Campania
Campania is a region in Southern Italy. As of 2018, the region has a population of around 5,820,000 people, making it the third-most-populous region of Italy. Located on the Italian Peninsula, with the Mediterranean Sea to the west, it includes the small Phlegraean Islands and Capri for administration as part of the region. Campania was part of Magna Græcia. During the Roman era, the area maintained a Greco-Roman culture; the capital city of Campania is Naples. Campania is rich in culture in regard to gastronomy, architecture and ancient sites such as Pompeii, Oplontis, Aeclanum and Velia; the name of Campania itself is derived from Latin, as the Romans knew the region as Campania felix, which translates into English as "fertile countryside" or "happy countryside". The rich natural sights of Campania make it important in the tourism industry along the Amalfi Coast, Mount Vesuvius and the island of Capri; the original inhabitants of Campania were three defined groups of the Ancient peoples of Italy, who all spoke the Oscan language, part of the Italic family.
During the 8th century BC, people from Euboea in Greece, known as Cumaeans, began to establish colonies in the area around the modern day province of Naples. Another Oscan tribe, the Samnites, moved down from central Italy into Campania. Since the Samnites were more warlike than the Campanians, they took over the cities of Capua and Cumae, in an area, one of the most prosperous and fertile in the Italian Peninsula at the time. During the 340s BC, the Samnites were engaged in a war with the Roman Republic in a dispute known as the Samnite Wars, with the Romans securing rich pastures of northern Campania during the First Samnite War; the major remaining independent Greek settlement was Neapolis, when the town was captured by the Samnites, the Neapolitans were left with no other option than to call on the Romans, with whom they established an alliance, setting off the Second Samnite War. The Roman consul Quintus Publilius Filo recaptured Neapolis by 326 BC and allowed it to remain a Greek city with some autonomy as a civitas foederata while aligned with Rome.
The Second Samnite War ended with the Romans controlling southern Campania and additional regions further to the south. Campania was a full-fledged part of the Roman Republic by the end of the 4th century BC, valued for its pastures and rich countryside, its Greek language and customs made it a centre of Hellenistic civilization, creating the first traces of Greco-Roman culture. During the Pyrrhic War the battle took place in Campania at Maleventum in which the Romans, led by consul Curius Dentatus, were victorious, they renamed the city Beneventum, which grew in stature until it was second only to Capua in southern Italy. During the Second Punic War in 216 BC, Capua, in a bid for equality with Rome, allied with Carthage; the rebellious Capuans were isolated from the rest of Campania. Naples resisted Hannibal due to the imposing walls. Capua was starved into submission in the Roman retaking of 211 BC, the Romans were victorious; the rest of Campania, with the exception of Naples, adopted the Latin language as official and was Romanised.
As part of the Roman Empire, with Latium, formed the most important region of the Augustan divisions of Italia. In ancient times Misenum, at the extreme northern end of the bay of Naples, was the largest base of the Roman navy, since its port was the base of the Classis Misenensis, the most important Roman fleet, it was first established as a naval base in 27 BC by Marcus Agrippa, the right-hand man of the emperor Augustus. Roman Emperors chose Campania as a holiday destination, among them Claudius and Tiberius, the latter of whom is infamously linked to the island of Capri, it was during this period that Christianity came to Campania. Two of the apostles, St. Peter and St. Paul, are said to have preached in the city of Naples, there were several martyrs during this time; the period of relative calm was violently interrupted by the epic eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 which buried the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum. With the Decline of the Roman Empire, its last emperor, Romulus Augustus, was put in a manor house prison near Castel dell'Ovo, Naples, in 476, ushering in the beginning of the Middle Ages and a period of uncertainty in regard to the future of the area.
