Villanovan culture
The Villanovan culture was the earliest Iron Age culture of Central Italy and Northern Italy, abruptly following the Bronze Age Terramare culture and giving way in the 7th century BC to an orientalizing culture influenced by Greek traders, followed without a severe break by the Etruscan civilization. The Villanovan culture and people branched from the Urnfield culture of Central Europe; the Villanovans introduced iron-working to the Italian Peninsula, they practiced cremation and buried the ashes of their dead in pottery urns of distinctive double-cone shape. Villanovan culture is regarded as the oldest phase of Etruscan civilization; the name Villanovan comes from the type-site, that of the first archaeological finds relating to this advanced culture, remnants of a cemetery found near Villanova in northern Italy. The excavation lasting from 1853 to 1855 was made by the scholarly owner, count Giovanni Gozzadini, involved 193 tombs, six of which were separated from the rest as if to signify a special social status.
The "well tomb" pit graves lined with stones contained funerary urns. In 1893, a chance discovery unearthed another distinctive Villanovan necropolis at Verucchio, overlooking the Adriatic coastal plain; the burial characteristics relate the Villanovan culture to the Central European Urnfield culture, Celtic Hallstatt culture, in such a way that it is not possible to tell them apart in their earlier stages. Cremated remains were placed in cinerary urns in biconical urns and buried; the urns were a form of Villanovan pottery known as impasto. A custom believed to originate with the Villanovan culture is the usage of "Hut urns", cinerary urns fashioned like small huts, other advanced urn designs. Typical sgraffito decorations of swastikas and squares were scratched with a comb-like tool. Urns were accompanied by simple bronze fibulae and rings; the culture is broadly divided into a Proto-Villanovan culture from c. 1100 BC to c. 900 BC and the Villanovan culture proper from c. 900 BC to c. 700 BC.
This period came just before the foundation of Etruscan cities. The phase saw radical changes, evidence of contact with Hellenic civilization and trade with the north along the Amber Road: glass and amber necklaces on women, bronze armor and horse harness fittings, the development of elite graves in contrast to the earlier egalitarian culture. Chamber tombs and inhumation practices were developed side-by-side with the earlier cremation practices; the metalwork quality found in pottery show commitment by Villanovan artisans. Some grave goods from burial sites display a higher quality, suggesting the development of societal elites within Villanovan culture. Tools and items were placed in graves suggesting a belief in an afterlife, men's graves contained weapons, weaving tools for the women with a few graves containing vice versa goods. Indicating exceptions with the possibility that women played a more active role in Villanovan culture and that men too had made clothing. Villanovans traded with other states from the Mediterranean such as Greeks and Sardinia.
Trade brought about advancement in metallurgy, Greek presence influenced Villanovan pottery. Housing was rectangular in shape; the people lived in small huts, made of daub with wooden poles for support. Within the huts, contained cooking stands and charred animal bones indicate the family life of early inhabitants in Italy; some huts contained large pottery jars for food storage sunk into their floors, there was rock cut drainage to channel rainwater to communal reservoirs. Speaking, Villanovan settlements were centered in the Adriatic Etruria, in Emilia Romagna, in Marche, in the Tyrrhenian Etruria, in Tuscany and Lazio. Further south, Villanovan cremation burials are to be found in Campania, at Capua, at the "princely tombs" of Pontecagnano near Salerno, at Capo di Fiume, at Vallo di Diano and at Sala Consilina. Small scattered Villanovan settlements have left few traces other than their more permanent burial sites, which were set somewhat apart from the settlements— because the settlement sites were built over in Etruscan times.
