1.
Lombards
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The Lombards or Longobards were a Germanic people who ruled large parts of the Italian Peninsula from 568 to 774. In the 1st century AD, they formed part of the Suebi, the Lombard king Audoin defeated the Gepid leader Thurisind in 551 or 552, his successor Alboin eventually destroyed the Gepids at the Battle of Asfeld in 567. The Lombards were joined by numerous Saxons, Heruls, Gepids, Bulgars, Thuringians, and Ostrogoths, by late 569 they had conquered all north of Italy and the principal cities north of the Po River except Pavia, which fell in 572. At the same time, they occupied areas in central Italy and they established a Lombard Kingdom in north and central Italy, later named Regnum Italicum, which reached its zenith under the 8th-century ruler Liutprand. In 774, the Kingdom was conquered by the Frankish King Charlemagne, however, Lombard nobles continued to rule southern parts of the Italian peninsula, well into the 11th century when they were conquered by the Normans and added to their County of Sicily. In this period, the part of Italy still under Longobardic domination was known by the name Langbarðaland in the Norse runestones. Their legacy is apparent in the regional name Lombardy. The fullest account of Lombard origins, history, and practices is the Historia Langobardorum of Paul the Deacon, pauls chief source for Lombard origins, however, is the 7th-century Origo Gentis Langobardorum. The Origo Gentis Langobardorum tells the story of a tribe called the Winnili dwelling in southern Scandinavia. The Winnili were split into three groups and one part left their land to seek foreign fields. The reason for the exodus was probably overpopulation, the departing people were led by the brothers Ybor and Aio and their mother Gambara and arrived in the lands of Scoringa, perhaps the Baltic coast or the Bardengau on the banks of the Elbe. Scoringa was ruled by the Vandals and their chieftains, the brothers Ambri and Assi, the Winnili were young and brave and refused to pay tribute, saying It is better to maintain liberty by arms than to stain it by the payment of tribute. The Vandals prepared for war and consulted Godan, who answered that he would give the victory to those whom he would see first at sunrise. The Winnili were fewer in number and Gambara sought help from Frea, at sunrise, Frea turned her husbands bed so that he was facing east, and woke him. So Godan spotted the Winnili first and asked, Who are these long-beards. and Frea replied, My lord, thou hast given them the name, from that moment onwards, the Winnili were known as the Longbeards. When Paul the Deacon wrote the Historia between 787 and 796 he was a Catholic monk and devoted Christian and he thought the pagan stories of his people silly and laughable. Paul explained that the name Langobard came from the length of their beards, a modern theory suggests that the name Langobard comes from Langbarðr, a name of Odin. Priester states that when the Winnili changed their name to Lombards, they changed their old agricultural fertility cult to a cult of Odin
2.
Italian Peninsula
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The Italian Peninsula or Apennine Peninsula is the central and the smallest of the three large peninsulas of Southern Europe. It extends 1,000 km from the Po Valley in the north to the central Mediterranean Sea in the south, the peninsulas shape gives it the nickname lo Stivale. Three smaller peninsulas contribute to this shape, namely Calabria, Salento. Geographically, the Italian peninsula consists of the south of a line extending from the Magra to the Rubicon rivers. It excludes the Po Valley and the slopes of the Alps. All of the lies within the territory of the Italian Republic except for the microstates of San Marino. Additionally, Sicily, Elba and other islands, such as Palagruža, are usually considered as islands off the peninsula. The peninsula lies between the Tyrrhenian Sea on the west, the Ionian Sea on the south, and the Adriatic Sea on the east, the backbone of the Italian peninsula consists of the Apennine Mountains, from which it takes one of its names. Most of its coast is lined with cliffs, the Italian Peninsulas location between the centre of Europe and the Mediterranean Sea made it the target of many conquests. The peninsula has mainly a Mediterranean climate, though in the parts the climate is much cooler. Its natural vegetation includes macchia along the coasts and deciduous and mixed coniferous forests in the interior. Political divisions of the peninsula sorted by area, Apennine Mountains Roman Republic Roman Italy Insular Italy Media related to Italian Peninsula at Wikimedia Commons
3.
Benevento
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Benevento listen is a city and comune of Campania, Italy, capital of the province of Benevento,50 kilometres northeast of Naples. It is situated on a hill 130 metres above sea level at the confluence of the Calore Irpino and it is also the seat of a Roman Catholic archbishop. Benevento occupies the site of the ancient Beneventum, originally Maleventum or still earlier Maloenton, the -vent portion of the name probably refers to a market-place and is a common element in ancient place names. The Romans theorized that it meant the site of bad events, in the imperial period it was supposed to have been founded by Diomedes after the Trojan War. A patron saint of Benevento is Saint Bartholomew, the Apostle, Benevento, as Maleventum, was one of the chief cities of Samnium, situated on the Via Appia at a distance of 51 kilometres east from Capua on the banks of the river Calor. Festus, on the contrary, related that it was founded by Auson, a son of Ulysses and Circe, a tradition which indicates that it was an ancient Ausonian city, previous to its conquest by the Samnites. But it first appears in history as a Samnite city, and must have already been a place of strength and it appears, however, to have fallen into their hands during the Third Samnite War, though the exact occasion is unknown. Benevento was certainly in the power of the Romans in 274 BC, six years later they further sought to secure its possession by establishing there a Roman colony with Latin rights. It is probable that the Oscan or Samnite name was Maloeis, or Malieis, whence the form Maleventum would derive, like Agrigentum from Acragas, Selinuntium from Selinus and its wealth is also evidenced by the quantity of coins minted by Beneventum. Horace famously notes Beneventum on his journey from Rome to Brundusium and it was indebted to the same circumstance for the honor of repeated visits from the emperors of Rome, among which those of Nero, Trajan, and Septimus Severus, are particularly recorded. It was probably for the reason that the triumphal arch. The Arch of Trajan is one of the best-preserved Roman structures in the Campania and it repeats the formula of the Arch of Titus in the Roman Forum, with reliefs of Trajans life and exploits of his reign. Some of the sculptures are in the British Museum, successive emperors seem to have bestowed on the city accessions of territory, and erected, or at least given name to, various public buildings. Its inhabitants were included in the Stellatine tribe, diaconus speaks of it as a very wealthy city, and the capital of all the surrounding provinces. The territory of Beneventum under the Roman Empire was of considerable extent. An inscription has preserved to us the names of several of the pagi or villages dependent upon Beneventum, the citys most ancient coins bear the legend Malies or Maliesa, which have been supposed to belong to the Samnite, or pre-Samnite, Maleventum. Coins with the legend BENVENTOD, must have struck after it became a Latin colony. Not long after it had been sacked by Totila and its walls razed, the circumstances of the creation of duchy of Benevento are disputed
4.
Southern Italy
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It generally coincides with the administrative regions of Abruzzo, Apulia, Basilicata, Campania, Calabria, Molise, Sicily, and Sardinia. Some also include the most southern and eastern parts of Lazio within the Mezzogiorno, Southern Italy carries a unique legacy of culture. It features many major tourist attractions, such as the Palace of Caserta, there are also many ancient Greek cities in Southern Italy, such as Sybaris, which were founded several centuries before the start of the Roman Republic. These same subdivisions are at the bottom of the Italian First level NUTS of the European Union, the term Mezzogiorno first came into use in the 18th century and is an Italian rendition of meridies. The term was popularised by Giuseppe Garibaldi and it eventually came into vogue after the Italian unification. In a similar manner, Southern France is colloquially known as le Midi, Southern Italy forms the lower part of the Italian boot, containing the ankle, the toe, the arch, and the heel, along with the island of Sicily. Separating the heel and the boot is the Gulf of Taranto, named after the city of Taranto and it is an arm of the Ionian Sea. The island of Sardinia, right below the French island of Corsica, on the eastern coast is the Adriatic Sea, leading into the rest of the Mediterranean through the Strait of Otranto. Along the northern coast of the Salernitan Gulf and on the south of the Sorrentine Peninsula runs the Amalfi Coast, off the tip of the peninsula is the isle of Capri. The climate is mainly Mediterranean, except at the highest elevations and the eastern stretches in Apulia, along the Ionian Sea in Calabria. The largest city of Southern Italy is Naples, a name from the Greek that it has maintained for millennia. Bari, Taranto, Reggio Calabria, Foggia, and Salerno are the next largest cities in the area. The region is very active and highly seismic, the 1980 Irpinia earthquake killed 2,914 people, injured more than 10,000. Also during this period, Greek colonies were established in places as widely separated as the eastern coast of the Black Sea, Eastern Libya and they included settlements in Sicily and the southern part of the Italian Peninsula. The Romans called the area of Sicily and the foot of Italy, Magna Graecia, the ancient geographers differed on whether the term included Sicily or merely Apulia and Calabria—Strabo being the most prominent advocate of the wider definitions. With this colonisation, Greek culture was exported to Italy, in its dialects of the Ancient Greek language, its religious rites, an original Hellenic civilization soon developed, later interacting with the native Italic and Latin civilisations. Many of the new Hellenic cities became very rich and powerful, like Neapolis, Syracuse, Acragas, other cities in Magna Graecia included Tarentum, Epizephyrian Locri, Rhegium, Croton, Thurii, Elea, Nola, Syessa, Bari, and others. After Pyrrhus of Epirus failed in his attempt to stop the spread of Roman hegemony in 282 BCE, from then to the Norman conquest of the 11th century, the south of the peninsula was constantly plunged into wars between Greece, Lombardy, and the Islamic Caliphate
5.
Pope
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The pope is the Bishop of Rome and, therefore, the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church. The current pope is Francis, who was elected on 13 March 2013, the office of the pope is the papacy. The pope is considered one of the worlds most powerful people because of his diplomatic and he is also head of state of Vatican City, a sovereign city-state entirely enclaved within the Italian capital city of Rome. The papacy is one of the most enduring institutions in the world and has had a prominent part in world history, the popes in ancient times helped in the spread of Christianity and the resolution of various doctrinal disputes. In the Middle Ages, they played a role of importance in Western Europe. Currently, in addition to the expansion of the Christian faith and doctrine, the popes are involved in ecumenism and interfaith dialogue, charitable work, Popes, who originally had no temporal powers, in some periods of history accrued wide powers similar to those of temporal rulers. In recent centuries, popes were gradually forced to give up temporal power, the word pope derives from Greek πάππας meaning father. The earliest record of the use of title was in regard to the by then deceased Patriarch of Alexandria. Some historians have argued that the notion that Peter was the first bishop of Rome, the writings of the Church Father Irenaeus who wrote around AD180 reflect a belief that Peter founded and organised the Church at Rome. Moreover, Irenaeus was not the first to write of Peters presence in the early Roman Church, Clement of Rome wrote in a letter to the Corinthians, c. 96, about the persecution of Christians in Rome as the struggles in our time and presented to the Corinthians its heroes, first, the greatest and most just columns, the good apostles Peter and Paul. St. Ignatius of Antioch wrote shortly after Clement and in his letter from the city of Smyrna to the Romans he said he would not command them as Peter and Paul did. Given this and other evidence, many agree that Peter was martyred in Rome under Nero. Protestants contend that the New Testament offers no proof that Jesus established the papacy nor even that he established Peter as the first bishop of Rome, others, using Peters own words, argue that Christ intended himself as the foundation of the church and not Peter. First-century Christian communities would have had a group of presbyter-bishops functioning as leaders of their local churches, gradually, episcopacies were established in metropolitan areas. Antioch may have developed such a structure before Rome, some writers claim that the emergence of a single bishop in Rome probably did not occur until the middle of the 2nd century. In their view, Linus, Cletus and Clement were possibly prominent presbyter-bishops, documents of the 1st century and early 2nd century indicate that the Holy See had some kind of pre-eminence and prominence in the Church as a whole, though the detail of what this meant is unclear. It seems that at first the terms episcopos and presbyter were used interchangeably, the consensus among scholars has been that, at the turn of the 1st and 2nd centuries, local congregations were led by bishops and presbyters whose offices were overlapping or indistinguishable
6.
