Architecture
Architecture is both the process and the product of planning and constructing buildings or any other structures. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are perceived as cultural symbols and as works of art. Historical civilizations are identified with their surviving architectural achievements. Architecture is both the process and the product of planning and constructing buildings and other physical structures. Architecture can mean: A general term to describe other physical structures; the art and science of designing buildings and nonbuilding structures. The style of design and method of construction of buildings and other physical structures. A unifying or coherent form or structure. Knowledge of art, science and humanity; the design activity of the architect, from the macro-level to the micro-level. The practice of the architect, where architecture means offering or rendering professional services in connection with the design and construction of buildings, or built environments.
The earliest surviving written work on the subject of architecture is De architectura, by the Roman architect Vitruvius in the early 1st century AD. According to Vitruvius, a good building should satisfy the three principles of firmitas, venustas known by the original translation – firmness and delight. An equivalent in modern English would be: Durability – a building should stand up robustly and remain in good condition. Utility – it should be suitable for the purposes for which it is used. Beauty – it should be aesthetically pleasing. According to Vitruvius, the architect should strive to fulfill each of these three attributes as well as possible. Leon Battista Alberti, who elaborates on the ideas of Vitruvius in his treatise, De Re Aedificatoria, saw beauty as a matter of proportion, although ornament played a part. For Alberti, the rules of proportion were those that governed the idealised human figure, the Golden mean; the most important aspect of beauty was, therefore, an inherent part of an object, rather than something applied superficially, was based on universal, recognisable truths.
The notion of style in the arts was not developed until the 16th century, with the writing of Vasari: by the 18th century, his Lives of the Most Excellent Painters and Architects had been translated into Italian, French and English. In the early 19th century, Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin wrote Contrasts that, as the titled suggested, contrasted the modern, industrial world, which he disparaged, with an idealized image of neo-medieval world. Gothic architecture, Pugin believed, was the only "true Christian form of architecture." The 19th-century English art critic, John Ruskin, in his Seven Lamps of Architecture, published 1849, was much narrower in his view of what constituted architecture. Architecture was the "art which so disposes and adorns the edifices raised by men... that the sight of them" contributes "to his mental health and pleasure". For Ruskin, the aesthetic was of overriding significance, his work goes on to state that a building is not a work of architecture unless it is in some way "adorned".
For Ruskin, a well-constructed, well-proportioned, functional building needed string courses or rustication, at the least. On the difference between the ideals of architecture and mere construction, the renowned 20th-century architect Le Corbusier wrote: "You employ stone and concrete, with these materials you build houses and palaces:, construction. Ingenuity is at work, but you touch my heart, you do me good. I am happy and I say: This is beautiful; that is Architecture". Le Corbusier's contemporary Ludwig Mies van der Rohe said "Architecture starts when you put two bricks together. There it begins." The notable 19th-century architect of skyscrapers, Louis Sullivan, promoted an overriding precept to architectural design: "Form follows function". While the notion that structural and aesthetic considerations should be subject to functionality was met with both popularity and skepticism, it had the effect of introducing the concept of "function" in place of Vitruvius' "utility". "Function" came to be seen as encompassing all criteria of the use and enjoyment of a building, not only practical but aesthetic and cultural.
Nunzia Rondanini stated, "Through its aesthetic dimension architecture goes beyond the functional aspects that it has in common with other human sciences. Through its own particular way of expressing values, architecture can stimulate and influence social life without presuming that, in and of itself, it will promote social development.' To restrict the meaning of formalism to art for art's sake is not only reactionary. Among the philosophies that have influenced modern architects and their approach to building design are rationalism, structuralism, poststructuralism, phenomenology. In the late 20th century a new concept was added to those included in the compass of both structure and function, the consideration of sustainability, hence sustainable architecture. To satisfy the contemporary ethos a building should be constructed in a manner, environmentally friendly in terms of the production of its materials, its impact upon the natural and built environment of its surrounding area and the demands that it makes upon non-sustainable power sources for heating, cooling and waste management and lighting
Shrine
A shrine is a holy or sacred place, dedicated to a specific deity, hero, saint, daemon, or similar figure of awe and respect, at which they are venerated or worshipped. Shrines contain idols, relics, or other such objects associated with the figure being venerated. A shrine at which votive offerings are made is called an altar. Shrines are found in many of the world's religions, including Christianity, Hinduism, Chinese folk religion and Asatru as well as in secular and non-religious settings such as a war memorial. Shrines can be found in various settings, such as churches, cemeteries, museums, or in the home, although portable shrines are found in some cultures. A shrine may become a focus of a cult image. Many shrines are located within buildings and in the temples designed for worship, such as a church in Christianity, or a mandir in Hinduism. A shrine here is the centre of attention in the building, is given a place of prominence. In such cases, adherents of the faith assemble within the building in order to venerate the deity at the shrine.
