1.
Moesha
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Moesha was an American sitcom series that aired on the UPN network from January 23,1996, to May 14,2001. The series stars R&B singer Brandy Norwood as Moesha Denise Mitchell and it was originally ordered as a pilot for CBSs 1995–1996 television season but was rejected by the network. It was then picked up by UPN, who aired it as a mid-season replacement and it went on to become the biggest success for the nascent network and one of the greatest hits over the course of the networks entire run. The show focuses on the life of a middle class African-American family through the eyes of a girl named Moesha. Her father Frank, a widower and Saturn car salesman, has married Dee, the series was created by Ralph Farquhar, along with the writing team of Sara V. The settings for the show include the Mitchell household and the teen hangout, the sitcom was portrayed to take place in the affluent Leimert Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. The show dealt with teen social issues such as teen pregnancy, drug use, race relations, premarital sex, the death of a parent. The shocking news of Franks infidelity during his first marriage turned the family upside-down and resulted in Dorians rebellion, Moesha Mitchell —Like many teens, Moesha is trying to find her place in life. At every turn, Moesha, along with her friends and family, experiences new challenges and hilarious situations associated with the pressures, Moesha is headstrong, independent, and at times stubborn, but stands up for what she believes is right. Franklin Frank Mitchell —A Saturn dealer and father to Moesha and Myles, originally believed to be Dorians uncle, he is later revealed to be the young mans father. Deidra Dee Mitchell —A high-school principal attempting to balance her career with two additional ones as wife to Frank and stepmother to Moesha and Myles. Kimberly Kim Parker —Moeshas boy-crazy best friend who has a crush on Hakeem, Myles Mitchell —Moeshas pesky younger brother. During the beginning of the series he was mostly for playing practical jokes on his sister and her friends. Hakeem Campbell — A frequent visitor to the Mitchell household, he is Moesha’s lifelong friend and neighbor, in the spinoff The Parkers, it was revealed that he and Moesha were no longer in a relationship. He dated Kims best friend Stevie Van Lowe, Andell Wilkerson —Moeshas older friend and owner of the neighborhood hangout The Den. Andell is featured on the spin-off show The Parkers, where she owns a self-named restaurant, Denise Niecy Jackson —Moeshas best friend and later her roommate. Quinton Q Brooks —Moeshas longest-running love interest and this is a Manufacture-on-Demand release, available exclusively through Amazon. com. Given her popularity for four seasons on Moesha, Countess Vaughn left the show in 1999 for her own show, The Parkers and it centered on the adventures of Kim attending community college with her mother, played by comedian MoNique
2.
Hadrian
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Hadrian was Roman emperor from 117 to 138. He is known for building Hadrians Wall, which marked the limit of Britannia. He also rebuilt the Pantheon and constructed the Temple of Venus, philhellene in most of his tastes, he is considered by some to have been a humanist, and he is regarded as the third of the Five Good Emperors. Hadrian was born Publius Aelius Hadrianus into a Hispano-Roman family, although Italica near Santiponce is often considered his birthplace, his actual place of birth remains uncertain. It is generally accepted that he came from a family with roots in Hispania. His predecessor, Trajan, was a cousin of Hadrians father. Trajan did not designate an heir officially, but according to his wife Pompeia Plotina, Trajans wife and his friend Licinius Sura were well disposed towards Hadrian, and he may well have owed his succession to them. During his reign, Hadrian travelled to every province of the Empire. An ardent admirer of Greece, he sought to make Athens the cultural capital of the Empire and he used his relationship with his Greek lover Antinous to underline his philhellenism, and this led to the establishment of one of the most popular cults of ancient times. Hadrian spent a deal of time with the military, he usually wore military attire and even dined. He ordered rigorous military training and drilling and made use of reports of attacks to keep the army on alert. On his accession to the throne, Hadrian withdrew from Trajans conquests in Mesopotamia, Assyria and Armenia, late in his reign he suppressed the Bar Kokhba revolt in Judaea, renaming the province Syria Palaestina. In 138 Hadrian adopted Antoninus Pius on the condition that he adopt Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus as his own heirs and they would eventually succeed Antoninus as co-emperors. Hadrian died the year at Baiae. In Hadrians time, there was already an established convention that one could not write a contemporary Roman imperial history for fear of competing with the emperors themselves. Information on the history of Hadrians reign comes mostly from later. A general account of his reign is Book 69 of the early 3rd century Roman History by Cassius Dio and his original Greek text of this book is lost, what survives is a brief, much later, Byzantine-era abridgment by the 11th century monk Xiphilinius. He selected from Dios account of Hadrians reign based on his religious interests
3.
Danube
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The Danube is Europes second-longest river, after the Volga River, and also the longest river in the European Union region. It is located in Central and Eastern Europe, the Danube was once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire, and today flows through 10 countries, more than any other river in the world. Its drainage basin extends into nine more countries, the Latin name Dānuvius is one of a number of Old European river names derived from a Proto-Indo-European *dānu. Other river names from the root include the Dunajec, Dzvina/Daugava, Don, Donets, Dnieper, Dniestr. In Rigvedic Sanskrit, dānu means fluid, drop, in Avestan, in the Rigveda, Dānu once appears as the mother of Vrtra. Known to the ancient Greeks as the Istros a borrowing from a Daco-Thracian name meaning strong, in Latin, the Danube was variously known as Danubius, Danuvius or as Ister. The Dacian/Thracian name was Donaris for the upper Danube and Istros for the lower Danube, the Thraco-Phrygian name was Matoas, the bringer of luck. The Latin name is masculine, as are all its Slavic names, the German Donau is feminine, as it has been re-interpreted as containing the suffix -ouwe wetland. Classified as a waterway, it originates in the town of Donaueschingen, in the Black Forest of Germany, at the confluence of the rivers Brigach. The Danube then flows southeast for about 2,800 km, passing through four capital cities before emptying into the Black Sea via the Danube Delta in Romania and its drainage basin extends into nine more. The highest point of the basin is the summit of Piz Bernina at the Italy–Switzerland border. The land drained by the Danube extends into other countries. Many Danubian tributaries are important rivers in their own right, navigable by barges, from its source to its outlet into the Black Sea, its main tributaries are, The Danube flows through many cities, including four national capitals, more than any other river in the world. Danube remains a mountain river until Passau, with average bottom gradient 0. 0012%. Middle Section, From Devín Gate to Iron Gate, at the border of Serbia and Romania, the riverbed widens and the average bottom gradient becomes only 0. 00006%. Lower Section, From Iron Gate to Sulina, with average gradient as little as 0. 00003%, about 60 of its tributaries are also navigable. In 1994 the Danube was declared one of ten Pan-European transport corridors, routes in Central, the amount of goods transported on the Danube increased to about 100 million tons in 1987. In 1999, transport on the river was difficult by the NATO bombing of three bridges in Serbia during the Kosovo War
4.
Roman legion
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A Roman legion was the largest unit of the Roman army involving from 3000 men in early times to over 5200 men in imperial times, consisting of centuries as the basic units. Until the middle of the first century,10 cohorts made up a Roman Legion and this was later changed to nine cohorts of standard size and one cohort, the first cohort, of double strength. In the early Roman Kingdom the legion may have meant the entire Roman army but sources on this period are few, Legions also included a small ala or cavalry unit. By the third century AD, the legion was a smaller unit of about 1,000 to 1,500 men. In the fourth century AD, East Roman border guard legions may have even smaller. The Roman army, for most of the Imperial period, consisted mostly of auxiliaries rather than legions, because legions were not permanent units until the Marian reforms, and were instead created, used, and disbanded again, several hundred legions were named and numbered throughout Roman history. To date, about 50 have been identified, toward the end of the 2nd Century BC, Rome started to experience manpower shortages brought about by property and financial qualifications to join the army. In the time of Augustus, there were nearly 50 upon his succession but this was reduced to about 25–35 permanent standing legions, a legion consisted of several cohorts of heavy infantry known as legionaries. The recruitment of non-citizens was rare but appears to have occurred in times of great need, For example, Caesar appears to have recruited the Legio V Alaudae mostly from non-citizen Gauls. In the period before the raising of the legio and the years of the Roman Kingdom. These centuries were grouped together as required and answered to the leader who had hired or raised them, the roles of century leader, second in command and standard bearer are referenced in this early period. Much Roman history of the era is shrouded in legend, but it is believed that during the reign of Servius Tullius, the census was introduced. Joining the army was both a duty and a mark of Roman citizenship, during the entire pre-Marian period the wealthiest land owners performed the most years of military service. These individuals would have had the most to lose should the state have fallen. The first and wealthiest common class was armed in the fashion of the hoplite with spear, sword, helmet, breast plate and round shield, there were 82 centuries of these, Roman soldiers had to purchase their own equipment. The second and third class also acted as spearmen but were heavily armoured and carried a larger oval or rectangular shield. The fourth class could afford no armour, perhaps bearing a shield and armed with spear. All three of the latter made up about 26 centuries
5.
Late antiquity
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Late antiquity is a periodization used by historians to describe the time of transition from classical antiquity to the Middle Ages in mainland Europe, the Mediterranean world, and the Near East. The development of the periodization has generally been accredited to historian Peter Brown, precise boundaries for the period are a continuing matter of debate, but Brown proposes a period between the 3rd and 8th centuries AD. Generally, it can be thought of as from the end of the Roman Empires Crisis of the Third Century to, in the East, the early Islamic period, following the Muslim conquests in the mid–7th century. In the West the end was earlier, with the start of the Early Medieval period typically placed in the 6th century, beginning with Constantine the Great, Christianity was made legal in the Empire, and a new capital was founded at Constantinople. The resultant cultural fusion of Greco-Roman, Germanic and Christian traditions formed the foundations of the subsequent culture of Europe, the term Spätantike, literally late antiquity, has been used by German-speaking historians since its popularization by Alois Riegl in the early 20th century. Concurrently, some migrating Germanic tribes such as the Ostrogoths and Visigoths saw themselves as perpetuating the Roman tradition, Constantine confirmed the legalization of the religion through the so-called Edict of Milan in 313, jointly issued with his rival in the East, Licinius. Monasticism was not the only new Christian movement to appear in Late Antiquity, notable in this regard is the topic of the Fifty Bibles of Constantine. Within the recently legitimized Christian community of the 4th century, a division could be distinctly seen between the laity and an increasingly celibate male leadership. Celibate and detached, the clergy became an elite equal in prestige to urban notables. The Late Antique period also saw a transformation of the political and social basis of life in. The later Roman Empire was in a sense a network of cities, archaeology now supplements literary sources to document the transformation followed by collapse of cities in the Mediterranean basin. Burials within the urban precincts mark another stage in dissolution of traditional urbanistic discipline, overpowered by the attraction of saintly shrines, in Roman Britain, the typical 4th- and 5th-century layer of black earth within cities seems to be a result of increased gardening in formerly urban spaces. A similar though less marked decline in population occurred later in Constantinople. In Europe there was also a decline in urban populations. As a whole, the period of antiquity was accompanied by an overall population decline in almost all Europe. Long-distance markets disappeared, and there was a reversion to a degree of local production and consumption, rather than webs of commerce. The degree and extent of discontinuity in the cities of the Greek East is a moot subject among historians. In the western Mediterranean, the new cities known to be founded in Europe between the 5th and 8th centuries were the four or five Visigothic victory cities
6.
