1.
Denarius
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In the Roman currency system, the dēnārius, plural, dēnāriī was a small silver coin first minted about 211 BC during the Second Punic War. It is the origin of modern words such as the currency name dinar, it is also the origin for the common noun for money in Italian denaro, in Portuguese dinheiro. Its symbol is X̶, a x with stroke. A predecessor of the denarius was first struck in 267 BC, five years before the first Punic War with a weight of 6.81 grams. Contact with the Greeks prompted a need for coinage in addition to the bronze currency that the Romans were using during that time. The predecessor of the denarius was a Greek-styled silver coin, very similar to the didrachm and drachma struck in Metapontion and these coins were inscribed for Rome but closely resemble their Greek counterparts. They were most likely used for purposes and were seldom used in Rome. The first distinctively Roman silver coin appeared around 226 BC, Rome overhauled its coinage around 211 BC and introduced the denarius alongside a short-lived denomination called the victoriatus. This denarius contained an average 4.5 grams, or 1⁄72 of a Roman pound of silver and it formed the backbone of Roman currency throughout the Roman republic. The denarius began to undergo slow debasement toward the end of the republican period, under the rule of Augustus, its silver content fell to 3.9 grams. It remained at nearly this weight until the time of Nero, debasement of the coins silver content continued after Nero. Later Roman emperors reduced its content to 3 grams around the third century. The value at its introduction was 10 asses, giving the denarius its name, in about 141 BC, it was re-tariffed at 16 asses, to reflect the decrease in weight of the as. The denarius continued to be the coin of the Roman Empire until it was replaced by the antoninianus in the middle of the third century. The last issuance of this occurred in bronze form by Aurelian. For more details, see Denarius, in A Dictionary of Ancient Roman Coins, the denarius has a link from the Roman times to the British penny and US1 cent piece. It is difficult to give even rough comparative values for money from before the 20th century, as the range of products and services available for purchase was different. Classical historians often say that in the late Roman Republic and early Roman Empire the daily wage for an unskilled laborer and common soldier was 1 denarius or about US$2. 8$ in bread
2.
Obverse and reverse
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In this usage, obverse means the front face of the object and reverse means the back face. The obverse of a coin is commonly called heads, because it depicts the head of a prominent person. In fields of scholarship outside numismatics, the front is more commonly used than obverse. For prints and drawings with material on both sides the one judged as more significant will be the recto, a convention now exists typically to display the obverse to the left and the reverse to the right in photographs and museum displays, but this is not invariably observed. Following this principle, in the most famous of ancient Greek coins, the tetradrachm of Athens, the obverse is the head of Athena, similar versions of these two images, both symbols of the state, were used on the Athenian coins for more than two centuries. The opposite side may have varied from time to time and this change happened in the coinage of Alexander the Great, which continued to be minted long after his death. The various Hellenistic rulers who were his successors followed his tradition and this script alone style then was used on nearly all Islamic coinage until the modern period. The type of Justinian II was revived after the end of Iconoclasm, without images, therefore, it is not always easy to tell which side will be regarded as the obverse without some knowledge. After 695, Islamic coins avoided all images of persons and usually, the side expressing the Six Kalimas is usually defined as the obverse. The form of currency follows its function, which is to serve as an accepted medium of exchange of value. Traditionally, most states have been monarchies where the person of the monarch, if not provided for on the obverse, the reverse side usually contains information relating to a coins role as medium of exchange. Additional space typically reflects the countrys culture or government, or evokes some aspect of the states territory. Regarding the euro, some regarding the obverse and reverse of the euro coins exists. This rule does not apply to the coins as they dont have a common side. A number of the used for obverse national sides of euro coins were taken from the reverse of the old pre-euro coins of some individual countries. Several countries continue to use portraits of the monarch and the Republic of Ireland continues to use the State Arms. The Chrysanthemum Crest was no longer used after the war, and so, the side on which the date continues to be regarded as the reverse. Following ancient tradition, the obverse of coins of the United Kingdom almost always feature the head of the monarch
3.
Ceres (mythology)
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In ancient Roman religion, Ceres was a goddess of agriculture, grain crops, fertility and motherly relationships. She was originally the central deity in Romes so-called plebeian or Aventine Triad and her seven-day April festival of Cerealia included the popular Ludi Ceriales. She was also honoured in the May lustratio of the fields at the Ambarvalia festival, at harvest-time, Ceres is the only one of Romes many agricultural deities to be listed among the Dii Consentes, Romes equivalent to the Twelve Olympians of Greek mythology. The Romans saw her as the counterpart of the Greek goddess Demeter, whose mythology was reinterpreted for Ceres in Roman art and literature. Roman etymologists thought ceres derived from the Latin verb gerere, to bear, bring forth, produce, because the goddess was linked to pastoral, agricultural and human fertility. Archaic cults to Ceres are well-evidenced among Romes neighbours in the Regal period, including the ancient Latins, Oscans and Sabellians, an archaic Faliscan inscription of c.600 BC asks her to provide far, which was a dietary staple of the Mediterranean world. Throughout the Roman era, Ceres name was synonymous with grain and, by extension and she had the power to fertilise, multiply and fructify plant and animal seed, and her laws and rites protected all activities of the agricultural cycle. In January, Ceres was offered spelt wheat and a pregnant sow and this was almost certainly held before the annual sowing of grain. The divine portion of sacrifice was the entrails presented in an earthenware pot, in a rural context, Cato the Elder describes the offer to Ceres of a porca praecidanea. Before the harvest, she was offered a propitiary grain sample, Ovid tells that Ceres is content with little, provided that her offerings are casta. Ceres main festival, Cerealia, was held from mid to late April and it was organised by her plebeian aediles and included circus games. From c.175 BC, Cerealia included ludi scaenici through April 12 to 18, W. H. Roscher lists these deities among the indigitamenta, names used to invoke specific divine functions. The adult males of the party waited at the grooms house. A wedding sacrifice was offered to Tellus on the brides behalf, Varro describes the sacrifice of a pig as a worthy mark of weddings because our women, and especially nurses call the female genitalia porcus. Spaeth believes Ceres may have included in the sacrificial dedication, because she is closely identified with Tellus and, as Ceres legifera. In the most solemn form of marriage, confarreatio, the bride and groom shared a cake made of far, from at least the mid-republican era, an official, joint cult to Ceres and Proserpina reinforced Ceres connection with Roman ideals of female virtue. The promotion of this cult coincides with the rise of a nobility, an increased birthrate among plebeian commoners. Several of Ceres ancient Italic precursors are connected to fertility and motherhood
4.
Moneyer
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A moneyer is a private individual who is officially permitted to mint money. Usually the rights to coin money are bestowed as a concession by a state or government, Moneyers have a long tradition, dating back at least to ancient Greece. They became most prominent in the Roman Republic, and continued into the Empire, Moneyers were not limited to the ancient world. When European coinage was revived during the Middle Ages, moneyers again were trusted to create currency on behalf of kings, for a large part of that era, virtually all coins in circulation were silver pennies, and these often bore the name or other identification of the moneyer. In the Roman Republic, moneyers were called tresviri aere argento auro flando feriundo and this was a board of the college of the vigintisexviri. The title was sometimes abbreviated III and these men were collectively known as the tresviri monetales or sometimes, less correctly, as the triumviri monetales. In English, they are sometimes called mint magistrates. It was thought by Niebuhr that they were introduced at the time when the Romans first began to coin silver, in 269 BC and it is known that a college of three was in existence ca 150 BC. A fourth magistrate was added by Julius Caesar in 44 BC during a time when the mint output was particularly large and these magistrates were responsible for the production of the Roman coinage. They were not simple mint workers, they were officials who controlled the process, some coins appear to have been special issues bearing the legend S C or EX S. C. Some of these special issues do not bear the signature of a triumvir monetalis, X. FL. i. e. curator denariorum flandorum, or are signed by praetors, aediles, or quaestors. In any case, the control of the legend on the coinage lent itself to the production of coins containing political messages. This was self-advertising to further the career of the moneyers themselves or that of their patrons, in a word. This article incorporates text from Smith 1875, which is in the public domain, Roman currency Roman Republic Roman Republican coinage Vigintisexviri Babelon, Ernest. Description historique et chronologique des monnaies de la république romaine,2 Volumes Broughton, the Magistrates of the Roman Republic, American Philological Association,3 Volumes. Volume II Philological Monographs Number XV,1952, the Authority to Coin in the Late Republic and Early Empire, Numismatic Chronicle, Seventh Series 17 pp. 37–63. Coinage in the Roman World, Seaby, ISBN 0-900652-85-3 Crawford, Michael H. Roman Republican Coinage, Cambridge University Press,2 Volumes. ISBN 0-521-07492-4 Grierson, Philip & Philip Raymond, Blackburn, Mark, medieval European Coinage, The Early Middle Ages
5.