In classical temple architecture, the shrine may be synonymous with the cella. In Hinduism and Roman Catholicism, in modern faiths, such as Neopaganism, a shrine can be found within the home or shop; this shrine is a small structure or a setup of pictures and figurines dedicated to a deity, part of the official religion, to ancestors or to a localised household deity. Small household shrines are common among the Chinese and people from South and Southeast Asia, whether Hindu, Buddhist or Christian. A small lamp and small offerings are kept daily by the shrine. Buddhist household shrines must be on a shelf above the head. Small outdoor yard shrines are found at the bottom of many peoples' gardens, following various religions, including Christianity. Many consist of a statue of Christ or a saint, on a pedestal or in an alcove, while others may be elaborate booths without ceilings, some include paintings and architectural elements, such as walls, glass doors and ironwork fences, etc. In the United States, some Christians have small yard shrines.
Religious images in some sort of small shelter, placed by a road or pathway, sometimes in a settlement or at a crossroads. Shrines are found in many religions; as distinguished from a temple, a shrine houses a particular relic or cult image, the object of worship or veneration. A shrine may be constructed to set apart a site, thought to be holy, as opposed to being placed for the convenience of worshippers. Shrines therefore attract the practice of pilgrimage. Shrines are found in many, forms of Christianity. Roman Catholicism, the largest denomination of Christianity, has many shrines, as do Orthodox Christianity and Anglicanism. In the Roman Catholic Code of Canon law, canons 1230 and 1231 read: "The term shrine means a church or other sacred place which, with the approval of the local Ordinary, is by reason of special devotion frequented by the faithful as pilgrims. For a shrine to be described as national, the approval of the Episcopal Conference is necessary. For it to be described as international, the approval of the Holy See is required."Another use of the term "shrine" in colloquial Catholic terminology is a niche or alcove in most – larger – churches used by parishioners when praying in the church.
They were called Devotional Altars, since they could look like small Side Altars or bye-altars. Shrines were always centered on some image of Christ or a saint – for instance, a statue, mural or mosaic, may have had a reredos behind them. However, Mass would not be celebrated at them. Side altars, where Mass could be celebrated, were used in a similar way to shrines by parishioners. Side altars were dedicated to The Virgin Mary, Saint Joseph as well as other saints. A nativity set could be viewed as a shrine, as the definition of a shrine is any holy or sacred place. Islam's holiest structure, the Kaaba in the city of Mecca, though an ancient temple, may be seen as a shrine due to it housing a venerated relic called the Hajar al-Aswad and being the focus of the world's largest pilgrimage practice, the Hajj. A few yards away, the mosque houses the Maqam Ibrahim shrine containing a petrosomatoglyph associated with the patriarch and his son Ishmael's building of the Kaaba in Islamic tradition; the Green Dome sepulcher of the Islamic prophet Muhammad in Medina, housed in the Masjid an-Nabawi, occurs as a venerated place and important as a site of pilgrimage among Muslims.
Two of the oldest and notable Islamic shrines are the Dome of the Rock and the smaller Dome of the Chain built on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The former was built over the rock that marked the site of the Jewish Temple and according to Islamic tradition, was the point of departure of Muhammad's legendary ascent heavenwards. More than any other shrines in the Muslim world, the tomb of Muhammad is considered a source of blessings for the visitor. Among sayings attributed to
Votive offering
A votive offering or votive deposit is one or more objects displayed or deposited, without the intention of recovery or use, in a sacred place for broadly religious purposes. Such items are a feature of modern and ancient societies and are made in order to gain favor with supernatural forces; some offerings have been made in anticipation of the achievement of a particular wish, but in Western cultures from which documentary evidence survives it has been more typical to wait until the wish has been fulfilled before making the offering, for which the more specific term ex-voto may be used. Other offerings were likely regarded just as gifts to the deity, not linked to any particular need. In Buddhism, votive offering such as construction of stupas was a prevalent and holy practice in Ancient India, an example of which can be observed in the ruins of the ancient Vikramshila University and other contemporary structures. Votive offerings have been described in historical Roman era and Greek sources, although similar acts continue into the present day, for example in traditional Catholic culture and, arguably, in the modern-day practice of tossing coins into a wishing well or fountain.