Duchy of Rome
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The Duchy of Rome was a state within the Byzantine Exarchate of Ravenna. Like other Byzantine states in Italy, it was ruled by a functionary with the title dux. The duchy often came into conflict with the Papacy over supremacy within Rome, the duchy was founded by the conquest of Emperor Justinian I in 533 AD. After the founding of the Papal States in 751, the title of Duke of Rome fell into disuse, the Duchy of Rome was founded by Justinian in approximately 533 AD as part of the Byzantine conquest of Italy. The Duchy was secured in the outcome of the Gothic War, the city of Rome itself was the subject of multiple battles before the campaign ended in Byzantine victory and possession of most of the Italian peninsula. There the Pope led the opposition to the Lombards, because of his restoration activities, Justinian has sometimes been called the last Roman in modern historiography. This ambition was expressed by the recovery of the territories of the defunct western Roman empire. His general, Belisarius, swiftly conquered the Vandal kingdom in North Africa, if this strategic connection were broken, it was evident that Rome and Ravenna could not singly maintain themselves for any length of time. This was also recognized by the Lombards, the same narrow strip of land broke the connection between their Duchies of Spoleto and Benevento and the main portion of the kings territories in the north. The Lombards made multiple attacks against this front to wrest control of the peninsula from the Byzantines, in the beginning the popes were able repeatedly to repel these attacks and secure territory for Rome. In 728 the Lombard King Liutprand took the Castle of Sutri, however, Liutprand, softened by the entreaties of Pope Gregory II, restored Sutri as a gift to the blessed Apostles Peter and Paul. This expression of the Liber pontificalis was erroneously interpreted to mean that in this gift the beginning of the States of the Church was to be recognized. This is incorrect inasmuch as the Popes continued to acknowledge the imperial government and it is true, however, that here for the first time the association of ideas on which the States of the Church were to be constructed is met. The Pope asked the Lombards for the return of Sutri for the sake of the Princes of the Apostles, the pious Liutprand was undoubtedly susceptible to such pleas, but never to any consideration for the Greeks. For this reason he gave Sutri to Peter and Paul, that he might not expose himself to their punishment, what the Pope then did with it would be immaterial to him. The belief that the Roman territory was defended by the Prince of the Apostles became more and more prevalent, in 738 the Lombard duke Transamund II of Spoleto captured the Castle of Gallese, which protected the road to Perugia to the north of Nepi. Pope Gregory III made a payment to the duke to restore the castle to him. The pope then sought an alliance with Duke Transamund to protect himself against Liutprand, however, Liutprand conquered Spoleto, besieged Rome, laid waste the Duchy of Rome, and seized four important frontier fortresses, thereby cutting off communication with Perugia and Ravenna
7.
Grimoald I of Benevento
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Grimoald I was duke of Benevento and king of the Lombards. Grimoald was probably born before 610 to Duke Gisulf II of Friuli and he succeeded his brother Radoald in 646/7 as duke of Benevento. In 641–42 CE, he and Radoald had served as regents for their mentally incapable adoptive brother, grimoald married the princess Theodota, daughter of King Aripert I. He sent Perctarits wife and son to Benevento and took over the kingship of the Lombards and it was then that he promptly married Godeperts sister in order to relate himself to the Bavarian Dynasty of Theodelinda. His martial prowess and skill in the field of battle secured his victory in many border wars, romuald then took Taranto and Brindisi, much limiting the Byzantine influence in the region during the rebellion of Mezezius in Sicily, which had distracted the Byzantines after Constans death. Grimoald himself took Forlì, in the north, from the Greeks and razed Oderzo and his capture of Forlì was shameful, however, for he took it on Easter Day, slaughtering worshippers during the festivities. While he was combatting the Byzantines in the Mezzogiorno, he left Duke Lupus of Friuli as regent in the north, Lupus usurped all authority and rebelled, though he was crushed and, with the help of the Avars, his duchy despoiled and devastated. Grimoald tracked down Lupus aspiring son Arnefrit, and his Slav allies, grimoald placed Wechthari, a stalwart enemy of the Slavs, in Friuli. Grimoald defeated the Franks, who invaded during the infancy of Chlothar III, grimoald had allied with Perctarit at Asti and the Avars, of whom he had been a hostage in his youth. In his religion he remained Arian despite his marriage to a Catholic, however, he perceived Saint Michael — whose cult was spreading strongly from Monte Gargano— as the warrior-protector of the Lombard nation. He died in 671 after concluding a treaty with the Franks and was succeeded by Perctarit and he was a popular ruler, known as much for the kingly virtues of generosity and mercy as for his ferocity and ruthlessness in war. Gwatkin, H. M. Whitney, J. P, the Cambridge Medieval History, Volume II—The Rise of the Saracens and the Foundations of the Western Empire
8.
Liutprand, King of the Lombards
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He is often regarded as the most successful Lombard monarch, notable for the Donation of Sutri, which was the first accolade of sovereign territory to the Papacy. His father was driven to exile among the Bavarians, his older brother Sigipert was blinded by Aripert II, king of the Lombards and his mother Theodarada, Liutprand was spared only because his youth made him appear harmless. He was released from Aripert IIs custody and allowed to join his father, Liutprands reign endured for thirty-one years. Within the Lombard kingdom he was considered a lawgiver of irreproachable Catholicity, at the opening of his reign, Liutprands chief ally among neighboring rulers was the Agilolfing Theodo I, the Frankish duke of Bavaria. Theodo Is intervention on Ansprands behalf helped him gain the throne, Theodo died in 717 or 718, under his successor the Lombard ties with the Agilolfing weakened. Until distracted by Byzantine politics in 726, Liutprands chief warmaking energies were concentrated on taking Bavarian castles on the River Adige, in his early reign, Liutprand did not attack the Exarchate of Ravenna or the Papacy. But in 726, the Emperor Leo III made his first of many edicts outlawing images or icons. The pope, Gregory II, ordered the people to resist, Liutprand chose this time of division to strike the Byzantine possessions in Emilia. In 727, he crossed the Po and took Bologna, Osimo, Rimini and Ancona, along with the cities of Emilia. He took Classis, the seaport of Ravenna, but could not take Ravenna itself from the exarch Paul, Paul was soon killed in a riot, however. Eventually, Ravenna would capitulate to Liutprand with barely a fight, the first Moorish raids on Corsica began around 713–719 from the Balearic Islands to the west. Acting as the protector of the Catholic Church and its faithful, Liutprand subjected the island to Lombard government, Corsica remained with the Lombard kingdom even after the Frankish conquest, by which time Lombard landholders and churches had established a significant presence on the island. When the Saracens invaded Sardinia, Liutprand redeemed the body of Augustine about the year 720 and he brought it with great ceremony to Pavia, and enshrined it in the Church of Saint Peter in Ciel doro, which was then the cathedral of Pavia. He rescued the relics stationed on the island with great haste as well as with great expense, according to Paul the Deacon. There the two reached an agreement, by which Sutri and some towns in Latium were given to the Papacy, as a gift to the blessed Apostles Peter. They were the first extension of Papal territory beyond the confines of the Duchy of Rome and this was the beginning of the Papal States. In the meantime, Leo sent Eutychius, as Exarch of Ravenna, the dukes, Thrasimund II and Godescalc, surrendered — though control of the duchies from Pavia was not to endure for long — and the new exarch marched on Rome. In 733 Liutprand promulgated the Notitia de actoribus regis, a series of six laws and they sought to curb the usurpation by local administrators of public lands
9.
Paul the Deacon
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Paul the Deacon, also known as Paulus Diaconus, Warnefridus, Barnefridus, Winfridus and sometimes suffixed Cassinensis, was a Benedictine monk, scribe, and historian of the Lombards. An ancestor named Leupichis entered Italy in the train of Alboin, during an invasion, the Avars swept off the five sons of this warrior into Pannonia, but one, his namesake, returned to Italy and restored the ruined fortunes of his house. The grandson of the younger Leupichis was Warnefrid, who by his wife Theodelinda became the father of Paul, Paulus was his monastic name, he was born Winfrid, son of Warnefrid. It is probable that he was secretary to the Lombard king Desiderius, after Adelperga had married Arichis II, duke of Benevento, Paul at her request wrote his continuation of Eutropius. Soon he entered a monastery on Lake Como, and before 782 he had become a resident at the great Benedictine house of Monte Cassino, where he made the acquaintance of Charlemagne. About 776 his brother Arichis had been carried as a prisoner to Francia, and his literary achievements attracted the notice of Charlemagne, and Paul became a potent factor in the Carolingian Renaissance. In 787 he returned to Italy and to Monte Cassino, where he died on April 13 in one of the years between 796 and 799. His surname Diaconus, shows that he took orders as a deacon, Pauls extant works are edited in Patrologia Latina vol. The chief work of Paul is his Historia Langobardorum and this incomplete history in six books was written after 787 and at any rate no later than 795/96, maybe at Monte Cassino. The story is told from the point of view of a Lombard and is valuable for the relations between the Franks and the Lombards. Cognate with this work is Pauls Historia Romana, a continuation of the Breviarium of Eutropius and this was compiled between 766 and 771, at Benevento. The story runs that Paul advised Adelperga to read Eutropius and this work has value for its early historical presentation of the end of the Roman Empire in the West, although it was very popular during the Middle Ages. It has been edited by H Droysen and published in the Monumenta Germaniae Historica, auctores antiquissimi, Band ii. as well as by A. Crivellucci, in Fonti per la storia d Italia, n. He also wrote letters, verses and epitaphs, including those of Duke/Prince Arichis II of Benevento. Some of the letters are published with the Historia Langobardorum in the Monumenta, john the Baptist, which Guido dArezzo fitted to a melody which had previously been used for Horaces Ode 4.11. From the initial syllables of the first verses of the resultant setting he then took the names of the first notes of the musical scale, Paul also wrote an epitome, which has survived, of Sextus Pompeius Festus De verborum significatu. While in Francia, Paul was requested by Charlemagne to compile a collection of homilies and he executed this after his return to Monte Cassino, and it was largely used in the Frankish churches. A life of Pope Gregory the Great has also attributed to him
10.
Samnium
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Samnium is a Latin exonym for a region of Southern Italy anciently inhabited by the Samnites. Their own endonyms were Safinim for the country and Safineis for the people, the language of these endonyms and of the population was the Oscan language. However, not all the Samnites spoke Oscan, and not all the Oscan-speakers lived in Samnium, the ancient geographers were unable to relay a precise definition of Samniums borders. Moreover, the areas it included vary depending on the period considered. The main configurations are the borders it had during the floruit of the Oscan speakers, from about 600 BC to about 290 BC and this originary Samnium should not be confused with the later territory of the same name. Romes first Emperor, Augustus, divided Italy into 11 regions, although these entities only served administrative purposes, and were identified with the sole numeral, by scholarly convention the Regio IV has been dubbed Samnium. Ancient Samnium had actually split up into three of the Augustan regions. The name survives in Italian today, but it only a small portion of what it once was - virtually, only the Province of Benevento. Etymologically the name Samnium is generally recognized to be a form of the name of the Sabines, from Safinim, Sabinus, Sabellus and Samnis an Indo-European root can be extracted, *sabh-, which becomes Sab- in Latino-Faliscan and Saf- in Osco-Umbrian, Sabini and *Safineis. The eponymous god of the Sabines, Sabus, seems to support this view, the Greek terms, Saunitai and Saunitis, remain outside the group. Nothing is known of their origin, at some point in prehistory, a population speaking a common language extended over both Samnium and Umbria. Salmon conjectures that it was common Italic and puts forward a date of 600 BC and this date does not necessarily correspond to any historical or archaeological evidence, developing a synthetic view of the ethnology of proto-historic Italy is an incomplete and ongoing task. The linguist, Julius Pokorny, carries the etymology somewhat further back, the general concept is our own kith and kin, Pokornys von eigener Art, Gesamtheit der eigenen Leute, Liebe, Sippegenossen, Sippenangehörigen, and the like. Samnium mostly lay on the Apennine area, it was delimited by Latium to the north, by Lucania to the south, by Campania to the west, and by Apulia to the east. The principal cities of the region were Bovaiamom, renamed Bovianum by Latins and Maleventum, for most of their history the Samnites were landlocked, but during a brief period they controlled parts of both coasts of the Italian peninsula. The Samnites were composed of at least four tribes, the Pentri, the Caraceni, the Caudini and they may have later been joined by the Frentani. The earliest written record of the people is a treaty with the Romans from 354 BC, which set their border at the Liris River. Shortly thereafter the Samnite Wars broke out, they won an important battle against the Roman army in 321 BC, by 290 BC, the Romans were able to break the Samnites power after some hard fought battles
11.
Po Valley
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The Po Valley, Po Plain, Plain of the Po, or Padan Plain is a major geographical feature of Italy. The flatlands of Veneto and Friuli are often considered apart since they do not drain into the Po, the plain is the surface of an in-filled system of ancient canyons extending from the Apennines in the south to the Alps in the north, including the northern Adriatic. Geo-political definitions of the valley depend on the defining authority, the Po Basin Water Board, authorized in 1989 by Law no. The law defines the Po basin as the territory from which rainwater or snow and glacier melt flows on the surface, the valley is crossed by a number of affluents running down from the Alps in the north and from the Apennines in the south. The Pos major affluents include the Tanaro, Scrivia, Trebbia, Panaro and Secchia in the south, Dora Riparia, Dora Baltea, Sesia, Ticino, Lambro, Adda, Oglio and Mincio in the north. Since the Messinian the system has been filling with sediment mainly from the older Apennines, the shoreline of the Adriatic depends on a balance between the sedimentation rate and isostatic factors. Until about 1950 the Po delta was prograding into the Adriatic, where the land surface now dips below sea level the river must run at a relative elevation between dikes. The Po Valley is often regarded as a syncline, or dip in the crust due to compression at the edges. Regardless of whether this concept accurately describes its geology, the valley is manifestly a sediment-filled trough, or virtual syncline, the upper areas of the Po valley take local names which reflect in their meanings their being modestly suited for farming. It varies from a few kilometres to as much as 50 km wide, the fontanili line is the outcrop, or intersection, of the anticlines water table with the surface at the edge of the bassa. The rock above the line is porous, surface water in the intermittent streams of the mountains tends to disappear below ground only to spring out again in the spring zone. The spring zone is called the middle valley. Surface runoff water is not of value to the valleys dense population for drinking and other immediate uses, being unreliable, often destructive and heavily polluted by sewage. Its main anthropic value is for power, irrigation and industrial transport. The cost of purifying it for consumption makes that process less feasible. The fresh drinking water comes from hundreds of thousands of wells concentrated especially in the fontanili zone, the older and smaller cities deriving from ancient times are still located there. The Po Valley has a subtropical climate. The conformation of the plain, surrounded by the Alps and the Apennines, the climate of the Po Valley becomes increasingly warmer and more humid farther south and east
12.
