1.
Sicani
–
The Sicani or Sicanians were one of three ancient peoples of Sicily present at the time of Phoenician and Greek colonization. The Sicani are thought to be the oldest inhabitants of Sicily with a recorded name, timaeus of Tauromenium considered them as aboriginal. Some modern scholars think the Sicani may have been an Illyrian tribe that gained control of previously inhabited by native tribes. Archaeological excavation has shown that they had received some Mycenaean influence, the Elymians are thought to be the next recorded people to settle Sicily, perhaps from the Aegean, Anatolia, or Liguria. They settled in the north-west corner of the island, forcing the Sicanians to move across eastward, the Sicels were the next to arrive, from mainland Italy, and settled in the east. Other Greek colonies were established around the island, the indigenous Sicilians were gradually absorbed by these colonizing peoples and finally disappeared as distinct peoples under Roman occupation. Herodotos, The History, VII. 170-171 Minos, according to tradition, went to Sicania, or Sicily, as it is now called, in search of Daedalus, a few short inscriptions using the Greek alphabet have been found in the extinct Sicanian language. Except for names, they have not been translated, and the language is unclassified due to lack of data, ancient peoples of Italy Prehistoric Italy The death of Minos in Sicily Sicilian Peoples, The Sicanians by Vincenzo Salerno
Sicani
–
Approximate locations of the Sicani and their neighbors, the
Elymians and the
Sicels, in
Sicily around 11th century BC (before the arrival of the
Phoenicians and the
Greeks). [
dubious –
discuss]
2.
Sicels
–
The Sicels were an Italic tribe who inhabited eastern Sicily during the Iron Age. Their neighbours to the west were the Sicani, the Sicels gave Sicily the name it has held since antiquity, but they rapidly fused into the culture of Magna Graecia. Archaeological excavation has shown some Mycenean influence on Bronze Age Sicily, the earliest literary mention of Sicels is in the Odyssey. Homer also mentions Sicania, but makes no distinctions, they were a place and a faraway people and apparently they were one. It is possible that the Sicels and the Sicani of the Iron Age had consisted of an Illyrian population who had imposed themselves on a native, Pre-Indo-European population. Thucydides and other writers were aware of the traditions according to which the Sicels had once lived in Central Italy, east. Thence they were dislodged by Umbrian and Sabine tribes, and finally crossed into Sicily and their social organization appears to have been tribal, their economy, agricultural. According to Diodorus Siculus, after a series of conflicts with the Sicani, the common assumption is that the Sicels were the more recent arrivals, that they had introduced the use of iron into Bronze Age Sicily and brought the domesticated horse. This would date their arrival on the island to the early first millennium BC, but there is some evidence that the ethnonym may predate the Iron Age, based on the name Shekelesh given to one of the Sea Peoples in the Great Karnak Inscription. Sixty kilometres from the coast of the Ionian Sea, Sicels, Greek goods, especially pottery, moved along natural routes, and eventually Hellenistic influences can be observed in regularised Sicel town planning. After a few years of independence, his army was defeated by the Greeks in 450 BC, without his charisma, the movement collapsed and the increasingly Hellenized culture of the Sicels lost its distinctive character. The classification of the language of the Sicani remains uncertain but it has suggested that the Elymians spoke an Italic language. Of the Sicel language the little that is known is derived from glosses of ancient writers and from a few inscriptions. It is thought that the Sicels did not employ writing until they were influenced by the Greek colonists. The first inscription discovered, of ninety-nine Greek letters, was found on a spouted jug found in 1824 at Centuripe, there have been various attempts at interpreting it with no sure results. Then the soil parted, giving birth to the twins, who were venerated in Sicily as patrons of navigation and of agriculture. In the most archaic level of Greek mythology, a titan, Tityos and he came to the attention of later Greek mythographers only when he attempted to waylay Leto near Delphi. If such a mytheme is set into action as ritual, it is usual to see a pair of sacrificial children laid in the earth to encourage the green growth, in the temple to Adranus, father of the Palici, the Sicels kept an eternal fire
Sicels
–
Tribes of Hellenic Sicily
3.
Sicily
–
Sicily is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. It is an autonomous Region of Italy, along with surrounding minor islands, Sicily is located in the central Mediterranean Sea, south of the Italian Peninsula, from which it is separated by the narrow Strait of Messina. Its most prominent landmark is Mount Etna, the tallest active volcano in Europe, the island has a typical Mediterranean climate. The earliest archaeological evidence of activity on the island dates from as early as 12,000 BC. It became part of Italy in 1860 following the Expedition of the Thousand, a revolt led by Giuseppe Garibaldi during the Italian unification, Sicily was given special status as an autonomous region after the Italian constitutional referendum of 1946. Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially regard to the arts, music, literature, cuisine. It is also home to important archaeological and ancient sites, such as the Necropolis of Pantalica, the Valley of the Temples, Sicily has a roughly triangular shape, earning it the name Trinacria. To the east, it is separated from the Italian mainland by the Strait of Messina, about 3 km wide in the north, and about 16 km wide in the southern part. The northern and southern coasts are each about 280 km long measured as a line, while the eastern coast measures around 180 km. The total area of the island is 25,711 km2, the terrain of inland Sicily is mostly hilly and is intensively cultivated wherever possible. Along the northern coast, the ranges of Madonie,2,000 m, Nebrodi,1,800 m. The cone of Mount Etna dominates the eastern coast, in the southeast lie the lower Hyblaean Mountains,1,000 m. The mines of the Enna and Caltanissetta districts were part of a leading sulphur-producing area throughout the 19th century, Sicily and its surrounding small islands have some highly active volcanoes. Mount Etna is the largest active volcano in Europe and still casts black ash over the island with its ever-present eruptions and it currently stands 3,329 metres high, though this varies with summit eruptions, the mountain is 21 m lower now than it was in 1981. It is the highest mountain in Italy south of the Alps, Etna covers an area of 1,190 km2 with a basal circumference of 140 km. This makes it by far the largest of the three volcanoes in Italy, being about two and a half times the height of the next largest, Mount Vesuvius. In Greek Mythology, the deadly monster Typhon was trapped under the mountain by Zeus, Mount Etna is widely regarded as a cultural symbol and icon of Sicily. The Aeolian Islands in the Tyrrhenian Sea, to the northeast of mainland Sicily form a volcanic complex, the three volcanoes of Vulcano, Vulcanello and Lipari are also currently active, although the latter is usually dormant
Sicily
–
Mount Etna rising over suburbs of Catania
Sicily
–
Sicily Sicilia
Sicily
–
Sicilian landscape
Sicily
–
Location of the
Salso
4.