The modern construction practice called topping out can be considered as an example of a votive practice that has ancient roots. In archaeology, votive deposits differ from hoards in that although they may contain similar items, votive deposits were not intended for recovery. In Europe, votive deposits are known from as early as the Neolithic, with polished axe hoards, reaching a peak in the late Bronze Age. High status artifacts such as armor and weaponry and cult symbols, various treasures and animals were common offerings in antiquity; the votive offerings were sacrificed and buried or more cast into bodies of water or peat bogs, whence they could not have been recovered. In certain cases entire ships have been sacrificed, as in the Danish bog Nydam Mose. All the objects in a ritual hoard are broken, possibly'killing' the objects to put them further beyond utilitarian use before deposition; the purposeful discarding of valuable items such as swords and spearheads is thought to have had ritual overtones.
The items have since been discovered in rivers and present or former wetlands by construction workers, peat diggers, metal-detectorists, members of the public and archaeologists. A saying by Diogenes of Sinope as quoted by Diogenes Laërtius, indicates the high level of votive offering in Ancient Greece: The Treasuries at Olympia and Delphi were buildings by the various Greek city-states to hold their own votive offerings in money and precious metal. Votive offerings were used as atonement for sins committed against a god or goddess; the offerings were in certain cases created by a separate person due to the gifter having an injury or other circumstances, allowed. Some Greek offerings, such as bronze tripods at Delphi, were displayed for a period and buried in groups. At Olympia many small figurines of animals, were thrown onto the huge pile of ashes from animal sacrifices at the altar outside the Temple of Zeus. Much of our knowledge of ancient Greek art in base metal comes from these and other excavated deposits of offerings.
Arms and armour helmets, were given after a victory. In Mesoamerica, votive deposits have been recovered from the Olmec site of El Manati and the Maya Sacred Cenote at Chichen Itza. Archaeologists have recovered some votive offerings in ancient Sparta from the 5th century BC; these votive offerings give evidence to the presence of literacy in Spartan culture. Placing greater emphasis on inscriptions which seem to have been made by the individual making the offering, archaeologists can interpret that, of the early dedicators, there were few in number and that most, if not all, were from the upper classes. One piece of pottery was found; this would indicate an everyday literacy among the Spartans. Scholars have not recovered any other piece of pottery with a similar inscription to support that single find; the 13 Ancient Votive Stones of Pesaro were unearthed in 1737 on a local Pesaro farm in the Province of Pesaro e Urbino and date to pre-Estrucan times. They are inscribed with the names of various Roman gods such as APOLLO, MAT-MATVTA, SALVS, FIDE, IVNONII.
A curse tablet or defixio is a small sheet of tin or lead on which a message wishing misfortune upon someone else was inscribed. Found rolled up and deliberately deposited, there are five main reasons for dedicating a curse tablet:1 – Litigation, 2 – Competition, 3 – Trade, 4 – Erotic Ambition, 5 – Theft Of those in Britain the vast majority are of type 5; the two largest concentrations are from the sacred springs at Aquae Sulis, where 130 examples are recorded, at Uley, where over 140 examples are visible. The use of the curse-tablet in seeking restoration of stolen property is strong evidence of invoking divine power through a non-traditional religious ceremony involving some form of water-deposition; the usual form of divine invocation was through prayer and altar dedication so access to this information provides useful insights into Roman provincial culture. Many unrecovered ancient votive offerings are threatened in today's world those submerged in wetlands or other bodies of water. We
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece was a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Three centuries after the Late Bronze Age collapse of Mycenaean Greece, Greek urban poleis began to form in the 8th century BC, ushering in the Archaic period and colonization of the Mediterranean Basin; this was followed by the period of Classical Greece, an era that began with the Greco-Persian Wars, lasting from the 5th to 4th centuries BC. Due to the conquests by Alexander the Great of Macedon, Hellenistic civilization flourished from Central Asia to the western end of the Mediterranean Sea; the Hellenistic period came to an end with the conquests and annexations of the eastern Mediterranean world by the Roman Republic, which established the Roman province of Macedonia in Roman Greece, the province of Achaea during the Roman Empire. Classical Greek culture philosophy, had a powerful influence on ancient Rome, which carried a version of it to many parts of the Mediterranean Basin and Europe.