Cerealia
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In ancient Roman religion, the Cerealia was the major festival celebrated for the grain goddess Ceres. It was held for seven days from mid- to late April, the festival may have been founded as early as the Regal period. Its archaic nature is indicated by a nighttime ritual described by Ovid, blazing torches were tied to the tails of live foxes, who were released into the Circus Maximus. The origin and purpose of ritual are unknown, it may have been intended to cleanse the growing crops and protect them from disease and vermin, or to add warmth. Ovid offers an explanation, long ago, at ancient Carleoli. The fox escaped, ablaze, in its flight it fired the fields and their crops, ever since, foxes are punished at her festival. The Ludi Ceriales or Games of Ceres were held as part of the festival in the Circus Maximus, Ovid mentions that Ceres search for her lost daughter Proserpina was represented by women clothed in white, running about with lighted torches. During the Republican era, the Cerealia was organised by the aediles, Ceres being one of the patron deities of the plebs or common people. The festival included ludi circenses, circus games and these opened with a horse race in the Circus Maximus, with a starting point just below the Aventine Temple of Ceres, Liber and Libera. After around 175 BC, the Cerealia included ludi scaenici, theatrical performances, the plebeian aedile Gaius Memmius is credited with staging the first of these ludi scaenici. He also distributed a new commemorative coin in honor of the event. His innovations led to his claiming to have presented the first Cerealia, eleusinian Mysteries Lacus Curtius site, William Smith, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities,1875, Cerealia A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities
6.
Aedile
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Aedile was an office of the Roman Republic. Based in Rome, the aediles were responsible for maintenance of public buildings and they also had powers to enforce public order. An aedilis curulis was classified as a magister curulis, the office of the aedilis was generally held by young men intending to follow the cursus honorum to high political office, traditionally after their quaestorship but before their praetorship. It was not a part of the cursus, and hence a former quaestor could be elected to the praetorship without having held the position of aedile. The plebeian aediles were created in the year as the Tribunes of the People. Originally intended as assistants to the tribunes, they guarded the rights of the plebs with respect to their headquarters, subsequently, they assumed responsibility for maintenance of the citys buildings as a whole. Their duties at first were simply ministerial and they were the assistants to the tribunes in whatever matters that the tribunes might entrust to them, although most matters with which they were entrusted were of minimal importance. Around 446 BC, they were given the authority to care for the decrees of the senate, when a senatus consultum was passed, it would be transcribed into a document, and deposited in the public treasury, the Aerarium. They were given power because the Roman Consuls, who had held this power before. They also maintained the acts of the Plebeian Council, the plebiscites, plebiscites, once passed, were also transcribed into a physical document for storage. While their powers grew over time, it is not always easy to distinguish the difference between their powers, and those of the Roman Censors, occasionally, if a Censor was unable to carry out one of his tasks, an Aedile would perform the task instead. Curule Aediles, as magistrates, held certain honors that Plebeian Aediles. Besides having the right to sit on a Curule Chair and to wear a toga praetexta and these edicts often pertained to matters such as the regulation of the public markets, or what we might call economic regulation. Livy suggests, perhaps incorrectly, that both Curule as well as Plebeian Aediles were sacrosanct, although the curule aediles always ranked higher than the plebeian, their functions gradually approximated and became practically identical. Within five days after the beginning of their terms, the four Aediles were required to determine, by lot or by agreement among themselves, there was a distinction between the two sets of Aediles when it came to public festivals. Some festivals were Plebeian in nature, and thus were under the superintendence of Plebeian Aediles, other festivals were supervised exclusively by the Curule Aediles, and it was often with these festivals that the Aediles would spend lavishly. This was often done so as to secure the support of voters in future elections, because Aediles were not reimbursed for any of their public expenditures, most individuals who sought the office were independently wealthy. Since this office was a stone to higher office and the Senate
7.
Roman mythology
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Roman mythology is the body of traditional stories pertaining to ancient Romes legendary origins and religious system, as represented in the literature and visual arts of the Romans. Roman mythology may also refer to the study of these representations. The Romans usually treated their traditional narratives as historical, even when these have miraculous or supernatural elements, the stories are often concerned with politics and morality, and how an individuals personal integrity relates to his or her responsibility to the community or Roman state. When the stories illuminate Roman religious practices, they are concerned with ritual, augury. Romes early myths and legends also have a relationship with Etruscan religion. In particular, the versions of Greek myths in Ovids Metamorphoses, written during the reign of Augustus, because ritual played the central role in Roman religion that myth did for the Greeks, it is sometimes doubted that the Romans had much of a native mythology. This perception is a product of Romanticism and the scholarship of the 19th century. From the Renaissance to the 18th century, however, Roman myths were an inspiration particularly for European painting, the Roman tradition is rich in historical myths, or legends, concerning the foundation and rise of the city. These narratives focus on human actors, with only occasional intervention from deities, in Romes earliest period, history and myth have a mutual and complementary relationship. As T. P. Wiseman notes, The Roman stories still matter, as they mattered to Dante in 1300 and Shakespeare in 1600, what does it take to be a free citizen. Can a superpower still be a republic, how does well-meaning authority turn into murderous tyranny. Major sources for Roman myth include the Aeneid of Vergil and the first few books of Livys history as well as Dionysius s Roman Antiquities. Other important sources are the Fasti of Ovid, a six-book poem structured by the Roman religious calendar, scenes from Roman myth also appear in Roman wall painting, coins, and sculpture, particularly reliefs. The Aeneid and Livys early history are the best extant sources for Romes founding myths, material from Greek heroic legend was grafted onto this native stock at an early date. By extension, the Trojans were adopted as the ancestors of the Roman people. Rape of the Sabine women, explaining the importance of the Sabines in the formation of Roman culture, numa Pompilius, the Sabine second king of Rome who consorted with the nymph Egeria and established many of Romes legal and religious institutions. Servius Tullius, the king of Rome, whose mysterious origins were freely mythologized. The Tarpeian Rock, and why it was used for the execution of traitors, lucretia, whose self-sacrifice prompted the overthrow of the early Roman monarchy and led to the establishment of the Republic
8.
Janus
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In ancient Roman religion and myth, Janus is the god of beginnings, gates, transitions, time, duality, doorways, passages, and endings. He is usually depicted as having two faces, since he looks to the future and to the past and it is conventionally thought that the month of January is named for Janus, but according to ancient Roman farmers almanacs Juno was the tutelary deity of the month. Janus presided over the beginning and ending of conflict, and hence war, the doors of his temple were open in time of war, and closed to mark the peace. Janus had no flamen or specialised priest assigned to him, Janus had a ubiquitous presence in religious ceremonies throughout the year, and was ritually invoked at the beginning of each one, regardless of the main deity honored on any particular occasion. The ancient Greeks had no equivalent to Janus, whom the Romans claimed as distinctively their own, three etymologies were proposed by ancient erudites, each of them bearing implications about the nature of the god. The first one is based on the definition of Chaos given by Paul the Deacon, hiantem, hiare, be open, in this etymology the notion of Chaos would define the primordial nature of the god. Another etymology proposed by Nigidius Figulus is related by Macrobius, Ianus would be Apollo and Diana Iana and this explanation has been accepted by A. B. It supports all the assimilations of Janus to the sky, the sun. It supposes a former *Dianus, formed on *dia- < *dy-eð2 from Indo-European root *dey- shine represented in Latin by dies day, Diovis, however the form Dianus postulated by Nigidius is not attested. Modern scholars have conjectured that it derives from the Indo-European root meaning transitional movement, iānus would then be an action name expressing the idea of going, passing, formed on the root *yā- < *y-eð2- theme II of the root *ey- go from which eō, ειμι. Other modern scholars object to an Indo-European etymology either from Dianus or from root *yā-, from Ianus derived ianua, and hence the English word janitor. Almost all of modern explanations were originally formulated by the ancients. The function god of beginnings has been expressed in numerous ancient sources, among them most notably Cicero, Ovid. As a god of motion, Janus looks after passages, causes actions to start, since movement and change are interconnected, he has a double nature, symbolised in his two headed image. He has under his tutelage the stepping in and out of the door of homes, the ianua, which took its name from him and he is also present at the Sororium Tigillum, where he guards the terminus of the ways into Rome from Latium. He has an altar, later a temple near the Porta Carmentalis, where the leading to Veii ended, as well as being present on the Janiculum. The connection of the notions of beginning, movement, transition, in general, Janus is at the origin of time as the guardian of the gates of Heaven, Jupiter himself can move forth and back because of Januss working. In one of his temples, probably that of Forum Holitorium, Janus frequently symbolized change and transitions such as the progress of past to future, from one condition to another, from one vision to another, and young peoples growth to adulthood
9.
