and in all likelihood the heart of Daniel OConnell, the feast of the Greek martyrs whose relics are preserved here is on 2 December. It is usually celebrated with an evening Mass with the liturgy of the Byzantine Catholic rite, other important feasts are that of St Agatha on 5 February and St Gaspar Bertoni, founder of the Stigmatines, on 12 June
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Vatican City
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Vatican City, officially Vatican City State or the State of Vatican City, is a walled enclave within the city of Rome. With an area of approximately 44 hectares, and a population of 842, however, formally it is not sovereign, with sovereignty being held by the Holy See, the only entity of public international law that has diplomatic relations with almost every country in the world. It is an ecclesiastical or sacerdotal-monarchical state ruled by the Bishop of Rome – the Pope, the highest state functionaries are all Catholic clergy of various national origins. Vatican City is distinct from the Holy See, which dates back to early Christianity and is the episcopal see of 1.2 billion Latin. According to the terms of the treaty, the Holy See has full ownership, exclusive dominion, within Vatican City are religious and cultural sites such as St. Peters Basilica, the Sistine Chapel and the Vatican Museums. They feature some of the worlds most famous paintings and sculptures, the unique economy of Vatican City is supported financially by the sale of postage stamps and tourist mementos, fees for admission to museums, and the sale of publications. The name Vatican City was first used in the Lateran Treaty, signed on 11 February 1929, the name is taken from Vatican Hill, the geographic location of the state. Vatican is derived from the name of an Etruscan settlement, Vatica or Vaticum meaning garden, located in the area the Romans called vaticanus ager. The official Italian name of the city is Città del Vaticano or, more formally, Stato della Città del Vaticano, although the Holy See and the Catholic Church use Ecclesiastical Latin in official documents, the Vatican City officially uses Italian. The Latin name is Status Civitatis Vaticanæ, this is used in documents by not just the Holy See. The name Vatican was already in use in the time of the Roman Republic for an area on the west bank of the Tiber across from the city of Rome. Under the Roman Empire, many villas were constructed there, after Agrippina the Elder drained the area and laid out her gardens in the early 1st century AD. In AD40, her son, Emperor Caligula built in her gardens a circus for charioteers that was completed by Nero, the Circus Gaii et Neronis, usually called, simply. Even before the arrival of Christianity, it is supposed that this originally uninhabited part of Rome had long considered sacred. A shrine dedicated to the Phrygian goddess Cybele and her consort Attis remained active long after the Constantinian Basilica of St. Peter was built nearby, the particularly low quality of Vatican water, even after the reclamation of the area, was commented on by the poet Martial. The Vatican Obelisk was originally taken by Caligula from Heliopolis in Egypt to decorate the spina of his circus and is thus its last visible remnant and this area became the site of martyrdom of many Christians after the Great Fire of Rome in AD64. Ancient tradition holds that it was in this circus that Saint Peter was crucified upside-down, opposite the circus was a cemetery separated by the Via Cornelia. Peters in the first half of the 4th century, the Constantinian basilica was built in 326 over what was believed to be the tomb of Saint Peter, buried in that cemetery
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Pope Nicholas III
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Pope Nicholas III, born Giovanni Gaetano Orsini, was Pope from 25 November 1277 to his death in 1280. He was a Roman nobleman who had served under eight popes, the future pope, Giovanni Gaetano Orsini, was born in Rome, a member of the prominent Orsini family of Italy, the eldest son of Roman nobleman Matteo Rosso Orsini by his first wife, Perna Caetani. His brother Giordano was named Cardinal Deacon of San Eustachio by Nicholas III on 12 March 1278 and his brother Gentile became Lord of Mugnano, Penna, Nettuno and Pitigliano. Another brother, Matteo Rosso of Montegiordano, was Senator of Rome in 1279, War Captain of Todi, there were five other younger brothers and two sisters. The Orsini family had produced several popes, Stephen II, Paul I. He did not, as some used to think, study at Paris—though his nephew did. His career shows no indication that he was a professional or a theologian. He never became a priest, until he became pope in 1277 and he was a Canon and Prebendary of York, and also of Soissons and Laon In the summer of 1244, he was one of five cardinals who fled to Genoa with Pope Innocent IV. He was at Lyons, and was present in June and July for the Ecumenical Council of Lyons, Cardinal Orsini and the Curia did not return to Italy until May 1251—after the death of Emperor Frederick II Hohenstaufen. After spending the summer in Genoa, Milan and Brescia, they finally reached Perugia in November 1251, the Curia returned to Rome in