1.
Epona
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In Gallo-Roman religion, Epona was a protector of horses, ponies, donkeys, and mules. She was particularly a goddess of fertility, as shown by her attributes of a patera, cornucopia, ears of grain and she and her horses might also have been leaders of the soul in the after-life ride, with parallels in Rhiannon of the Mabinogion. Demeter was venerated as a mare in Lycosoura in Arcadia into historical times, fernand Benoît found the earliest attestations of a cult of Epona in the Danubian provinces and asserted that she had been introduced in the limes of Gaul by horsemen from the east. This suggestion has not been taken up. Although the name is Gaulish, dedicatory inscriptions to Epona are in Latin or, rarely and they were made not only by Celts, but also by Germans, Romans, and other inhabitants of the Roman Empire. An inscription to Epona from Mainz, Germany, identifies the dedicator as Syrian, however, Olmsteds interpretation has not been generally accepted by other scholars, Meid interprets the same inscription as an invocation of Dibona in vulgar Greek for aid in a romantic dispute. Eponas feast day in the Roman calendar was given as December 18 on a calendar from Guidizzolo, Italy. She was incorporated into the cult by being invoked on behalf of the Emperor. Benoît compared the rider with most of the riders imaged around the Mediterranean shores, perceptions of native Celtic goddesses had changed under Roman hegemony, only the names remained the same. As Gaul was Romanized under the early Empire, Epona’s sovereign role evolved into a protector of cavalry, a series of their dedications to Epona and other Celtic, Roman and German deities was found in Rome, at the Lateran. As Epane she is attested in Cantabria, northern Spain, on Mount Bernorio, Palencia and she is the goddess that is concerned with the protection of horses. So Agesilaüs in the book of his Italian History. It may represent some recollection of Indo-European horse sacrifice, such as the Vedic ashvamedha, in the Celtic ritual, the king mates with a white mare thought to embody the goddess of sovereignty. In the Equestrian type, common in Gaul, she is depicted sitting side-saddle on a horse or lying on one, in the Imperial type she sits on a throne flanked by two or more horses or foals. Epona is mentioned in The Golden Ass by Apuleius, where a niche with her image on a pillar in a stable has been garlanded with freshly picked roses. In his Satires, the Roman poet Juvenal also links the worship, small images of Epona have been found in Roman sites of stables and barns over a wide territory. At Padstow formerly, at the end of the festivities the hobby-horse was ritually submerged in the sea, a provincial though not crude small Roman bronze of a seated Epona, flanked by a small mare and stallion, found in England, is conserved in the British Museum. On her left arm she holds a yoke, which curves up above her shoulder, the Welsh figure Rhiannon rides a white horse but has no other attributes in common with Epona
2.
Pillar of the Boatmen
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The Pillar of the Boatmen is a square-section stone bas-relief with depictions of several deities, both Gaulish and Roman. It is displayed in the frigidarium of the Thermes de Cluny, written in Latin with some Gaulish language features, the inscription mingles Roman deities with gods that are distinctly Gallic. The pillar is dated by a dedication to Tiberius Caesar Augustus, that is, Tiberius and it was set up publicly by the guild of sailors of Lutetia, from the civitas of the Parisii. These sailors would have been merchants who travelled along the Seine, the main dedication is to Jupiter, in the form of Iovis Optimus Maximus. The names of the emperor and the supreme deity appear in the case as the recipients of the dedication. The remaining theonyms are nominative legends that accompany individual depictions of the gods and these are Jove, Tarvos Trigaranos, Volcanus, Esus, Cernunnos, Castor, Smertrios, and Fortuna. The Gaulish theonyms are presented as deity names in their own right, the pillar is made of a type of limestone called pierre de Saint-Leu-dEsserent, from Saint-Leu, Oise, France. The original pillar would have been 5. 24m high,0. 91m wide at the base and 0. 74m wide at the top and it is formed in four tiers. Although the order from top to bottom is reasonably certain from the relative sizes of the blocks, we do not know the order in which the blocks were arranged. The top tier, of only the top half remains, depicts Cernunnos, Smertrios. Cernunnos has stags antlers from which hang two torcs, Smertrios is shown kneeling, brandishing a club and attacking a snake. Castor and Pollux are shown standing beside their horses, each holding a spear, the second tier, which is complete, shows Jupiter, Esus, Tarvos Trigaranos and Vulcan. Jupiter is shown standing, holding a spear and a thunderbolt, Esus is shown standing beside a willow tree, which he is cutting down with an axe. Tarvos Trigaranus is depicted as a large, heavy-set bull standing in front of a willow tree, two cranes stand on his back and a third on his head. Vulcan is shown standing, with hammer and tongs, the third tier, the top half of which survives, bears the main dedicatory inscription on one face. Since this has a border and appears complete, the content of the half of this face is unknown. They are unarmed, dressed in flowing gowns, and have an inscription Senani Ueiloni, the fourth, lowest tier is slightly wider than the upper three. Only the top half remains, and the inscriptions are badly damaged, each face shows a pair of standing figures
3.
Cernunnos
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Cernunnos is the conventional name given in Celtic studies to depictions of the horned god of Celtic polytheism. Cernunnos was a Celtic god of fertility, life, animals, wealth, the name itself is only attested once, on the 1st-century Pillar of the Boatmen, but he appears all over Gaul, and among the Celtiberians. Not much is known about the god from literary sources, and details about his name, speculative interpretations identify him as a god of nature, life or fertility. The theonym ernunnos appears on the Pillar of the Boatmen, a Gallo-Roman monument dating to the early 1st century CE, both antlers have torcs hanging from them. The name has been compared to a divine epithet Carnonos in a Celtic inscription written in Greek characters at Montagnac, a Gallo-Latin adjective carnuātus, horned, is also found. The Proto-Celtic form of the theonym is reconstructed as either *Cerno-on-os or *Carno-on-os, the augmentative -on- is characteristic of theonyms, as in Maponos, Epona, Matronae, and Sirona. Maier states that the etymology of Cernunnos is unknown, as the Celtic word for horn has an a, Gaulish karnon horn is cognate with Latin cornu and Germanic *hurnaz, English horn, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *k̑r̥no-. The etymon karn- horn appears in both Gaulish and Galatian branches of Continental Celtic, the root also appears in the names of Celtic polities, most prominent among them the Carnutes, meaning something like the Horned Ones, and in several personal names found in inscriptions. The name Cernunnos occurs only on the Pillar of the Boatmen, the distinctive stone pillar is an important monument of Gallo-Roman religion. Its low reliefs depict and label by name several Roman deities such as Jupiter, Vulcan, and Castor and Pollux, along with Gallic deities such as Esus, Smertrios and this inscription read Deo Ceruninco, to the God Cerunincos, assumed to be the same deity. The Gaulish inscription from Montagnac reads αλλετνος καρνονου αλσοεας, with the last word possibly a place based on Alisia. The god labelled ernunnos on the Pillar of the Boatmen is depicted with stags antlers in their stage of annual growth. Both antlers have torcs hanging from them, the lower part of the relief is lost, but the dimensions suggest that the god was sitting cross-legged, providing a direct parallel to the antlered figure on the Gundestrup cauldron. In spite of the name Cernunnos being attested nowhere else, it is used in Celtological literature as describing all comparable depictions of horned/antlered deities. The god may have symbolised the fecundity of the stag-inhabited forest, other examples of Cernunnos images include a petroglyph in Val Camonica in Cisalpine Gaul. The antlered human figure has been dated as early as the 7th century BCE or as late as the 4th, an antlered child appears on a relief from Vendeuvres, flanked by serpents and holding a purse and a torc. The best known image appears on the Gundestrup cauldron found on Jutland, dating to the 1st century BCE, the horns are taken to represent aggressive power, genetic vigor and fecundity. Divine representations of the Cernunnos type are exceptions to the view that the Celts only began to picture their gods in human form after the Roman conquest of Gaul
4.
Goddess
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A goddess is a female deity in polytheistic religions. Goddesses most often have characteristics that are apotheosize in their pure form. However, in some cases goddesses may embody neutral forms personifying both male and female characteristics, or they may even exhibit traits that are associated with the male gender. In some faiths, a female figure holds a central place in religious prayer. For example, Shaktism, the worship of the force that animates the world, is one of the three major sects of Hinduism. Polytheist religions, including Polytheistic reconstructionists, honour multiple goddesses and gods and these deities may be part of a pantheon, or different regions may have tutelary deities. The reconstructionists, like their ancient forebears, honour the deities particular to their country of origin, the noun goddess is a secondary formation, combining the Germanic god with the Latinate -ess suffix. It first appeared in Middle English, from about 1350, the English word follows the linguistic precedent of a number of languages—including Egyptian, Classical Greek, and several Semitic languages—that add a feminine ending to the languages word for god. Joseph Campbell in The Power of Myth, a 1988 interview with Bill Moyers, links the image of the Earth or Mother Goddess to symbols of fertility and reproduction. For example, Campbell states that, There have been systems of religion where the mother is the prime parent, and in Egypt you have the Mother Heavens, the Goddess Nut, who is represented as the whole heavenly sphere. Joseph Campbell, Well that was associated primarily with agriculture and the agricultural societies and it has to do with the earth. The human woman gives birth just as the earth gives birth to the plants. so woman magic, and the personification of the energy that gives birth to forms and nourishes forms is properly female. It is in the world of ancient Mesopotamia, the Egyptian Nile. Campbell also argues that the image of the Virgin Mary was derived from the image of Isis and her child Horus, other Mesopotamian goddesses include Ninhursag, Ninlil, Antu, Gaga Goddesses of the Canaanite religion, Baalat Gebal, Astarte, Anat. Cybele, Her Hittite name was Kubaba, but her name changed to Cybele in Phrygian and Roman culture and her effect can be also seen on Artemis as the Lady of Ephesus. Hebat, Mother Goddess of the Hittite pantheon and wife of the sky god. She was the origin of the Hurrian cult, arinniti, Hittite Goddess of the sun. She became patron of the Hittite Empire and monarchy, leto, A mother Goddess figure in Lykia
5.
Celts
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The history of pre-Celtic Europe remains very uncertain. According to one theory, the root of the Celtic languages, the Proto-Celtic language, arose in the Late Bronze Age Urnfield culture of Central Europe. Thus this area is called the Celtic homeland. The earliest undisputed examples of a Celtic language are the Lepontic inscriptions beginning in the 6th century BC. Continental Celtic languages are attested almost exclusively through inscriptions and place-names, Insular Celtic languages are attested beginning around the 4th century in Ogham inscriptions, although it was clearly being spoken much earlier. Celtic literary tradition begins with Old Irish texts around the 8th century, coherent texts of Early Irish literature, such as the Táin Bó Cúailnge, survive in 12th century recensions. Between the 5th and 8th centuries, the Celtic-speaking communities in these Atlantic regions emerged as a cohesive cultural entity. They had a linguistic, religious and artistic heritage that distinguished them from the culture of the surrounding polities. By the 6th century, however, the Continental Celtic languages were no longer in wide use, Insular Celtic culture diversified into that of the Gaels and the Celtic Britons of the medieval and modern periods. A modern Celtic identity was constructed as part of the Romanticist Celtic Revival in Great Britain, Ireland, today, Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Welsh, and Breton are still spoken in parts of their historical territories, and Cornish and Manx are undergoing a revival. The first recorded use of the name of Celts – as Κελτοί – to refer to a group was by Hecataeus of Miletus, the Greek geographer, in 517 BC. In the fifth century BC Herodotus referred to Keltoi living around the head of the Danube, the etymology of the term Keltoi is unclear. Possible roots include Indo-European *kʲel ‘to hide’, IE *kʲel ‘to heat’ or *kel ‘to impel’, several authors have supposed it to be Celtic in origin, while others view it as a name coined by Greeks. Linguist Patrizia De Bernardo Stempel falls in the group. Yet he reports Celtic peoples in Iberia, and also uses the ethnic names Celtiberi and Celtici for peoples there, as distinct from Lusitani, pliny the Elder cited the use of Celtici in Lusitania as a tribal surname, which epigraphic findings have confirmed. Latin Gallus might stem from a Celtic ethnic or tribal name originally and its root may be the Proto-Celtic *galno, meaning “power, strength”, hence Old Irish gal “boldness, ferocity” and Welsh gallu “to be able, power”. The tribal names of Gallaeci and the Greek Γαλάται most probably have the same origin, the suffix -atai might be an Ancient Greek inflection. Proto-Germanic *walha is derived ultimately from the name of the Volcae and this means that English Gaul, despite its superficial similarity, is not actually derived from Latin Gallia, though it does refer to the same ancient region
6.
