1.
Baelo Claudia
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Baelo Claudia is the name of an ancient Roman town, located 22 kilometres outside of Tarifa, near the village of Bolonia, in southern Spain. Lying on the shores of the Strait of Gibraltar, the town was originally a fishing village, although prosperous at the time of Emperor Claudius, it went into a decline hastened by earthquakes and was abandoned by the 6th century. Baelo Claudia is situated on the shore of the Strait of Gibraltar. The town was founded in the end of the 2nd century BC as a result of trade with North Africa and it is possible that Baelo Claudia had some functions of governmental administration, but tuna fishing, salting, and the production of garum were the primary sources of wealth. The city was successful enough to be granted the title of municipium by Emperor Claudius. The life of the inhabitants reached its greatest splendor during the 1st century BC, in the middle of the 2nd century, however, the town declined, probably as a result of a major earthquake which wiped out a large part. In addition to natural disasters, by the 3rd century. Although it experienced a slight renaissance later in the century, by the 6th century, the spectacular setting in El Estrecho Natural Park allows the visitor to see the coast of Morocco. A modern Visitor Centre showcases many artefacts and has an introduction to the site. It also offers parking, shade, toilets, a shop, admission is free to citizens of the European Economic Area on production of an ID card. The archeological site of Baelo Claudia preserves the most representative elements of the typical Roman city, each god has its own individual temple, instead of one temple dedicated to them collectively, the only other Roman town believed to have a similar arrangement is Sbeitla in Tunisia. In addition, there are remnants of stores, a market, baths, three aqueducts supplied the town with water. There are signs of a zone with the remains of streets, installations for the production of garum, aqueducts. No other site in the Iberian Peninsula affords such a vision of the Roman urban experience. This is the main interest to modern visitors, and it can be seen via an impressive path that circles the town. Baelo Claudia, une cité romaine de Bétique, list of Bien de Interés Cultural in the Province of Cádiz Official website Map, Directions and Practical Information
2.
Spain
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By population, Spain is the sixth largest in Europe and the fifth in the European Union. Spains capital and largest city is Madrid, other urban areas include Barcelona, Valencia, Seville, Bilbao. Modern humans first arrived in the Iberian Peninsula around 35,000 years ago, in the Middle Ages, the area was conquered by Germanic tribes and later by the Moors. Spain is a democracy organised in the form of a government under a constitutional monarchy. It is a power and a major developed country with the worlds fourteenth largest economy by nominal GDP. Jesús Luis Cunchillos argues that the root of the span is the Phoenician word spy. Therefore, i-spn-ya would mean the land where metals are forged, two 15th-century Spanish Jewish scholars, Don Isaac Abravanel and Solomon ibn Verga, gave an explanation now considered folkloric. Both men wrote in two different published works that the first Jews to reach Spain were brought by ship by Phiros who was confederate with the king of Babylon when he laid siege to Jerusalem. This man was a Grecian by birth, but who had given a kingdom in Spain. He became related by marriage to Espan, the nephew of king Heracles, Heracles later renounced his throne in preference for his native Greece, leaving his kingdom to his nephew, Espan, from whom the country of España took its name. Based upon their testimonies, this eponym would have already been in use in Spain by c.350 BCE, Iberia enters written records as a land populated largely by the Iberians, Basques and Celts. Early on its coastal areas were settled by Phoenicians who founded Western Europe´s most ancient cities Cadiz, Phoenician influence expanded as much of the Peninsula was eventually incorporated into the Carthaginian Empire, becoming a major theater of the Punic Wars against the expanding Roman Empire. After an arduous conquest, the peninsula came fully under Roman Rule, during the early Middle Ages it came under Germanic rule but later, much of it was conquered by Moorish invaders from North Africa. In a process took centuries, the small Christian kingdoms in the north gradually regained control of the peninsula. The last Moorish kingdom fell in the same year Columbus reached the Americas, a global empire began which saw Spain become the strongest kingdom in Europe, the leading world power for a century and a half, and the largest overseas empire for three centuries. Continued wars and other problems led to a diminished status. The Napoleonic invasions of Spain led to chaos, triggering independence movements that tore apart most of the empire, eventually democracy was peacefully restored in the form of a parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Spain joined the European Union, experiencing a renaissance and steady economic growth
3.
Fermentation in food processing
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Fermentation in food processing is the process of converting carbohydrates to alcohol or organic acids using microorganisms—yeasts or bacteria—under anaerobic conditions. Fermentation usually implies that the action of microorganisms is desired, the science of fermentation is known as zymology or zymurgy. The term fermentation sometimes refers specifically to the conversion of sugars into ethanol, producing alcoholic drinks such as wine, beer. However, similar processes take place in the leavening of bread, other widely consumed fermented foods include vinegar, olives, and cheese. More localised foods prepared by fermentation may also be based on beans, grain, vegetables, fruit, honey, dairy products, fish, meat, since ancient times, humans have exploited the fermentation process. Seven-thousand-year-old jars containing the remains of wine, now on display at the University of Pennsylvania, were excavated in the Zagros Mountains in Iran. There is strong evidence that people were fermenting alcoholic drinks in Babylon c.3000 BC, ancient Egypt c.3150 BC, pre-Hispanic Mexico c.2000 BC, the French chemist Louis Pasteur founded zymology, when in 1856 he connected yeast to fermentation. When studying the fermentation of sugar to alcohol by yeast, Pasteur concluded that the fermentation was catalyzed by a force, called ferments. The ferments were thought to only within living organisms. Alcoholic fermentation is an act correlated with the life and organization of the yeast cells, not with the death or putrefaction of the cells, nevertheless, it was known that yeast extracts can ferment sugar even in the absence of living yeast cells. In 1907 he received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his research, one year earlier, in 1906, ethanol fermentation studies led to the early discovery of NAD+. Food fermentation is the conversion of sugars and other carbohydrates into alcohol or preservative organic acids, all three products have found human uses. The production of carbon dioxide is used to leaven bread, the production of organic acids is exploited to preserve and flavor vegetables and dairy products. It has more cases of botulism than any state in the United States of America. The World Health Organization has classified pickled foods as possibly carcinogenic, other research found that fermented food contains a carcinogenic by-product, ethyl carbamate. A2009 review of the studies conducted across Asia concluded that regularly eating pickled vegetables roughly doubles a persons risk for esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. Science aid, Fermentation - Process and uses of fermentation Fermented cereals, a global perspective - FAO1999
4.
Fish sauce
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Fish sauce is an amber-colored liquid extracted from the fermentation of fish with sea salt. It is used as a condiment in various cuisines, Fish sauce is a staple ingredient in numerous cultures in Southeast Asia and the coastal regions of East Asia, and features heavily in Burmese, Cambodian, Filipino, Thai, Lao and Vietnamese cuisines. It also was an ingredient in ancient European cuisine, but is no longer commonly used in those regions. In addition to being added to dishes during the cooking process and it is eaten with fish, shrimp, pork, and chicken. In parts of southern China, it is used as an ingredient for soups, Fish sauce, and its derivatives, impart an umami flavor to food due to their glutamate content. Most fish sauces are made from raw fish while some are made from dried fish, some are made from only a single species, while others from whatever is dredged up in the net, including some shellfish. Most fish sauces are made from whole fish but there are a few made from only the blood or viscera, most fish sauces contain only fish and salt, and others add a variety of herbs and spices. Fish sauce that has only briefly fermented has a pronounced fishy taste, while extended fermentation reduces this and gives the product a nuttier, richer. An anonymous article, Neuc-num, in Diderot and dAlemberts 18th-century encyclopedia, states and it is thought that a Chinese fish sauce from its southern coastal region, called kôechiap in the Min Nan Chinese language, might be the precursor of the tomato sauce called ketchup. Sauces made from fermented fish parts with other ingredients, such as meat, Southeast Asian fish sauce is often made from anchovies, salt, and water, and is usually used in moderation because it is intensely flavoured. Anchovies and salt are arranged in wooden barrels to ferment and are pressed, yielding the salty. The salt extracts the liquid via osmosis, the variety from Vietnam is called nước mắm. Two areas in Vietnam are most famous for producing fish sauce, Phú Quốc, popular brands include Red Boat,3 Crabs, Golden Boy, and Hon Phan Thiết. The quality of fish sauce is determined by many factors, some Vietnamese fish sauces are made with only two ingredients, anchovies and salt. They do not have any additives like sugar, hydrolyzed protein, another factor is the sauce should not have a particularly strong smell, and it should be transparent with a deep golden amber color. “First press” fish sauce, meaning the sauce is bottled from the first time the barrels are drained. Lastly, when measuring the level of fish sauces, most fish sauce on the market falls within the mid 20N range. Anything over 30N is considered high-grade, and 40N is optimal, nước chấm is a Vietnamese prepared fish sauce condiment dipping sauce that is savory, lightly sweet and salty tasting, and can even be sour and spicy if lime and chili peppers are added
5.
Condiment
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A condiment is a spice, sauce, or, preparation that is added to food to impart a particular flavor, to enhance its flavor, or in some cultures, to complement the dish. The term originally described pickled or preserved foods, but has shifted meaning over time, many condiments are available packaged in single-serving packets, like mustard or ketchup, particularly when supplied with take-out or fast-food meals. They are usually applied by the diner, but are added prior to serving, for example, in a sandwich made with ketchup. Some condiments are used during cooking to add flavor or texture to the food, barbecue sauce, compound butter, teriyaki sauce, soy sauce, and marmite are examples. The term condiment comes from the Latin condimentum, meaning spice, seasoning, sauce and from the Latin condere, meaning preserve, pickle, the exact definition of what is and is not a condiment varies. Some definitions include spice and herbs, including salt and pepper, others restrict the definition to including only prepared food compound, containing one or more spices, which are added to food after the cooking process, such as mustard, ketchup or mint sauce. Cheese is also considered a condiment in some European countries, Condiments were known in Ancient Rome, Ancient India, Ancient Greece and Ancient China. The Romans made the condiments garum and liquamen by crushing the meat of fish and fermenting it in salt. Apicius, a based on 4th and 5th century cuisine. The condiment market refers to the marketing and consumer purchase of condiments, in the United States, condiment market was valued at USD5.6 billion in 2010 and is estimated to grow to USD7 billion by 2015. The condiment market is the second largest in specialty foods behind that of cheese, farrell, K. T. Spices, Condiments and Seasonings. The Oxford companion to American food and drink
6.
Ancient Greek cuisine
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Ancient Greek cuisine was characterized by its frugality, reflecting agricultural hardship. It was founded on the Mediterranean triad, wheat, olive oil and our knowledge of ancient Greek cuisine and eating habits is derived from literary and artistic evidence. The Greeks had three to four meals a day, breakfast consisted of barley bread dipped in wine, sometimes complemented by figs or olives. They also ate pancakes called τηγανίτης, ταγηνίτης or ταγηνίας, all deriving from τάγηνον. The earliest attested references on tagenias are in the works of the 5th century BC poets Cratinus, tagenites were made with wheat flour, olive oil, honey and curdled milk, and were served for breakfast. Another kind of pancake was σταιτίτης, from σταίτινος, of flour or dough of spelt, derived from σταῖς, Athenaeus in his Deipnosophistae mentions staititas topped with honey, sesame and cheese. A quick lunch was taken around noon or early afternoon, dinner, the most important meal of the day, was generally taken at nightfall. An additional light meal was taken in the late afternoon. Ἀριστόδειπνον / aristodeipnon, literally lunch-dinner, was served in the afternoon instead of dinner. Men and women took their meals separately, when the house was too small, the men ate first, the women afterwards. Aristotle notes that the poor, having no slaves, would ask their wives or children to serve food, respect for the father who was the breadwinner was obvious. The ancient Greek custom of placing terra cotta miniatures of their furniture in childrens graves gives us an idea of its style. The Greeks normally ate while seated on chairs, benches were used for banquets, the tables, high for normal meals and low for banquets, were initially rectangular in shape. By the 4th century BC, the table was round. Loaves of flat bread could be used as plates, but terra cotta bowls were more common, dishes became more refined over time, and by the Roman period plates were sometimes made out of precious metals or glass. Cutlery was not often used at table, use of the fork was unknown, knives were used to cut the meat. Spoons were used for soups and broths, pieces of bread could be used to spoon the food or as napkins to wipe the fingers. The symposium, traditionally translated as banquet, but more literally gathering of drinkers, was one of the pastimes for the Greeks
7.
Ancient Roman cuisine
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Ancient Roman cuisine changed over the long duration of the ancient Roman civilization. In the beginning, dietary differences between Roman social classes were not very great, but disparities developed with the empires growth, traditionally, a breakfast called ientaculum was served at dawn. In the late morning, Romans ate a lunch, and in the evening they ate cena. With the increased importation of foreign foods, the cena grew larger in size and it gradually shifted to the afternoon, while the vesperna, a light supper eaten in the evening was abandoned completely. Prandium, a second breakfast, was introduced around noon, among the lower classes of society, these changes were less pronounced as the traditional routines corresponded closely to the daily rhythms of manual labor. Among the upper classes, who did not engage in manual labor, after the prandium, the last responsibilities would be discharged, and a visit would be made to the baths. Around 2 p. m. the cena would begin and this meal could last until late in the night, especially if guests were invited, and would often be followed by comissatio, a round of alcoholic beverages. In the period of the kings and the early Republic, but also in later periods, the cena essentially consisted of a kind of porridge, the simplest kind would be made from emmer, water, salt and fat. The more sophisticated kind was made with oil, with an accompaniment of assorted vegetables when available. The richer classes ate their puls with eggs, cheese, and honey, over the course of the Republican period, the cena developed into 2 courses, a main course and a dessert with fruit and seafood. By the end of the Republic, it was usual for the meal to be served in 3 parts, one course, main course, and dessert. Originally flat, round loaves made of emmer with a bit of salt were eaten, among the classes, eggs, cheese. In the Imperial period, around the beginning of the Christian era, bread made of wheat was introduced, with time, the bread was sometimes dipped in wine and eaten with olives, cheese, and grapes. At the time of the destruction of Pompeii in AD79, the ancient Roman diet included many items that are staples of modern Italian cooking. Pliny the Elder discussed more than 30 varieties of olive,40 kinds of pear, figs, some of these vegetables are no longer present in the modern world, while others have undergone significant changes. Carrots of different colors were consumed, but not in orange, however, some foods considered characteristic of modern Italian cuisine were not used. There were also few citrus fruits, butchers meat was an uncommon luxury. The most popular meat was pork, including sausages, beef was uncommon in ancient Rome, being more common in ancient Greece - it is not mentioned by Juvenal or Horace
8.
