De architectura
De architectura is a treatise on architecture written by the Roman architect and military engineer Marcus Vitruvius Pollio and dedicated to his patron, the emperor Caesar Augustus, as a guide for building projects. As the only treatise on architecture to survive from antiquity, it has been regarded since the Renaissance as the first book on architectural theory, as well as a major source on the canon of classical architecture, it contains a variety of information on Greek and Roman buildings, as well as prescriptions for the planning and design of military camps and structures both large and small. Since Vitruvius published before the development of cross vaulting, domes and other innovations associated with Imperial Roman architecture, his ten books are not regarded as a source of information on these hallmarks of Roman building design and technology. Written between 30 and 15 BC, it combines the knowledge and views of many antique writers, both Greek and Roman, not only on architecture but on the arts, natural history and building technology.
Vitruvius cites many authorities throughout the text praising Greek architects for their development of temple building and the orders, providing key accounts of the origins of building in the primitive hut. Though cited for his famous "triad" of characteristics associated with architecture—utilitas and venustas --the aesthetic principles that influenced treatise writers were outlined in Book III. Derived from Latin rhetoric, Vitruvian terms for order, arrangement and fitness for intended purposes have guided architects for centuries, continue to do so today; the Roman author gave advice on the qualifications of an architect and on types of architectural drawing. The ten books or scrolls are organized as follows: De architectura – Ten Books on Architecture Roman architects were skilled in engineering and craftsmanship combined. Vitruvius was much of this type, a fact reflected in De architectura, he covered a wide variety of subjects. This included many aspects that may seem irrelevant to modern eyes, ranging from mathematics to astronomy and medicine.
In the Roman conception, architecture needed to take into account everything touching on the physical and intellectual life of man and his surroundings. Vitruvius, deals with many theoretical issues concerning architecture. For instance, in Book II of De architectura, he advises architects working with bricks to familiarise themselves with pre-Socratic theories of matter so as to understand how their materials will behave. Book IX relates the abstract geometry of Plato to the everyday work of the surveyor. Astrology is cited for its insights into the organisation of human life, while astronomy is required for the understanding of sundials. Vitruvius cites Ctesibius of Alexandria and Archimedes for their inventions, Aristoxenus for music, Agatharchus for theatre, Varro for architecture. Vitruvius sought to address the ethos of architecture, declaring that quality depends on the social relevance of the artist's work, not on the form or workmanship of the work itself; the most famous declaration from De architectura is one still quoted by architects: "Well building hath three conditions: firmness and delight."
This quote is taken from Sir Henry Wotton's version of 1624, is a plain and accurate translation of the passage in Vitruvius: but English has changed since especially in regard to the word "commodity", the tag is misunderstood. A modern interpretation of Wotton's English might render it thus: "The ideal building has three elements. Vitruvius studied human proportions and his canones were encoded in a famous drawing by Leonardo da Vinci. De architectura is important for its descriptions of many different machines used for engineering structures, such as hoists and pulleys, as well as war machines such as catapults and siege engines. Vitruvius described the construction of sundials and water clocks, the use of an aeolipile as an experiment to demonstrate the nature of atmospheric air movements. Books VIII, IX, X of De architectura form the basis of much of what is known about Roman technology, now augmented by archaeological studies of extant remains, such as the Pont du Gard in southern France.
