1.
France
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France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. France spans 643,801 square kilometres and had a population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017. It is a unitary republic with the capital in Paris. Other major urban centres include Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Nice, Toulouse, during the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The area was annexed in 51 BC by Rome, which held Gaul until 486, France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years War strengthening state-building and political centralisation. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a colonial empire was established. The 16th century was dominated by civil wars between Catholics and Protestants. France became Europes dominant cultural, political, and military power under Louis XIV, in the 19th century Napoleon took power and established the First French Empire, whose subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War, the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, was formed in 1958 and remains to this day. Algeria and nearly all the colonies became independent in the 1960s with minimal controversy and typically retained close economic. France has long been a centre of art, science. It hosts Europes fourth-largest number of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites and receives around 83 million foreign tourists annually, France is a developed country with the worlds sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, France remains a great power in the world, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a member state of the European Union and the Eurozone. It is also a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or country of the Franks
2.
Vaucluse
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The Vaucluse is a department in the southeast of France, named after the famous spring, the Fontaine-de-Vaucluse. The name Vaucluse derives from the Latin Vallis Clausa as the valley ends in a cliff face from which emanates a spring whose origin is so far in. Vaucluse was created on 12 August 1793 out of parts of the departments of Bouches-du-Rhône, Drôme, the then rural department was, like the nearby city of Lyon, a hotbed of the French Resistance in World War II. Vaucluse is bordered by the Rhône to the west and the River Durance to the south, mountains occupy a significant proportion of the eastern half of the department, with Mont Ventoux, also known as the Giant of Provence, dominating the landscape. Other important mountain ranges include the Dentelles de Montmirail, the Monts de Vaucluse, fruit and vegetables are cultivated in great quantities in the lower-lying parts of the department, on one of the most fertile plains in southern France. The Vaucluse département has a large exclave within the Drôme department. Vaucluse is also known for its karst, including the karst spring Fontaine de Vaucluse after which Vauclusian Risings are named, important urban centres include Avignon, Orange, Carpentras, Cavaillon, and Apt
3.
Roman Theatre of Orange
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The Roman Theatre of Orange is a Roman theatre in Orange, Vaucluse, France. It was built early in the 1st century AD, the structure is owned by the municipality of Orange and is the home of the summer opera festival, the Chorégies dOrange. It is one of the best preserved of all Roman theatres, mime, pantomime, poetry readings and the attelana was the dominant form of entertainment, much of which lasted all day. For the common people, who were fond of spectacular effects, magnificent stage sets became very important, the entertainment offered was open to all and free of charge. After that, the theatre was abandoned completely and it was probably pillaged by the Visigoths in 412, and like most Roman buildings was certainly stripped of its better stone over the centuries for reuse. It was used as a defensive post in the Middle Ages, during the 16th-century religious wars, it became a refuge for the townspeople. Early Roman theatre were constructed from wood and meant to be temporary structures. In 55BC Pompey had a theatre built in his home city of Rome. The Orange theatre was created under the rule of Augustus, and is believed to be one of the first of its kind in this area of modern-day France. One of the most iconic parts of structure is the grand exterior facade. Originally, there was a wooden roof across the theatre to protect the audience from unfavorable weather conditions, there is evidence on the walls that shows that, at some point, the roof was destroyed in a fire. Although it is sparse in decoration and embellishment, the three story wall gives an overwhelmingly powerful appearance to the entire building. The main three doors on the first level of the open directly onto the stage inside the theatre. The stage, which is 61 meters long and raised one meter from the ground, is backed by a 37 meter high wall whose height has been preserved completely. This wall is vital to the theatre, as it helped to project sound to the large audience, the wall, also known as the scaenae frons, is the only architecturaly decorated surface throughout the entire theatre. It originally was embellished with mosaics of many different colors, multiple columns and friezes. The central niche contains a 3.5 meter high statue of the emperor Augustus, although this was most likely a restoration of a statue of Apollo, the god of music. The central door, below the niche containing this statue, is called the Royal Door, or valva regia and this door was used only by the most important, principle actors to enter and exit the stage
4.