Byzantine cuisine
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Byzantine cuisine was marked by a merger of Greek and Roman gastronomy. The development of the Byzantine Empire and trade brought in spices, sugar, cooks experimented with new combinations of food, creating two styles in the process. These were the Eastern, consisting of Byzantine cuisine supplemented by trade items, Byzantine food consumption varied by class. The Imperial Palace was a metropolis of spices and exotic recipes, guests were entertained with fruits, honey-cakes, the core diet consisted of bread, vegetables, pulses, and cereals prepared in varied ways. Salad was very popular, to the amazement of the Florentines, the Byzantines produced various cheeses, including anthotiro or kefalintzin. They also relished shellfish and fish, both fresh and salt-water and they prepared eggs to make famous omelettes — called sphoungata, i. e. spongy — mentioned by Theodore Prodromos. Every household also kept a supply of poultry, Byzantine elites obtained other kinds of meat by hunting, a favourite and distinguished occupation of men. They usually hunted with dogs and hawks, though sometimes employed trapping, netting, larger animals were a more expensive and rare food. Citizens slaughtered pigs at the beginning of winter and provided their families with sausages, salt pork, only upper middle and higher Byzantines could afford lamb. They seldom ate beef, as they used cattle to cultivate the fields, middle and lower class citizens in cities such as Constantinople and Thessaloniki consumed the offerings of the taverna. The most common form of cooking was boiling, a tendency which sparked a derisive Byzantine maxim—The lazy cook prepares everything by boiling. Liutprand of Cremona, the ambassador to Constantinople from Otto I, described being served food covered in an exceedingly bad fish liquor, many scholars state that Byzantine koptoplakous and plakountas tetyromenous are the ancestors of modern baklava and tiropita respectively. Both variants descended from the ancient Roman Placenta cake, the resulting melting pot continued during Ottoman times and therefore modern Turkish cuisine, Greek cuisine and Balkans cuisine are all almost identical, and use a very wide range of ingredients. Macedonia was renowned for its wines, served for upper class Byzantines, during the crusades and after, western Europeans valued costly Byzantine wines. The most famous example is the still extant Commandaria wine from Cyprus served at the wedding of King Richard the Lionheart, other renowned varieties were Cretan wines from muscat grapes, Romania or Rumney, and Malvasia or Malmsey. gr
9.
Ancient Greece
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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
10.
Byzantine Empire
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It survived the fragmentation and fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD and continued to exist for an additional thousand years until it fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1453. During most of its existence, the empire was the most powerful economic, cultural, several signal events from the 4th to 6th centuries mark the period of transition during which the Roman Empires Greek East and Latin West divided. Constantine I reorganised the empire, made Constantinople the new capital, under Theodosius I, Christianity became the Empires official state religion and other religious practices were proscribed. Finally, under the reign of Heraclius, the Empires military, the borders of the Empire evolved significantly over its existence, as it went through several cycles of decline and recovery. During the reign of Maurice, the Empires eastern frontier was expanded, in a matter of years the Empire lost its richest provinces, Egypt and Syria, to the Arabs. This battle opened the way for the Turks to settle in Anatolia, the Empire recovered again during the Komnenian restoration, such that by the 12th century Constantinople was the largest and wealthiest European city. Despite the eventual recovery of Constantinople in 1261, the Byzantine Empire remained only one of several small states in the area for the final two centuries of its existence. Its remaining territories were annexed by the Ottomans over the 15th century. The Fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 finally ended the Byzantine Empire, the term comes from Byzantium, the name of the city of Constantinople before it became Constantines capital. This older name of the city would rarely be used from this point onward except in historical or poetic contexts. The publication in 1648 of the Byzantine du Louvre, and in 1680 of Du Canges Historia Byzantina further popularised the use of Byzantine among French authors, however, it was not until the mid-19th century that the term came into general use in the Western world. The Byzantine Empire was known to its inhabitants as the Roman Empire, the Empire of the Romans, Romania, the Roman Republic, Graikia, and also as Rhōmais. The inhabitants called themselves Romaioi and Graikoi, and even as late as the 19th century Greeks typically referred to modern Greek as Romaika and Graikika. The authority of the Byzantine emperor as the legitimate Roman emperor was challenged by the coronation of Charlemagne as Imperator Augustus by Pope Leo III in the year 800. No such distinction existed in the Islamic and Slavic worlds, where the Empire was more seen as the continuation of the Roman Empire. In the Islamic world, the Roman Empire was known primarily as Rûm, the Roman army succeeded in conquering many territories covering the entire Mediterranean region and coastal regions in southwestern Europe and north Africa. These territories were home to different cultural groups, both urban populations and rural populations. The West also suffered heavily from the instability of the 3rd century AD
11.
Pliny the Elder
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In the latter number will be my uncle, by virtue of his own and of your compositions. Pliny is referring to the fact that Tacitus relied on his uncles now missing work on the History of the German Wars. The wind caused by the sixth and largest pyroclastic surge of the eruption would not allow his ship to leave the shore, and Pliny probably died during this event. Plinys dates are pinned to the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD79 and a statement of his nephew that he died in his 56th year, Pliny was the son of an equestrian, Gaius Plinius Celer, and his wife, Marcella. Neither the younger nor the elder Pliny mention the names and their ultimate source is a fragmentary inscription found in a field in Verona and recorded by the 16th century Augustinian monk Onofrio Panvinio at Verona. The reading of the inscription depends on the reconstruction, but in all cases the names come through, whether he was an augur and whether she was named Grania Marcella are less certain. Jean Hardouin presents a statement from a source that he claims was ancient, that Pliny was from Verona. Hardouin also cites the conterraneity of Catullus, additional efforts to connect Celer and Marcella with other gentes are highly speculative. Hardouin is the scholar to use his unknown source. He kept statues of his ancestors there, a statue of Pliny on the facade of the Duomo of Como celebrates him as a native son. He had a sister, Plinia, who married into the Caecilii and was the mother of his nephew, Pliny the Younger, whose letters describe his work and study regimen in detail. In one of his letters to Tacitus, Pliny the Younger details how his uncles breakfasts would be light and simple following the customs of our forefathers. This shows that Pliny the Younger wanted it to be conveyed that Pliny the Elder was a good Roman and this statement would have pleased Tacitus. Two inscriptions identifying the hometown of Pliny the Younger as Como take precedence over the Verona theory, one commemorates the youngers career as imperial magistrate and details his considerable charitable and municipal expenses on behalf of the people of Como. Another identifies his father Lucius village as Fecchio near Como and it is likely therefore that Plinia was a local girl and Pliny the Elder, her brother, was from Como. Gaius was a member of the Plinii gens and he did not take his fathers cognomen, Celer, but assumed his own, Secundus. As his adopted son took the same cognomen, Pliny founded a branch, no earlier instances of the Plinii are known. In 59 BC, only about 82 years before Plinys birth, Julius Caesar founded Novum Comum as a colonia to secure the region against the Alpine tribes, whom he had been unable to defeat
12.
Isidore of Seville
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He was influential in the inner circle of Sisebut, Visigothic king of Hispania. Like Leander, he played a prominent role in the Councils of Toledo, the Visigothic legislation that resulted from these councils influenced the beginnings of representative government. His fame after his death was based on his Etymologiae, an encyclopedia which assembled extracts of many books from classical antiquity that would have otherwise been lost. Isidore was probably born in Cartagena, Spain, a former Carthaginian colony, to Severianus, both Severianus and Theodora belonged to notable Hispano-Roman families of high social rank. His parents were members of a family who were instrumental in the political-religious manoeuvring that converted the Visigothic kings from Arianism to Catholicism. A younger brother, Saint Fulgentius of Cartagena, served as the Bishop of Astigi at the start of the new reign of the Catholic King Reccared and his sister, Saint Florentina, served God as a nun and allegedly ruled over forty convents and one thousand consecrated religious. This claim seems unlikely, however, given the few functioning monastic institutions in Iberia during her lifetime, Isidore received his elementary education in the Cathedral school of Seville. In this institution, the first of its kind in Iberia, a body of learned men including Archbishop Saint Leander of Seville taught the trivium and quadrivium, Saint Isidore applied himself to study diligently enough that he quickly mastered Latin, and acquired some Greek, and Hebrew. Two centuries of Gothic control of Iberia incrementally suppressed the ancient institutions, classic learning, the associated culture entered a period of long-term decline. The ruling Visigoths nevertheless showed some respect for the trappings of Roman culture. Arianism meanwhile took deep root among the Visigoths as the form of Christianity that they received, scholars may debate whether Isidore ever personally embraced monastic life or affiliated with any religious order, but he undoubtedly esteemed the monks highly. After the death of Saint Leander of Seville on 13 March 600 or 601, on his elevation to the episcopate, he immediately constituted himself as protector of monks. He used all available religious resources toward this end and succeeded, Isidore practically eradicated the heresy of Arianism and completely stifled the new heresy of Acephali at its very outset. Archbishop Isidore strengthened religious discipline throughout his See, Archbishop Isidore also used resources of education to counteract increasingly influential Gothic barbarism throughout his episcopal jurisdiction. His quickening spirit animated the educational movement centered on Seville, Saint Isidore introduced Aristotle to his countrymen long before the Arabs studied Greek philosophy extensively. In 619, Saint Isidore of Seville pronounced anathema against any ecclesiastic who in any way should molest the monasteries, through the enlightened statecraft of his two brothers, the Councils of Seville and Toledo emanated Visigothic legislation which influenced the beginnings of representative government. The Acts of the Council fully set forth the nature of Christ, countering the conceptions of Gregory, based on a few surviving canons found in the Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals, Saint Isidore is known to have presided over an additional provincial council around 624. The council dealt with a conflict over the see of Ecija, and wrongfully stripped bishop Martianus of his see and it also addressed a concern over Jews who had been forced to convert to Christianity by Sisebut failing to present their children for baptism
13.
Greek language
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Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, native to Greece and other parts of the Eastern Mediterranean. It has the longest documented history of any living language, spanning 34 centuries of written records and its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the major part of its history, other systems, such as Linear B and the Cypriot syllabary, were used previously. The alphabet arose from the Phoenician script and was in turn the basis of the Latin, Cyrillic, Armenian, Coptic, Gothic and many other writing systems. Together with the Latin texts and traditions of the Roman world, during antiquity, Greek was a widely spoken lingua franca in the Mediterranean world and many places beyond. It would eventually become the official parlance of the Byzantine Empire, the language is spoken by at least 13.2 million people today in Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Albania, Turkey, and the Greek diaspora. Greek roots are used to coin new words for other languages, Greek. Greek has been spoken in the Balkan peninsula since around the 3rd millennium BC, the earliest written evidence is a Linear B clay tablet found in Messenia that dates to between 1450 and 1350 BC, making Greek the worlds oldest recorded living language. Among the Indo-European languages, its date of earliest written attestation is matched only by the now extinct Anatolian languages, the Greek language is conventionally divided into the following periods, Proto-Greek, the unrecorded but assumed last ancestor of all known varieties of Greek. The unity of Proto-Greek would have ended as Hellenic migrants entered the Greek peninsula sometime in the Neolithic era or the Bronze Age, Mycenaean Greek, the language of the Mycenaean civilisation. It is recorded in the Linear B script on tablets dating from the 15th century BC onwards, Ancient Greek, in its various dialects, the language of the Archaic and Classical periods of the ancient Greek civilisation. It was widely known throughout the Roman Empire, after the Roman conquest of Greece, an unofficial bilingualism of Greek and Latin was established in the city of Rome and Koine Greek became a first or second language in the Roman Empire. The origin of Christianity can also be traced through Koine Greek, Medieval Greek, also known as Byzantine Greek, the continuation of Koine Greek in Byzantine Greece, up to the demise of the Byzantine Empire in the 15th century. Much of the written Greek that was used as the language of the Byzantine Empire was an eclectic middle-ground variety based on the tradition of written Koine. Modern Greek, Stemming from Medieval Greek, Modern Greek usages can be traced in the Byzantine period and it is the language used by the modern Greeks, and, apart from Standard Modern Greek, there are several dialects of it. In the modern era, the Greek language entered a state of diglossia, the historical unity and continuing identity between the various stages of the Greek language is often emphasised. Greek speakers today still tend to regard literary works of ancient Greek as part of their own rather than a foreign language and it is also often stated that the historical changes have been relatively slight compared with some other languages. According to one estimation, Homeric Greek is probably closer to demotic than 12-century Middle English is to modern spoken English, Greek is spoken by about 13 million people, mainly in Greece, Albania and Cyprus, but also worldwide by the large Greek diaspora. Greek is the language of Greece, where it is spoken by almost the entire population
14.