The area had many duchies and principalities during the Middle Ages, in the hands of the Byzantine Empire and the Lombards. Under the Normans, the smaller independent states were brought together as part of the Kingdom of Sicily, before the mainland broke away to form the Kingdom of Naples, it was during this period that elements of Spanish and Aragonese culture were introduced to Campania. After a period as a Norman kingdom, the Kingdom of Sicily passed to the Hohenstaufens, who were a powerful Germanic royal house of Swabian origins; the University of Naples Federico II was founded by Frederick II in the city, the oldest state university in the world, making Naples the intellectual centre of the kingdom. Conflict between the Hohenstaufen house and the Papacy, led in 1266 to Pope Innocent IV crowning Angevin Dynasty duke Charles I as the king. Charles moved the capital from Palermo to Naples where he resided at the Castel Nuovo. During this period, much Gothic architec
Aeneas
In Greco-Roman mythology, Aeneas was a Trojan hero, the son of the prince Anchises and the goddess Aphrodite. His father was a first cousin of King Priam of Troy, making Aeneas a second cousin to Priam's children, he is mentioned in Homer's Iliad. Aeneas receives full treatment in Roman mythology, most extensively in Virgil's Aeneid, where he is cast as an ancestor of Romulus and Remus, he became the first true hero of Rome. Snorri Sturluson identifies him with the Norse Æsir Vidarr. Aeneas is the Latin spelling of Greek Αἰνείας. In the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite, Aeneas is first introduced with Aphrodite naming him Αἰνείας for the αὶνóν ἄχος he caused her, where Aineías derives from the adjective αὶνóν, it is a popular etymology for the name exploited by Homer in the Iliad. In the Medieval period there were writers who held that, because the Aeneid was written by a philosopher it is meant to be read philosophically; as such, in the "natural order", the meaning of Aeneas' name combines Greek ennos and demas, which becomes ennaios, meaning "in-dweller".
However, there is no certainty regarding the origin of his name. In imitation of the Iliad, Virgil borrows epithets of Homer. Though he borrows many, Virgil pius; the epithets applied by Virgil are an example of an attitude different from that of Homer, for whilst Odysseus is poikilios, Aeneas is described as pius, which conveys a strong moral tone. The purpose of these epithets seems to enforce the notion of Aeneas' divine hand as father and founder of the Roman race, their use seem circumstantial: when Aeneas is praying he refers to himself as pius, is referred to as such by the author only when the character is acting on behalf of the gods to fulfill his divine mission. Aeneas is called pater when acting in the interest of his men; the story of the birth of Aeneas is told in one of the major Homeric Hymns. Aphrodite has caused Zeus to fall in love with mortal women. In retaliation, Zeus puts desire in her heart for Anchises, tending his cattle among the hills near Mount Ida; when Aphrodite sees him she is smitten.
She appears before him. He is overcome by her beauty, believing that she is a goddess, but Aphrodite identifies herself as a Phrygian princess. After they make love, Aphrodite reveals her true identity to him and Anchises fears what might happen to him as a result of their liaison. Aphrodite assures him that he will be protected, tells him that she will bear him a son to be called Aeneas. However, she warns him; when Aeneas is born, Aphrodite takes him to the nymphs of Mount Ida. She directs them to raise the child to age five take him to Anchises. According to other sources, Anchises brags about his encounter with Aphrodite, as a result is struck in the foot with a thunderbolt by Zeus. Thereafter he is lame in that foot. Aeneas is a minor character in the Iliad, where he is twice saved from death by the gods as if for an as-yet-unknown destiny, but is an honorable warrior in his own right. Having held back from the fighting, aggrieved with Priam because in spite of his brave deeds he was not given his due share of honour, he leads an attack against Idomeneus to recover the body of his brother-in-law Alcathous at the urging of Deiphobus.
He is the leader of the Trojans' Dardanian allies, as well as a second cousin and principal lieutenant of Hector, son of the Trojan king Priam. Aeneas's mother Aphrodite comes to his aid on the battlefield, he is a favorite of Apollo. Aphrodite and Apollo rescue Aeneas from combat with Diomedes of Argos, who nearly kills him, carry him away to Pergamos for healing. Poseidon, who favors the Greeks, comes to Aeneas's rescue after he falls under the assault of Achilles, noting that Aeneas, though from a junior branch of the royal family, is destined to become king of the Trojan people. Bruce Louden presents Aeneas as a "type" in the tradition of Utnapishtim and Philemon, Lot. Apollodorus explains that "...the Greeks let him alone on account of his piety". The Roman mythographer Gaius Julius Hyginus in his Fabulae credits Aeneas with killing 28 enemies in the Trojan War. Aeneas appears in the Trojan narratives attributed to Dares Phrygius and Dictys of Crete The history of Aeneas was continued by Roman authors.