Avignon
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Avignon is a commune in south-eastern France in the department of Vaucluse on the left bank of the Rhône river. Of the 90,194 inhabitants of the city, about 12,000 live in the ancient town centre enclosed by its medieval ramparts. Between 1309 and 1377, during the Avignon Papacy, seven popes resided in Avignon. Papal control persisted until 1791 when, during the French Revolution, the town is now the capital of the Vaucluse department and one of the few French cities to have preserved its ramparts. The historic centre, which includes the Palais des Papes, the cathedral, the medieval monuments and the annual Festival dAvignon have helped to make the town a major centre for tourism. The commune has been awarded one flower by the National Council of Towns, the earliest forms of the name were reported by the Greeks, Аὐενιὼν = Auenion Άουεννίων = Aouennion. The Roman name Avennĭo Cavarum, i. e. Avignon of Cavares accurately shows that Avignon was one of the three cities of the Celtic-Ligurian tribe of Cavares, along with Cavaillon and Orange. The current name dates to a pre-Indo-European or pre-Latin theme ab-ên with the suffix -i-ōn This theme would be a hydronym - i. e. a name linked to the river, but perhaps also an oronym of terrain. The site of Avignon has been occupied since the Neolithic period as shown by excavations at Rocher des Doms and the Balance district. In 1960 and 1961 excavations in the part of the Rocher des Doms directed by Sylvain Gagnière uncovered a small anthropomorphic stele. Carved in Burdigalian sandstone, it has the shape of a tombstone with its face engraved with a stylized human figure with no mouth. On the bottom, shifted slightly to the right is an indentation with eight radiating lines forming a solar representation - a unique discovery for this type of stele. There were also some Chalcolithic objects for adornment and an abundance of Hallstatt pottery shards which could have been native or imported, the name of the city dates back to around the 6th century BC. The first citation of Avignon was made by Artemidorus of Ephesus, although his book, The Journey, is lost it is known from the abstract by Marcian of Heraclea and The Ethnics, a dictionary of names of cities by Stephanus of Byzantium based on that book. He said, The City of Massalia, near the Rhone and this name has two interpretations, city of violent wind or, more likely, lord of the river. Other sources trace its origin to the Gallic mignon and the Celtic definitive article, Avignon was a simple Greek Emporium founded by Phocaeans from Marseille around 539 BC. It was in the 4th century BC that the Massaliotes began to sign treaties of alliance with some cities in the Rhone valley including Avignon and Cavaillon, a century later Avignon was part of the region of Massaliotes or country of Massalia. Fortified on its rock, the city later became and long remained the capital of the Cavares, with the arrival of the Roman legions in 120 BC. the Cavares, allies with the Massaliotes, became Roman
5.