For this reason, Classical Greece is considered to be the seminal culture which provided the foundation of modern Western culture and is considered the cradle of Western civilization. Classical Greek culture gave great importance to knowledge. Science and religion were not separate and getting closer to the truth meant getting closer to the gods. In this context, they understood the importance of mathematics as an instrument for obtaining more reliable knowledge. Greek culture, in a few centuries and with a limited population, managed to explore and make progress in many fields of science, mathematics and knowledge in general. Classical antiquity in the Mediterranean region is considered to have begun in the 8th century BC and ended in the 6th century AD. Classical antiquity in Greece was preceded by the Greek Dark Ages, archaeologically characterised by the protogeometric and geometric styles of designs on pottery. Following the Dark Ages was the Archaic Period, beginning around the 8th century BC.
The Archaic Period saw early developments in Greek culture and society which formed the basis for the Classical Period. After the Archaic Period, the Classical Period in Greece is conventionally considered to have lasted from the Persian invasion of Greece in 480 until the death of Alexander the Great in 323; the period is characterized by a style, considered by observers to be exemplary, i.e. "classical", as shown in the Parthenon, for instance. Politically, the Classical Period was dominated by Athens and the Delian League during the 5th century, but displaced by Spartan hegemony during the early 4th century BC, before power shifted to Thebes and the Boeotian League and to the League of Corinth led by Macedon; this period saw the Greco-Persian Wars and the Rise of Macedon. Following the Classical period was the Hellenistic period, during which Greek culture and power expanded into the Near and Middle East; this period ends with the Roman conquest. Roman Greece is considered to be the period between Roman victory over the Corinthians at the Battle of Corinth in 146 BC and the establishment of Byzantium by Constantine as the capital of the Roman Empire in AD 330.
Late Antiquity refers to the period of Christianization during the 4th to early 6th centuries AD, sometimes taken to be complete with the closure of the Academy of Athens by Justinian I in 529. The historical period of ancient Greece is unique in world history as the first period attested directly in proper historiography, while earlier ancient history or proto-history is known by much more circumstantial evidence, such as annals or king lists, pragmatic epigraphy. Herodotus is known as the "father of history": his Histories are eponymous of the entire field. Written between the 450s and 420s BC, Herodotus' work reaches about a century into the past, discussing 6th century historical figures such as Darius I of Persia, Cambyses II and Psamtik III, alluding to some 8th century ones such as Candaules. Herodotus was succeeded by authors such as Thucydides, Demosthenes and Aristotle. Most of these authors were either Athenian or pro-Athenian, why far more is known about the history and politics of Athens than those of many other cities.
Their scope is further limited by a focus on political and diplomatic history, ignoring economic and social history. In the 8th century BC, Greece began to emerge from the Dark Ages which followed the fall of the Mycenaean civilization. Literacy had been lost and Mycenaean script forgotten, but the Greeks adopted the Phoenician alphabet, modifying it to create the Greek alphabet. Objects with Phoenician writing on them may have been available in Greece from the 9th century BC, but the earliest evidence of Greek writing comes from graffiti on Greek pottery from the mid-8th century. Greece was divided into many small self-governing communities, a pattern dictated by Greek geography: every island and plain is cut off from its neighbors by the sea or mountain ranges; the Lelantine War is the earliest documented war of the ancient Greek period. It was fought between the important poleis of Chalcis and Eretria over the fertile Lelantine plain of Euboea. Both cities seem to have suffered a decline as result of the long war, though Chalcis was the nominal victor.