Campania
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Campania is a region in Southern Italy. Located on the Italian Peninsula, with the Mediterranean Sea to the west, it includes the small Phlegraean Islands, Campania was colonised by Ancient Greeks and was part of Magna Græcia. During the Roman era, the area maintained a Greco-Roman culture, the capital city of Campania is Naples. Campania is rich in culture, especially in regard to gastronomy, music, architecture, archeological and ancient sites such as Pompeii, Herculaneum, Paestum and Velia. The name of Campania itself is derived from Latin, as the Romans knew the region as Campania felix, the rich natural sights of Campania make it highly important in the tourism industry, especially along the Amalfi Coast, Mount Vesuvius and the island of Capri. During the 8th century BC, people from Euboea in Greece, known as Cumaeans, another Oscan tribe, the Samnites, moved down from central Italy into Campania. The Roman consul Quintus Publilius Filo recaptured Neapolis by 326 BC, the Second Samnite War ended with the Romans controlling southern Campania and additional regions further to the south. Campania was a part of the Roman Republic by the end of the 4th century BC, valued for its pastures. Its Greek language and customs made it a centre of Hellenistic civilization, during the Pyrrhic War the battle took place in Campania at Maleventum in which the Romans, led by consul Curius Dentatus, were victorious. They renamed the city Beneventum, which grew in stature until it was only to Capua in southern Italy. During the Second Punic War in 216 BC, Capua, in a bid for equality with Rome, the rebellious Capuans were isolated from the rest of Campania, which remained allies of Rome. Naples resisted Hannibal due to the imposing walls, Capua was eventually starved into submission in the Roman retaking of 211 BC, and the Romans were victorious. The rest of Campania, with the exception of Naples, adopted the Latin language as official and was Romanised. As part of the Roman Empire, Campania, with Latium, Roman Emperors chose Campania as a holiday destination, among them Claudius and Tiberius, the latter of whom is infamously linked to the island of Capri. It was also during this period that Christianity came to Campania, Two of the apostles, St. Peter and St. Paul, are said to have preached in the city of Naples, and there were also several martyrs during this time. Unfortunately, the period of calm was violently interrupted by the epic eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 which buried the cities of Pompeii. The area had many duchies and principalities during the Middle Ages, in the hands of the Byzantine Empire, under the Normans, the smaller independent states were brought together as part of the Kingdom of Sicily, before the mainland broke away to form the Kingdom of Naples. It was during this period elements of Spanish, French
13.
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
14.
Ravenna
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Ravenna is the capital city of the Province of Ravenna, in the Emilia-Romagna region of Northern Italy. It was the city of the Western Roman Empire from 402 until that empire collapsed in 476. It then served as the capital of the Kingdom of the Ostrogoths until it was re-conquered in 540 by the Eastern Roman Empire. Afterwards, the city formed the centre of the Byzantine Exarchate of Ravenna until the invasion of the Lombards in 751, although an inland city, Ravenna is connected to the Adriatic Sea by the Candiano Canal. It is known for its well-preserved late Roman and Byzantine architecture, the origin of the name Ravenna is unclear, although it is believed the name is Etruscan. Some have speculated that ravenna is related to Rasenna, the term that the Etruscans used for themselves, the origins of Ravenna are uncertain. Ravenna consisted of houses built on piles on a series of islands in a marshy lagoon – a situation similar to Venice several centuries later. The Romans ignored it during their conquest of the Po River Delta, in 49 BC, it was the location where Julius Caesar gathered his forces before crossing the Rubicon. Later, after his battle against Mark Antony in 31 BC and this harbor, protected at first by its own walls, was an important station of the Roman Imperial Fleet. Nowadays the city is landlocked, but Ravenna remained an important seaport on the Adriatic until the early Middle Ages, during the German campaigns, Thusnelda, widow of Arminius, and Marbod, King of the Marcomanni, were confined at Ravenna. Ravenna greatly prospered under Roman rule, Emperor Trajan built a 70 km long aqueduct at the beginning of the 2nd century. During the Marcomannic Wars, Germanic settlers in Ravenna revolted and managed to seize possession of the city, for this reason, Marcus Aurelius decided not only against bringing more barbarians into Italy, but even banished those who had previously been brought there. In AD402, Emperor Honorius transferred the capital of the Western Roman Empire from Milan to Ravenna, at that time it was home to 50,000 people. However, in 409, King Alaric I of the Visigoths simply bypassed Ravenna, after many vicissitudes, Galla Placidia returned to Ravenna with her son, Emperor Valentinian III and the support of her nephew Theodosius II. The late 5th century saw the dissolution of Roman authority in the west, Odoacer ruled as King of Italy for 13 years, but in 489 the Eastern Emperor Zeno sent the Ostrogoth King Theoderic the Great to re-take the Italian peninsula. After losing the Battle of Verona, Odoacer retreated to Ravenna, Theoderic took Ravenna in 493, supposedly slew Odoacer with his own hands, and Ravenna became the capital of the Ostrogothic Kingdom of Italy. Both Odoacer and Theoderic and their followers were Arian Christians, but co-existed peacefully with the Latins, Ravennas Orthodox bishops carried out notable building projects, of which the sole surviving one is the Capella Arcivescovile. Theoderic allowed Roman citizens within his kingdom to be subject to Roman law, the Goths, meanwhile, lived under their own laws and customs
15.
Pavia
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Pavia is a town and comune of south-western Lombardy, northern Italy,35 kilometres south of Milan on the lower Ticino river near its confluence with the Po. It has a population of c, the city was the capital of the Kingdom of the Lombards from 572 to 774. Pavia is the capital of the province of Pavia, known for agricultural products including wine, rice, cereals. Although there are a number of industries located in the suburbs, Pavia is the episcopal seat of the Roman Catholic Bishop of Pavia. The city possesses many artistic and cultural treasures, including several important churches and museums, dating back to pre-Roman times, the town of Pavia, then known as Ticinum, was a municipality and an important military site under the Roman Empire. It was said by Pliny the Elder to have founded by the Laevi and Marici. It was at Pavia in 476 AD that the reign of Romulus Augustulus, ten months after Romulus Augustulus’s reign began, Orestes’s soldiers under the command of one of his officers named Odoacer, rebelled and killed Orestes in the city of Pavia in 476. Without his father Romulus Augustulus was powerless, instead of killing Romulus Augustulus, Odoacer pensioned him off at 6,000 solidi a year before declaring the end of the Western Roman Empire and himself king of the new Kingdom of Italy. Odoacer’s reign as king of Italy did not last long, because in 488 the Ostrogothic peoples led by their king Theoderic invaded Italy and waged war against Odoacer. After fighting for 5 years Theoderic defeated Odoacer and on March 15,493 assassinated Odoacer at a banquet meant to negotiate a peace between the two rulers, with the establishment of the Ostrogoth kingdom based in northern Italy, Theoderic began his vast program of public building. Pavia was among several cities that Theodoric chose to restore and expand and he began the construction of the vast palace complex that would eventually become the residence of Lombard monarchs several decades later. Near the end of Theoderic’s reign the Christian philosopher Boethius was imprisoned in one of Pavia’s churches from 522 to 525 before his execution for treason and it was during Boethius’s captivity in Pavia that he wrote his seminal work the Consolation of Philosophy. Pavia played an important role in the war between the Eastern Roman Empire and the Ostrogoths that began in 535, after the capitulation of the Ostrogothic leadership in 540 more than a thousand men remained garrisoned in Pavia and Verona dedicated to opposing Eastern Roman rule. The resilience of Ostrogoth strongholds like Pavia against invading forces allowed pockets of Ostrogothic rule to limp along until finally being defeated in 561, Pavia and the peninsula of Italy didn’t remain long under the rule of the Eastern Roman Empire for in 568 a new people invaded Italy. This new invading people in 568 were the Lombards, in their invasion of Italy in 568, the Lombards were led by their king Alboin, who would become the first Lombard king of Italy. Alboin captured much of northern Italy in 568 but his progress was halted in 569 by the city of Pavia. Meanwhile Alboin, after driving out the soldiers, took possession of everything as far as Tuscany except Rome and Ravenna and some other fortified places which were situated on the shore of the sea. ”The Siege of Ticinum finally ended with the Lombards capturing the city of Pavia in 572. Pavia’s strategic location and the Ostrogoth palaces located within it would make Pavia by the 620s the main capital of the Lombards’ Kingdom of Pavia, under Lombard rule many monasteries, nunneries, and churches were built at Pavia by the devout Christian Lombard monarchs
16.
Beneventan chant
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It was officially supplanted by the Gregorian chant of the Roman rite in the 11th century, although a few Beneventan chants of local interest remained in use. During the Lombard occupation of the 7th and 8th centuries, a distinctive liturgical rite and it included feasts of special local importance such as the Holy Twelve Brothers of Benevento. At the time it was called cantus ambrosianus, although it is a separate plainchant tradition from the chant of Milan which we call Ambrosian chant, Gregorian chant had already begun to take hold in the Beneventan orbit as early as the 8th century. The two traditions appear to have coexisted for about a century before the Gregorian chant began to replace the native Beneventan, many Beneventan chants exist only as interpolations and addenda in Gregorian chantbooks, sometimes next to their corresponding chants in the Gregorian repertory. One of these later became Pope Stephen IX, who in 1058 officially outlawed the Beneventan rite. A few Beneventan chants continued to be recorded and performed for a time, especially for the feasts of local importance such as the Holy Twelve Brothers, however, the Beneventan repertory as a whole fell into disuse. Beneventan chant is largely defined by its role in the liturgy of the Beneventan rite, the Beneventan rite has not survived in its complete form, although most of the principal feasts and several feasts of local significance are extant. Like all plainchant, Beneventan chant is monophonic and a cappella, in accordance with Roman Catholic tradition, it is primarily intended to be sung by males. Like the other Italian chant repertories, the Old Roman chant and Ambrosian chant, the melodic motion is primarily stepwise, with a limited ambitus, giving the chants a smooth, undulating feel. Unlike Ambrosian chants, Beneventan chants do not notably specify whether any given chant is meant to be sung by the choir or by any particular singer. The chants almost all end on one of two pitches, a G or an A, and thus do not fit into the Gregorian system of eight modes, what most distinguishes Beneventan chant is its frequent and repeated use of various short melodic motifs. Many Beneventan antiphons have psalmody, but no specifically Beneventan style can be distinguished from the Gregorian sources in which it survives, unlike the Ambrosian rite, there is no special service for nightfall, but there are about fifty extant antiphons and five responsories. Only antiphons for Sunday services survive, much melodic material is shared among the antiphons and among the responsories. With rare exceptions, only Proper chants for the Mass survive, as in the Ambrosian rite, a threefold Kyrie was sung to a simple melody following the Gloria, but this was not analogous to the more complex Kyrie of the Gregorian repertory. In the Beneventan rite, the Proper of the Mass included an Ingressa, Alleluia, Offertory, Communion, and in six extant Masses, ingressae, as in the Ambrosian rite, are elaborate chants sung without psalm verses. They are analogous to the Gregorian Introit, alleluias appear in every Mass except the Masses of Holy Week. Most of them share a single melody, offertories and Communions are melodically more simple. Some Masses have two Communion chants, some Communion chants appear in other services as the Offertory chant, or as a simple antiphon
17.