Celts
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The history of pre-Celtic Europe remains very uncertain. According to one theory, the root of the Celtic languages, the Proto-Celtic language, arose in the Late Bronze Age Urnfield culture of Central Europe. Thus this area is called the Celtic homeland. The earliest undisputed examples of a Celtic language are the Lepontic inscriptions beginning in the 6th century BC. Continental Celtic languages are attested almost exclusively through inscriptions and place-names, Insular Celtic languages are attested beginning around the 4th century in Ogham inscriptions, although it was clearly being spoken much earlier. Celtic literary tradition begins with Old Irish texts around the 8th century, coherent texts of Early Irish literature, such as the Táin Bó Cúailnge, survive in 12th century recensions. Between the 5th and 8th centuries, the Celtic-speaking communities in these Atlantic regions emerged as a cohesive cultural entity. They had a linguistic, religious and artistic heritage that distinguished them from the culture of the surrounding polities. By the 6th century, however, the Continental Celtic languages were no longer in wide use, Insular Celtic culture diversified into that of the Gaels and the Celtic Britons of the medieval and modern periods. A modern Celtic identity was constructed as part of the Romanticist Celtic Revival in Great Britain, Ireland, today, Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Welsh, and Breton are still spoken in parts of their historical territories, and Cornish and Manx are undergoing a revival. The first recorded use of the name of Celts – as Κελτοί – to refer to a group was by Hecataeus of Miletus, the Greek geographer, in 517 BC. In the fifth century BC Herodotus referred to Keltoi living around the head of the Danube, the etymology of the term Keltoi is unclear. Possible roots include Indo-European *kʲel ‘to hide’, IE *kʲel ‘to heat’ or *kel ‘to impel’, several authors have supposed it to be Celtic in origin, while others view it as a name coined by Greeks. Linguist Patrizia De Bernardo Stempel falls in the group. Yet he reports Celtic peoples in Iberia, and also uses the ethnic names Celtiberi and Celtici for peoples there, as distinct from Lusitani, pliny the Elder cited the use of Celtici in Lusitania as a tribal surname, which epigraphic findings have confirmed. Latin Gallus might stem from a Celtic ethnic or tribal name originally and its root may be the Proto-Celtic *galno, meaning “power, strength”, hence Old Irish gal “boldness, ferocity” and Welsh gallu “to be able, power”. The tribal names of Gallaeci and the Greek Γαλάται most probably have the same origin, the suffix -atai might be an Ancient Greek inflection. Proto-Germanic *walha is derived ultimately from the name of the Volcae and this means that English Gaul, despite its superficial similarity, is not actually derived from Latin Gallia, though it does refer to the same ancient region
6.
Julia (gens)
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The gens Julia or Iulia was one of the most ancient patrician families at Ancient Rome. Members of the gens attained the highest dignities of the state in the earliest times of the Republic, the first of the family to obtain the consulship was Gaius Julius Iulus in 489 BC. The nomen Julius became very common in times, as the descendants of persons enrolled as citizens under the early emperors began to make their mark in history. The Julii were without doubt of Alban origin, and it is mentioned as one of the leading Alban houses and it is not impossible that some of the Julii may have settled at Bovillae after the fall of Alba Longa. Aeneas was, in turn, the son of Venus and Anchises, in order to prove the identity of Ascanius and Iulus, recourse was had to etymology, some specimens of which the reader curious in such matters will find in Servius. Other traditions held that Iulus was the son of Aeneas by his Trojan wife, Creusa, while Ascanius was the son of Aeneas and Lavinia, daughter of Latinus. Though it would seem that the Julii first came to Rome in the reign of Tullus Hostilius, in the later Empire, the distinction between praenomen, nomen, and cognomen was gradually lost, and Julius was treated much like a personal name, which it ultimately became. The Latin form is common in languages, but other familiar forms exist, including Giulio, Julio, Jules, Júlio, Iuliu. The Julii of the Republic used the praenomina Lucius, Gaius, there are also instances of Vopiscus and Spurius in the early generations of the family. The earliest of the Julii appearing in legend bore the praenomen Proculus, in the later Republic and imperial times, Vopiscus and Proculus were generally used as personal cognomina. The name was revived as a praenomen by Marcus Antonius, the triumvir. Classical Latin did not distinguish between the letters I and J, which were written with I, and for this reason the name is sometimes written Julus, just as Julius is also written Iulius. The many Julii of imperial times, who were not descended from the gens Julia, on coins the only names which we find are Caesar and Bursio, the latter of which does not occur in ancient writers. Iulus, also written as Iullus and Julus, was the surname of the eldest branch of the Julii to appear in Roman history, the gens claimed descent from Iulus, who was in some manner connected with Aeneas, although the traditions differed with respect to the details. In some accounts, Iulus was the son of Aeneas and Creüsa, in others, Ascanius was the son of Creüsa, while Iulus was the son of Lavinia, daughter of Latinus, the king of Latium with whom Aeneas made peace after landing in Italy. In still different accounts, Iulus was the son not of Aeneas, perhaps an indigenous origin of the name is suggested by De Origo Gentis Romanae, in which Iulus and Ascanius are identical. Described as the son of Jupiter, he was known as Jobus. This calls to mind the use of Jove for Jupiter, and the Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology suggests that Iulus might be a diminutive of Dius, furthermore, Livy reports that after his death Aeneas was worshiped as Jupiter Indiges, the local Jove
7.