One influential source was the account of Rome's founding in Cato the Elder's Origines. The Aeneas legend was well known in Virgil's day and appeared in various historical works, including the Roman Antiquities of the Greek historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Ab Urbe Condita by Livy, Gnaeus Pompeius Trogus; the Aeneid explains that Aeneas is one of the few Trojans who were not killed or enslaved when Troy fell. Aeneas, after being commanded by the gods to flee, gathered a group, collectively known as the Aeneads, who traveled to Italy and became progenitors of Romans; the Aeneads included Aeneas's trumpeter Misenus, his father Anchises, his friends Achates and Acmon, the healer Iapyx, the helmsman Pal
Aeneid
The Aeneid is a Latin epic poem, written by Virgil between 29 and 19 BC, that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Trojan who travelled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Romans. It comprises 9,896 lines in dactylic hexameter; the first six of the poem's twelve books tell the story of Aeneas's wanderings from Troy to Italy, the poem's second half tells of the Trojans' victorious war upon the Latins, under whose name Aeneas and his Trojan followers are destined to be subsumed. The hero Aeneas was known to Greco-Roman legend and myth, having been a character in the Iliad. Virgil took the disconnected tales of Aeneas's wanderings, his vague association with the foundation of Rome and his description as a personage of no fixed characteristics other than a scrupulous pietas, fashioned the Aeneid into a compelling founding myth or national epic that tied Rome to the legends of Troy, explained the Punic Wars, glorified traditional Roman virtues, legitimized the Julio-Claudian dynasty as descendants of the founders and gods of Rome and Troy.
The Aeneid is regarded as Virgil's masterpiece and one of the greatest works of Latin literature. The Aeneid can be divided into two halves based on the disparate subject matter of Books 1–6 and Books 7–12; these two halves are regarded as reflecting Virgil's ambition to rival Homer by treating both the Odyssey's wandering theme and the Iliad's warfare themes. This is, however, a rough correspondence, the limitations of which should be borne in mind. Virgil begins his poem with a statement of his theme and an invocation to the Muse, falling some seven lines after the poem's inception, he explains the reason for the principal conflict in the story: the resentment held by the goddess Juno against the Trojan people. This is consistent with her role throughout the Homeric epics. In the manner of Homer, the story proper begins in medias res, with the Trojan fleet in the eastern Mediterranean, heading in the direction of Italy; the fleet, led by Aeneas, is on a voyage to find a second home. It has been foretold that in Italy he will give rise to a race both noble and courageous, a race which will become known to all nations.
Juno is wrathful, because she had not been chosen in the judgment of Paris, because her favorite city, will be destroyed by Aeneas's descendants. Ganymede, a Trojan prince, was chosen to be the cupbearer to her husband, Jupiter—replacing Juno's daughter, Hebe. Juno proceeds to Aeolus, King of the Winds, asks that he release the winds to stir up a storm in exchange for a bribe. Aeolus agrees to carry out Juno's orders. Neptune takes notice: although he himself is no friend of the Trojans, he is infuriated by Juno's intrusion into his domain, stills the winds and calms the waters, after making sure that the winds would not bother the Trojans again, lest they be punished more harshly than they were this time; the fleet takes shelter on the coast of Africa, where Aeneas rouses the spirits of his men, reassuring them that they have been through worse situations before. There, Aeneas's mother, Venus, in the form of a huntress similar to the goddess Diana, encourages him and recounts to him the history of Carthage.