Religion in ancient Rome
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The Romans thought of themselves as highly religious, and attributed their success as a world power to their collective piety in maintaining good relations with the gods. According to legends, most of Romes religious institutions could be traced to its founders, particularly Numa Pompilius, the Sabine second king of Rome, who negotiated directly with the gods. This archaic religion was the foundation of the mos maiorum, the way of the ancestors or simply tradition, as Rome came into contact with foreign cultures, and conquered them, foreign religions increasingly attracted devotees among Romans, who increasingly had ancestry from elsewhere in the Empire. The emperors promoted the Imperial cult around the empire, and this, ultimately, Roman polytheism was brought to an end with the adoption of Christianity as the official religion of the empire. The priesthoods of public religion were held by members of the elite classes, there was no principle analogous to separation of church and state in ancient Rome. During the Roman Republic, the men who were elected public officials might also serve as augurs. Priests married, raised families, and led politically active lives, Julius Caesar became pontifex maximus before he was elected consul. The augurs read the will of the gods and supervised the marking of boundaries as a reflection of universal order, Roman religion was thus practical and contractual, based on the principle of do ut des, I give that you might give. Even the most skeptical among Romes intellectual elite such as Cicero, for ordinary Romans, religion was a part of daily life. Each home had a shrine at which prayers and libations to the familys domestic deities were offered. Neighborhood shrines and sacred such as springs and groves dotted the city. The Roman calendar was structured around religious observances, women, slaves, and children all participated in a range of religious activities. The Romans are known for the number of deities they honored. The Romans looked for common ground between their major gods and those of the Greeks, adapting Greek myths and iconography for Latin literature, etruscan religion was also a major influence, particularly on the practice of augury. The mysteries, however, involved exclusive oaths and secrecy, conditions that conservative Romans viewed with suspicion as characteristic of magic, conspiratorial, or subversive activity. Sporadic and sometimes brutal attempts were made to suppress religionists who seemed to threaten traditional morality and unity, one way that Rome incorporated diverse peoples was by supporting their religious heritage, building temples to local deities that framed their theology within the hierarchy of Roman religion. Inscriptions throughout the Empire record the worship of local and Roman deities. Because Romans had never been obligated to one god or one cult only
10.
Flamen Quirinalis
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In ancient Roman religion, the Flamen Quirinalis was the flamen devoted to the cult of god Quirinus. He was one of the three flamines maiores, third in order of importance after the Flamen Dialis and the Flamen Martialis, as the other ones he had to reside in Rome and was not allowed to leave the city for any reason. The theology of Quirinus is complex and difficult to interpret, from early times, he was identified with the deified Romulus, who originally seems to have shared some common theological and mythological elements with Quirinus. The flamen Quirinalis presided over at least three festivals, the Consualia Aestiva on August 21, Robigalia on April 25, and Larentalia on December 23. These festivals were all devoted to the cult of deities of remarkable antiquity, robigus was an evil spirit that could cause mildew and thus damage growing wheat. Larenta was a figure connected to the primordial legendary times of Rome or to the founding of the city itself, during the Consualia Aestiva the flamen Quirinalis and the Vestals offered a sacrifice at Consuss underground altar in the Circus Maximus. Four days later the Vestals took part in the rites of the festival of Ops, goddess of agricultural plenty, the Opiconsivia. This occasion was related to Consus too and was performed in the Regia of the forum, where Ops had a sacred chapel, open only to the pontifex maximus. The Robigalia of April 25 required the offering of blood and entrails from a puppy. The rite took place near the fifth milestone of the Via Claudia, ovid talks of a lucus on the site and reports a long prayer he says was pronounced by the flamen Quirinalis. While the prayer may contain elements from an actual formulation, Ovids text is a poetic recreation, the Larentalia of December 23 were a parentatio, an act of funerary cult in memory of Larunda or Larentia. A sacrifice was offered at the site of her supposed tomb on the Velabrum. She was not a goddess but a sort of heroine, with two conflicting legends, in the first Larentia is a courtesan who had become rich after spending a night in the sanctuary of Heracles. Later she had bestowed her fortune on the Roman people on the condition that a named after her were held yearly. In the second she is Romulus and Remuss wet nurse, also considered the mother of the Fratres Arvales, Gellius in a detailed passage on Larentia makes a specific reference to the flamen Quirinalis. Macrobius makes reference to the presence of a flamen, per flaminem. This flamen could neither be the Dialis nor the Martialis, let alone the minores, beside these festivals that of Quirinus himself, the Quirinalia, would logically and probably require the participation of the flamen Quirinalis. The Quirinalia were held on February 17 and must be among the oldest Roman yearly festivals, the Quirinalia occurred on February 17 in the Roman calendar
11.
Sabines
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The Sabines were an Italic tribe which lived in the central Apennines of ancient Italy, also inhabiting Latium north of the Anio before the founding of Rome. The above names, English, Latin, and Greek, are all exonyms, the Sabines divided into two populations just after the founding of Rome, which is described by Roman legend. The division, however it came about, is not legendary, the population closer to Rome transplanted itself to the new city and united with the pre-existing citizenry, beginning a new heritage that descended from the Sabines but was also Latinized. The second population remained a mountain tribal state, coming finally to war against Rome for its independence along with all the other Italic tribes, after losing, it became assimilated into the Roman Republic. There is little record of the Sabine language, however, there are some glosses by ancient commentators, there are also personal names in use on Latin inscriptions from Sabine country, but these are given in Latin form. Robert Seymour Conway, in his Italic Dialects, gives approximately 100 words which vary from being well attested as Sabine to being possibly of Sabine origin, in addition to these he cites place names derived from the Sabine, sometimes giving attempts at reconstructions of the Sabine form. Based on all the evidence, the Linguist List tentatively classifies Sabine as a member of the Umbrian Group of Italic languages of Indo-European family, latin-speakers called the Sabines original territory, straddling the modern regions of Lazio, Umbria, and Abruzzo, Sabinium. To this day, it bears the ancient tribes name in the Italian form of Sabina, within the modern region of Lazio, Sabina constitutes a sub-region, situated north-east of Rome, around Rieti. According to Dionysius of Halicarnassus, many Roman historians regarded the origins of indigenous Romans to be Greek, the Sabines, specifically, were first mentioned in Dionysiuss account for having captured by surprise the city of Lista, which was regarded as the mother-city of the Aborigines. Ancient historians were still debating the specific origins of the Sabines, zenodotus of Troezen claimed that the Sabines were originally Umbrians that changed their name after being driven from the Reatine territory by the Pelasgians. However, Porcius Cato argued that the Sabines were a populace named after Sabus, in another account mentioned in Dionysiuss work, a group of Lacedaemonians fled Sparta since they regarded the laws of Lycurgus as too severe. In Italy, they founded the Spartan colony of Foronia and some from that colony settled among the Sabines, according to the account, the Sabine habits of belligerence and frugality were known to have derived from the Spartans. Plutarch also states in the Life of Numa Pompilius, Sabines, legend says that the Romans abducted Sabine women to populate the newly built Rome. The resultant war ended only by the women throwing themselves and their children between the armies of their fathers and their husbands, the Rape of the Sabine Women became a common motif in art, the women ending the war is a less frequent but still reappearing motif. According to Livy, after the conflict, the Sabine and Roman states merged, three new centuries of Equites were introduced at Rome, including one named Tatienses, after the Sabine king. A variation of the story is recounted in the book of Jasher. Tradition suggests that the population of the early Roman kingdom was the result of a union of Sabines, some of the gentes of the Roman republic were proud of their Sabine heritage, such as the Claudia gens, assuming Sabinus as a cognomen or agnomen. Ancient peoples of Italy Hostus Hostilius Ovid, Fasti Ovid, Ars Amatoria Livy, Ab urbe condita Cicero, De Republica Plutarch, Parallel Lives Juvenal, Satires Donaldson, John William
12.