A mercantile class arose in the first half of the 7th century BC, shown by the introduction of coinage in about 680 BC. This
Monastery
A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone. A monastery includes a place reserved for prayer which may be a chapel, church, or temple, may serve as an oratory. Monasteries vary in size, comprising a small dwelling accommodating only a hermit, or in the case of communities anything from a single building housing only one senior and two or three junior monks or nuns, to vast complexes and estates housing tens or hundreds. A monastery complex comprises a number of buildings which include a church, cloister, library and infirmary. Depending on the location, the monastic order and the occupation of its inhabitants, the complex may include a wide range of buildings that facilitate self-sufficiency and service to the community; these may include a hospice, a school, a range of agricultural and manufacturing buildings such as a barn, a forge, or a brewery. In English usage, the term monastery is used to denote the buildings of a community of monks.
In modern usage, convent tends to be applied only to institutions of female monastics communities of teaching or nursing religious sisters. A convent denoted a house of friars, now more called a friary. Various religions may apply these terms in more specific ways; the word monastery comes from the Greek word μοναστήριον, neut. of μοναστήριος – monasterios from μονάζειν – monazein "to live alone" from the root μόνος – monos "alone". The earliest extant use of the term monastērion is by the 1st century AD Jewish philosopher Philo in On The Contemplative Life, ch. III. In England the word monastery was applied to the habitation of a bishop and the cathedral clergy who lived apart from the lay community. Most cathedrals were not monasteries, were served by canons secular, which were communal but not monastic. However, some were run by monasteries orders, such as York Minster. Westminster Abbey was for a short time a cathedral, was a Benedictine monastery until the Reformation, its Chapter preserves elements of the Benedictine tradition.
See the entry cathedral. They are to be distinguished from collegiate churches, such as St George's Chapel, Windsor. In most of this article, the term monastery is used generically to refer to any of a number of types of religious community. In the Roman Catholic religion and to some extent in certain branches of Buddhism, there is a somewhat more specific definition of the term and many related terms. Buddhist monasteries are called vihara. Viharas may be occupied by men or women, in keeping with common English usage, a vihara populated by females may be called a nunnery or a convent. However, vihara can refer to a temple. In Tibetan Buddhism, monasteries are called gompa. In Thailand and Cambodia, a monastery is called a wat. In Burma, a monastery is called a kyaung. A Christian monastery may be a priory, or conceivably a hermitage, it may be a community of men or of women. A charterhouse is any monastery belonging to the Carthusian order. In Eastern Christianity, a small monastic community can be called a skete, a large or important monastery can be given the dignity of a lavra.
The great communal life of a Christian monastery is called cenobitic, as opposed to the anchoretic life of an anchorite and the eremitic life of a hermit. There has been under the Osmanli occupation of Greece and Cyprus, an "idiorrhythmic" lifestyle where monks come together but being able to own things individually and not being obliged to work for the common good. In Hinduism monasteries are called matha, koil, or most an ashram. Jains use the Buddhist term vihara. In most religions the life inside monasteries is governed by community rules that stipulate the gender of the inhabitants and require them to remain celibate and own little or no personal property; the degree to which life inside a particular monastery is separate from the surrounding populace can vary widely. Others focus on interacting with the local communities to provide services, such as teaching, medical care, or evangelism; some monastic communities are only occupied seasonally, depending both on the traditions involved and the local weather, people may be part of a monastic community for periods ranging from a few days at a time to an entire lifetime.
The life within the walls of a monastery may be supported in several ways: by manufacturing and selling goods agricultural products, by donations or alms, by rental or investment incomes, by funds from other organizations within the religion, which in the past formed the traditional support of monasteries. There has been a long tradition of Christian monasteries providing hospitable and hospital services. Monasteries have been associated with the provision of education and the encouragement of scholarship and research, which has led to the establishment of schools and colleges and the association with universities. Christian monastic life has adapted to modern society by offering computer services, accounting services and management as well as modern hospital and educational administration. Buddhist monasteries, known as vihāra i
Etruscan civilization
The Etruscan civilization is the modern name given to a powerful and wealthy civilization of ancient Italy in the area corresponding to Tuscany, south of the Arno river, western Umbria and central Lazio, with offshoots to the north in the Po Valley, in the current Emilia-Romagna, south-eastern Lombardy and southern Veneto, to the south, in some areas of Campania. As distinguished by its unique language, this civilization endured from before the time of the earliest Etruscan inscriptions until its assimilation into the Roman Republic, beginning in the late 4th century BC with the Roman–Etruscan Wars. Culture, identifiably Etruscan developed in Italy after about 900 BC with the Iron Age Villanovan culture, regarded as the oldest phase of Etruscan civilization; the latter gave way in the 7th century BCE to a culture, influenced by Ancient Greek culture, during the Archaic and the Hellenistic period. At its maximum extent, during the foundational period of Rome and the Roman Kingdom, Etruscan civilization flourished in three confederacies of cities: of Etruria, of the Po Valley with the eastern Alps, of Campania.