Numerous such massive structures occur across the former empire, a testament to the power of Roman engineering. Vitruvius' description of Roman aqueduct construction is short, but mentions key details for the way they were surveyed, the careful choice of materials needed, his book would have been of assistance to Frontinus, a general, appointed in the late 1st century AD to administer the many aqueducts of Rome. Frontinus wrote De aquaeductu, the definitive treatise on 1st-century Roman aqueducts, discovered a discrepancy between the intake and supply of water caused by illegal pipes inserted into the channels to divert the water; the Roman Empire went far in exploiting water power, as the set of no fewer than 16 water mills at Barbegal in France demonstrates. The mills ground grain in a efficient operation, many other mills are now known, such as the much Hierapolis sawmill. Vitruvius described many different construction materials used for a wide variety of different structures, as well as such details as stucco paint
Silures
The Silures were a powerful and warlike tribe or tribal confederation of ancient Britain, occupying what is now south east Wales and some adjoining areas. They were bordered to the north by the Ordovices. According to Tacitus's biography of Agricola, the Silures had a dark complexion and curly hair. Due to their appearance, Tacitus believed they had crossed over from Spain at an earlier date."... the swarthy faces of the Silures, the curly quality, in general, of their hair, the position of Spain opposite their shores, attest to the passage of Iberians in old days and the occupation by them of these districts. Jordanes, in his Origins and Deeds of the Goths, describes the Silures. "The Silures have swarthy features and are born with curly black hair, but the inhabitants of Caledonia have reddish hair and large loose-jointed bodies. They are like the Gauls or the Spaniards." The Iron Age hillfort at Llanmelin near Caerwent has sometimes been suggested as a pre-Roman tribal centre, but the view of most archaeologists is that the people who became known as the Silures were a loose network of groups with some shared cultural values, rather than a centralised society.
Although the most obvious physical remains of the Silures are hillforts such as those at Llanmelin and Sudbrook, there is archaeological evidence of roundhouses at Gwehelog and elsewhere, evidence of lowland occupation notably at Goldcliff. The Latin word Silures is of Celtic origin derived from the Common Celtic root *sīlo-,'seed'. Words derived from this root in Celtic languages are used to mean'blood-stock, lineage, offspring', as well as'seed' in the vegetable sense.'Silures' might therefore mean'Kindred, Stock' referring to a tribal belief in a descent from an originating ancestor. Patrizia de Bernardo Stempel hypothesises that the Silures were silo-riks,'rich in grain'; the Silures fiercely resisted Roman conquest about AD 48, with the assistance of Caratacus, a military leader and prince of the Catuvellauni, who had fled from further east after his own tribe was defeated. The first attack on the Welsh tribes was by the legate Publius Ostorius Scapula about AD 48. Ostorius first attacked the Deceangli in the north-east of what is now Wales, who appear to have surrendered with little resistance.
He spent several years campaigning against the Silures and the Ordovices. Their resistance was led by Caratacus, who had fled from the south-east when it was conquered by the Romans, he first led the Silures moved to the territory of the Ordovices, where he was defeated by Ostorius in AD 51. The Silures were not subdued and waged effective guerrilla warfare against the Roman forces. Ostorius had announced that they posed such a danger that they should be either exterminated or transplanted, his threats only increased the Silures' determination to resist and a large legionary force occupied in building Roman forts in their territory was surrounded and attacked, rescued only with difficulty and considerable loss. They took Roman prisoners as hostages and distributed them amongst their neighbouring tribes in order to bind them together and encourage resistance. Ostorius died with the Silures still unconquered and, after his death, they defeated the Second Legion, it remains unclear whether the Silures were militarily defeated or agreed to come to terms, but Roman sources suggest rather opaquely that they were subdued by Sextus Julius Frontinus in a series of campaigns ending about AD 78.
The Roman Tacitus wrote of the Silures: non atrocitate, non clementia mutabatur– the tribe "was changed neither by cruelty nor by clemency". To aid the Roman administration in keeping down local opposition, a legionary fortress was planted in the midst of tribal territory; the town of Venta Silurum was established in AD 75. It became a Romanized town, not unlike Calleva Atrebatum, but smaller. An inscription shows that, under the Roman Empire, it was the capital of the Silures, whose ordo provided local government for the district, its massive Roman walls still survive, excavations have revealed a forum, a temple, amphitheatre and many comfortable houses with mosaic floors, etc. In the late 1st and early 2nd centuries, the Silures were given some nominal independence and responsibility for local administration; as was standard practice, as revealed by inscriptions, the Romans matched their deities with local Silurian ones, the local deity Ocelus was identified with Mars, the Roman god of war.