Gregorian chant
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Gregorian chant is the central tradition of Western plainchant, a form of monophonic, unaccompanied sacred song of the western Roman Catholic Church. Gregorian chant developed mainly in western and central Europe during the 9th and 10th centuries, although popular legend credits Pope St. Gregory the Great with inventing Gregorian chant, scholars believe that it arose from a later Carolingian synthesis of Roman chant and Gallican chant. Gregorian chants were organized initially into four, then eight, the scale patterns are organized against a background pattern formed of conjunct and disjunct tetrachords, producing a larger pitch system called the gamut. The chants can be sung by using six-note patterns called hexachords, Gregorian melodies are traditionally written using neumes, an early form of musical notation from which the modern four-line and five-line staff developed. Multi-voice elaborations of Gregorian chant, known as organum, were a stage in the development of Western polyphony. Gregorian chant was sung by choirs of men and boys in churches. It is the music of the Roman Rite, performed in the Mass, although Gregorian chant is no longer obligatory, the Roman Catholic Church still officially considers it the music most suitable for worship. During the 20th century, Gregorian chant underwent a musicological and popular resurgence, singing has been part of the Christian liturgy since the earliest days of the Church. Until the mid-1990s, it was accepted that the psalmody of ancient Jewish worship significantly influenced and contributed to early Christian ritual. However, early Christian rites did incorporate elements of Jewish worship that survived in later chant tradition, canonical hours have their roots in Jewish prayer hours. Amen and alleluia come from Hebrew, and the threefold sanctus derives from the threefold kadosh of the Kedushah, the New Testament mentions singing hymns during the Last Supper, When they had sung the hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives Matthew 26.30. The 3rd-century Greek Oxyrhynchus hymn survived with musical notation, but the connection between this hymn and the plainchant tradition is uncertain, musical elements that would later be used in the Roman Rite began to appear in the 3rd century. The Apostolic Tradition, attributed to the theologian Hippolytus, attests the singing of Hallel psalms with Alleluia as the refrain in early Christian agape feasts, around 375, antiphonal psalmody became popular in the Christian East, in 386, St. Ambrose introduced this practice to the West. In the fifth century, a school, the Schola Cantorum, was founded at Rome to provide training in church musicianship. Scholars are still debating how plainchant developed during the 5th through the 9th centuries, around 410, St. Augustine described the responsorial singing of a Gradual psalm at Mass. 520, Benedict of Nursia established what is called the rule of St. Benedict, around 678, Roman chant was taught at York. Distinctive regional traditions of Western plainchant arose during this period, notably in the British Isles, Spain, Gaul and these traditions may have evolved from a hypothetical year-round repertory of 5th-century plainchant after the western Roman Empire collapsed. John the Deacon, biographer of Pope Gregory I, modestly claimed that the saint compiled a patchwork antiphonary, unsurprisingly and he reorganized the Schola Cantorum and established a more uniform standard in church services, gathering chants from among the regional traditions as widely as he could manage
18.
Beneventan script
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The beneventan script was a medieval script which originated in the Duchy of Benevento in southern Italy. It was also called Langobarda, Longobarda, Longobardisca, or sometimes Gothica and it is mostly associated with Italy south of Rome, but it was also used in Beneventan-influenced centres across the Adriatic Sea in Dalmatia. The script was used from approximately the mid-8th century until the 13th century, there were two major centres of Beneventan usage, the monastery on Monte Cassino, and Bari. The Bari type developed in the 10th century from the Monte Cassino type, in general the script is very angular. According to Lowe, the form of the script was used in the 11th century, while Desiderius was abbot of Monte Cassino. Beneventan features many ligatures and connecting strokes – the letters of a word could be joined together by a single line, ligatures may be obligatory as, ⟨ei⟩, ⟨gi⟩, ⟨li⟩, ⟨ri⟩ and ⟨ti⟩. They may be optional, frequent as ⟨et⟩, ⟨ae⟩ and ⟨st⟩, or rare as ⟨ta⟩, ⟨to⟩, in ligatures ⟨t⟩ can take many forms depending on the letter joined to it. Ligatures with the letters ⟨e⟩ and ⟨r⟩ are also common, in early forms of Beneventan, the letter ⟨a⟩ has an open top, similar to the letter ⟨u⟩, later, it resembled cc or oc, with long tails hanging to the right. In the Bari type, the letter ⟨c⟩ often has a broken form, however, ⟨e⟩ itself has a very long middle arm, distinguishing it from ⟨c⟩. The letter ⟨d⟩ can have a vertical or left-slanting ascender, the letter ⟨g⟩ resembles the form. There is also a symbol resembling the digit ⟨3⟩, or a sideways ⟨m⟩, in other scripts there is often little or no punctuation, but standard punctuation forms were developed for the Beneventan script, including the basis for the modern question mark. Beneventan shares some features with Visigothic and Merovingian script, probably due to the common late Roman matrix, bibliografia dei manoscritti in scrittura Beneventana, Rom 1993 ff. Giulio Battelli, Beneventana, scritture e miniatura, in, Enciclopedia Cattolica II, Città del Vaticano 1949, virginia Brown, A second new list of beneventan manuscripts, in, Studi medievali 40, p. 239-289 Guglielmo Cavallo, Rotoli di Exultet dellItalia meridionale, Bari 1973. Guglielmo Cavallo, Struttura e articolazione della minuscola beneventana tra i secoli X – XII, in, alfonso Gallo, Contributo allo studio delle scritture meridionali nellalto medio evo, in, Bulletino dellIstituto Storico Italiano 47, S. 333-350. Elias Avery Lowe, The Beneventan Script, a history of the south Italian Minuscule, Oxford 1914. A history of the South Italian minuscule,2 vol, elias Avery Lowe, A new list of beneventan manuscripts. In, Collectanea Vaticana in honorem A. M. card, albareda, Città del Vaticano1962, p. 211-244 = ders. Palaographical Papers II, Oxford 1972, p. 417-479, elias Avery Loew, The Beneventan Script,2 Bde
19.
Monte Cassino
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Monte Cassino is a rocky hill about 130 kilometres southeast of Rome, Italy,2 kilometres to the west of the town of Cassino and 520 m altitude. Site of the Roman town of Casinum, it is best known for its historic abbey, St. Benedict of Nursia established his first monastery, the source of the Benedictine Order, here around 529. The hilltop sanctuary was the site of the Battle of Monte Cassino in 1944, the site has been visited many times by Popes and other senior clergy, including Pope Benedict XVI in May 2009. Since the reforms of the Second Vatican Council the monastery is one of the few remaining territorial abbeys within the Catholic Church, on 23 October 2014, Pope Francis applied the norms of the motu proprio Ecclesia Catholica to the Abbey. This act removed from its jurisdiction all 53 parishes and reduced its territory to the Abbey itself - while retaining its status as a Territorial Abbey. The former territory of the Abbey, except the land on which the Abbey Church and monastery sit, was transferred to the local diocese of Sora-Cassino-Aquino-Pontecorvo. The history of Monte Cassino is linked to the town of Cassino which was first settled in the fifth century B. C. by the Volsci people who held much of central. It was the Volsci who first built a citadel on the summit of Monte Cassino, the Volsci in the area were defeated by the Romans in 312 B. C. The Romans renamed the settlement Casinum and build a temple to Apollo at the citadel, modern excavations have found no remains of the temple, but ruins of an amphitheatre, a theatre, and a mausoleum indicate the lasting presence the Romans had there. Generations after the Roman Empire adopted Christianity the town became the seat of a bishopric in the fifth century A. D, lacking strong defences the area was subject to barbarian attack and became abandoned and neglected with only a few struggling inhabitants holding out. According to Gregory the Greats biography of Benedict, Life of Saint Benedict of Nursia, the monastery was constructed on a pagan site. The biography records that the area was still pagan at the time and Benedicts first act was to smash the sculpture of Apollo. He then reused the temple, dedicating it to Saint Martin, archaeologist Neil Christie notes that it was common in such hagiographies for the protagonist to encounter areas of strong paganism. Once established at Monte Cassino, Benedict never left and he wrote the Benedictine Rule that became the founding principle for Western monasticism, received a visit from Totila, king of the Ostrogoths, and died there. The Rule of St. Benedict mandated the moral obligations to care for the sick, so in Monte Cassino St. Benedict founded a hospital that is considered today to have been the first hospital in Europe of the new era. There Benedictine monks took care of the sick and wounded according to the Benedict’s Rule, the monastic routine called for hard work. The care of the sick was such an important duty that those caring for them were enjoined to act as if they served Christ directly, Benedict founded twelve communities for monks at nearby Subiaco, where hospitals were settled too as adjuncts to the monasteries in order to provide charity. Soon many monasteries were founded throughout Europe, and everywhere there were hospitals like in Monte Cassino, Monte Cassino became a model for future developments
20.
Byzantine Empire
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It survived the fragmentation and fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD and continued to exist for an additional thousand years until it fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1453. During most of its existence, the empire was the most powerful economic, cultural, several signal events from the 4th to 6th centuries mark the period of transition during which the Roman Empires Greek East and Latin West divided. Constantine I reorganised the empire, made Constantinople the new capital, under Theodosius I, Christianity became the Empires official state religion and other religious practices were proscribed. Finally, under the reign of Heraclius, the Empires military, the borders of the Empire evolved significantly over its existence, as it went through several cycles of decline and recovery. During the reign of Maurice, the Empires eastern frontier was expanded, in a matter of years the Empire lost its richest provinces, Egypt and Syria, to the Arabs. This battle opened the way for the Turks to settle in Anatolia, the Empire recovered again during the Komnenian restoration, such that by the 12th century Constantinople was the largest and wealthiest European city. Despite the eventual recovery of Constantinople in 1261, the Byzantine Empire remained only one of several small states in the area for the final two centuries of its existence. Its remaining territories were annexed by the Ottomans over the 15th century. The Fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 finally ended the Byzantine Empire, the term comes from Byzantium, the name of the city of Constantinople before it became Constantines capital. This older name of the city would rarely be used from this point onward except in historical or poetic contexts. The publication in 1648 of the Byzantine du Louvre, and in 1680 of Du Canges Historia Byzantina further popularised the use of Byzantine among French authors, however, it was not until the mid-19th century that the term came into general use in the Western world. The Byzantine Empire was known to its inhabitants as the Roman Empire, the Empire of the Romans, Romania, the Roman Republic, Graikia, and also as Rhōmais. The inhabitants called themselves Romaioi and Graikoi, and even as late as the 19th century Greeks typically referred to modern Greek as Romaika and Graikika. The authority of the Byzantine emperor as the legitimate Roman emperor was challenged by the coronation of Charlemagne as Imperator Augustus by Pope Leo III in the year 800. No such distinction existed in the Islamic and Slavic worlds, where the Empire was more seen as the continuation of the Roman Empire. In the Islamic world, the Roman Empire was known primarily as Rûm, the Roman army succeeded in conquering many territories covering the entire Mediterranean region and coastal regions in southwestern Europe and north Africa. These territories were home to different cultural groups, both urban populations and rural populations. The West also suffered heavily from the instability of the 3rd century AD
21.
Friuli
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Friuli is an area of Northeast Italy with its own particular cultural and historical identity. It comprises the part of the autonomous region Friuli-Venezia Giulia, i. e. the administrative provinces of Udine, Pordenone. The multiethnic and subsequent multilingual tradition of Friuli means that the name of the region according to locality. Besides Friuli from Italian, other local Romance forms include Friulian Friûl and Venetian Friul, Friaul in German and Furlanija in Slovene, the name Friuli originates from the ancient Roman town of Forum Iulii. The adjacent Slovene parts of the Soča/Isonzo valley from Gorizia/Nova Gorica up to Mt. Triglav, the mountainous northern part of the region belongs to the Southern Limestone Alps. Rivers flowing southwards from the mountains are numerous and this plain is commonly divided into the High Friulian plain and the Low Friulian plain, whose boundary is the Napoleonic road that connects the cities of Codroipo and Palmanova. To the south of road is the risorgive zone, where water resurfaces from underground waterways in spring-fed pools throughout the area. South of the plains lie the lagoons of Marano and Grado, other important rivers include the Torre, Natisone, Stella, Isonzo/Soča, and Ausa. Friuli covers an area of 8,240 square kilometres, subdivided among the provinces of Udine 4,905 square kilometres, Pordenone 2,178 square kilometres and Gorizia 466 square kilometres. The historical capital and most important city of is Udine, it was also the capital of the medieval Patria del Friuli. Other important towns are Pordenone, Gorizia/Nova Gorica, Sacile, Codroipo, Cervignano del Friuli, Cividale del Friuli, Gemona del Friuli, Monfalcone, the climate of the Friulian plain is humid sub-Mediterranean. The climate in this area is suitable for growing wine grapes. The hills, however, have a climate, and the mountainous regions have an alpine climate. On the coast the annual temperature is 14 °C, while in the inner plains. Further north, in Tolmezzo, the temperature is approximately 10.6 °C. The lowest values are recorded in the Alps,4 °C at Passo di Monte Croce Carnico, Gorizia, a short distance from Udine, enjoys a particularly milder micro-climate with its approximate annual average of 4 °C. In the warmest month, July, the range between 22.5 °C -24 °C along the coast and plains and the 14 °C -16 °C in Val Canale. Precipitation in Friuli is relatively abundant, the distribution of rainfall varies a great deal during the course of the year
22.