mid-October, where Pope and Curia resided continually until the end of April,1254. At the beginning of December, the Battle of Foggia took place, Innocent IV died in Naples, where he had taken refuge, on 7 December 1254, and the meeting to elect his successor was therefore held in Naples in the palace in which he had died. Voting began on Friday,11 December, with ten of the cardinals present. But on Saturday,12 December, Cardinal Rinaldo dei Conti di Segni, the nephew of Pope Gregory IX and he chose to be called Alexander IV and was crowned on Sunday, December 20,1254, in the Cathedral of Naples. As for Cardinal Giovanni Gaetano Orsini, in his first eleven, a peripatetic Curia had its disadvantages. Pope Alexander IV and the Curia continued to live in Naples, until the first week of June 1255 when they returned to Anagni, and it was not until mid-November that the Pope was back in Rome. There the Curia stayed until the end of May,1256, the problem was that Rome was in the hands of Senator Brancaleone degli Andalo, Count of Casalecchio, since 1252, and the Ghibbelines and Alexander was repeatedly driven out by unruly mobs. Rome was home again until the end of May,1257, the vacation lasted until the end of October,1258, when the Court visited Anagni again, they stayed until the beginning of November,1260. The Pope then was able to reside at the Lateran until the first week of May,1261, Alexander IV died at Viterbo on 25 May 1261
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St. Peter's Basilica
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The Papal Basilica of St. Peter in the Vatican, or simply St. Peters Basilica, is an Italian Renaissance church in Vatican City, the papal enclave within the city of Rome. While it is neither the church of the Catholic Church nor the cathedral of the Diocese of Rome. It has been described as holding a position in the Christian world. Catholic tradition holds that the Basilica is the site of Saint Peter, one of Christs Apostles. Saint Peters tomb is supposedly directly below the altar of the Basilica. For this reason, many Popes have been interred at St. Peters since the Early Christian period, construction of the present basilica, which would replace Old St. Peters Basilica from the 4th century AD, began on 18 April 1506 and was completed on 18 November 1626. St. Peters is famous as a place of pilgrimage and for its liturgical functions. The Pope presides at a number of liturgies throughout the year, drawing audiences of 15,000 to over 80,000 people, either within the Basilica or the adjoining St. Peters Square. St. Peters has many associations, with the Early Christian Church, the Papacy. As a work of architecture, it is regarded as the greatest building of its age, St. Peters is one of the four churches in the world that hold the rank of Major Basilica, all four of which are in Rome. Contrary to popular misconception, it is not a cathedral because it is not the seat of a bishop, St. Peters is a church built in the Renaissance style located in the Vatican City west of the River Tiber and near the Janiculum Hill and Hadrians Mausoleum. Its central dome dominates the skyline of Rome, the basilica is approached via St. Peters Square, a forecourt in two sections, both surrounded by tall colonnades. The first space is oval and the second trapezoid, the basilica is cruciform in shape, with an elongated nave in the Latin cross form but the early designs were for a centrally planned structure and this is still in evidence in the architecture. The central space is dominated both externally and internally by one of the largest domes in the world, the entrance is through a narthex, or entrance hall, which stretches across the building. One of the bronze doors leading from the narthex is the Holy Door. The interior is of vast dimensions when compared with other churches and this in its turn overwhelms us. The nave which leads to the dome is in three bays, with piers supporting a barrel-vault, the highest of any church. The nave is framed by wide aisles which have a number of chapels off them, there are also chapels surrounding the dome
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Passetto di Borgo
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The Passetto di Borgo, or simply Passetto, is an elevated passage that links the Vatican City with the Castel SantAngelo. It is an approximately 800 metres long corridor, located in the rione of Borgo and it was erected in 1277 by Pope Nicholas III, but parts of the wall were built by Totila during the Gothic War. On two occasions it served as a route for Popes in danger. Pope Alexander VI crossed it in 1494, when Charles VIII invaded the city, the Passetto played a key role in the Dan Brown novel Angels & Demons, through which the antagonist transported four abducted cardinals to the Castel SantAngelo. The protagonists Robert Langdon and Vittoria Vetra later used the Passetto as a shortcut to Vatican City, the Passetto also appears in the videogame Assassins Creed II, whose protagonist Ezio Auditore Da Firenze fights his way along it on the way from the Castle to the Sistine Chapel. Index of Vatican City-related articles DOnofrio, Cesare, Castel SantAngelo e Borgo tra Roma e Papato. The secrets of Rome, love & death in the eternal city
36.