Phoenicians
–
The enterprising, sea-based Phoenician civilization spread across the Mediterranean between 1500 BC and 300 BC. Their civilization was organized in city-states, similar to those of Ancient Greece, perhaps the most notable of which were Tyre, Sidon, Arvad, Berytus and Carthage. Each city-state was an independent unit, and it is uncertain to what extent the Phoenicians viewed themselves as a single nationality. In terms of archaeology, language, lifestyle, and religion there was little to set the Phoenicians apart as markedly different from other Semitic Canaanites. The Phoenicians were the first state-level society to make use of alphabets. By their maritime trade, the Phoenicians spread the use of the alphabet to Anatolia, North Africa, and Europe, where it was adopted by the Greeks, the name Phoenicians, like Latin Poenī, comes from Greek Φοίνικες. The word φοῖνιξ phoînix meant variably Phoenician person, Tyrian purple, the word may be derived from φοινός phoinós blood red, itself possibly related to φόνος phónos murder. Beekes has suggested a Pre-Greek origin of the ethnonym, the oldest attested form of the word in Greek may be the Mycenaean po-ni-ki-jo, po-ni-ki, possibly borrowed from Ancient Egyptian fnḫw Asiatics, Semites, although this derivation is disputed. The folk-etymological association of Φοινίκη with φοῖνιξ mirrors that in Akkadian which tied kinaḫni, the land was natively known as knʿn and its people as the knʿny. In the Amarna tablets of the 14th century BC, people from the region called themselves Kenaani or Kinaani, the ethnonym survived in North Africa until the 4th century AD. Herodotus account refers to the myths of Io and Europa, according to the Persians best informed in history, the Phoenicians began the quarrel. The Greek historian Strabo believed that the Phoenicians originated from Bahrain, Herodotus also believed that the homeland of the Phoenicians was Bahrain. The people of Tyre in South Lebanon in particular have long maintained Persian Gulf origins, however, there is little evidence of occupation at all in Bahrain during the time when such migration had supposedly taken place. Canaanite culture apparently developed in situ from the earlier Ghassulian chalcolithic culture, Byblos is attested as an archaeological site from the Early Bronze Age. The Late Bronze Age state of Ugarit is considered quintessentially Canaanite archaeologically, fernand Braudel remarked in The Perspective of the World that Phoenicia was an early example of a world-economy surrounded by empires. The high point of Phoenician culture and sea power is usually placed c, archaeological evidence consistent with this understanding has been difficult to identify. A unique concentration in Phoenicia of silver hoards dated between 1200 and 800 BC, however, contains hacksilver with lead isotope ratios matching ores in Sardinia and Spain. This metallic evidence agrees with the memory of a western Mediterranean Tarshish that supplied Solomon with silver via Phoenicia
Phoenicians
–
Sarcophagus of Eshmunazor II, Phoenician King of Sidon found near Sidon, in southern Lebanon
Phoenicians
–
Map of Phoenicia and its Mediterranean trade routes
Phoenicians
–
Assyrian warship (probably built by Phoenicians) with two rows of oars, relief from
Nineveh, c. 700 BC
Phoenicians
–
A naval action during the siege of Tyre (350 BC). Drawing by
André Castaigne, 1888–1889.
5.
Ancient Greece
–
Ancient Greece was a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th-9th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and this was followed by the period of Classical Greece, an era that began with the Greco-Persian Wars, lasting from the 5th to 4th centuries BC. Due to the conquests by Alexander the Great of Macedonia, Hellenistic civilization flourished from Central Asia to the end of the Mediterranean Sea. Classical Greek culture, especially philosophy, had a influence on ancient Rome. For this reason Classical Greece is generally considered to be the culture which provided the foundation of modern Western culture and is considered the cradle of Western civilization. Classical Antiquity in the Mediterranean region is considered to have begun in the 8th century BC. Classical Antiquity in Greece is preceded by the Greek Dark Ages and this period is succeeded, around the 8th century BC, by the Orientalizing Period during which a strong influence of Syro-Hittite, Jewish, Assyrian, Phoenician and Egyptian cultures becomes apparent. The end of the Dark Ages is also dated to 776 BC. The Archaic period gives way to the Classical period around 500 BC, Ancient Periods Astronomical year numbering Dates are approximate, consult particular article for details The history of Greece during Classical Antiquity may be subdivided into five major periods. The earliest of these is the Archaic period, in which artists made larger free-standing sculptures in stiff, the Archaic period is often taken to end with the overthrow of the last tyrant of Athens and the start of Athenian Democracy in 508 BC. It was followed by the Classical period, characterized by a style which was considered by observers to be exemplary, i. e. classical, as shown in the Parthenon. This period saw the Greco-Persian Wars and the Rise of Macedon, following the Classical period was the Hellenistic period, during which Greek culture and power expanded into the Near and Middle East. This period begins with the death of Alexander and ends with the Roman conquest, Herodotus is widely known as the father of history, his Histories are eponymous of the entire field. Herodotus was succeeded by authors such as Thucydides, Xenophon, Demosthenes, Plato, most of these authors were either Athenian or pro-Athenian, which is why far more is known about the history and politics of Athens than those of many other cities. Their scope is limited by a focus on political, military and diplomatic history, ignoring economic. In the 8th century BC, Greece began to emerge from the Dark Ages which followed the fall of the Mycenaean civilization, literacy had been lost and Mycenaean script forgotten, but the Greeks adopted the Phoenician alphabet, modifying it to create the Greek alphabet. The Lelantine War is the earliest documented war of the ancient Greek period and it was fought between the important poleis of Chalcis and Eretria over the fertile Lelantine plain of Euboea. Both cities seem to have suffered a decline as result of the long war, a mercantile class arose in the first half of the 7th century BC, shown by the introduction of coinage in about 680 BC
Ancient Greece
–
The
Parthenon, a temple dedicated to
Athena, located on the
Acropolis in
Athens, is one of the most representative symbols of the culture and sophistication of the ancient Greeks.
Ancient Greece
–
Dipylon Vase of the late Geometric period, or the beginning of the Archaic period,
c. 750 BC.
Ancient Greece
–
Political geography of ancient Greece in the Archaic and Classical periods
6.
Ancient Greek
–
Ancient Greek includes the forms of Greek used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around the 9th century BC to the 6th century AD. It is often divided into the Archaic period, Classical period. It is antedated in the second millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek, the language of the Hellenistic phase is known as Koine. Koine is regarded as a historical stage of its own, although in its earliest form it closely resembled Attic Greek. Prior to the Koine period, Greek of the classic and earlier periods included several regional dialects, Ancient Greek was the language of Homer and of fifth-century Athenian historians, playwrights, and philosophers. It has contributed many words to English vocabulary and has been a subject of study in educational institutions of the Western world since the Renaissance. This article primarily contains information about the Epic and Classical phases of the language, Ancient Greek was a pluricentric language, divided into many dialects. The main dialect groups are Attic and Ionic, Aeolic, Arcadocypriot, some dialects are found in standardized literary forms used in literature, while others are attested only in inscriptions. There are also several historical forms, homeric Greek is a literary form of Archaic Greek used in the epic poems, the Iliad and Odyssey, and in later poems by other authors. Homeric Greek had significant differences in grammar and pronunciation from Classical Attic, the origins, early form and development of the Hellenic language family are not well understood because of a lack of contemporaneous evidence. Several theories exist about what Hellenic dialect groups may have existed between the divergence of early Greek-like speech from the common Proto-Indo-European language and the Classical period and they have the same general outline, but differ in some of the detail. The invasion would not be Dorian unless the invaders had some relationship to the historical Dorians. The invasion is known to have displaced population to the later Attic-Ionic regions, the Greeks of this period believed there were three major divisions of all Greek people—Dorians, Aeolians, and Ionians, each with their own defining and distinctive dialects. Often non-west is called East Greek, Arcadocypriot apparently descended more closely from the Mycenaean Greek of the Bronze Age. Boeotian had come under a strong Northwest Greek influence, and can in some respects be considered a transitional dialect, thessalian likewise had come under Northwest Greek influence, though to a lesser degree. Most of the dialect sub-groups listed above had further subdivisions, generally equivalent to a city-state and its surrounding territory, Doric notably had several intermediate divisions as well, into Island Doric, Southern Peloponnesus Doric, and Northern Peloponnesus Doric. The Lesbian dialect was Aeolic Greek and this dialect slowly replaced most of the older dialects, although Doric dialect has survived in the Tsakonian language, which is spoken in the region of modern Sparta. Doric has also passed down its aorist terminations into most verbs of Demotic Greek, by about the 6th century AD, the Koine had slowly metamorphosized into Medieval Greek
Ancient Greek
–
Inscription about the construction of the statue of
Athena Parthenos in the
Parthenon, 440/439 BC
Ancient Greek
–
Ostracon bearing the name of
Cimon,
Stoa of Attalos
Ancient Greek
–
The words ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ as they are inscribed on the marble of the 1955
Leonidas Monument at
Thermopylae
7.