Rome
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Rome is a special comune and the capital of Italy. Rome also serves as the capital of the Lazio region, with 2,873,598 residents in 1,285 km2, it is also the countrys largest and most populated comune and fourth-most populous city in the European Union by population within city limits. It is the center of the Metropolitan City of Rome, which has a population of 4.3 million residents, the city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, within Lazio, along the shores of the Tiber. Romes history spans more than 2,500 years, while Roman mythology dates the founding of Rome at only around 753 BC, the site has been inhabited for much longer, making it one of the oldest continuously occupied sites in Europe. The citys early population originated from a mix of Latins, Etruscans and it was first called The Eternal City by the Roman poet Tibullus in the 1st century BC, and the expression was also taken up by Ovid, Virgil, and Livy. Rome is also called the Caput Mundi, due to that, Rome became first one of the major centres of the Italian Renaissance, and then the birthplace of both the Baroque style and Neoclassicism. Famous artists, painters, sculptors and architects made Rome the centre of their activity, in 1871 Rome became the capital of the Kingdom of Italy, and in 1946 that of the Italian Republic. Rome has the status of a global city, Rome ranked in 2014 as the 14th-most-visited city in the world, 3rd most visited in the European Union, and the most popular tourist attraction in Italy. Its historic centre is listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site, monuments and museums such as the Vatican Museums and the Colosseum are among the worlds most visited tourist destinations with both locations receiving millions of tourists a year. Rome hosted the 1960 Summer Olympics and is the seat of United Nations Food, however, it is a possibility that the name Romulus was actually derived from Rome itself. As early as the 4th century, there have been alternate theories proposed on the origin of the name Roma. There is archaeological evidence of occupation of the Rome area from approximately 14,000 years ago. Evidence of stone tools, pottery and stone weapons attest to about 10,000 years of human presence, several excavations support the view that Rome grew from pastoral settlements on the Palatine Hill built above the area of the future Roman Forum. Between the end of the age and the beginning of the Iron age. However, none of them had yet an urban quality, nowadays, there is a wide consensus that the city was gradually born through the aggregation of several villages around the largest one, placed above the Palatine. All these happenings, which according to the excavations took place more or less around the mid of the 8th century BC. Despite recent excavations at the Palatine hill, the view that Rome has been indeed founded with an act of will as the legend suggests in the middle of the 8th century BC remains a fringe hypothesis. Traditional stories handed down by the ancient Romans themselves explain the earliest history of their city in terms of legend and myth
13.
Quirinal Hill
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The Quirinal Hill is one of the Seven Hills of Rome, at the north-east of the city center. It is the location of the residence of the Italian head of state. The Quirinal Palace has an extension of 1.2 million square feet and it was originally part of a group of hills that included Collis Latiaris, Mucialis, Salutaris. These are now lost due to building in the 16th century, according to Roman legend, the Quirinal Hill was the site of a small village of the Sabines, and king Titus Tatius would have lived there after the peace between Romans and Sabines. These Sabines had erected altars in the honour of their god Quirinus, some authors consider it possible that the cult of the Capitoline Triad could have been celebrated here well before it became associated with the Capitoline Hill. The sanctuary of Flora, an Osco-Sabine goddess, was here too, according to Livy, the hill first became part of the city of Rome, along with the Viminal Hill, during the reign of Servius Tullius, Rome sixth king, in the 6th century BC. In 446 BC, a temple was dedicated on the Quirinal in honour of Semo Sancus Dius Fidius, augustus, too, ordered the building of a temple, dedicated to Mars. On a slope of the Quirinal were the gardens of Sallust. On the Quirinal Hill Constantine ordered the erection of his baths and these are now lost, having been incorporated into Renaissance Rome, with only some drawings from the 16th century remaining. In the Middle Ages, the Torre delle Milizie and the convent of St, in the same palazzo were also the two statues of river gods that Michelangelo moved to the steps of Palazzo Senatorio on the Capitoline Hill. According to the division of the center of Rome, the Hill belongs to the rione Trevi. The Quirinal Hill is today identified with the Palazzo del Quirinale, before the abolition of the Italian monarchy in 1946, it was the residence of the king of Italy, and before 1871 it was, as originally, a residence of the Pope. The healthy cool air of the Quirinal Hill attracted aristocrats and papal families that built villas where the gardens of Sallust had been in antiquity, in the 18th century, Ferdinando Fuga built the long wing called the Manica Lunga, which stretched 360 meters along via del Quirinale. In front lies the sloping Piazza del Quirinale where the pair of gigantic Roman marble Horse Tamers representing Castor and Pollux, in Piranesis view, the vast open space is unpaved. The Palazzo del Quirinale was the residence of the popes until 1870, when Rome was united to the Kingdom of Italy, the Quirinale became the residence of the kings until 1946. Several collections are in this Palazzo, including tapestries, paintings, statues, old carriages, watches, furniture and it formerly housed Mussolinis ministry of colonial affairs. The hill is the site of important monuments and buildings. The Piazza and Palazzo Barberini, built by Bernini and Maderno, Palazzo Volpi di Misurata, across from San Carlino, built in the 18th century
14.
Seven hills of Rome
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The Seven Hills of Rome east of the river Tiber form the geographical heart of Rome, within the walls of the city. The seven hills denizens began to participate in a series of religious games, the city of Rome, thus, came into being as these separate settlements acted as a group, draining the marshy valleys between them and turning them into markets. Later, in the early 4th century BCE, the Servian Walls were constructed to protect the seven hills, of the seven hills of current Rome, five are populated with monuments, buildings, and parks. The Capitoline Hill now hosts Romes city hall, and the Palatine Hill belongs to the archaeological area. Constantinople is claimed to have built on its own seven hills
15.
Plutarch
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Plutarch was a Greek biographer and essayist, known primarily for his Parallel Lives and Moralia. He is classified as a Middle Platonist, Plutarchs surviving works were written in Greek, but intended for both Greek and Roman readers. Plutarch was born to a prominent family in the town of Chaeronea, about 80 km east of Delphi. The name of Plutarchs father has not been preserved, but based on the common Greek custom of repeating a name in alternate generations, the name of Plutarchs grandfather was Lamprias, as he attested in Moralia and in his Life of Antony. His brothers, Timon and Lamprias, are mentioned in his essays and dialogues. Rualdus, in his 1624 work Life of Plutarchus, recovered the name of Plutarchs wife, Timoxena, from internal evidence afforded by his writings. A letter is still extant, addressed by Plutarch to his wife, bidding her not to grieve too much at the death of their two-year-old daughter, interestingly, he hinted at a belief in reincarnation in that letter of consolation. The exact number of his sons is not certain, although two of them, Autobulus and the second Plutarch, are often mentioned. Plutarchs treatise De animae procreatione in Timaeo is dedicated to them, another person, Soklarus, is spoken of in terms which seem to imply that he was Plutarchs son, but this is nowhere definitely stated. Plutarch studied mathematics and philosophy at the Academy of Athens under Ammonius from 66 to 67, at some point, Plutarch took Roman citizenship. He lived most of his life at Chaeronea, and was initiated into the mysteries of the Greek god Apollo. For many years Plutarch served as one of the two priests at the temple of Apollo at Delphi, the site of the famous Delphic Oracle, twenty miles from his home. By his writings and lectures Plutarch became a celebrity in the Roman Empire, yet he continued to reside where he was born, at his country estate, guests from all over the empire congregated for serious conversation, presided over by Plutarch in his marble chair. Many of these dialogues were recorded and published, and the 78 essays, Plutarch held the office of archon in his native municipality, probably only an annual one which he likely served more than once. He busied himself with all the matters of the town. The Suda, a medieval Greek encyclopedia, states that Emperor Trajan made Plutarch procurator of Illyria, however, most historians consider this unlikely, since Illyria was not a procuratorial province, and Plutarch probably did not speak Illyrian. Plutarch spent the last thirty years of his serving as a priest in Delphi. He thus connected part of his work with the sanctuary of Apollo, the processes of oracle-giving
16.