The league in northern Italy is mentioned in Livy. The decline was gradual, but by 500 BCE the political destiny of Italy had passed out of Etruscan hands; the last Etruscan cities were formally absorbed by Rome around 100 BCE. Although the Etruscans developed a system of writing, the Etruscan language remains only understood, only a handful of texts of any length survive, making modern understanding of their society and culture dependent on much and disapproving Roman and Greek sources. Politics was based on the small city and the family unit. In their heyday, the Etruscan elite grew rich through trade with the Celtic world to the north and the Greeks to the south and filled their large family tombs with imported luxuries. Archaic Greece had a huge influence on their art and architecture, Greek mythology was evidently familiar to them; the Etruscans called themselves Rasenna, syncopated to Rasna or Raśna, while the ancient Romans referred to the Etruscans as the Tuscī or Etruscī. Their Roman name is the origin of the terms "Toscana", which refers to their heartland, "Etruria", which can refer to their wider region.
In Attic Greek, the Etruscans were known as Tyrrhenians, from which the Romans derived the names Tyrrhēnī, Tyrrhēnia, Mare Tyrrhēnum, prompting some to associate them with the Teresh. The origins of the Etruscans are lost in prehistory, although Greek historians as early as the 5th century BC associated the Tyrrhenians with Pelasgians, which could both be broad descriptive terms. Strabo and the Homeric Hymn to Dionysus make mention of the Tyrrhenians as pirates. Thucydides and Strabo all denote Lemnos as settled by Pelasgians, whom Thucydides identifies as "belonging to the Tyrrhenians". Although both Strabo and Herodotus agree that Tyrrhenus / Tyrsenos, son of Atys, king of Lydia, led the migration, Strabo specifies that it was the Pelasgians of Lemnos and Imbros who followed Tyrrhenus to the Italian Peninsula. A link between Lemnos and the Tyrrhenians was further manifested by the discovery of the Lemnos Stele, whose inscriptions were written in a language which shows strong structural resemblances to the language of the Etruscans.
This has led to the suggestion of a "Tyrrhenian language group" comprising Etruscan and the Raetic spoken in the Alps. Hellanicus of Lesbos records a Pelasgian migration from Thessaly to the Italian peninsula, noting that "the Pelasgi made themselves masters of some of the lands belonging to the Umbri". By contrast, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, a Greek writer living in Rome, dismisses many of the ancient theories of the other Greek historians and postulates that the Etruscans were indigenous people who had always lived in Etruria. For this reason, therefore, I am persuaded that the Pelasgians are a different people from the Tyrrhenians, and I do not believe, that the Tyrrhenians were a colony of the Lydians. For they neither worship the same gods as the Lydians nor make use of similar laws or institutions, but in these respects they differ more from the Lydians than from the Pelasgians. Indeed, those come nearest to the truth who declare that the nation migrated from nowhere else, but was native to the country, since it is found to be a ancient nation and to agree with no other either in its language or in its manner of living.
Furthermore, Dionysius of Halicarnassus is the first ancient writer who reports the endonym of the Etruscans: Rasenna. The Romans, give them other names: from the country they once inhabited, named Etruria, they call them Etruscans, from their knowledge of the ceremonies relating to divine worship, in which they excel others, they now call them, rather inaccurately, but with the same accuracy as the Greeks, they called them Thyoscoï, their own name for themselves, however, is the same as that of one of Rasenna. Livy in his Ab Urbe Condita Libri says the Rhaetians were Etruscans driven into the mountains by the invading Gauls, asserts that the inhabitants of Raetia were of Etruscan origin; the Alpine tribes have no doubt, the same origin the Raetians.