Latin
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Latin is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. The Latin alphabet is derived from the Etruscan and Greek alphabets, Latin was originally spoken in Latium, in the Italian Peninsula. Through the power of the Roman Republic, it became the dominant language, Vulgar Latin developed into the Romance languages, such as Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, French, and Romanian. Latin, Italian and French have contributed many words to the English language, Latin and Ancient Greek roots are used in theology, biology, and medicine. By the late Roman Republic, Old Latin had been standardised into Classical Latin, Vulgar Latin was the colloquial form spoken during the same time and attested in inscriptions and the works of comic playwrights like Plautus and Terence. Late Latin is the language from the 3rd century. Later, Early Modern Latin and Modern Latin evolved, Latin was used as the language of international communication, scholarship, and science until well into the 18th century, when it began to be supplanted by vernaculars. Ecclesiastical Latin remains the language of the Holy See and the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church. Today, many students, scholars and members of the Catholic clergy speak Latin fluently and it is taught in primary, secondary and postsecondary educational institutions around the world. The language has been passed down through various forms, some inscriptions have been published in an internationally agreed, monumental, multivolume series, the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum. Authors and publishers vary, but the format is about the same, volumes detailing inscriptions with a critical apparatus stating the provenance, the reading and interpretation of these inscriptions is the subject matter of the field of epigraphy. The works of several hundred ancient authors who wrote in Latin have survived in whole or in part and they are in part the subject matter of the field of classics. The Cat in the Hat, and a book of fairy tales, additional resources include phrasebooks and resources for rendering everyday phrases and concepts into Latin, such as Meissners Latin Phrasebook. The Latin influence in English has been significant at all stages of its insular development. From the 16th to the 18th centuries, English writers cobbled together huge numbers of new words from Latin and Greek words, dubbed inkhorn terms, as if they had spilled from a pot of ink. Many of these words were used once by the author and then forgotten, many of the most common polysyllabic English words are of Latin origin through the medium of Old French. Romance words make respectively 59%, 20% and 14% of English, German and those figures can rise dramatically when only non-compound and non-derived words are included. Accordingly, Romance words make roughly 35% of the vocabulary of Dutch, Roman engineering had the same effect on scientific terminology as a whole
7.
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
8.
Roman province
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In Ancient Rome, a province was the basic, and, until the Tetrarchy, largest territorial and administrative unit of the empires territorial possessions outside of Italy. The word province in modern English has its origins in the used by the Romans. Provinces were generally governed by politicians of senatorial rank, usually former consuls or former praetors and this exception was unique, but not contrary to Roman law, as Egypt was considered Augustus personal property, following the tradition of earlier, Hellenistic kings. The territory of a people who were defeated in war might be brought under various forms of treaty, the formal annexation of a territory created a province in the modern sense of an administrative unit geographically defined. Republican provinces were administered in one-year terms by the consuls and praetors who had held office the previous year, Rome started expanding beyond Italy during the First Punic War. The first permanent provinces to be annexed were Sicily in 241 BC, militarized expansionism kept increasing the number of these administrative provinces, until there were no longer enough qualified individuals to fill the posts. The terms of provincial governors often had to be extended for multiple years,241 BC – Sicilia taken over from the Carthaginians and annexed at the end of the First Punic War. 237 BC – Corsica et Sardinia, these two islands were taken over from the Carthaginians and annexed soon after the Mercenary War, in 238 BC and 237 BC respectively. 197 BC – Hispania Citerior, along the east coast of the,197 BC - Hispania Ulterior, along the southern coast of the, part of the territories taken over from the Carthaginians in the Second Punic War. 147 BC – Macedonia, mainland Greece and it was annexed after a rebellion by the Achaean League. 146 BC – Africa, modern day Tunisia and western Libya, home territory of Carthage and it was annexed following attacks on the allied Greek city of Massalia. 67 BC – Creta et Cyrenae, Cyrenaica was bequeathed to Rome in 78 BC, however, it was not organised as a province. 58 BC – Cilicia et Cyprus, Cilicia was created as a province in the sense of area of command in 102 BC in a campaign against piracy. The Romans controlled only a small area, in 74 BC Lycia and Pamphylia were added to the smal Roman possessions in Cilicia. Cilicia came fully under Roman control towards the end of the Third Mithridatic War - 73-63 BC, the province was reorganised by Pompey in 63 BC. Gallia Cisalpina was a province in the sense of an area of military command, during Romes expansion in Italy the Romans assigned some areas as provinces in the sense of areas of military command assigned to consuls or praetors due to risks of rebellions or invasions. This was applied to Liguria because there was a series of rebellions, Bruttium, in the early days of Roman presence in Gallia Cisalpina the issue was rebellion. Later the issue was risk of invasions by warlike peoples east of Italy, the city of Aquileia was founded to protect northern Italy form invasions
9.
Balkans
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The Balkan Peninsula, or the Balkans, is a peninsula and a cultural area in Eastern and Southeastern Europe with various and disputed borders. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch from the Serbia-Bulgaria border to the Black Sea, the highest point of the Balkans is Mount Musala 2,925 metres in the Rila mountain range. In Turkish, Balkan means a chain of wooded mountains, the name is still preserved in Central Asia with the Balkan Daglary and the Balkan Province of Turkmenistan. A less popular hypothesis regarding its etymology is that it derived from the Persian Balā-Khāna, from Antiquity through the Middle Ages, the Balkan Mountains had been called by the local Thracian name Haemus. According to Greek mythology, the Thracian king Haemus was turned into a mountain by Zeus as a punishment, a reverse name scheme has also been suggested. D. Dechev considers that Haemus is derived from a Thracian word *saimon, a third possibility is that Haemus derives from the Greek word haema meaning blood. The myth relates to a fight between Zeus and the monster/titan Typhon, Zeus injured Typhon with a thunder bolt and Typhons blood fell on the mountains, from which they got their name. The earliest mention of the name appears in an early 14th-century Arab map, the Ottomans first mention it in a document dated from 1565. There has been no other documented usage of the word to refer to the region before that, there is also a claim about an earlier Bulgar Turkic origin of the word popular in Bulgaria, however it is only an unscholarly assertion. The word was used by the Ottomans in Rumelia in its meaning of mountain, as in Kod̲j̲a-Balkan, Čatal-Balkan, and Ungurus-Balkani̊. The concept of the Balkans was created by the German geographer August Zeune in 1808, during the 1820s, Balkan became the preferred although not yet exclusive term alongside Haemus among British travelers. Among Russian travelers not so burdened by classical toponymy, Balkan was the preferred term, zeunes goal was to have a geographical parallel term to the Italic and Iberian Peninsula, and seemingly nothing more. The gradually acquired political connotations are newer and, to a large extent, after the dissolution of Yugoslavia beginning in June 1991, the term Balkans again received a negative meaning, especially in Croatia and Slovenia, even in casual usage. A European Union initiative of 1999 is called the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe, and its northern boundary is often given as the Danube, Sava and Kupa Rivers. The Balkan Peninsula has an area of about 470,000 km2. It is more or less identical to the known as Southeastern Europe. As of 1920 until World War II, Italy included Istria, the current territory of Italy includes only the small area around Trieste inside the Balkan Peninsula. However, the regions of Trieste and Istria are not usually considered part of the Balkans by Italian geographers, the Western Balkans is a neologism coined to describe the countries of ex-Yugoslavia and Albania
10.
Central Serbia
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Central Serbia, also referred to as Serbia proper, is the part of Serbia lying outside of the provinces of Vojvodina and the disputed territory of Kosovo. Central Serbia is a term of convenience, not a division of Serbia as such. Broadly speaking, Central Serbia is the core of modern Serbia. The current borders of Central Serbia were defined after World War II, Macedonia, and to the east with Bulgaria, with a small strip of the Danube with Romania in the northeast. The Danube and Sava divides central Serbia from the Serbian province of Vojvodina, while the Drina divides Serbia from Bosnia, the Great Morava, a major river, goes through central Serbia. Extensions of three mountain chains are located within Serbia proper, Dinaric Alps in the west and south. Some notable geographical regions located in central Serbia are, Šumadija, Mačva, Timočka Krajina, Pomoravlje, Podunavlje, Posavina, Podrinje, Zlatibor, Raška, Sandžak, in the Roman period, Moesia was the name for a region that included Serbia proper. Viminacium was the capital of the province of Moesia Superior, slavs overwhelmed the Balkans in the 6th and 7th centuries. Raška, situated in the southwest, was the core of the medieval Serbian state, Serbia eventually expanded its borders to the east. King Stefan Dragutin of Syrmia had two capitals, Debrc and Belgrade, after the fall of the Serbian Empire, the Moravian Serbia under Lazar and Stefan Lazarević corresponded roughly to Serbia proper. Kruševac was the capital of Moravian Serbia, until the Ottoman conquests in the 15th century, after the Ottoman conquest of the Serbian Despotate, the Sanjak of Smederevo was established, initially seated in Smederevo, and eventually, in Belgrade after its fall in 1521. Between 1718 and 1739, the Sanjak of Smederevo was occupied by the Habsburg Monarchy, the Serbian Militia operated throughout Serbia proper during the 1737–39 war. The war ended in Ottoman victory, and returning of the sanjak, the northern half of Serbia proper was briefly under Habsburg occupation during the 1787–91 war, then returned. With the First Serbian Uprising, the became a de facto Serbian state. It was retaken by the Ottomans in 1813, however, the Second Serbian Uprising saw Serbia recognized as a principality within the Ottoman Empire. In 1878, Serbia became an independent state, also enlarging its territory to the south-east. The 1878 borders correspond to present-day Central Serbia save for parts in the south-west. In the Balkan Wars, Serbia further expanded its borders to the south, taking control of much of present-day Kosovo, further territorial gains were made in the north and south-west in 1918, after World War I
11.