Capua
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Capua is a city and comune in the province of Caserta, Campania, southern Italy, situated 25 km north of Naples, on the northeastern edge of the Campanian plain. Ancient Capua was situated where Santa Maria Capua Vetere is now, the name of Capua comes from the Etruscan Capeva. The meaning is City of Marshes and its foundation is attributed by Cato the Elder to the Etruscans, and the date given as about 260 years before it was taken by Rome. If this is true it refers not to its capture in the Second Punic War but to its submission to Rome in 338 BC, placing the date of foundation at about 600 BC, while Etruscan power was at its highest. In the area several settlements of the Villanovian civilization were present in prehistoric times, Etruscan supremacy in Campania came to an end with the Samnite invasion in the latter half of the 5th century BC. About 424 BC it was captured by the Samnites and in 343 BC besought Roman help against its conquerors, the citizens of Capua received the civitas sine suffragio. In the second Samnite War with Rome, Capua proved an untrustworthy Roman ally, so that after the defeat of the Samnites and it was the capital of Campania Felix. In 312 BC, Capua was connected with Rome by the construction of the Via Appia, the most important of the military highways of Italy. The gate by which it left the Servian walls of Rome bore the name Porta Capena, livy and others have suggested that the luxurious conditions were Hannibals Cannae because his troops became soft and demoralized by luxurious living. Historians from Bosworth Smith onwards have been skeptical of this, observing that his troops gave as good an account of themselves in battle after that winter as before. Considerable difficulties occurred in preventing illegal encroachments by private persons, and it was, after that period, let, not to large but to small proprietors. Frequent attempts were made by the leaders to divide the land among new settlers. Brutus in 83 BC actually succeeded in establishing a colony, but it was soon dissolved, the town of Capua belonged to none of these organizations, and was entirely dependent on the praefecti. Its luxury remained proverbial, and Campania is especially spoken of as the home of gladiatorial combats, from the gladiatorial schools of Campania came Spartacus and his followers in 73 BC. The number of colonists was increased by Mark Antony, Augustus, in the war of 69 it took the side of Vitellius. Under Constantine we hear of the foundation of a Christian church in Capua, in 456 it was taken and destroyed by the Vandals under Gaiseric, but must have been soon rebuilt. During the Gothic War, Capua suffered greatly, when the Lombards invaded Italy in the second half of the 6th century, Capua was ravaged, later, it was included in the Duchy of Benevento, and ruled by an official styled gastald. In 839, the prince of Benevento, Sicard, was assassinated by Radelchis I of Benevento, sicards brother Siconulf was proclaimed independent prince in Salerno and the gastald of Capua declared himself independent
23.
Crotone
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Crotone listen is a city and comune in Calabria. Founded c.710 BC as the Achaean colony of Kroton, it was known as Cotrone from the Middle Ages until 1928, in 1992 it became the capital of the newly established Province of Crotone. As of January 2016, its population was 62,178, Crotons oekist was Myscellus who came from the city of Rhypes in Achaea in the northern Peloponnese. He established the city in c.710 BC and it became one of the most flourishing cities of Magna Graecia with a population between 50,000 and 80,000 around 500 BC. Its inhabitants were famous for their strength and for the simple sobriety of their lives. From 588 BC onwards, Croton produced many generations of victors in the Olympics and the other Panhellenic Games, according to Herodotus, the physicians of Croton were considered the foremost among the Greeks, among which Democedes son of Calliphon was the most prominent in the 6th century BC. Accordingly, he traveled around Greece and ended up working in the court of Polycrates, after the tyrant was murdered, Democedes was captured by the Persians and brought to King Darius, curing him of a dislocated ankle. Democedes fame was, according to Herodotus, the one who prompted the prestige of Crotons physicians, pythagoras founded his school, the Pythagoreans, at Croton c.530 BC. Among his pupils were the medical theorist Alcmaeon of Croton and the philosopher, mathematician. The Pythagoreans acquired considerable influence with the council of one thousand by which the city was ruled. Sybaris was the rival of Croton until 510 BC, when Croton sent an army of one hundred men, commanded by the wrestler Milo, against Sybaris. Shortly afterwards, however, an insurrection took place, by which the Pythagoreans were driven out and a democracy established. In 480 BC, Croton sent a ship in support of the Greeks at the Battle of Salamis and it was replaced by Heraclea as headquarters of the Italiote League. Dionysius, the tyrant of Syracuse, aiming at hegemony in Magna Graecia, captured Croton in 379 BC and held it for twelve years. Croton was then occupied by the Bruttii, with the exception of the citadel, in which the inhabitants had taken refuge, these soon after surrendered. In 295 BC, Croton fell to another Syracusan tyrant, Agathocles, when Pyrrhus invaded Italy, it was still a considerable city, with twelve miles of walls, but after the Pyrrhic War, half the town was deserted. What was left of its submitted to Rome in 277 BC. After the Battle of Cannae in the Second Punic War, Croton was betrayed to the Brutii by a leader named Aristomachus who defected to the Roman side
24.
Amalfi
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Amalfi is a town and comune in the province of Salerno, in the region of Campania, Italy, on the Gulf of Salerno. It lies at the mouth of a ravine, at the foot of Monte Cerreto, surrounded by dramatic cliffs. The town of Amalfi was the capital of the maritime republic known as the Duchy of Amalfi, in the 1920s and 1930s, Amalfi was a popular holiday destination for the British upper class and aristocracy. Amalfi is included in the UNESCO World Heritage Sites, a patron saint of Amalfi is Saint Andrew, the Apostle, whose relics are kept here at Amalfi Cathedral. Grain-bearing Amalfi traders enjoyed privileged positions in the Islamic ports, Fernand Braudel notes, the Amalfi tables provided a maritime code that was widely used by the Christian port cities. Merchants of Amalfi were using gold coins to purchase land in the 9th century, in spite of some devastating setbacks it had a population of some 70,000 to 80,000 reaching a peak about the turn of the millennium, during the reign of Duke Manso. Under his line of dukes, Amalfi remained independent, except for a period of Salernitan dependency under Guaimar IV. In 1073 the republic fell to the Norman countship of Apulia, a prey to the Normans who encamped in the south of Italy, it became one of their principal posts. However, in 1131, it was reduced by King Roger II of Sicily, the Holy Roman Emperor Lothair, fighting in favour of Pope Innocent II against Roger, who sided with the Antipope Anacletus, took him prisoner in 1133, assisted by forty-six Pisan ships. The Pisans, commercial rivals of the Amalfitani, sacked the city, in 1135 and 1137, it was taken by the Pisans and rapidly declined in importance, though its maritime code, known as the Tavole amalfitane, was recognized in the Mediterranean until 1570. A tsunami in 1343 destroyed the port and lower town, in medieval culture Amalfi was famous for its flourishing schools of law and mathematics. Flavio Gioia, traditionally considered the first to introduce the mariners compass to Europe, is said to have been a native of Amalfi, celebrated visitors to Amalfi included the composer Richard Wagner and the playwright Henrik Ibsen, both of whom completed works whilst staying in Amalfi. Author Gore Vidal was a long time resident, at the top of a staircase, Saint Andrews Cathedral overlooks the Piazza Duomo, the heart of Amalfi. The cathedral dates back to the 11th century, its interior is adorned in the late Baroque style with a nave, the façade of the cathedral is Byzantine in style and is adorned with various paintings of saints, including a large fresco of Saint Andrew. The gold caisson ceiling has four paintings by Andrea dellAsta. They depict the flagellation of Saint Andrew, the miracle of Manna, the crucifixion of Saint Andrew, from the left hand nave there is a flight of stairs which leads to the crypt. These stairs were built in 1203 for Cardinal Pietro Capuano, who, on 18 May 1208, brought Saint Andrews remains to the cathedral from Constantinople. The bronze statue of Saint Andrew in the cathedral was sculpted by Michelangelo Naccherino, in 1206, Saint Andrews relics were brought to Amalfi from Constantinople by the Pietro Capuano following the Sack of Constantinople after the completion of the towns cathedral
25.
Naples
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Naples is the capital of the Italian region Campania and the third-largest municipality in Italy, after Rome and Milan. In 2015, around 975,260 people lived within the administrative limits. The Metropolitan City of Naples had a population of 3,115,320, Naples is the 9th-most populous urban area in the European Union with a population of between 3 million and 3.7 million. About 4.4 million people live in the Naples metropolitan area, Naples is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. Bronze Age Greek settlements were established in the Naples area in the second millennium BC, a larger colony – initially known as Parthenope, Παρθενόπη – developed on the Island of Megaride around the ninth century BC, at the end of the Greek Dark Ages. Naples remained influential after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, thereafter, in union with Sicily, it became the capital of the Two Sicilies until the unification of Italy in 1861. Naples was the most-bombed Italian city during World War II, much of the citys 20th-century periphery was constructed under Benito Mussolinis fascist government, and during reconstruction efforts after World War II. The city has experienced significant economic growth in recent decades, and unemployment levels in the city, however, Naples still suffers from political and economic corruption, and unemployment levels remain high. Naples has the fourth-largest urban economy in Italy, after Milan, Rome and it is the worlds 103rd-richest city by purchasing power, with an estimated 2011 GDP of US$83.6 billion. The port of Naples is one of the most important in Europe, numerous major Italian companies, such as MSC Cruises Italy S. p. A, are headquartered in Naples. The city also hosts NATOs Allied Joint Force Command Naples, the SRM Institution for Economic Research, Naples is a full member of the Eurocities network of European cities. The city was selected to become the headquarters of the European institution ACP/UE and was named a City of Literature by UNESCOs Creative Cities Network, the Villa Rosebery, one of the three official residences of the President of Italy, is located in the citys Posillipo district. Naples historic city centre is the largest in Europe, covering 1,700 hectares and enclosing 27 centuries of history, Naples has long been a major cultural centre with a global sphere of influence, particularly during the Renaissance and Enlightenment eras. In the immediate vicinity of Naples are numerous culturally and historically significant sites, including the Palace of Caserta, culinarily, Naples is synonymous with pizza, which originated in the city. Neapolitan music has furthermore been highly influential, credited with the invention of the romantic guitar, according to CNN, the metro stop Toledo is the most beautiful in Europe and it won also the LEAF Award 2013 as Public building of the year. Naples is the Italian city with the highest number of accredited stars from the Michelin Guide, Naples sports scene is dominated by football and Serie A club S. S. C. Napoli, two-time Italian champions and winner of European trophies, who play at the San Paolo Stadium in the south-west of the city, the Phlegraean Fields around Naples has been inhabited since the Neolithic period. The earliest Greek settlements were established in the Naples area in the second millennium BC, sailors from the Greek island of Rhodes established a small commercial port called Parthenope on the island of Megaride in the ninth century BC
26.
Gaeta
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Gaeta is a city and comune in the province of Latina, in Lazio, central Italy. Set on a promontory stretching towards the Gulf of Gaeta, it is 120 kilometres from Rome and 80 km from Naples, gaetas fortifications were extended and strengthened in the 15th century, especially throughout the history of the Kingdom of Naples. Present day Gaeta is a fishing and oil seaport, and a renowned tourist resort, NATO maintains a naval base of operations at Gaeta. It is the ancient Caieta, situated on the slopes of the Torre di Orlando, Gaeta was an ancient Ionian colony of the Samians according to Strabo, who believed the name stemmed from the Greek kaiétas, which means cave, probably referring to the several harbours. According to Virgils Aeneid, Caieta was Aeneas’ wet-nurse, whom he buried here, like the other Roman resorts, Caieta was linked to the capital of the Empire by Via Appia and its end trunk Via Flacca, through an opposite diverticulum or by-road. Its port was of importance in trade and in war. Among its antiquities is the mausoleum of Lucius Munatius Plancus, at the beginning of the Middle Ages, after the Lombard invasion, Gaeta remained under suzerainty of the Byzantine Empire. In the following years, like Amalfi, Sorrento and Naples, it would seem to have established itself as an independent port. As Byzantine influence declined in Southern Italy the town began to grow, for fear of the Saracens, in 840 the inhabitants of the neighbouring Formiæ fled to Gaeta. Though under the suzerainty of Byzantium, Gaeta had then, like nearby ports Naples and Amalfi, a republican form of government with a dux, as a strong bulwark against Saracen invasion. Around 830, it became a lordship ruled by hereditary hypati, or consuls, the first of these was Constantine, at this same time the episcopal see of Gaeta was founded when Constantine, Bishop of Formiae, fled thither and established his residence. He was associated with his son Marinus I and they were probably violently overthrown in 866 or 867 by Docibilis I, who, looking rather to local safety, entered into treaties with the Saracens and abandoned friendly relations with the papacy. Nevertheless, he expanded the duchy and began construction of the palace. Greatest of the hypati was possibly John I, who helped crush the Saracens at Garigliano in 915, the principle of co-regency governed the early dynasties, Docibilis associated John with him and John in turn associated his son Docibilis II with him. In 933, three generations were briefly co-ruling, John I, Docibilis II, and John II, on the death of Docibilis II, who first took the title dux, the duchy passed from its golden age and entered a decline marked by a division of territory. John II ruled Gaeta and his brother, Marinus, ruled Fondi with the equivalent title of duke, outlying lands and castles were given away to younger sons and thus the family of the Docibili slowly declined after mid-century. Allegedly, but improbably, from the end of the 9th century, in the mid-10th century, the De Ceremoniis of Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus lists the ceremonial title prince of Gaeta among the protocols for letters written to foreigners. Prince Pandulf IV of Capua captured Gaeta in 1032 and deposed Duke John V, assuming the ducal and consular titles
27.