Aristophanes
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Aristophanes, son of Philippus, of the deme Kydathenaion, was a comic playwright of ancient Athens. Eleven of his forty plays survive virtually complete and these, together with fragments of some of his other plays, provide the only real examples of a genre of comic drama known as Old Comedy, and are used to define it. Also known as the Father of Comedy and the Prince of Ancient Comedy and his second play, The Babylonians, was denounced by the demagogue Cleon as a slander against the Athenian polis. In my opinion, he says through the Chorus in that play, less is known about Aristophanes than about his plays. In fact, his plays are the source of information about him. It was conventional in Old Comedy for the Chorus to speak on behalf of the author during a called the parabasis. However, these facts relate almost entirely to his career as a dramatist, Aristophanes claimed to be writing for a clever and discerning audience, yet he also declared that other times would judge the audience according to its reception of his plays. He sometimes boasts of his originality as a dramatist yet his plays consistently espouse opposition to new influences in Athenian society. He caricatured leading figures in the arts, in politics, such caricatures seem to imply that Aristophanes was an old-fashioned conservative, yet that view of him leads to contradictions. It has been argued that Aristophanes produced plays mainly to entertain the audience, an elaborate series of lotteries, designed to prevent prejudice and corruption, reduced the voting judges at the City Dionysia to just five in number. These judges probably reflected the mood of the audiences yet there is uncertainty about the composition of those audiences. The theatres were certainly huge, with seating for at least 10000 at the Theatre of Dionysus, the conservative views expressed in the plays might therefore reflect the attitudes of the dominant group in an unrepresentative audience. The production process might also have influenced the views expressed in the plays, throughout most of Aristophanes career, the Chorus was essential to a plays success and it was recruited and funded by a choregus, a wealthy citizen appointed to the task by one of the archons. Thus the political conservatism of the plays may reflect the views of the wealthiest section of Athenian society, when Aristophanes first play The Banqueters was produced, Athens was an ambitious, imperial power and the Peloponnesian War was only in its fourth year. His plays often express pride in the achievement of the older generation yet they are not jingoistic, the plays are particularly scathing in criticism of war profiteers, among whom populists such as Cleon figure prominently. However it is whether he led or merely responded to changes in audience expectations. Aristophanes won second prize at the City Dionysia in 427 BC with his first play The Banqueters and he won first prize there with his next play, The Babylonians. Some influential citizens, notably Cleon, reviled the play as slander against the polis, Cleon also seems to have had no real power to limit or control Aristophanes, the caricatures of him continued up to and even beyond his death
15.
Sophocles
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Sophocles is one of three ancient Greek tragedians whose plays have survived. His first plays were later than those of Aeschylus. He competed in 30 competitions, won 18, and was never judged lower than second place, Aeschylus won 14 competitions, and was sometimes defeated by Sophocles, while Euripides won 5 competitions. Sophocles influenced the development of drama, most importantly by adding a third actor and he also developed his characters to a greater extent than earlier playwrights such as Aeschylus. Sophocles, the son of Sophilus, was a member of the rural deme of Hippeios Colonus in Attica, which was to become a setting for one of his plays. Sophocles was born a few years before the Battle of Marathon in 490 BC, Sophocles was born into a wealthy family and was highly educated. Sophocles first artistic triumph was in 468 BC, when he took first prize in the Dionysia theatre competition over the master of Athenian drama. According to Plutarch, the victory came under unusual circumstances, instead of following the usual custom of choosing judges by lot, the archon asked Cimon and the other strategoi present to decide the victor of the contest. Plutarch further contends that following this loss Aeschylus soon left for Sicily, although Plutarch says that this was Sophocles first production, it is now thought that his first production was probably in 470 BC. Triptolemus was probably one of the plays that Sophocles presented at this festival, in 480 BC Sophocles was chosen to lead the paean, celebrating the Greek victory over the Persians at the Battle of Salamis. Early in his career, the politician Cimon might have one of his patrons, although if he was, there was no ill will borne by Pericles, Cimons rival. In 443/2 he served as one of the Hellenotamiai, or treasurers of Athena, in 420 BC, he welcomed and set up an altar for the image of Asclepius at his house, when the deity was introduced to Athens. For this, he was given the posthumous epithet Dexion by the Athenians and he was also elected, in 413 BC, one of the commissioners who responded to the catastrophic destruction of the Athenian expeditionary force in Sicily during the Peloponnesian War. Sophocles died at the age of ninety or ninety-one in the winter of 406/5 BC, as with many famous men in classical antiquity, his death inspired a number of apocryphal stories. The most famous is the suggestion that he died from the strain of trying to recite a long sentence from his Antigone without pausing to take a breath, another account suggests he choked while eating grapes at the Anthesteria festival in Athens. A third holds that he died of happiness after winning his final victory at the City Dionysia, one of his sons, Iophon, and a grandson, also called Sophocles, also became playwrights. Several ancient sources mention Sophocles homosexuality or bisexuality, Athenaios reported that Sophocles loved boys like Euripides loved women. The poet Ion of Chios relates an anecdote involving Sophocles seducing a serving boy at a symposium, Aeschylus, who dominated Athenian playwriting during Sophocles early career, followed suit and adopted the third character into his own work towards the end of his life
16.
Aeschylus
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Aeschylus was an ancient Greek tragedian. He is often described as the father of tragedy, academics knowledge of the genre begins with his work, and understanding of earlier tragedies is largely based on inferences from his surviving plays. According to Aristotle, he expanded the number of characters in theater allowing conflict among them, fragments of some other plays have survived in quotes and more continue to be discovered on Egyptian papyrus, often giving us surprising insights into his work. He was probably the first dramatist to present plays as a trilogy, at least one of his plays was influenced by the Persians second invasion of Greece. This work, The Persians, is the surviving classical Greek tragedy concerned with contemporary events. Despite this, Aeschylus work – particularly the Oresteia – is generally acclaimed by modern critics and scholars. As soon as he woke from the dream, the young Aeschylus began to write a tragedy, and his first performance took place in 499 BC and he won his first victory at the City Dionysia in 484 BC. In 510 BC, when Aeschylus was 15 years old, Cleomenes I expelled the sons of Peisistratus from Athens, Cleisthenes reforms included a system of registration that emphasized the importance of the deme over family tradition. In the last decade of the 6th century, Aeschylus and his family were living in the deme of Eleusis, the Persian Wars played a large role in the playwrights life and career. In 490 BC, Aeschylus and his brother Cynegeirus fought to defend Athens against the army of Darius I of Persia at the Battle of Marathon. The Athenians emerged triumphant, a victory celebrated across the city-states of Greece, Cynegeirus, however, died in the battle, receiving a mortal wound while trying to prevent a Persian ship retreating from the shore, for which his countrymen extolled him as a hero. In 480, Aeschylus was called into service again, this time against Xerxes Is invading forces at the Battle of Salamis. Ion of Chios was a witness for Aeschyluss war record and his contribution in Salamis, Salamis holds a prominent place in The Persians, his oldest surviving play, which was performed in 472 BC and won first prize at the Dionysia. Aeschylus was one of many Greeks who were initiated into the Eleusinian Mysteries, initiates gained secret knowledge through these rites, likely concerning the afterlife. Firm details of specific rites are sparse, as members were sworn under the penalty of not to reveal anything about the Mysteries to non-initiates. Nevertheless, according to Aristotle, Aeschylus was accused of revealing some of the secrets on stage. Other sources claim that a mob tried to kill Aeschylus on the spot. Heracleides of Pontus asserts that the tried to stone Aeschylus
17.
Soy sauce
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Soy sauce is a condiment made from a fermented paste of boiled soybeans, roasted grain, brine, and Aspergillus oryzae or Aspergillus sojae molds. Soy sauce in its current form seems to have begun in the 2nd century AD in China and spread throughout East and Southeast Asia where it is used in cooking, Soy sauce originated in China sometime between the 3rd and 5th century from a meat-based fermented sauce named jiang. Its use later spread to East and Southeast Asia, like many salty condiments, soy sauce was originally a way to stretch salt, historically an expensive commodity. In ancient China, fermented fish with salt was used as a condiment in which soybeans were included during the fermentation process, eventually, this was replaced and the recipe for soy sauce, using soybeans as the principal ingredient, with fermented fish-based sauces developing separately into fish sauce. Records of the Dutch East India Company list soy sauce as a commodity in 1737, thirty-five barrels from that shipment were then shipped to the Netherlands. In the 18th century, diplomat and scholar Isaac Titsingh published accounts of brewing soy sauce, although earlier descriptions of soy sauce had been disseminated in the West, his was among the earliest to focus specifically on the brewing of the Japanese version. By the mid-19th century, Japanese soy sauce gradually disappeared from the European market, europeans were unable to make soy sauce because they did not understand the function of Aspergillus oryzae, the fungus used in its brewing. Soy sauce made from such as Portobello mushrooms were disseminated in European cookbooks during the late 18th century. A Swedish recipe for Soija was published in the 1770 edition of Cajsa Wargs Hjelpreda i Hushållningen för Unga Fruentimber and was flavored with allspice and mace, Soy sauce is made either by fermentation or by hydrolysis. Some commercial sauces have both fermented and chemical sauces, flavor, color, and aroma developments during production are attributed to non-enzymatic Maillard browning. Variation is usually achieved as the result of different methods and durations of fermentation, different ratios of water, salt, traditional soy sauces are made by mixing soybeans and grain with mold cultures such as Aspergillus oryzae and other related microorganisms and yeasts. Historically, the mixture was fermented naturally in large urns and under the sun, today, the mixture is placed in a temperature and humidity controlled incubation chamber. Traditional soy sauces take months to make, Soaking and cooking, The soybeans are soaked in water, koji culturing, An equal amount of boiled soybeans and roasted wheat are mixed to form a grain mixture. A culture of Aspergillus spore is added to the grain mixture, the cultures include, Aspergillus, a genus of fungus that is used for fermenting various ingredients. Three species are used for brewing soy sauce, A. oryzae, a. sojae, This fungus also has a high proteolytic capacity. A. tamari, This fungus is used for brewing tamari and this organism is likely to grow soy sauce ingredients, bring to generate odors and ammonia. Lactobacillus species, This organism makes a lactic acid that increases the acidity in the feed, brewing, The cultured grain mixture is mixed into a specific amount of salt brine for wet fermentation or with coarse salt for dry fermentation and left to brew. Over time, the Aspergillus mold on the soy and wheat break down the proteins into free amino acid and protein fragments
18.
Monosodium glutamate
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Monosodium glutamate is the sodium salt of glutamic acid, one of the most abundant naturally occurring non-essential amino acids. Monosodium glutamate is found naturally in tomatoes, cheese and other foods and it was first prepared in 1908 by Japanese biochemist Kikunae Ikeda, who was trying to isolate and duplicate the savory taste of kombu, an edible seaweed used as a base for many Japanese soups. MSG as a flavor enhancer balances, blends, and rounds the perception of other tastes, the U. S. Food and Drug Administration has given MSG its generally recognized as safe designation. The European Union classifies it as a food additive permitted in certain foods, MSG has the HS code 29224220 and the E number E621. Pure MSG is reported not to have a pleasant taste until it is combined with a savory aroma, the basic sensory function of MSG is attributed to its ability to enhance savory taste-active compounds when added in the proper concentration. The optimum concentration varies by food, in soup, the pleasure score rapidly falls with the addition of more than one gram of MSG per 100 mL. The sodium content of MSG, 12%, is about one-third of that in sodium chloride, although other salts of glutamate have been used in low-salt soups, they are less palatable than MSG. A popular belief is that MSG can cause headaches and other feelings of discomfort, MSG has been used for more than 100 years to season food, with a number of studies conducted on its safety. Consumption and manufacture of high-salt and high-glutamate foods, which contain sodium and glutamate, stretch back far longer, with evidence of cheese manufacture as early as 5,500 BC. International and national bodies governing food additives currently consider MSG safe for consumption as a flavor enhancer. Under normal conditions, humans can metabolize relatively large quantities of glutamate, the median lethal dose is between 15 and 18 g/kg body weight in rats and mice, respectively, five times greater than the LD50 of salt. The use of MSG as an additive and the natural level of glutamic acid in foods are not toxicological concerns in humans. According to the report, no support the role of glutamate in chronic disease. A controlled, double-blind, multiple-location clinical trial failed to demonstrate a relationship between the MSG symptom complex and actual MSG consumption, no statistical association has been demonstrated, and the few responses were inconsistent. No symptoms were observed when MSG was administered with food, adequately controlling for experimental bias includes a double-blind, placebo-controlled experimental design and administration by capsule, because of the unique aftertaste of glutamates. In a study by Tarasoff and Kelly,71 fasting participants were given 5 g of MSG, a study by Geha et al. tested the reaction of 130 subjects with a reported sensitivity to MSG. Multiple DBPC trials were performed, with subjects exhibiting at least two symptoms continuing, two people out of the 130 responded to all four challenges. Because of the low prevalence, the researchers concluded that a response to MSG was not reproducible, studies exploring MSGs role in obesity have yielded mixed results
19.