Caerwent seems to have continued in use in the post-Roman period as a religious centre and the territory of the Silures became the 5th century Welsh Kingdoms of Gwent and Gwynllŵg. Some theories concerning King Arthur make him a leader in this area. There is evidence of cultural continuity throughout the Roman period, from the Silures to the kingdom of Gwent in particular, as shown by leaders of Gwent using the name "Caradoc" in remembrance of the British hero Caratacus Reference is made to this period of Celtic history by the use of terms such as "Silurian"; the poet Henry Vaughan called himself a "Silurist", by virtue of his roots in South Wales. The geological period Silurian was first described by Roderick Murchison in rocks located in the original lands of the Silures, hence the name; that period postdates the Cambrian and Ordovician periods, whose names are derived from ancient Wales
Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa
Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa was a Roman consul, statesman and architect. He was a close friend, son-in-law, lieutenant to Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus and was responsible for the construction of some of the most notable buildings in the history of Rome and for important military victories, most notably at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC against the forces of Mark Antony and Cleopatra; as a result of these victories, Octavianus became the first Roman Emperor, adopting the name of Augustus. Agrippa assisted Augustus in making Rome "a city of marble" and renovating aqueducts to give all Romans, from every social class, access to the highest quality public services, he was responsible for the creation of many baths and gardens, as well as the original Pantheon. Agrippa was husband to Julia the Elder, maternal grandfather to Caligula, maternal great-grandfather to the Emperor Nero. Agrippa was born between 64–62 BC, in an uncertain location, his father was called Lucius Vipsanius Agrippa. He had an elder brother whose name was Lucius Vipsanius Agrippa, a sister named Vipsania Polla.
His family was of humble and plebeian origins. They had not been prominent in Roman public life. According to some scholars, including Victor Gardthausen, R. E. A. Palmer and David Ridgway, Agrippa's family was from Pisa in Etruria. Agrippa was about the same age as Octavian, the two were educated together and became close friends. Despite Agrippa's association with the family of Julius Caesar, his elder brother chose another side in the civil wars of the 40s BC, fighting under Cato against Caesar in Africa; when Cato's forces were defeated, Agrippa's brother was taken prisoner but freed after Octavian interceded on his behalf. It is not known whether Agrippa fought against his brother in Africa, but he served in Caesar's campaign of 46–45 BC against Gnaeus Pompeius, which culminated in the Battle of Munda. Caesar regarded him enough to send him with Octavius in 45 BC to study in Apollonia with the Macedonian legions, while Caesar consolidated his power in Rome. In the fourth month of their stay in Apollonia the news of Julius Caesar's assassination in March 44 BC reached them.
Agrippa and another friend, Quintus Salvidienus Rufus, advised Octavius to march on Rome with the troops from Macedonia, but Octavius decided to sail to Italy with a small retinue. After his arrival, he learned. Octavius at this time took Caesar's name, but modern historians refer to him as "Octavian" during this period. After Octavian's return to Rome, he and his supporters realised. Agrippa helped Octavian to levy troops in Campania. Once Octavian had his legions, he made a pact with Mark Antony and Lepidus established in 43 BC as the Second Triumvirate. Octavian and his consular colleague Quintus Pedius arranged for Caesar's assassins to be prosecuted in their absence, Agrippa was entrusted with the case against Gaius Cassius Longinus, it may have been in the same year that Agrippa began his political career, holding the position of Tribune of the Plebs, which granted him entry to the Senate. In 42 BC, Agrippa fought alongside Octavian and Antony in the Battle of Philippi. After their return to Rome, he played a major role in Octavian's war against Lucius Antonius and Fulvia Antonia the brother and wife of Mark Antony, which began in 41 BC and ended in the capture of Perusia in 40 BC.