Sorrento
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Sorrento is a town overlooking the Bay of Naples in Southern Italy. A popular tourist destination, it can be reached easily from Naples, the Sorrentine Peninsula has views of Naples, Vesuvius and the Isle of Capri. The Amalfi Drive, connecting Sorrento and Amalfi, is a road that threads along the high cliffs above the Tyrrhenian Sea. Ferries and hydrofoils connect the town to Naples, Amalfi, Positano, Capri, sorrentos sea cliffs and luxury hotels have attracted celebrities including Enrico Caruso and Luciano Pavarotti. Limoncello is a made from lemon rinds, alcohol, water. Other agricultural production includes fruit, wine, nuts and olives. The Roman name for Sorrento was Surrentum, legends indicate a close connection between Lipara and Surrentum, as though the latter had been a colony of the former, and even through the Imperial period Surrentum remained largely Greek. The oldest ruins are Oscan, dating from about 600 BC, numerous sepulchral inscriptions of Imperial slaves and freedmen have been found at Surrentum. An inscription shows that Titus in the year after the earthquake of 79 AD restored the horologium of the town, a similar restoration of an unknown building in Naples in the same year is recorded in an inscription from the last-named town. The most important temples of Surrentum were those of Athena and of the Sirens, the position of Surrentum was very secure, protected by deep gorges. The only exception to its protection was 300 metres on the south-west where it was defended by walls. The arrangement of the modern streets preserves that of the ancient town, Greek and Oscan tombs have also been found. Another suburb lay below the town and on the promontory on the west of it, under the Hotel Sirena are substructions,2, of which remains still exist. Farther west again are villas, as far as the temple of Athena on the named after her at the extremity of the peninsula. Neither of this nor of the temple of the Sirens are any traces existing. According to the Greek historian Diodorus Siculus, Sorrento was founded by Liparus, son of Ausonus, who was king of the Ausoni, the ancient city was probably connected to the Ausoni tribe, one of the most ancient ethnic groups in the area. Sorrento became an archbishopric around 420 AD, after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, it was ruled by the Ostrogoths and then returned to the Eastern Empire. The Lombards, who conquered much of southern Italy in the half of the 6th century
28.
Calabria
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Calabria, known in antiquity as Bruttium and formerly as Italia, is a region in Southern Italy and forms the traditionally conceptualized toe of the Italian Peninsula which resembles a boot. The capital city of Calabria is Catanzaro and its most populated city, and the seat of the Regional Council of Calabria, is Reggio Calabria in the Province of Reggio Calabria. The region is bordered to the north by the Basilicata Region, to the west by the Tyrrhenian Sea, the region covers 15,080 km2 and has a population of just under 2 million. The demonym of Calabria in English is Calabrian, in ancient times Calabria was referred to as Italy. The Romans later extended the name to cover Southern Italy and then the entire peninsula, the region is a long and narrow peninsula which stretches from north to south for 248 km, with a maximum width of 110 km. Some 42% of Calabrias area, corresponding to 15,080 km2, is mountainous, 49% is hilly and it is surrounded by the Ionian and Tyrrhenian seas. It is separated from Sicily by the Strait of Messina, where the narrowest point between Capo Peloro in Sicily and Punta Pezzo in Calabria is only 3.2 km, three mountain ranges are present, Pollino, La Sila and Aspromonte. All three mountain ranges are unique with their own flora and fauna, the Pollino Mountains in the north of the region are rugged and form a natural barrier separating Calabria from the rest of Italy. Parts of the area are heavily wooded, while others are vast and these mountains are home to a rare Bosnian Pine variety, and are included in the Pollino National Park. The highest point is Botte Donato, which reaches 1,928 metres, the area boasts numerous lakes and dense coniferous forests. La Sila also has some of the tallest trees in Italy which are called the Giants of the Sila, the Sila National Park is also known to have the purest air in Europe. The Aspromonte massif forms the southernmost tip of the Italian peninsula bordered by the sea on three sides and this unique mountainous structure reaches its highest point at Montalto, at 1,995 metres, and is full of wide, man-made terraces that slope down towards the sea. In general, most of the terrain in Calabria has been agricultural for centuries. The lowest slopes are rich in vineyards and citrus fruit orchards, the Diamante citron is one of the citrus fruits. Moving upwards, olives and chestnut trees appear while in the regions there are often dense forests of oak, pine, beech. Calabrias climate is influenced by the sea and mountains, mountain areas have a typical mountainous climate with frequent snow during winter. Erratic behavior of the Tyrrhenian Sea can bring heavy rainfall on the slopes of the region, while hot air from Africa makes the east coast of Calabria dry. The mountains that run along the region also influence the climate, the east coast is much warmer and has wider temperature ranges than the west coast
29.
Apulia
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Apulia is a region of Italy in Southern Italy bordering the Adriatic Sea in the east, the Ionian Sea to the southeast, and the Strait of Òtranto and Gulf of Taranto in the south. Its southernmost portion, known as the Salento peninsula, forms a stiletto on the boot of Italy, the region comprises 19,345 square kilometers, and its population is about 4 million. It is bordered by the other Italian regions of Molise to the north, Campania to the west, across the Adriatic and Ionian Seas, it faces Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Greece, and Montenegro, The Apulia region extends as far north as Monte Gargano. Puglias coastline is longer than any other mainland Italian region, in the north, the Gargano promontory extends out into the Adriatic, while in the south, the flat and dry Salento peninsula forms the heel of Italys boot. It is home to the Alta Murgia and Gargano National Parks, see also, History of Apulia Apulia is one of the richest archaeological regions in Italy. It was first colonized by Mycenaean Greeks, a number of castles were built in the area by Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II, including Castel del Monte, sometimes called the Crown of Apulia. After 1282, when the island of Sicily was lost, Apulia was part of the Kingdom of Naples, as a result of the French–Spanish war of 1501–1504, Naples again came under the rule of Aragon and the Spanish Empire from 1504 to 1714. When Barbary pirates of North Africa sacked Vieste in 1554, they took an estimated 7,000 slaves, in 1861 the region became part of the Kingdom of Italy, with the new capital city at Turin. In the words of one historian, Turin was so far away that Otranto is today closer to seventeen foreign capitals than it is to Turin, the regions contribution to Italys gross value added was around 4. 6% in 2000, while its population was 7% of the total. The per capita GDP is low compared to the national average, in comparison with the country as a whole, the economy of Apulia is characterised by a greater emphasis on agriculture and services and a smaller part played by industry. In the last 20 years the base of the regions economy has changed radically. The majority of firms are financed by local capital. In certain of these sectors – especially textiles, clothing, footwear, vehicles, the region has a good network of roads but the railway network is somewhat inadequate, particularly in the south. Apulias 800 kilometers of coastline is studded with ports, which make this region an important terminal for transport and tourism to Greece, between 2007 and 2013 the economy of Apulia expanded more than that of the rest of southern Italy. Such growth, over decades, is a severe challenge to the hydrogeological system. Emigration from the depressed areas to northern Italy and the rest of Europe was very intense in the years between 1956 and 1971. Subsequently, the trend declined as economic conditions improved, to the point where there was net immigration in the years between 1982 and 1985, since 1986 the stagnation in employment has led to a new inversion of the trend, caused by a decrease in immigration. Since 1 June 2015, former judge and mayor of Bari Michele Emiliano of the Democratic Party has served as President, Apulia is divided into five administrative provinces and one metropolitan city, Cuisine plays an important role throughout Apulia
30.
Bari
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Bari is the capital city of the Metropolitan City of Bari and of the Apulia region, on the Adriatic Sea, in Italy. It is the second most important economic centre of mainland Southern Italy after Naples, the city itself has a population of about 326,799, as of 2015, over 116 square kilometres, while the urban area has 700,000 inhabitants. The metropolitan area has 1.3 million inhabitants, Bari is made up of four different urban sections. To the south is the Murat quarter, the heart of the city, which is laid out on a rectangular grid-plan with a promenade on the sea. Modern residential zones surrounding the centre of Bari were built during the 1960s and 1970s replacing the old suburbs that had developed along roads splaying outwards from gates in the city walls, in addition, the outer suburbs developed rapidly during the 1990s. The city has an airport named after Pope John Paul II, Karol Wojtyła Airport. The city was founded by the Peucetii. Its harbour, mentioned as early as 181 BC, was probably the one of the districts in ancient times, as it is at present. The first historical bishop of Bari was Gervasius who was noted at the Council of Sardica in 347, the bishops were dependent on the Patriarch of Constantinople until the 10th century. Until the arrival of the Normans, Bari continued to be governed by the Byzantines, throughout this period, and indeed throughout the Middle Ages, Bari served as one of the major slave depots of the Mediterranean, providing a central location for the trade in Slavic slaves. The city was conquered and the Emirate extinguished in 871, due to the efforts of Emperor Louis II, in 885, Bari became the residence of the local Byzantine catapan, or governor. In 1025, under the Archbishop Byzantius, Bari became attached to the see of Rome and was granted provincial status, in 1071, Bari was captured by Robert Guiscard, following a three-year siege. Maio of Bari, a Lombard merchants son, was the third of the admirals of Norman Sicily. The Basilica di San Nicola was founded in 1087 to receive the relics of this saint, the saint began his development from Saint Nicholas of Myra into Saint Nicholas of Bari and began to attract pilgrims, whose encouragement and care became central to the economy of Bari. In 1095 Peter the Hermit preached the first crusade there, the Greeks were not brought over to the Latin way of thinking, and the Great Schism was inevitable. A civil war broke out in Bari in 1117 with the murder of the archbishop, control of Bari was seized by Grimoald Alferanites, a native Lombard, and he was elected lord in opposition to the Normans. By 1123, he had increased ties with Byzantium and Venice, Grimoald increased the cult of St Nicholas in his city. He later did homage to Roger II of Sicily, but rebelled and was defeated in 1132, Bari was occupied by Manuel I Komnenos between 1155 and 1158
31.
Brindisi
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Brindisi is a city in the region of Apulia in southern Italy, the capital of the province of Brindisi, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. Historically, the city has played an important role in trade and culture, due to its position on the Italian Peninsula. The city remains a port for trade with Greece and the Middle East. Brindisis most flourishing industries include agriculture, chemical works, and the generation of electricity, Brindisi is situated on a natural harbor, that penetrates deeply into the Adriatic coast of Apulia. Within the arms of the harbor islands are Pedagne, a tiny archipelago, currently not open. The entire municipality is part of the Brindisi Plain, characterized by agricultural uses of its land. It is located in the part of the Salento plains, about 40 kilometres from the Itria Valley. Not far from the city is the Natural Marine Reserve of the World Wide Fund for Nature of Torre Guaceto, the Ionian Sea is about 45 kilometres away. The development of agriculture, has caused an increase in the use of water resulting in an increase of indiscriminate use. There are several traditions concerning its founders, one of them claims that it was founded by the legendary hero Diomedes, Brindisi was an Ancient Greek settlement predating the Roman expansion. The Latin name Brundisium comes from the Greek Brentesion meaning deers head, in 267 BC it was conquered by the Romans. Herodotus spoke of the Mycenaean origin for these populations, the necropolis of Tor Pisana returned Corinthian jars in the first half of the 7th century BC. The Brindisi Messapia certainly entertained strong business relationships with the side of the Adriatic. After the Punic Wars it became a center of Roman naval power. In the Social War it received Roman citizenship, and was made a port by Sulla. It suffered, however, from a siege conducted by Caesar in 49 BC and was attacked in 42 and 40 BC. The poet Pacuvius was born here about 220 BC, and here the famous poet Virgil died in 19 BC. Under the Romans, Brundisium – a large city in its day with some 100,000 inhabitants – was a port, the chief point of embarkation for Greece
32.