This site continuity encourages modern opinion to follow Massimo Pallottino in regarding the Villanovan culture as ancestral to the Etruscan civilization. Etruscans Canegrate culture Prehistoric Italy S. Gozzadini: La nécropole de Villanova, Fava et Garagnani, Bologna, 1870 J. P. Mallory, "Villanovan Culture", Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture, 1997. G. Bartoloni, "The origin and diffusion of Villanovan culture." In M. Torelli, The Etruscans, pp 53–74. 2000. M. E. Moser, The "Southern Villanovan" Culture of Campania, 1982. D. Ridgway, "The Villanovan Cemeteries of Bologna and Pontecagnano" in Journal of Roman Archaeology 7: pp 303–16 Museo Archeologico di Verucchio: Villanovan necropolis Ashmolean Museum: Ancient Italy Before the Romans
Picentes
The name Picentes or Picentini refers to the population of Picenum, on the northern Adriatic coastal plain of ancient Italy. Their endonym, if any, is not known for certain. There is linguistic evidence that the Picentini comprised two different ethnicities: a group known to scholars as the "South Picenes" were an Italic tribe, while the "North Picenes" appear to have had closer links to non-Italic peoples. Usage of the toponym Picenum depends on the time period; the region between the Apennines and the Adriatic Sea south of Ancona was in Picenum during the entire early historic period. Between Ancona and Rimini to the north the population was multi-ethnic. In the Roman Republic it was Gallia Togata, but the Gauls were known to have combined or supplanted earlier populations; the ager Gallicus, as it was called, was considered both Picenum. Under the Roman Empire the coast south of Rimini was united or reunited with the country south of Ancona as Picenum. By the only language spoken was Latin. From Ancona southward a language of the Umbrian group was spoken, today called South Picene.
It is attested in inscriptions. Umbrian was an Italic language. North of Ancona around Pesaro a non-Italic language, written in a version of the Old Italic script, is attested by four inscriptions. Both the meaning of the inscriptions and the relationship of North Picene to other languages remains unknown. There is phonological evidence that it was linked more to the Indo-European language family; some authors have referred to North Picene as "Picene" – under a hypothesis that it represents the original language across Picenum, although there is as yet evidence for this. One endonym of the Picentes, or at least the South Picenes, may be Pupeneis or, according to Edward Togo Salmon "something similar", as this ethnic name is used in four South Picenian language inscriptions found near Ascoli Piceno. Refinements of the argument connected it to the Latin name Poponius, as in inscription TE 1 found near Teramo: apaes...púpúnis nir "Appaes... a Poponian man"The connection between Poponian and Picentes, if any, remains obscure.
There is no mention in ancient sources of the endonym used by the North Picenes. The first document to mention the Latin exonym Picentes is the Fasti triumphales, which record for 268/267 BC a triumph given to Publius Sempronius Sophus for a victory de Peicentibus, "over the Picentes," where the -ei- is an Old Latin form; the entire group of Latin Picene words delivered subsequently appear to follow the standard rules for Latin word formation. The root is provenience and meaning yet unknown; the extended Pīc-ēn- is used to form a second-declension adjective, appearing in such phrases as Pīcēnus ager, "Picene country," Pīcēnae olivae, "Picene olives", the neuter used as a noun, Pīcēnum. These are not references to the country. Pīcēni where it occurs is the genitive case of not a nominative plural. Pīcēnus used alone implies Pīcēnus ager, the "Picene" and does not mean one resident of Picenum; this adjective is never used of the people. For the people, a third-declension adjective stem is formed: Pīc-ent-, used in Pīcens and Pīcentes, "a Picentine" and "the Picentines," which are nouns formed from the adjective.
This adjective can be used of people or of other words, as well as in a second formation of the name of the country, Pīcentum. From it comes a final name of the people, Pīcentini; the historical order in which these words appeared or whether they came from each other remains unknown. According to Strabo, the Picentini were Sabine colonists, although this is doubted by more recent scholars, who see the South Picenes at least as more related to the Sabellians. Strabo relates a legend that a woodpecker led the way to Picenum for the people who became the Picentini and a folk etymology of their ethnonym was "those of the woodpecker." Strabo reported myths that other regions of Italy were colonized by people relying on the divinely-inspired guidance of a ritually selected animal: a bull for the Sabines and a wolf for the Hirpini i.e. "those of the wolf" or hirpo. The woodpecker played a part in Picene religion and culture, which strengthens the case for the animal being the source of their endonym.