However, Salvidienus remained Octavian's main general at this time. After the Perusine war, Octavian departed for Gaul, leaving Agrippa as urban praetor in Rome with instructions to defend Italy against Sextus Pompeius, an opponent of the Triumvirate, now occupying Sicily. In July 40, while Agrippa was occupied with the Ludi Apollinares that were the praetor's responsibility, Sextus began a raid in southern Italy. Agrippa advanced on him. However, the Triumvirate proved unstable, in August 40 both Sextus and Antony invaded Italy. Agrippa's success in retaking Sipontum from Antony helped bring an end to the conflict. Agrippa was among the intermediaries through whom Octavian agreed once more upon peace. During the discussions Octavian learned that Salvidienus had offered to betray him to Antony, with the result that Salvidienus was prosecuted and either executed or committed suicide. Agrippa was now Octavian's leading general. In 39 or 38 BC, Octavian appointed Agrippa governor of Transalpine Gaul, where in 38 BC he put down a rising of the Aquitanians.
He fought the Germanic tribes, becoming the next Roman general to cross the Rhine after Julius Caesar. He was summoned back to Rome by Octavian to assume the consulship for 37 BC, he was well below the usual minimum age of 43, but Octavian had suffered a humiliating naval defeat against Sextus Pompey and needed his friend to oversee the preparations for further warfare. Agrippa refused the offer of a triumph for his exploits in Gaul – on the grounds, says Dio, that he thought it improper to celebrate during a time of trouble for Octavian. Since Sextus Pompeius had command of the sea on the coasts of Italy, Agrippa's first care was to provide a safe harbour for Octavian's ships, he accomplished this by cutting through the strips of land which separated the Lacus Lucrinus from the sea, thus forming an outer harbour, while joining the lake Avernus to the Lucrinus to serve as an inner harbor. The new harbor-complex was named Portus Julius in Octavian's honour. Agrippa was responsible for technological improvements, including larger ships and an improved form of grappling
Roman Britain
Roman Britain was the area of the island of Great Britain, governed by the Roman Empire, from 43 to 410 AD. It comprised the whole of England and Wales and, for a short period, southern Scotland. Julius Caesar invaded Britain in 54 BC as part of his Gallic Wars. According to Caesar, the Britons had been overrun or culturally assimilated by other Celtic tribes during the British Iron Age and had been aiding Caesar's enemies, he received tribute, installed a friendly king over the Trinovantes, returned to Gaul. Planned invasions under Augustus were called off in 34, 27, 25 BC. In 40 AD, Caligula assembled 200,000 men at the Channel on the continent, only to have them gather seashells according to Suetonius as a symbolic gesture to proclaim Caligula's victory over the sea. Three years Claudius directed four legions to invade Britain and restore an exiled king over the Atrebates; the Romans defeated the Catuvellauni, organized their conquests as the Province of Britain. By the year 47, the Romans held the lands southeast of the Fosse Way.
Control over Wales was delayed by reverses and the effects of Boudica's uprising, but the Romans expanded northward. The conquest of Britain continued under command of Gnaeus Julius Agricola, who expanded the Roman Empire as far as Caledonia. In the summer of 84, Agricola faced the armies of the Caledonians, led by Calgacus, at the Battle of Mons Graupius. Battle casualties were estimated by Tacitus to be around the 10,000's on the Caledonian side and about 360 on the Roman side; the bloodbath at Mons Graupius concluded the forty-year conquest of Britain, a period that saw between 100,000 and 250,000 Britons killed. In the context of pre-industrial warfare and of a total population of Britain of c.2 million, these are high figures. Under the 2nd-century emperors Hadrian and Antoninus Pius, two walls were built to defend the Roman province from the Caledonians, whose realms in the Scottish Highlands were never controlled. Around 197, the Severan Reforms divided Britain into two provinces: Britannia Superior and Britannia Inferior.