Indo-European religion
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The hypothesized reconstructions below are based on linguistic evidence using the comparative method. Archaeological evidence is difficult to match to any specific culture in the period of early Indo-European culture in the Chalcolithic, other approaches to Indo-European mythology are possible, such as the trifunctional hypothesis of Georges Dumézil. Linguists are able to reconstruct the names of deities in the Proto-Indo-European language from many types of sources. Some of the proposed deity names are more accepted among scholars than others. The term for a god was *deiwos, reflected in Hittite, sius, Latin, deus, divus, Sanskrit, deva, Avestan, daeva, Welsh, duw, Irish, dia, Old Norse, tívurr, Lithuanian, Dievas, Latvian, Dievs. The supreme ruler of the Proto-Indo-European pantheon was the god *Dyḗus Pḥɑtḗr and he is believed to have been worshipped as the god of the daylit skies. He is, by far, the most well-attested of all the Proto-Indo-European deities, the Greek god Zeus, the Roman god Jupiter, and the Illyrian god Dei-Pátrous all appear as the head gods of their respective pantheons. The Norse god Týr, however, seems to have been demoted to the role of a minor war-deity, *Dyḗus Pḥɑtḗr is also attested in the Rigveda as Dyáus Pitā, a minor ancestor figure mentioned in only a few hymns. The names of the Latvian god Dievs and the Hittite god Attas Isanus do not preserve the exact translation of the name *Dyḗus Pḥɑtḗr. *Hɑéusōs has been reconstructed as the Proto-Indo-European goddess of the dawn, derivatives of her found throughout various Indo-European mythologies include the Greek goddess Eos, the Roman goddess Aurōra, the Vedic goddess Uṣás, and the Lithuanian goddess Auštrine. The form Arap Ushas appears in Albanian folklore, but as a name for the Moon, an extension of the name may have been *H2eustro, but see also the form *as-t-r, with intrusive -t- in northern dialects. *Seh2ul and *Meh1not are reconstructed as the Proto-Indo-European goddess of the Sun, *Meh1not is reconstructed based off the Norse god Máni, the Hittite god Myesyats, and the Lithuanian god *Meno, or Mėnuo. They are often seen as the children of various deities. The usual scheme is one of these celestial deities is male. The original Indo-European lunar deity appears to have masculine, with feminine lunar deities like Selene, Minerva. Even in these traditions, remnants of male deities, like Menelaus. The word *prihxeha-, meaning wife has been reconstructed based off the Sanskrit word priyā, meaning wife, the Old Norse word frī, meaning beloved, and the Old English word frēo, meaning woman. The name of the Norse goddess Frigg is derived from this root, Analysis of different Indo-European tales indicate the Proto-Indo-Europeans believed there were two progenitors of mankind, *Manu- and *Yemo-, his twin brother
7.
Interpretatio graeca
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It is thus a comparative methodology that looks for equivalencies and shared characteristics. Interpretatio romana is comparative discourse in reference to ancient Roman religion and myth, both the Romans and the Gauls reinterpreted Gallic religious traditions in relation to Roman models, particularly Imperial cult. …The meaning of a deity is his or her character as it unfolded in myths, hymns, rites. This character makes a deity comparable to other deities with similar traits, the similarity of gods makes their names mutually translatable. … The practice of translating the names of the created a concept of similarity. Pliny the Elder expressed the translatability of deities as different names to different peoples and this capacity made possible the religious syncretism of the Hellenistic era and the pre-Christian Roman Empire. Herodotus was one of the earliest authors to engage in this form of interpretation, in his observations regarding the Egyptians, he establishes Greco-Egyptian equivalents that endured into the Hellenistic era, including Amon/Zeus, Osiris/Dionysus, and Ptah/Hephaestus. Some pairs of Greek and Roman gods, such as Zeus and Jupiter, are thought to derive from a common Indo-European archetype, some deities dating to Romes oldest religious stratum, such as Janus and Terminus, had no Greek equivalent. Other Greek divine figures, most notably Apollo, were adopted directly into Roman culture, the phrase interpretatio romana was first used by the Imperial-era historian Tacitus in the Germania. Tacitus reports that in a grove of the Nahanarvali, a priest adorned as a woman presides. Elsewhere, he identifies the god of the Germans as Mercury. Some information about the deities of the ancient Gauls, who left no written literature other than inscriptions, is preserved by Greco-Roman sources under the names of Greek, a large number of Gaulish theonyms or cult titles are preserved, for instance, in association with Mars. As with some Greek and Roman divine counterparts, the similarities between a Gallic and a Roman or Greek deity may reflect a common Indo-European origin. Lugh was identified with Mercury, Nodens with Mars as healer and protector, in some cases, however, a Gallic deity is given an interpretatio romana by means of more than one god, varying among literary texts or inscriptions. These tendencies extended to cross-cultural identifications, in the Eastern empire, the Anatolian storm god with his double-headed axe became Jupiter Dolichenus, a favorite cult figure among soldiers. Roman scholars such as Varro interpreted the monotheistic god of the Jews into Roman terms as Caelus or Jupiter Optimus Maximus, some Greco-Roman authors seem to have understood the Jewish invocation of Yahweh Sabaoth as Sabazius. Interpretatio germanica is the practice by the Germanic peoples of identifying Roman gods with the names of Germanic deities, according to Rudolf Simek, this occurred around the 1st century of the common era, when both cultures came into closer contact. This is also the case with Saturn in some West Germanic languages, such as the English Saturday, the West Frisian Saterdei, the Low German Saterdag and the Dutch zaterdag all meaning Saturns day
8.
Christianization
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Christianization is the conversion of individuals to Christianity or the conversion of entire groups at once. Various strategies and techniques were employed in Christianization campaigns from Late Antiquity, often the conversion of the ruler was followed by the compulsory baptism of his subjects. In essence, it was intended that the traditions and practices still existed, Early works of this type have tended to be downplayed and even dismissed as a form of Protestant apologetics aimed at purification of Christianity. The Council of Jerusalem, according to Acts 15, agreed that lack of circumcision could not be a basis for excluding Gentile believers from membership in the Jesus community. Rather, they instructed new believers to avoid pollution of idols, fornication, things strangled, the Apostolic Decree thus helped to establish nascent Christianity as a unique alternative among the forms of Judaism for prospective Proselytes. The Armenian and Ethiopian churches are the instances of imposition of Christianity by sovereign rulers predating the council of Nicaea. The initial conversion of the Roman Empire occurred mostly in areas of Europe. Later conversions happened among the Grecian-Roman-Celtic populations over centuries, often initially among its urban population, the term pagan is from Latin and means villager, rustic, civilian. It is derived from this historical transition, the root of that word is present in todays word paisan or paisano. The Christianization of the Roman Empire is typically divided into two phases, before and after the year 312, which marked the momentous quasi-conversion of Constantine. By this date, Christianity had already converted a significant but unknown proportion of at least the urban population of the empire, Constantine ended the intermittent persecution of Christianity with the Edict of Milan, which granted tolerance to all religions, but specifically mentioned Christianity. Under Constantines successors, Christianization of Roman society proceeded by fits and starts, Constantines sons, for example, banned pagan state religious sacrifices in 341, but did not close the temples. Although all state temples in all cities were ordered shut in 356, under Julian, the temples were reopened and state religious sacrifices performed once more. When Gratian declined the position and title of Pontifex Maximus, his act brought an end to the state religion due to the positions authority. Again, however, this process ended state official practices but not private religious devotion, however, many temples remained open until Theodosius Is edict of Thessalonica in 381 banned haruspices and other pagan religious practices. From 389 to 393 he issued a series of decrees which led to the banning of religious rites and by confiscating their property. Further laws were passed against remaining pagan practices over the course of the following years, the effectiveness of these laws empire-wide is debatable. Christianization of central Balkans is documented at the end of the 4th century, where Nicetas the Bishop of Remesiana brought the gospel to those mountain wolves, reportedly his mission was successful, and the worship of Dionysus and other Thracian gods was eventually replaced by Christianity
9.
Celtic art
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Celtic art is a difficult term to define, covering a huge expanse of time, geography and cultures. Early Celtic art is another used for this period, stretching in Britain to about 150 AD. This is the part, but not the whole of, the Celtic art of the Early Middle Ages. Energetic circular forms, triskeles and spirals are characteristic, another influence was that of late La Tène vegetal art on the Art Nouveau movement. Celtic art has used a variety of styles and has influences from other cultures in their knotwork, spirals, key patterns, lettering, zoomorphics, plant forms. As the archaeologist Catherine Johns put it, Common to Celtic art over a wide chronological and geographical span is a sense of balance in the layout. Curvilinear forms are set out so that positive and negative, filled areas, control and restraint were exercised in the use of surface texturing and relief. Very complex curvilinear patterns were designed to precisely the most awkward. The ancient peoples now called Celts spoke a group of languages that had an origin in the Indo-European language known as Common Celtic or Proto-Celtic. This shared linguistic origin was once accepted by scholars to indicate peoples with a common genetic origin in southwest Europe. Archaeologists identified various cultural traits of peoples, including styles of art. The extent to which Celtic language, culture and genetics coincided and interacted during prehistoric periods remains very uncertain, the term Celt was used in classical times as a synonym for the Gauls. Its English form is modern, attested from 1607, then in the 18th century the interest in primitivism, which led to the idea of the noble savage, brought a wave of enthusiasm for all things Celtic and Druidic. The earliest archaeological culture that is conventionally termed Celtic, the Hallstatt culture, comes from the early European Iron Age, other centres such as Brittany are also in areas that remain defined as Celtic today. Other correspondences are between the gold lunulas and large collars of Bronze Age Ireland and Europe and the torcs of Iron Age Celts, the trumpet shaped terminations of various types of Bronze Age Irish jewellery are also reminiscent of motifs popular in later Celtic decoration. The elites of these societies had considerable wealth, and imported large and expensive, sometimes frankly flashy, objects from neighbouring cultures, some of which have been recovered from graves. The work of the German émigré to Oxford, Paul Jacobsthal, remains the foundation of the study of the art of the period, linguists are generally satisfied that the Halstatt culture originated among people speaking Celtic languages, but art historians often avoid describing Halstatt art as Celtic. A famous example is the Greek krater from the Vix Grave in Burgundy and it is a huge bronze wine-mixing vessel, with a capacity of 1,100 litres
10.