Latin
–
Latin is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. The Latin alphabet is derived from the Etruscan and Greek alphabets, Latin was originally spoken in Latium, in the Italian Peninsula. Through the power of the Roman Republic, it became the dominant language, Vulgar Latin developed into the Romance languages, such as Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, French, and Romanian. Latin, Italian and French have contributed many words to the English language, Latin and Ancient Greek roots are used in theology, biology, and medicine. By the late Roman Republic, Old Latin had been standardised into Classical Latin, Vulgar Latin was the colloquial form spoken during the same time and attested in inscriptions and the works of comic playwrights like Plautus and Terence. Late Latin is the language from the 3rd century. Later, Early Modern Latin and Modern Latin evolved, Latin was used as the language of international communication, scholarship, and science until well into the 18th century, when it began to be supplanted by vernaculars. Ecclesiastical Latin remains the language of the Holy See and the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church. Today, many students, scholars and members of the Catholic clergy speak Latin fluently and it is taught in primary, secondary and postsecondary educational institutions around the world. The language has been passed down through various forms, some inscriptions have been published in an internationally agreed, monumental, multivolume series, the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum. Authors and publishers vary, but the format is about the same, volumes detailing inscriptions with a critical apparatus stating the provenance, the reading and interpretation of these inscriptions is the subject matter of the field of epigraphy. The works of several hundred ancient authors who wrote in Latin have survived in whole or in part and they are in part the subject matter of the field of classics. The Cat in the Hat, and a book of fairy tales, additional resources include phrasebooks and resources for rendering everyday phrases and concepts into Latin, such as Meissners Latin Phrasebook. The Latin influence in English has been significant at all stages of its insular development. From the 16th to the 18th centuries, English writers cobbled together huge numbers of new words from Latin and Greek words, dubbed inkhorn terms, as if they had spilled from a pot of ink. Many of these words were used once by the author and then forgotten, many of the most common polysyllabic English words are of Latin origin through the medium of Old French. Romance words make respectively 59%, 20% and 14% of English, German and those figures can rise dramatically when only non-compound and non-derived words are included. Accordingly, Romance words make roughly 35% of the vocabulary of Dutch, Roman engineering had the same effect on scientific terminology as a whole
Latin
–
Latin inscription, in the
Colosseum
Latin
–
Julius Caesar 's
Commentarii de Bello Gallico is one of the most famous classical Latin texts of the Golden Age of Latin. The unvarnished, journalistic style of this
patrician general has long been taught as a model of the urbane Latin officially spoken and written in the floruit of the
Roman republic.
Latin
–
A multi-volume Latin dictionary in the
University Library of Graz
Latin
–
Latin and Ancient Greek Language - Culture - Linguistics at
Duke University in 2014.
8.
Bronze Age
–
The Bronze Age is a historical period characterized by the use of bronze, proto-writing, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the principal period of the three-age Stone-Bronze-Iron system, as proposed in modern times by Christian Jürgensen Thomsen. An ancient civilization is defined to be in the Bronze Age either by smelting its own copper and alloying with tin, arsenic, or other metals, or by trading for bronze from production areas elsewhere. Copper-tin ores are rare, as reflected in the fact there were no tin bronzes in Western Asia before trading in bronze began in the third millennium BC. Worldwide, the Bronze Age generally followed the Neolithic period, with the Chalcolithic serving as a transition, although the Iron Age generally followed the Bronze Age, in some areas, the Iron Age intruded directly on the Neolithic. Bronze Age cultures differed in their development of the first writing, according to archaeological evidence, cultures in Mesopotamia and Egypt developed the earliest viable writing systems. The overall period is characterized by use of bronze, though the place and time of the introduction. Human-made tin bronze technology requires set production techniques, tin must be mined and smelted separately, then added to molten copper to make bronze alloy. The Bronze Age was a time of use of metals. The dating of the foil has been disputed, the Bronze Age in the ancient Near East began with the rise of Sumer in the 4th millennium BC. Societies in the region laid the foundations for astronomy and mathematics, the usual tripartite division into an Early, Middle and Late Bronze Age is not used. Instead, a division based on art-historical and historical characteristics is more common. The cities of the Ancient Near East housed several tens of thousands of people, ur in the Middle Bronze Age and Babylon in the Late Bronze Age similarly had large populations. The earliest mention of Babylonia appears on a tablet from the reign of Sargon of Akkad in the 23rd century BC, the Amorite dynasty established the city-state of Babylon in the 19th century BC. Over 100 years later, it took over the other city-states. Babylonia adopted the written Semitic Akkadian language for official use, by that time, the Sumerian language was no longer spoken, but was still in religious use. Elam was an ancient civilization located to the east of Mesopotamia, in the Old Elamite period, Elam consisted of kingdoms on the Iranian plateau, centered in Anshan, and from the mid-2nd millennium BC, it was centered in Susa in the Khuzestan lowlands. Its culture played a role in the Gutian Empire and especially during the Achaemenid dynasty that succeeded it
Bronze Age
–
Chalcolithic copper mine in
Timna Valley,
Negev Desert,
Israel.
Bronze Age
–
Diffusion of metallurgy in
Europe and
Asia Minor. The darkest areas are the oldest.
Bronze Age
–
A
Shang Dynasty two-handled bronze gefuding gui (1600–1046 BC).
Bronze Age
–
Spring and Autumn Period pu bronze vessel with interlaced
dragon design (722–481 BC)
9.
Classical antiquity
–
It is the period in which Greek and Roman society flourished and wielded great influence throughout Europe, North Africa and Southwestern Asia. Conventionally, it is taken to begin with the earliest-recorded Epic Greek poetry of Homer, and continues through the emergence of Christianity and it ends with the dissolution of classical culture at the close of Late Antiquity, blending into the Early Middle Ages. Such a wide sampling of history and territory covers many disparate cultures, Classical antiquity may refer also to an idealised vision among later people of what was, in Edgar Allan Poes words, the glory that was Greece, and the grandeur that was Rome. The culture of the ancient Greeks, together with influences from the ancient Near East, was the basis of art, philosophy, society. The earliest period of classical antiquity takes place before the background of gradual re-appearance of historical sources following the Bronze Age collapse, the 8th and 7th centuries BC are still largely proto-historical, with the earliest Greek alphabetic inscriptions appearing in the first half of the 8th century. Homer is usually assumed to have lived in the 8th or 7th century BC, in the same period falls the traditional date for the establishment of the Ancient Olympic Games, in 776 BC. The Phoenicians originally expanded from Canaan ports, by the 8th century dominating trade in the Mediterranean, carthage was founded in 814 BC, and the Carthaginians by 700 BC had firmly established strongholds in Sicily, Italy and Sardinia, which created conflicts of interest with Etruria. The Etruscans had established control in the region by the late 7th century BC, forming the aristocratic. According to legend, Rome was founded on April 21,753 BC by twin descendants of the Trojan prince Aeneas, Romulus and Remus. As the city was bereft of women, legend says that the Latins invited the Sabines to a festival and stole their unmarried maidens, leading to the integration of the Latins and the Sabines. Archaeological evidence indeed shows first traces of settlement at the Roman Forum in the mid-8th century BC, the seventh and final king of Rome was Tarquinius Superbus. As the son of Tarquinius Priscus and the son-in-law of Servius Tullius, Superbus was of Etruscan birth and it was during his reign that the Etruscans reached their apex of power. Superbus removed and destroyed all the Sabine shrines and altars from the Tarpeian Rock, the people came to object to his rule when he failed to recognize the rape of Lucretia, a patrician Roman, at the hands of his own son. Lucretias kinsman, Lucius Junius Brutus, summoned the Senate and had Superbus, after Superbus expulsion, the Senate voted to never again allow the rule of a king and reformed Rome into a republican government in 509 BC. In fact the Latin word Rex meaning King became a dirty and hated throughout the Republic. In 510, Spartan troops helped the Athenians overthrow the tyrant Hippias, cleomenes I, king of Sparta, put in place a pro-Spartan oligarchy conducted by Isagoras. Greece entered the 4th century under Spartan hegemony, but by 395 BC the Spartan rulers removed Lysander from office, and Sparta lost her naval supremacy. Athens, Argos, Thebes and Corinth, the two of which were formerly Spartan allies, challenged Spartan dominance in the Corinthian War, which ended inconclusively in 387 BC
Classical antiquity
–
The
Parthenon is one of the most iconic symbols of the classical era, exemplifying ancient Greek culture
10.