During the Diocletian Reforms, at the end of the 3rd century, Britannia was divided into four provinces under the direction of a vicarius, who administered the Diocese of the Britains. A fifth province, Valentia, is attested in the 4th century. For much of the period of the Roman occupation, Britannia was subject to barbarian invasions and came under the control of imperial usurpers and imperial pretenders; the final Roman withdrawal from Britain occurred around 410. Following the conquest of the Britons, a distinctive Romano-British culture emerged as the Romans introduced improved agriculture, urban planning, industrial production, architecture; the Roman goddess Britannia became the female personification of Britain. After the initial invasions, Roman historians only mention Britain in passing. Thus, most present knowledge derives from archaeological investigations and occasional epigraphic evidence lauding the Britannic achievements of an emperor. Roman citizens settled in Britain from many parts of the Empire.
Britain was known to the Classical world. The Greeks referred to the Cassiterides, or "tin islands", placed them near the west coast of Europe; the Carthaginian sailor Himilco is said to have visited the island in the 5th century BC and the Greek explorer Pytheas in the 4th. It was regarded with some writers refusing to believe it existed at all; the first direct Roman contact was when Julius Caesar undertook two expeditions in 55 and 54 BC, as part of his conquest of Gaul, believing the Britons were helping the Gallic resistance. The first expedition was more a reconnaissance than a full invasion and gained a foothold on the coast of Kent but was unable to advance further because of storm damage to the ships and a lack of cavalry. Despite the military failure it was a political success, with the Roman Senate declaring a 20-day public holiday in Rome to honour the unprecedented achievement of obtaining hostages from Britain and defeating Belgian tribes on returning to the continent; the second invasion involved a larger force and Caesar coerced or invited many of the native Celtic tribes to pay tribute and give hostages in return for peace.
A friendly local king, was installed, his rival, was brought to terms. Hostages were taken, but historians disagree over whether any tribute was paid after Caesar returned to Gaul. Caesar conquered no territory and left no troops behind but he established clients and brought Britain into Rome's sphere of influence. Augustus planned invasions in 34, 27 and 25 BC, but circumstances were never favourable, the relationship between Britain and Rome settled into one of diplomacy and trade. Strabo, writing late in Augustus's reign, claimed that taxes on trade brought in more annual revenue than any conquest could. Archaeology shows. Strabo mentions British kings who sent embassies to Augustus and Augustus's own Res Gestae refers to two British kings he received as refugees; when some of Tiberius's ships were carried to Britain in a storm during his campaigns in Germany in 16 AD, they came back with tales of monsters. Rome appears to have encouraged a balance of power in southern Britain, supporting two powerful kingdoms: the Catuvellauni, ruled by the descendants of Tasciovanus, the Atrebates, ruled by the descendants of Commius.
This policy was followed until 39 or 40
Valerius Maximus
Valerius Maximus was a Latin writer and author of a collection of historical anecdotes: Factorum ac dictorum memorabilium libri IX Factorum ac dictorum memorabilium libri IX. He worked during the reign of Tiberius. Nothing is known of his life except that his family was poor and undistinguished, that he owed everything to Sextus Pompeius, proconsul of Asia, whom he accompanied to the East in 27. Pompeius was the center of a literary circle to which Ovid belonged, his attitude towards the imperial household has been misunderstood, he has been represented as a mean flatterer of the same type as Martial. But, if the references to the imperial administration are scanned, they will be seen to be extravagant neither in kind nor in number. Few will now grudge Tiberius, when his whole action as a ruler is taken into account, such a title as salutaris princeps, which seemed to a former generation a specimen of shameless adulation; the few allusions to Caesar's murderers and to Augustus hardly pass beyond the conventional style of the writer's day.