Pope Clement VII
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Pope Clement VII, born Giulio di Giuliano de Medici, was Pope from 19 November 1523 to his death in 1534. The Sack of Rome and English Reformation occurred during his papacy, Giulio de Medici was born in Florence one month after the assassination of his father, Giuliano de Medici, following the Pazzi Conspiracy. Although his parents had not had a marriage, they had been formally betrothed per sponsalia de presenti. Despite this accommodation for an important and powerful family, Giulio was considered illegitimate by his contemporaries and he was the nephew of Lorenzo the Magnificent, who educated him in his youth. Giulios mother, Fioretta Gorini, also died leaving him an orphan, Giulio was enrolled in the Knights Hospitaller and made Grand Prior of Capua. On the death of Archbishop Cosimo de Pazzi, Giulio was named Archbishop of Florence on 9 May 1513, a post he held until his own election as pope on 19 November 1523. On 23 September 1513, he was created a cardinal by Leo X, and on 29 September was appointed Cardinal Deacon of Santa Maria in Domnica, which had been vacated by the election of his cousin the Pope. On 26 June 1517 he was created Cardinal Priest of S. Clemente and he was ordained a priest on 19 December 1517, and consecrated bishop two days later. Cardinal de Medici soon became a figure in Rome. Upon his cousins accession to the papacy, Giulio became his principal minister and confidant, in 1517 he conducted his first diocesan Synod in Florence. On 14 February 1515, Cardinal de Medici was named Archbishop of Narbonne and he ruled the diocese through a Vicar General. He bestowed upon the Cathedral of Saint Just a picture of Saint Lazare and he decided to keep the original, however, and an alternative version was made for Narbonne by Sebastiano del Piombo. At the same time as he was named Archbishop, Cardinal Giulio was granted the Abbey of Cîteaux and he held these offices until he was elected pope. But he is returning to Florence to govern the city and he had the credit of being the main director of papal policy during the whole of Leo Xs pontificate, especially as cardinal protector of England. Between 7 June 1521 and 26 September 1522 he was Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Worcester, on that date the Pope appointed Hieronymus Ghinucci, who was expelled from the See in 1535 as a foreigner by the legislation of Henry VIII. At Leo Xs death in 1521, Cardinal Medici was considered papabile in the protracted conclave. Following Adrian VIs death on 14 September 1523, Medici overcame the opposition of the French king, Pope Leo brought to the papal throne a high reputation for political ability and possessed in fact all the accomplishments of a wily diplomat. However, he was considered by his contemporaries as worldly and indifferent to the dangers of the Protestant Reformation by the people of the papacy
37.
Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor
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Charles V was ruler of both the Spanish Empire from 1516 and the Holy Roman Empire from 1519, as well as of the Habsburg Netherlands from 1506. He voluntarily stepped down from these and other positions by a series of abdications between 1554 and 1556, through inheritance, he brought together under his rule extensive territories in western, central, and southern Europe, and the Spanish colonies in the Americas and Asia. As a result, his domains spanned nearly four square kilometers and were the first to be described as the empire on which the sun never sets. Charles was the heir of three of Europes leading dynasties, the Houses of Valois-Burgundy, Habsburg, and Trastámara and he inherited the Burgundian Netherlands and the Franche-Comté as heir of the House of Valois-Burgundy. From his own dynasty, the Habsburgs, he inherited Austria and he was also elected to succeed his Habsburg grandfather, Maximilian I, as Holy Roman Emperor, a title held by the Habsburgs since 1440. Charles was the first king to rule Castile and Aragon simultaneously in his own right, the personal union, under Charles, of the Holy Roman Empire with the Spanish Empire resulted in the closest Europe would come to a universal monarchy since the death of Louis the Pious. France recovered and the wars continued for the remainder of Charless reign, enormously expensive, they led to the development of the first modern professional army in Europe, the Tercios. The struggle with the Ottoman Empire was fought in Hungary and the Mediterranean, after seizing most of eastern and central Hungary in 1526, the Ottomans’ advance was halted at their failed Siege of Vienna in 1529. A lengthy war of attrition, conducted on his behalf by his younger brother Ferdinand, in the Mediterranean, although there were some successes, Charles was unable to prevent the Ottomans’ increasing naval dominance and the piratical activity of the Barbary Corsairs. Charles opposed the Reformation and in Germany he was in conflict with the Protestant Princes of the Schmalkaldic League who were motivated by religious and political opposition to him. Once the rebellions were quelled the essential Castilian and Burgundian territories remained mostly loyal to Charles throughout his rule, Charles’s Spanish dominions were the chief source of his power and wealth, and they became increasingly important as his reign progressed. In the Americas, Charles sanctioned the conquest by Castillian conquistadors of the Aztec, Castillian control was extended across much of South and Central America. The resulting vast expansion of territory and the flows of South American silver to Castile had profound long term effects on Spain. Charles was only 56 when he abdicated, but after 34 years of rule he was physically exhausted and sought the peace of a monastery. Upon Charles’s abdications, the Holy Roman Empire was inherited by his younger brother Ferdinand, the Spanish Empire, including the possessions in the Netherlands and Italy, was inherited by Charles’s son Philip II. The two empires would remain allies until the 18th century, Charles was born in 1500 as the eldest son of Philip the Handsome and Joanna of Castile in the Flemish city of Ghent, which was part of the Habsburg Netherlands. The culture and courtly life of the Burgundian Low Countries were an important influence in his early life and he was tutored by William de Croÿ, and also by Adrian of Utrecht. He also gained a decent command of German, though he never spoke it as well as French, a witticism sometimes attributed to Charles is, I speak Spanish to God, Italian to women, French to men and German to my horse
38.