Aeneas ventures into the city, in the temple of Juno he seeks and gains the favor of Dido, queen of the city. The city has only been founded by refugees from Tyre and will become a great imperial rival and enemy to Rome. Meanwhile, Venus has her own plans, she goes to her son, Aeneas's half-brother Cupid, tells him to imitate Ascanius. Disguised as such, Cupid offers the gifts expected from a guest. With Dido's motherly love revived as she cradles the boy during a banquet given in honour of the Trojans, Cupid secretly weakens her sworn fidelity to the soul of her late husband, murdered by her brother, Pygmalion. In books 2 and 3, Aeneas recounts the events, he begins the tale shortly after the war described in the Iliad. Cunning Ulysses devised a way for Greek warriors to gain entry into the walled city of Troy by hiding in a large wooden horse; the Greeks pretended to sail away, leaving a warrior, Sinon, to mislead the Trojans into believing that the horse was an offering and that if it were taken into the city, the Trojans would be able to conquer Greece.
The Trojan priest Laocoön saw through the Greek plot and urged the horse's destruction, but his protests fell on deaf ears, so he hurled his spear at the horse. In what would be seen by the Trojans as punishment from the gods, two serpents emerged from the sea and devoured Laocoön, along with his two sons; the Trojans took the horse inside the fortified walls, after nightfall the armed Greeks emerged from it, opening the city's gates to allow the returned Greek army to slaughter the Trojans. In a dream, the fallen Trojan prince, advised Aeneas to flee with his family. Aeneas saw with horror what was happening to his beloved city. At first he tried to fight the enemy, but soon he lost his comrades and was left alone to fend off the Greeks, he witnessed the murder of Priam by Achilles' son Pyrrhus. His mother, appeared to him and led him back to his house. Aeneas tells of his escape with his son, his wife Creusa, his father, after the occurrence
Prefect
Prefect is a magisterial title of varying definition, but which refers to the leader of an administrative area. A prefect's office, department, or area of control is called a prefecture, but in various post-Roman empire cases there is a prefect without a prefecture or vice versa; the words "prefect" and "prefecture" are used, more or less conventionally, to render analogous words in other languages Romance languages. Praefectus with a further qualification, was the formal title of many low to high-ranking, military or civil officials in the Roman Empire, whose authority was not embodied in their person but conferred by delegation from a higher authority, they did have some authority in their prefecture such as controlling prisons and in civil administration. The Praetorian prefect began as the military commander of a general's guard company in the field grew in importance as the Praetorian Guard became a potential kingmaker during the Empire. From the Emperor Diocletian's tetrarchy they became the administrators of the four Praetorian prefectures, the government level above the dioceses and provinces.
Praefectus urbi, or praefectus urbanus: city prefect, in charge of the administration of Rome. Praefectus vigilum: commander of the Vigiles. Praefectus aerarii: nobles appointed guardians of the state treasury. Praefectus aerarii militaris: prefect of the military treasury. Praefectus annonae: official charged with the supervision of the grain supply to the city of Rome. Praefectus alae: commander of a cavalry unit. Praefectus castrorum: camp commandant. Praefectus cohortis: commander of a cohort. Praefectus classis: fleet commander. Praefectus equitatus: cavalry commander. Praefectus equitum: cavalry commander. Praefectus fabrum: officer in charge of fabri, i.e. well-trained engineers and artisans. Praefectus legionis: equestrian legionary commander. Praefectus legionis agens vice legati: equestrian acting legionary commander. Praefectus orae maritimae: official in charge with the control and defense of an important sector of sea coast. Praefectus socium: Roman officer appointed to a command function in an ala sociorum.