The only passage which can be called fulsome is the violently rhetorical tirade against Sejanus. The style of Valerius's writings seems to indicate that he was a professional rhetorician. In his preface he intimates that his work is intended as a commonplace book of historical anecdotes for use in the schools of rhetoric, where the pupils were trained in the art of embellishing speeches by references to history. According to the manuscripts, its title is Factorum ac dictorum memorabilium libri IX, "Nine Books of Memorable Deeds and Sayings." The stories are loosely and irregularly arranged, each book being divided into sections, each section bearing as its title the topic, most some virtue or vice, or some merit or demerit, which the stories in the section are intended to illustrate. Most of the tales are from Roman history, but each section has an appendix consisting of extracts from the annals of other peoples, principally the Greeks; the exposition exhibits the two currents of feeling which are intermingled by every Roman writer of the Empire—the feeling that the Romans of the writer's own day are degenerate creatures when confronted with their own republican predecessors, the feeling that, however degenerate, the latter-day Romans still tower above the other peoples of the world, in particular are morally superior to the Greeks.
The author's chief sources are Cicero, Livy and Pompeius Trogus the first two. Valerius's treatment of his material is careless and unintelligent in the extreme, and on the historical side we owe something to Valerius. He used sources now lost, where he touches on his own time he affords us some glimpses of the much debated and imperfectly recorded reign of Tiberius. Valerius is a typical example of Silver Latin, a literary period criticised for poor writers, his writing provides a valuable insight into the transition from classical Latin. In Valerius are all the rhetorical tendencies of the age. Direct and simple statement is avoided and novelty pursued at any price; the diction is like that of poetry. In the manuscripts of Valerius a tenth book is given, which consists of the so-called Liber de Praenominibus, the work of some grammarian of a much date; the collection of Valerius was much used for school purposes, its popularity in the Middle Ages is attested by the large number of manuscripts in which it has been preserved.
Like other schoolbooks it was epitomated. One complete epitome of the 4th or 5th century, bearing the name of Julius Paris, has come down to us. Editions by C. Halm, C. Kempf, contain the epitomes of Paris and Nepotianus. New editions have been produced by R. Combès with a French translation, J. Briscoe, D. R. Shackleton Baily with an English translation. Recent discussions of Valerius' work include W. Martin Bloomer, Valerius Maximus and the Rhetoric of the New Nobility, Clive Skidmore, Practical Ethics for Roman Gentlemen: the Work of Valerius Maximus, Hans-Friedrich Mueller, Roman Religion in Valerius Maximus. A translation into Dutch was published in 1614, was read by Rembrandt and other artists, stimulating interest in some new subjects such as Artemisia drinking her husband's ashes. Attribution: This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed.. "Valerius Maximus". Encyclopædia Britannica. 27. Cambridge University Press. P. 860. Bloomer, W. Martin. Valerius Maximus and the Rhetoric of the New Nobility.
University of North Carolina Press: Chapel Hill, 1992. Briscoe, John. "Some Notes on Valerius Maximus." Sileno 19: 398–402, 1993. Farrell, Joseph. "The Poverty of Our Ancestral Speech." Latin Language and Latin Culture from Ancient to Modern Times. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001. Guerrini, Roberto. Studi su Valerio Massimo. Pisa, Italy: Giardini, 1981. Holford-Strevens, Leofranc. “Getting Away with Murder: The Literary and Forensic Fortune of Two Roma
Danube
The Danube is Europe's second longest river, after the Volga. It is located in Eastern Europe; the Danube was once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire, today flows through 10 countries, more than any other river in the world. Originating in Germany, the Danube flows southeast for 2,850 km, passing through or bordering Austria, Hungary, Serbia, Bulgaria and Ukraine before draining into the Black Sea, its drainage basin extends into nine more countries. The Danube river basin is home to fish species such as pike, huchen, Wels catfish and tench, it is home to a large diversity of carp and sturgeon, as well as salmon and trout. A few species of euryhaline fish, such as European seabass and eel, inhabit the Danube Delta and the lower portion of the river. Since ancient times, the Danube has become a traditional trade route in Europe, nowadays 2,415 km of its total length being navigable; the river is an important source of energy and drinking water. Danube is an Old European river name derived from a Proto-Indo-European *dānu.