Landsknecht
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Consisting predominantly of German mercenary pikemen and supporting foot soldiers, they achieved the reputation for being the universal mercenaries of early modern Europe. The Germanic compound Landsknecht combines land land, country, here in the sense of lowlands and knecht servant, vassal, the compound Lantknecht was used during the 15th century of bailiffs or court ushers. As early as 1500, the term was re-etymologized as Lanzknecht, suggesting a derivation from Lanze lance, the modern term Landser is possibly based on Landsknecht, as is the name of the French card game Lansquenet. The more common English-language plural form is Landsknechts, but the original German form Landsknechte is also in use, since it is a common noun, it may also be written with lower-case l, landsknechts. Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor from 1493 to 1519, formed the first mercenary Landsknecht regiments in 1487 and he called upon Georg von Frundsberg, sometimes referred to as the Father of the Landsknechts, to assist him in their organization. Landsknechts later went on to fight in almost every 16th-century military campaign, French artillery or Spanish firepower dealt serious blows to the Swiss formations, and the Landsknecht pike blocks were there to fight off the depleted Swiss attack columns once this had occurred. The Landsknechts were conservative in their usage of weapons and contained a majority of pikemen. However, they inclined more to the use of firearms than the Swiss because Landsknechts relied less on the precipitous rush to close combat. As Imperial soldiers, they fought in formations mixed with Spaniards during the reign of King of Spain. These Spaniards made a widespread use of the arquebus and later. Landsknechte typically came from Swabia, Alsace, Tyrol and the Rhineland, in the 1490s, the well-trained Landsknechte managed to defeat significantly greater Frisian armies. Paul Dolstein wrote of the siege of Älfsborg in July 1502, fighting for the King of Denmark, We were 1800 Germans and we struck most of them dead. In 1521, the Spaniards recruited German infantrymen to defend their country against the French because, at the Battle of Bicocca and the Battle of Marignano, they performed well, defeating the famed Swiss Pikemen. The Imperial Landsknechts were instrumental in many of the Emperors victories, the same year, they also managed to defeat the peasants revolt in the Empire. At their peak in the early 16th century, the Landsknechte were considered as formidable soldiers who were often brave, however, these qualities may have declined afterward. Indeed, from the 1560s on, the reputation of the Landsknechte steadily decreased and their status also suffered from the rising reputation of the dreaded Spanish tercios which, however, were far less abundant and more expensive to train. It should also be noted that when serving in southern Europe, in the army of the Dutch rebels, many German mercenaries were hired but were forced to give up many Landsknechtes traditions in order to increase their discipline and their fighting abilities. They are attested as deployed in the armies of Kings John III of Navarre, in the same context, they are found fighting on Charles Vs side too where they performed strongly
39.
Sack of Rome (1527)
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The Sack of Rome on 6 May 1527 was a military event carried out by the mutinous troops of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, in Rome, then part of the Papal States. It marked a crucial victory in the conflict between Charles and the League of Cognac —the alliance of France, Milan, Venice, Florence. The army of the Holy Roman Emperor defeated the French army in Italy, the 34,000 Imperial troops mutinied and forced their commander, Charles III, Duke of Bourbon and Constable of France, to lead them towards Rome. Numerous bandits, along with the Leagues deserters, joined the army during its march, the Duke left Arezzo on 20 April 1527, taking advantage of the chaos among the Venetians and their allies after a revolt which had broken out in Florence against the Medici. In this way, the undisciplined troops sacked Acquapendente and San Lorenzo alle Grotte. The troops defending Rome were not at all numerous, consisting of 5,000 militiamen led by Renzo da Ceri and 189 Papal Swiss Guard, the citys fortifications included the massive walls, and it possessed a good artillery force, which the Imperial army lacked. Duke Charles needed to conquer the city swiftly, to avoid the risk of being trapped between the city and the Leagues army. On 6 May, the Imperial army attacked the walls at the Gianicolo, Duke Charles was fatally wounded in the assault, allegedly shot by Benvenuto Cellini. The Duke was wearing his famous white cloak to him out to his troops. The death of the last respected command authority among the Imperial army caused any restraint in the soldiers to disappear, Philibert of Châlon took command of the armies, but he was not as popular or feared, leaving him with little authority. One of the Swiss Guards most notable hours occurred at this time, almost the entire guard was massacred by Imperial troops on the steps of St Peters Basilica. After the brutal execution of some 1,000 defenders of the Papal capital and shrines, churches and monasteries, as well as the palaces of prelates and cardinals, were looted and destroyed. Even pro-Imperial cardinals had to pay to save their properties from the rampaging soldiers, on 8 May, Cardinal Pompeo Colonna, a personal enemy of Clement VII, entered the city. He was followed by peasants from his fiefs, who had come to avenge the sacks they had suffered by Papal armies, however, Colonna was touched by the pitiful conditions of the city and hosted in his palace a number of Roman citizens. The Vatican Library was saved because Philibert had set up his headquarters there, after three days of ravages, Philibert ordered the sack to cease, but few obeyed. In the meantime, Clement remained a prisoner in Castel SantAngelo, francesco Maria della Rovere and Michele Antonio of Saluzzo arrived with troops on 1 June in Monterosi, north of the city. Their cautious behaviour prevented them from obtaining a victory against the now totally undisciplined Imperial troops. At the same time Venice took advantage of this situation to capture Cervia and Ravenna, Emperor Charles V was greatly embarrassed by the fact that he had been powerless to stop his troops striking against Pope Clement VII and imprisoning him
40.