Modern advocates of the theory include: Joshua Whatmough, believed that many Italic peoples had tribal totems. According to Whatmough, Italia was thought to mean "land of calves", while wolves were esteemed in varying ways by several peoples, including the Hirpini and Lucani In 299 BC the Romans captured Nequinum, a city of the Umbrians, colonized it and renamed it Narni, they concluded a treaty with a people Livy calls the Picentes. In 297 BC the Picentes warned the Roman Senate that they had been approached by the Samnites asking for alliance in renewed hostilities with Rome; the Senate thanked them. After a gap in the record of nearly 30 years the Picentes appear again in a different relationship with Rome; the Ager Gallicus on the northeast coast of Italy had for some time been populated by different ethnic groups Picentes and Gauls. Ancona had been placed there by the Greeks of Sicily. In 283 BC after a series of victories over the Gauls, including the Battle of Lake Vadimo
Cesare Borgia
Cesare Borgia, Duke of Valentinois, was an Italian condottiero, nobleman and cardinal with Aragonese and Italian origins, whose fight for power was a major inspiration for The Prince by Machiavelli. He was the son of his long-term mistress Vannozza dei Cattanei, he was the brother of Lucrezia Borgia. He was half-brother to children of unknown mothers. After entering the church and becoming a cardinal on his father's election to the Papacy, he became, after the death of his brother in 1498, the first person to resign a cardinalcy, he served as a condottiero for the King of France Louis XII around 1500 and occupied Milan and Naples during the Italian Wars. At the same time he carved out a state for himself in Central Italy, but after his father's death he was unable to retain power for long. According to Machiavelli this was not due to his own illness. Like many aspects of Cesare Borgia's life, the date of his birth is a subject of dispute, he was born in Rome—in either 1475 or 1476—the illegitimate son of Cardinal Roderic Llançol i de Borja known as "Rodrigo Borgia" Pope Alexander VI, his Italian mistress Vannozza dei Cattanei, about whom information is sparse.
The Borgia family came from the Kingdom of Valencia, rose to prominence during the mid-15th century. Cesare's father, Pope Alexander VI, was the first pope who recognized his children born out of wedlock. Stefano Infessura writes that Cardinal Borgia falsely claimed Cesare to be the legitimate son of another man—Domenico d'Arignano, the nominal husband of Vannozza dei Cattanei. More Pope Sixtus IV granted Cesare a release from the necessity of proving his birth in a papal bull of 1 October 1480. Cesare was groomed for a career in the Church. Following school in Perugia and Pisa, Cesare studied law at the Studium Urbis, he was made Bishop of Pamplona at the age of 15 and archbishop of Valencia at 17. In 1493, he had been appointed bishop of both Castres and Elne. In 1494, he received the title of abbot of the abbey of Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa. Along with his father's elevation to Pope, Cesare was made Cardinal at the age of 18. Alexander VI staked the hopes of the Borgia family on Cesare's brother Giovanni, made captain general of the military forces of the papacy.
Giovanni was assassinated in 1497 in mysterious circumstances. Several contemporaries suggested that Cesare might have been his killer, as Giovanni's disappearance could open to him a long-awaited military career and solve the jealousy over Sancha of Aragon, wife of Cesare's younger brother and mistress of both Cesare and Giovanni. Cesare's role in the act has never been clear. However, he had no definitive motive, as he was to be given a powerful secular position, whether or not his brother lived, it is more that Giovanni was killed as a result of a sexual liaison. On 17 August 1498, Cesare became the first person in history to resign the cardinalate. On the same day, Louis XII of France named Cesare Duke of Valentinois, this title, along with his former position as Cardinal of Valencia, explains the nickname "Valentino". Cesare's career was founded upon his father's ability to distribute patronage, along with his alliance with France, in the course of the Italian Wars. Louis XII invaded Italy in 1499: after Gian Giacomo Trivulzio had ousted its duke Ludovico Sforza, Cesare accompanied the king in his entrance into Milan.
At this point Alexander decided to profit from the favourable situation and carve out for Cesare a state of his own in northern Italy. To this end, he declared that all his vicars in Marche were deposed. Though in theory subject directly to the pope, these rulers had been independent or dependent on other states for generations. In the view of the citizens, these vicars were petty; when Cesare took power, he was viewed by the citizens as a great improvement. Cesare was appointed commander of the papal armies with a number of Italian mercenaries, supported by 300 cavalry and 4,000 Swiss infantry sent by the King of France. Alexander sent him to capture Forlì, ruled by Caterina Sforza. Despite being deprived of his French troops after the conquest of those two cities, Borgia returned to Rome to celebrate a triumph and to receive the title of Papal Gonfalonier from his father. In 1500 the creation of twelve new cardinals granted Alexander enough money for Cesare to hire the condottieri, Vitellozzo Vitelli, Gian Paolo Baglioni and Paolo Orsini, Oliverotto Euffreducci, who resumed his campaign in Romagna.