Kosovo
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Kosovo is a disputed territory and partially recognised state in Southeastern Europe that declared independence from Serbia in February 2008 as the Republic of Kosovo. Kosovo is landlocked in the central Balkan Peninsula, with its strategic position in the Balkans, it serves as an important link in the connection between central and south Europe, the Adriatic Sea, and Black Sea. Its capital and largest city is Pristina, and other urban areas include Prizren, Pejë. It is bordered by Albania to the southwest, the Republic of Macedonia to the southeast, Montenegro to the west, while Serbia recognises administration of the territory by Kosovos elected government, it still continues to claim it as its own Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija. In antiquity, the Dardanian Kingdom, and later the Roman province of Dardania was located in the region, the area was inhabited by several ancient Illyrian tribes. In the Middle Ages, it was part of the Byzantine, Bulgarian and Serbian Empires, Kosovo was the core of the medieval Serbian state and it has been the seat of the Serbian Orthodox Church from the 14th century when its status was upgraded into a patriarchate. After being part of the Ottoman Empire from the 15th to the early 20th century, the war ended with a military intervention of NATO, which forced the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia to withdraw its troops from Kosovo, which became a UN protectorate under UNSCR1244. On 17 February 2008 Kosovos Parliament declared independence and it has since gained diplomatic recognition as a sovereign state by 111 UN member states, Taiwan, the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, the Cook Islands and Niue. Serbia refuses to recognise Kosovo as a state, although with the Brussels Agreement of 2013 it has accepted the legitimacy of Kosovar institutions, the entire region is commonly referred to in English simply as Kosovo and in Albanian as Kosova or Kosovë. The name of the plain was applied to the Kosovo Province created in 1864, Albanians refer to Kosovo as Dardania, the name of a Roman province located in Central Balkans that was formed in 284 AD which covered the territory of modern Kosovo. The name is derived from the Albanian word dardha/dardā which means pear, the former Kosovo President Ibrahim Rugova had been an enthusiastic backer of a Dardanian identity and the Kosovan flag and presidential seal refer to this national identity. However, the name Kosova remains more widely used among the Albanian population, the official conventional long name of the state is Republic of Kosovo, as defined by the Constitution of Kosovo, and is used to represent Kosovo internationally. This arrangement, which has dubbed the asterisk agreement, was agreed in an 11-point arrangement agreed on 24 February 2012. By the independence declaration in 2008, its long name became Republic of Kosovo. In prehistory, the succeeding Starčevo culture, Vinča culture, Bubanj-Hum culture, the area in and around Kosovo has been inhabited for nearly 10,000 years. During the Neolithic age, Kosovo lay within the area of the Vinča-Turdaş culture which is characterised by West Balkan black, bronze and Iron Age tombs have been found in Metohija. However, life during the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age is not confirmed yet, therefore, until arguments of Paleolithic and Mesolithic man are confirmed, Neolithic man, respectively the Neolithic sites are considered as the chronological beginning of population in Kosovo. From this period until today Kosovo has been inhabited, and traces of activities of societies from prehistoric, ancient, whereas, in some archaeological sites, multilayer settlements clearly reflect the continuity of life through centuries
12.
Republic of Macedonia
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Macedonia, officially the Republic of Macedonia, is a country in the Balkan peninsula in Southeast Europe. It is one of the states of the former Yugoslavia. A landlocked country, the Republic of Macedonia has borders with Kosovo to the northwest, Serbia to the north, Bulgaria to the east, Greece to the south, the countrys geography is defined primarily by mountains, valleys, and rivers. The capital and largest city, Skopje, is home to roughly a quarter of the nations 2.06 million inhabitants, the majority of the residents are ethnic Macedonians, a South Slavic people. Albanians form a significant minority at around 25 percent, followed by Turks, Romani, Serbs, Macedonias history dates back to antiquity, beginning with the kingdom of Paeonia, a Thracian polity. In the late sixth century BCE the area was incorporated into the Persian Achaemenid Empire, the Romans conquered the region in the second century BCE and made it part of the much larger province of Macedonia. Macedonia remained part of the Byzantine Empire, and was raided and settled by Slavic peoples beginning in the sixth century CE. Following centuries of contention between the Bulgarian and Byzantine empires, it came under Ottoman dominion from the 14th century. Between the late 19th and early 20th century, a distinct Macedonian identity emerged, although following the Balkan Wars of 1912 and 1913, Macedonia remained a constituent socialist republic within Yugoslavia until its peaceful secession in 1991. Macedonia is a member of the UN and of the Council of Europe, since 2005 it has also been a candidate for joining the European Union and has applied for NATO membership. Although one of the poorest countries in Europe, Macedonia has made significant progress in developing an open, the countrys name derives from the Greek Μακεδονία, a kingdom named after the ancient Macedonians. The name is believed to have meant either highlanders or the tall ones. However, Robert S. P. Beekes supports that both terms are of Pre-Greek substrate origin and cannot be explained in terms of Indo-European morphology, the Republic of Macedonia roughly corresponds to the ancient kingdom of Paeonia, which was located immediately north of the ancient kingdom of Macedonia. In the late 6th century BC, the Achaemenid Persians under Darius the Great conquered the Paeonians, following the loss in the Second Persian invasion of Greece in 479 BC, the Persians eventually withdrew from their European territories, including from what is today the Republic of Macedonia. In 356 BC Philip II of Macedon absorbed the regions of Upper Macedonia, the Romans established the Province of Macedonia in 146 BC. Roman expansion brought the Scupi area under Roman rule in the time of Domitian, and it fell within the Province of Moesia. Whilst Greek remained the dominant language in the part of the Roman empire. Slavic peoples settled in the Balkan region including Macedonia by the late 6th century AD, during the 580s, Byzantine literature attests to the Slavs raiding Byzantine territories in the region of Macedonia, later aided by Bulgars. Historical records document that in c.680 a group of Bulgars, Slavs and Byzantines led by a Bulgar called Kuber settled in the region of the Keramisian plain, presians reign apparently coincides with the extension of Bulgarian control over the Slavic tribes in and around Macedonia
13.
Northern Bulgaria
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Besides the Balkan Mountains, Northern Bulgaria borders the Timok River and Serbia to the west, the Danube River and Romania to the north and the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast to the east. Geographically, the terrain is uniform, dominated by the hilly Danubian Plain. Northern Bulgaria covers an area of 48,596 square kilometres and has a population of 2,674,347 according to the 2011 census, the three largest cities are Varna, Rousse and Pleven. Northern Bulgaria covers the region of Moesia, which in turn includes several sub-regions such as Dobruja, Ludogorie, Gerlovo. Northern Bulgaria is also divided into Northwestern, Central Northern and Northeastern Bulgaria. The lower northern reaches of the Balkan Mountains are called the Fore-Balkan, in Antiquity, the Jireček Line divided Latin and Ancient Greek language influence in the Balkans, with Northern Bulgaria to the north of it and Southern Bulgaria to the south. Southern Bulgaria Таблица на населението по постоянен и настоящ адрес, Главна Дирекция Гражданска Регистрация и Административно Обслужване
14.
Northern Dobruja
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Northern Dobruja is the part of Dobruja within the borders of Romania. It lies between the lower Danube river and the Black Sea, bordered in the south by Southern Dobruja, around 600 BC, the Greeks colonized the Black Sea shore and founded numerous fortress, Tomis, Callatis, Histria, Argamum, Heracleea, Aegysus. After Greek civilization faded, Dobruja became a Roman province, one of the best preserved remnants of this period is the Enisala citadel. Between the 7th and 14th century, Dobruja was part of the First Bulgarian Empire, for a short period in the 14th century, Dobruja became part of the Romanian principality under the rule of King Mircea of Wallachia. Under the treaties of San Stefano and Berlin, Romania received Northern Dobruja while the newly restored principality of Bulgaria received the smaller Southern part of the region. After the Second Balkan War in 1913, Romania also annexed the Bulgarian Southern Dobruja, the territory of Northern Dobruja now forms the counties of Constanța and Tulcea, with a total area of 15,500 km² and a current population of slightly under 900,000. Casimcea Slava Taița Telița Crapina Lake Jijiei Lake Traian Lake Babadag Lake Razim Lake Zmeica Lake Sinoe Lake Tașaul Lake Techirghiol Lake The Danube Delta consists of numerous lakes, Northern Dobruja is represented by two dolphins in the Coat of arms of Romania. Starting with 2015, Romania observes Dobruja Day on November 14, marking the 1878 incorporation of Northern Dobruja into the Kingdom of Romania after the Treaty of Berlin
15.
Scardus
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The Šar Mountains or Sharr Mountains, form a mountain range in the Balkans that extends from Kosovo and the northwest of the Republic of Macedonia, to northeastern Albania. In Antiquity, the mountains were known as Scardus, Scodrus, sometimes the range is called Carska planina, as a reference to the capitals, courts and monasteries of the Serbian Empire located in the region. The mountain borders extend from the city of Prizren, following the two rivers of the Prizren Lumbardhi and the Lepenac, in the east it passes by the town of Kaçanik through the Kačanik Gorge and into Macedonia via the Polog valley. The border passes near the Vardar spring called Vrutok and enters near the valley of Mavrovo, there the Radika river separates the mountain massif from the higher Mount Korab. After that, the border is mounting, reaching the point of junction of three state borders, Kosovo, Macedonia and Albania. The border now follows the road to the small, mountainous, town of Restelica, the rivers of Globocica, Plava and the White Drin and finally reaches the city of Prizren. The Šar Mountains have an area of 1600 km.56, 25% of that area is in the Republic of Macedonia,43. 12% in Kosovo. There are three plains Sirinic, Vraca and Rudoka, the system is about 80 km long and 10–20 km wide. The mountain massif was formed in the Tertiary Period, vegetation on the mountains includes crops up to around 1,000 m, forests up to 1,700 m, and above that lie high pastures which encompass around 550 km2. The Šar Mountains are the largest compact area covered with pastures on the European continent, the dog breed Šarplaninac comes from this area. The snowy peaks of the Šar Mountains are depicted on the coat of arms of the city of Skopje, the Šar Mountains are located in the south and south-east of Kosovo, where 43. 12% of the range is located. Many alpine and glacial lakes are found on the Kosovar part of the Šar Mountains, especially south of the village of Dragaš, the area of Shutman. The ski resort of Brezovica, with an elevation of 900 m to 2,524 m above sea level, is located north-east of the mountains. The mountain range in Kosovo is divided into three zones, The zone of Ljuboten and Brezovica, the central zone of Prizren. The mountains border the Kosovo Plain to the north-east and the Dukagjini Valley in the northwest, Kosovo consists of the most eastern tip and the most northern part of the mountain ridge. The Ljuboten peak and the mountain of Skopska Crna Gora create the Kačanik Gorge in Kosovo, the Šar Mountains are split from the Nerodimka Mountain by the Sirinić Valley. The Šar National Park is located in Kosovo, villages and towns that are found near the mountain are, Prizren largest city located at the foot of the mountains. The National Park Šar-Planina Mt. was proclaimed in 1993 within the boundaries of 39,000 ha
16.