Benvenuto Cellini
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Benvenuto Cellini was an Italian goldsmith, sculptor, draftsman, soldier, musician, and artist who also wrote a famous autobiography and poetry. He was one of the most important artists of Mannerism, Benvenuto Cellini was born in Florence, in present-day Italy. His parents were Giovanni Cellini and Maria Lisabetta Granacci and they were married for eighteen years before the birth of their first child. Benvenuto was the child of the family. At the age of sixteen, Benvenuto had already attracted attention in Florence by taking part in an affray with youthful companions and he was banished for six months and lived in Siena, where he worked for a goldsmith named Fracastoro. From Siena he moved to Bologna, where he became an accomplished flute player. After a visit to Pisa and two periods of living in Florence, he moved to Rome, at the age of nineteen. His first works in Rome were a silver casket, silver candlesticks, and a vase for the bishop of Salamanca, which won him the approval of Pope Clement VII. Another celebrated work from Rome is the medallion of Leda and the Swan executed for the Gonfaloniere Gabbriello Cesarino. He also took up the flute again, and was appointed one of the court musicians. In the attack on Rome by Charles III, Duke of Bourbon, according to his own accounts, he himself shot and injured Philibert of Châlon, prince of Orange. His bravery led to a reconciliation with the Florentine magistrates, from Florence he went to the court of the duke of Mantua, and then back to Florence. On returning to Rome, he was employed in the working of jewellery and in the execution of dies for private medals, in 1529 his brother Cecchino killed a Corporal of the Roman Watch and in turn was wounded by an arquebusier, later dying of his wound. Soon afterward Benvenuto killed his brothers killer – an act of blood revenge, Cellini fled to Naples to shelter from the consequences of an affray with a notary, Ser Benedetto, whom he had wounded. Through the influence of cardinals, Cellini obtained a pardon. He found favor with the new pope, Paul III, notwithstanding a fresh homicide during the three days after the death of Pope Clement VII in September 1534. The fourth victim was a goldsmith, Pompeo of Milan. The plots of Pier Luigi Farnese led to Cellinis retreat from Rome to Florence and Venice, at the age of 37, upon returning from a visit to the French court, he was imprisoned on a charge of having embezzled the gems of the popes tiara during the war
41.
Pope Leo X
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Pope Leo X, born Giovanni di Lorenzo de Medici, was Pope from 9 March 1513 to his death in 1521. The second son of Lorenzo the Magnificent, ruler of the Florentine Republic, following the death of Pope Julius II, Giovanni was elected pope after securing the backing of the younger members of the Sacred College. Early on in his rule he oversaw the sessions of the Fifth Council of the Lateran. In 1517 he led a war that succeeded in securing his nephew as duke of Urbino. He later only narrowly escaped a plot by some cardinals to poison him and he is probably best remembered for granting indulgences for those who donated to reconstruct St. Peters Basilica, which practice was challenged by Martin Luthers 95 Theses. He seems not to have taken seriously the array of demands for reform that would quickly grow into the Protestant Reformation. His Papal Bull of 1520, Exsurge Domine, simply condemned Luther on a number of areas and he did, however, grant establishment to the Oratory of Divine Love. A significant patron of the arts, upon election Leo is alleged to have said, Since God has given us the papacy, under his reign, progress was made on the rebuilding of Saint Peters Basilica and artists such as Raphael decorated the Vatican rooms. Leo also reorganised the Roman University, and promoted the study of literature, poetry and he died in 1521 and is buried in Santa Maria sopra Minerva, Rome. He is the last pope not to have been in priestly orders at the time of his election to the papacy. Giovanni di Lorenzo de Medici was born on December 11,1475 in the Republic of Florence, the son of Lorenzo the Magnificent. From an early age he was destined for an ecclesiastical career and he received the tonsure at the age of seven and was soon granted rich benefices and preferments. Meanwhile, he received an education at Lorenzos humanistic court under such men as Angelo Poliziano, Pico della Mirandola, Marsilio Ficino, from 1489 to 1491 he studied theology and canon law at Pisa. On 23 March 1492, he was admitted into the Sacred College of Cardinals and took up his residence at Rome. The death of Lorenzo on the following 8 April, however and he returned to Rome to participate in the conclave of 1492 which followed the death of Innocent VIII, and unsuccessfully opposed the election of Cardinal Borgia. While Piero found refuge at Venice and Urbino, Giovanni traveled in Germany, in the Netherlands, in May 1500, he returned to Rome, where he was received with outward cordiality by Pope Alexander VI, and where he lived for several years immersed in art and literature. In 1503 he welcomed the accession of Pope Julius II to the pontificate and this and other attempts to regain political control of Florence were frustrated until a bloodless revolution permitted the return of the Medici. Giovannis younger brother Giuliano was placed at the head of the republic, Giovanni was elected Pope on 9 March 1513, and this was proclaimed two days later
42.