Otranto
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Otranto is a town and comune in the province of Lecce, in a fertile region once famous for its breed of horses. It is located on the east coast of the Salento peninsula, the Strait of Otranto, to which the city gives its name, connects the Adriatic Sea with the Ionian Sea and separates Italy from Albania. The harbour is small and has little trade, the lighthouse Faro della Palascìa, at approximately 5 kilometres southeast of Otranto, marks the most easterly point of the Italian mainland. About 50 kilometres south lies the promontory of Santa Maria di Leuca, the extremity of Italy. The district between this promontory and Otranto is thickly populated and very fertile, Otranto occupies the site of the ancient Hydrus or Hydruntum, also known as Hydrunton, Hydronton, or Hydruntu. Otranto was a town of Greek origin, which, in the wars of Pyrrhus, in Roman times it was a city. In the 8th century, it was for some time in the possession of duke Arechis II of Benevento, in the Middle Ages the Jews had a school there. In 1480, Mehmet the Conqueror sent an Ottoman fleet to invade Rome under the command of Gedik Ahmed Pasha and this force reached the shores of Apulia on 28 July 1480 and the city was captured in two weeks on 11 August 1480. Some 800 citizens, known as the Martyrs of Otranto, were beheaded after refusing to convert to Islam and they were canonized by Pope Francis on 12 May 2013. In 1481, the Pope, in panic, called for a crusade to be led by King Ferdinand of Naples, the Turks controlled the city for 13 months. Mehmet II died on his way to capture the rest of Italy and his successor, Bayezid II, ordered Gedik Ahmed Pasha to be hanged and on 11 September 1481 the Turks abandoned the city. In 1537, the famous Turkish corsair and Ottoman admiral Barbarossa recaptured Otranto and the Fortress of Castro, in 1804, the city was obliged to harbour a French garrison that was established there to watch the movements of the English fleet. Under the French name of Otrante it was created a duché grand-fief de lEmpire in the Napoleonic kingdom of Naples for Joseph Fouché, Napoleons minister of Police, the family used the title of duc dOtrante after Joseph Fouchés death. Otranto experiences a Mediterranean climate like much of Italy, Otranto main sights include, The Castello Aragonese, reinforced by Emperor Frederick II and rebuilt by Alphonso II of Naples in 1485–98. It has a plan with five sides, with a moat running along the entire perimeter. In origin it had an entrance, reachable through a draw-bridge. Towers include three cylindrical ones and a bastion called Punta di Diamante, the entrance sports the coat of arms of Emperor Charles V. The Cathedral, consecrated in 1088, a work of Count Roger I adorned later, by Bishop Jonathas, with a floor, it has a rose window
33.
Perctarit
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Perctarit was king of the Lombards from 661 to 662 the first time and later from 671 to 688. He was the son and successor of Aripert I and he shared power with his brother Godepert. He was a Catholic, whereas Godepert was an Arian and he ruled from Milan, Godepert from Pavia. Godepert called for the aid of Duke Grimoald I of Benevento in a war with Perctarit, Perctarit first arrived at the court of the Avar khagan Kakar. Meanwhile, his wife, Rodelinde, and their son Cunincpert were captured by Grimoald, Perctarit returned soon thereafter to conspire against Grimoald, but fled again to Francia. When Grimoald concluded a treaty with the Franks, Perctarit prepared to flee to Britain, in 671, Perctarit returned from exile and reclaimed his realm, which was being ruled on behalf of Grimoalds son Garibald. He made Catholicism the official religion, but did not recognise papal authority and he made peace with the Byzantines and associated Cunincpert with the throne in 678. He sought to put down the rebellion of Alagis, duke of Trent and it was to be his only campaign, he captured the duke, then pardoned and released him. Perctarit was assassinated in 688 by a conspiracy and his daughter Wigilinda married Duke Grimoald II of Benevento, son of Romuald I of Benevento. Perctarits reign is not noted for its accomplishments, but for his religious endowments. He built the churches of Saint Agatha and the Virgin at Pavia and he was succeeded by his more warlike son, who was to fight to no avail against the man his father had caught and let go. Brown, T. S. Byzantine Italy c.680 - c.876, the New Cambridge Medieval History, II
34.
Arianism
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Arian teachings were first attributed to Arius, a Christian presbyter in Alexandria, Egypt. The teachings of Arius and his supporters were opposed to the views held by Homoousian Christians, regarding the nature of the Trinity. The Arian concept of Christ is that the Son of God did not always exist but was begotten by God the Father, there was a dispute between two interpretations based upon the theological orthodoxy of the time, both of them attempted to solve its theological dilemmas. So there were, initially, two equally orthodox interpretations which initiated a conflict in order to attract adepts and define the new orthodoxy, homoousianism was formally affirmed by the first two Ecumenical Councils. All mainstream branches of Christianity now consider Arianism to be heterodox, the Ecumenical First Council of Nicaea of 325 deemed it to be a heresy. According to Everett Ferguson, The great majority of Christians had no clear views on the Trinity, at the regional First Synod of Tyre in 335, Arius was exonerated. Constantine the Great was baptized by the Arian bishop Eusebius of Nicomedia, after the deaths of both Arius and Constantine, Arius was again anathemised and pronounced a heretic again at the Ecumenical First Council of Constantinople of 381. The Roman Emperors Constantius II and Valens were Arians or Semi-Arians, as was the first King of Italy, Odoacer, and the Lombards till the 7th century. Arius had been a pupil of Lucian of Antioch at Lucians private academy in Antioch and he taught that God the Father and the Son of God did not always exist together eternally. A verse from Proverbs was also used, The Lord created me at the beginning of his work, therefore, the Son was rather the very first and the most perfect of Gods creatures, and he was made God only by the Fathers permission and power. Controversy over Arianism arose in the late 3rd century and persisted throughout most of the 4th century and it involved most church members—from simple believers, priests, and monks to bishops, emperors, and members of Romes imperial family. Two Roman emperors, Constantius II and Valens, became Arians or Semi-Arians, as did prominent Gothic, Vandal, such a deep controversy within the Church during this period of its development could not have materialized without significant historical influences providing a basis for the Arian doctrines. Of the roughly three hundred bishops in attendance at the Council of Nicea, two bishops did not sign the Nicene Creed, which condemned Arianism, Arians do not believe in the traditional doctrine of the Trinity. The letter of Arian Auxentius regarding the Arian missionary Ulfilas gives a picture of Arian beliefs. Arian Ulfilas, who was ordained a bishop by Arian Eusebius of Nicomedia and returned to his people to work as a missionary, believed, God, the Father, always existing, the Son of God, Jesus Christ, begotten before time began and who is Lord/Master. By the 8th century it had ceased to be the tribes mainstream belief as the tribal rulers gradually came to adopt Nicene orthodoxy. This trend began in 496 with Clovis I of the Franks, then Reccared I of the Visigoths in 587, the remaining tribes – the Vandals and the Ostrogoths – did not convert as a people nor did they maintain territorial cohesion. Having been militarily defeated by the armies of Emperor Justinian I, the Vandalic War of 533–534 dispersed the defeated Vandals
35.
Catholicism
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The use of terms catholicism and catholicity is closely related to the use of term Catholic Church. The earliest evidence of the use of term is the Letter to the Smyrnaeans that Ignatius of Antioch wrote in about 108 to Christians in Smyrna. In 380, Emperor Theodosius I limited use of the term Catholic Christian exclusively to those who followed the faith as Pope Damasus I of Rome. Numerous other early writers including Cyril of Jerusalem, Augustine of Hippo further developed the use of the term catholic in relation to Christianity. In Christian theology, and specially in ecclesiology, terms Catholicism, when used with small c, terms catholicism and catholicity generally designate theological doctrine of the catholicity of the Church without denominational connotations. A common belief in Catholicism is institutional continuity with the early Christian church founded by Jesus Christ, many churches or communions of churches identify singularly or collectively as the authentic church. The Bishop of Rome was also considered to have the right to convene ecumenical councils, when the Imperial capital moved to Constantinople, Romes influence was sometimes challenged. The first great rupture in the Church followed this Council and they are often called Ancient Oriental Churches. The next major break was after the Council of Chalcedon and this Council repudiated Eutychian Monophysitism which stated that the divine nature completely subsumed the human nature in Christ. This Council declared that Christ, though one person, exhibited two natures without confusion, without change, without division, without separation and thus is both fully God and fully human, the next great rift within Christianity was in the 11th century. This division between the Western Church and the Eastern Church is called the East–West Schism, several eastern churches reunited, constituting some of the Eastern Catholic Churches. Liturgical and canonical practices vary between all these particular Churches constituting the Roman and Eastern Catholic Churches, in all these cases the beliefs and practices of Catholicism would be identical with the beliefs and practices of the Church in question. However, in Roman Catholicism, the term catholic is understood as to cover those who recognize and are in standing with the Magisterium. The sense given to the word by those who use it to distinguish their position from a Calvinistic or Puritan form of Protestantism. It is then meaningful to attempt to draw up a list of common characteristic beliefs, the Roman Catholic Church includes the 23 rites who recognize the Magisterium. Belief in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, the belief that Christ is made manifest in the elements of Holy Communion, possession of the threefold ordained ministry of Bishops, Priests and Deacons. Belief that the Church is the vessel and deposit of the fullness of the teachings of Jesus and this teaching is preserved in both written scripture and in unwritten tradition, neither being independent of the other. A belief in the necessity and efficacy of sacraments, liturgical and personal use of the Sign of the Cross The use of sacred images, candles, vestments and music, and often incense and water, in worship
36.
Aripert I
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Aripert I was king of the Lombards in Italy. He was the son of Gundoald, Duke of Asti, who had crossed the Alps from Bavaria with his sister Theodelinda, as a relative of the Bavarian ducal house, his was called the Bavarian Dynasty. He was the first Chalcedonian Christian king of the Lombards, elected after the assassination of the Arian Rodoald, not a warrior, he is mostly renowned for his church foundings. He spread Catholicism over the whole Lombard realm and built the Church of the Saviour in Pavia and he left the kingdom in a state of peace, asking the nobles to elect jointly his two sons, Perctarit and Godepert, which they did
37.
Constans II
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Constans II,7 November 630 –15 September 668), also called Constantine the Bearded, was emperor of the Byzantine Empire from 641 to 668. He was the last emperor to serve as consul, in 642, Constans is a diminutive nickname given to the Emperor, who had been baptized Herakleios and reigned officially as Constantine. The nickname established itself in Byzantine texts and has become standard in modern historiography, Constans was the son of Constantine III and Gregoria. Due to the rumours that Heraklonas and Martina had poisoned Constantine III, later that same year his uncle was deposed, and Constans II was left as sole emperor. Constans owed his rise to the throne to a reaction against his uncle. In 644 Valentinus attempted to power for himself but failed. Under Constans, the Byzantines completely withdrew from Egypt in 642, a Byzantine fleet under the admiral Manuel occupied Alexandria again in 645, but after a Muslim victory the following year this had to be abandoned. The situation was complicated by the violent opposition to Monothelitism by the clergy in the west, the latter fell in battle against the army of Caliph Uthman, and the region remained a vassal state under the Caliphate until civil war broke out and imperial rule was again restored. Naturally, this compromise satisfied few passionate participants in the dispute. Meanwhile, the advance of the Caliphate continued unabated, in 647 they had entered Armenia and Cappadocia and sacked Caesarea Mazaca. In the same year, they raided Africa and killed Gregory, in 648 the Arabs raided into Phrygia, and in 649 they launched their first maritime expedition against Crete. A major Arab offensive into Cilicia and Isauria in 650–651 forced the Emperor to enter negotiations with Caliph Uthmans governor of Syria. The truce that followed allowed a respite and made it possible for Constans to hold on to the western portions of Armenia. In 654, however, Muawiyah renewed his raids by sea, Caliph Uthman was preparing to attack Constantinople, but he did not carry out the plan when the first Fitna broke out in 656. In 659 he campaigned far to the east, taking advantage of a rebellion against the Caliphate in Media, the same year he concluded peace with the Arabs. Now Constans could turn to church once again. Pope Martin I had condemned both Monothelitism and Constans attempt to halt debates over it in the Lateran Council of 649, now the Emperor ordered his Exarch of Ravenna to arrest the Pope. Exarch Olympius excused himself from this task, but his successor, Theodore I Calliopas, Pope Martin was brought to Constantinople and condemned as a criminal, ultimately being exiled to Cherson, where he died in 655
38.
Taranto
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Taranto is a coastal city in Apulia, Southern Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Taranto and is an important commercial port as well as the main Italian naval base and it is the third-largest continental city of Southern Italy, according to 2011 population census, it has a population of 200,154. Taranto is an important commercial and military port and it has well-developed steel and iron foundries, oil refineries, chemical works, some shipyards for building warships, and food-processing factories. In ancient times around 500 BC the city was one of the largest in the world with population estimates up to 300,000 people, Tarantos pre-history dates back to 706 BC when it was founded as a Greek colony, established by the Spartans. The islets of S. Pietro and S. Paolo, collectively known as Cheradi Islands, protect the bay, called Mar Grande, another bay, called Mar Piccolo, is formed by the peninsula of the old city, and has flourishing fishing. Mar Piccolo is a port with strategic importance. At the end of the 19th century, a channel was excavated to allow ships to enter the Mar Piccolo harbour. In addition, the islets and the coast are strongly fortified, because of the presence of these two bays, Taranto is also called the city of the two seas. The Greek colonists from Sparta called the city Taras, after the mythical hero Taras, while the Romans, the natural harbor at Taranto made it a logical home port for the Italian naval fleet before and during the First World War. During World War II, Taranto became famous as a consequence of the November 1940 British air attack on the Regia Marina naval base stationed here, which today is called the Battle of Taranto. Taranto is also the origin of the name of the Tarantula spider family, Theraphosidae. In ancient times, residents of the town of Taranto, upon being bitten by the large local Wolf Spider, Lycosa tarentula and this was done in order to sweat the venom out of their pores, even though the spiders venom was not fatal to humans. The frenetic dance became known as the Tarantella, in geology, Taranto gives its name to the Tarantian Age of the Pleistocene Epoch. It is 14.5 metres above sea level and it was built on a plain running north/north-west–southeast, and surrounded by the Murgia plateau from the north-west to the east. Its territory extends for 209.64 square kilometres and is mostly underwater and it is characterised by three natural peninsulas and a man-made island, formed by digging a ditch during the construction of Aragon Castle. The Big Sea is frequently known as the Big Sea bay as that is where ships harbour and it is separated from the Little Sea by a cape which closes the gulf, leading to the artificial island. This island formed the heart of the city and it is connected to the mainland by the Ponte di Porta Napoli. The latter form an archipelago which closes off the arc creating the natural Big Sea bay
39.