Giovanni Sforza, first husband of Cesare's sister Lucrezia, was soon ousted from Pesaro. In May 1501 the latter was created duke of Romagna. Hired by Florence, Cesare subsequently added the lordship of Piombino to his new lands. While his condottieri took over the siege of Piombino, Cesare commanded the French troops in the sieges of Naples and Capua, defended by Prospero and Fabrizio Colonna
Italy
Italy the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe. Located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, Italy shares open land borders with France, Austria and the enclaved microstates San Marino and Vatican City. Italy covers an area of 301,340 km2 and has a temperate seasonal and Mediterranean climate. With around 61 million inhabitants, it is the fourth-most populous EU member state and the most populous country in Southern Europe. Due to its central geographic location in Southern Europe and the Mediterranean, Italy has been home to a myriad of peoples and cultures. In addition to the various ancient peoples dispersed throughout modern-day Italy, the most famous of which being the Indo-European Italics who gave the peninsula its name, beginning from the classical era and Carthaginians founded colonies in insular Italy and Genoa, Greeks established settlements in the so-called Magna Graecia, while Etruscans and Celts inhabited central and northern Italy respectively; the Italic tribe known as the Latins formed the Roman Kingdom in the 8th century BC, which became a republic with a government of the Senate and the People.
The Roman Republic conquered and assimilated its neighbours on the peninsula, in some cases through the establishment of federations, the Republic expanded and conquered parts of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. By the first century BC, the Roman Empire emerged as the dominant power in the Mediterranean Basin and became the leading cultural and religious centre of Western civilisation, inaugurating the Pax Romana, a period of more than 200 years during which Italy's technology, economy and literature flourished. Italy remained the metropole of the Roman Empire; the legacy of the Roman Empire endured its fall and can be observed in the global distribution of culture, governments and the Latin script. During the Early Middle Ages, Italy endured sociopolitical collapse and barbarian invasions, but by the 11th century, numerous rival city-states and maritime republics in the northern and central regions of Italy, rose to great prosperity through shipping and banking, laying the groundwork for modern capitalism.
These independent statelets served as Europe's main trading hubs with Asia and the Near East enjoying a greater degree of democracy than the larger feudal monarchies that were consolidating throughout Europe. The Renaissance began in Italy and spread to the rest of Europe, bringing a renewed interest in humanism, science and art. Italian culture flourished, producing famous scholars and polymaths such as Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael and Machiavelli. During the Middle Ages, Italian explorers such as Marco Polo, Christopher Columbus, Amerigo Vespucci, John Cabot and Giovanni da Verrazzano discovered new routes to the Far East and the New World, helping to usher in the European Age of Discovery. Italy's commercial and political power waned with the opening of trade routes that bypassed the Mediterranean. Centuries of infighting between the Italian city-states, such as the Italian Wars of the 15th and 16th centuries, left the region fragmented, it was subsequently conquered and further divided by European powers such as France and Austria.
By the mid-19th century, rising Italian nationalism and calls for independence from foreign control led to a period of revolutionary political upheaval. After centuries of foreign domination and political division, Italy was entirely unified in 1871, establishing the Kingdom of Italy as a great power. From the late 19th century to the early 20th century, Italy industrialised, namely in the north, acquired a colonial empire, while the south remained impoverished and excluded from industrialisation, fuelling a large and influential diaspora. Despite being one of the main victors in World War I, Italy entered a period of economic crisis and social turmoil, leading to the rise of a fascist dictatorship in 1922. Participation in World War II on the Axis side ended in military defeat, economic destruction and the Italian Civil War. Following the liberation of Italy and the rise of the resistance, the country abolished the monarchy, reinstated democracy, enjoyed a prolonged economic boom and, despite periods of sociopolitical turmoil became a developed country.