Umami
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Umami, or savory taste, is one of the five basic tastes. It has been described as brothy or meaty, people taste umami through taste receptors specific to glutamate. Glutamate is widely present in foods, such as meat broths and fermented products. Since umami has its own rather than arising out of a combination of the traditionally recognized taste receptors. A loanword from the Japanese, umami can be translated as pleasant savory taste and this neologism was coined in 1908 by Japanese chemist Kikunae Ikeda from a nominalization of umai delicious. The compound 旨味 is used for a general sense of a food as delicious. Scientists have debated whether umami was a basic taste since Kikunae Ikeda first proposed its existence in 1908, in 1985, the term umami was recognized as the scientific term to describe the taste of glutamates and nucleotides at the first Umami International Symposium in Hawaii. Umami represents the taste of the amino acid L-glutamate and 5’-ribonucleotides such as guanosine monophosphate and it can be described as a pleasant brothy or meaty taste with a long lasting, mouthwatering and coating sensation over the tongue. The sensation of umami is due to the detection of the anion of glutamate in specialized receptor cells present on the human. Some 52 peptides may be responsible for detecting umami taste and its effect is to balance taste and round out the overall flavor of a dish. Umami enhances the palatability of a variety of foods. Glutamate in acid form imparts little taste, whereas the salts of glutamic acid, known as glutamates. GMP and IMP amplify the taste intensity of glutamate, adding salt to the free acids also enhances the umami taste. Monosodium L-aspartate has an umami taste about four times less intense than MSG whereas ibotenic acid, glutamate has a long history in cooking. In the late-1800s, chef Auguste Escoffier, who opened restaurants in Paris and London, created meals that combined umami with salty, sour, sweet and he did not know the chemical source of this unique quality, however. Umami was first scientifically identified in 1908 by Kikunae Ikeda, a professor of the Tokyo Imperial University and he found that glutamate was responsible for the palatability of the broth from kombu seaweed. He noticed that the taste of kombu dashi was distinct from sweet, sour, bitter, professor Shintaro Kodama, a disciple of Ikeda, discovered in 1913 that dried bonito flakes contained another umami substance. In 1957, Akira Kuninaka realized that the ribonucleotide GMP present in shiitake mushrooms also conferred the umami taste, one of Kuninakas most important discoveries was the synergistic effect between ribonucleotides and glutamate
20.
Murri (condiment)
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Murrī or Almorí was a condiment made of fermented barley or fish used in medieval Byzantine and Arab cuisine. There are two kinds of murrī, the usual kind made using fermented barley, with a less common version made from fish. Almost every substantial dish in medieval Arab cuisine used murrī in small quantities, originally a Byzantine condiment, murrī made its way into medieval Arab cookbooks, likely due to exposure to Byzantine culture during the empires rule over much of what came to be the Arab world. Charles Perry, an expert in medieval Arab cuisine, suggests that murrī arose from garum, the recipe for murrī was mistranscribed with the fermenting stage omitted, in a 13th-century text Liber de Ferculis et Condimenti, where it was described as salty water elsewhere in the translation. Traditionally, murrī production was undertaken annually in households at the end of March, barley-based murrī entails the wrapping of raw barley dough in fig leaves which are left to sit for 40 days. The dough is then ground and mixed with water, salt and it is then left to ferment for another 40 days in a warm place. The resulting dark mahoghany brown paste, mixed with water to form a liquid, is murrī and this mixture, known as the first murri, is then strained and set aside. Then, raisins, carob, dill, fennel, nigella, sesame, anis, mace, citron leaf, the second murri is then added to the first, and boiled until thickened. Murrī mixed with milk was known as kamakh, david Martin Gitlitz, Linda Kay Davidson, A drizzle of honey, the lives and recipes of Spains secret Jews,1999
21.
Arab cuisine
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Arab cuisine is defined as the various regional cuisines spanning the Arab world, from the Maghreb to the Mashriq or Levant and the Persian Gulf. The cuisines are often old and resemble and culture of great trading in spices, herbs. The three main regions, also known as the Maghreb, the Mashriq, and the Khaleej have many similarities and these kitchens have been influenced by the climate, cultivating possibilities, as well as trading possibilities. The kitchens of the Maghreb and Levant are relatively young kitchens which were developed over the past centuries, the kitchen from the Khaleej region is a very old kitchen. The kitchens can be divided into the urban and rural kitchens, the Arabian cuisine uses specific and sometimes unique foods and spices. Some of those foods are, Meat, lamb and chicken are the most used, with beef, other poultry is used in some regions, and fish is used in coastal areas like the Mediterranean sea, Atlantic Ocean or the Red sea. Dairy products, dairy products are used, especially yogurt, Buttermilk. Butter and cream are used extensively. Herbs and spices, The amounts and types used generally varies from region to region, Some of the included herbs and spices are sesame, saffron, Black pepper, Allspice, turmeric, garlic, cumin, cinnamon, Parsley, Coriander and sumac. Spice mixtures include baharat, Ras el hanout, Zaatar, Harissa, beverages, hot beverages are served more than cold, coffee being on the top of the list in the Middle-eastern countries and tea on top of the Maghreb countries. In Jordan, Some part of Syria, Morocco and Algeria tea is more important as a beverage. Other Arabian drinks include Andalucian Horchata and Maghrebi avocado smoothie, grains, rice is the staple and is used for most dishes, wheat is the main source for bread. Bulgur and semolina are also used extensively, legumes, lentils are widely used in all colours, as well as fava beans, chickpeas, scarlet runner beans, green peas, lupini beans, white beans and brown beans. Vegetables, Arabian cuisine favors vegetables such as carrots, eggplant, zucchini, artichokes, okra, onions, potatoes are also eaten as vegetables in Arabian culture. Fruits, Arabian cuisine favors fruits such as Pomegranate, Dates, Figs, oranges, citruses, watermelons, Cantaloupe, Honeydew melon, nuts, almonds, peanuts, pine nuts, pistachios, and walnuts are often included in dishes or eaten as snacks. Greens, parsley, Coriander and mint are popular as seasonings in many dishes, while spinach, dressings and sauces, the most popular dressings include various combinations of olive oil, lemon juice, parsley or garlic, as well as tahini. Labaneh is often seasoned with mint, onion, or garlic, the Bedouins of the Arabian Peninsula, Middle-East and North-Africa relied on a diet of dates, dried fruit, nuts, wheat, barley, rice, and meat. The meat came from animals such as cows, sheep
22.
Farinata
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In standard Italian, the dish is called farinata while in Ligurian, specifically in the Genoese dialect, it goes by the name of fainâ. In Nice and the Côte dAzur, it is called socca, in Tuscany, cecina or torta di ceci, farinata may be seasoned with fresh rosemary, pepper and sea salt. Traditionally farinata is cut into irregularly shaped triangular slices, and eaten on small plates with black pepper. Elsewhere in Italy - traditionally in Tuscany, where it is called cecina - it is served stuffed into small focaccia or between two slices of bread, as it is traditional in Livorno and it is sold in pizzerias and bakeries. On the Tuscan coast, south of Liguria, especially in the province of Pisa, Livorno, Lucca, Massa Carrara cecina or, in Livorno, in Sassari, Sardinia, due to the historical ties with Genoa, la fainé genovese, is a typical dish. In Savona province, a version of farinata called farinata bianca is used and it is made with wheat flour instead of chickpea flour. The name panissa or paniscia in Genoese indicates a solidified boiled polenta-like paste and it can be cut into strips and fried, called panissette. Socca is also a specialty of southeastern French cuisine, particularly in and around the city of Nice and it may be baked on a tinned copper plate more than a meter in diameter. In Algeria, karantita is a dish which is very popular. It is served hot and dressed with cumin and harissa, in Argentina and Uruguay farinata is known as fainá, similar to the original Genoese name fainâ. It is often eaten on top of pizza, in Uruguay, el fainá is considered a traditional Uruguayan dish, brought by immigrants in 1915, so much so that 27 August has been called Fainá Day. Olive oil, which is expensive, is not necessarily used, other oils may be used. In Gibraltar, where a significant portion of its population is of Genoese origin and they are typically eaten plain, without any toppings. These are considered to be Gibraltars national dishes, in India, the dal chila or besan puda, depending on the region, is a similar dish made by cooking chickpea flour and water on an oiled skillet. Vegetables such as onions, green chillies, cabbage and herbs, list of pancakes Food portal Media related to Socca at Wikimedia Commons
23.
Martial
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In these short, witty poems he cheerfully satirises city life and the scandalous activities of his acquaintances, and romanticises his provincial upbringing. He wrote a total of 1,561, of which 1,235 are in elegiac couplets, Martial has been called the greatest Latin epigrammatist, and is considered the creator of the modern epigram. Knowledge of his origins and early life are derived almost entirely from his works, which can be more or less dated according to the well-known events to which they refer. In Book X of his Epigrams, composed between 95 and 98, he mentions celebrating his birthday, hence he was born during March 38,39,40 or 41 AD. His place of birth was Augusta Bilbilis in Hispania Tarraconensis and his parents, Fronto and Flaccilla, appear to have died in his youth. Martial professes to be of the school of Catullus, Pedo, the epigram bears to this day the form impressed upon it by his unrivalled skill in wordsmithing. The success of his countrymen may have been what motivated Martial to move to Rome, from Hispania, once he had completed his education. This move occurred in AD64, in which Seneca the Younger and Lucan may have served as his first patrons, not much is known of the details of his life for the first twenty years or so after he came to Rome. He published some poems of which he thought very little in his later years. Martial had neither youthful passion nor youthful enthusiasm to precociously mold him a poet and he made many influential friends and patrons and secured the favor of both Titus and Domitian. From them he obtained various privileges, among others the semestris tribunatus, the earliest of his extant works, known as Liber spectaculorum, was first published at the opening of the Colosseum in the reign of Titus. It relates to the performances given by him, but the book as it now stands was presented to the world in or about the first year of Domitian, i. e. about the year 81. The two books, numbered by editors xiii. and xiv. and known by the names of Xenia, in 86 he bore for the world the first two of the twelve books on which his pendulous and sterling reputation rests. From that time till his return to Hispania in 98 he published a volume almost every year. The first nine books and the first edition of Book X. appeared in the reign of Domitian, Book XI. appeared at the end of 96, shortly after the accession of Nerva. A revised edition of book X. that which we now possess extant, appeared in 98, the last book was written after three years absence in Hispania, shortly before his lamentable death, which happened about the year 102 or 103. These twelve books bring Martials ordinary mode of life between the age of forty-five and sixty very fully before us for leisurely consideration of a Sunday afternoon and his regular home for thirty-five years was the bustle of metropolitan Rome. He lived at first up three flights of stairs, and his garret overlooked the laurels in front of the portico of Agrippa
24.
Apicius
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He is sometimes erroneously asserted to be the author of the book that is pseudepigraphically attributed to him. Apicius is a text to be used in the kitchen, but the recipes are geared for the wealthiest classes, and a few contain what were exotic ingredients at that time. A sample recipe from Apicius follows, ALITER HAEDINAM SIVE AGNINAM EXCALDATAM, cepam, coriandrum minutatim succides, teres piper, ligusticum, cuminum, liquamen, oleum, vinum. Coques, exinanies in patina, amulo obligas, <agnina> a crudo trituram mortario accipere debet, caprina autem cum coquitur accipit trituram. Put the pieces of meat into a pan, finely chop an onion and coriander, pound pepper, lovage, cumin, garum, oil, and wine. Cook, turn out into a pan, thicken with wheat starch. If you take lamb you should add the contents of the mortar while the meat is raw, if kid. The Vinidarius of this book may have been a Goth, in case his Gothic name may have been Vinithaharjis. Despite being called illustrious, nothing about him is truly known, apici excerpta a Vinidario survives in a single 8th-century uncial manuscript. Despite the title, this booklet is not an excerpt purely from the Apicius text we have today, once manuscripts surfaced, there were two early printed editions of Apicius, in Milan and Venice. Four more editions in the four decades reflect the appeal of Apicius. In the long-standard edition of C. T. Schuch, the editor added some recipes from the Vinidarius manuscript, between 1498 and 1936, there were 14 editions of the Latin text. The work was not widely translated, however, the first translation was into Italian, in 1852, the French translation by Bertrand Guégan was awarded the 1934 Prix Langlois by the Académie française. Vehling made the first translation of the book into English under the title Cookery and it was published in 1936 and is still in print, having been reprinted in 1977 by Dover Publications. It is now of historical interest only, since Vehlings knowledge of Latin was not always adequate for the task of translation. Medieval cuisine Le Viandier – a recipe collection generally credited to Guillaume Tirel, the Forme of Cury – is an extensive collection of medieval English recipes of the 14th century. Apicii decem libri qui dicuntur De re coquinaria ed. Mary Ella Milham, the Roman Cookery Book, A Critical Translation of the Art of Cooking By Apicius for Use in the Study and the Kitchen. Apicius, A Critical Edition with an Introduction and an English Translation, Cookery and Dining in Imperial Rome
25.