Iron Age
–
The Iron Age is an archaeological era, referring to a period of time in the prehistory and protohistory of the Old World when the dominant toolmaking material was iron. It is commonly preceded by the Bronze Age in Europe and Asia with exceptions, meteoric iron has been used by humans since at least 3200 BC. Ancient iron production did not become widespread until the ability to smelt ore, remove impurities. The start of the Iron Age proper is considered by many to fall between around 1200 BC and 600 BC, depending on the region, the earliest known iron artifacts are nine small beads dated to 3200 BC, which were found in burials at Gerzeh, Lower Egypt. They have been identified as meteoric iron shaped by careful hammering, meteoric iron, a characteristic iron–nickel alloy, was used by various ancient peoples thousands of years before the Iron Age. Such iron, being in its metallic state, required no smelting of ores. Smelted iron appears sporadically in the record from the middle Bronze Age. While terrestrial iron is abundant, its high melting point of 1,538 °C placed it out of reach of common use until the end of the second millennium BC. Tins low melting point of 231, similarly, recent archaeological remains of iron working in the Ganges Valley in India have been tentatively dated to 1800 BC. By the Middle Bronze Age, increasing numbers of smelted iron objects appeared in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, African sites are turning up dates as early as 1200 BC. Modern archaeological evidence identifies the start of iron production in around 1200 BC. Between 1200 BC and 1000 BC, diffusion in the understanding of iron metallurgy and use of objects was fast. As evidence, many bronze implements were recycled into weapons during this time, more widespread use of iron led to improved steel-making technology at lower cost. Thus, even when tin became available again, iron was cheaper, stronger, and lighter, and forged iron implements superseded cast bronze tools permanently. Increasingly, the Iron Age in Europe is being seen as a part of the Bronze Age collapse in the ancient Near East, in ancient India, ancient Iran, and ancient Greece. In other regions of Europe, the Iron Age began in the 8th century BC in Central Europe, the Near Eastern Iron Age is divided into two subsections, Iron I and Iron II. Iron I illustrates both continuity and discontinuity with the previous Late Bronze Age, during the Iron Age, the best tools and weapons were made from steel, particularly alloys which were produced with a carbon content between approximately 0. 30% and 1. 2% by weight. Steel weapons and tools were nearly the same weight as those of bronze, however, steel was difficult to produce with the methods available, and alloys that were easier to make, such as wrought iron, were more common in lower-priced goods
Iron Age
–
Archaeological artifact from the work developed in the area of
Citânia de Briteiros
Iron Age
Iron Age
–
Cross or cruzado in Citânia de Breteiros
Iron Age
–
A pedra formosa
11.
Segesta
–
Segesta was one of the major cities of the Elymian people, one of the three indigenous peoples of Sicily. The other major cities of the Elymians were Eryx and Entella and it is located in the northwestern part of Sicily in Italy, near the modern comune of Calatafimi-Segesta in the province of Trapani. The population of Segesta was mixed Elymian and Ionian Greek, though the Elymians were soon Hellenized, Segesta was in constant conflict with Selinus, which probably tried to assure itself a port on the Tyrrhenian Sea. The first clashes were in 580-576 BC, and again in 454 BC, in 415 BC Segesta asked Athens for help against Selinus, leading to a disastrous Athenian expedition in Sicily. Later they asked Carthage for help, leading to the destruction of the city of Selinus by the hands of Carthage. Segesta remained an ally of Carthage, it was besieged by Dionysius of Syracuse in 397 BC, and it was destroyed by Agathocles in 307 BC, in 276 BC the city was allied with Pyrrhus, but changed side in 260 BC when it surrendered to the Romans. The city was not punished by the Romans for its alliance with Carthage, but owing to the mythical common origin of the Romans. In 104 BC the slave rebellion led by Athenion started in Segesta, little is known about the city under Roman rule, but it is probable that the population gradually moved to the port city of Castellammare del Golfo due to better trading opportunities. The city was destroyed by the Vandals, the ruins of the city are located on the top of Monte Bàrbaro at 305 m above sea level. The city was protected by steep slopes on several sides and by walls on the gentle slope towards the temple. The hilltop offers a view over the valley towards the Gulf of Castellamare, the city controlled several major roads between the coast to the north and the hinterland. Very little is known about the city plan, aerial photography indicates a regular city plan, built in part on terraces to overcome the natural sloping terrain. The current remains might be from the reconstruction after the destruction of the city by Agathocles, current archaeological work indicates that the site was reoccupied by a Muslim community in the Norman period. Excavations have unearthed a Muslim necropolis and a mosque from the 12th century next to a Norman castle, evidence suggests that the mosque was destroyed after the arrival of a new Christian overlord at the beginning of the 13th century. The city appears to have been abandoned by the second half of the 13th century. On a hill just outside the site of the ancient city of Segesta lies a well preserved Greek Doric temple. It is thought to have built in the 420s BC by an Athenian architect and has six by fourteen columns on a base measuring 21 by 56 meters. Several elements suggest that the temple was never actually finished, the columns have not been fluted as they normally would have been in a Doric temple and there are still tabs present in the blocks of the base
Segesta
–
The Doric temple of Segesta
Segesta
–
The
Greek theatre
Segesta
–
Segesta Temple in
Thomas Cole ´s picture from 1843
Segesta
–
Province of Agrigento
12.
Greek alphabet
–
It is the ancestor of the Latin and Cyrillic scripts. In its classical and modern forms, the alphabet has 24 letters, Modern and Ancient Greek use different diacritics. In standard Modern Greek spelling, orthography has been simplified to the monotonic system, examples In both Ancient and Modern Greek, the letters of the Greek alphabet have fairly stable and consistent symbol-to-sound mappings, making pronunciation of words largely predictable. Ancient Greek spelling was generally near-phonemic, among consonant letters, all letters that denoted voiced plosive consonants and aspirated plosives in Ancient Greek stand for corresponding fricative sounds in Modern Greek. This leads to groups of vowel letters denoting identical sounds today. Modern Greek orthography remains true to the spellings in most of these cases. The following vowel letters and digraphs are involved in the mergers, Modern Greek speakers typically use the same, modern, in other countries, students of Ancient Greek may use a variety of conventional approximations of the historical sound system in pronouncing Ancient Greek. Several letter combinations have special conventional sound values different from those of their single components, among them are several digraphs of vowel letters that formerly represented diphthongs but are now monophthongized. In addition to the three mentioned above, there is also ⟨ου⟩, pronounced /u/, the Ancient Greek diphthongs ⟨αυ⟩, ⟨ευ⟩ and ⟨ηυ⟩ are pronounced, and respectively in voicing environments in Modern Greek. The Modern Greek consonant combinations ⟨μπ⟩ and ⟨ντ⟩ stand for and respectively, ⟨τζ⟩ stands for, in addition, both in Ancient and Modern Greek, the letter ⟨γ⟩, before another velar consonant, stands for the velar nasal, thus ⟨γγ⟩ and ⟨γκ⟩ are pronounced like English ⟨ng⟩. There are also the combinations ⟨γχ⟩ and ⟨γξ⟩ and these signs were originally designed to mark different forms of the phonological pitch accent in Ancient Greek. The letter rho, although not a vowel, also carries a rough breathing in word-initial position, if a rho was geminated within a word, the first ρ always had the smooth breathing and the second the rough breathing leading to the transiliteration rrh. The vowel letters ⟨α, η, ω⟩ carry an additional diacritic in certain words, the iota subscript. This iota represents the former offglide of what were originally long diphthongs, ⟨ᾱι, ηι, ωι⟩, another diacritic used in Greek is the diaeresis, indicating a hiatus. In 1982, a new, simplified orthography, known as monotonic, was adopted for use in Modern Greek by the Greek state. Although it is not a diacritic, the comma has a function as a silent letter in a handful of Greek words, principally distinguishing ό. There are many different methods of rendering Greek text or Greek names in the Latin script, the form in which classical Greek names are conventionally rendered in English goes back to the way Greek loanwords were incorporated into Latin in antiquity. In this system, ⟨κ⟩ is replaced with ⟨c⟩, the diphthongs ⟨αι⟩ and ⟨οι⟩ are rendered as ⟨ae⟩ and ⟨oe⟩ respectively, and ⟨ει⟩ and ⟨ου⟩ are simplified to ⟨i⟩ and ⟨u⟩ respectively
Greek alphabet
–
Dipylon inscription, one of the oldest known samples of the use of the Greek alphabet, c. 740 BC
Greek alphabet
–
Early Greek alphabet on pottery in the
National Archaeological Museum of Athens
Greek alphabet
–
A 16th-century edition of the New Testament, printed in a renaissance typeface by
Claude Garamond
Greek alphabet
–
A page from the
Codex Argenteus, a 6th-century bible manuscript in Gothic
13.