Today, Italy is considered to be one of the world's most culturally and economically advanced countries, with the sixth-largest worldwide national wealth. Its advanced economy ranks eighth-largest in the world and third in the Eurozone by nominal GDP. Italy owns the third-largest central bank gold reserve, it has a high level of human development, it stands among the top countries for life expectancy. The country plays a prominent role in regional and global economic, military and diplomatic affairs. Italy is a founding and leading member of the European Union and a member of numerous international institutions, including the UN, NATO, the OECD, the OSCE, the WTO, the G7, the G20, the Union for the Mediterranean, the Council of Europe, Uniting for Consensus, the Schengen Area and many more; as a reflection
Giovanni Visconti (archbishop of Milan)
Giovanni Visconti was an Italian Roman Catholic cardinal, co-ruler in Milan and lord of other Italian cities. He was a military leader who fought against Florence, used force to capture and hold other cities, he was the son of Matteo I Bonacossa Borri. Giovanni Visconti was elected archbishop by the Capitol of Milan in 1317, but Pope John XXII refused to confirm the election and instead raised Aicardus from Comodeia to that position. In 1323 John excommunicated him with an accusation of heresy, Visconti found an ally in the antipope Nicholas V, who give him the title of cardinal. In 1331 he became bishop and lord of Novara, in 1339, after Aicardus' death, he triumphantly entered Milan, although Pope Clement VI only issued a bull confirming him in the archbishopric in 1342, he thus was Archbishop of Milan from 1342 to 1354. Together with his brother Luchino, Visconti bought from the Pope the title of co-ruler of Milan, for 500,000 florins. After Luchino's death, he associated in the lordship the sons of his other brother, who were Matteo II, Bernabò and Galeazzo II.
The year after Luchino Visconti's death in 1349, with the approval of his relations, Giovanni Visconti assumed full lordship of Milan and began consolidating power in Lombardy and beyond. The same year, 1350, he obtained lordship over Bologna and placed his nephew, Bernabò, in charge of the city in 1351. Afraid of his growing strength, in 1350 Florence organized a conference in Arezzo with a papal legate and representatives of other cities to form an alliance against Milan. Aware of these moves against him, Giovanni Visconti cultivated affection and alliance with the Ghibellines of Tuscany and Romagna. After the death of Mastino II della Scala of Verona, hostile to the Archbishop, he gained the friendship of Mastino’s son, Cangrande II della Scala. In 1351, he sent troops from Milan and Bologna, from allies in Faenza and Forlì, all led by Bernabò, to lay siege to Imola. With war occurring in the Romagna region, Giovanni Visconti was able to lull the Florentines into believing that he had no intentions towards them.
However, he had many leading Bolognese citizens arrested and tortured, extracted confessions from them of a conspiracy with Florence to overthrow his rule. He used this as a justification of war against Florence and the Guelphs of Tuscany; the Archbishop placed Giovanni da Oleggio, another Visconti, in command, he amassed an army from Bologna and led them into Tuscany to besiege and capture towns and castles, while Ghibelline allies in Tuscany wreaked havoc elsewhere in the region. In 1352, Giovanni Visconti became lord of Genoa, in the following year, he added Novara. In 1353, Petrarch visited as his guest. Giovanni Visconti died 5 October 1354. House of Visconti
Montegiorgio
Montegiorgio is a comune in the Province of Fermo in the Italian region Marche, located about 70 kilometres south of Ancona and about 80 kilometres north of Ascoli Piceno. Montegiorgio borders the following municipalities: Belmonte Piceno, Fermo, Francavilla d'Ete, Magliano di Tenna, Massa Fermana, Monte San Pietrangeli, Monte Vidon Corrado, Rapagnano. Remains of the portal of church of San Salvatore Castle walls Church of San Francesco Castles of Cerreto and Alteta Domenico Alaleona, composer Historical center of Montegiorgio
Papal States
The Papal States the State of the Church, were a series of territories in the Italian Peninsula under the direct sovereign rule of the Pope, from the 8th century until 1870. They were among the major states of Italy from the 8th century until the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia unified the Italian Peninsula by conquest in a campaign concluded in 1861 and definitively in 1870. At their zenith, the Papal States covered most of the modern Italian regions of Lazio, Marche and Romagna, portions of Emilia; these holdings were considered to be a manifestation of the temporal power of the pope, as opposed to his ecclesiastical primacy. By 1861, much of the Papal States' territory had been conquered by the Kingdom of Italy. Only Lazio, including Rome, remained under the Pope's temporal control. In 1870, the Pope lost Lazio and Rome and had no physical territory at all, except the Basilica of St Peter and the papal residence and related buildings around the Vatican quarter of Rome, which the new Italian state did not occupy militarily.