Onion
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The onion, also known as the bulb onion or common onion, is a vegetable and is the most widely cultivated species of the genus Allium. This genus also contains several other species variously referred to as onions and cultivated for food, such as the Japanese bunching onion, the onion. The name wild onion is applied to a number of Allium species and its ancestral wild original form is not known, although escapes from cultivation have become established in some regions. The onion is most frequently a biennial or a perennial plant, the onion plant has a fan of hollow, bluish-green leaves and its bulb at the base of the plant begins to swell when a certain day-length is reached. The bulbs are composed of shortened, compressed, underground stems surrounded by fleshy modified scale that envelop a central bud at the tip of the stem, in the autumn, the foliage dies down and the outer layers of the bulb become dry and brittle. The crop is harvested and dried and the onions are ready for use or storage, the crop is prone to attack by a number of pests and diseases, particularly the onion fly, the onion eelworm, and various fungi cause rotting. Some varieties of A. cepa, such as shallots and potato onions, Onions are cultivated and used around the world. As a food item, they are served cooked, as a vegetable or part of a prepared savoury dish. They are pungent when chopped and contain certain chemical substances which irritate the eyes, the onion plant, also known as the bulb onion or common onion, is the most widely cultivated species of the genus Allium. It was first officially described by Carl Linnaeus in his 1753 work Species Plantarum, a. cepa is known exclusively from cultivation, but related wild species occur in Central Asia. The most closely related species include A. vavilovii and A. asarense from Iran, however, Zohary and Hopf state that there are doubts whether the A. vavilovii collections tested represent genuine wild material or only feral derivatives of the crop. The vast majority of cultivars of A. cepa belong to the common onion group and are referred to simply as onions. The Aggregatum group of cultivars includes both shallots and potato onions, the genus Allium also contains a number of other species variously referred to as onions and cultivated for food, such as the Japanese bunching onion, Egyptian onion, and Canada onion. The onion plant has grown and selectively bred in cultivation for at least 7,000 years. It is a plant, but is usually grown as an annual. Modern varieties typically grow to a height of 15 to 45 cm, the leaves are yellowish- to bluish green and grow alternately in a flattened, fan-shaped swathe. They are fleshy, hollow, and cylindrical, with one flattened side and they are at their broadest about a quarter of the way up, beyond which they taper towards a blunt tip. The base of leaf is a flattened, usually white sheath that grows out of a basal disc
26.
Coriander
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Coriander, also known as cilantro or Chinese parsley, is an annual herb in the family Apiaceae. All parts of the plant are edible, but the fresh leaves, Coriander is native to regions spanning from southern Europe and northern Africa to southwestern Asia. It is a plant growing to 50 cm tall. The leaves are variable in shape, broadly lobed at the base of the plant, the flowers are borne in small umbels, white or very pale pink, asymmetrical, with the petals pointing away from the center of the umbel longer than those pointing toward it. The fruit is a globular, dry schizocarp 3–5 mm in diameter, the earliest attested form of the word is the Mycenaean Greek ko-ri-ja-da-na written in Linear B syllabic script which later evolved to koriannon or koriandron. Cilantro is the Spanish word for coriander, also deriving from coriandrum and it is the common term in North American English for coriander leaves, due to their extensive use in Mexican cuisine. Coriander grows wild over an area of Western Asia and southern Europe, prompting the comment, It is hard to define exactly where this plant is wild. Fifteen desiccated mericarps were found in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B level of the Nahal Hemar Cave in Israel, Coriander seems to have been cultivated in Greece since at least the second millennium BC. Coriander was brought to the British colonies in North America in 1670, all parts of the plant are edible, but the fresh leaves and the dried seeds are the parts most traditionally used in cooking. Coriander is used in cuisines throughout the world, the leaves are variously referred to as coriander leaves, fresh coriander, dhania, Chinese parsley, or cilantro. Coriander potentially may be confused with culantro, an Apiaceae like coriander, culantro has a distinctly different spiny appearance, a more potent volatile leaf oil and a stronger aroma. The leaves have a different taste from the seeds, with citrus overtones, however, some people find the leaves to have an unpleasant soapy taste or a rank smell and avoid them. Chopped coriander leaves are a garnish on Indian dishes such as dal, as heat diminishes their flavour, coriander leaves are often used raw or added to the dish immediately before serving. In Indian and Central Asian recipes, coriander leaves are used in large amounts, the leaves spoil quickly when removed from the plant, and lose their aroma when dried or frozen. The dry fruits are known as coriander seeds, the word coriander in food preparation may refer solely to these seeds, rather than to the plant. The seeds have a citrus flavour when crushed, due to terpenes linalool. It is described as warm, nutty, spicy, and orange-flavoured and they are used extensively for grinding and blending purposes in the spice trade. Types with smaller fruit are produced in regions and usually have a volatile oil content around 0. 4-1. 8%
27.
Lovage
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Lovage, Levisticum officinale, is a tall perennial plant, the sole species in the genus Levisticum in the family Apiaceae, subfamily Apioideae, tribe Apieae. Lovage is an erect, herbaceous, perennial plant growing to 1. 8–2.5 m tall, with a rosette of leaves and stems with further leaves. The stems and leaves are shiny green to yellow-green and smell somewhat similar to celery when crushed. The flowers are yellow to greenish-yellow, 2–3 mm diameter, produced in umbels up to 10–15 cm diameter. The fruit is a dry two-parted schizocarp 4–7 mm long, mature in autumn and it has been long cultivated in Europe, the leaves being used as an herb, the roots as a vegetable, and the seeds as a spice, especially in southern European cuisine. The leaves can be used in salads, or to make soup or season broths, and its flavor and smell is somewhat similar to celery. The seeds can be used as a spice, similar to fennel seeds, in the UK, an alcoholic lovage cordial is traditionally mixed with brandy in the ratio of 2,1 as a winter drink. In Romania, the leaves are the preferred seasoning for the various local broths, in the Netherlands it is the only non salt ingredient of a traditional asparagus dish. The roots, which contain a heavy, volatile oil, are used as a mild aquaretic, lovage root contains furanocoumarins which can lead to photosensitivity. In Romania it is also used dried and with seeds to conserve and to add flavour to pickled cabbage, italian levistico or sedano di monte, French livèche, Romanian leuştean, Hungarian lestyán, Russian любисток lyubeestok, etc. In Bulgaria, it is known as девесил deveseel, the Czech name is libeček, and the Polish name is lubczyk, both meaning love herb. The name in Swedish is libbsticka, Norwegian løpstikke, media related to Levisticum officinale at Wikimedia Commons
28.
Cumin
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Cumin is a flowering plant in the family Apiaceae, native from the east Mediterranean to South Asia. Its seeds are used in the cuisines of different cultures. It also has uses as a traditional medicinal plant. The English cumin is derived from the Old English via Latin cuminum from the Greek κύμινον, Cumin is the dried seed of the herb Cuminum cyminum, a member of the parsley family. The cumin plant grows to 30–50 cm tall and is harvested by hand and it is an annual herbaceous plant, with a slender, glabrous, branched stem that is 20–30 cm tall and has a diameter of 3–5 cm. Each branch has two to three sub-branches, all the branches attain the same height, therefore the plant has a uniform canopy. The stem is coloured grey or dark green, the leaves are 5–10 cm long, pinnate or bipinnate, with thread-like leaflets. The flowers are small, white or pink, and borne in umbels, each umbel has five to seven umbellts. The fruit is a lateral fusiform or ovoid achene 4–5 mm long, containing two mericarps with a single seed, Cumin seeds have eight ridges with oil canals. They resemble caraway seeds, being oblong in shape, longitudinally ridged, and yellow-brown in colour, like members of the Umbelliferae family such as caraway, parsley. Cumin has been in use since ancient times, seeds excavated at the Syrian site Tell ed-Der have been dated to the second millennium BC. They have also reported from several New Kingdom levels of ancient Egyptian archaeological sites. In the ancient Egyptian civilization, cumin was used as spice, originally cultivated in Iran and the Mediterranean region, cumin is mentioned in the Bible in both the Old Testament and the New Testament. The ancient Greeks kept cumin at the table in its own container. Cumin was also used heavily in ancient Roman cuisine, in India, it has been used for millennia as a traditional ingredient in innumerable recipes, and forms the basis of many other spice blends. Cumin was introduced to the Americas by Spanish and Portuguese colonists, several different types of cumin are known, but the most famous ones are black and green cumin, both of which are used in Persian cuisine. Today, the plant is grown in Pakistan, India, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Iran, Turkey, Morocco, Egypt, Syria, Mexico, Chile. Since cumin is used as part of birdseed and exported to many countries
29.
Wine
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Wine is an alcoholic beverage made from fermented grapes. These grapes are generally Vitis vinifera, or a hybrid with Vitis labrusca or Vitis rupestris, grapes are fermented without the addition of sugars, acids, enzymes, water, or other nutrients. Yeast consumes the sugar in the grapes and converts it to ethanol, different varieties of grapes and strains of yeasts produce different styles of wine. These variations result from the interactions between the biochemical development of the grape, the reactions involved in fermentation, the terroir. Many countries enact legal appellations intended to define styles and qualities of wine and these typically restrict the geographical origin and permitted varieties of grapes, as well as other aspects of wine production. There are also made from fermenting other fruits or cereals. Wines made from other than grapes include rice wine and various fruit wines such as those made from plums or cherries. Some well known examples are hard cider from apples, perry from pears, pomegranate wine, Wine has been produced for thousands of years. The earliest known traces of wine from Georgia in Eurasia where 8000-year-old wine jars were found and in Iran with 7, the earliest known winery is the 6, 100-year-old Areni-1 winery Armenia. Wine reached the Balkans by 4500 BC and was consumed and celebrated in ancient Greece, Thrace, throughout history, wine has been consumed for its intoxicating effects, which are evident after the normal serving size of five ounces. Wine has long played an important role in religion, the earliest chemically attested grape wine was discovered at Hajji Firuz in the northwestern Zagros Mountains dating back to 5400 BC. The earliest evidence of a fermented drink was found in Georgia, where wine residue inside ceramic jars dates from 6000 BC. The earliest evidence of a production facility is the Areni-1 winery in Armenia and is at least 6100 years old, presumably. A2003 report by archaeologists indicates a possibility that grapes were mixed with rice to produce mixed fermented beverages in China in the years of the seventh millennium BC. Pottery jars from the Neolithic site of Jiahu, Henan, contained traces of tartaric acid, however, other fruits indigenous to the region, such as hawthorn, cannot be ruled out. The spread of wine culture westwards was most probably due to the Phoenicians who spread outward from a base of city-states along the Lebanese, Syrian, the wines of Byblos were exported to Egypt during the Old Kingdom and then throughout the Mediterranean. Evidence includes two Phoenician shipwrecks from 750 BC discovered by Robert Ballard, whose cargo of wine was still intact. As the first great traders in wine, the Phoenicians seem to have protected it from oxidation with a layer of oil, followed by a seal of pinewood and resin
30.
Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum
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The Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum is a comprehensive collection of ancient Latin inscriptions. It forms a source for documenting the surviving epigraphy of classical antiquity. Public and personal inscriptions throw light on all aspects of Roman life, the Corpus continues to be updated in new editions and supplements. CIL also refers to the organization within the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities responsible for collecting data on and it was founded in 1853 by Theodor Mommsen and is the first and major organization aiming at a comprehensive survey. The CIL collects all Latin inscriptions from the territory of the Roman Empire. The earlier volumes collected and published versions of all inscriptions known at the time—most of these had been previously published in a wide range of publications. The language of the CIL is Latin, the leading figure of this committee was Theodor Mommsen. Much of the work involved personal inspections of sites and monuments in an attempt to replicate the original as much as possible, the first volume appeared in 1853. The CIL presently consists of 17 volumes in about 70 parts, thirteen supplementary volumes have plates and special indices. The other volumes cover other topics, volume XVII, for instance, is entirely devoted to milestones. A volume XVIII is planned, which contain the Carmina Latina Epigraphica. A two-volume Index of Numbers, correlating inscription numbers with numbers, was published in 2003. The Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften continues to update and reprint the CIL, epigraphy Inscriptiones Graecae Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae Corpus Inscriptionum et Monumentorum Religionis Mithriacae Prosopographia Imperii Romani Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum. Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities. English translations of selected inscriptions from CIL. attalus. org
31.
Pelagic fish
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The marine pelagic environment is the largest aquatic habitat on Earth, occupying 1,370 million cubic kilometres, and is the habitat for 11% of known fish species. The oceans have a depth of 4000 metres. About 98% of the water volume is below 100 metres. Marine pelagic fish can be divided into pelagic coastal fish and oceanic pelagic fish, coastal fish inhabit the relatively shallow and sunlit waters above the continental shelf, while oceanic fish inhabit the vast and deep waters beyond the continental shelf. Pelagic fish range in size from small forage fish, such as herrings and sardines, to large apex predator oceanic fishes, such as bluefin tuna. They are usually agile swimmers with streamlined bodies, capable of sustained cruising on long-distance migrations, the Indo-Pacific sailfish, an oceanic pelagic fish, can sprint at over 110 kilometres per hour. Some tuna species cruise across the Pacific Ocean, many pelagic fish swim in schools weighing hundreds of tonnes. Others are solitary, like the ocean sunfish weighing over 500 kilograms. Epipelagic fish inhabit the epipelagic zone, the epipelagic zone is the water from the surface of the sea down to 200 metres. It is also referred to as the waters or the sunlit zone. The photic zone is defined as the surface waters down to the point where the sunlight has attenuated to 1% of the surface value and this depth depends on how turbid the water is, but in clear water can extend to 200 metres, coinciding with the epipelagic zone. The photic zone has sufficient light for phytoplankton to photosynthese, the epipelagic zone is vast, and is the home for most pelagic fish. The zone is well lit so visual predators can use their eyesight, is well mixed and oxygenated from wave action. However, it is an almost featureless habitat and this lack of habitat diversity results in a lack of species diversity, so the zone supports less than 2% of the worlds known fish species. Epipelagic fish can be divided into small forage fish and larger predator fish which feed on them. Forage fish school and filter feed on plankton, most epipelagic fish have streamlined bodies capable of sustained cruising on migrations. In general, predatory and forage fish share the same morphological features, predator fish are usually fusiform with large mouths, smooth bodies, and deeply forked tails. Many use vision to predate zooplankton or smaller fish, while others feed on plankton
32.