Parallel Lives
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The surviving Parallel Lives comprises twenty-three pairs of biographies, each pair consisting of one Greek and one Roman, as well as four unpaired, single lives. It is a work of importance, not only as a source of information about the individuals described. He wished to prove that the remote past of Greece could show its men of action and achievement as well as the nearer. His interest was primarily ethical, although the lives have significant historical value as well. The Lives was published by Plutarch late in his life after his return to Chaeronea and, if one may judge from the lists of authorities given. The chief manuscripts of the Lives date from the 10th and 11th centuries, sir Thomas Norths 1579 English translation was an important source-material for Shakespeare. The most generally accepted text is that of the edition of Carl Sintenis in the Bibliotheca Teubneriana. There are annotated editions by I. C, held, E. H. G. Leopold, Otto Siefert and Friedrich Blass and Carl Sintenis, all in German, and by Holden, in English. Likewise, his portrait of Numa Pompilius, an early Roman king and he has been praised for the liveliness and warmth of his portrayals, and his moral earnestness and enthusiasm, and the Lives have attracted a large circle of readers throughout the ages. Plutarchs Life of Romulus is a significant source of the Roman foundation myth, Plutarch adds details to the royal scandal behind the infant Romulus and Remus abandonment in the wilderness. Numitor chose the throne, but when he was overthrown, he ended up with neither, along with the two names mentioned by Livy for the twins mother, Plutarch tells us she may also have been named Ilia. The boys were the issue of Amulius himself, who raped his niece while wearing his armor, upon the discovery of her pregnancy, her cousin Antho, the kings daughter convinced him to spare her life. He suggests that Faustulus may have been the name of the servant charged with the drowning of the twins and he names the site where the boys are brought back to dry land by Tibernius as Kermalus, formerly Germanus. In addition to the tale, Plutarch relates a version from Dionysius where the twins mother was Larentia a woman famous for her beauty. She was forced to spend the night with the hero as his reward for winning a game with the keeper of his temple. In the morning, he threw her out and told her to befriend the first man she meets and he was Tarrutius, a wealthy elderly childless bachelor. They slept together, ended up marrying and were together until his death, Faustulus was, in this account, in the employ of Amulius. Numitor and others possibly knew the secret of the twins origin, Romulus was the more dominant of the two
17.
Romulus
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Romulus was the legendary founder and first king of Rome. Various traditions attribute the establishment of many of Romes oldest legal, political, religious, Romulus and his twin brother, Remus, were the sons of Rhea Silvia, herself the daughter of Numitor, the former king of Alba Longa. Through them, the twins are descended from the Trojan hero Aeneas and Latinus, before the twins birth, Numitor had been usurped by his brother, Amulius. After seizing the throne, Amulius murdered Numitors son, and condemned Rhea to perpetual virginity by consecrating her a Vestal, Rhea, however, became pregnant, ostensibly by the god Mars. Amulius had her imprisoned, and upon the birth, ordered that they be thrown into the rain-swollen Tiber. Instead of carrying out the orders, his servants left the twins along the riverbank at the foot of Palatine Hill. In the traditional telling of the legend, a she-wolf happened upon the twins and she suckled and tended them by a cave until they were found by the herdsman Faustulus and his wife, Acca Larentia. The brothers grew to manhood among the shepherds and hill-folk, after becoming involved in a conflict between the followers of Amulius and those of their grandfather Numitor, they learned the truth of their origin. They overthrew and killed Amulius and restored Numitor to the throne, the princes set out to establish a city of their own. They returned to the hills overlooking the Tiber, the site where they had exposed as infants. They could not agree on which hill should house the new city, when an omen to resolve the controversy failed to provide a clear indication, the conflict escalated and Remus was killed by his brother or by his brothers follower. In a variant of the legend, the augurs favoured Romulus, when Remus derisively leapt over the walls to show how inadequate they were against invaders, he was struck down by Romulus. In another variant, Remus died during a melée along with Faustulus, the founding of the city by Romulus was commemorated annually on April 21, with the festival of the Parilia. His first act was to fortify the Palatine, in the course of which he made a sacrifice to the gods and he then laid out the citys boundaries with a furrow that he ploughed, performed another sacrifice, and with his followers set to work building the city itself. Romulus then sought the assent of the people to become their king, with Numitors help, he addressed them and received their approval. Romulus accepted the crown after he sacrificed and prayed to Jupiter, Romulus then divided the populace into three tribes, known as the Ramnes, Titienses, and Luceres, for taxation and military purposes. Each tribe was presided over by a known as a tribune. Romulus also allotted a portion of land to ward, for the benefit of the people
18.
Spelt
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Spelt, also known as dinkel wheat, or hulled wheat, is a species of wheat cultivated since approximately 5000 BC. Spelt is sometimes considered a subspecies of the related species common wheat. It is a wheat, which means it has six sets of chromosomes. Over the years 2004 to 2014, spelt gained widespread popularity as a substitute for making artisan breads, pasta. It is a species known from genetic evidence to have originated as a naturally occurring hybrid of a domesticated tetraploid wheat such as emmer wheat. The much later appearance of spelt in Europe might thus be the result of a later, second, recent DNA evidence supports an independent origin for European spelt through this hybridisation. Whether spelt has two origins in Asia and Europe, or single origin in the Near East, is currently unresolved. In Greek mythology spelt was a gift to the Greeks from the goddess Demeter, being a sailing people, the Greeks taught the rest of the world how to use, cultivate and honour zeiá. Remains of spelt have been found in some later Neolithic sites in Central Europe, during the Bronze Age, spelt spread widely in central Europe. In the Iron Age, spelt became a wheat species in southern Germany and Switzerland. References to the cultivation of wheat in Biblical times, in ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia and in ancient Greece are incorrect. In the Middle Ages, spelt was cultivated in parts of Switzerland, Tyrol, Spelt was introduced to the United States in the 1890s. In the 20th century, spelt was replaced by wheat in almost all areas where it was still grown. The organic farming movement revived its popularity somewhat toward the end of the century, in a 100 gram serving, uncooked spelt provides 338 calories and is an excellent source of protein, dietary fiber, several B vitamins and numerous dietary minerals. Richest nutrient contents include manganese, phosphorus and niacin, cooking substantially reduces many nutrient contents. Spelt contains about 70% total carbohydrates, including 11% as dietary fiber, in comparison to hard red winter wheat, spelt has a more soluble protein matrix characterized by a higher gliadin, glutenin ratio. Spelt flour is becoming more easily available, Spelt bread is sold in health food shops and some bakeries in an increasing variety of types of loaf, similar in colour to light rye breads but usually with a slightly sweet and nutty flavour. Biscuits, crackers, and pretzels are also produced, but are likely to be found in a specialty bakery or health food store than in a regular grocers shop
19.