Forino
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Forino is a town and comune in the province of Avellino, Campania, southern Italy. The town, located on a hillside between Salerno and Avellino, borders with the municipalities of Bracigliano, Contrada, Monteforte Irpino, Montoro Inferiore, Moschiano, the municipality counts 3 hamlets, Castello, Celzi and Petruro. On 8 May 663 AD the town was the scene of a battle between the Byzantine army of Constans II and the Lombard army of Romuald I of Benevento, son of Grimoald I and duke of Benevento. According to legend, St. Michael made an apparition in this battle on the side of the Lombards, after this crushing defeat, Constans retired to Naples and gave up his attempts to expel the Lombards from south Italy. Other sources tell that the battle took place at Calore River, where it joins with the river Volturno
40.
Avellino
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Avellino listen is a town and comune, capital of the province of Avellino in the Campania region of southern Italy. It is situated in a surrounded by mountains 50 kilometres northeast of Naples and is an important hub on the road from Salerno to Benevento. Before the Roman conquest, the ancient Abellinum was a centre of the Samnite Hirpini, located on the Civita hill some 4 kilometres outside the current town, the city could correspond to the ancient Velecha, documented by coins found in the area. Abellinum was conquered by the Romans in 293 BC, changing several times in the following centuries. However, the edification of a true Roman town occurred only after the conquest by Lucius Cornelius Sulla in 89 BC, the town was Christianized around 500 AD, becoming an episcopal seat. There followed the invasions of the Goths and Vandals, after the Lombard conquest of southern Italy, the ancient city was abandoned, and a new settlement grew on the Terra hill, corresponding to the modern Avellino. Defended by a castle, it part of the Duchy of Benevento and, after the latters fall. In 1100, during the Norman rule of southern Italy, it was acquired by Riccardo dellAquila, later, King Charles I of Anjou assigned it to the Montfort family, who were succeeded by the Del Balzo and the Filangieri. The feudal rights to Avellino were purchased in 1581 by Don Marino I Caracciolo, duke of Atripalda, of a family of Naples. Avellino became the seat of the Caracciolo. Don Marino’s son and grandson were consecutively Grand Chancellor of the Kingdom of Naples, the grandson, Don Marino II, was the patron of Giambattista Basile, author of the Pentamerone. In 1820 Avellino was seat of revolutionary riots, however, the Unification of Italy some fifty years later did not bring any benefit to the city, being cut off from the main railway line Naples-Benevento-Foggia, and far from the sea as well. In 1943 the city was bombed by Allied planes in an attempt to cut off the retreat of German panzer units over the important Bridge of Ferriera. Avellino has suffered from seismic activity throughout its history and was hard by the earthquakes of 23 November 1980 and 14 February 1981. The 1980 Irpinia earthquake represented a turning point for the town, large amounts of money flowed in for infrastructure investment, and the extra money generated innovation and economic expansion more generally. By 2008 a per capita income level of €20,180 placed Avellino well above the regional average in terms of individual prosperity. Nevertheless, tobacco, viticulture and, especially the production of hazelnuts remain important to the economy and, with increased investment in recent years. Many small and medium-sized businesses are located in the zones, including notably FMA who produce engines for Fiat, Opel, Lancia and Alfa Romeo
41.
Ratchis
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Ratchis was the Duke of Friuli and King of the Lombards. He ruled in peace until he besieged, for reasons unknown, pope Zachary convinced him to lift the siege and he abdicated and entered, with his family, the abbey of Montecassino. After the death of Aistulf in 756, he tried again to reign over the Lombards. Paul the Deacon, Historia Langobardorum Storia dei Longobardi, introduzione di Claudio Leonardi, Milano, Electa,1985 Jörg Jarnut, Storia dei Longobardi, Torino, Einaudi,2002 ISBN 88-464-4085-4 Sergio Rovagnati, I Longobardi, Milano, Xenia,2003 ISBN 88-7273-484-3
42.
Duchy of Spoleto
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The Duchy of Spoleto was a Lombard territory founded about 570 in central Italy by the Lombard dux Faroald. In the following years also conquered much of southern and central Italy, conquering the important hub of Spoleto, in what is now Umbria. A decade of interregnum after the death of Alboins successor, however, left the Lombard dukes well settled in their new territories, by 575 or 576 Faroald had seized Nursia and Spoleto, establishing his duchy and sponsoring an Arian bishop. Within Spoleto, the Roman capitolium dedicated to Jupiter, Juno, the Lombard dukes restored the fortifications of the high rocca, whose walls had been dismantled by Totila during the Gothic War. Never as important as the Duchy of Benevento, Spoleto has a fairly obscure spot in Lombard history and its second Duke Ariulf made frequent expeditions against the Byzantines. Ariulf was succeeded by Theudelapius, son of Faroald, whom the Catholic Encyclopedia credits with the first building of the present cathedral, then came Atto, Thrasimund I, and Faroald II, who ruled conjointly with his brother Wachilap. At Spoleto Faroald was deposed by his son Transemund II, who rebelled against Liutprand and formed an alliance with Pope Gregory III. By the time of Liutprands death, Spoleto was more securely in control from Pavia. Three 8th century dukes were Kings of the Lombards, a sign that in that period Spoleto was linked closely to the kingdom than was Benevento. In 776, two years after the fall of Pavia, Spoleto fell likewise to Charlemagne and his Carolingian Empire, in 842 the former duchy was resurrected by the Franks to be held as a Frankish border territory by a dependent margrave. Among the more outstanding of the Frankish dukes, Guido I divided the duchy between his two sons Lambert and Guido II, who received as his share the lordship of Camerino, which was made a duchy. Lambert was a doughty fighter against Saracen raiders, but who equally massacred Byzantines, and was deposed in 871, restored in 876, in 883 Guido II reunited the dukedom, henceforth as the Duchy of Spoleto and Camerino. After the death of Charles the Fat in 888, Guido had himself crowned Roman Emperor, the following year Pope Formosus crowned Guidos son Lambert II as duke, king and emperor. The dukes of Spoleto continued to intervene in the violent politics of Rome, Alberico I, Duke of Camerino, and afterwards of Spoleto, married the notorious Roman noblewoman Marozia, mistress of Pope Sergius III, and was killed by the Romans in 924. His son Alberico II overthrew the senatrix in 932 though her son, about 949 the Frankish King Berengar II of Italy retook Spoleto from its final margrave. At this time the Emperor Otto I detached from the Duchy of Spoleto the lands called Sabina Langobardica, now the control of Spoleto became increasingly a gift of the Emperors. The duchy was united with Tuscany a second time in 1057, during the Investiture Controversy with the papacy the Emperor Henry IV named other dukes of Spoleto. After this the dukedom was in the family of the Werner of Urslingen, the city was destroyed by Emperor Frederick Barbarossa in 1155, but was soon rebuilt
43.
Desiderius
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Desiderius was the last king of the Lombard Kingdom of northern Italy, ruling from 756 to 774. He is chiefly known for his connection to Charlemagne, who married his daughter, King Aistulf made him duke of Istria and Tuscany and he became king after the death of Aistulf in 756. At that time, Aistulfs predecessor, Ratchis, left his monastic retreat of Montecassino and tried to seize the kingdom, at his coronation, Desiderius promised to restore many lost papal towns to the Holy See, in return for the papacys endorsement of his claim. Conflict with the Holy See under Pope Stephen III arose, for Stephen opposed Charlemagnes marriage to Desiderius daughter, Desiderius ceased delivery of the towns after only a few. Seeking, like his predecessors, to extend the Lombard power in Italy, he came into collision with the papacy, in the same year Desiderius associated to his kingdom his son Adelchis. Alboin, the duchy of Benevento and Liutprand, that of Spoleto were coaxed by Pope Stephen to commend themselves to the Franks and they then placed themselves under the protection of Pippin, the king of Franks. In 758, Duke Liutprand of Benevento attained his majority and rebelled, Desiderius defeated him and granted his duchy to one Arechis, tying the duchy more closely to Pavia than it had been since Grimoalds time. In that same year, Desiderius deposed Alboin of Spoleto and exercised himself the ducal powers there, antipope Philip was never recognized nor gained a significant following, so he left the same day and returned to his monastery where he was never heard from or seen again. Stephen III opposed Charlemagnes marriage to Desiderius daughter, Desiderata, in 768, the new pope, Adrian I, however, implored the aid of Charlemagne against him, for the marriage of dynasties was dissolved by Charlemagnes repudiation of Desiderata in 771. Charles sent her back to her father, the embassies of Adrian and Desiderius met at Thionville and Charlemagne favoured the popes case. Such was the position when Charlemagne and his uncle Bernard led troops across the Alps in 773, the Lombards were severely defeated at Mortara and soon besieged in their capital of Ticinum, the modern Pavia. Desiderius son Adelchis was raising an army at Verona, but the prince was chased to the Adriatic littoral. The siege lasted until June 774, when, in return for the lives of his soldiers and subjects, Desiderius was exiled to Corbie Abbey, where he died, and his son Adelchis spent his entire life in futile attempts to recover his fathers kingdom. Some sources state that the king and his family were banished to a monastery at Liège, the name Desiderius appears in the romances of the Carolingian period. Charlemagne took the title rex Langobardorum, the first time a Germanic king adopted the title of a kingdom he had conquered. This fact would have later legitimized both the ascent of Pepin to the throne of the Franks, as he was already the son of a king, and the claim of his son Charlemagne to be the King of the Lombards
44.
Charlemagne
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Charlemagne or Charles the Great, numbered Charles I, was the King of the Franks from 768, King of the Lombards from 774 and Emperor of the Romans from 800. He united much of Europe during the early Middle Ages and he was the first recognised emperor in western Europe since the fall of the Western Roman Empire three centuries earlier. The expanded Frankish state which Charlemagne founded was called the Carolingian Empire, Charlemagne was the oldest son of Pepin the Short and Bertrada of Laon. He became king in 768 following his fathers death, initially as co-ruler with his brother Carloman I, carlomans sudden death in 771 in unexplained circumstances left Charlemagne as the undisputed ruler of the Frankish Kingdom. He continued his fathers policy towards the papacy and became its protector, removing the Lombards from power in northern Italy and he campaigned against the Saxons to his east, Christianising them upon penalty of death and leading to events such as the Massacre of Verden. Charlemagne reached the height of his power in 800 when he was crowned Emperor of the Romans by Pope Leo III on Christmas Day at Old St. Peters Basilica. Charlemagne has been called the Father of Europe, as he united most of Western Europe for the first time since the Roman Empire and his rule spurred the Carolingian Renaissance, a period of energetic cultural and intellectual activity within the Western Church. All Holy Roman Emperors considered their kingdoms to be descendants of Charlemagnes empire, up to the last Emperor Francis II and these and other machinations led to the eventual split of Rome and Constantinople in the Great Schism of 1054. Charlemagne died in 814, having ruled as emperor for thirteen years and he was laid to rest in his imperial capital of Aachen in what is today Germany. He married at least four times and had three sons, but only his son Louis the Pious survived to succeed him. By the 6th century, the western Germanic Franks had been Christianised, Francia, ruled by the Merovingians, was the most powerful of the kingdoms that succeeded the Western Roman Empire. Following the Battle of Tertry the Merovingians declined into powerlessness, for which they have dubbed the rois fainéants. Almost all government powers were exercised by their chief officer, the mayor of the palace, in 687, Pepin of Herstal, mayor of the palace of Austrasia, ended the strife between various kings and their mayors with his victory at Tertry. He became the governor of the entire Frankish kingdom. Pepin was the grandson of two important figures of the Austrasian Kingdom, Saint Arnulf of Metz and Pepin of Landen, Pepin of Herstal was eventually succeeded by his illegitimate son Charles, later known as Charles Martel. After 737, Charles governed the Franks in lieu of a king, Charles was succeeded in 741 by his sons Carloman and Pepin the Short, the father of Charlemagne. In 743, the brothers placed Childeric III on the throne to curb separatism in the periphery and he was the last Merovingian king. Carloman resigned office in 746, preferring to enter the church as a monk, Pepin brought the question of the kingship before Pope Zachary, asking whether it was logical for a king to have no royal power