Gaul
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It covered an area of 190,800 sq mi. According to the testimony of Julius Caesar, Gaul was divided into three parts, Gallia Celtica, Belgica and Aquitania, during the 2nd and 1st centuries BC, Gaul fell under Roman rule, Gallia Cisalpina was conquered in 203 BC and Gallia Narbonensis in 123 BC. Gaul was invaded after 120 BC by the Cimbri and the Teutons, Gallia remains a name of France in modern Greek and modern Latin. The Greek and Latin names Galatia, and Gallia are ultimately derived from a Celtic ethnic term or clan Gal-to-. Galli of Gallia Celtica were reported to refer to themselves as Celtae by Caesar. Hellenistic folk etymology connected the name of the Galatians to the supposedly milk-white skin of the Gauls, modern researchers say it is related to Welsh gallu, Cornish galloes, capacity, power, thus meaning powerful people. The English Gaul is from French Gaule and is unrelated to Latin Gallia, as adjectives, English has the two variants, Gaulish and Gallic. The two adjectives are used synonymously, as pertaining to Gaul or the Gauls, although the Celtic language or languages spoken in Gaul is predominantly known as Gaulish. The Germanic w- is regularly rendered as gu- / g- in French, also unrelated in spite of superficial similarity is the name Gael. The Irish word gall did originally mean a Gaul, i. e. an inhabitant of Gaul, but its meaning was later widened to foreigner, to describe the Vikings, and later still the Normans. The dichotomic words gael and gall are sometimes used together for contrast, by 500 BC, there is strong Hallstatt influence throughout most of France. By the late 5th century BC, La Tène influence spreads rapidly across the territory of Gaul. The La Tène culture developed and flourished during the late Iron Age in France, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, southwest Germany, Bohemia, Moravia, Slovakia, farther north extended the contemporary pre-Roman Iron Age culture of northern Germany and Scandinavia. By the 2nd century BC, the Romans described Gallia Transalpina as distinct from Gallia Cisalpina, while some scholars believe the Belgae south of the Somme were a mixture of Celtic and Germanic elements, their ethnic affiliations have not been definitively resolved. One of the reasons is political interference upon the French historical interpretation during the 19th century, in addition to the Gauls, there were other peoples living in Gaul, such as the Greeks and Phoenicians who had established outposts such as Massilia along the Mediterranean coast. Also, along the southeastern Mediterranean coast, the Ligures had merged with the Celts to form a Celto-Ligurian culture, the prosperity of Mediterranean Gaul encouraged Rome to respond to pleas for assistance from the inhabitants of Massilia, who were under attack by a coalition of Ligures and Gauls. The Romans intervened in Gaul in 154 BC and again in 125 BC, whereas on the first occasion they came and went, on the second they stayed. Massilia was allowed to keep its lands, but Rome added to its territories the lands of the conquered tribes. The direct result of conquests was that by now, Rome controlled an area extending from the Pyrenees to the lower Rhône river
11.
Julius Caesar
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Gaius Julius Caesar, known as Julius Caesar, was a Roman politician, general, and notable author of Latin prose. He played a role in the events that led to the demise of the Roman Republic. In 60 BC, Caesar, Crassus, and Pompey formed an alliance that dominated Roman politics for several years. Their attempts to power as Populares were opposed by the Optimates within the Roman Senate. Caesars victories in the Gallic Wars, completed by 51 BC, extended Romes territory to the English Channel, Caesar became the first Roman general to cross both the Channel and the Rhine, when he built a bridge across the Rhine and crossed the Channel to invade Britain. These achievements granted him unmatched military power and threatened to eclipse the standing of Pompey, with the Gallic Wars concluded, the Senate ordered Caesar to step down from his military command and return to Rome. Caesar refused the order, and instead marked his defiance in 49 BC by crossing the Rubicon with the 13th Legion, leaving his province, Civil war resulted, and Caesars victory in the war put him in an unrivalled position of power and influence. After assuming control of government, Caesar began a programme of social and governmental reforms and he centralised the bureaucracy of the Republic and was eventually proclaimed dictator in perpetuity, giving him additional authority. But the underlying political conflicts had not been resolved, and on the Ides of March 44 BC, a new series of civil wars broke out, and the constitutional government of the Republic was never fully restored. Caesars adopted heir Octavian, later known as Augustus, rose to power after defeating his opponents in the civil war. Octavian set about solidifying his power, and the era of the Roman Empire began, much of Caesars life is known from his own accounts of his military campaigns, and from other contemporary sources, mainly the letters and speeches of Cicero and the historical writings of Sallust. The later biographies of Caesar by Suetonius and Plutarch are also major sources, Caesar is considered by many historians to be one of the greatest military commanders in history. Caesar was born into a family, the gens Julia. The cognomen Caesar originated, according to Pliny the Elder, with an ancestor who was born by Caesarean section. The Historia Augusta suggests three alternative explanations, that the first Caesar had a head of hair, that he had bright grey eyes. Caesar issued coins featuring images of elephants, suggesting that he favored this interpretation of his name, despite their ancient pedigree, the Julii Caesares were not especially politically influential, although they had enjoyed some revival of their political fortunes in the early 1st century BC. Caesars father, also called Gaius Julius Caesar, governed the province of Asia and his mother, Aurelia Cotta, came from an influential family. Little is recorded of Caesars childhood, in 85 BC, Caesars father died suddenly, so Caesar was the head of the family at 16
12.
Commentarii de Bello Gallico
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Commentarii de Bello Gallico, also simply Bellum Gallicum, is Julius Caesars firsthand account of the Gallic Wars, written as a third-person narrative. In it Caesar describes the battles and intrigues that took place in the nine years he spent fighting the Germanic peoples and Celtic peoples in Gaul that opposed Roman conquest. The Gaul that Caesar refers to is sometimes all of Gaul except for the Roman province of Gallia Narbonensis, encompassing the rest of modern France, Belgium and some of Switzerland. On other occasions, he refers only to that territory inhabited by the Celtic peoples known to the Romans as Gauls, the work has been a mainstay in Latin instruction because of its simple, direct prose. It begins with the quoted phrase Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres. The full work is split into eight sections, Book 1 to Book 8, Book 8 was written by Aulus Hirtius, after Caesars death. The boni intended to prosecute Caesar for abuse of his authority upon his return, such prosecution would not only see Caesar stripped of his wealth and citizenship, but also negate all of the laws he enacted during his term as Consul and his dispositions as pro-consul of Gaul. To defend himself against these threats, Caesar knew he needed the support of the plebeians, particularly the Tribunes of the Plebs, by winning the support of the people, Caesar sought to make himself unassailable from the boni. The work is a paradigm of proper reporting and stylistic clarity and it is often lauded for its polished, clear Latin. It contains many details and employs many stylistic devices to promote Caesars political interests, the books are valuable for the many geographical and historical claims that can be retrieved from the work. Notable chapters describe Gaulish custom, their religion, and a comparison between Gauls and Germanic peoples, since Caesar is one of the characters in the Astérix and Obélix albums, René Goscinny included gags for French schoolchildren who had the Commentarii as a textbook. One example is having Caesar talk about himself in the person as in the book. Some English editions state that Astérixs village of indomitable Gauls is the part of Gaul. In Book 5, Chapter 44 the Commentarii de Bello Gallico notably mentions Lucius Vorenus and Titus Pullo, during World War I the French composer Vincent dIndy wrote his Third Symphony, which bears the title De Bello Gallico. DIndy was adapting Caesars title to the situation of the current struggle in France against the German army, in which he had a son and nephew fighting, and which the music illustrates to some extent. At Gutenberg Project, Caesars Commentaries, English translation by W. A. MACDEVITT, introduction by THOMAS DE QUINCEY De Bello Gallico, Latin text edition. The Gallic Wars By Julius Caesar, translated by W. A. McDevitte and W. S. Bohn, IVLI CAESARIS COMMENTARIORVM DE BELLO, TheLatinLibrary. com,2008. Dickinson College Commentaries Selections in Latin with notes, audio, Commentaries on the Gallic War public domain audiobook at LibriVox Wikisource, Commentaries on the Gallic War translated by W. A. McDevitte and W. S. Bohn, Books 1–8
13.
Mercury (mythology)
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Mercury is a major Roman god, being one of the Dii Consentes within the ancient Roman pantheon. He is the god of financial gain, commerce, eloquence, messages/communication, travelers, boundaries, luck, trickery and thieves. He was considered the son of Maia and Jupiter in Roman mythology, in his earliest forms, he appears to have been related to the Etruscan deity Turms, both gods share characteristics with the Greek god Hermes. He is often depicted holding the caduceus in his left hand, similar to his Greek equivalent he was awarded the caduceus by Apollo who handed him a magic wand, which later turned into the caduceus. Mercury did not appear among the di indigetes of early Roman religion. Rather, he subsumed the earlier Dei Lucrii as Roman religion was syncretized with Greek religion during the time of the Roman Republic, starting around the 4th century BC. He was often accompanied by a cockerel, herald of the new day, a ram or goat, symbolizing fertility, like Hermes, he was also a god of messages, eloquence and of trade, particularly of the grain trade. Mercury was also considered a god of abundance and commercial success, particularly in Gaul and he was also, like Hermes, the Romans psychopomp, leading newly deceased souls to the afterlife. Additionally, Ovid wrote that Mercury carried Morpheus dreams from the valley of Somnus to sleeping humans, archeological evidence from Pompeii suggests that Mercury was among the most popular of Roman gods. The god of commerce was depicted on two bronze coins of the Roman Republic, the Sextans and the Semuncia. This is probably because in the Roman syncretism, Mercury was equated with the Celtic god Lugus, Romans associated Mercury with the Germanic god Wotan, by interpretatio Romana, 1st-century Roman writer Tacitus identifies him as the chief god of the Germanic peoples. The Romans also made use of small statues of Mercury. Mercurius Arvernus, a syncretism of the Celtic Arvernus with Mercury, Mercurius Cimbrianus, a syncretism of Mercury with a god of the Cimbri sometimes thought to represent Odin. Mercurius Cissonius, a combination of Mercury with the Celtic god Cissonius, Mercurius Esibraeus, a syncretism of the Iberian deity Esibraeus with the Roman deity Mercury. Esibraeus is mentioned only in an inscription found at Medelim, Portugal, and is possibly the deity as Banda Isibraiegus. Mercurius Gebrinius, a syncretism of Mercury with the Celtic or Germanic Gebrinius, known from an inscription on an altar in Bonn, Mercurius Moccus, from a Celtic god, Moccus, who was equated with Mercury, known from evidence at Langres, France. The name Moccus implies that this deity was connected to boar-hunting, Mercurius Visucius, a syncretism of the Celtic god Visucius with the Roman god Mercury, attested in an inscription from Stuttgart, Germany. Visucius was worshiped primarily in the area of the empire in Gaul
14.
Apollo
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Apollo is one of the most important and complex of the Olympian deities in classical Greek and Roman religion and Greek and Roman mythology. The ideal of the kouros, Apollo has been recognized as a god of music, truth and prophecy, healing, the sun and light, plague, poetry. Apollo is the son of Zeus and Leto, and has a twin sister, Apollo is known in Greek-influenced Etruscan mythology as Apulu. As the patron of Delphi, Apollo was an oracular god—the prophetic deity of the Delphic Oracle. Medicine and healing are associated with Apollo, whether through the god himself or mediated through his son Asclepius, yet Apollo was also seen as a god who could bring ill-health and deadly plague. Amongst the gods custodial charges, Apollo became associated with dominion over colonists, as the leader of the Muses and director of their choir, Apollo functioned as the patron god of music and poetry. Hermes created the lyre for him, and the instrument became an attribute of Apollo. Hymns sung to Apollo were called paeans, Apollo and Helios/Sol remained separate beings in literary and mythological texts until the 3rd century CE. The name Apollo—unlike the related older name Paean—is generally not found in the Linear B texts, the etymology of the name is uncertain. The spelling Ἀπόλλων had almost superseded all other forms by the beginning of the common era and it probably is a cognate to the Doric month Apellaios, and the offerings apellaia at the initiation of the young men during the family-festival apellai. According to some scholars the words are derived from the Doric word apella, apella is the name of the popular assembly in Sparta, corresponding to the ecclesia. R. S. P. Beekes rejected the connection of the theonym with the noun apellai, several instances of popular etymology are attested from ancient authors. Thus, the Greeks most often associated Apollos name with the Greek verb ἀπόλλυμι, in the ancient Macedonian language πέλλα means stone, and some toponyms may be derived from this word, Πέλλα and Πελλήνη. The role of Apollo as god of plague is evident in the invocation of Apollo Smintheus by Chryses, the Hittite testimony reflects an early form *Apeljōn, which may also be surmised from comparison of Cypriot Ἀπείλων with Doric Ἀπέλλων. A Luwian etymology suggested for Apaliunas makes Apollo The One of Entrapment, Apollos chief epithet was Phoebus, literally bright. It was very commonly used by both the Greeks and Romans for Apollos role as the god of light, like other Greek deities, he had a number of others applied to him, reflecting the variety of roles, duties, and aspects ascribed to the god. However, while Apollo has a number of appellations in Greek myth. Aegletes, from αἴγλη, light of the sun Helius, literally sun Lyceus light, the meaning of the epithet Lyceus later became associated with Apollos mother Leto, who was the patron goddess of Lycia and who was identified with the wolf
15.