Quirinalia
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In Roman mythology and religion, Quirinus is an early god of the Roman state. In Augustan Rome, Quirinus was also an epithet of Janus and his name may be derived from the Sabine word quiris spear. Quirinus is probably an adjective meaning wielder of the spear, other suggested etymologies are, from the Sabine town Cures, from curia, i. e. he was the god of the Roman state as represented by the thirty curies, first proposed by Krestchmer. Cook explains Quirinus as the oak-god, and Quirites as the men of the oaken spear, Quirinus was most likely a Sabine god of war. The Sabines had a settlement near the site of Rome. When the Romans settled in the area, the cult of Quirinus became part of their belief system. This occurred before the later influences from the classical Greek culture and he claimed that the king had instructed him to tell his countrymen that he, Romulus was Quirinus. By the end of the first century BC, Quirinus would be considered to be the legendary king. Historian it, Angelo Brelich has argued that Quirinus and Romulus were originally the same divine entity which was split into a founder hero and a god when Roman religion became demythicised. To support this, he points to the association of both Romulus and Quirinus with the grain spelt, through the Fornacalia or Stultorum Feriae, according to Ovids Fasti, the last day of the festival is called the Quirinalia and corresponds with the traditional day of Romulus death. On that day, the Romans would toast spelt as an offering to the goddess Fornax. In the traditional legend of Romulus death, he was killed and cut into pieces by the nobles and each of them took a part of his body home and buried it on their land. The association of Quirinus and Romulus is further supported by a connection with Vofionos, Vofionos would be the equivalent of Liber or Teutates, in Latium and among the Celts respectively. His early importance led to his inclusion in the first Capitoline Triad, along with Mars, overtime, however, he became less significant, and he was absent from the later, more widely known triad. Varro mentions the Capitolium Vetus, a cult site on the Quirinal, devoted to Jupiter, Juno and Minerva. Eventually, Romans began to favor personal and mystical cults over the official state belief system and these included those of Bacchus, Cybele, and Isis, leaving only his flamen to worship him. The Flamen Quirinalis who remained, however, were the flamines maiores who had oversight over the Pontifex Maximus. In earlier Roman art, he was portrayed as a man with religious
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Dema Deity
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Dema Deity is a concept introduced by Adolf Ellegard Jensen following his research on religious sacrifice. Jensen was a German ethnologist who furthered the theory of Cultural Morphology founded by Leo Frobenius, the term dema comes from the Marind-anim peoples of south-west Papua and has been used to refer to similar concepts in Melanesian Religion and elsewhere. Both local culture and natural environment remain permeated with the power of these creative deities. WILLIAMS, F. E. Drama of Orokolo, The Social and Ceremonial Life of the Elema, Oxford, Clarendon Press,1940. STREHLOW, T. G. H. Australia, in, C. J. Bleeker and G. Widengren, Historia Religionum, Handbook for the History of Religions, Leiden, Brill, vol. The Melanesians of British New Guinea, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press,1910, the Religion of Java, Glencoe, Ill, Free Press,1960, Chicago, Ill, University of Chicago Press,1976, ISBN 0-226-28510-3 JENSEN, E. The Iban and Their Religion, Oxford, Clarendon Press,1974,1975, ISBN 0-19-823179-2 POGNANT, R. Edgar. J
21.
Fratres Arvales
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In ancient Roman religion, the Arval Brethren or Arval Brothers were a body of priests who offered annual sacrifices to the Lares and gods to guarantee good harvests. Inscriptions provide evidence of their oaths, rituals and sacrifices, Roman legend held that the priestly college was originated by Romulus, who took the place of a dead son of his nurse Acca Laurentia, and formed the priesthood with the remaining eleven sons. They were also connected originally with the Sabine priesthood of Sodales Titii who were originally their counterpart among the Sabines. Their task was the worship of Dea Dia, an old fertility goddess, on the three days of her May festival, they offered sacrifices and chanted secretly inside the temple of the goddess at her lucus the Carmen Arvale. The magister of the selected the exact three days of the celebration by an unknown method. The celebration began in Rome on the first day, was transferred to a sacred grove outside the city wall on the second day, Arval Brethren formed a college of twelve priests, although archaeologists have found only up to nine names at a time in the inscriptions. They were appointed for life and did not lose their status even in exile, according to Pliny the Elder, their sign was a white band with the chaplet of sheaves of grain. The Brethren assembled in the Regia and their duties included ritual propitiations or thanksgivings as the Ambarvalia, the sacrifices done at the borders of Rome at the fifth mile of the Via Campana or Salaria. Archaic traits of the rituals included the prohibition of the use of iron, the importance of Arval Brethren apparently dwindled during the Roman Republic, but emperor Augustus revived their practices to enforce his own authority. After Augustus time emperors and senators frequented the festivities, at least two emperors, Marcus Aurelius and Elagabalus, were formally accepted as members of the Brethren. The first full descriptions of their rituals also originate from this time, the last inscriptions about the Arval Brethren date from about 325 AD. They were abolished along with Romes other traditional priesthoods by 400 AD
22.
Liber
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In ancient Roman religion and mythology, Liber /ˈlaɪbər/, also known as Liber Pater, was a god of viticulture and wine, fertility and freedom. He was a deity of Romes plebeians and was part of their Aventine Triad. His festival of Liberalia became associated with speech and the rights attached to coming of age. His cult and functions were increasingly associated with Romanised forms of the Greek Dionysus/Bacchus, in ancient Lavinium, he was a phallic deity. Latin liber means free, or the one, when coupled with pater, it means The Free Father. The word liber is also understood in regard of the libation, ritual offering of drink. Roman writers of the late Republic and early Empire offer various etymological and poetic speculations based on this trope, to explain certain features of Libers cult. According to Livy, the dictator A. Postumius vowed games, in 493 the vow was fulfilled, the new Aventine temple was dedicated and ludi scaenici were held in honour of Liber, for the benefit of the Roman people. These early ludi scaenici have been suggested as the earliest of their kind in Rome, the Aventine Triad has been described as parallel to the Capitoline Triad of Jupiter, Mars and Quirinus on the Capitoline Hill, within the citys sacred boundary, and as its copy and antithesis. The Aventine Triad was apparently installed at the behest of the Sibylline Books and he was a god of the grape and of wine, his early ludi scaenici virtually defined their genre thereafter as satirical, subversive theatre in a lawful religious context. Some aspects of his cults remained potentially un-Roman and offered a focus for civil disobedience, Libers associations with wine, inebriation, uninhibited freedom and the subversion of the powerful made him a close equivalent to the Greek god Dionysus, who was Romanised as Bacchus. In some cults, and probably in the imagination, Liber was gradually assimilated to Bacchus and came to share his Romanised Dionysian iconography. Pliny calls him the first to establish the practice of buying and selling, he invented the diadem, the emblem of royalty. Roman mosaics and sarcophagi attest to various representations of this exotic triumphal procession, very little is known of Libers official and unofficial cults during the early to middle Republican era. Their Dionysiac or Bacchic elements seem to have regarded as tolerably ancient, home-grown and manageable by Roman authorities until 186 BC. Livy, writing 200 years after the event, gives a highly theatrical account of the Bacchanalias introduction by a foreign soothsayer, the cult spreads in secret, like a plague. The lower classes, plebeians, women, the young, morally weak and effeminate males are particularly susceptible, all persons have leuitas animi. Livys dramatis personae, stylistic flourishes and tropes probably draw on Roman satyr-plays rather than the Bacchanalia themselves, nevertheless, their presence at the Aventine provoked an investigation
23.