Nîmes
Nîmes is a city in the Occitanie region of southern France. It is the capital of the Gard department. Nîmes is located between the Cévennes mountains; the estimated population of Nîmes is 151,001. Dubbed the most Roman city outside Italy, Nîmes has a rich history dating back to the Roman Empire when the city was a regional capital, home to 50,000–60,000 people. Several famous monuments are in Nîmes, such as the Maison Carrée; because of this, Nîmes is referred to as the French Rome. The city derives its name from that of a spring in the Roman village; the contemporary coat of arms of the city of Nîmes includes a crocodile chained to a palm tree with the inscription COL NEM, for Colonia Nemausus, meaning the "colony" or "settlement" of Nemausus, the local Celtic god of the Volcae Arecomici. Veterans of the Roman legions who had served Julius Caesar in his Nile campaigns, at the end of fifteen years of soldiering, were given plots of land to cultivate on the plain of Nîmes; the city was located on the Via Domitia, a Roman road constructed in 118 BC which connected Italy with Spain.
Its name appears in inscriptions in Gaulish as dede matrebo Namausikabo = "he has given to the mothers of Nîmes" and "toutios Namausatis" = "citizen of Nîmes". The site on which the built-up area of Nîmes has become established in the course of centuries is part of the edge of the alluvial plain of the Vistrenque River which butts up against low hills: to the northeast, Mont Duplan; the Neolithic site of Serre Paradis reveals the presence of semi-nomadic cultivators in the period 4000 to 3500 BC on the future site of Nîmes. The population of the site increased during the thousand-year period of the Bronze Age; the menhir of Courbessac stands near the airstrip. This limestone monolith of over two metres in height dates to about 2500 BC, must be considered the oldest monument of Nîmes; the Bronze Age has left traces of villages that were made out of huts and branches The Warrior of Grezan is considered to be the most ancient indigenous sculpture in southern Gaul. The hill named. During the third and 2nd centuries BC a surrounding wall was built, closed at the summit by a dry-stone tower, incorporated into the masonry of the Tour Magne.
The Wars of Gaul and the fall of Marseille allowed Nîmes to regain its autonomy under Rome. Nîmes became a Roman colony sometime before 28 BC, as witnessed by the earliest coins, which bear the abbreviation NEM. COL, "Colony of Nemausus"; some years a sanctuary and other constructions connected with the fountain were raised on the site. Nîmes was under Roman influence, though it was Augustus who made the city the capital of Narbonne province, gave it all its glory, it was known as the birthplace of the family of Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius. The city had an estimated population of 60,000 in the time of Augustus. Augustus gave the town a ring of ramparts reinforced by fourteen towers. An aqueduct was built to bring water from the hills to the north. Where this crossed the River Gard between Uzes and Remoulins, the spectacular Pont du Gard was built; this is 20 kilometres north east of the city. The Maison Carrée is one of the best preserved temples to be found anywhere in the territory of the former Roman Empire.
Nothing remains of some other monuments, the existence of, known from inscriptions or architectural fragments found in the course of excavations. It is known that the town had a civil basilica, a curia, a gymnasium and a circus; the amphitheatre dates from the end of the 2nd century AD and was one of the largest amphitheatres in the Empire. Emperor Constantine endowed the city with baths, it became the seat of the chief administrative officer of southern Gaul. The town was prosperous until the end of the 3rd century – during the 4th and 5th centuries, the nearby town of Arles enjoyed more prosperity. In the early 5th century the Praetorian Prefecture was moved from Trier in northeast Gaul to Arles; the Visigoths captured the city from the Romans in 473 AD. After the Roman period, in the days of invasion and decadence, the Christian Church established in Gaul since the 1st century AD, appeared to be the last refuge of classical civilization – it was remarkably organized and directed by a series of Gallo-Roman aristocrats.
However, when the Visigoths were accepted into the Roman Empire, Nîmes was included in their territory after the Frankish victory at the Battle of Vouillé. The urban landscape went through transformation with the Goths, but much of the heritage of the Roman era remained intact. By 725, the Muslim Umayyads had conquered the whole Visigothic territory of Septimania including Nîmes. In 736-737, Charles Martel and his brother led an expedition to Septimania and Provence, destroyed the city, including the amphitheatre, thereafter heading back north; the Muslim government came to an end in 752. In 754, an uprising took place against the Carolingian king, but was put down, count Radulf, a Frank, appointed as master of the city. After the events connected with the war, Nîmes was now only a shadow of the opulent Roman city it had once been; the local authorities installed themselves in the remains of the amphitheatre. Car
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the 