Mars (mythology)
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In ancient Roman religion and myth, Mars was the god of war and also an agricultural guardian, a combination characteristic of early Rome. He was second in only to Jupiter and he was the most prominent of the military gods in the religion of the Roman army. Most of his festivals were held in March, the named for him, and in October. Under the influence of Greek culture, Mars was identified with the Greek god Ares, whose myths were reinterpreted in Roman literature and art under the name of Mars. But the character and dignity of Mars differed in fundamental ways from that of his Greek counterpart, Mars was a part of the Archaic Triad along with Jupiter and Quirinus, the latter of whom as a guardian of the Roman people had no Greek equivalent. Mars altar in the Campus Martius, the area of Rome that took its name from him, was supposed to have been dedicated by Numa, the peace-loving semi-legendary second king of Rome. Although Ares was viewed primarily as a destructive and destabilizing force, Mars represented military power as a way to secure peace, in the mythic genealogy and founding myths of Rome, Mars was the father of Romulus and Remus with Rhea Silvia. Like Ares who was the son of Zeus and Hera, Mars is usually considered to be the son of Jupiter, however, in a version of his birth given by Ovid, he was the son of Juno alone. Jupiter had usurped the mothers function when he gave birth to Minerva directly from his forehead, to restore the balance, Flora obtained a magic flower and tested it on a heifer who became fecund at once. She then plucked a flower ritually using her thumb, touched Junos belly, Juno withdrew to Thrace and the shore of Marmara for the birth. Ovid tells this story in the Fasti, his poetic work on the Roman calendar. In the earliest Roman calendar, March was the first month, Ovid is the only source for the story. The consort of Mars was Nerio or Nerine, Valor and she represents the vital force, power and majesty of Mars. Her name was regarded as Sabine in origin and is equivalent to Latin virtus, in the early 3rd century BC, the comic playwright Plautus has a reference to Mars greeting Nerio, his wife. A source from late antiquity says that Mars and Nerine were celebrated together at a festival held on March 23, in the later Roman Empire, Nerine came to be identified with Minerva. Nerio probably originates as a personification of Mars power, as such abstractions in Latin are generally feminine. Her name appears with that of Mars in an archaic prayer invoking a series of abstract qualities, the influence of Greek mythology and its anthropomorphic gods may have caused Roman writers to treat these pairs as marriages. The union of Venus and Mars held greater appeal for poets and philosophers, in Greek myth, the adultery of Ares and Aphrodite had been exposed to ridicule when her husband Hephaestus caught them in the act by means of a magical snare
16.
Jupiter (mythology)
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Jupiter, also Jove, is the god of sky and thunder and king of the gods in Ancient Roman religion and mythology. Jupiter was the deity of Roman state religion throughout the Republican and Imperial eras. In Roman mythology, he negotiates with Numa Pompilius, the king of Rome, to establish principles of Roman religion such as offering. Jupiter is usually thought to have originated as a sky god, the two emblems were often combined to represent the god in the form of an eagle holding in its claws a thunderbolt, frequently seen on Greek and Roman coins. As the sky-god, he was a witness to oaths. Many of his functions were focused on the Capitoline Hill, where the citadel was located and he was the chief deity of the early Capitoline Triad with Mars and Quirinus. In the later Capitoline Triad, he was the guardian of the state with Juno. His sacred tree was the oak, the Romans regarded Jupiter as the equivalent of the Greek Zeus, and in Latin literature and Roman art, the myths and iconography of Zeus are adapted under the name Iuppiter. In the Greek-influenced tradition, Jupiter was the brother of Neptune, each presided over one of the three realms of the universe, sky, the waters, and the underworld. The Italic Diespiter was also a sky god who manifested himself in the daylight, usually, Tinia is usually regarded as his Etruscan counterpart. The Romans believed that Jupiter granted them supremacy because they had honoured him more than any other people had, Jupiter was the fount of the auspices upon which the relationship of the city with the gods rested. He personified the divine authority of Romes highest offices, internal organization and his image in the Republican and Imperial Capitol bore regalia associated with Romes ancient kings and the highest consular and Imperial honours. The consuls swore their oath of office in Jupiters name, to thank him for his help, they offered him a white ox with gilded horns. A similar offering was made by generals, who surrendered the tokens of their victory at the feet of Jupiters statue in the Capitol. Some scholars have viewed the triumphator as embodying Jupiter in the triumphal procession, Jupiters association with kingship and sovereignty was reinterpreted as Romes form of government changed. Originally, Rome was ruled by kings, after the monarchy was abolished and the Republic established, religious prerogatives were transferred to the patres, nostalgia for the kingship was considered treasonous. Those suspected of harbouring monarchical ambitions were punished, regardless of their service to the state, in the 5th century BC, the triumphator Camillus was sent into exile after he drove a chariot with a team of four white horses —an honour reserved for Jupiter himself. His house on the Capitoline Hill was razed, and it was decreed that no patrician should ever be allowed to live there, during the Conflict of the Orders, Romes plebeians demanded the right to hold political and religious office
17.
Minerva
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Minerva was the Roman goddess of wisdom and sponsor of arts, trade, and strategy. She was born with weapons from the head of Jupiter, after impregnating the titaness Metis, Jupiter recalled a prophecy that his own child would overthrow him. Fearing that their child would grow stronger than he and rule the Heavens in his place, the titaness forged weapons and armor for her child while within the father-god, and the constant pounding and ringing gave him a headache. To relieve the pain, Vulcan used a hammer to split Jupiters head and, from the cleft, Minerva emerged, whole, adult, from the 2nd century BC onwards, the Romans equated her with the Greek goddess Athena. She was the goddess of music, poetry, medicine, wisdom, commerce, weaving. She is often depicted with her sacred creature, an owl usually named as the owl of Minerva, stemming from an Italic moon goddess *Meneswā, the Etruscans adopted the inherited Old Latin name, *Menerwā, thereby calling her Menrva. It is assumed that her Roman name, Minerva, is based on this Etruscan mythology, Minerva was the goddess of wisdom, war, art, schools and commerce. She was the Etruscan counterpart to Greek Athena, like Athena, Minerva was born from the head of her father, Jupiter. The word mens is built from the Proto-Indo-European root *men- mind, the Etruscan Menrva was part of a holy triad with Tinia and Uni, equivalent to the Roman Capitoline Triad of Jupiter-Juno-Minerva. Minerva was the daughter of Jupiter, as Minerva Medica, she was the goddess of medicine and doctors. As Minerva Achaea, she was worshipped at Lucera in Apulia where votive gifts, in Fasti III, Ovid called her the goddess of a thousand works. Minerva was worshipped throughout Italy, and when she eventually became equated with the Greek goddess Athena, unlike Mars, god of war, she was sometimes portrayed with sword lowered, in sympathy for the recent dead, rather than raised in triumph. In Rome her bellicose nature was emphasized less than elsewhere and her worship was also spread throughout the empire—in Britain, for example, she was syncretized with the local goddess Sulis, who was often invoked for restitution for theft. The Romans celebrated her festival from March 19 to March 23 during the day which is called, in the plural, Quinquatria, the fifth after the Ides of March, the nineteenth. A lesser version, the Minusculae Quinquatria, was held on the Ides of June, June 13, by the flute-players, in 207 BC, a guild of poets and actors was formed to meet and make votive offerings at the temple of Minerva on the Aventine Hill. Among others, its members included Livius Andronicus, the Aventine sanctuary of Minerva continued to be an important center of the arts for much of the middle Roman Republic. When it was founded, the emperor himself was present and was believed to be of divine nature as a result of its construction, Minerva is featured on the coinage of different Roman Emperors. She is often represented on the side of a coin holding an owl
18.
Visucius
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Visucius was a Gallo-Roman god, usually identified with Mercury. He was worshipped primarily in the east of Gaul, around Trier and on the Rhine, one such inscription has also been found in Bordeaux. Visucius is, along with Gebrinius and Cissonius, among the most common epithets of the Gaulish Mercury. The name has sometimes been interpreted as meaning of the ravens or knowledgeable, cf. the Proto-Celtic roots *wesāko- raven, grebe, the variant or mistaken spelling Visuclus is also attested. Another inscription is co-dedicated to Sancta Visucia, as well as to Mercurius Visucius and this goddess, apparently a companion or analogue of Visucius, has sometimes been likened to Rosmerta or Maia, who also accompany Mercury on many Gaulish dedications. One inscription dedicated to Visugius has also found at Agoncillo in Spain
19.
Lenus
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Lenus was a Celtic healing god worshipped mainly in eastern Gaul, where he was almost always identified with the Roman god Mars. He was an important god of the Treveri tribe, who had large sanctuaries at medicinal springs at Trier, two dedications to him are also known from southwestern Britain. Despite his associations with healing, Lenus Mars is depicted classically as a warrior with Corinthian helmet in a bronze statuette from the Martberg and his name most often appears in inscriptions as ‘Lenus Mars’, rather than ‘Mars Lenus’ as would be expected from other most syncretized names. At Trier, Lenus Marss divine partners were the Celtic goddess Ancamna and the Roman Victoria, as well as the Xulsigiae, an inscription from Kaul in Luxembourg appears to invoke Lenus Mars ‘Veraudunus’ along with the Celtic goddess Inciona. Lenus was not the only Celtic god identified with Mars by the Treveri, others, such as Iovantucarus, Intarabus, Camulos and his name occasionally appears as ‘Mars Laenus’, the more usual form ‘Lenus Mars’ is accompanied by the epithets Arterancus and Exsobinus on one inscription each. Xavier Delamarre tentatively interprets the name Lenus as “bois, bocage” ‘wood grove, hedgerow’, deriving it, photograph of the Treveran Mars, by Paul Garland
20.
Great St Bernard Pass
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Great St. Bernard Pass is the third highest road pass in Switzerland. It connects Martigny in the canton of Valais in Switzerland with Aosta in the region Aosta Valley in Italy and it is the lowest pass lying on the ridge between the two highest summits of the Alps, Mont Blanc and Monte Rosa. The pass itself is located in Switzerland in the canton of Valais and it is located on the main watershed that separates the basin of the Rhône from that of the Po. Great St. Bernard is the most ancient pass through the Western Alps, with evidence of use as far back as the Bronze Age and surviving traces of a Roman road. Having been bypassed by easier and more routes, particularly the Great St Bernard Tunnel which opened in 1964. Straddling the highest point of the road, the Great St Bernard Hospice was founded in 1049, the hospice later became famous for its use of St. Bernard dogs in rescue operations. The pass runs northeast-southwest through the Valais Alps at an elevation of 2,469 m. The road running through the pass, highway E27 in both Italy and Switzerland, joins Martigny on the upper Rhône in the canton of Valais, Switzerland, from Martigny Route 9 descends to Lausanne and from Aosta Route A5 descends to Torino. The Great St Bernard Tunnel plunges through the mountains at a 1,915 m level, reducing, since the opening in 1964. Here the river enters the La Buthier in the end of the Valpelline. The route here in the valley of the Val dAoste becomes part of the motorway connecting the Mont Blanc Tunnel to the west. A reduction of utility began after the construction of the Simplon Tunnel, the much smaller historic road winding over the pass itself, which lies a few hundred metres from the Swiss border with Italy, is only passable June to September. The pass at narrowest point runs between the peaks of Grande Chenalette at 2,889 m and Mont Mort at 2,867 m, slightly to the west in Pointe de Drône at 2,949 m, the highest peak. Between it and the pass is Petite Chenalette at 2,885 m, the Tour de France has visited the pass five times. It was climbed four times as a 1st category climb, and one time, in 2009, the snow in the pass in winter may be as much as 10 metres deep. The temperature may drop as low as -30 °C, the lake in the pass is frozen for 265 days per year. A summary of data for the year 1981-2010 is given below. The pass is well above the tree line, All the wood required for construction and firewood must be hauled in from some distance
21.