Anchovy
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An anchovy is a small, common salt-water forage fish of the family Engraulidae. The 144 species are placed in 17 genera, they are found in the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans, and in the Black Sea, Anchovies are usually classified as oily fish. Anchovies are small, green fish with blue reflections due to a longitudinal stripe that runs from the base of the caudal fin. They range from 2 to 40 cm in length. The snout is blunt with tiny, sharp teeth in both jaws, the snout contains a unique rostral organ, believed to be sensory in nature, although its exact function is unknown. The mouth is larger than that of herrings and silversides, two fish which anchovies closely resemble in other respects, the anchovy eats plankton and recently hatched fish. Anchovies are found in scattered areas throughout the oceans, but are concentrated in temperate waters. They are generally accepting of a wide range of temperatures. Large schools can be found in shallow, brackish areas with muddy bottoms, as in estuaries and they are abundant in the Mediterranean, particularly in the Alboran Sea, Aegean Sea and the Black Sea. The species is caught along the coasts of Crete, Greece, Sicily, Italy, France, Turkey. They are also found on the coast of northern Africa, the range of the species also extends along the Atlantic coast of Europe to the south of Norway. Spawning occurs between October and March, but not in water colder than 12 °C, the anchovy appears to spawn at least 100 km from the shore, near the surface of the water. The anchovy is a significant food source for almost every predatory fish in its environment, including the California halibut, rock fish, yellowtail, shark, chinook, and coho salmon. It is also important to marine mammals and birds, for example, breeding success of California brown pelicans. Anchovies, like most clupeoids, are filter-feeders that open their mouths as they swim, as water passes through the mouth and out the gills, food particles are sieved by gill rakers and transferred into the esophagus. * Type species On average, the Turkish commercial fishing fleet catches around 300,000 tons per year, the largest catch is in November and December. The Peruvian anchovy fishery is one of the largest in the world, in 1973 it collapsed catastrophically due to the combined effects of overfishing and El Niño and did not recover fully for two decades. A traditional method of processing and preserving anchovies is to gut and salt them in brine, allow them to mature and this results in a characteristic strong flavor and the flesh turns deep grey
33.
Sprat
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A sprat is the common name applied to a group of forage fish belonging to the genus Sprattus in the family Clupeidae. The term is applied to a number of other small sprat-like forage fish. Like most forage fishes, sprats are highly active small oily fish and they travel in large schools with other fish and swim continuously throughout the day. They are also recognized for their value as they contain high levels of polyunsaturated fats. Sprats are sometimes passed for other fish, products sold as having been prepared from anchovies and sardines are sometimes prepared from sprats and they are known for their smooth flavour and are easy to mistake for baby sardines. True sprats belong to the genus Sprattus in the family Clupeidae, * Type species The term is also commonly applied to a number of other small sprat-like forage fish which share characteristics of the true sprat. Apart from the true sprats, FishBase list another 48 species whose common names ends with sprat, the development of young larval sprat and reproductive success of the sprat have been largely influenced by environmental factors. Some of these factors that are affecting the sprat can be seen in the Baltic Sea, where specific gravity, water temperature, depth, and other such factors play a role in the success of the sprat. The amount of sprat over the last two decades has fluctuated due primarily to availability of zooplankton, a food source. Although the overall survival rates of the sprat decreased in the late 1980s and early 1990s, recent studies suggesting that there is a progression in the reproductive success of the sprat acknowledge that there has been a significant increase in spawning stock biomass. The metabolic rate of the sprat is highly influenced by factors such as water temperature. Several related fish such as the Atlantic Herring have a lower metabolic rate than that of the sprat. Fish of the different species of sprat are found in parts of the world including New Zealand, Australia. By far, the most highly studied location where the sprat, most commonly Sprattus sprattus, resides is the Baltic Sea, the Baltic Sea provides the sprat with a highly diverse environment, with spatial and temporal potential allowing for successful reproduction. One of the most well-known locations in the Baltic Sea where they forage for their food is the Bornholm Basin, although the Baltic Sea has undergone several ecological changes during the last two decades, the sprat has dramatically increased in population. In the Baltic Sea, cod, herring, and sprat are considered the most important species, cod is the top predator while the herring and sprat are recognized primarily as prey. This has been proven by many studies that analyze the contents of such fish. Although cod primarily feed on adult sprat, sprat tend to feed on cod before they have fully developed
34.
Sardine
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Sardine and pilchard are common names used to refer to various small, oily fish within the herring family of Clupeidae. The term sardine was first used in English during the early 15th century and may come from the Mediterranean island of Sardinia, the terms sardine and pilchard are not precise, and what is meant depends on the region. The United Kingdoms Sea Fish Industry Authority, for example, classifies sardines as young pilchards, one criterion suggests fish shorter in length than 15 cm are sardines, and larger fish are pilchards. Typically, sardines are caught with encircling nets, particularly purse seines, many modifications of encircling nets are used, including traps or weirs. The latter are stationary enclosures composed of stakes into which schools of sardines are diverted as they swim along the coast, the fish are caught mainly at night, when they approach the surface to feed on plankton. After harvesting, the fish are submerged in brine while they are transported to shore, sardines are commercially fished for a variety of uses, for bait, for immediate consumption, for drying, salting, or smoking, and for reduction into fish meal or oil. The chief use of sardines is for consumption, but fish meal is used as animal feed, while sardine oil has many uses, including the manufacture of paint, varnish. Sardines are commonly consumed by human beings, fresh sardines are often grilled, pickled or smoked, or preserved in cans. Sardines are rich in vitamins and minerals, a small serving of sardines once a day can provide 13 percent of vitamin B2, roughly one-quarter of niacin, and about 150 percent of the recommended daily value of vitamin B12. All B vitamins help to support proper nervous system function and are used for energy metabolism, also, sardines are high in the major minerals such as phosphorus, calcium, potassium, and some trace minerals including iron and selenium. Sardines are also a source of marine omega-3 fatty acids. Recent studies suggest that consumption of omega-3 fatty acids reduces the likelihood of developing Alzheimers disease. These fatty acids can also lower blood sugar levels and they are also a good source of vitamin D, calcium, vitamin B12, and protein. Because they are low in the chain, sardines are very low in contaminants such as mercury. Pilchard fishing and processing became an industry in Cornwall from around 1750 to around 1880. Catches varied from year to year and, in 1871 the catch was 47,000 hogsheads while in 1877 only 9,477 hogsheads, a hogshead contained 2,300 to 4,000 pilchards and, when filled with pressed pilchards, weighed 476 lbs. The pilchards were exported to Roman Catholic countries such as Italy. The chief market for the oil was Bristol where it is used on machinery, as of 2007, however, stocks are improving
35.
Mackerel
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Mackerel is a common name applied to a number of different species of pelagic fish, mostly, but not exclusively, from the family Scombridae. They are found in temperate and tropical seas, mostly living along the coast or offshore in the oceanic environment. Mackerel typically have stripes on their backs and deeply forked tails. Many species are restricted in their ranges, and live in separate populations or fish stocks based on geography. Some stocks migrate in schools along the coast to suitable spawning grounds. After spawning they return the way they came, in smaller schools, from there they may move offshore into deeper waters and spend the winter in relative inactivity. Smaller mackerel are forage fish for larger predators, including larger mackerel, flocks of seabirds, as well as whales, dolphins, sharks and schools of larger fish such as tuna and marlin follow mackerel schools and attack them in sophisticated and cooperative ways. Mackerel is high in oils and is intensively harvested by humans. In 2009, over five tons were landed by commercial fishermen. Sport fishermen value the fighting abilities of the king mackerel, over thirty different species, principally belonging to the family Scombridae, are commonly referred to as mackerel. The term mackerel means marked or spotted, the term mackerel derives from the Old French maquerel, c.1300, meaning a pimp or procurer. The connection is not altogether clear, but mackerel spawn enthusiastically in shoals near the coast, about 21 species in the family Scombridae are commonly called mackerel. The type species for the mackerel is the Atlantic mackerel. Until recently, it was thought that Atlantic chub mackerel and Indo-Pacific chub mackerel were subspecies of the same species, in 1999 Collette established, on molecular and morphological considerations, that these are separate species. Mackerel are smaller with shorter life cycles than their relatives, the tuna. The true mackerels belong to the tribe Scombrini, the tribe consists of seven species, each belonging to one of two genera, Scomber and Rastrelliger. The Spanish mackerels belong to the tribe Scomberomorini, which is the tribe of the true mackerels. This tribe consists of 21 species in all—18 of those are classified into the genus Scomberomorus, in addition, a number of species with mackerel-like characteristics in the families Carangidae, Hexagrammidae and Gempylidae are commonly referred to as mackerel
36.
Tuna
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A tuna is a saltwater fish that belongs to the tribe Thunnini, a sub-grouping of the mackerel family – which together with the tunas, also includes the bonitos, mackerels, and Spanish mackerels. Thunnini comprises fifteen species across five genera, the sizes of which vary greatly, the bluefin averages 2 m, and is believed to live for up to 50 years. Tuna and mackerel sharks are the species of fish that can maintain a body temperature higher than that of the surrounding water. An active and agile predator, the tuna has a sleek, streamlined body, found in warm seas, it is extensively fished commercially, and is popular as a game fish. As a result of over-fishing, stocks of tuna species such as the southern bluefin tuna have been reduced dangerously close to the point of extinction. The term tuna ultimately derives from Thunnus, the Middle Latin form of the Ancient Greek, θύννος tunny-fish – which is in turn derived from θύνω, rush, the following cladogram illustrates the relationship between the tunas and other tribes of the family Scombridae. The true tunas are those that belong to the genus Thunnus, until recently, it was thought that there were seven Thunnus species, and that Atlantic bluefin tuna and Pacific bluefin tuna were subspecies of a single species. In 1999, Collette established that based on molecular and morphological considerations, they are in fact distinct species. The genus Thunnus is further classified into two subgenera, Thunnus, and Thunnus, the Thunnini tribe also includes seven additional species of tuna across four genera. They are, The tuna is a sleek and streamlined fish and it has two closely spaced dorsal fins on its back, The first is depressible – it can be laid down, flush, in a groove that runs along its back. Seven to ten yellow finlets run from the fins to the tail. The caudal peduncle, to which the tail is attached, is quite thin, the tunas dorsal side is generally a metallic dark blue, while the ventral side, or underside, is silvery or whitish, for camouflage. Thunnus are widely but sparsely distributed throughout the oceans of the world, generally in tropical, all tunas are able to maintain the temperature of certain parts of their body above the temperature of ambient seawater. For example, bluefin can maintain a body temperature of 25–33 °C. However, unlike typical endothermic creatures such as mammals and birds, tunas achieve endothermy by conserving the heat generated through normal metabolism. In all tunas, the heart operates at ambient temperature, as it receives cooled blood, also unlike most fish, which have white flesh, the muscle tissue of tuna ranges from pink to dark red. The red myotomal muscles derive their color from myoglobin, an oxygen-binding molecule, the oxygen-rich blood further enables energy delivery to their muscles. For powerful swimming animals like dolphins and tuna, cavitation may be detrimental, even if they have the power to swim faster, dolphins may have to restrict their speed, because collapsing cavitation bubbles on their tail are too painful
37.
Brine
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Brine is a solution of salt in water. In different contexts, brine may refer to salt solutions ranging from about 3. 5% up to about 26%, fahrenheit could reliably reproduce by freezing brine. By reference, seawater usually freezes at −2 °C, at 100 °C, saturated sodium chloride brine is about 28% salt by weight. At 0 °C, brine can only hold about 26% salt, the thermal conductivity of seawater is 0.6 W/mK at 25 °C. The majority of hydrogen produced through electrolysis is a side product in the production of chlorine. 2 NaCl +2 H2O →2 NaOH + H2 + Cl2 Brine is a fluid used in large refrigeration installations for the transport of thermal energy from place to place. The lowest freezing point obtainable for NaCl brine is −21.1 °C at 23. 3wt% NaCl and this is called the eutectic point. In lower temperatures, a solution can be used to de-ice or reduce freezing temperatures on roads. In cooking, brine is used for food brining and salting, in hydrology, brine is a form of salt water, namely, water with relatively high concentration of salt. Brine mining Saline water Brackish water
38.
Colonies in antiquity
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Colonies in antiquity were city-states founded from a mother-city, not from a territory-at-large. Bonds between a colony and its metropolis remained often close, and took specific forms, however, unlike in the period of European colonialism during the early and late modern era, ancient colonies were usually sovereign and self-governing from their inception. An Egyptian colony that was stationed in southern Canaan dates to slightly before the First Dynasty, narmer had Egyptian pottery produced in Canaan and exported back to Egypt, from regions such as Arad, En Besor, Rafiah, and Tel ʿErani. Shipbuilding was known to the ancient Egyptians as early as 3000 BC, the Archaeological Institute of America reports that the earliest dated ship—75 feet long, dating to 3000 BC – may have possibly belonged to Pharaoh Aha. Egypt at its height controlled Crete across the Mediterranean Sea, the Phoenicians were the major trading power in the Mediterranean in the early part of the first millennium BC. They had trading contacts in Egypt and Greece, and established colonies as far west as modern Spain, from Gadir the Phoenicians controlled access to the Atlantic Ocean and the trade routes to Britain. The most famous and successful of Phoenician colonies was founded by settlers from Tyre in 814–813 BC and called Kart-Hadasht (Qart-ḥadašt, the Carthaginians later founded their own colony in the southeast of Spain, Carthago Nova, which was eventually conquered by their enemy, Rome. But in most cases the motivation was to establish and facilitate relations of trade with foreign countries, colonies were established in Ionia and Thrace as early as the 8th century BC. There were two types of colony, one known as an ἀποικία - apoikia and the other as an ἐμπορίov - emporion. The first type of colony was a city-state on its own, through this Greek expansion the use of coins flourished throughout the Mediterranean Basin. The Greeks also colonised modern-day Crimea on the Black Sea, among the settlements they established there was the city of Chersonesos, at the site of modern-day Sevastopol. Another area with significant Greek colonies was the coast of ancient Illyria on the Adriatic Sea, the extensive Greek colonization is remarked upon by Cicero when noting that It were as though a Greek fringe has been woven about the shores of the barbarians. Several formulae were generally adhered to on the solemn and sacred occasions when a new colony set forth, if a Greek city was sending out a colony, an oracle, especially one such as the Oracle of Delphi, was almost invariably consulted beforehand. A person of distinction was selected to guide the emigrants and make the necessary arrangements and it was usual to honor these founders of colonies, after their death, as heroes. Some of the fire was taken from the public hearth in the Prytaneum. After the conquests of the Macedonian Kingdom and Alexander the Great, the relation between colony and mother-city, known literally as the metropolis, was viewed as one of mutual affection. Any differences that arose were resolved by peaceful means whenever possible and it is worth noting that the Peloponnesian War was in part a result of a dispute between Corinth and her colony of Corcyra. The charter of foundation contained general provisions for the arrangement of the affairs of the colony, the constitution of the mother-city was usually adopted by the colony, but the new city remained politically independent
39.