Drina
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The Drina is a 346 km long international river, which forms a large portion of the border between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia. It is the longest tributary of the Sava River and the longest karst river in the Dinaric Alps which belongs to the Danube river watershed and its name is derived from the Latin name of the river which in turn is derived from Greek. The Drina is formed by the confluence of the Tara and the Piva rivers, both of which flow from Montenegro and converge on the border of Bosnia and Herzegovina, at Hum and Šćepan Polje villages. Measured from the source of the Tara, its longer headwater, the river is not navigable, however, together with the Tara it represents the main kayaking and rafting attraction in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro. The Drina originates between the slopes of the Maglić and Pivska planina mountains, between the villages of Šćepan Polje and Hum, at its origin, it flows west, then makes a large curve to the northeast, around the Maluša mountains. Next, it flows through the villages of Kosman, Prijedjel, Dučeli, Čelikovo Polje, Kopilovi, Trbušće, Brod and it receives the Sutjeska, Bjelava and Bistrica rivers from the left and the Ćehotina at Foča from the right. The villages of Zlatari, Jošanica, Ustikolina, Cvilin, Zebina Šuma, Osanica, Kolovarice, Vranići, Mravinjac, Biljin, Vitkovići and Zupčići are located in the gorge, the river receives the Kolunska rijeka and the Osanica as tributaries from the left. The narrowest part of the Međeđa gorge is Tijesno, the 8 km -long section of the gorge where the river is at its narrowest, here it receives the Prača river from the left and the Janjina and Lim rivers from the right. The villages of Trbosilje, Međeđa and Orahovci are located in the gorge, at the town of Višegrad, the Drina receives the Rzav River from the right and turns northwest at the Suva Gora mountain into the Klotijevac gorge. The gorge is 38 km long and up to 1 km deep, the villages of Sase, Resnik, Đurevići and Gornje Štitarevo lie in the gorge and the Kukal river flows into the Drina from the right. At the Slap village, the Drina receives the river from the right and turns sharply to the west. The Drina flows between the mountains of Zvijezda and Sušica and it is flooded by the artificial Lake Perućac on the slopes of the Tara mountain. The villages of Prohići and Osatica are located on the lake, the river is dammed at the village of Perućac, where a strong well springs out from the Tara mountain, flowing into the Drina as a waterfall. In addition, the waters of Drina are used for fish ponds for the rainbow trout spawning. The river continues to the villages of Peći, Dobrak, Skelani and Zaguline, at the villages of Donja Crvica and Rogačica, the Drina makes a large turn, completely changing its direction from the northeast to the northwest. Here the Drina receives the tributary of Ljuboviđa and continues between the mountains of Jagodnja and Boranja, and Glogova. The villages of Amajic, Culine, Sopotnik, Drinjača and Djevanje are located on the lake and this is also where the Drinjača river flows into the Drina from the left, flowing from the Bosnian region of Gornji Birač. After the dual town of Zvornik -Mali Zvornik, the Drina flows between the Bosnian mountain of Majevica and the Serbian mountain of Gučevo, and enters the Lower Podrinje region
17.
Black Sea
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The Black Sea is a body of water between Eastern Europe and Western Asia, bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Romania, Russia, Turkey, and Ukraine. It is supplied by a number of rivers, such as the Danube, Dnieper, Rioni, Southern Bug. The Black Sea has an area of 436,400 km2, a depth of 2,212 m. It is constrained by the Pontic Mountains to the south and by the Caucasus Mountains to the east, the longest east-west extent is about 1,175 km. The Black Sea has a water balance, that is, a net outflow of water 300 km3 per year through the Bosphorus. Mediterranean water flows into the Black Sea as part of a two-way hydrological exchange, the Black Sea drains into the Mediterranean Sea and then the Atlantic Ocean, via the Aegean Sea and various straits. The Bosphorus Strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and these waters separate Eastern Europe and Western Asia. The Black Sea is also connected to the Sea of Azov by the Strait of Kerch, the water level has varied significantly. Due to these variations in the level in the basin. At certain critical water levels it is possible for connections with surrounding water bodies to become established and it is through the most active of these connective routes, the Turkish Straits, that the Black Sea joins the world ocean. When this hydrological link is not present, the Black Sea is a basin, operating independently of the global ocean system. Currently the Black Sea water level is high, thus water is being exchanged with the Mediterranean. The Turkish Straits connect the Black Sea with the Aegean Sea, and comprise the Bosphorus, the Sea of Marmara, the International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the Black Sea as follows, On the Southwest. The Northeastern limit of the Sea of Marmara, a line joining Cape Takil and Cape Panaghia. Strabos Geographica reports that in antiquity, the Black Sea was often just called the Sea, for the most part, Graeco-Roman tradition refers to the Black Sea as the Hospitable sea, Εὔξεινος Πόντος Eúxeinos Póntos. This is a euphemism replacing an earlier Inhospitable Sea, Πόντος Ἄξεινος Póntos Áxeinos, strabo thinks that the Black Sea was called inhospitable before Greek colonization because it was difficult to navigate, and because its shores were inhabited by savage tribes. The name was changed to hospitable after the Milesians had colonized the southern shoreline and it is also possible that the epithet Áxeinos arose by popular etymology from a Scythian word axšaina- unlit, dark, the designation Black Sea may thus date from antiquity. A map of Asia dating to 1570, entitled Asiae Nova Descriptio, from Abraham Orteliuss Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, english-language writers of the 18th century often used the name Euxine Sea to refer to the Black Sea
18.
Thracians
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The Thracians were a group of Indo-European tribes inhabiting a large area in southeastern Europe. They spoke the Thracian language – a scarcely attested branch of the Indo-European language family, the study of Thracians and Thracian culture is known as Thracology. Thracians are one of the three primary groups of modern Bulgarians. The first historical record about the Thracians is found in the Iliad, the ethnonym Thracian comes from Ancient Greek Θρᾷξ or Θρᾴκιος/Ionic, Θρηίκιος, and the toponym Thrace comes from Θρᾴκη/Ion. These forms are all exonyms as applied by the Greeks, in Greek mythology, Thrax was regarded as one of the reputed sons of the god Ares. In the Alcestis, Euripides mentions that one of the names of Ares himself was Thrax since he was regarded as the patron of Thrace, the origins of the Thracians remain obscure, in the absence of written historical records. Evidence of proto-Thracians in the period depends on artifacts of material culture. Leo Klejn identifies proto-Thracians with the multi-cordoned ware culture that was pushed away from Ukraine by the advancing timber grave culture and we speak of proto-Thracians from which during the Iron Age Dacians and Thracians begin developing. Divided into separate tribes, the Thracians did not manage to form a political organization until the Odrysian state was founded in the fifth century BC. A strong Dacian state appeared in the first century BC, during the reign of King Burebista, including the Illyrians, the mountainous regions were home to various peoples regarded as warlike and ferocious Thracian tribes, while the plains peoples were apparently regarded as more peaceable. Thracians inhabited parts of the ancient provinces of Thrace, Moesia, Macedonia, Dacia, Scythia Minor, Sarmatia, Bithynia, Mysia, Pannonia, and other regions of the Balkans and Anatolia. This area extended over most of the Balkans region, and the Getae north of the Danube as far as beyond the Bug and including Panonia in the west. Aligning themselves in kingdoms and tribes, they never displayed any form of unity beyond short. Similar to the Celtic and Slavic tribes, most people are thought to have lived simply in small fortified villages, although the concept of an urban center was not developed until the Roman period, various larger fortifications which also served as regional market centers were numerous. Yet, in general, despite Greek colonization in such areas as Byzantium, Apollonia and other cities, the first Greek colonies in Thrace were founded in the eighth century BC. Thrace south of the Danube was ruled for half a century by the Persians under Darius the Great. In the first decade of the sixth century BC, the Persians invaded Thrace, Thracians were forced to join the invasions of European Scythia and Greece. According to Herodotus, the Bithynian Thracians also had to contribute a large contingent to Xerxes invasion of Greece in 480 BC, Darius left in Europe one of his commanders named Megabazus whose task was to accomplish conquests in the Balkans
19.
Dacians
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The Dacians were an Indo-European people, part of or related to the Thracians. Dacians were the ancient inhabitants of Dacia, located in the area in and around the Carpathian Mountains and this area includes the present-day countries of Romania and Moldova, as well as parts of Ukraine, Eastern Serbia, Northern Bulgaria, Slovakia, Hungary and Southern Poland. The Dacians were known as Geta in Ancient Greek writings, and as Dacus or Getae in Roman documents and it was Herodotus who first used the ethnonym Getae in his Histories. In Greek and Latin, in the writings of Julius Caesar, Strabo, and Pliny the Elder, Getae and Dacians were interchangeable terms, or used with some confusion by the Greeks. Latin poets often used the name Getae, vergil called them Getae four times, and Daci once, Lucian Getae three times and Daci twice, Horace named them Getae twice and Daci five times, while Juvenal one time Getae and two times Daci. In AD113, Hadrian used the poetic term Getae for the Dacians, modern historians prefer to use the name Geto-Dacians. Strabo describes the Getae and Dacians as distinct but cognate tribes and this distinction refers to the regions they occupied. Strabo and Pliny the Elder also state that Getae and Dacians spoke the same language, by contrast, the name of Dacians, whatever the origin of the name, was used by the more western tribes who adjoined the Pannonians and therefore first became known to the Romans. According to Strabos Geographica, the name of the Dacians was Δάοι Daoi. The name Daoi was certainly adopted by foreign observers to designate all the inhabitants of the north of Danube that had not yet been conquered by Greece or Rome. The ethnographic name Daci is found under various forms within ancient sources, Greeks used the forms Δάκοι Dakoi and Δάοι Daoi. The form Δάοι Daoi was frequently used according to Stephan of Byzantium, latins used the forms Davus, Dacus, and a derived form Dacisci. There are similarities between the ethnonyms of the Dacians and those of Dahae, an Indo-European people located east of the Caspian Sea, scholars have suggested that there were links between the two peoples since ancient times. The historian David Gordon White has, moreover, stated that the Dacians, appear to be related to the Dahae. The name Daci, or Dacians is a collective ethnonym, Dio Cassius reported that the Dacians themselves used that name, and the Romans so called them, while the Greeks called them Getae. Opinions on the origins of the name Daci are divided, one hypothesis is that the name Getae originates in the Indo-European *guet- to utter, to talk. Another hypothesis is that Getae and Daci are Iranian names of two Iranian-speaking Scythian groups that had assimilated into the larger Thracian-speaking population of the later Dacia. In the 1st century AD, Strabo suggested that its stem formed a name borne by slaves, Greek Daos
20.