Sulis
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In localised Celtic polytheism practised in Britain, Sulis was a deity worshipped at the thermal spring of Bath. Sulis was the goddess of the thermal springs that still feed the spa baths at Bath. Her name primarily appears on inscriptions discovered at Bath, with only a single instance outside of Britain at Alzey and this is not surprising, as Celtic deities often preserved their archaic localisation. They remained to the end associated with a place, often a cleft in the earth. The Greeks referred to the similarly local pre-Hellenic deities in the epithets that they assigned, associated with the cult of their Olympian pantheon at certain places. The Romans tended to lose sight of these locations, except in a few Etruscan cult inheritances and ideas like the genius loci. The gilt bronze statue of Sulis Minerva appears to have been deliberately damaged sometime in later Antiquity, perhaps by barbarian raiders, Christian zealots. About 130 curse tablets, mostly addressed to Sulis, have found in the sacred spring at the Roman baths in Bath. Typically, the text on the tablets offered to Sulis relates to theft, for example and it is evident, from the localized style of Latin used, that a high proportion of the tablets came from the native population. In formulaic, often legalistic, language the tablets appeal to the deity, Sulis, Sulis is typically requested to impair the physical and mental well-being of the perpetrator, by the denial of sleep, by causing normal bodily functions to cease or even by death. These afflictions are to only when the property is returned to the owner or disposed of as the owner wishes. One message found on a tablet in the Temple at Bath reads, while most texts from Roman Britain are in Latin, two scripts found here, written on pewter sheets, are in an unknown language which may be Brythonic. They are the examples of writing in this language ever found. At Bath, the Roman temple is dedicated to Sulis Minerva, through the Roman Minerva syncresis, later mythographers have inferred that Sulis was also a goddess of wisdom and decisions. Sulis was not the only goddess exhibiting syncretism with Minerva, senuas name appears on votive plaques bearing Minervas image, while Brigantia also shares many traits associated with Minerva. The identification of multiple Celtic gods with the same Roman god is not unusual, on the other hand, Celtic goddesses tended to resist syncretism, Sulis Minerva is one of the few attested pairings of a Celtic goddess with her Roman counterpart. Dedications to “Minerva” are common in both Great Britain and continental Europe, normally without any Celtic epithet or interpretation, some researchers have further suggested a role as the de facto Celtic solar deity, the associated Sulevia and similar names being the goddesss attestations elsewhere. Sulis has a number of worshipers among the Wiccan and Pagan communities
22.
Sulevia
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In ancient Celtic religion, Sulevia was a goddess worshipped in Gaul, Britain, and Galicia, very often in the plural forms Suleviae or Suleis. Jufer and Luginbühl distinguish the Suleviae from another group of plural Celtic goddesses, the Matres, the Colchester inscription reads, MATRIBVS SVLEVIS SIMILIS ATTI F CI CANT VSLM Van Andringa interprets the Suleviae as native domestic divinities honoured at all social levels. For the theory that the Suleviae were a version of Sulis Minerva. This theory is disputed by researchers who find no direct links with Sulis. Another theory connects the Suleviae with the Xulsigiae, known from a site at Trier, but this suggestion has also been contested
23.
Sirona
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In Celtic polytheism, Sirona was a goddess worshipped predominantly in East Central Gaul and along the Danubian limes. A healing deity, she was associated with healing springs, her attributes were snakes and she was sometimes depicted with Apollo Grannus or Apollo Borvo. She was particularly worshipped by the Treveri in the Moselle Valley, the name of the goddess was written in various ways, Sirona, Đirona, Thirona, indicating some difficulty in capturing the initial sound in the Latin alphabet. The root is a long vowel Gaulish variant of proto-Celtic *ster- meaning ‘star’, the same root is found in Old Irish as ser, Welsh seren, Middle Cornish sterenn and Breton steren. The name Đirona consists of a long-vowel, o-grade stem tsīro- derived from the root *ster-, alternatively it may be an augmentative -on- suffix found in many Celtic divine names and epithets. To this is suffixed the Gaulish feminine singular -a, the feminine variant of o-stem adjectives. So *Tsīrona would seem to have meant ‘stellar’ or ‘astral’, due to her association with Apollo Grannus, the Interpretatio Romana has sometimes identified Sirona with the Roman goddess Diana. The evidence for Sirona is both epigraphic and representational, as the map shows, it is primarily concentrated in east-central Gaul, up to the Germanic lines, and along the Danubian limes as far east as Budapest. A few outliers are seen in Aquitaine, Brittany, and one in Italy, there are no Sirona finds in Britannia, Hispania, or in any of the other Roman provinces. The identification as Sirona is assured by a dedication to Apollo, the richly furnished spring sanctuary of Hochscheid was decorated with statues of Sirona and Apollo, again confirmed by an inscription AE1941,00089 Deo Apolli/ni et sanc/te Sirone. The statue of Sirona shows her carrying a bowl of eggs and she wears a long gown and has a star-shaped diadem on her head. A bronze statue from Mâlain in the Côte dOr and dating to around 280 CE shows Sirona naked to the waist and holding a snake draped over her left arm, the inscription is Thiron et Apollo. A stone with an engraved bust of Sirona from Saint-Avold, now in the Musée de Metz, bears an inscription, at Vienne-en-Val in the Loiret, a square stone pillar depicts Sirona, Apollo, Minerva and Hercules. Sirona wears a dress and a diadem, from which falls a veil. Her left hand holds a cornucopia and in her right is a patera which she is offering to a coiled snake, again there is a similarity with Hygeia, who also carries a snake. Several temples to Sirona are known, often these were of the Gallo-Roman fanum type, an inner with an outer walkway or pronaos, and were constructed around thermal springs or wells, as at Augst and Oppenheim-Nierstein. Two inscriptions describe the establishment of temples to Sirona and it was built in the second century CE around a spring, which filled a cistern in the temple. The remote location is thought to have been a pilgrimage site and it was destroyed in the third century, probably during the Germanic incursions of 250-270, and was never rebuilt
24.
Rosmerta
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In Gallo-Roman religion, Rosmerta was a goddess of fertility and abundance, her attributes being those of plenty such as the cornucopia. Rosmerta is attested by statues, and by inscriptions, in Gaul she was often depicted with the Roman god Mercury as her consort, but is sometimes found independently. A relief from Autun, shows Rosmerta and Mercury seated together as a divine couple and she holds a cornucopia, with Mercury holding a patera at her left side. A bas-relief from Eisenberg shows the couple in the relative positions. Rosmerta holds a purse in her hand and a patera in her left. In a pair of statues from Paris depicting the couple, Rosmerta holds a cornucopia, Rosmerta is shown by herself on a bronze statue from Fins dAnnency, where she sits on a rock holding a purse and, unusually, also bears the wings of Mercury on her head. A stone bas-relief from Escolives-Sainte-Camille shows her both a patera and a cornucopia. An additional two inscriptions are known, one from Roman Dacia, an inscription from Metz is a dedication to Mercury and Rosmerta jointly. Another from Eisenberg was made by a decurion in fulfillment of a vow to the couple jointly, in two inscriptions both from Gallia Belgica, Rosmerta is given the epithet sacra, sacred. A lengthier inscription from Wasserbillig in Gallia Belgica associates the divine couple with the dedication of a shrine, the name Rosmerta is Gaulish, and is analysed as ro-smert-a. Smert means provider or carer and is found in other Gaulish names such as Ad-smerio, Smertu-litani, Smerius, Smertae, Smertus. Ro- is a meaning very, great, or most as found in Ro-bili or Ro-cabalus. The -a ending is the typical Gaulish feminine singular nominative, the meaning is thus the Great Provider. Dalheim Visucia Maia Année Epigraphique volumes 1967,1987,1998 Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, volume 13, Tres Galliae Delamarre, ISBN 2-87772-237-6 Deyts, S. Images des dieux de la gaule. ISBN 2-87772-067-5 Jufer, N. and T. Luginbühl Répertoire des dieux gaulois
25.
Lucan
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Marcus Annaeus Lucanus, better known in English as Lucan, was a Roman poet, born in Corduba, in the Hispania Baetica. Despite his short life, he is regarded as one of the figures of the Imperial Latin period. His youth and speed of composition set him apart from other poets, Lucan was the son of Marcus Annaeus Mela and grandson of Seneca the Elder, he grew up under the tutelage of his uncle Seneca the Younger. Born into a family, he studied rhetoric at Athens and was probably provided with a philosophical. He found success under Nero, became one of the close friends and was rewarded with a quaestorship in advance of the legal age. In 60 AD, he won a prize for extemporizing Orpheus and Laudes Neronis at the quinquennial Neronia, during this time he circulated the first three books of his epic poem, Pharsalia, which told the story of the civil war between Julius Caesar and Pompey. At some point, a feud began between Nero and Lucan, two very different accounts of the events have survived that both trivialize the feud. According to Tacitus, Nero became jealous of Lucan and forbade him to publish his poems, according to Suetonius, Nero lost interest in Lucan and Lucan responded by writing insulting poems about Nero that Nero continued to ignore. Other works, though, point to a serious basis to the feud. Works by the grammarian Vacca and the poet Statius may support the claim that Lucan wrote insulting poems about Nero, Vacca mentions that one of Lucans works was entitled De Incendio Urbis. Statiuss ode to Lucan mentions that Lucan described how the flames of the criminal tyrant roamed the heights of Remus. Additionally, the books of Pharsalia are anti-Imperial and pro-Republic. This criticism of Nero and office of the Emperor may have been the cause of the ban. Lucan later joined the 65 AD conspiracy of Gaius Calpurnius Piso against Nero. His treason discovered, he was obliged, at the age of 25, to suicide by opening a vein. According to Tacitus, as Lucan bled to death, recalled some poetry he had composed in which he had told the story of a soldier dying a similar kind of death. His father was involved in the proscription but his mother escaped, statiuss poem about Lucan was addressed to his widow, Polla Argentaria, upon the occasion of his birthday during the reign of Domitian. Cornell Studies in Classical Philology 39, ideology in Cold Blood, A Reading of Lucans Civil War
26.