Orange (fruit)
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The orange is the fruit of the citrus species Citrus × sinensis in the family Rutaceae. It is also called orange, to distinguish it from the related Citrus × aurantium. The sweet orange reproduces asexually, varieties of sweet orange arise through mutations, the orange is a hybrid between pomelo and mandarin. It has genes that are ~25% pomelo and ~75% mandarin, however, it is not a simple backcrossed BC1 hybrid, the chloroplast genes, and therefore the maternal line, seem to be pomelo. The sweet orange has had its genome sequenced. Earlier estimates of the percentage of pomelo genes varying from ~50% to 6% have been reported, sweet oranges were mentioned in Chinese literature in 314 BC. As of 1987, orange trees were found to be the most cultivated fruit tree in the world, orange trees are widely grown in tropical and subtropical climates for their sweet fruit. The fruit of the tree can be eaten fresh, or processed for its juice or fragrant peel. As of 2012, sweet oranges accounted for approximately 70% of citrus production, in 2014,70.9 million tonnes of oranges were grown worldwide, with Brazil producing 24% of the world total followed by China and India. All citrus trees belong to the single genus Citrus and remain almost entirely interfertile and this includes grapefruits, lemons, limes, oranges, and various other types and hybrids. The fruit of any citrus tree is considered a hesperidium, a kind of modified berry, different names have been given to the many varieties of the genus. Orange applies primarily to the sweet orange – Citrus sinensis Osbeck, the orange tree is an evergreen, flowering tree, with an average height of 9 to 10 m, although some very old specimens can reach 15 m. Its oval leaves, alternately arranged, are 4 to 10 cm long and have crenulate margins, when unripe, the fruit is green. The grainy irregular rind of the fruit can range from bright orange to yellow-orange. Like all other fruits, the sweet orange is non-climacteric. The Citrus sinensis group is subdivided into four classes with distinct characteristics, common oranges, blood or pigmented oranges, navel oranges, other citrus groups also known as oranges are, Bitter orange, also known as Seville orange, sour orange, bigarade orange and marmalade orange. Like the sweet orange, it is a pomelo x mandarin hybrid, bergamot orange, grown mainly in Italy for its peel, producing a primary essence for perfumes, also used to flavor Earl Grey tea. It is a hybrid, probably bitter orange x limetta, trifoliate orange, sometimes included in the genus
8.