Toutatis
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Toutatis or Teutates was a Celtic god worshipped in ancient Gaul and Britain. On the basis of his names etymology, he has been interpreted to be a tribal protector. Today, he is best known under the name Toutatis through the Gaulish oath/catchphrase By Toutatis, invented for the Asterix comics by Goscinny and Uderzo. The spelling Toutatis, however, is authentic and attested by about ten ancient inscriptions, under the spelling Teutates, the god is also known from a passage in Lucan. The name Teutates is derived from the stem teutā-, meaning people or tribe, Teutates was one of three Celtic gods mentioned by the Roman poet Lucan in the 1st century AD, the other two being Esus and Taranis. According to later commentators, victims sacrificed to Teutates were killed by being plunged headfirst into a vat filled with an unspecified liquid, present-day scholars frequently speak of the toutates as plural, referring respectively to the patrons of the several tribes. Of two later commentators on Lucans text, one identifies Teutates with Mercury, the other with Mars, Toutatis was worshipped especially in Gaul and in Roman Britain. Inscriptions to him have been recovered in the United Kingdom, for example that at Cumberland Quarries, dedicated to Jupiter Optimus Maximus, two dedications have also been found in Noricum and Rome. As noted above, among a pair of later scholiasts on Lucans work, one identifies Teutates with Mercury, at times the Gaulish “Mercury may have the characteristic of a warrior, while the Gaulish “Mars may act as a god of protection or healing. The distribution of these rings closely matches the territory of the Corieltauvi tribe, in 2005 a silver ring inscribed DEO TOTA and FELIX was discovered at Hockliffe, Bedfordshire. This inscription confirmed that the inscription TOT did indeed refer to the god Toutatis, in 2012 a silver ring inscribed TOT was found in the area where the Hallaton Treasure had been discovered twelve years earlier. Adam Daubney, an expert on this type of ring, suggests that Hallaton may have been a site of worship of the god Toutatis, interpretatio Romana Germanic Mercury 4179 Toutatis The dictionary definition of Toutatis at Wiktionary
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Capitoline Triad
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The Capitoline Triad was a group of three deities who were worshipped in ancient Roman religion in an elaborate temple on Romes Capitoline Hill. Two distinct Capitoline Triads were worshipped at various times in Romes history, the one most commonly referred to as the Capitoline Triad is the more recent of the two, consisting of Jupiter, Juno and Minerva. The earlier triad, sometimes referred to in modern scholarship as the Archaic Triad, consisted of Jupiter, Mars, each triad held a central place in the public religion of Rome during its time. The three deities who are most commonly referred to as the Capitoline Triad are a group that supplanted the original Archaic Triad. This group, mirroring the Etruscan divine triad, consisted of Jupiter, the king of the gods, Juno, his wife and sister, and Jupiters daughter Minerva, the goddess of wisdom. Unlike the earlier Archaic Triad, which was typical of a trio of supreme divine beings. It is almost certainly derived from the Etruscan trio of Tinia, the deity, Uni, his wife, and Menrva, their daughter. The earliest known example of a Capitolium outside of Italy was at Emporion in Spain, according to Ovid, Terminus also had a place there, since he had a shrine there before it was built and, as the god of boundary stones, refused to yield. The temple was built under the reign of Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, although the temple was shared by Jupiter, Juno and Minerva, each deity had a separate cella, with Juno Regina on the left, Minerva on the right, and Jupiter Optimus Maximus in the middle. It included a podium and a tetrastyle pronaos, another shrine dedicated to Jupiter, Juno Regina and Minerva was the Capitolium Vetus on the Quirinal Hill. It was thought to be older than the famous temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus on the Capitoline Hill. The original three deities thus worshipped, now commonly referred to as the Archaic Triad, were Jupiter, Mars. This structure was no longer detectable in later times, and only traces of it could be identified from various literary sources. However Wissowa did not pursue further the analysis of the meaning, however it had disappeared from most societies since prehistoric times, with the notable exception of India. Indra incarnated the military function and the twins Ashvins the function of production, wealth, fertility and pleasure. As recorded by sources and confirmed by archeological data it was devised to lodge the three major deities Iupiter, Mars, and Ops, the deity of agricultural plenty, in three separate rooms. The spolia opima were dedicated by the person who had killed the king or chief of the enemy in battle. They were dedicated to Jupiter in case the Roman was a king or his equivalent, to Mars in case he was an officer and to Quirinus in case he was common soldier
25.
Mars (mythology)
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In ancient Roman religion and myth, Mars was the god of war and also an agricultural guardian, a combination characteristic of early Rome. He was second in only to Jupiter and he was the most prominent of the military gods in the religion of the Roman army. Most of his festivals were held in March, the named for him, and in October. Under the influence of Greek culture, Mars was identified with the Greek god Ares, whose myths were reinterpreted in Roman literature and art under the name of Mars. But the character and dignity of Mars differed in fundamental ways from that of his Greek counterpart, Mars was a part of the Archaic Triad along with Jupiter and Quirinus, the latter of whom as a guardian of the Roman people had no Greek equivalent. Mars altar in the Campus Martius, the area of Rome that took its name from him, was supposed to have been dedicated by Numa, the peace-loving semi-legendary second king of Rome. Although Ares was viewed primarily as a destructive and destabilizing force, Mars represented military power as a way to secure peace, in the mythic genealogy and founding myths of Rome, Mars was the father of Romulus and Remus with Rhea Silvia. Like Ares who was the son of Zeus and Hera, Mars is usually considered to be the son of Jupiter, however, in a version of his birth given by Ovid, he was the son of Juno alone. Jupiter had usurped the mothers function when he gave birth to Minerva directly from his forehead, to restore the balance, Flora obtained a magic flower and tested it on a heifer who became fecund at once. She then plucked a flower ritually using her thumb, touched Junos belly, Juno withdrew to Thrace and the shore of Marmara for the birth. Ovid tells this story in the Fasti, his poetic work on the Roman calendar. In the earliest Roman calendar, March was the first month, Ovid is the only source for the story. The consort of Mars was Nerio or Nerine, Valor and she represents the vital force, power and majesty of Mars. Her name was regarded as Sabine in origin and is equivalent to Latin virtus, in the early 3rd century BC, the comic playwright Plautus has a reference to Mars greeting Nerio, his wife. A source from late antiquity says that Mars and Nerine were celebrated together at a festival held on March 23, in the later Roman Empire, Nerine came to be identified with Minerva. Nerio probably originates as a personification of Mars power, as such abstractions in Latin are generally feminine. Her name appears with that of Mars in an archaic prayer invoking a series of abstract qualities, the influence of Greek mythology and its anthropomorphic gods may have caused Roman writers to treat these pairs as marriages. The union of Venus and Mars held greater appeal for poets and philosophers, in Greek myth, the adultery of Ares and Aphrodite had been exposed to ridicule when her husband Hephaestus caught them in the act by means of a magical snare
26.
Jupiter (mythology)
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Jupiter, also Jove, is the god of sky and thunder and king of the gods in Ancient Roman religion and mythology. Jupiter was the deity of Roman state religion throughout the Republican and Imperial eras. In Roman mythology, he negotiates with Numa Pompilius, the king of Rome, to establish principles of Roman religion such as offering. Jupiter is usually thought to have originated as a sky god, the two emblems were often combined to represent the god in the form of an eagle holding in its claws a thunderbolt, frequently seen on Greek and Roman coins. As the sky-god, he was a witness to oaths. Many of his functions were focused on the Capitoline Hill, where the citadel was located and he was the chief deity of the early Capitoline Triad with Mars and Quirinus. In the later Capitoline Triad, he was the guardian of the state with Juno. His sacred tree was the oak, the Romans regarded Jupiter as the equivalent of the Greek Zeus, and in Latin literature and Roman art, the myths and iconography of Zeus are adapted under the name Iuppiter. In the Greek-influenced tradition, Jupiter was the brother of Neptune, each presided over one of the three realms of the universe, sky, the waters, and the underworld. The Italic Diespiter was also a sky god who manifested himself in the daylight, usually, Tinia is usually regarded as his Etruscan counterpart. The Romans believed that Jupiter granted them supremacy because they had honoured him more than any other people had, Jupiter was the fount of the auspices upon which the relationship of the city with the gods rested. He personified the divine authority of Romes highest offices, internal organization and his image in the Republican and Imperial Capitol bore regalia associated with Romes ancient kings and the highest consular and Imperial honours. The consuls swore their oath of office in Jupiters name, to thank him for his help, they offered him a white ox with gilded horns. A similar offering was made by generals, who surrendered the tokens of their victory at the feet of Jupiters statue in the Capitol. Some scholars have viewed the triumphator as embodying Jupiter in the triumphal procession, Jupiters association with kingship and sovereignty was reinterpreted as Romes form of government changed. Originally, Rome was ruled by kings, after the monarchy was abolished and the Republic established, religious prerogatives were transferred to the patres, nostalgia for the kingship was considered treasonous. Those suspected of harbouring monarchical ambitions were punished, regardless of their service to the state, in the 5th century BC, the triumphator Camillus was sent into exile after he drove a chariot with a team of four white horses —an honour reserved for Jupiter himself. His house on the Capitoline Hill was razed, and it was decreed that no patrician should ever be allowed to live there, during the Conflict of the Orders, Romes plebeians demanded the right to hold political and religious office