Toutatis
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Toutatis or Teutates was a Celtic god worshipped in ancient Gaul and Britain. On the basis of his names etymology, he has been interpreted to be a tribal protector. Today, he is best known under the name Toutatis through the Gaulish oath/catchphrase By Toutatis, invented for the Asterix comics by Goscinny and Uderzo. The spelling Toutatis, however, is authentic and attested by about ten ancient inscriptions, under the spelling Teutates, the god is also known from a passage in Lucan. The name Teutates is derived from the stem teutā-, meaning people or tribe, Teutates was one of three Celtic gods mentioned by the Roman poet Lucan in the 1st century AD, the other two being Esus and Taranis. According to later commentators, victims sacrificed to Teutates were killed by being plunged headfirst into a vat filled with an unspecified liquid, present-day scholars frequently speak of the toutates as plural, referring respectively to the patrons of the several tribes. Of two later commentators on Lucans text, one identifies Teutates with Mercury, the other with Mars, Toutatis was worshipped especially in Gaul and in Roman Britain. Inscriptions to him have been recovered in the United Kingdom, for example that at Cumberland Quarries, dedicated to Jupiter Optimus Maximus, two dedications have also been found in Noricum and Rome. As noted above, among a pair of later scholiasts on Lucans work, one identifies Teutates with Mercury, at times the Gaulish “Mercury may have the characteristic of a warrior, while the Gaulish “Mars may act as a god of protection or healing. The distribution of these rings closely matches the territory of the Corieltauvi tribe, in 2005 a silver ring inscribed DEO TOTA and FELIX was discovered at Hockliffe, Bedfordshire. This inscription confirmed that the inscription TOT did indeed refer to the god Toutatis, in 2012 a silver ring inscribed TOT was found in the area where the Hallaton Treasure had been discovered twelve years earlier. Adam Daubney, an expert on this type of ring, suggests that Hallaton may have been a site of worship of the god Toutatis, interpretatio Romana Germanic Mercury 4179 Toutatis The dictionary definition of Toutatis at Wiktionary
27.
Sequana
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In Gallo-Roman religion, Sequana was the goddess of the river Seine, particularly the springs at the source of the Seine, and the Gaulish tribe the Sequani. The sanctuary was taken over by the Romans, who built two temples, a colonnaded precinct and other related structures centred on the spring and pool. Many dedications were made to Sequana at her temple, including a large pot inscribed with her name and filled with bronze and silver models of parts of human bodies to be cured by her. Wooden and stone images of limbs, internal organs, heads, respiratory illnesses and eye diseases were common. Pilgrims were frequently depicted as carrying offerings to the goddess, including money, fruit, a bronze statue of a woman, draped in a long gown and with a diadem on her head, is believed to represent Sequana. She stands on a boat, the prow of which is shaped like the head of a duck with a ball in its mouth, representing the playful, sometimes rebellious, the approximately 1 foot tall statue is now in the Musée archéologique de Dijon. Eight inscriptions to Sequana are known, all from the Sources of the Seine, something like Sek-ooana is more likely, unless the local dialect was Q-Celtic. Bernard Jacomin Les sources de la Seine, traces fossiles et repérages astronomiques au pays des Lingons, editions Yvelinédition ISBN 2-84668-049-3 Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, vol. XIII, Inscriptiones trium Galliarum et Germaniarum, berolini, apud G. Reimerum, 1899-1943 Deyts, Simone Images des Dieux de la Gaule. A small image of the statue in the Musée archéologique de Dijon believed to represent Sequana
28.
Matres and Matronae
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The Matres and Matronae were female deities venerated in Northwestern Europe from the first to the fifth century. Information about the practices surrounding the Matres is limited to the stones on which their depictions and inscriptions are found. The Germanic Matres have been connected with the later Germanic dísir, valkyries, Matres and Matronae appear depicted on both stones with inscriptions and without, both as altars and votives. All depictions are frontal, they appear almost exclusively in threes with at least one figure holding a basket of fruit in her lap, in some depictions, the middle figure is depicted with loose hair and wearing a headband, and the other two wear head dresses. Other motifs include depictions of sacrifice—including burning incense, pigs, and bowls filled with decorations of fruits, plants. In addition, snakes, children, and nappies appear, in most cases, the votive stones and altars are not found singularly, but rather in groups around temple buildings and cult centers. R. Pascal theorizes that The Three Marys may be Christianized versions of the Matres, the motif of triple goddesses was widespread in ancient Europe, compare the Fates, the Erinyes, the Charites, the Morrígan, the Horae and other such figures
29.
Rhineland
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The Rhineland is the name used for a loosely defined area of Western Germany along the Rhine River, chiefly its middle section. In the High Middle Ages, numerous Imperial States along the river emerged from the stem duchy of Lotharingia. The term covered the whole occupied zone west of the Rhine including the bridge-heads on the eastern banks, after the collapse of the French dominated West Bank in the early 19th century, the regions of Lower Rhine and Jülich-Cleves-Berg were annexed to the Kingdom of Prussia. In 1822 the Prussian administration reorganized the territory as the Rhine Province, following the First World War, the western part of Rhineland was occupied by Entente forces, then demilitarized under the 1919 Treaty of Versailles. German forces remilitarized the territory in 1936, as part of a diplomatic test of will, stretching down to the North Palatine Uplands in the south, this area, except for the Saarland, more or less corresponds with the modern use of the term. The southern and eastern parts are mainly hill country, cut by valleys, principally the Middle Rhine up to Bingen and its Ahr, Moselle. The border of the North German plain is marked by the lower Ruhr, in the south, the river cuts the Rhenish Massif. The area encompasses the western part of the Ruhr industrial region, toponyms as well as local family names often trace back to the Frankish heritage. The lands on the shore of the Rhine are strongly characterised by Roman influence. In the core territories, large parts of the population are members of the Catholic Church. On the right bank of the Rhine, between the Main and the Lahn, were the settlements of the Mattiaci, a branch of the Germanic Chatti, while farther to the north were the Usipetes and Tencteri. Julius Caesar conquered the tribes on the left bank, and Augustus established numerous fortified posts on the Rhine. The Frankish conquerors of the Rhenish districts were singularly little affected by the culture of the Roman provincials they subdued, by the 8th century the Frankish dominion was firmly established in western Germania and northern Gaul. On the division of the Carolingian Empire at the Treaty of Verdun the part the province to the east of the fell to East Francia. As the central power of the Holy Roman Emperor weakened, the Rhineland split up into small independent principalities, each with its separate vicissitudes. After the Imperial Reform of 1500/12, the territory was part of the Lower Rhenish–Westphalian, Upper Rhenish, aachen was the place of coronation of the German emperors, and the ecclesiastical principalities of the Rhine played a large role in German history. At the Peace of Basel in 1795, the whole of the bank of the Rhine was taken by France. The population was about 1.6 million in small states
30.
Taranis
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In Celtic mythology Taranis was the god of thunder worshipped primarily in Gaul, Gallaecia, the British Isles, but also in the Rhineland and Danube regions, amongst others. Taranis, along with Esus and Toutatis as part of a triad, was mentioned by the Roman poet Lucan in his epic poem Pharsalia as a Celtic deity to whom human sacrificial offerings were made. Taranis was associated, as was the cyclops Brontes in Greek mythology, many representations of a bearded god with a thunderbolt in one hand and a wheel in the other have been recovered from Gaul, where this deity apparently came to be syncretised with Jupiter. The name as recorded by Lucan is unattested epigraphically, but variants of the include the forms Tanarus, Taranucno-, Taranuo-. The name is continued in Irish as Tuireann, and is connected with those of Germanic. Taranis is likely associated with the Gallic Ambisagrus, and in the interpretatio romana with Jupiter, the reconstructed Proto-Celtic form of the name is *Toranos thunder. In present-day Welsh taranu and taran means to thunder and thunder, Taranis, as a personification of thunder, is often identified with similar deities found in other Indo-European pantheons. Of these, Old Norse Þórr, Anglo-Saxon Þunor, Old High German Donar—all from Proto-Germanic *þunraz —and the Hittite theonym Tarhun contain a comparable *torun- element, the Thracian deity names Zbel-thurdos, Zbel-Thiurdos also contain this element. The name of the Sami thunder god Horagalles derives from Thors, numerous Celtic coins also depict such a wheel. It is thought to correspond to a practiced in Bronze Age Europe. The half-wheel shown in the Gundestrup broken wheel panel also has eight visible spokes, symbolic votive wheels were offered at shrines, cast in rivers, buried in tombs or worn as amulets since the Middle Bronze Age. Such wheel pendants from the Bronze Age usually had four spokes, artefacts parallel to the Celtic votive wheels or wheel-pendants are the so-called Zierscheiben in a Germanic context. The identification of the Sun with a wheel, or a chariot, has parallels in Germanic, Greek, in 2013 a British combat drone system developed by defence contractor BAE Systems was named Taranis in reference to the Celtic god. Delbáeth Fontes Tamarici Indra Perun Thor Tuireann Ellis, Peter Berresford, Dictionary of Celtic Mythology, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-508961-8 MacKillop, James. Wood, Juliette, The Celts, Life, Myth, and Art, Thorsons Publishers, ISBN 0-00-764059-5 Celtic Gods and Associates Images of Taranis Celtic Gods Doran, marvel Teaser, The NEW God of Thunder
31.
Great Britain
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Great Britain, also known as Britain, is a large island in the north Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of 209,331 km2, Great Britain is the largest European island, in 2011 the island had a population of about 61 million people, making it the worlds third-most populous island after Java in Indonesia and Honshu in Japan. The island of Ireland is situated to the west of it, the island is dominated by a maritime climate with quite narrow temperature differences between seasons. Politically, the island is part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, most of England, Scotland, and Wales are on the island. The term Great Britain often extends to surrounding islands that form part of England, Scotland, and Wales. A single Kingdom of Great Britain resulted from the union of the Kingdom of England, the archipelago has been referred to by a single name for over 2000 years, the term British Isles derives from terms used by classical geographers to describe this island group. By 50 BC Greek geographers were using equivalents of Prettanikē as a name for the British Isles. However, with the Roman conquest of Britain the Latin term Britannia was used for the island of Great Britain, the oldest mention of terms related to Great Britain was by Aristotle, or possibly by Pseudo-Aristotle, in his text On the Universe, Vol. III. To quote his works, There are two large islands in it, called the British Isles, Albion and Ierne. The name Britain descends from the Latin name for Britain, Britannia or Brittānia, Old French Bretaigne and Middle English Bretayne, Breteyne. The French form replaced the Old English Breoton, Breoten, Bryten, Breten, Britannia was used by the Romans from the 1st century BC for the British Isles taken together. It is derived from the writings of the Pytheas around 320 BC. Marcian of Heraclea, in his Periplus maris exteri, described the group as αἱ Πρεττανικαὶ νῆσοι. The peoples of these islands of Prettanike were called the Πρεττανοί, Priteni is the source of the Welsh language term Prydain, Britain, which has the same source as the Goidelic term Cruithne used to refer to the early Brythonic-speaking inhabitants of Ireland. The latter were later called Picts or Caledonians by the Romans, the Greco-Egyptian scientist Ptolemy referred to the larger island as great Britain and to Ireland as little Britain in his work Almagest. The name Albion appears to have out of use sometime after the Roman conquest of Britain. After the Anglo-Saxon period, Britain was used as a term only. It was used again in 1604, when King James VI and I styled himself King of Great Brittaine, France, Great Britain refers geographically to the island of Great Britain, politically to England, Scotland and Wales in combination
32.
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
33.
Bulgaria
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Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in southeastern Europe. It is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, with a territory of 110,994 square kilometres, Bulgaria is Europes 16th-largest country. Organised prehistoric cultures began developing on current Bulgarian lands during the Neolithic period and its ancient history saw the presence of the Thracians, Greeks, Persians, Celts, Romans, Goths, Alans and Huns. With the downfall of the Second Bulgarian Empire in 1396, its territories came under Ottoman rule for five centuries. The Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78 led to the formation of the Third Bulgarian State, the following years saw several conflicts with its neighbours, which prompted Bulgaria to align with Germany in both world wars. In 1946 it became a one-party socialist state as part of the Soviet-led Eastern Bloc, in December 1989 the ruling Communist Party allowed multi-party elections, which subsequently led to Bulgarias transition into a democracy and a market-based economy. Bulgarias population of 7.2 million people is predominantly urbanised, most commercial and cultural activities are centred on the capital and largest city, Sofia. The strongest sectors of the economy are industry, power engineering. The countrys current political structure dates to the adoption of a constitution in 1991. Bulgaria is a parliamentary republic with a high degree of political, administrative. Human activity in the lands of modern Bulgaria can be traced back to the Paleolithic, animal bones incised with man-made markings from Kozarnika cave are assumed to be the earliest examples of symbolic behaviour in humans. Organised prehistoric societies in Bulgarian lands include the Neolithic Hamangia culture, Vinča culture, the latter is credited with inventing gold working and exploitation. Some of these first gold smelters produced the coins, weapons and jewellery of the Varna Necropolis treasure and this site also offers insights for understanding the social hierarchy of the earliest European societies. Thracians, one of the three primary groups of modern Bulgarians, began appearing in the region during the Iron Age. In the late 6th century BC, the Persians conquered most of present-day Bulgaria, and kept it until 479 BC. After the division of the Roman Empire in the 5th century the area fell under Byzantine control, by this time, Christianity had already spread in the region. A small Gothic community in Nicopolis ad Istrum produced the first Germanic language book in the 4th century, the first Christian monastery in Europe was established around the same time by Saint Athanasius in central Bulgaria. From the 6th century the easternmost South Slavs gradually settled in the region, in 680 Bulgar tribes under the leadership of Asparukh moved south across the Danube and settled in the area between the lower Danube and the Balkan, establishing their capital at Pliska
34.