For some auxiliary troops, specific titles could refer to their peoples: Praefectus Laetorum Praefectus Sarmatarum gentilium Roman provinces were ruled by high-rank officials. Less important provinces though were entrusted to prefects, military men who would otherwise only govern parts of larger provinces; the most famous example is Pontius Pilate, who governed Judaea at a time when it was administered as an annex of Syria. As Egypt was a special imperial domain, a rich and strategic granary, where the Emperor enjoyed an pharaonic position unlike any other province or diocese, its head was styled uniquely Praefectus Augustalis, indicating that he governed in the personal name of the emperor, the "Augustus". Septimius Severus, after conquering Mesopotamia, introduced the same system there too. After the mid-1st century, as a result of the Pax Romana, the governorship was shifted from the military prefects to civilian fiscal officials called procurators, Egypt remaining the exception. Praefectus urbi: a prefect of the republican era who guarded the city during the annual sacrifice of the Latin: feriae latina on Mount Alban in which the consuls participated.
His former title was "custos urbi". In Medieval Latin, præfectus was used to refer to various officers—administrative, judicial, etc.—usually alongside a more precise term in the vernacular. The term is used by the Roman Catholic Church, which based much of its canon law terminology on Roman law, in several different ways; the Roman Curia has the nine Prefects of all the Congregations as well as the two of the Papal Household and of the Economic Affairs of the Holy See. The title attaches to the heads of some Pontifical Council, who are principally titled president, but in addition there is sometimes an additional ex officio position as a prefect. For example, the president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue is the prefect of the Commission for Religious Relations with Muslims. Traditionally these Curial officials are Cardinals, hence called "Cardinal-Prefect" or "Cardinal-President". There was a custom that those who were not cardinals when they were appointed were titled "Pro-Prefect" or "Pro-President".
These officials would be appointed prefect or president after their elevation to the Sacred College. However, since 1998, this custom has fallen into disuse. A Prefect Apostolic is a cleric in charge of an apostolic prefecture, a type of Roman Catholic territorial jurisdiction fulfilling the functions of a diocese in a missionary area or in a country, anti-religious, such as the People's Republic of China, but, not yet given the status of regular diocese, it is destined to become one in time. In the context of schools, a prefect is a pupil, given certain responsibilities in the school, similar to the responsibilities given to a hall monitor or safety patrol members. In some British and Commonwealth schools, prefects students in fifth to seventh yea
Pompeii (novel)
Pompeii is a novel by Robert Harris, published by Random House in 2003. It blends historical fiction with the real-life eruption of Mount Vesuvius on 24 August 79 AD, which overwhelmed Pompeii and its surrounding environs; the novel is notable for its references to various aspects of volcanology and use of the Roman calendar. In 2007, a film version of the book had been planned and was to be directed by Roman Polanski with a budget of US$150M, but was cancelled due to the threat of a looming actors' strike. Marcus Attilius Primus arrives in the Bay of Naples from Rome to take charge as aquarius of the Aqua Augusta, the aqueduct that supplies water to the towns in the region encompassing the Bay of Naples and Mount Vesuvius; the nine important towns are, in sequential order, Nola, Atella, Puteoli, Cumae and Misenum. Attilius' predecessor, has mysteriously vanished as the springs that flow through the aqueduct begin to fail, lowering the supply of water available to the region's reservoir. Attilius is unpopular among the workers Corax, who resents the young foreigner giving him orders.
Attilius's concerns about the water are heightened when he is summoned by a young, wealthy woman named Corelia to investigate water that killed her father's prized fish. Corelia's father is the former slave and land speculator Numerius Popidius Ampliatus, who came to fortune after rebuilding Pompeii from a past earthquake. Ampliatus feeds the slave. Attilius realizes that, sulfur poisoned the water; the flow of water stops entirely. Attilius concludes that the aqueduct must be blocked somewhere close to Mount Vesuvius, since reports claim a shut down of the system just before Nola, meaning that towns from there through Napoli and Misenum are without any water supply. With aid from Pliny the Elder, whose fleet is docked at Misenum, Attilius assembles an expedition to travel to Pompeii, the closest town still being supplied with water, on to the blocked section of the Aqua Augusta. While Attilius' expedition is there, he becomes embroiled as part of a plot by Ampliatus. Ampliatus is planning to offer a cheap water supply to Pompeii, which Exomnius had helped him do while stealing from the imperial treasury.