Carthage
–
Carthage was the centre or capital city of the ancient Carthaginian civilization, on the eastern side of the Lake of Tunis in what is now the Tunis Governorate in Tunisia. The city developed from a Phoenician colony into the capital of an empire dominating the Mediterranean Sea during the first millennium BC, the apocryphal queen Dido is regarded as the founder of the city, though her historicity has been questioned. According to accounts by Timaeus of Tauromenium, she purchased from a tribe the amount of land that could be covered by an oxhide. The ancient city was destroyed by the Roman Republic in the Third Punic War in 146 BC then re-developed as Roman Carthage, the Roman city was again occupied by the Muslim conquest of the Maghreb, in 698. The archaeological site was first surveyed in 1830, by Danish consul Christian Tuxen Falbe, Excavations were performed in the second half of the 19th century by Charles Ernest Beulé and by Alfred Louis Delattre. The Carthage National Museum was founded in 1875 by Cardinal Charles Lavigerie, the open-air Carthage Paleo-Christian Museum has exhibits excavated under the auspices of UNESCO from 1975 to 1984. The Latin Carthāgō, Carthāginis is an n-stem, as reflected in the English adjective Carthaginian, the Latin adjective pūnicus, a variant of the word Phoenician, is reflected in English in some borrowings from Latin—notably the Punic Wars and the Punic language. The Modern Standard Arabic form قرطاج is an adoption of French Carthage, Carthage was built on a promontory with sea inlets to the north and the south. The citys location made it master of the Mediterraneans maritime trade, all ships crossing the sea had to pass between Sicily and the coast of Tunisia, where Carthage was built, affording it great power and influence. Two large, artificial harbors were built within the city, one for harboring the citys massive navy of 220 warships, a walled tower overlooked both harbors. The city had walls,37 km in length, longer than the walls of comparable cities. Most of the walls were located on the shore, thus could be less impressive, the 4.0 to 4.8 km of wall on the isthmus to the west were truly massive and were never penetrated. The city had a huge necropolis or burial ground, religious area, market places, council house, towers, and a theater, roughly in the middle of the city stood a high citadel called the Byrsa. Carthage was one of the largest cities of the Hellenistic period and was among the largest cities in preindustrial history. Whereas by AD14, Rome had at least 750,000 inhabitants and in the following century may have reached 1 million, according to the not always reliable history of Herodian, Carthage rivaled Alexandria for second place in the Roman empire. On top of Byrsa hill, the location of the Roman Forum, the neighborhood, with its houses, shops, and private spaces, is significant for what it reveals about daily life there over 2100 years ago. The remains have been preserved under embankments, the substructures of the later Roman forum, the housing blocks are separated by a grid of straight streets about 6 m wide, with a roadway consisting of clay, in situ stairs compensate for the slope of the hill. The habitat is typical, even stereotypical, in some places, the ground is covered with mosaics called punica pavement, sometimes using a characteristic red mortar
Carthage
–
Thermes of Antoninus Pius at Carthage
Carthage
–
EO-1
Carthage
Carthage
–
Roman
trireme mosaic from Sousse,
Sousse Archaeological Museum,
Sousse.
14.
Selinus
–
Selinunte was an ancient Greek city on the south-western coast of Sicily in Italy. It was situated between the valleys of the Belice and Modione rivers and it now lies in the comune Castelvetrano, between the frazioni of Triscina di Selinunte in the west and Marinella di Selinunte in the east. The archaeological site contains five temples centered on an acropolis, of the five temples, only the Temple of Hera, also known as Temple E, has been re-erected. At its peak before 409 BC the city may have contained up to 30,000 people, diodorus places it 22 years earlier, or 650 BCE, and Hieronymus still further back in 654 BCE. The date from Thucydides, which is probably the most likely, is incompatible with this earlier date, the name is supposed to have been derived from quantities of wild celery that grew on the spot. For the same reason, they adopted the celery leaf as the symbol on their coins, on the other side Selinuntes territory certainly extended as far as the Halycus, at the mouth of which it founded the colony of Minoa, or Heracleia, as it was afterward called. It is clear, therefore, that Selinunte had already achieved great power and prosperity, euryleon himself ruled the city, for a little while, but was speedily overthrown and put to death by the Selinuntines. The Selinuntines are next mentioned in 466 BCE, co-operating with the cities of Sicily to help the Syracusans to expel Thrasybulus. Diodorus also represents it at the time of the Carthaginian invasion, as having enjoyed a period of tranquility. The walls of Selinunte enclosed an area of approximately 100 hectares, the population of the city has been estimated at 14,000 to 19,000 people during the fifth century BC. In 416 BCE, a renewal of the disputes between Selinunte and Segesta led to the great Athenian expedition to Sicily. The Selinuntines called on Syracuse for assistance, and were able to blockade the Segestans, the Athenians do not appear to have taken any immediate action to save Segesta, but no further conflict around Segesta is recorded. As a result, the Selinuntines played only a part in the subsequent operations. The defeat of the Athenian armament apparently left the Segestans at the mercy of their rivals and they surrendered the frontier district that was the original subject of dispute to Selinunte. The Selinuntines, however, were not satisfied with this concession, after some hesitation, Carthage sent a small force, with the assistance of which the Segestans defeated the Selinuntines in a battle. The Carthaginians in the following spring sent over a vast army containing 100,000 men, according to the lowest ancient estimate, the army landed at Lilybaeum, and directly marched from there to Selinunte. The citys inhabitants had not expected such a force and were unprepared to resist it. The city fortifications were, in places, in disrepair
Selinus
–
The Temple of
Hera at Selinunte (Temple E)
Selinus
–
Marinella di Selinunte and Temple E as seen from the acropolis of Selinunte.
Selinus
–
Plan of the ancient city
Selinus
–
Didrachm coin from Selinunte bearing a selinon (celery) leaf, circa 515–470 BC.
15.
Athens
–
Athens is the capital and largest city of Greece. In modern times, Athens is a cosmopolitan metropolis and central to economic, financial, industrial, maritime. In 2015, Athens was ranked the worlds 29th richest city by purchasing power, Athens is recognised as a global city because of its location and its importance in shipping, finance, commerce, media, entertainment, arts, international trade, culture, education and tourism. It is one of the biggest economic centres in southeastern Europe, with a financial sector. The municipality of Athens had a population of 664,046 within its limits. The urban area of Athens extends beyond its administrative city limits. According to Eurostat in 2011, the Functional urban areas of Athens was the 9th most populous FUA in the European Union, Athens is also the southernmost capital on the European mainland. The city also retains Roman and Byzantine monuments, as well as a number of Ottoman monuments. Athens is home to two UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the Acropolis of Athens and the medieval Daphni Monastery, Athens was the host city of the first modern-day Olympic Games in 1896, and 108 years later it welcomed home the 2004 Summer Olympics. In Ancient Greek, the name of the city was Ἀθῆναι a plural, in earlier Greek, such as Homeric Greek, the name had been current in the singular form though, as Ἀθήνη. It was possibly rendered in the later on, like those of Θῆβαι and Μυκῆναι. During the medieval period the name of the city was rendered once again in the singular as Ἀθήνα, an etiological myth explaining how Athens has acquired its name was well known among ancient Athenians and even became the theme of the sculpture on the West pediment of the Parthenon. The goddess of wisdom, Athena, and the god of the seas, Poseidon had many disagreements, in an attempt to compel the people, Poseidon created a salt water spring by striking the ground with his trident, symbolizing naval power. However, when Athena created the tree, symbolizing peace and prosperity. Different etymologies, now rejected, were proposed during the 19th century. Christian Lobeck proposed as the root of the name the word ἄθος or ἄνθος meaning flower, ludwig von Döderlein proposed the stem of the verb θάω, stem θη- to denote Athens as having fertile soil. In classical literature, the city was referred to as the City of the Violet Crown, first documented in Pindars ἰοστέφανοι Ἀθᾶναι. In medieval texts, variant names include Setines, Satine, and Astines, today the caption η πρωτεύουσα, the capital, has become somewhat common
Athens
–
From upper left: the
Acropolis, the
Hellenic Parliament, the
Zappeion, the
Acropolis Museum,
Monastiraki Square, Athens view towards the sea
Athens
–
Athena, patron goddess of Athens;
National Archaeological Museum
Athens
–
Acropolis of Athens, with
Odeon of Herodes Atticus seen on bottom left
16.