Rhine
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The largest city on the river Rhine is Cologne, Germany, with a population of more than 1,050,000 people. It is the second-longest river in Central and Western Europe, at about 1,230 km, with an average discharge of about 2,900 m3/s. The Rhine and the Danube formed most of the inland frontier of the Roman Empire and, since those days. The many castles and fortifications along the Rhine testify to its importance as a waterway in the Holy Roman Empire, in the modern era, it has become a symbol of German nationalism. The variant of the name of the Rhine in modern languages are all derived from the Gaulish name Rēnos, spanish is with French in adopting the Germanic vocalism Rin-, while Italian, Occitan and Portuguese retain the Latin Ren-. The Gaulish name Rēnos belongs to a class of river names built from the PIE root *rei- to move, flow, run, the grammatical gender of the Celtic name is masculine, and the name remains masculine in German, Dutch and French. The Old English river name was variously inflected as masculine or feminine, the length of the Rhine is conventionally measured in Rhine-kilometers, a scale introduced in 1939 which runs from the Old Rhine Bridge at Constance to Hoek van Holland. The river length is shortened from the rivers natural course due to a number of canalisation projects completed in the 19th and 20th century. The total length of the Rhine, to the inclusion of Lake Constance and its course is conventionally divided as follows, The Rhine carries its name without distinctive accessories only from the confluence of the Vorderrhein and Hinterrhein near Tamins-Reichenau. Above this point is the catchment of the headwaters of the Rhine. It belongs almost exclusively to the Swiss Canton of Graubünden, ranging from Gotthard Massif in the west via one valley lying in Ticino, traditionally, Lake Toma near the Oberalp Pass in the Gotthard region is seen as the source of the Vorderrhein and the Rhine as a whole. The Hinterrhein rises in the Rheinwald valley below Mount Rheinwaldhorn, the Vorderrhein, or Anterior Rhine, springs from Lai da Tuma, near the Oberalp Pass and passes the impressive Ruinaulta formed by the largest visible rock slide in the alps, the Flims Rockslide. A multiday trekking route is signposted along the young Rhine called Senda Sursilvana, the Hinterrhein/Rein Posteriur, or Posterior Rhine, starts from the Paradies Glacier, near the Rheinwaldhorn. One of its tributaries, the Reno di Lei, drains the Valle di Lei on politically Italian territory, after three main valleys separated by the two gorges, Roflaschlucht and Viamala, it reaches Reichenau. The Vorderrhein arises from numerous source streams in the upper Surselva, one source is Lai da Tuma with the Rein da Tuma, which is usually indicated as source of the Rhine, flowing through it. Into it flow tributaries from the south, some longer, some equal in length, such as the Reno di Medel, the Rein da Maighels, and the Rein da Curnera. The Cadlimo Valley in the Canton of Ticino is drained by the Reno di Medel, all streams in the source area are partially, sometimes completely, captured and sent to storage reservoirs for the local hydro-electric power plants. In its lower course the Vorderrhein flows through a gorge named Ruinaulta through the Flims Rockslide, the whole stretch of the Vorderrhein to the Rhine confluence near Reichenau-Tamins is accompanied by a long-distance hiking trail called Senda Sursilvana
35.
Sun cross
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A sun cross is the term for a symbol consisting of an equilateral cross inside a circle when considered as a solar symbol. The design is found in the symbolism of prehistoric cultures. The symbols ubiquity and apparent importance in prehistoric religion have given rise to its interpretation as a solar symbol, the same symbol is in use as a modern astronomical symbol representing the Earth rather than the Sun. The symbol can be depicted using Unicode as U+1F728, U+2295 or as U+2A01, the interpretation of the simple equilateral cross as a solar symbol in Bronze Age religion was widespread in 19th-century scholarship. The cross-in-a-circle was interpreted as a solar symbol derived from the interpretation of the disc of the Sun as the wheel of the chariot of the Sun god. Wieseler postulated an Gothic rune hvel representing the deity by the wheel symbol of a cross-in-a-circle. The English term Sun-Cross, on the hand, is comparatively recent, apparently loaned from German Sonnenkreuz. The German term Sonnenkreuz was used in 19th-century scholarly literature of any cross symbol interpreted as a solar symbol, Sonnenkreuz was used of the flag design of the Paneuropean Union in the 1920s. In the 1930s, a version of the symbol with broken arms was popular as a link between Christianity and Germanic paganism in the völkisch German Faith Movement. Popular legend in Ireland says that the Celtic Christian cross was introduced by Saint Patrick or possibly Saint Declan and it has often been claimed that Patrick combined the symbol of Christianity with the sun cross to give pagan followers an idea of the importance of the cross. By linking it with the idea of the properties of the sun. Other interpretations claim that placing the cross on top of the circle represents Christs supremacy over the pagan sun, the original Coptic cross often includes a circle that is derived from the ankh, as the circles represent the sun god, Ra. Early Gnostic sects also used a circle cross, the Bronze Age symbol has also been connected with the spoked chariot wheel, which at the time was four-spoked. In the context of a culture that celebrated the Sun chariot, the same symbol represents the Earth in astronomical symbols, while the Sun is represented by a circle with a center point. The Native Americans and other indigenous peoples using the solar cross on their symbolic. In modern music tablature, the solar cross denotes a change of a guitar tone distortion. The Sassanian Empire in Persia used a similar solar cross on their banner, the Norwegian party Nasjonal Samling used a golden sun cross on a red background as an official symbol from 1933 to 1945. The cross with the circle was attached to Olaf II of Norway, patron saint of Norway, several neo-Nazi groups use the solar cross to represent white supremacy
36.
Hadrian's Wall
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It had a stone base and a stone wall. There were milecastles with two turrets in between, there was a fort about every five Roman miles. From north to south, the wall comprised a ditch, wall, military way and vallum and it is thought the milecastles were staffed with static garrisons, whereas the forts had fighting garrisons of infantry and cavalry. In addition to the defensive military role, its gates may have been customs posts. A significant portion of the wall still stands and can be followed on foot along the adjoining Hadrians Wall Path, the largest Roman artefact anywhere, it runs a total of 73 miles in northern England. Regarded as a British cultural icon, Hadrians Wall is one of Britains major ancient tourist attractions and it was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987. It is a misconception that Hadrians Wall marks the boundary between England and Scotland. In fact Hadrians Wall lies entirely within England and has never formed the Anglo-Scottish border, while it is less than 1 kilometre south of the border with Scotland in the west at Bowness-on-Solway, in the east it is as much as 110 kilometres away. Hadrians Wall was 80 Roman miles or 117.5 km long, its width and height varied according to the materials available nearby.5 metres high. These dimensions do not include the walls ditches, berms and forts, the central section measured eight Roman feet wide on a 3 m base. Some parts of section of the wall survive to a height of 3 m. Immediately south of the wall, a ditch was dug, with adjoining parallel mounds. This is known today as the Vallum, even though the word Vallum in Latin is the origin of the English word wall, in many places – for example Limestone Corner – the Vallum is better preserved than the wall, which has been robbed of much of its stone. The A69 and B6318 roads follow the course of the wall from Newcastle upon Tyne to Carlisle, although the curtain wall ends near Bowness-on-Solway, this does not mark the end of the line of defensive structures. The system of milecastles and turrets is known to have continued along the Cumbria coast as far as Risehow, for classification purposes, the milecastles west of Bowness-on-Solway are referred to as Milefortlets. Hadrians Wall was probably planned before Hadrians visit to Britain in AD122, according to restored sandstone fragments found in Jarrow which date from 118 or 119, it was Hadrians wish to keep intact the empire, which had been imposed on him via divine instruction. The fragments then announce the building of the wall and it is entirely possible that, on his arrival in Britain in 122, one of the stops on his itinerary was the northern frontier to inspect the progress of the building of the wall. Theories have been presented by historians, mostly of an expression of Roman power and these troubles may have influenced Hadrians plan to construct the wall as well as his construction of limites in other areas of the Empire, but to what extent is unknown
37.
Cologne
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Cologne is the largest city in the German federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and the fourth-largest city in Germany. It is located within the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region, one of the major European metropolitan areas, and with more than ten million inhabitants, Cologne is located on both sides of the Rhine River, less than eighty kilometres from Belgium. The citys famous Cologne Cathedral is the seat of the Catholic Archbishop of Cologne, the University of Cologne is one of Europes oldest and largest universities. Cologne was founded and established in Ubii territory in the first century AD as the Roman Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium, Cologne, the French version of the citys name, has become standard in English as well. The city functioned as the capital of the Roman province of Germania Inferior, during the Middle Ages it flourished on one of the most important major trade routes between east and west in Europe. Cologne was one of the members of the Hanseatic League and one of the largest cities north of the Alps in medieval. Up until World War II the city had several occupations by the French. Cologne was one of the most heavily bombed cities in Germany during World War II, the bombing reduced the population by 95%, mainly due to evacuation, and destroyed almost the entire city. With the intention of restoring as many buildings as possible. Cologne is a cultural centre for the Rhineland, it hosts more than thirty museums. Exhibitions range from local ancient Roman archeological sites to contemporary graphics, the Cologne Trade Fair hosts a number of trade shows such as Art Cologne, imm Cologne, Gamescom, and the Photokina. The first urban settlement on the grounds of modern-day Cologne was Oppidum Ubiorum, founded in 38 BC by the Ubii, in 50 AD, the Romans founded Colonia on the Rhine and the city became the provincial capital of Germania Inferior in 85 AD. The city was named Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium in 50 AD, considerable Roman remains can be found in present-day Cologne, especially near the wharf area, where a notable discovery of a 1900-year-old Roman boat was made in late 2007. From 260 to 271 Cologne was the capital of the Gallic Empire under Postumus, Marius, in 310 under Constantine a bridge was built over the Rhine at Cologne. Roman imperial governors resided in the city and it one of the most important trade. Cologne is shown on the 4th century Peutinger Map, maternus, who was elected as bishop in 313, was the first known bishop of Cologne. The city was the capital of a Roman province until occupied by the Ripuarian Franks in 462, parts of the original Roman sewers are preserved underneath the city, with the new sewerage system having opened in 1890. Early medieval Cologne was part of Austrasia within the Frankish Empire, Cologne had been the seat of a bishop since the Roman period, under Charlemagne, in 795, bishop Hildebold was promoted to archbishop
38.