Illyrians
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The Illyrians were a group of Indo-European tribes in antiquity, who inhabited part of the western Balkans and the south-eastern coasts of the Italian peninsula. The first account of Illyrian peoples comes from the Periplus of Pseudo-Scylax, the Illyrian tribes never collectively regarded themselves as Illyrians, and it is unlikely that they used any collective nomenclature for themselves. The term Illyrians last appears in the record in the 7th century. In later Greek mythology, Illyrius was the son of Cadmus and Harmonia who eventually ruled Illyria, Illyrius had multiple sons and daughters. From these, sprang the Taulantii, Parthini, Dardani, Encheleae, Autariates, Dassaretae, autareius had a son Pannonius or Paeon and these had sons Scordiscus and Triballus. Even before the advent of post-modernism, scholars recognized a difficulty in producing a single theory on the ethnogenesis of the Illyrians given their heterogeneous nature, nevertheless, scholars traditionally looked for the origins of the Illyrian peoples centuries, even millennia, before their first historical attestation. Following the theories of Gustaf Kossinna, scholars sought to equate tribes mentioned by later Greco-Roman historians with preceding Bronze, in particular, scholars such as Julian Pokorny and Richard Pittioni placed the Illyrian homeland within the Luzatian culture, itself an offshoot of the trans-Central European Urnfield culture. From c.1200 BC, the bearers of the Lausitz culture are said to have engaged in widespread migrations throughout Europe. With regard to the Balkans, their movement south in turn initiated the Dorian migrations into southern Greece and these Pan-Illyrian theories have since been dismissed by scholars, based as they were on racialistic notions of Nordicism and Aryanism. The above theories have found little archaeological corroboration, as no convincing evidence for significant migratory movements from the Luzatian culture into the west Balkans have ever been found. Rather, archaeologists from the former Yugoslavia highlighted the continuity between the Bronze and succeeding Iron Age, ultimately developing the so-called autochthonous theory of Illyrian genesis, the autochthonous model was most elaborated upon by Alojz Benac and B. They argued that the proto-Illyrians had arrived earlier, during the Bronze Age as nomadic Indo-Europeans from the steppe. From that point, there was a gradual Illyrianization of the western Balkans leading to historic Illyrians and he did not deny a minor cultural impact from the northern Urnfield cultures, however these movements had neither a profound influence on the stability. Of the Balkans, nor did they affect the ethnogenesis of the Illyrian ethnos, aleksandar Stipčević raised concerns regarding Benacs all-encompassing scenario of autochthonous ethnogenesis. They rather see the emergence of historic Illyrians tribes as a recent phenomenon - just prior to their first attestation. The exception to this are the communities in Glasinac and Mati, the impetus behind the emergence of larger regional groups, such as Iapodes, Liburnians, Pannonians etc. is traced to increased contacts with the Mediterranean and La Tène global worlds. This catalyzed the development of complex political institutions and the increase in differences between individual communities. Emerging local elites selectively adopted either La Tène or Hellenistic and, later, Roman cultural templates in order to legitimise and they were competing fiercely through either alliance or conflict and resistance to Roman expansion
21.
Roman Empire
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Civil wars and executions continued, culminating in the victory of Octavian, Caesars adopted son, over Mark Antony and Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC and the annexation of Egypt. Octavians power was then unassailable and in 27 BC the Roman Senate formally granted him overarching power, the imperial period of Rome lasted approximately 1,500 years compared to the 500 years of the Republican era. The first two centuries of the empires existence were a period of unprecedented political stability and prosperity known as the Pax Romana, following Octavians victory, the size of the empire was dramatically increased. After the assassination of Caligula in 41, the senate briefly considered restoring the republic, under Claudius, the empire invaded Britannia, its first major expansion since Augustus. Vespasian emerged triumphant in 69, establishing the Flavian dynasty, before being succeeded by his son Titus and his short reign was followed by the long reign of his brother Domitian, who was eventually assassinated. The senate then appointed the first of the Five Good Emperors, the empire reached its greatest extent under Trajan, the second in this line. A period of increasing trouble and decline began with the reign of Commodus, Commodus assassination in 192 triggered the Year of the Five Emperors, of which Septimius Severus emerged victorious. The assassination of Alexander Severus in 235 led to the Crisis of the Third Century in which 26 men were declared emperor by the Roman Senate over a time span. It was not until the reign of Diocletian that the empire was fully stabilized with the introduction of the Tetrarchy, which saw four emperors rule the empire at once. This arrangement was unsuccessful, leading to a civil war that was finally ended by Constantine I. Constantine subsequently shifted the capital to Byzantium, which was renamed Constantinople in his honour and it remained the capital of the east until its demise. Constantine also adopted Christianity which later became the state religion of the empire. However, Augustulus was never recognized by his Eastern colleague, and separate rule in the Western part of the empire ceased to exist upon the death of Julius Nepos. The Eastern Roman Empire endured for another millennium, eventually falling to the Ottoman Turks in 1453, the Roman Empire was among the most powerful economic, cultural, political and military forces in the world of its time. It was one of the largest empires in world history, at its height under Trajan, it covered 5 million square kilometres. It held sway over an estimated 70 million people, at that time 21% of the entire population. Throughout the European medieval period, attempts were made to establish successors to the Roman Empire, including the Empire of Romania, a Crusader state. Rome had begun expanding shortly after the founding of the republic in the 6th century BC, then, it was an empire long before it had an emperor
22.
Polity
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A polity is any kind of political entity. A polity, like a state, does not need to be a sovereign unit, the most preeminent polities today are Westphalian states and nation-states, commonly referred to as nations. It therefore encapsulates a vast multitude of organisations, many of form the fundamental apparatuses of contemporary states such as their subordinate civil. Polities do not need to be in control of any geographic areas, as not all political entities, the historical Steppe Empires originating from the Eurasian Steppe are the most prominent example of non-sedentary polities. These polities differ from states because of their lack of a fixed, defined territory, Empires also differ from states in that their territories are not statically defined or permanently fixed, and consequently that their body politic was also dynamic and fluid. It is useful, then, to think of a polity as a political community, a polity can be defined either as a faction within a larger entity or, at different times, as the entity itself. Kurds in Iraqi Kurdistan, for example, are parts of their own separate and they are also, though, members of the sovereign state of Iraq which is itself a polity, albeit one which is much less specific and, as a result, much less cohesive. It is therefore possible for an individual to belong to more than one polity at a time, thomas Hobbes was a highly significant figure in the conceptualisation of polities, and in particular of states. Hobbes considered notions of the state and the body politic in his most notable work, in previous centuries, body politic was also understood to mean the physical person of the sovereign, emperor, king or dictator in monarchies and despotisms, and the electorate in republics. In present times, it may refer to representation of a group. Cabinets in liberal democracies are chosen to represent the body politic, politeia Political system Dictionary of the History of Ideas, analogy of the body politic
23.
Burebista
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Burebista was a Thracian king of the Getae and Dacian tribes from 82/61 BC to 44 BC. He was the first king who unified the tribes of the Dacian kingdom. The Dacian kingdom comprises the area located between the Danube, Tisza and Dniester rivers and covering modern day Romania. In the 7th and 6th Centuries BC it became home to the Thracian peoples, including Getae, from the 4th century to the middle of the 2nd century BC the Dacian peoples were influenced by La Tène Celts who brought new technologies with them into Dacia. Sometime in the 2nd century BC, however, the Dacians expelled the Celts from their lands, Dacians often warred with the Getae, however, the relative isolation of the Dacian peoples located around the Carpathian mountains allowed them to survive and even to thrive. By the 1st century BC, the Dacians had become the dominant tribe, as king Burebista pursued both reform and conquest. His second in command, Deceneus, was responsible for the development of religious, creating a caste of priests, brought about sobriety into the Dacian kingdom, and unified the tribes. During this time Burebista built a system of citadels throughout the Orăştie Mountains and these citadels were of a Greek military architecture. Their function was to secure the obedience of the Dacian peoples internally, from 61 BC onwards, Burebista pursued a series of conquests that expanded the Dacian kingdom. The tribes of the Boii and Taurisci were destroyed early in his campaigns, further pursuing the conquest of the Bastarnae and he led raids throughout Thrace, Macedonia and Illyria. In 61 BC he may also have involved in the Battle of Histria. From 55 BC, the Greek cities on coast of the Black Sea were conquered one after another and these campaigns inevitably culminated in conflict with Rome in 48 BC when Burebista gave his support to Pompey. In turn this made him an enemy to Caesar who became determined to start a campaign against Dacia and this plan fell through in 44 BC when he was assassinated. Soon after, Burebista himself was assassinated in a plot by the tribal aristocracy, after Burebistas death, the empire he had created dissolved into smaller kingdoms. From the reign of Tiberius to Domitian, Dacian activity was reduced into a defensive state, the Romans abandoned plans of mounting an invasion against Dacia. In 86 AD, however, the king Decebalus successfully re-united the Dacian kingdom under his control, Domitian planned a hasty invasion against the Dacians which ended in disaster. A second invasion later brought peace between Rome and Dacia for nearly a decade, until in 98 AD Trajan became emperor, Trajan also pursued two conquests of Dacia, the first in 101–102 AD which concluded in a Roman victory. Decebalus was forced to agree to terms of peace, but
24.