Sicilian expedition
–
The Sicilian Expedition was an Athenian military expedition to Sicily, which took place during the period from 415 BC to 413 BC. From that point forward, however, as the Athenians ceded the initiative to their newly energized opponents and that last measure, too, failed, and nearly the entire expedition surrendered or was destroyed in the Sicilian interior. The impact of the defeat was immense, two hundred ships and thousands of soldiers, an appreciable portion of the citys total manpower, were lost in a single stroke. Athenss enemies on the mainland and in Persia were encouraged to take action, the defeat proved to be the turning point in the Peloponnesian War, though Athens struggled on for another decade. Although Athens had never involved itself deeply in Sicilian affairs, it had ties there before the onset of the Peloponnesian War, to small Sicilian cities, Athens was a potential counter to the powerful city of Syracuse, which was strong enough to potentially dominate the island. To the Athenians, Sicily was a threat—an unencumbered Syracuse might send grain or other aid to the Peloponnesians—as well as a venue for possible conquests. In 427 BC, Athens had sent twenty ships, under the command of Laches, by the time that fleet reached Sicily in late summer, Athenss Sicilian allies had grown weary of stalemated warfare, and agreed to negotiate with Syracuse and its allies. At the Congress of Gela, the Sicilian cities made peace on the basis of Sicily for the Sicilians, in 415, Athens and Sparta had been formally at peace since 421, when the Peace of Nicias had brought the Archidamian War to a close. The terms of peace, however, had never been fulfilled, Sparta had never surrendered Amphipolis to Athens, as required by the treaty. That attempt, largely orchestrated by the Athenian nobleman Alcibiades, would have destroyed Spartas control over the Peloponnesian League had it succeeded, Alcibiades rebounded politically from this defeat, and was elected as a general in the spring of 417. Control of Athenss foreign policy remained divided between a party led by Nicias, and a war party led by Alcibiades. The peace established in Sicily at the Congress of Gela did not last long, shortly after the Congress, Syracuse intervened in an episode of civil strife between the democratic and oligarchic parties in Leontini, supporting the oligarchs. Before too long, the prospect of foreign domination had united the Leontinians, Athens had sent an emissary to Sicily in 422 to sound out the possibility of renewing the war against Syracuse, but achieved nothing. In 416, however, a second Sicilian conflict provided the invitation Athens had sought in 422, the city of Segesta—an Athenian ally in the 420s—went to war against Selinus and, after losing an initial battle, sent to Athens for help. At Athens, the Segestan ambassadors presented their case for intervention to the assembly, the assembly eventually approved an expedition composed of sixty triremes, without hoplite accompaniment, commanded by Nicias, Alcibiades, and Lamachus. Thucydides reports that Nicias had been appointed against his preference, five days after that first debate, a second assembly was held to arrange the logistics of the expedition. There, Nicias attempted to persuade the assembly to overturn its previous decision regarding whether to send an expedition at all, over the course of several speeches, Nicias raised a series of different arguments against the expedition. Nicias also attacked Alcibiadess credibility, claiming that he and his allies were inexperienced, in response, Alcibiades dismissed the attack on himself by pointing to the good he had done for Athens as a private citizen and public leader
Sicilian expedition
–
Map of Athenian retreat from Syracuse
Sicilian expedition
–
Sicily and the Peloponnesian War
17.
First Punic War
–
The First Punic War was the first of three wars fought between Ancient Carthage and the Roman Republic. For more than 20 years, the two struggled for supremacy, primarily on the Mediterranean island of Sicily and its surrounding waters. The war signaled the beginning of a transformation in the western Mediterranean. Carthage began the war as the great sea-power of the western Mediterranean, while Rome had, the series of wars between Rome and Carthage took the name Punic from the Latin name for the Carthaginians, Punici. This is derived from Phoenicis, and it refers to the Carthaginian heritage as Phoenician colonists, a Carthaginian name for the conflicts does not survive in any records. Rome had recently emerged as the leading city-state in the Italian Peninsula, over the past one hundred years, Rome had come into conflict, and defeated rivals on the Italian peninsula, then incorporated them into the Roman political world. By the beginning of the First Punic War, the Romans had secured the whole of the Italian peninsula and it originated as a Phoenician colony in Africa, near modern Tunis. At the height of power, just before the First Punic War, North African peoples such as the Berbers in the area around Carthage were loosely associated with Carthage. In the midst of the First Punic War some tribes would rebel against Carthage, the rich, strategically influential, and well-fortified Greek colony of Syracuse was politically independent of Rome and Carthage. Hostilities of the First Punic War began with developments involving the Romans, Carthaginians, at the same time, a group of Roman troops made up of Campanian citizens without the vote also seized control of Rhegium, lying across the Straits of Messina on the mainland of Italy. In 270 BC, the Romans regained control of Rhegium and severely punished the survivors of the revolt, in Sicily, the Mamertines ravaged the countryside and collided with the expanding regional empire of the independent city of Syracuse. Hiero II, tyrant of Syracuse, defeated the Mamertines near Mylae on the Longanus River, following their defeat, the Mamertines appealed to both Rome and Carthage for assistance. The Carthaginians acted first, approached Hiero to take no further action, however, the rivalry between Rome and Carthage had grown since the war with Pyrrhus and that alliance was simply no longer feasible. According to the historian Polybius, considerable debate took place in Rome on the question as to whether to accept the Mamertines appeal for help, however, many were also unwilling to see Carthaginian power in Sicily expand even further. Leaving them at Messana would give the Carthaginians a free hand to deal with Syracuse, after the Syracusans had been defeated, the Carthaginian takeover of Sicily would essentially be complete. Sicily is a volcanic island, with geographical obstacles and rough terrain making lines of communication difficult to maintain. For this reason, land warfare played a role in the First Punic War. Land operations were confined to small raids and skirmishes, with few pitched battles
First Punic War
–
Roman arrival and neutralization of Syracuse.
First Punic War
–
Western Mediterranean Sea in 264 BC. Rome is shown in red, Carthage in purple, and Syracuse in green.
First Punic War
–
Hamilcar's attack.
First Punic War
–
Continued Roman advance 260–256 BC.
18.
Roman Republic
–
It was during this period that Romes control expanded from the citys immediate surroundings to hegemony over the entire Mediterranean world. During the first two centuries of its existence, the Roman Republic expanded through a combination of conquest and alliance, by the following century, it included North Africa, most of the Iberian Peninsula, and what is now southern France. Two centuries after that, towards the end of the 1st century BC, it included the rest of modern France, Greece, and much of the eastern Mediterranean. By this time, internal tensions led to a series of wars, culminating with the assassination of Julius Caesar. The exact date of transition can be a matter of interpretation, Roman government was headed by two consuls, elected annually by the citizens and advised by a senate composed of appointed magistrates. Over time, the laws that gave exclusive rights to Romes highest offices were repealed or weakened. The leaders of the Republic developed a tradition and morality requiring public service and patronage in peace and war, making military. Many of Romes legal and legislative structures can still be observed throughout Europe and much of the world in modern nation states, the exact causes and motivations for Romes military conflicts and expansions during the republic are subject to wide debate. While they can be seen as motivated by outright aggression and imperialism and they argue that Romes expansion was driven by short-term defensive and inter-state factors, and the new contingencies that these decisions created. In its early history, as Rome successfully defended itself against foreign threats in central and then northern Italy, with some important exceptions, successful wars in early republican Rome generally led not to annexation or military occupation, but to the restoration of the way things were. But the defeated city would be weakened and thus able to resist Romanizing influences. It was also able to defend itself against its non-Roman enemies. It was, therefore, more likely to seek an alliance of protection with Rome and this growing coalition expanded the potential enemies that Rome might face, and moved Rome closer to confrontation with major powers. The result was more alliance-seeking, on the part of both the Roman confederacy and city-states seeking membership within that confederacy. While there were exceptions to this, it was not until after the Second Punic War that these alliances started to harden into something more like an empire and this shift mainly took place in parts of the west, such as the southern Italian towns that sided with Hannibal. In contrast, Roman expansion into Spain and Gaul occurred as a mix of alliance-seeking, in the 2nd century BC, Roman involvement in the Greek east remained a matter of alliance-seeking, but this time in the face of major powers that could rival Rome. This had some important similarities to the events in Italy centuries earlier, with some major exceptions of outright military rule, the Roman Republic remained an alliance of independent city-states and kingdoms until it transitioned into the Roman Empire. It was not until the time of the Roman Empire that the entire Roman world was organized into provinces under explicit Roman control
Roman Republic
–
Route of Pyrrhus of Epirus
Roman Republic
–
Roman consul accompanied by two
lictors
Roman Republic
–
Gaius Gracchus, tribune of the people, presiding over the
Plebeian Council
Roman Republic
–
A Roman
denarius struck in 56 BC showing on one side the bust of the
Goddess Diana, and on the reverse the Roman general
Lucius Cornelius Sulla is offered an olive branch by his ally
Bocchus I as the captive
Jugurtha kneels beside Sulla with his hands bound.