Iron Age
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The Iron Age is an archaeological era, referring to a period of time in the prehistory and protohistory of the Old World when the dominant toolmaking material was iron. It is commonly preceded by the Bronze Age in Europe and Asia with exceptions, meteoric iron has been used by humans since at least 3200 BC. Ancient iron production did not become widespread until the ability to smelt ore, remove impurities. The start of the Iron Age proper is considered by many to fall between around 1200 BC and 600 BC, depending on the region, the earliest known iron artifacts are nine small beads dated to 3200 BC, which were found in burials at Gerzeh, Lower Egypt. They have been identified as meteoric iron shaped by careful hammering, meteoric iron, a characteristic iron–nickel alloy, was used by various ancient peoples thousands of years before the Iron Age. Such iron, being in its metallic state, required no smelting of ores. Smelted iron appears sporadically in the record from the middle Bronze Age. While terrestrial iron is abundant, its high melting point of 1,538 °C placed it out of reach of common use until the end of the second millennium BC. Tins low melting point of 231, similarly, recent archaeological remains of iron working in the Ganges Valley in India have been tentatively dated to 1800 BC. By the Middle Bronze Age, increasing numbers of smelted iron objects appeared in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, African sites are turning up dates as early as 1200 BC. Modern archaeological evidence identifies the start of iron production in around 1200 BC. Between 1200 BC and 1000 BC, diffusion in the understanding of iron metallurgy and use of objects was fast. As evidence, many bronze implements were recycled into weapons during this time, more widespread use of iron led to improved steel-making technology at lower cost. Thus, even when tin became available again, iron was cheaper, stronger, and lighter, and forged iron implements superseded cast bronze tools permanently. Increasingly, the Iron Age in Europe is being seen as a part of the Bronze Age collapse in the ancient Near East, in ancient India, ancient Iran, and ancient Greece. In other regions of Europe, the Iron Age began in the 8th century BC in Central Europe, the Near Eastern Iron Age is divided into two subsections, Iron I and Iron II. Iron I illustrates both continuity and discontinuity with the previous Late Bronze Age, during the Iron Age, the best tools and weapons were made from steel, particularly alloys which were produced with a carbon content between approximately 0. 30% and 1. 2% by weight. Steel weapons and tools were nearly the same weight as those of bronze, however, steel was difficult to produce with the methods available, and alloys that were easier to make, such as wrought iron, were more common in lower-priced goods
39.
Coin
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A coin is a small, flat, round piece of metal or plastic used primarily as a medium of exchange or legal tender. They are standardized in weight, and produced in quantities at a mint in order to facilitate trade. They are most often issued by a government, Coins are usually metal or alloy, or sometimes made of synthetic materials. Coins made of metal are stored in large quantities as bullion coins. Other coins are used as money in transactions, circulating alongside banknotes. Usually the highest value coin in circulation is less than the lowest-value note. In the last hundred years, the value of circulation coins has occasionally been lower than the value of the metal they contain. Exceptions to the rule of face value being higher than content value also occur for some bullion coins made of copper, silver, or gold, while the Eagle, Maple Leaf, and Sovereign coins have nominal face values, the Krugerrand does not. The first coins were developed independently in Iron Age Anatolia and Archaic Greece, India, Coins spread rapidly in the 6th and 5th centuries BCE, throughout Greece and Persia, and further to the Balkans. Standardized Roman currency was used throughout the Roman Empire, important Roman gold and silver coins were continued into the Middle Ages. Fiat money first arose in medieval China, with the paper money. Early paper money was introduced in Europe in the later Middle Ages, the penny was minted as a silver coin until the 17th century. The first circulating United States coins were cents, produced in 1793, Coins were an evolution of currency systems of the Late Bronze Age, where standard-sized ingots, and tokens such as knife money, were used to store and transfer value. In the late Chinese Bronze Age, standardized cast tokens were made and these were replicas in bronze of earlier Chinese currency, cowrie shells, so they were named Bronze Shell. According to Aristotle and Pollux, the first issuer of coins was Hermodike of Kyme The earliest coins are associated with Iron Age Anatolia. Early electrum coins were not standardized in weight, and in their earliest stage may have been ritual objects, such as badges or medals, issued by priests. The first Lydian coins were made of electrum, a naturally occurring alloy of silver, most of the early Lydian coins include no writing, only an image of a symbolic animal. Anatolian Artemis was the Πὀτνια Θηρῶν, whose symbol was the stag, a small percentage of early Lydian/Greek coins have a legend
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Treveri
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The Treveri or Treviri were a Belgic tribe who inhabited the lower valley of the Moselle from around 150 BCE, if not earlier, until their eventual absorption into the Franks. Celtic in language, according to Tacitus they claimed Germanic descent, although early adopters of Roman material culture, the Treveri had a chequered relationship with Roman power. Their leader Indutiomarus led them in revolt against Julius Caesar during the Gallic Wars, much later, during the Crisis of the Third Century, the territory of the Treveri was overrun by Germanic Alamanni and Franks and later formed part of the Gallic Empire. Under Constantine and his 4th-century successors, Augusta Treverorum became a large, favoured, rich, during this period, Christianity began to succeed the imperial cult and the worship of Roman and Celtic deities as the favoured religion of the city. Such Christian luminaries as Ambrose, Jerome, Martin of Tours, among the surviving legacies of the ancient Treveri are Moselle wine from Luxembourg and Germany and the many Roman monuments of Trier and its surroundings, including neighbouring Luxembourg. The spelling variants Treveri and Treviri are found in Latin texts from the time of Caesars De Bello Gallico to Tacituss Annales, Latin texts are in general agreement that the first vowel, however, is -e-. For their part, Ancient Greek texts mostly give Τρηούϊροι, variants such as Treberi and Τρίβηροι appear in Pliny and Ptolemy, respectively. A few highly deviant variant forms are attested, Τριήροι in Ptolemy. The name has been interpreted as referring to a river or to crossing the river. They had a goddess of the ford called Ritona and a temple dedicated to Uorioni Deo. treuer- can be compared with the Old Irish treóir guiding, passage through a ford. The first syllable is long and stressed in Latin dictionaries, according to its Celtic etymology. The city of Trier derives its name from the later Latin locative in Trēverīs for earlier Augusta Treverorum, in the time of Julius Caesar their territory extended as far as the Rhine north of the Triboci, across the Rhine from them lived the Ubii. Caesar mentions that the Segni and the Condrusi lived between the Treveri and the Eburones, and that the Condrusii and Eburones were clients of the Treveri, Caesar bridged the Rhine in the territory of the Treveri. They were bordered on the north and west by Belgic tribes, the Tungri, to the south their neighbours were the Mediomatrici. The Rhine valley was removed from Treveran authority with the formation of the province of Germania Superior in the 80s CE, the valley of the Ahr would have marked their northern boundary. Colonia Augusta Treverorum was the capital of their civitas under the Empire, there is strong evidence that the recently excavated oppidum on the Titelberg plateau in the extreme southwest of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg was the Treveran capital during the 1st century BCE. The transfer of their activities to Trier followed the construction of Agrippas road linking Trier with Reims which bypassed the Titelberg, during the Roman period, Trier became a Roman colony, and the provincial capital of Belgica itself. It was the frequent residence of a number of emperors, archaeological evidence suggests that the Treveri were divided into five cantons centred respectively on the oppida of the Titelberg, Wallendorf, Kastel, Otzenhausen and the Martberg
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Trier
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Trier, formerly known in English as Treves, is a city in Germany on the banks of the Moselle. Trier lies in a valley between low vine-covered hills of red sandstone in the west of the state of Rhineland-Palatinate, near the border with Luxembourg and within the important Moselle wine region. Founded by the Celts in the late-4th century BC as Treuorum, it was conquered by the Romans in the late-1st century BC. Trier may be the oldest city in Germany and it is also the oldest seat of a bishop north of the Alps. In the Middle Ages, the Archbishop-Elector of Trier was an important prince of the church, the Archbishop-Elector also had great significance as one of the seven electors of the Holy Roman Empire. With an approximate population of 105,000, Trier is the fourth-largest city in its state, after Mainz, Ludwigshafen, the nearest major cities are Luxembourg, Saarbrücken, and Koblenz. It is one of the five places of the state of Rhineland-Palatinate. A medieval inscription on the façade of the Red House in Trier market stated, trebetas parents were said to have been Ninus, a legendary King of Assyria invented by the ancient Greeks, and an unknown mother who was Ninuss wife before Semiramis. Semiramis took control of the kingdom upon his fathers death and Trebeta was forced into exile and his body was said to have been cremated on Petrisberg. The historical record describes the Roman Empire subduing the Treveri in the 1st century BC, the name distinguished it from the empires many other cities honoring the first emperor Augustus. The city later became the capital of the province of Belgic Gaul, after the Diocletian Reforms, it became the capital of the prefecture of the Gauls, overseeing much of the Western Roman Empire. In the 4th century, Trier was one of the largest cities in the Roman Empire with a population around 75,000, the Porta Nigra dates from this era. A residence of the Western Roman Emperor, Roman Trier was the birthplace of Saint Ambrose, sometime between 395 and 418, probably in 407 the Roman administration moved the staff of the Praetorian Prefecture about 2000 from the city to Arles. The city continued to be inhabited but was not as prosperous as before, northern Gaul was held by the Romans along a line from north of Cologne to the coast at Boulogne through what is today southern Belgium until 460. South of this line, Roman control was firm, as evidenced by the operation of the imperial arms factory at Amiens. The Franks seized Trier from Roman administration in 459, in 870, it became part of Eastern Francia, which developed into the Holy Roman Empire. Relics of Saint Matthias brought to the city initiated widespread pilgrimages, the bishops of the city grew increasingly powerful and the Archbishopric of Trier was recognized as an electorate of the empire, one of the most powerful states of Germany. The University of Trier was founded in the city in 1473, in the 17th century, the Archbishops and Prince-Electors of Trier relocated their residences to Philippsburg Castle in Ehrenbreitstein, near Koblenz
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Chedworth
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Chedworth is a village in Gloucestershire, England, in the Cotswolds and is known as the location of Chedworth Roman Villa, administered since 1924 by the National Trust. Until the 2015 district council elections, a ward in the same name existed. This ward started in the south at Chedworth and stretched north to end at Dowdeswell, the total ward population taken at the 2011 census was 1,705. The new ward is known as Chedworth and Churn Valley and it was discovered by accident in 1864 It is the remains of one of the largest Romano-British villas in England featuring several mosaics, two bathhouses, hypocausts, a water-shrine and a latrine. The water shrine became very special as the Romans used it to worship the goddess of the spring that gives it an endless amount of water. New facilities opened in 2014 The oldest house in the village is the manor house, from 1920 until 1960 development was confined to ribbon development along Fields Road to the south of the Village where modern bungalows were erected. A railway line served the village – the Midland & South Western Junction Railway, opened in 1891. It ran through Chedworth Tunnel,494 yards in length, during the Second World War there was an RAF airfield at RAF Chedworth. The remnants of this can be seen today, Chedworth was mentioned in author Craig Thomas first novel Rat Trap published in 1976. The Band has a website which lists the bands forthcoming engagements, fees, the Band has links to Chedworth based on-line music publisher Broad-Band Music. Chedworth Singers perform occasionally at concerts and church services. Mezzo Soprano Victoria Jess often performs as guest soloist with Chedworth Singers, Chedworth Drama Group has performed a number of plays at Chedworth Village Hall. The Group led by John Robson has also performed at other venues notably at A Midsummer Nights Dream at Chedworth Manor in 2015, Chedworth Village Hall was built in 1976 and is a popular facility. Chedworth Parish Council was formed under the Local Government Act of 1894 and its first preliminary meeting was held on 4 December 1894 and the first proper meeting held on 3 January 1895, chaired by the Rev Sackett Hope. Fifteen candidates stood for election to the seven seats available, subsequently in 1904 again 15 candidates stood for the seven seats and none of the previous incumbents was re-elected. The last opposed Chedworth Parish Council election was in 2015 when 10 candidates stood for the seven available seats, the council holds monthly meetings on the second Monday of each month at 7.30 at the Village Hall. The Parish Council has its own website which gives contact details, the Seven Tuns Inn is positioned close to the church at the far western upper end of the village. Named after 7 Tuns, variously Chimneys, or Barrels, both of which have featured on the pub sign at different times
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