Other river names from the same root include the Dunaj, Dzvina/Daugava, Donets, Dniestr, Dysna and Tuoni. In Rigvedic Sanskrit, dānu means "fluid, drop", in Avestan, the same word means "river". In the Rigveda, Dānu once appears as the mother of Vrtra, "a dragon blocking the course of the rivers"; the Finnish word for Danube is Tonava, most derived from the word for the river in Swedish and German, Donau. Its Sámi name Deatnu means "Great River", it is possible that dānu in Scythian as in Avestan was a generic word for "river": Dnieper and Dniestr, from Danapris and Danastius, are presumed to continue Scythian *dānu apara "far river" and *dānu nazdya- "near river", respectively. The river was known to the ancient Greeks as the Istros a borrowing from a Daco-Thracian name meaning "strong, swift", from a root also encountered in the ancient name of the Dniester and akin to Iranic turos “swift” and Sanskrit iṣiras "swift", from the PIE *isro-, *sreu “to flow”. In the Middle Ages, the Greek Tiras was borrowed into Italian as Tyrlo and into Turkic languages as Tyrla, the latter further borrowed into Romanian as a regionalism.
The Thraco-Phrygian name was Matoas, "the bringer of luck". In Latin, the Danube was variously known as Ister; the Latin name is masculine, except Slovenian. The German Donau is feminine, as it has been re-interpreted as containing the suffix -ouwe "wetland". Romanian differs from other surrounding languages in designating the river with a feminine term, Dunărea; this form was not inherited from Latin. To explain the loss of the Latin name, scholars who suppose that Romanian developed near the large river propose that the Romanian name descends from a hypotetical Thracian *Donaris that shares the same PIE root with the Iranic don-/dan-, with the suffix -aris encountered in the ancient name of the Ialomița River, in the unidentified Miliare river mentioned by Jordanes in his Getica. Gábor Vékony says that this hypothesis is not plausible, because the Greeks borrowed the Istros form from the native Thracians, he proposes. The modern languages spoken in the Danube basin all use names related to Dānuvius: German: Donau.
Dunav. Dunai. Classified as an international waterway, it originates in the town of Donaueschingen, in the Black Forest of Germany, at the confluence of the rivers Brigach and Breg; the Danube flows southeast for about 2,730 km, passing through four capital cities before emptying into the Black Sea via the Danube Delta in Romania and Ukraine. Once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire, the river passes through or touches the borders of 10 countries: Romania, Serbia, Germany, Slovakia, Croatia and Moldova, its drainage basin extends into nine more. In addition to the bordering countries, the drainage basin includes parts of nine more countries: Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Czech Republic, Montenegro, Italy, North Macedonia and Albania, its total drainage basin is 801,463 km2. The highest point of the drainage basin is the summit of Piz Bernina at the Italy–Switzerland border, at 4,049 metres; the land drained by the Danube extends into many other countries. Many Danubian tributaries are important rivers in their own right, navigable by barges and other shallow-draught boats.
From its source to its outlet into the Black Sea, its main tribu
Rhine
The Rhine is one of the major European rivers, which has its sources in Switzerland and flows in an northerly direction through Germany and The Netherlands to the North Sea. The river begins in the Swiss canton of Graubünden in the southeastern Swiss Alps, forms part of the Swiss-Liechtenstein, Swiss-Austrian, Swiss-German and the Franco-German border flows through the German Rhineland and the Netherlands and empties into the North Sea; the largest city on the Rhine is Cologne, with a population of more than 1,050,000 people. It is the second-longest river in Central and Western Europe, at about 1,230 km, with an average discharge of about 2,900 m3/s; the Rhine and the Danube formed most of the northern inland frontier of the Roman Empire and, since those days, the Rhine has been a vital and navigable waterway carrying trade and goods deep inland. Its importance as a waterway in the Holy Roman Empire is supported by the many castles and fortifications built along it. In the modern era, it has become a symbol of German nationalism.