Raffaello da Montelupo
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Raffaello da Montelupo, born Raffaele Sinibaldi, was a sculptor and architect of the Italian Renaissance, and an apprentice of Michelangelo. He was the son of another Italian sculptor, Baccio da Montelupo, both father and son are profiled in Vasaris Le Vite delle più eccellenti pittori, scultori, ed architettori. Raffaello was born in Montelupo Fiorentino, near Florence, as a young artist in his twenties, he assisted Lorenzetto in Rome with the execution of statues of Elijah and Jonah for the Chigi Chapel in Santa Maria del Popolo. He is also attributed a marble relief of the marriage of St. Catherine. Raffaello then went to Loreto, where the Visitazione and Adorazione dei Magi at the Basilica of the Holy House are attributed to him. Shortly thereafter, according to Vasari, Raffaello began work in Florence with Michelangelo, at the Medici Chapel of the Basilica di San Lorenzo, St. Cosmas is also attributed to him, together with Giovanni Angelo Montorsoli, another assistant to Michelangelo. He returned to Rome, continuing to work as a sculptor under the direction of Michelangelo, there he contributed to work on the tomb of Julius II at San Pietro in Vincoli, and contributed to the tomb of Pope Leo X at Santa Maria sopra Minerva. For the chapel constructed by Leo X at the fortress of Castel SantAngelo, Raffaello created a Madonna, in addition, he sculpted a marble statue of Saint Michael holding his sword, designed to stand atop the Castel. Raffaellos St. Michael was later replaced by a statue of the same subject. His version may still be seen in a court in the interior of the fortress. Under Pope Paul III, Raffaello was commissioned to create fourteen angels to adorn Ponte SantAngelo and those sculptures were later replaced under a commission by Pope Clement IX in 1669 for new angels by Bernini. Vasari summed up Raffaello da Montelupo as follows, I believe that Raffaello, if he had undertaken great works, as he might have done, would have executed more things in art, and better, than he did. Raffaello was a very masterly draughtsman, and he had a better knowledge of all matters of art that had been shown by his father Baccio. I have therefore used the left hand, be it for writing, be it for drawing some designs from the Morgante. From the moment that I held the sheet lengthwise, in order to write with the hand, many were astonished, thinking that I wrote allebraica. As I have already said, I draw better with the left hand and it should be prefaced that both of them, though naturally left-handed, did everything with their right hand, except actions requiring force. So they stayed a long time to me with great wonder, because, as far as is known. Link to on-line biography of Baccio and Raffaello da Montelupo from Vasaris Vite
43.
Pope Paul III
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Pope Paul III, born Alessandro Farnese, was Pope from 13 October 1534 to his death in 1549. He came to the throne in an era following the sack of Rome in 1527. He convened the Council of Trent in 1545 and he was a significant patron of the arts and employed nepotism to advance the power and fortunes of his family. It is to Pope Paul III that Nicolaus Copernicus dedicated De revolutionibus orbium coelestium, alessandro’s humanist education was at the University of Pisa and the court of Lorenzo de Medici. Initially trained as a notary, he joined the Roman Curia in 1491. Farnese’s sister, Giulia was reputedly a mistress of Alexander VI, for this reason, he was sometimes mockingly referred to as the Borgia brother-in-law, just as Giulia was mocked as the Bride of Christ. More disparagingly he was referred to as Cardinal Fregnese, as Bishop of Parma, he came under the influence of his vicar general, Bartolomeo Guidiccioni. This led to the future pope breaking off the relationship with his mistress, under Pope Clement VII he became Cardinal Bishop of Ostia and dean of the College of Cardinals, and on the death of Clement VII in 1534, was elected as Pope Paul III. As a young cleric, Alessandro lived a dissolute life, taking for himself a mistress. By Silvia Ruffini, he fathered Pier Luigi Farnese, whom he created Duke of Parma, others included Ranuccio Farnese, the fourth pope during the period of the Protestant Reformation, Paul III became the first to take active reform measures in response to Protestantism. Paul III first deferred for a year and then discarded the whole project, in 1536, Paul III invited nine eminent prelates, distinguished by learning and piety alike, to act in committee and to report on the reformation and rebuilding of the Church. This report was printed not only at Rome, but at Strasburg, yet the Pope was in earnest when he took up the problem of reform. Yet it is clear that the Concilium bore no fruit in the situation. On the other hand, serious political complications resulted, in order to vest his grandson Ottavio Farnese with the dukedom of Camerino, Paul forcibly wrested the same from the duke of Urbino. He also incurred virtual war with his own subjects and vassals by the imposition of burdensome taxes, perugia, renouncing its obedience, was besieged by Pauls son, Pier Luigi, and forfeited its freedom entirely on its surrender. The burghers of Colonna were duly vanquished, and Ascanio was banished, after this the time seemed ripe for annihilating heresy. In 1540, the Church officially recognized the young society forming about Ignatius of Loyola, the second visible stage in the process becomes marked by the institution, or reorganization, in 1542, of the Congregation of the Holy Office of the Inquisition. On another side, the Emperor was insisting that Rome should forward his designs toward a recovery of the German Protestants
44.