19.
Phoenicia
–
The enterprising, sea-based Phoenician civilization spread across the Mediterranean between 1500 BC and 300 BC. Their civilization was organized in city-states, similar to those of Ancient Greece, perhaps the most notable of which were Tyre, Sidon, Arvad, Berytus and Carthage. Each city-state was an independent unit, and it is uncertain to what extent the Phoenicians viewed themselves as a single nationality. In terms of archaeology, language, lifestyle, and religion there was little to set the Phoenicians apart as markedly different from other Semitic Canaanites. The Phoenicians were the first state-level society to make use of alphabets. By their maritime trade, the Phoenicians spread the use of the alphabet to Anatolia, North Africa, and Europe, where it was adopted by the Greeks, the name Phoenicians, like Latin Poenī, comes from Greek Φοίνικες. The word φοῖνιξ phoînix meant variably Phoenician person, Tyrian purple, the word may be derived from φοινός phoinós blood red, itself possibly related to φόνος phónos murder. Beekes has suggested a Pre-Greek origin of the ethnonym, the oldest attested form of the word in Greek may be the Mycenaean po-ni-ki-jo, po-ni-ki, possibly borrowed from Ancient Egyptian fnḫw Asiatics, Semites, although this derivation is disputed. The folk-etymological association of Φοινίκη with φοῖνιξ mirrors that in Akkadian which tied kinaḫni, the land was natively known as knʿn and its people as the knʿny. In the Amarna tablets of the 14th century BC, people from the region called themselves Kenaani or Kinaani, the ethnonym survived in North Africa until the 4th century AD. Herodotus account refers to the myths of Io and Europa, according to the Persians best informed in history, the Phoenicians began the quarrel. The Greek historian Strabo believed that the Phoenicians originated from Bahrain, Herodotus also believed that the homeland of the Phoenicians was Bahrain. The people of Tyre in South Lebanon in particular have long maintained Persian Gulf origins, however, there is little evidence of occupation at all in Bahrain during the time when such migration had supposedly taken place. Canaanite culture apparently developed in situ from the earlier Ghassulian chalcolithic culture, Byblos is attested as an archaeological site from the Early Bronze Age. The Late Bronze Age state of Ugarit is considered quintessentially Canaanite archaeologically, fernand Braudel remarked in The Perspective of the World that Phoenicia was an early example of a world-economy surrounded by empires. The high point of Phoenician culture and sea power is usually placed c, archaeological evidence consistent with this understanding has been difficult to identify. A unique concentration in Phoenicia of silver hoards dated between 1200 and 800 BC, however, contains hacksilver with lead isotope ratios matching ores in Sardinia and Spain. This metallic evidence agrees with the memory of a western Mediterranean Tarshish that supplied Solomon with silver via Phoenicia
Phoenicia
–
Sarcophagus of Eshmunazor II, Phoenician King of Sidon found near Sidon, in southern Lebanon
Phoenicia
–
Map of Phoenicia and its Mediterranean trade routes
Phoenicia
–
Assyrian warship (probably built by Phoenicians) with two rows of oars, relief from
Nineveh, c. 700 BC
Phoenicia
–
A naval action during the siege of Tyre (350 BC). Drawing by
André Castaigne, 1888–1889.
20.
Eryx (Sicily)
–
Eryx, was an ancient city and a mountain in the west of Sicily, about 10 km from Drepana, and 3 km from the sea-coast. It was located at the site of modern Erice and it is named after Eryx in Greek mythology who is said to be the king of Eryx. Hence we find Eryx alluded to by Virgil and other Latin poets as a mountain of the first order of magnitude, yet another version was presented by Apollonius of Rhodes in his epic Argonautica. In this case, Butes was an Argonaut from Athens, who fell overboard in a rapture while listening to the Sirens and he was saved from drowning when Cypris took pity on him. She carried him to Eryx, where she ruled, and she settled him at Cape Lilybaeum, in 406 BC, a sea-fight took place between a Carthaginian and a Syracusan fleet off the neighborhood of Eryx, in which the latter was victorious. On that occasion it was occupied by a garrison, which, combined with its natural strength of position. It was, however, taken by assault, Pyrrhus himself leading the attack, and taking the opportunity to display his personal prowess as a worthy descendant of Heracles. The old site, however, seems not to have been wholly deserted, the former seems to have been well fortified, and, from its position on the summit of the mountain, constituted a military post of great strength. From this time the town of Eryx sinks into insignificance, cicero alludes to the temple, but never notices the town, and Strabo speaks of it as in his day almost uninhabited. No remains of the ancient city are extant, but it appears to have occupied the site now marked by the convent of Santa Anna, about halfway down the mountain. Even those authors who represent it as founded before the time of Aeneas relate that it was visited by that hero and it is certain that the sanctuary had the good fortune to be regarded with equal reverence by the Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Greeks, and Romans. This is the latest mention of it occurs in history. It has been mentioned that the temple itself was surrounded by fortifications, so as to constitute a strong fortress or citadel, quite distinct from the city below. There was also a temple at Rome dedicated to Venus Erycina, which stood just outside the Colline Gate and this article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Smith, William, ed. article name needed. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography
Eryx (Sicily)
–
Province of Agrigento
Eryx (Sicily)
Eryx (Sicily)
Eryx (Sicily)
21.
Entella
–
It was a very ancient city, and apparently of Sicanian origin, though the traditions concerning its foundation connected it with the Elymi and the supposed Trojan colony. Thucydides, however, reckons Eryx and Egesta the only two cities of the Elymi, and does not notice Entella at all, any more than the places of native Sicanian or Siculian origin. Soon after we find the latter apparently in their hands, but it was recovered by Timoleon, from this time we hear little more of it. The name is only mentioned during the First Punic War. We still find its name both in Pliny and Ptolemy but no notice of it is found in ancient authors. Its location at Rocca dEntella, in the comune of Contessa Entellina, stands at an angle of the Belice, so that river encircles it on the north. The ruins remaining there in the time of Fazello seem to have only those of the mediaeval town. There are extant coins of Entella, with the legend ΕΝΤΕΛΛΙΝΩΝ at full, while others struck under the Campanian occupation of the city have ΕΝΤΕΛΛΑΣ and this article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Smith, William, ed. article name needed. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography
Entella
–
Province of Agrigento
Entella
Entella
Entella
22.
Iaitas
–
Ietas, was an ancient town of the interior of Sicily, in the northwest of the island, not very far from Panormus, in the modern comune of San Giuseppe Jato, whose name reflects the ancient towns. In the First Punic War it was occupied by a Carthaginian garrison, under the Roman government it appears as a municipal town, but not one of much importance. Many manuscripts of Cicero read Letini, and it is probable that the Λῆτον of Ptolemy is only a corruption of the same name, the town minted coins in antiquity, examples of which survive. The position of Ietas is very obscurely intimated in ancient sources, but it appears from Diodorus that it was not very remote from Panormus, silius Italicus also alludes to its elevated situation. The mountain is still called Monte Iato, though known as Monte di San Cosmano. The toponym Jato or Iato is a reflection of the ancient name and this article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Smith, William, ed. article name needed. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography
Iaitas
–
The Greek theatre
Iaitas
–
Province of Agrigento
Iaitas
Iaitas
23.