Getae
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The Getae /ˈdʒiːtiː/ or /ˈɡiːtiː/ or Gets are several Thracian tribes that once inhabited the regions to either side of the Lower Danube, in what is today northern Bulgaria and southern Romania. Several scholars, especially in the Romanian historiography, posit the identity between the Getae and their neighbours, the Dacians. The ancient geographer also wrote that the Dacians and Getae spoke the language, after stating the same about Getae. Pliny the Elder, in his Naturalis Historia, ca, though various races have occupied the adjacent shores, at one spot the Getae, by the Romans called Daci. Justin, the 3rd century AD Latin historian, wrote in his Epitome of Pompeius Trogus that Dacians are spoken of as descendents of the Getae, Daci quoque suboles Getarum sunt. He also shows the Dacians to live on both sides of the Lower Danube, the south of the river, in Moesia. Two of the tribes found among them are those formerly called the Triballi, and the Dardani. There is a dispute among scholars about the relations between the Getae and Dacians, and this also covers the interpretation of ancient sources. Some historians such as Ronald Arthur Crossland state that even Ancient Greeks used the two designations interchangeable or with some confusion, thus, it is generally considered that the two groups were related to a certain degree, while the exact relation is a matter of controversy. Strabo, as well as ancient sources, led some modern historians to consider that, if the Thracian ethnic group should be divided. The linguist Ivan Duridanov also identified a Dacian linguistic area in Dacia, Scythia Minor, Lower Moesia, Romanian scholars generally went further with the identification, historian Constantin C. Giurescu claiming the two were identical, the archaeologist Mircea Babeş spoke of a veritable ethno-cultural unity between the Getae and the Dacians. According to Glanville Price, the account of the Greek geographer Strabo shows that the Getae and the Dacians were one and this same belief is stated by some British historians such as David Sandler Berkowitz and Philip Matyszak. Some scholars consider the Getae and Dacians to be the people at different stages of their history. Ronald Arthur Crossland suggested the two designations may refer to two groups of a homogeneous people that had come to historical prominence at two distinct periods of time. He also compared the probable linguistic situation with the relation between modern Norwegian and Danish languages, paul Lachlan MacKendrick considered the two as branches of the same tribe, speaking two dialects of a common language. The Romanian historian of ideas and historiographer Lucian Boia stated, At a certain point, Lucian Boia took a sceptical position, arguing the ancient writers distinguished among the two people, treating them as two distinct groups of the Thracian ethnos. Boia contended that it would be naive to assume Strabo knew the Thracian dialects so well, the latter claim is contested, some studies attesting Strabos reliability and sources
25.
Proconsul
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A proconsul was an official of ancient Rome who acted on behalf of a consul. In the Roman Republic, military command, or imperium, could be exercised only by a consul. There were two consuls at a time, each elected to a one year term and they could not normally succeed themselves. If a military campaign was in progress at the end of a consuls term and this custom allowed for continuity of command despite the high turnover of consuls. In the empire, proconsul was a held by a civil governor. In modern times, various officials with notable delegated authority have been referred to as proconsuls, the terms satrap and viceroy are both used in a similar way. Studies of leadership typically divide leaders into policymakers and subordinate administrators, the proconsul occupies a position between these two categories. Max Weber classified leadership as traditional, rational-legal, and charismatic, a proconsul could be both a rule-following bureaucrat and charismatic personality. The rise of bureaucracy and rapid communication has reduced the scope for proconsular freelancing, Quintus Publilius Philo was one of two consuls for the year 317 BC. When his term expired at the end of the year, his army was in the midst of besieging the city of Neapolis. Rather than risk a change of command at such a delicate moment, Philo thus became the first proconsul. With imperial expansion beyond Italy and the annexation of territories as Roman provinces, the other was the praetor and the propraetor. In theory the proconsulate was an authority in which the proconsul acted on behalf of the consuls. Later, in practice, proconsular imperium became the extension of a consul’s imperium beyond the term of his office. This extension was a dispensation from the limit of the term of office which applied only outside the city walls of Rome. It did not have effect within the city walls, therefore, it was an exertion of the military command of the consul, but not of his public office. It was a military measure. As the scale of Romes military engagements and the number of her legions was increased there was a need to increase the number of military commanders, the office of the praetor was introduced in 366 BC
26.
Macedonia (Roman province)
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The province incorporated ancient Macedonia, with the addition of Epirus, Thessaly, and parts of Illyria, Paeonia and Thrace. This created a larger administrative area, to which the name of Macedonia was still applied. The Dardanians, to the north of the Paeonians, were not included and these provinces were all subordinate to the Diocese of Macedonia, one of three dioceses comprising the praetorian prefecture of Illyricum. When the Prefecture was divided between the Western and Eastern Empires in 379, the Macedonian provinces were included in Eastern Illyricum, with the permanent division of the Empire in 395, Macedonia passed to the East, which would evolve into the Byzantine Empire. Epirus, later Epirus Vetus, was a province in the Roman Empire that corresponded to the region of Epirus. Between 146 BC and 27 BC, it was part of the province of Macedonia, after which it part of Achaea. Epirus Nova or Illyria Graeca or Illyris proper was a province of the Roman Empire established by Diocletian during his restructuring of provincial boundaries, until then, the province belonged to the province of Macedonia. Dyrrachium was established as the capital of Epirus Nova, the region of Epirus Nova corresponded to a portion of Illyria that was then partly Hellenic and partly Hellenized. Macedonia Prima was a province encompassing most of the kingdom of Macedonia, coinciding with most of the modern Greek region of Macedonia, and had Thessalonica as its capital. Macedonia Salutaris, also known as Macedonia Secunda was a province encompassing partially Dardania and the whole of Paeonia, the second being most of the present-day Republic of Macedonia. The town of Stobi located to the junction of the Erigon and Axios rivers, the economy was greatly stimulated by the construction of the Via Egnatia, the installation of Roman merchants in the cities, and the founding of Roman colonies. The Imperial government brought, along with its roads and administrative system, an economic boom, with vast arable and rich pastures, the great ruling families amassed huge fortunes in the society based on slave labor. The improvement of the conditions of the productive classes brought about an increase in the number artisans. Stonemasons, miners, blacksmiths, etc. were employed in every kind of commercial activity, Greek people were also widely employed as tutors, educators and doctors throughout the Roman world. The export economy was based essentially on agriculture and livestock, while iron, copper, another source of wealth was the kingdoms ports, such as Dion, Pella, Thessalonica, Cassandreia
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Triumvirate
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A triumvirate is a political regime ruled or dominated by three powerful individuals known as triumvirs. The arrangement can be formal or informal, though the three are notionally equal, this is rarely the case in reality. The term can also be used to describe a state with three different military leaders who all claim to be the sole leader, in the context of the Soviet Union and Russia, the term troika is used for triumvirate. Originally, triumviri were special commissions of three men appointed for specific administrative tasks apart from the duties of Roman magistrates. The capitales were first established around 290–287 BCE and they were supervised by the praetor urbanus. These triumviri, or the tresviri nocturni, may also have some responsibility for fire control. The triumviri or tresviri aere argento auro flando feriundo supervised the issuing of Roman coins, three-man commissions were also appointed for purposes such as establishing colonies or distributing land. Triumviri mensarii served as bankers, the full range of their financial functions in 216 BCE. Another form of commission was the tresviri epulones, who were in charge of organizing public feasts on holidays. This commission was created in 196 BCE by a law on behalf of the people. The arrangement had no status, and its purpose was to consolidate the political power of the three and their supporters against the senatorial elite. After the death of Crassus in 53 BCE, the two fought a civil war, during which Pompey was killed and Caesar established his sole rule as perpetual dictator. The Second Triumvirate was recognized as a triumvirate at the time, a Lex Titia formalized the rule of Octavian, Mark Antony, and Marcus Aemilius Lepidus. The legal language makes reference to the traditional tresviri, although the constitutional machinery of the Republic was not irrevocably dismantled by the Lex Titia, in the event it never recovered. Lepidus was sidelined early in the triumvirate, and Antony was eliminated in civil war, in various municipalities under the Principate, the chief magistracy was a college of three, styled triumviri. In the Bible triumvirates occurred at some events in both the Old Testament and New Testament. In the Book of Exodus Moses, his brother Aaron and, according to some views their nephew or brother-in-law, Hur acted this way during Battle of Rephidim against the Amalekites. In the Gospels as a leading trio among the Twelve apostles at three occasions during public ministry of Jesus acted Peter, James, son of Zebedee
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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
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Legatus
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A legatus was a general in the Roman army, equivalent to a modern general officer. Being of senatorial rank, his superior was the Proconsul. In order to command an army independently of the Proconsul, legates were required to be of praetorian rank or higher, a legate could be invested with propraetorian imperium in his own right. Legates received large shares of the booty at the end of a successful campaign. The men who filled the office of legate were drawn from among the class of Rome. Due to his advanced senatorial status, a legatus was entitled to five fasces and this rank was also the overall legionary commander. This post was appointed by the emperor. In a province with one legion, the legatus was also the provincial governor, but in provinces with multiple legions, each legion had a legatus. The legatus could be distinguished in the field by his helmet and body armour, as well as his scarlet paludamentum. The latter was a scarlet waist-band tied around his waist in a bow. Legatus was also a term for an ambassador of the Roman Republic who was appointed by the senate for a mission to a foreign nation and this is the sense of the word that survives in the phrase Papal legate. Military of ancient Rome portal List of Roman army unit types
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Achaea (Roman province)