Peter Anton von Verschaffelt
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Peter Anton von Verschaffelt was a Flemish sculptor and architect. Verschaffelt was born in Ghent, Flanders in the Spanish Netherlands, after his apprentice years in Ghent in the workshop of his grandfather, Verschaffelt worked in Brussels, Paris and, from 1737 to 1751, in Rome. In 1748, he received the commission to replace the statue of the archangel Michael on the Castel SantAngelo in Rome. In 1752 Verschaffelt moved to London, from there, he was appointed as a successor to the sculptor Paul Egell as court sculptor to Charles Theodore, Elector of the Palatinate, in Mannheim, Germany. Among his first tasks was the landscaping and statuary in the garden of Schwetzingen, for which he created the deer and the group of rivers. He died in Mannheim, Electoral Palatinate, Holy Roman Empire and this article is based in part on material from the German Wikipedia. Beisel, Edmund Ritter Peter Anton von Verschaffelt als Architekt Berlin Beringer, sein Leben und Werk Strasbourg Peter Anton von Verschaffelt Art net in English Ingrid Münch. Peter Anton von Verschaffelt University of Heidelberg in German
45.
Giordano Bruno
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Giordano Bruno, born Filippo Bruno, was an Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, mathematician, poet, and cosmological theorist. He is remembered for his theories, which conceptually extended the then novel Copernican model. He proposed that the stars were just distant suns surrounded by their own exoplanets and he also insisted that the universe is in fact infinite and could have no celestial body at its center. Brunos pantheism was also a matter of grave concern, the Inquisition found him guilty, and he was burned at the stake in Romes Campo de Fiori in 1600. Brunos case is considered a landmark in the history of free thought. In addition to cosmology, Bruno also wrote extensively on the art of memory, historian Frances Yates argues that Bruno was deeply influenced by Arab astrology, Neoplatonism, Renaissance Hermeticism, and legends surrounding the Egyptian god Thoth. Other studies of Bruno have focused on his approach to mathematics. Born Filippo Bruno in Nola in 1548, he was the son of Giovanni Bruno, a soldier and his date of birth was given as January 1548, the exact date remains unknown. In his youth he was sent to Naples to be educated and he was tutored privately at the Augustinian monastery there, and attended public lectures at the Studium Generale. At the age of 17, he entered the Dominican Order at the monastery of San Domenico Maggiore in Naples, taking the name Giordano, after Giordano Crispo and he continued his studies there, completing his novitiate, and became an ordained priest in 1572 at age 24. During his time in Naples he became known for his skill with the art of memory and on one occasion traveled to Rome to demonstrate his system before Pope Pius V. In his later years Bruno claimed that the Pope accepted his dedication to him of the lost work On The Ark of Noah at this time, while Bruno was distinguished for outstanding ability, his taste for free thinking and forbidden books soon caused him difficulties. Given the controversy he caused in life it is surprising that he was able to remain within the monastic system for eleven years. When he learned that an indictment was being prepared against him in Naples he fled, shedding his religious habit, from Venice he went to Padua, where he met fellow Dominicans who convinced him to wear his religious habit again. From Padua he went to Bergamo and then across the Alps to Chambéry and his movements after this time are obscure. In 1579 he arrived in Geneva, I desired to stay there only that I might live at liberty and in security. Things apparently went well for Bruno for a time, as he entered his name in the Rectors Book of the University of Geneva in May 1579, but in keeping with his personality he could not long remain silent. In August he published an attack on the work of Antoine de la Faye and he and the printer were promptly arrested
46.
Giacomo Puccini
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Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini was an Italian opera composer who has been called the greatest composer of Italian opera after Verdi. Puccinis early work was rooted in traditional late-19th-century romantic Italian opera, later, he successfully developed his work in the realistic verismo style, of which he became one of the leading exponents. Puccinis most renowned works are La bohème, Tosca, and Madama Butterfly, Puccini was born Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini in Lucca in Tuscany, in 1858. He was one of nine children of Michele Puccini and Albina Magi, the Puccini family was established in Lucca as a local musical dynasty by Puccinis great-great grandfather – also named Giacomo. This first Giacomo Puccini was maestro di cappella of the Cattedrale di San Martino in Lucca and he was succeeded in this position by his son, Antonio Puccini, and then by Antonios son Domenico, and Domenicos son Michele. Each of these men studied music at Bologna, and some additional musical studies elsewhere. Domenico Puccini studied for a time under Giovanni Paisiello, each composed music for the church. In addition, Domenico composed several operas, and Michele composed one opera, Puccinis father Michele enjoyed a reputation throughout northern Italy, and his funeral was an occasion of public mourning, at which the then-famed composer Giovanni Pacini conducted a Requiem. However, when Michele Puccini died in 1864, his son Giacomo was only six years old, as a child, he nevertheless participated in the musical life of the Cattedrale di San Martino, as a member of the boys choir and later as a substitute organist. Puccini was given an education at the seminary of San Michele in Lucca. One of Puccinis uncles, Fortunato Magi, supervised his musical education, Puccini got a diploma from the Pacini School of Music in Lucca in 1880, having studied there with his uncle Fortunato, and later with Carlo Angeloni, who had also instructed Alfredo Catalani. Puccini studied at the conservatory for three years, sharing a room with Pietro Mascagni, in 1880, at the age of 21, Puccini composed his Mass, which marks the culmination of his familys long association with church music in his native Lucca. Puccini wrote a piece called the Capriccio sinfonica as a thesis composition for the Milan Conservatory. Puccinis teachers Ponchielli and Bazzini were impressed by the work, and it was performed at a student concert at the conservatory on 14 July 1883, conducted by Franco Faccio. Puccinis work was reviewed in the Milanese publication Perseveranza. After the premiere of the Capriccio sinfonica, Ponchielli and Puccini discussed the possibility that Puccinis next work might be an opera, Ponchielli invited Puccini to stay at his villa, where Puccini was introduced to another young man named Fernando Fontana. Puccini and Fontana agreed to collaborate on an opera, for which Fontana would provide the libretto, the work, Le Villi, was entered into a competition sponsored by the Sozogno music publishing company in 1883. Although it did not win, Le Villi was later staged at the Teatro Dal Verme, G. Ricordi & Co. music publishers assisted with the premier by printing the libretto without charge
47.