Roman Republic
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It was during this period that Romes control expanded from the citys immediate surroundings to hegemony over the entire Mediterranean world. During the first two centuries of its existence, the Roman Republic expanded through a combination of conquest and alliance, by the following century, it included North Africa, most of the Iberian Peninsula, and what is now southern France. Two centuries after that, towards the end of the 1st century BC, it included the rest of modern France, Greece, and much of the eastern Mediterranean. By this time, internal tensions led to a series of wars, culminating with the assassination of Julius Caesar. The exact date of transition can be a matter of interpretation, Roman government was headed by two consuls, elected annually by the citizens and advised by a senate composed of appointed magistrates. Over time, the laws that gave exclusive rights to Romes highest offices were repealed or weakened. The leaders of the Republic developed a tradition and morality requiring public service and patronage in peace and war, making military. Many of Romes legal and legislative structures can still be observed throughout Europe and much of the world in modern nation states, the exact causes and motivations for Romes military conflicts and expansions during the republic are subject to wide debate. While they can be seen as motivated by outright aggression and imperialism and they argue that Romes expansion was driven by short-term defensive and inter-state factors, and the new contingencies that these decisions created. In its early history, as Rome successfully defended itself against foreign threats in central and then northern Italy, with some important exceptions, successful wars in early republican Rome generally led not to annexation or military occupation, but to the restoration of the way things were. But the defeated city would be weakened and thus able to resist Romanizing influences. It was also able to defend itself against its non-Roman enemies. It was, therefore, more likely to seek an alliance of protection with Rome and this growing coalition expanded the potential enemies that Rome might face, and moved Rome closer to confrontation with major powers. The result was more alliance-seeking, on the part of both the Roman confederacy and city-states seeking membership within that confederacy. While there were exceptions to this, it was not until after the Second Punic War that these alliances started to harden into something more like an empire and this shift mainly took place in parts of the west, such as the southern Italian towns that sided with Hannibal. In contrast, Roman expansion into Spain and Gaul occurred as a mix of alliance-seeking, in the 2nd century BC, Roman involvement in the Greek east remained a matter of alliance-seeking, but this time in the face of major powers that could rival Rome. This had some important similarities to the events in Italy centuries earlier, with some major exceptions of outright military rule, the Roman Republic remained an alliance of independent city-states and kingdoms until it transitioned into the Roman Empire. It was not until the time of the Roman Empire that the entire Roman world was organized into provinces under explicit Roman control
9.
Provence
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The largest city of the region is Marseille. The Romans made the region into the first Roman province beyond the Alps and called it Provincia Romana and it was ruled by the Counts of Provence from their capital in Aix-en-Provence until 1481, when it became a province of the Kings of France. While it has been part of France for more than five hundred years, it retains a distinct cultural and linguistic identity. The coast of Provence has some of the earliest known sites of habitation in Europe. Primitive stone tools dated to 1 to 1.05 million years BC were found in the Grotte du Vallonnet near Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, tools dating to the Middle Paleolithic and Upper Paleolithic were discovered in the Observatory Cave, in the Jardin Exotique of Monaco. The Paleolithic period in Provence saw great changes in the climate, with the arrival, at the beginning of the Paleolithic period, the sea level in western Provence was 150 meters higher than it is today. By the end of the Paleolithic, it had dropped 100 to 150 metres lower than sea level. The cave dwellings of the inhabitants of Provence were regularly inundated by the rising sea or left far from the sea. The changes in the sea led to one of the most remarkable discoveries of signs of early man in Provence. In 1985, a diver named Henri Cosquer discovered the mouth of a submarine cave 37 metres below the surface of the Calanque de Morgiou near Marseille, the entrance led to a cave above sea level. Inside, the walls of the Cosquer Cave are decorated with drawings of bison, seals, auks, horses and outlines of human hands, dating to between 27,000 and 19,000 BC. The end of the Paleolithic and beginning of the Neolithic period saw the sea settle at its present level, a warming of the climate and the retreat of the forests. The disappearance of the forests and the deer and other easily hunted game meant that the inhabitants of Provence had to survive on rabbits, snails, since they were settled in one place they were able to develop new industries. Inspired by the pottery from the eastern Mediterranean, in about 6000 BC they created the first pottery to be made in France. Around 6000 BC, a wave of new settlers from the east and they were farmers and warriors, and gradually displaced the earlier pastoral people from their lands. They were followed in about 2500 BC by another wave of people, also farmers, known as the Courronniens, traces of these early civilisations can be found in many parts of Provence. A Neolithic site dating to about 6,000 BC was discovered in Marseille near the Saint-Charles railway station, and a dolmen from the Bronze Age can be found near Draguignan. Between the 10th and 4th century BC the Ligures were found in Provence from Massilia as far as modern day Liguria and they were of uncertain origin, they may have been the descendants of the indigenous neolithic peoples
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Breda, Netherlands
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Dillenburg, Hesse, Germany
(in Polish) © 2008 Urząd Miasta Jarosław. Ul. Rynek 1, 37-500 Jarosław. Retrieved 2008-10-23.