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Achaea or Achaia, sometimes transliterated from Greek as Akhaïa, was a province of the Roman Empire, consisting of the Peloponnese, eastern Central Greece, and parts of Thessaly. In the north, it bordered on the provinces of Epirus vetus, the region was annexed by the Roman Republic in 146 BC following the sack of Corinth by the Roman general Lucius Mummius, who was awarded the cognomen Achaicus. It became part of the Roman province of Macedonia, which included the whole of mainland Greece. When Augustus became the first Roman emperor in 27 BC he made an agreement whereby some provinces, the provinces, came under the control of the emperor. Other provinces, the provinces, remained under the control of the senate. The province of Achaea was separated from the province of Macedonia as a senatorial province and it comprised the Peloponnese Peninsula in the south and central Greece. Achaea was a province, thus free from military men and legions. Athens was the center of education for the imperial elite, rivaled only by Alexandria. Achaea was among the most prosperous and peaceful parts of the Roman world until Late Antiquity, the province remained prosperous and highly urbanized however, as attested in the 6th-century Synecdemus. The territories of Achaea remaining in Byzantine hands were grouped into the theme of Hellas, in 150-148 BC the Romans fought the Fourth Macedonian War, after which they annexed Macedon, formerly the largest and most powerful state in mainland Greece. In 146 BC the Achaean League rebelled against the Romans and this was a hopeless war as Rome was a far superior military power. The League was quickly defeated and its city, Corinth was destroyed. The Romans decided to annex the whole of mainland Greece and Achaea became part of the Roman Province of Macedonia, some cities, such as Athens and Sparta retained their self-governing status within their own territories. The First Mithridatic War was fought in Attica and Boeotia, two regions which were to part of the province of Achaea. In 89 BC, Mithridates VI Eupator, king of Pontus, Mithridates then sent Archelaus to Greece, where he established Aristion as a tyrant in Athens. The Roman consul Lucius Cornelius Sulla landed in Epirus and marched on Athens. He marched through Boeotia on his way to Attica, Sulla besieged Athens and Piraeus in 87-86 BC and then sacked Athens and destroyed Piraeus. He then defeated Archelaus at the Battle of Chaeronea and the Battle of Orchomenus, the commerce of Achaea was no longer a rival to that of Rome. After the defeat of Antony and Cleopatra, about 31 BC, in AD15, Emperor Tiberius, responding to complaints of mismanagement by the Senatorial proconsul made Achaea and Macedonia Imperial provinces
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Duras (Dacian king)
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Duras, also known as Duras-Diurpaneus, was king of the Dacians between the years AD69 and 87, during the time that Domitian ruled the Roman Empire. He was one of a series of following the Great King Burebista. In Jordanes king-list Duras succeeds Coryllus, a widely believed to be a corruption of Scorilo. Duras appears to have been ruler of Dacia from around 69, Dacian power was expanding this period, spreading to Slovakia, Moldavia and Wallachia. A Dacian raid into the Roman province of Moesia in 69 was pushed back by Licinius Mucianus and this may be when Scorilo died, and Duras took over as king. Duras may be identical to the Diurpaneus identified in Roman sources as the Dacian leader who, in the winter of 85, ravaged the southern banks of the Danube, many authors refer to him as Duras-Diurpaneus. Other scholars argue that Duras and Diurpaneus are different individuals, or that Diurpaneus is identical to Decebalus, the Roman governor of Moesia Oppius Sabinus raised an army and went to war with the Dacians following the Dacian raids into Roman territory. Diurpaneus and his defeated and decapitated Oppius Sabinus. When news of the defeat reached Rome, the citizens became fearful that the enemy would invade. Because of this fear, Domitian was obliged to move with his army into Illyria and Moesia. He ordered his commander Cornelius Fuscus to cross the Danube, the Dacians were pushed back across the Danube, but Fuscus suffered a crushing defeat when ambushed by Diurpaneus. At this point, the probably elderly Duras seems to have ceded power to Decebalus, Duras concession of leadership was made peacefully. He continued to live in one of the palaces in Sarmizegetusa while serving as an advisor to Decebalus
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Roman emperor
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The Roman emperor was the ruler of the Roman Empire during the imperial period. The emperors used a variety of different titles throughout history, often when a given Roman is described as becoming emperor in English, it reflects his taking of the title Augustus or Caesar. Another title often used was imperator, originally a military honorific, early Emperors also used the title princeps. Emperors frequently amassed republican titles, notably Princeps Senatus, Consul, the first emperors reigned alone, later emperors would sometimes rule with co-Emperors and divide administration of the Empire between them. The Romans considered the office of emperor to be distinct from that of a king, the first emperor, Augustus, resolutely refused recognition as a monarch. Although Augustus could claim that his power was authentically republican, his successor, Tiberius, nonetheless, for the first three hundred years of Roman Emperors, from Augustus until Diocletian, a great effort was made to emphasize that the Emperors were the leaders of a Republic. Elements of the Republican institutional framework were preserved until the end of the Western Empire. The Eastern emperors ultimately adopted the title of Basileus, which had meant king in Greek, but became a title reserved solely for the Roman emperor, other kings were then referred to as rēgas. In addition to their office, some emperors were given divine status after death. The Western Roman Empire collapsed in the late 5th century, Romulus Augustulus is often considered to be the last emperor of the west after his forced abdication in 476, although Julius Nepos maintained a claim to the title until his death in 480. Constantine XI was the last Byzantine Roman emperor in Constantinople, dying in the Fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans in 1453, a Byzantine group of claimant Roman Emperors existed in the Empire of Trebizond until its conquest by the Ottomans in 1461. In western Europe the title of Roman Emperor was revived by Germanic rulers, the Holy Roman Emperors, in 800, at the end of the Roman Republic no new, and certainly no single, title indicated the individual who held supreme power. Insofar as emperor could be seen as the English translation of imperator, then Julius Caesar had been an emperor, however, Julius Caesar, unlike those after him, did so without the Senates vote and approval. Julius Caesar held the Republican offices of four times and dictator five times, was appointed dictator in perpetuity in 45 BC and had been pontifex maximus for a long period. He gained these positions by senatorial consent, by the time of his assassination, he was the most powerful man in the Roman world. In his will, Caesar appointed his adopted son Octavian as his heir, a decade after Caesars death, Octavians victory over his erstwhile ally Mark Antony at Actium put an end to any effective opposition and confirmed Octavians supremacy. His restoration of powers to the Senate and the people of Rome was a demonstration of his auctoritas, some later historians such as Tacitus would say that even at Augustus death, the true restoration of the Republic might have been possible. Instead, Augustus actively prepared his adopted son Tiberius to be his successor, the Senate disputed the issue but eventually confirmed Tiberius as princeps
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Domitian
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Domitian was the Emperor of Rome from 81 to 96. He was the brother of Titus and son of Vespasian. During his reign, his authoritarian rule put him at odds with the senate. After the death of his brother, Domitian was declared emperor by the Praetorian Guard and his 15-year reign was the longest since that of Tiberius. As emperor, Domitian strengthened the economy by revaluing the Roman coinage, expanded the defenses of the empire. Significant wars were fought in Britain, where his general Agricola attempted to conquer Caledonia, and in Dacia, Domitians government exhibited totalitarian characteristics, he saw himself as the new Augustus, an enlightened despot destined to guide the Roman Empire into a new era of brilliance. Religious, military, and cultural propaganda fostered a cult of personality, as a consequence, Domitian was popular with the people and army, but considered a tyrant by members of the Roman Senate. Domitians reign came to an end in 96 when he was assassinated by court officials and he was succeeded the same day by his advisor Nerva. Modern revisionists instead have characterized Domitian as a ruthless but efficient autocrat whose cultural, economic, Domitian was born in Rome on 24 October 51, the youngest son of Titus Flavius Vespasianus—commonly known as Vespasian—and Flavia Domitilla Major. He had a sister, Domitilla the Younger, and brother. One such family, the Flavians, or gens Flavia, rose from obscurity to prominence in just four generations, acquiring wealth. Domitians great-grandfather, Titus Flavius Petro, had served as a centurion under Pompey during Caesars civil war and his military career ended in disgrace when he fled the battlefield at the Battle of Pharsalus in 48 BC. Sabinus himself amassed further wealth and possible equestrian status through his services as tax collector in Asia, by marrying Vespasia Polla he allied the Flavian family to the more prestigious gens Vespasia, ensuring the elevation of his sons Titus Flavius Sabinus II and Vespasian to senatorial rank. The political career of Vespasian included the offices of quaestor, aedile, and praetor, and culminated with a consulship in 51, as a military commander, Vespasian gained early renown by participating in the Roman invasion of Britain in 43. Nevertheless, ancient sources allege poverty for the Flavian family at the time of Domitians upbringing, even claiming Vespasian had fallen into disrepute under the emperors Caligula, by all appearances, the Flavians enjoyed high imperial favour throughout the 40s and 60s. While Titus received an education in the company of Britannicus, Vespasian pursued a successful political. The same year the Jews of the Judaea province revolted against the Roman Empire in what is now known as the First Jewish-Roman War. Vespasian was assigned to lead the Roman army against the insurgents, of the three Flavian emperors, Domitian would rule the longest, despite the fact that his youth and early career were largely spent in the shadow of his older brother
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Dacia
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In ancient geography, especially in Roman sources, Dacia was the land inhabited by the Dacians. The Greeks referred to them as the Getae, which were specifically a branch of the Thracians north of the Haemus Mons, Dacia was bounded in the south approximately by the Danubius river, in Greek sources the Istros, or at its greatest extent, by the Haemus Mons. Moesia, a region south of the Danube, was an area where the Getae lived and interacted with the Ancient Greeks. In the east it was bounded by the Pontus Euxinus and the river Danastris, but several Dacian settlements are recorded between the rivers Dniester and Hypanis, and the Tisia to the west. At times Dacia included areas between the Tisa and the Middle Danube, the Carpathian Mountains were located in the middle of Dacia. It thus corresponds to the present day countries of Romania and Moldova, as well as parts of Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary. Dacian tribes had both peaceful and military encounters with neighboring tribes, such as Sarmatians, Scythians. A Dacian Kingdom of variable size existed between 82 BC until the Roman conquest in AD106, the Dacians are first mentioned in the writings of the Ancient Greeks, in Herodotus and Thucydides. The extent and location of Dacia varied in its three historical periods, The Dacia of King Burebista, stretched from the Black Sea to the river Tisa. During that period, the Geto-Dacians conquered a territory and Dacia extended from the Middle Danube to the Black Sea littoral. In 53 BC, Julius Caesar stated that the lands of the Dacians started on the edge of the Hercynian Forest. After Burebistas death, his kingdom split in four states, later five, the hold of the Dacians between the Danube and Tisza was tenuous. However, the archaeologist Parducz argued a Dacian presence west of the Tisa dating from the time of Burebista, according to Tacitus Dacians bordered Germania in the south-east, while Sarmatians bordered it in the east. Written a few decades after the Roman conquest of parts of Dacia in AD 105–106, according to the scholars interpretation of Ptolemy Dacia was the region between the rivers Tisza, Danube, upper Dniester, and Siret. Mainstream historians accept this interpretation, Avery Berenger Fol Mountain, Waldman Mason, Ptolemy also provided a couple of Dacian toponyms in south Poland in the Upper Vistula river basin, Susudava and Setidava. This could have been an echo of Burebistas expansion and it seems that this northern expansion of the Dacian language, as far as the Vistula river, lasted until AD 170–180 when the migration of the Vandal Hasdingi pushed out this northern Dacian group. This Dacian group, possibly the Costoboci/Lipiţa culture, is associated by Gudmund Schütte with towns having the specific Dacian language ending dava i. e. Setidava. In the 2nd century AD, after the Roman conquest, Ptolemy puts the eastern boundary of Dacia Traiana as far east as the Hierasus river, after the Marcomannic Wars, Dacian groups from outside Roman Dacia had been set in motion