Liguria
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Liguria is a coastal region of north-western Italy, its capital is Genoa. The region is popular with tourists for its beaches, towns, Liguria is bordered by France to the west, Piedmont to the north, and Emilia-Romagna and Tuscany to the east. It lies on the Ligurian Sea, the narrow strip of land is bordered by the sea, the Alps and the Apennines mountains. Some mountains rise above 2,000 m, the line runs at an average altitude of about 1,000 m. The highest point of the region is the summit of Monte Saccarello, the winding arched extension goes from Ventimiglia to La Spezia. Of this,3,524.08 km2 are mountainous and 891.95 km2 are hills, Ligurias natural reserves cover 12% of the entire region, or 600 km2 of land. They are made up of one national reserve, six large parks, the continental shelf is very narrow, and so steep it descends almost immediately to considerable marine depths along its 350-kilometre coastline. Except for the Portovenere and Portofino promontories, it is not very jagged. At the mouths of the biggest watercourses there are small beaches, the ring of hills lying immediately beyond the coast together with the sea account for a mild climate year-round. Average winter temperatures are 7 to 10 °C and summer temperatures are 23 to 24 °C, rainfall can be abundant at times, as mountains very close to the coast create an orographic effect. Genoa and La Spezia can see up to 2,000 mm of rain in a year, evidence of Neanderthals living in the area was discovered in the region of Loano, whereas in Ventimiglia, in the grotto of Balzi Rossi, numerous remains were found of Cro-Magnon. According to Classical sources, the Ligurians, once lived in a far broader territory than present-day Liguria, for example, the Greek colony of Massalia, modern Marseille was recorded to lie in Ligurian territory. During the first Punic War, the ancient Ligurians were divided, some of them siding with Carthage, under Augustus, Liguria was designated a region of Italy stretching from the coast to the banks of the Po River. The great Roman roads helped strengthen territorial unity and increase communication, important towns developed on the coast, of which evidence is left in the ruins of Albenga, Ventimiglia and Luni. Between the 4th and the 10th centuries Liguria was dominated by the Byzantines, the Lombards of King Rothari and it was also invaded by Saracen and Norman raiders. In the 10th century, once the danger of pirates decreased, in the 11th and 12th centuries the marches were split into fees, and then with the strengthening of the bishops’ power, the feudal structure began to partially weaken. The main Ligurian towns, especially on the coast, became city-states, inland, however, fiefs belonging to noble families survived for a very long time. Between the 11th century and the 15th century, the Republic of Genoa experienced a political and commercial success
40.
Gaul
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It covered an area of 190,800 sq mi. According to the testimony of Julius Caesar, Gaul was divided into three parts, Gallia Celtica, Belgica and Aquitania, during the 2nd and 1st centuries BC, Gaul fell under Roman rule, Gallia Cisalpina was conquered in 203 BC and Gallia Narbonensis in 123 BC. Gaul was invaded after 120 BC by the Cimbri and the Teutons, Gallia remains a name of France in modern Greek and modern Latin. The Greek and Latin names Galatia, and Gallia are ultimately derived from a Celtic ethnic term or clan Gal-to-. Galli of Gallia Celtica were reported to refer to themselves as Celtae by Caesar. Hellenistic folk etymology connected the name of the Galatians to the supposedly milk-white skin of the Gauls, modern researchers say it is related to Welsh gallu, Cornish galloes, capacity, power, thus meaning powerful people. The English Gaul is from French Gaule and is unrelated to Latin Gallia, as adjectives, English has the two variants, Gaulish and Gallic. The two adjectives are used synonymously, as pertaining to Gaul or the Gauls, although the Celtic language or languages spoken in Gaul is predominantly known as Gaulish. The Germanic w- is regularly rendered as gu- / g- in French, also unrelated in spite of superficial similarity is the name Gael. The Irish word gall did originally mean a Gaul, i. e. an inhabitant of Gaul, but its meaning was later widened to foreigner, to describe the Vikings, and later still the Normans. The dichotomic words gael and gall are sometimes used together for contrast, by 500 BC, there is strong Hallstatt influence throughout most of France. By the late 5th century BC, La Tène influence spreads rapidly across the territory of Gaul. The La Tène culture developed and flourished during the late Iron Age in France, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, southwest Germany, Bohemia, Moravia, Slovakia, farther north extended the contemporary pre-Roman Iron Age culture of northern Germany and Scandinavia. By the 2nd century BC, the Romans described Gallia Transalpina as distinct from Gallia Cisalpina, while some scholars believe the Belgae south of the Somme were a mixture of Celtic and Germanic elements, their ethnic affiliations have not been definitively resolved. One of the reasons is political interference upon the French historical interpretation during the 19th century, in addition to the Gauls, there were other peoples living in Gaul, such as the Greeks and Phoenicians who had established outposts such as Massilia along the Mediterranean coast. Also, along the southeastern Mediterranean coast, the Ligures had merged with the Celts to form a Celto-Ligurian culture, the prosperity of Mediterranean Gaul encouraged Rome to respond to pleas for assistance from the inhabitants of Massilia, who were under attack by a coalition of Ligures and Gauls. The Romans intervened in Gaul in 154 BC and again in 125 BC, whereas on the first occasion they came and went, on the second they stayed. Massilia was allowed to keep its lands, but Rome added to its territories the lands of the conquered tribes. The direct result of conquests was that by now, Rome controlled an area extending from the Pyrenees to the lower Rhône river
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Hispania Baetica
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Hispania Baetica, often abbreviated Baetica, was one of three Roman provinces in Hispania. Baetica was bordered to the west by Lusitania, and to the northeast by Hispania Tarraconensis, Baetica was part of Al-Andalus under the Moors in the 8th century and approximately corresponds to modern Andalucia. Baetica remained one of the divisions of Hispania under the Visigoths down to 711. Before Romanization, the area that was to become Baetica was occupied by several settled Iberian tribal groups. Celtic influence was not as strong as it was in the Celtiberian north, phoenician Gadira was on an island against the coast of Hispania Baetica. Other important Iberians were the Bastetani, who occupied the Almería, towards the southeast, Punic influence spread from the Carthaginian cities on the coast, New Carthage, Abdera and Malaca. Some of the Iberian cities retained their names in Baetica throughout the Roman era. Granada was called Eliberri, Illiberis and Illiber by the Romans, in Basque, iri-berri or ili-berri, the central and north-eastern Celtiberians soon followed suit. It took Cato the Elder, who became consul in 195 BC and was given the command of the peninsula to put down the rebellion in the northeast. He then marched southwards and put down a revolt by the Turdetani, Cato returned to Rome in 194, leaving two praetors in charge of the two Iberian provinces. In the late Roman Republic, Hispania remained divided like Gaul into a Nearer and a Farther province, as experienced marching overland from Gaul, Hispania Citerior, the battles in Hispania during the 1st century BC were largely confined to the north. In the reorganization of the Empire in 14 BC, when Hispania was remade into the three Imperial provinces, Baetica was governed by a proconsul who had formerly been a praetor. The Senatorial province of Baetica became so secure that no Roman legion was required to be stationed there. Legio VII Gemina was permanently stationed to the north, in Hispania Tarraconensis, so in spite of some social upsets, as when Septimius Severus put to death a number of leading Baetians— including women — the elite in Baetica remained a stable class for centuries. Columella, who wrote a twelve volume treatise on all aspects of Roman farming and knew viticulture, the vast olive plantations of Baetica shipped olive oil from the coastal ports by sea to supply Roman legions in Germania. Amphoras from Baetica have been found everywhere in the Western Roman empire and it was to keep Roman legions supplied by sea routes that the Empire needed to control the distant coasts of Lusitania and the northern Atlantic coast of Hispania. Baetia was Roman until the invasion of the Vandals and Alans passed through in the 5th century. The province formed part of the Exarchate of Africa and was joined to Mauretania Tingitana after Belisarius reconquest of Africa, the Catholic bishops of Baetica, solidly backed by their local population, were able to convert the Arian Visigoth king Reccared and his nobles
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History of the Jews in the Roman Empire
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The History of the Jews in the Roman Empire traces the interaction of Jews and Romans during the period of the Roman Empire. Their cultures began to overlap in the centuries just before the Christian Era, in Rome, Jewish communities enjoyed privileges and thrived economically, becoming a significant part of the Empires population. The Roman general Pompey in his eastern campaign established the Roman province of Syria in 64 BC, Julius Caesar conquered Alexandria c.47 BC and defeated Pompey in 45 BC. Under Julius Caesar, Judaism was officially recognised as a legal religion, around this time period, Christianity developed from Second Temple Judaism. In 313, Constantine and Licinius issued the Edict of Milan giving official recognition to Christianity as a legal religion, Constantine the Great moved the Roman capital from Rome to Constantinople c. 330, sometimes considered the start of the Byzantine Empire, and with the Edict of Thessalonica in 380, the Christian emperors persecuted their Jewish subjects and restricted their rights. According to the Jewish Encyclopedia article on Rome, Jews have lived in Rome for over 2,000 years and they originally went there from Alexandria, drawn by the lively commercial intercourse between those two cities. The Jewish community in Rome grew very rapidly, the Jews who were taken to Rome as prisoners were either ransomed by their coreligionists or set free by their Roman masters, who found their peculiar custom obnoxious. They settled as traders on the bank of the Tiber. Romes involvement in the Eastern Mediterranean dated from 63 BC, following the end of the Third Mithridatic War, after the defeat of Mithridates VI of Pontus, the proconsul Pompeius Magnus remained to secure the area, including a visit to the Jerusalem Temple. During the 1st century BC, the Herodian Kingdom was established as a Roman client kingdom and in 6 AD parts became a province of the Roman Empire and this gave Judaism the status of a religio licita throughout the Empire. In 66 AD, the First Jewish–Roman War began, the revolt was put down by the future Roman emperors Vespasian and Titus. In the Siege of Jerusalem in 70 AD, the Romans destroyed much of the Temple in Jerusalem and, according to accounts, plundered artifacts from the Temple. Jews continued to live in their land in significant numbers, the Kitos War of 115-117 nothwithstanding,985 villages were destroyed and most of the Jewish population of central Judaea was essentially wiped out – killed, sold into slavery, or forced to flee. Banished from Jerusalem, which was renamed Aelia Capitolina, the Jewish population now centered on Galilee, initially at Yavneh. In addition, after 70, Jews and Jewish Proselytes were only allowed to practice their religion if they paid the Jewish tax, the Roman Empire adopted Christianity as its state religion with the Edict of Thessalonica on 27 February 380. Many of the Judaean Jews were sold into slavery while others became citizens of other parts of the Roman Empire. The book of Acts in the New Testament, as well as other Pauline texts, in spite of the failure of the Bar Kokhba revolt, Jews remained in the land of Israel in significant numbers
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Kashrut
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Kashrut is a set of Jewish religious dietary laws. Food that may be consumed according to halakha is termed kosher /ˈkoʊʃər/ in English, from the Ashkenazi pronunciation of the Hebrew term kashér, there are also laws regarding agricultural produce that might impact the suitability of food for consumption. Most of the laws of kashrut are derived from the Torahs Books of Leviticus. Their details and practical application, however, are set down in the oral law, while the Torah does not state the rationale for most kashrut laws, many reasons have been suggested, including philosophical, practical and hygienic. Over the past century, there have developed numerous rabbinical organizations that certify products, manufacturers, currently, about a sixth of American Jews or 0. 3% of the American population fully keep kosher, and many more abstain from some non-kosher foods, especially pork. Some Jewish scholars say that kashrut should be categorized as laws for which there is no particular explanation, in this line of thinking, the dietary laws were given as a demonstration of Gods authority, and man must obey without asking why. However, Maimonides believed that Jews were permitted to seek out reasons for the laws of the Torah, some theologians have said that the laws of kashrut are symbolic in character, Kosher animals represent virtues, while non-kosher animals represent vices. The 1st century BCE Letter of Aristeas argues that the laws have been given, to awake pious thoughts and to form the character. This view reappears in the work of the 19th century Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, the Torah prohibits seething the kid in its mothers milk. While the Bible does not provide a reason, it has suggested that the practice was perceived as cruel. These sparks of Holiness are released whenever a Jew manipulates any object for a reason, however. The Hasidic argument is that animals are imbued with signs that reveal the release of these sparks, in 1953, David Macht, an Orthodox Jew and proponent of the theory of biblical scientific foresight, conducted toxicity experiments on many kinds of animals and fish. At the same time, these explanations are controversial, scholar Lester L. Grabbe, writing in the Oxford Bible Commentary on Leviticus, says n explanation now almost universally rejected is that the laws in this section have hygiene as their basis. Although some of the laws of ritual purity roughly correspond to ideas of physical cleanliness. For example, there is no evidence that the animals are intrinsically bad to eat or to be avoided in a Mediterranean climate. The laws of kashrut can be classified according to the origin of the prohibition, biblically prohibited foods include, Non-kosher animals and birds, mammals require certain identifying characteristics, while birds require a tradition that they can be consumed. All invertebrates are non-kosher apart from certain types of locust, on which most communities lack a clear tradition, no reptiles or amphibians are kosher. Carrion, meat from an animal that has not been slaughtered according to the laws of shechita