Though Ampliatus tries to persuade Attilius to fill in Exomnius's role, he refuses. Attilius' questions and studies make Ampliatus suspicious, the latter makes arrangements for Attilius to be assassinated. Attilius begins to suspect Ampliatus of bribery, suspicions supported by what Pliny the Elder and his nephew discover: thousands of Roman sesterces at the bottom of the reservoir that should have gone to Rome and which Attilius' predecessor had intended to retrieve once he'd emptied the reservoir. Corelia gets Attilius the proof he needs from her father's written records when he is performing repairs to a collapsed section of tunnel in the region around Vesuvius. Attilius discovers that Exomnius was investigating the phenomena around Vesuvius, having recognized some of them from his hometown of Catania after an eruption of Mount Etna. While exploring Vesuvius on his own, Attilius discovers Exomnius's corpse in a pit of earth choked by noxious fumes, which kills Corax, who has come to assassinate Attilius.
The eruption of Mount Vesuvius on 24 August overwhelms Pompeii and Herculaneum. Attilius comes back to Pompeii to find Corelia. A deranged Ampliatus refuses to evacuate and holds first his family and Attilius captive, believing that he will become richer and more powerful by rebuilding the city once more after it is destroyed. Attilius rescues Corelia, but is pursued by Ampliatus and his men as pyroclastic flows begin to descend on Pompeii. Attilius and Corelia dig their way to safety. Ampliatus is killed by the overwhelming heat of the pyroclastic flow, along with the rest of his family and the remainder of the expedition. Pliny dies from the effects of the fumes. Pompeii is buried underneath rocks, pumice and volcanic material, leaving few survivors; the last sentence of the novel reports a local legend that a man and woman had emerged from the aqueduct after the eruption -- implying that Attilius and Corelia survived the trip up the aqueduct. The incident of Ampliatus feeding a slave to his eels is based on the actual historical case of Vedius Pollio.
The novel's motto combines two quotes, from Tom Wolfe's Hooking Up and from the Natural History of Pliny the Elder, with both writers speaking in nearly identical terms of the preeminence of the present United States and the Roman Empire, over the rest of the world. The theme of comparing ancient Rome to the contemporary United States is repeated in throughout the book, for example in the deliberate use of American terminology, as when Attilius regards Pompeii as "a hustling boomtown" while Ampliatus boasts that "I am the man who runs this town." Attilius himself is an example of a "modern" character, a typical proponent of the problem solving approach – a pragmatic engineer, who has little use for religion or gods but an unbounded confidence in the ability of sound Roman engineering and science to solve problems – given a thorough knowledge of natural laws, good planning and a firm leadership, all of which he is capable of providing. In 2007, Harris wrote a screenplay based on Pompeii for director Roman Polanski.
Harris acknowledged in many interviews that the plot of his novel was inspired by Polanski's film Chinatown, Polanski said it was that similarity that had attracted him to Pompeii. The film, to be produce
Province of Naples
The Province of Naples was a province in the Campania region of southern Italy. The province of Naples is the most densely populated in Italy. At the 2013 census were all located in the province, as were 10 of the top 15, it has an area of 1,171.13 km², a total population of about 3.05 million. Largest communities in the Napoli metropolitan area: The area is fruitful for tourism, both national and international. Pompeii, the excavated Roman city, destroyed by Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD is among the most popular destinations in all of Italy. Three islands in the Gulf of Naples are prominent destinations. Together they are known as the Campanian Archipelago. On Capri, there is the famous Blue Grotto; the Sorrentine Peninsula has long been a popular destination for tourism, it is well known for the drink Limoncello and its luxurious sea cliffs. It is rich with villas, guard towers, in Vico Equense ancient farmhouses; the most popular sport in the province is football. This area was one of the first in Southern Italy to start playing sports, when English sailors brought them in during the early 1900s.
The most successful club from the province are by far SSC Napoli, who have won Serie A twice and the UEFA Cup while Diego Maradona was with the club. At present there are four professional football clubs playing within the Italian leagues from the province. Official website—
Media related to Miseno at Wikimedia Commons