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Decebalus
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Decebalus was the last king of Dacia. He is famous for fighting three wars, with varying success, against the Roman Empire under two emperors, after raiding across the Danube, he defeated a Roman invasion in the reign of Domitian, securing a period of independence during which Decebalus consolidated his rule. When Trajan came to power, his armies invaded Dacia to weaken its threat to Roman border territory and he remained in power as a client king, but continued to assert his independence, leading to a final and overwhelming Roman invasion in 105. Trajan reduced the Dacian capital Sarmizegetusa in 106, absorbing Dacia into the Empire, Decebalus committed suicide to avoid capture. After the death of Great King Burebista, Dacia split into four, then five, nothing is known about Decebalus youth or background. Decebalus appears to have risen to prominence in the court of the Dacian king Duras, an ancient Dacian pot bearing the words “Decebalus per Scorilo” led to the suggestion that this might mean Decebalus son of Scorilo. According to Lucian Boia this suggestion was originally a scholarly joke and it has been suggested that Scorilo may be identical to the Coryllus or Scorillus identified by Jordanes as a Dacian king prior to Duras. Duras may have been Decebalus uncle, having taken over the throne by right on his brothers death. In 85 the Dacian army began minor raids upon the heavily fortified Roman province of Moesia, in 86 King Duras ordered a more vigorous attack south into Moesia. Roman sources refer to the attack being led by Diurpaneus, many authors have taken this person to be Duras himself, and refer to him as Duras-Diurpaneus. Other scholars argue that Duras and Diurpaneus are different individuals, or that Diurpaneus is identical to Decebalus, recent sources take the view that Diurpaneus is most likely Decebalus. The Dacians defeated and killed Oppius Sabinus, the governor of Moesia, Domitian took command to deal with the problem himself, arriving with his general, prefect of the Praetorian Guards, Cornelius Fuscus. Domitian pushed back the Dacians from Moesia, then returned to Rome to celebrate a Triumph, Fuscus advanced into Dacia, but his four or five legions suffered a major defeat when ambushed by the forces of Decebalus. Two Roman legions were ambushed and defeated at a pass the Romans called Tapae. Fuscus was killed, and Decebalus was crowned king after the aging Duras abdicated, Dio Cassius described Decebalus as follows, Fuscus was replaced by Tettius Julianus. In 88 Julianus commanded another Roman army under Domitian against the Dacians, needing the troops in Moesia, Domitian agreed to peace terms with Decebalus. He agreed to pay large sums in tribute to the Dacians for maintaining peace. Decebalus sent his brother Diegis to Rome to accept a diadem from the Emperor, Decebalus victory greatly increased his prestige
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Trajan
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Trajan was Roman emperor from 98 to 117 AD. Born in the city of Italica in the province of Hispania Baetica, Trajans non-patrician family was of Italian, Trajan rose to prominence during the reign of emperor Domitian. Serving as a legatus legionis in Hispania Tarraconensis, in 89 Trajan supported Domitian against a revolt on the Rhine led by Antonius Saturninus, in September 96, Domitian was succeeded by Marcus Cocceius Nerva, an old and childless senator who proved to be unpopular with the army. After a brief and tumultuous year in power, culminating in a revolt by members of the Praetorian Guard, Nerva was compelled to adopt the more popular Trajan as his heir and he died on 27 January 98 and was succeeded by his adopted son without incident. Early in his reign, he annexed the Nabataean Kingdom, creating the province of Arabia Petraea and his conquest of Dacia enriched the empire greatly, as the new province possessed many valuable gold mines. However, its position north of the Danube made it susceptible to attack on three sides, and it was later abandoned by Emperor Aurelian. Trajans war against the Parthian Empire ended with the sack of the capital Ctesiphon and his campaigns expanded the Roman Empire to its greatest territorial extent. In late 117, while sailing back to Rome, Trajan fell ill and he was deified by the Senate and his ashes were laid to rest under Trajans Column. He was succeeded by his adopted son Hadrian, as an emperor, Trajans reputation has endured – he is one of the few rulers whose reputation has survived nineteen centuries. Every new emperor after him was honoured by the Senate with the wish felicior Augusto, among medieval Christian theologians, Trajan was considered a virtuous pagan. As far as ancient literary sources are concerned, an extant continuous account of Trajans reign does not exist, only fragments remain of the Getiká, a book by Trajans personal physician Titos Statilios Kriton. The Parthiká, a 17-volume account of the Parthian Wars written by Arrian, has met a similar fate, book 68 in Cassius Dios Roman History, which survives mostly as Byzantine abridgments and epitomes, is the main source for the political history of Trajans rule. Besides this, Pliny the Youngers Panegyricus and Dio of Prusas orations are the best surviving contemporary sources and it is certain that much of text of the letters that appear in this collection over Trajans signature was written and/or edited by Trajans Imperial secretary, his ab epistulis. Therefore, discussion of Trajan and his rule in modern historiography cannot avoid speculation, as well as recourse to sources such as archaeology. Marcus Ulpius Traianus was born on 18 September 53 AD in the Roman province of Hispania Baetica, Trajans birthplace of Italica was founded as a Roman military colony in 206 BC, though it is unknown when the Ulpii arrived there. Trajan was the son of Marcia, a Roman noblewoman and sister-in-law of the second Flavian Emperor Titus, and Marcus Ulpius Traianus, Marcus Ulpius Traianus the elder served Vespasian in the First Jewish-Roman War, commanding the Legio X Fretensis. Trajan himself was just one of many well-known Ulpii in a line that continued long after his own death and his elder sister was Ulpia Marciana, and his niece was Salonina Matidia. The patria of the Ulpii was Italica, in Spanish Baetica, as a young man, he rose through the ranks of the Roman army, serving in some of the most contested parts of the Empires frontier
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Carpathian Mountains
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The Carpathian Mountains or Carpathians are a mountain range system forming an arc roughly 1,500 km long across Central and Eastern Europe, making them the second-longest mountain range in Europe. The Carpathians and their foothills also have many thermal and mineral waters, the Carpathians consist of a chain of mountain ranges that stretch in an arc from the Czech Republic in the northwest through Slovakia, Poland, Hungary and Ukraine to Romania and Serbia. The highest range within the Carpathians is the Tatras, on the border of Slovakia and Poland, the second-highest range is the Southern Carpathians in Romania, where the highest peaks exceed 2,500 m. The divisions of the Carpathians are usually in three sections, Western Carpathians — Czech Republic, Poland, and Slovakia. Eastern Carpathians — southeastern Poland, eastern Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, the term Outer Carpathians is frequently used to describe the northern rim of the Western and Eastern Carpathians. The most important cities in or near the Carpathians are, Bratislava and Košice in Slovakia, Kraków in Poland, Cluj-Napoca, Sibiu and Braşov in Romania, and Uzhhorod in Ukraine. In modern times, the range is called Karpaty in Czech, Polish, Slovak and Карпати in Ukrainian, Carpați in Romanian, Karpaten in German, Kárpátok in Hungarian and Karpati or Карпати in Serbian. Although the toponym was recorded already by Ptolemy in the 2nd century CE, for instance, Havasok was its medieval Hungarian name, Rus and Romanian chronicles referred to it as Hungarian Mountains. The archaic Polish word karpa meant rugged irregularities, underwater obstacles/rocks, the more common word skarpa means a sharp cliff or other vertical terrain. In late Roman documents, the Eastern Carpathian Mountains were referred to as Montes Sarmatici, the Western Carpathians were called Carpates, a name that is first recorded in Ptolemys Geographia. In the Scandinavian Hervarar saga, which relates ancient Germanic legends about battles between Goths and Huns, the name Karpates appears in the predictable Germanic form as Harvaða fjöllum, inter Alpes Huniae et Oceanum est Polonia by Gervase of Tilbury, has described in his Otia Imperialia in 1211. Thirteenth- to fifteenth-century Hungarian documents named the mountains Thorchal, Tarczal or less frequently Montes Nivium, the northwestern Carpathians begin in Slovakia and southern Poland. They surround Transcarpathia and Transylvania in a semicircle, sweeping towards the southeast. The total length of the Carpathians is over 1,500 km, the highest altitudes of the Carpathians occur where they are widest. The Carpathians cover an area of 190,000 km2 and, after the Alps, although commonly referred to as a mountain chain, the Carpathians do not actually form an uninterrupted chain of mountains. Rather, they consist of several orographically and geologically distinctive groups, the Carpathians at their highest altitude are only as high as the middle region of the Alps, with which they share a common appearance, climate, and flora. The Carpathians are separated from the Alps by the Danube, the two ranges meet at only one point, the Leitha Mountains at Bratislava. The river also separates them from the Balkan Mountains at Orşova in Romania, the valley of the March and Oder separates the Carpathians from the Silesian and Moravian chains, which belong to the middle wing of the great Central Mountain System of Europe
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Tropaeum Traiani
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Before Trajans construction, an altar existed there, on the walls of which were inscribed the names of the 3,000 legionaries and auxilia who had died fighting for the Republic. Trajans monument was inspired by the Augustus mausoleum, and was dedicated to the god Mars Ultor in 107/108 AD, on the monument there were 54 metopes depicting Roman legions fighting against enemies, most of these metopes are preserved in the museum nearby. The monument was supposed to be a warning to the tribes outside this newly conquered province, by the 20th century, the monument was reduced to a mound of stone and mortar, with a large number of the original bas-reliefs scattered around. The present edifice is a reconstruction dating from 1977, the nearby museum contains many archaeological objects, including parts of the original Roman monument. Of the original 54 metopes,48 are in the museum and 1 is in Istanbul, the monument was decorated with a large inscription dedicated to Mars Ultor. VICTO EXERC]ITU D. ---- ET SARMATA]RUM ----]E31. On the monument was a frieze comprising 54 metopes,48 metopes are hosted in the Adamclisi museum nearby, and one metope is hosted by Istanbul Archaeology Museum, the rest having been lost. In honorem et in memoriam fortissimorum virorum qui pugnantes pro republica morte occubuerunt The monument was restored based on a reconstruction in 1977. The monument was mentioned in 1801 by William Bentinck, still the manuscript was first published in 1874, in 1837, four Prussian officers, hired by the Ottoman Empire to study the Dobruja strategic situation, performed the first excavations. The team was composed by Heinrich Muhlbach, leading Friedrich Leopold Fischer, Carol Wincke-Olbendorf and they tried to reach the center of the monument by digging an underground tunnel, nothing was found after the digging. The monument was also visited by C. W. Wutzer from Bonn University, from 1968 the site was researched under Romanian Academy supervision. Das Tropaion von Adamklissi und provinzialrömische Kunst, by Adolf Furtwängler https, //archive. org/details/dastropaionvonad00furtuoft Florea Bobu Florescu, Das Siegesdenkmal von Adamklissi. Wilhelm Jänecke, Die ursprüngliche Gestalt des Tropaion von Adamklissi, adrian V. Rădulescu, Das Siegesdenkmal von Adamklissi. Ian A. Richmond, Adamklissi, en Papers of the British School at Rome 35,1967, lino Rossi, A Synoptic Outlook of Adamklissi Metopes and Trajan’s Column Frieze. Factual and Fanciful Topics Revisited, en Athenaeum 85,1997, war Losses and Worldview, Re-Viewing the Roman Funerary Altar at Adamclisi. DOI10. 1353/ajp.2013.0019 The Museum Complex of Adamclisi
Freese, John Henry (1911). "Moesia". In Chisholm, Hugh. Encyclopædia Britannica. 18 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 643–644.
Freese, John Henry (1911). "