Among the biggest and most important cities on the Rhine are Cologne, Düsseldorf, Rotterdam and Basel. The variants of the name of the Rhine in modern languages are all derived from the Gaulish name Rēnos, adapted in Roman-era geography as Greek Ῥῆνος, Latin Rhenus; the spelling with Rh- in English Rhine as well as in German Rhein and French Rhin is due to the influence of Greek orthography, while the vocalisation -i- is due to the Proto-Germanic adoption of the Gaulish name as *Rīnaz, via Old Frankish giving Old English Rín,Old High German Rīn, early Middle Dutch Rijn. The diphthong in modern German Rhein is a Central German development of the early modern period, the Alemannic name Rī retaining the older vocalism, as does Ripuarian Rhing, while Palatine has diphthongized Rhei, Rhoi. Spanish is with French in adopting the Germanic vocalism Rin-, while Italian and Portuguese retain the Latin Ren-; the Gaulish name Rēnos belongs to a class of river names built from the PIE root *rei- "to move, run" found in other names such as the Reno in Italy.
The grammatical gender of the Celtic name is masculine, the name remains masculine in German and French. The Old English river name was variously inflected as feminine; the length of the Rhine is conventionally measured in "Rhine-kilometers", a scale introduced in 1939 which runs from the Old Rhine Bridge at Constance to Hoek van Holland. The river is shortened from its natural course due to a number of canalisation projects completed in the 19th and 20th century; the "total length of the Rhine", to the inclusion of Lake Constance and the Alpine Rhine is more difficult to measure objectively. Its course is conventionally divided as follows: The Rhine carries its name without distinctive accessories only from the confluence of the Rein Anteriur/Vorderrhein and Rein Posteriur/Hinterrhein next to Reichenau in Tamins. Above this point is the extensive catchment of the headwaters of the Rhine, it belongs exclusively to the Swiss canton of Graubünden, ranging from Saint-Gotthard Massif in the west via one valley lying in Ticino and Italy in the south to the Flüela Pass in the east.
Traditionally, Lake Toma near the Oberalp Pass in the Gotthard region is seen as the source of the Anterior Rhine and the Rhine as a whole. The Posterior Rhine rises in the Rheinwald below the Rheinwaldhorn; the source of the river is considered north of Lai da Tuma/Tomasee on Rein Anteriur/Vorderrhein, although its southern tributary Rein da Medel is longer before its confluence with the Anterior Rhine near Disentis. The Anterior Rhine springs from Lai da Tuma/Tomasee, near the Oberalp Pass and passes the impressive Ruinaulta formed by the largest visible rock slide in the alps, the Flims Rockslide; the Posterior Rhine starts near the Rheinwaldhorn. One of its tributaries, the Reno di Lei, drains the Valle di Lei on politically Italian territory. After three main valleys separated by the two gorges and Viamala, it reaches Reichenau in Tamins; the Anterior Rhine arises from numerous source streams in the upper Surselva and flows in an easterly direction. One source is Lai da Tuma with the Rein da Tuma, indicated as source of the Rhine, flowing through it.
Into it flow tributaries from the south, some longer, some equal in length, such as the Rein da Medel, the Rein da Maighels, the Rein da Curnera. The Cadlimo Valley in the canton of Ticino is drained by the Reno di Medel, which crosses the geomorphologic Alpine main ridge from the south. All streams in the source area are sometimes captured and sent to storage reservoirs for the local hydro-electric power plants; the culminating point of the Anterior Rhine's drainage basin is the Piz Russein of the Tödi massif of the Glarus Alps at 3,613 metres above sea level. It starts with the creek Aua da Russein. In its lower course the Anterior Rhine flows through a gorge named Ruinaulta; the whole stretch of the Anterior Rhine to the Alpine Rhine confluence next to Reichen
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Frontinus, Sextus Julius". Encyclopædia Britannica. 11 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 250.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the 