Drepanon
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Trapani listen is a city and comune on the west coast of Sicily in Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Trapani, founded by Elymians, the city is still an important fishing port and the main gateway to the nearby Egadi Islands. Trapani was founded by the Elymians to serve as the port of the city of Erice. The city sits on a promontory jutting out into the Mediterranean Sea. It was originally named Drepana or Drépanon from the Greek word for sickle, carthage seized control of the city in 260 BC, subsequently making it an important naval base, but ceded it to Rome in 241 BC following the Battle of the Aegates in the First Punic War. Two ancient legends tell of mythical origins for the city, in the first legend, Trapani stemmed from the sickle which fell from the hands of the goddess Demeter while she was seeking for her daughter Persephone, who had been kidnapped by Hades. The second myth features Kronos, who eviscerated his father Ouranos, god of the sky, with a sickle which, falling into the sea, in ancient times, Saturn was the god-protector of Trapani. Today, Saturns statue stands in a piazza in the centre of the city, the city was badly damaged during World War II, when it was subjected to intense Allied bombardments. It has grown greatly since the end of the war, sprawling out virtually to the foot of Monte San Giuliano, tourism has grown in recent years due to the citys proximity to popular destinations such as Erice, Segesta, and the Egadi Islands. The comune of Trapani consists of two parts separated by the comune of Paceco. The northern part includes much of the city and some area, the much larger southern part includes the area of Marausa, half of Trapani-Birgi Airport. The comune does not include the suburbs of the urban area, such as Casa Santa. The comune of Trapani has a population of 70,000, less than the 80,000 of Marsala, the entire urban area of Trapani, including those parts in the comune of Erice, has over 90,000 residents. Much of Trapanis economy still depends on the sea, fishing and canning are the main local industries, with fishermen using the mattanza technique to catch tuna. Coral is also an important export, along with salt, marble, the nearby coast is lined with numerous salt-pans. The city is also an important ferry port, with links to the Egadi Islands, Pantelleria, Sardinia and it also has its own airport, the Trapani-Birgi Airport. Much of the old city of Trapani dates from the medieval or early modern periods. Many of the historic buildings are designed in the Baroque style
Drepanon
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Trapani seen from
Erice. The islands of
Favignana (left) and
Levanzo (right) can be seen in the background.
Drepanon
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Cloister of the Museum Pepoli.
24.
Ancient peoples of Italy
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This is a list of ancient peoples living in Italy before the Roman conquest. Many of the names are either scholarly inventions or exonyms assigned by the ancient writers of works in ancient Greek, the following peoples are believed to have spoken languages that were not Indo-European, although most on scanty evidence. Some of them were pre-Indo-Europeans, and some not, for some has been also proposed the definition of Peri-Indo-European. Therefore, many of these cultures may not necessarily correspond to a specific group of ancient people and, in fact
Ancient peoples of Italy
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Peoples of
Cisalpine Gaul 391-192 BC.
Ancient peoples of Italy
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Ancient tribes of Sardinia.
Ancient peoples of Italy
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Magna Graecia around 280 BC.
25.
Prehistoric Italy
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In prehistoric times, the Italian peninsula was rather different from how it is now. During glaciations, for example, the sea level was lower, the Adriatic Sea began at what is now the Gargano Peninsula, and what is now its surface up to Venice was a fertile plain with a humid climate. The presence of Homo neanderthalensis has been demonstrated in archaeological findings dating to c.50,000 years ago, there are some twenty such sites, the most important being that of the Grotta Guattari at San Felice Circeo, on the Tyrrhenian Sea south of Rome. Other are the grotta di Fumane and the Breuil grotto, also in San Felice, the first Cro Magnon inhabitants of Italy moved across the peninusula, establishing themselves in small settlements far from each one, most on high areas. In 2011 it has discovered the most ancient Sardinian complete human skeleton at Pistoccu, in Marina di Arbus. Cardium Pottery is a Neolithic decorative style that gets its name from the imprinting of the clay with the shell of the Cardium edulis, a marine mollusk. The alternative name Impressed Ware is given by archaeologists to define this culture, because impressions can be with sharp objects other than Cardium shell. Impressed Ware is found in the zone covering Italy to the Ligurian coast as distinct from the more western Cardial beginning in Provence, France and extending to western Portugal. This pottery style gives its name to the culture of the Mediterranean Neolithic. Since the Late-Neolithic, Aosta Valley, Piedmont, Liguria, Tuscany, later, in the Bronze Age, megalithic structures were built also in Latium, Puglia and Sicily. The Remedello, Rinaldone and Gaudo cultures are late Neolithic cultures of Italy, traces of which are found in the present-day regions of Lombardy, Tuscany, Latium. They are sometimes described as Eneolithic cultures, due to their use of copper tools. The earliest Statue menhirs, frequently depicting weapons, were erected by the populations of northern Italy and this sculptural tradition of possible steppe origin, lasted in some regions well into the Bronze Age and even into the Iron Age. The Beaker culture marks the transition between the Eneolitichic and the early Bronze Age and it was followed in the Middle Bronze Age by the facies of the pile dwellings and of the dammed settlements. Located in Sardinia, the Nuragic civilization, who lasted from the early Bronze Age to the second century A. D and it takes its name from the characteristic Nuraghe. The nuraghe towers are considered the best-preserved and largest megalithic remains in Europe. Their effective use is debated, while most scholars considered them as fortresses. A warrior and mariner people, the ancient Sardinians held flourishing trades with the other Mediterranean peoples, another important element of this civilitation are the Giants of Monte Prama, perhaps the oldest anthropomorphic statues of the western Mediterranean sea
Prehistoric Italy
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Figure of an
Aurochs engraved at the Romito cave near
Cosenza
Prehistoric Italy
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Circular graves of Li Muri at
Arzachena, one of the oldest megalithic sites in Italy.
Prehistoric Italy
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Monte Bubbonia dolmen in Sicily
Prehistoric Italy
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Reconstruction of the copper axe of
Ötzi the Iceman
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Monte Polizzo
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Monte Polizzo is an archaeological site located 6 km northwest of the town of Salemi, in the province of Trapani, western Sicily, southern Italy. It occupies an easily defended hilltop, from which a vast area of western Sicily can be seen, and consists of an group of ridges. The settlement has been dated to c. 9th - 4th centuries BC, the Monte Polizzo Project is a group of international scholars who are interested in the ancient Elymians of western Sicily, and their Early Iron Age origins, development and eventual collapse. It also aims to investigate the process of Hellenisation and the influence of Phoenician, in 1970 Vincenzo Tusa launched a campaign of trial excavations in inland western Sicily, including the first organized dig at Monte Polizzo. He opened several trial trenches, uncovering Iron Age remains, associated with 6th century BC Greek pottery, in 1996, Vincenzo Tusa’s son Sebastiano created an international project to further understanding of the Elymians, with Monte Polizzo at its core. In 1998 the Sicilian-Scandinavian Archaeological Project was launched, led by Sebastiano Tusa, from 1998 to 2001, Christopher Prescott of the University of Oslo directed excavation of House 1, dated c. 550-525 BC, as well as the dump and areas on the north slope of the acropolis. Excavations were extended to the west in 2002 by Christian Mühlenbock, the new area revealed additional house complexes from the mid 6th century BC. The excavations were drawn to a close in 2006 but the results will soon been published in two major volumes, in 1999 Stanford University joined the Monte Polizzo project, where a team of students led by Michael Shanks and Emma Blake began analyzing finds from the 1998 excavations. In 2000, Professor Ian Morris began excavating on the acropolis with students, by 2002 the acropolis excavation had become one of the largest archaeological projects in the western Mediterranean. Excavations on the acropolis were drawn to a close during the 2006 season, annual preliminary reports in English are published in Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome, and in Italian in Sicilia Archaeologica
Monte Polizzo
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Province of Agrigento
Monte Polizzo
Monte Polizzo
Monte Polizzo