Tosca
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Tosca is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. It premiered at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 14 January 1900 and it contains depictions of torture, murder and suicide, as well as some of Puccinis best-known lyrical arias. Puccini saw Sardous play when it was touring Italy in 1889 and, after some vacillation, turning the wordy French play into a succinct Italian opera took four years, during which the composer repeatedly argued with his librettists and publisher. Tosca premiered at a time of unrest in Rome, and its first performance was delayed for a day for fear of disturbances, despite indifferent reviews from the critics, the opera was an immediate success with the public. Musically, Tosca is structured as a work, with arias, recitative, choruses. Puccini used Wagnerian leitmotifs to identify characters, objects and ideas, the dramatic force of Tosca and its characters continues to fascinate both performers and audiences, and the work remains one of the most frequently performed operas. Many recordings of the work have been issued, both of studio and live performances, the French playwright Victorien Sardou wrote more than 70 plays, almost all of them successful, and none of them performed today. In the early 1880s Sardou began a collaboration with actress Sarah Bernhardt, Puccini had seen La Tosca at least twice, in Milan and Turin. Ricordi sent his agent in Paris, Emanuele Muzio, to negotiate with Sardou and he complained about the reception La Tosca had received in Italy, particularly in Milan, and warned that other composers were interested in the piece. Nonetheless, Ricordi reached terms with Sardou and assigned the librettist Luigi Illica to write a scenario for an adaptation, in 1891, Illica advised Puccini against the project, most likely because he felt the play could not be successfully adapted to a musical form. When Sardou expressed his unease at entrusting his most successful work to a new composer whose music he did not like. He withdrew from the agreement, which Ricordi then assigned to Alberto Franchetti, Illica wrote a libretto for Franchetti, who was never at ease with the assignment. There are several versions of how Ricordi got Franchetti to surrender the rights so he could recommission Puccini, by some accounts, Ricordi convinced Franchetti that the work was too violent to be successfully staged. Franchetti family tradition holds that Franchetti gave the work back as a gesture, saying. American scholar Deborah Burton contends that Franchetti gave it up simply because he saw merit in it. Franchetti surrendered the rights in May 1895, and in August Puccini signed a contract to control of the project. According to the libretto, the action of Tosca occurs in Rome in June 1800, Sardou, in his play, dates it more precisely, La Tosca takes place in the afternoon, evening, and early morning of 17 and 18 June 1800. Italy had long divided into a number of small states
48.
Giovanni Battista Bugatti
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Giovanni Battista Bugatti was the official executioner for the Papal States from 1796 to 1865. He was the executioner in the States and was nicknamed Mastro Titta. At the age of 85, he was retired by Pope Pius IX with a pension of 30 scudi. He referred to his executions as justices and the condemned as patients and his first execution was on March 22,1796. Up until 1810, the method of execution was beheading by axe, the French introduced the use of the guillotine which was continued after the Papal States regained their sovereignty until the last executions. He carried out a total of 516 executions, Bugatti is described as being short and portly, and always well dressed. He frequented the church Santa Maria in Traspontina and he was married but had no children. When not carrying out his duties, Bugatti and his wife sold painted umbrellas. He could not leave the Trastevere neighborhood unless on official business, officially this was for his own protection, in case relatives of those he had executed decided to take revenge against him. Unofficially it was due to superstition regarding his part-time job. On his crossing the bridge, the residents of Rome were alerted that an execution was about to take place, one of his executions, carried out on 8 March 1845, was described by Charles Dickens in his work Pictures from Italy. His blood-stained clothes, axes and guillotines are on display at the Museum of Criminology at Via del Gonfalone, the guillotine is of a very peculiar build, with straight blade and V-shaped neckpiece. List of people executed by the Holy See He executed justice, retrieved 11 April 2005 Mastro Titta. Passage from Pictures From Italy at the Wayback Machine, when Mastro Titta Crossed the Bridge
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