In 1929 the head of the Italian government, at the time the Italian Fascist leader Benito Mussolini, ended the crisis between unified Italy and the Holy See by negotiating the Lateran Treaty, signed by the two parties. This recognized the sovereignty of the Holy See over a newly created international territorial entity, the Vatican City State, limited to a token territory; the Papal States were known as the Papal State. The territories were referred to variously as the State of the Church, the Pontifical States, the Ecclesiastical States, or the Roman States. To some extent the name used varied with the preferences and habits of the European languages in which it was expressed. For its first 300 years the Catholic Church was persecuted and unrecognized, unable to hold or transfer property. Early congregations met in rooms set aside for that purpose in the homes of well-to-do individuals, a number of early churches, known as titular churches and located on the outskirts of Ancient Rome, were held as property by individuals, rather than by the Church itself.
Nonetheless, the properties held nominally or by individual members of the Roman churches would be considered as a common patrimony handed over successively to the legitimate "heir" of that property its senior deacons, who were, in turn, assistants to the local bishop. This common patrimony attached to the churches at Rome, thus under its ruling bishop, became quite considerable, including as it did not only houses etc. in Rome or nearby but landed estates, such as latifundias, whole or in part, across Italy and beyond. This system began to change during the reign of the emperor Constantine I, who made Christianity legal within the Roman Empire, restoring to it any properties, confiscated; the Lateran Palace was the first significant new donation to the Church, most a gift from Constantine himself. Other donations followed in mainland Italy but in the provinces of the Roman Empire, but the Church held all of these lands as a private landowner, not as a sovereign entity. When in the 5th century the Italian peninsula passed under the control of Odoacer and the Ostrogoths, the Church organization in Italy, with the pope at its head, submitted of necessity to their sovereign authority while asserting its spiritual primacy over the whole Church.
The seeds of the Papal States as a sovereign political entity were planted in the 6th century. Beginning in 535, the Byzantine Empire, under emperor Justinian I, launched a reconquest of Italy that took decades and devastated Italy's political and economic structures. Just as these wars wound down, the Lombards entered the peninsula from the north and conquered much of the countryside. By the 7th century, Byzantine authority was limited to a diagonal band running from Ravenna, where the Emperor's representative, or Exarch, was located, to Rome and south to Naples, plus coastal enclaves. With effective Byzantine power weighted at the northeast end of this territory, the pope, as the largest landowner and most prestigious figure in Italy, began by default to take on much of the ruling authority that Byzantines were unable to project to the area around the city of Rome. While the popes remained Byzantine subjects, in practice the Duchy of Rome, an area equivalent to modern-day Latium, became an independent state ruled by the pope.
The Church's independence, combined with popular support for the papacy in Italy, enabled various popes to defy the will of the Byzantine emperor. The pope and the exarch still worked together to control the rising power of the Lombards in Italy; as Byzantine power weakened, the papacy took an ever-larger role in defending Rome from the Lombards through diplomacy. In practice, the papal efforts served to focus Lombard aggrandizement on Ravenna. A climactic moment in the founding of the Papal States was the agreement over boundaries embodied in the Lombard king Liutprand's Donation of Sutri to Pope Gregory II; when the Exarchate of
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listen (help·info) (ancient: Firmum Picenum) is a town and comune of the Marche, Italy, in the Province of Fermo.
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Berat, Albania
Bahía Blanca, Argentina
Ansbach, Germany, since 2006
León, Mexico
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Ashby, Thomas (1911). "Fermo". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. 10 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 278.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the 
Fermo travel guide from Wikivoyage