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Pompeii
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Pompeii was an ancient Roman town-city near modern Naples, in the Campania region of Italy, in the territory of the comune of Pompei. Pompeii, along with Herculaneum and many villas in the area, was mostly destroyed and buried under 4 to 6 m of volcanic ash. Researchers believe that the town was founded in the seventh or sixth century BC by the Osci or Oscans. It came under the domination of Rome in the 4th century BC, by the time of its destruction,160 years later, its population was estimated at 11,000 people, and the city had a complex water system, an amphitheatre, gymnasium, and a port. The eruption destroyed the city, killing its inhabitants and burying it under tons of ash, the site was lost for about 1,500 years until its initial rediscovery in 1599 and broader rediscovery almost 150 years later by Spanish engineer Rocque Joaquin de Alcubierre in 1748. The objects that lay beneath the city have been preserved for centuries because of the lack of air and these artefacts provide an extraordinarily detailed insight into the life of a city during the Pax Romana. During the excavation, plaster was used to fill in the voids in the ash layers that once held human bodies and this allowed archaeologists to see the exact position the person was in when he or she died. Pompeii has been a tourist destination for over 250 years, today it has UNESCO World Heritage Site status and is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Italy, with approximately 2.5 million visitors every year. Pompeii in Latin is a second declension plural, the ruins of Pompeii are located near the modern suburban town of Pompei. It stands on a formed by a lava flow to the north of the mouth of the Sarno River. Today it is some distance inland, but in ancient times was nearer to the coast, Pompeii is about 8 km away from Mount Vesuvius. It covered a total of 64 to 67 hectares and was home to approximately 11,000 to 11,500 people on the basis of household counts and it was a major city in the region of Campania. Three sheets of sediment have been found on top of the lava that lies below the city and, mixed in with the sediment, archaeologists have found bits of bone, pottery shards. Carbon dating has placed the oldest of these layers from the 8th–6th centuries BC, the other two strata are separated either by well-developed soil layers or Roman pavement, and were laid in the 4th century BC and 2nd century BC. It is theorized that the layers of the sediment were created by large landslides. The town was founded around the 7th-6th century BC by the Osci or Oscans and it had already been used as a safe port by Greek and Phoenician sailors. According to Strabo, Pompeii was also captured by the Etruscans, and in recent excavations have shown the presence of Etruscan inscriptions. Pompeii was captured for the first time by the Greek colony of Cumae, allied with Syracuse, in the 5th century BC, the Samnites conquered it, the new rulers imposed their architecture and enlarged the town
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Augustus
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Augustus was the founder of the Roman Principate and considered the first Roman emperor, controlling the Roman Empire from 27 BC until his death in AD14. He was born Gaius Octavius into an old and wealthy equestrian branch of the plebeian gens Octavia and his maternal great-uncle Julius Caesar was assassinated in 44 BC, and Octavius was named in Caesars will as his adopted son and heir, then known as Octavianus. He, Mark Antony, and Marcus Lepidus formed the Second Triumvirate to defeat the assassins of Caesar, following their victory at the Battle of Philippi, the Triumvirate divided the Roman Republic among themselves and ruled as military dictators. The Triumvate was eventually torn apart by the ambitions of its members. Lepidus was driven into exile and stripped of his position, in reality, however, he retained his autocratic power over the Republic as a military dictator. By law, Augustus held a collection of powers granted to him for life by the Senate, including supreme military command, and it took several years for Augustus to develop the framework within which a formally republican state could be led under his sole rule. He rejected monarchical titles, and instead called himself Princeps Civitatis, the resulting constitutional framework became known as the Principate, the first phase of the Roman Empire. The reign of Augustus initiated an era of peace known as the Pax Romana. Augustus dramatically enlarged the Empire, annexing Egypt, Dalmatia, Pannonia, Noricum, and Raetia, expanding possessions in Africa, expanding into Germania, beyond the frontiers, he secured the Empire with a buffer region of client states and made peace with the Parthian Empire through diplomacy. Augustus died in AD14 at the age of 75 and he probably died from natural causes, although there were unconfirmed rumors that his wife Livia poisoned him. He was succeeded as Emperor by his adopted son Tiberius, Augustus was known by many names throughout his life, At birth, he was named Gaius Octavius after his biological father. Historians typically refer to him simply as Octavius between his birth in 63 until his adoption by Julius Caesar in 44 BC, upon his adoption, he took Caesars name and became Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus in accordance with Roman adoption naming standards. He quickly dropped Octavianus from his name, and his contemporaries referred to him as Caesar during this period, historians. In 27 BC, following his defeat of Mark Antony and Cleopatra and it is the events of 27 BC from which he obtained his traditional name of Augustus, which historians use in reference to him from 27 BC until his death in AD14. While his paternal family was from the town of Velletri, approximately 40 kilometres from Rome and he was born at Ox Head, a small property on the Palatine Hill, very close to the Roman Forum. He was given the name Gaius Octavius Thurinus, his cognomen possibly commemorating his fathers victory at Thurii over a band of slaves. Due to the nature of Rome at the time, Octavius was taken to his fathers home village at Velletri to be raised. Octavius only mentions his fathers equestrian family briefly in his memoirs and his paternal great-grandfather Gaius Octavius was a military tribune in Sicily during the Second Punic War
46.
Cartagena, Spain
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Cartagena is a Spanish city and a major naval station located in the Region of Murcia, by the Mediterranean coast, south-eastern Spain. As of January 2011, it has a population of 218,210 inhabitants being the Region’s second largest municipality, the metropolitan area of Cartagena, known as Campo de Cartagena, has a population of 409,586 inhabitants. Cartagena has been inhabited for two millennia, being founded around 227 BC by the Carthaginian Hasdrubal the Fair as Qart Hadasht. The city had its heyday during the Roman Empire, when it was known as Carthago Nova and Carthago Spartaria and it was one of the important cities during the Umayyad invasion of Hispania, under its Arabic name of Qartayannat al-Halfa. Much of the weight of Cartagena in the past goes to its coveted defensive port. Cartagena has been the capital of the Spanish Navys Maritime Department of the Mediterranean since the arrival of the Spanish Bourbons in the 18th century, as far back as the 16th century it was one of the most important naval ports in Spain, together with Ferrol in the North. It is still an important naval seaport, the main military haven of Spain, Cartagena is now established as a major cruise ship destination in the Mediterranean and an emerging cultural focus. It is the first of a number of cities that eventually have been named Cartagena, the city of Cartagena is located in the southeastern region of Spain in the Campo de Cartagena. The dominant geology of the region is metamorphic and sedimentary, the city is located just at the end of the new AP-7 motorway. The following villages are part of Cartagena municipality, La Azohía, Isla Plana, Los Urrutias, the Old Town is limited by five small hills following the example of Rome. In the past, there was a sea between the hills called the Estero that eventually dried up. On this site, the Ensanche was built at the beginning of the 20th Century, the urban area is delimited or crossed by several watercourses, some of which go deep into the urban network during a large part of their courses. Cartagena has a hot semi-arid climate and its location near the ocean moderates the temperature, and annual precipitation typically does not surpass 300 mm. The annual average temperature goes up to around 20.4 °C, the coldest month is January, with an average of 13.7 °C. In August, the warmest month, the temperature is 28.7 °C. The wind is an important climatic factor in the region, part of its area is subject to different levels of legal protection. Cartagena’s coastal mountains have a concentration of one of the largest botanical biodiversities of the Iberian Peninsula, European and African species are both present, as well as a number of remarkable Ibero-African species, which are only found on the southern coasts of Spain and North Africa. In addition, the presence of the chameleon has been documented for about 30 years
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Tarifa
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Tarifa is a small town in the province of Cádiz, Andalusia, on the southernmost coast of Spain. It is primarily known as one of the worlds most popular destinations for wind sports, the town is located on the Costa de la Luz and across the Straits of Gibraltar facing Morocco. At exactly 36 degrees latitude, it is the southernmost point of Continental Europe, the municipality includes Punta de Tarifa, the southernmost point in continental Europe. There are several villages which depend economically on Tarifa in the municipality, including Tahivilla, Facinas and it used to be thought that Tarifa was once the site of the Roman settlement of Julia Transducta. However, that settlement is now thought to have been where Algeciras now stands, Tarifa was given its present name after the attack of Tarif ibn Malik in 710, a Berber military commander of Musa bin Nusayr. The village of Bolonia near Tarifa was also populated in Roman times, Roman ruins still exist near the village today. After the Islamic conquest of southern Spain, the city was fortified starting from the 10th century, later Tarifa was held by the taifa of Algeciras and by that of Seville, and subsequently by the Almoravids. After the latters fall, it lived a period under another taifa of Algeciras. In 1292 it was conquered by Sancho IV of Castile, the town resisted another siege in 1340 from Moroccan troops, eventually leading to the Battle of Río Salado. In 1514 it became the seat of a marquisate, including also Bornos, Espera, in the course of the Peninsular War, Tarifa was besieged by French troops on 20 December 1810, and again on 18 December 1811. In both of these cases the town was defended by British troops from Gibraltar as the Spanish and British were allies against the French. On 19 December the town was attacked again by General Laval, both the British and Spanish commanders refused to comply and their defiance was rewarded by rain that started the next day. By 5 January the attacking force realised that their powder was wet and their guns were bogged down in mud, the name Tarifa itself is derived from the name of the Berber warrior, Tarif ibn Malik. Historical landmarks of the city include, the well-preserved Guzman castle, near the port, annexed are the Guzmán el Bueno Tower and the church of St. Mary, on the site of a former mosque remains of the medieval walls. Of three gates once existing, today only the Puerta de Jerez has survived Church of St. Matthew, built in the early 16th century in Gothic style, the façade was redesigned by Torcuato Cayón de la Vega in 1774. The ruins of the Roman city of Baelo Claudia, located nearby, Tarifa has become a popular spot for northern-Europeans to spend their summers. Tarifas unique wind conditions have made the beaches at Playa de Los Lances, Valdevaqueros, the funnel created by the Strait of Gibraltar creates a Venturi effect when either the Levante or Poniente is blowing. These two winds prevail in Tarifa for over 300 days most years, meaning Tarifa experiences exceptionally strong, also whale and dolphin watching can be done on the 14 kilometer wide Straits
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Carteia
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Carteia was a Phoenician and Roman town at the head of the Bay of Gibraltar in Spain. It was established at the most northerly point of the bay, according to Strabo, it was founded around 940 BC as the trading settlement of Kʿrt. The area had much to offer a trader, the hinterland behind Carteia, in the south of Andalusia, was rich in wood, cereals, oranges, lemons, lead, iron. Dyes were another much sought-after commodity, especially those from the murex shellfish, the towns strategic location meant that it played a significant role in the wars between Carthage and the Roman Republic in the 2nd and 3rd centuries BC. Around 190 BC, the town was captured by the Romans, livy records that in 171 BC, the Roman Senate was petitioned by a group of Romano-Spanish people, the sons of Roman soldiers and Spanish women. Although they were of Roman descent they were not regarded as Roman citizens, the existing inhabitants were permitted to remain there, while all of the inhabitants were given the right to marry Roman citizens and to carry on trade with Romans. Other cities in Spain were later granted a similar status, the Colonia Libertinorum Carteia prospered for another 580 years under Roman rule. It grew to become a city which served as a centre for the export of local wines, shipped in amphorae fired in large kilns found on the site. Carteia acquired a mint, amphitheatre, temples and port, pompey made it his western base for his campaign against Mediterranean pirates in 68 BC. His sons Gnaeus and Sextus raised an army there in 45 BC before being defeated by Julius Caesar at the Battle of Munda, while Gnaeus was captured and executed, Sextus escaped via Carteias port and fled to the Pyrenees. Little is known of the remainder of Carteias Roman history, but it appears to have been sacked by the Visigoths around 409 AD, nonetheless, archaeological evidence shows that urban life continued there into the medieval period. In the 9th century, after the Umayyad conquest of Hispania, the Marinids constructed a tower nearby, known today as the Torre de Cartagena, using stones from the ruined Roman walls. The site of Carteia was rediscovered by a young British Army officer, John Conduitt, the remains of an amphitheatre, and the circuit of walls about 2 miles, may yet be traced. The Moors and Spaniards have alike destroyed the ruins, working them up as a quarry in building Algeciras, the coins found here are very beautiful and numerous. Mr. Kent, of the port-office at Gibraltar, formed a Carteian museum, consisting of medals, pottery, glass, Conduitt communicated his discovery to the Royal Society in London and was invited to read a paper on Carteia on his return to the capital. He did so on 20 June 1717, with Sir Isaac Newton in attendance as chair. Coincidentally, Newton was also interested in Carteia, as he was in the middle of writing his work The Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms and it was there that Conduitt met Newtons niece, Catherine Barton. After a whirlwind courtship the two were married on 26 August 1717, though Barton was almost a decade older than Conduitt, albeit still renowned for her beauty