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Juno (mythology)
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Juno is an ancient Roman goddess, the protector and special counselor of the state. She is a daughter of Saturn and sister of the chief god Jupiter, Juno also looked after the women of Rome. As the patron goddess of Rome and the Roman Empire, Juno was called Regina and, together with Jupiter, Junos own warlike aspect among the Romans is apparent in her attire. She often appeared sitting pictured with an armed and wearing a goatskin cloak. The traditional depiction of this aspect was assimilated from the Greek goddess Athena. The name Juno was also thought to be connected to Iove, originally as Diuno. At the beginning of the 20th century, a derivation was proposed from iuven- and this etymology became widely accepted after it was endorsed by Georg Wissowa. Iuuen- is related to Latin aevum and Greek aion through a common Indo-European root referring to a concept of energy or fertile time. The iuvenis is he who has the fullness of vital force, in some inscriptions Jupiter himself is called Iuuntus, and one of the epithets of Jupiter is Ioviste, a superlative form of iuuen- meaning the youngest. Iuventas, Youth, was one of two deities who refused to leave the Capitol when the building of the new Temple of Capitoline Jove required the exauguration of deities who already occupied the site, Juno is the equivalent to Hera, the Greek goddess for love and marriage. Juno is the Roman goddess of love and marriage, Junos theology is one of the most complex and disputed issues in Roman religion. Even more than other major Roman deities, Juno held a number of significant and diverse epithets, names and titles representing various aspects. In accordance with her role as a goddess of marriage. However, other epithets of Juno have wider implications and are thematically linked. Juno is certainly the divine protectress of the community, who shows both a sovereign and a fertility character, often associated with a military one and she is also attested at Praeneste, Aricia, Ardea, Gabii. In five Latin towns a month was named after Juno, outside Latium in Campania at Teanum she was Populona, in Umbria at Pisaurum Lucina, at Terventum in Samnium Regina, at Pisarum Regina Matrona, at Aesernia in Samnium Regina Populona. In Rome she was since the most ancient times named Lucina, Mater and it is debated whether she was also known as Curitis before the evocatio of the Juno of Falerii, this though seems probable. Her various epithets thus show a complex of mutually interrelated functions that in the view of G, the ancient called her Covella in her function of helper in the labours of the new moon
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Minerva
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Minerva was the Roman goddess of wisdom and sponsor of arts, trade, and strategy. She was born with weapons from the head of Jupiter, after impregnating the titaness Metis, Jupiter recalled a prophecy that his own child would overthrow him. Fearing that their child would grow stronger than he and rule the Heavens in his place, the titaness forged weapons and armor for her child while within the father-god, and the constant pounding and ringing gave him a headache. To relieve the pain, Vulcan used a hammer to split Jupiters head and, from the cleft, Minerva emerged, whole, adult, from the 2nd century BC onwards, the Romans equated her with the Greek goddess Athena. She was the goddess of music, poetry, medicine, wisdom, commerce, weaving. She is often depicted with her sacred creature, an owl usually named as the owl of Minerva, stemming from an Italic moon goddess *Meneswā, the Etruscans adopted the inherited Old Latin name, *Menerwā, thereby calling her Menrva. It is assumed that her Roman name, Minerva, is based on this Etruscan mythology, Minerva was the goddess of wisdom, war, art, schools and commerce. She was the Etruscan counterpart to Greek Athena, like Athena, Minerva was born from the head of her father, Jupiter. The word mens is built from the Proto-Indo-European root *men- mind, the Etruscan Menrva was part of a holy triad with Tinia and Uni, equivalent to the Roman Capitoline Triad of Jupiter-Juno-Minerva. Minerva was the daughter of Jupiter, as Minerva Medica, she was the goddess of medicine and doctors. As Minerva Achaea, she was worshipped at Lucera in Apulia where votive gifts, in Fasti III, Ovid called her the goddess of a thousand works. Minerva was worshipped throughout Italy, and when she eventually became equated with the Greek goddess Athena, unlike Mars, god of war, she was sometimes portrayed with sword lowered, in sympathy for the recent dead, rather than raised in triumph. In Rome her bellicose nature was emphasized less than elsewhere and her worship was also spread throughout the empire—in Britain, for example, she was syncretized with the local goddess Sulis, who was often invoked for restitution for theft. The Romans celebrated her festival from March 19 to March 23 during the day which is called, in the plural, Quinquatria, the fifth after the Ides of March, the nineteenth. A lesser version, the Minusculae Quinquatria, was held on the Ides of June, June 13, by the flute-players, in 207 BC, a guild of poets and actors was formed to meet and make votive offerings at the temple of Minerva on the Aventine Hill. Among others, its members included Livius Andronicus, the Aventine sanctuary of Minerva continued to be an important center of the arts for much of the middle Roman Republic. When it was founded, the emperor himself was present and was believed to be of divine nature as a result of its construction, Minerva is featured on the coinage of different Roman Emperors. She is often represented on the side of a coin holding an owl
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Marcus Terentius Varro
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Marcus Terentius Varro was an ancient Roman scholar and writer. He is sometimes called Varro Reatinus to distinguish him from his younger contemporary Varro Atacinus, politically, he supported Pompey, reaching the office of praetor, after having been tribune of the people, quaestor and curule aedile. He was one of the commission of twenty that carried out the great scheme of Caesar for the resettlement of Capua. During the civil war he commanded one of Pompeys armies in the Ilerda campaign and he escaped the penalties of being on the losing side in the civil war through two pardons granted by Julius Caesar, before and after the Battle of Pharsalus. As the Republic gave way to Empire, Varro gained the favour of Augustus, under whose protection he found the security and quiet to devote himself to study, Varro studied under the Roman philologist Lucius Aelius Stilo, and later at Athens under the Academic philosopher Antiochus of Ascalon. Varro proved to be a productive writer and turned out more than 74 Latin works on a variety of topics. Among his many works, two stand out for historians, Nine Books of Disciplines and his compilation of the Varronian chronology and his Nine Books of Disciplines became a model for later encyclopedists, especially Pliny the Elder. The most noteworthy portion of the Nine Books of Disciplines is its use of the arts as organizing principles. Varro decided to focus on identifying nine of these arts, grammar, rhetoric, logic, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, musical theory, medicine, using Varros list, subsequent writers defined the seven classical liberal arts of the medieval schools. The compilation of the Varronian chronology was an attempt to determine an exact timeline of Roman history up to his time. It is based on the sequence of the consuls of the Roman Republic — supplemented. His only complete work extant, Rerum rusticarum libri tres, has described as the well digested system of an experienced and successful farmer who has seen. One noteworthy aspect of the work is his anticipation of microbiology and epidemiology, Varro warned his contemporaries to avoid swamps and marshland, since in such areas. There are bred certain minute creatures which cannot be seen by the eyes, but which float in the air and enter the body through the mouth and nose and cause serious diseases. 199–242, in the collection of Wilmanns, pp. 170–223, and in that of Funaioli, pp. 179–371. G. Kent Livius. org, Varronian chronology thelatinlibrary. com, Latin works of Varro
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Martial
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In these short, witty poems he cheerfully satirises city life and the scandalous activities of his acquaintances, and romanticises his provincial upbringing. He wrote a total of 1,561, of which 1,235 are in elegiac couplets, Martial has been called the greatest Latin epigrammatist, and is considered the creator of the modern epigram. Knowledge of his origins and early life are derived almost entirely from his works, which can be more or less dated according to the well-known events to which they refer. In Book X of his Epigrams, composed between 95 and 98, he mentions celebrating his birthday, hence he was born during March 38,39,40 or 41 AD. His place of birth was Augusta Bilbilis in Hispania Tarraconensis and his parents, Fronto and Flaccilla, appear to have died in his youth. Martial professes to be of the school of Catullus, Pedo, the epigram bears to this day the form impressed upon it by his unrivalled skill in wordsmithing. The success of his countrymen may have been what motivated Martial to move to Rome, from Hispania, once he had completed his education. This move occurred in AD64, in which Seneca the Younger and Lucan may have served as his first patrons, not much is known of the details of his life for the first twenty years or so after he came to Rome. He published some poems of which he thought very little in his later years. Martial had neither youthful passion nor youthful enthusiasm to precociously mold him a poet and he made many influential friends and patrons and secured the favor of both Titus and Domitian. From them he obtained various privileges, among others the semestris tribunatus, the earliest of his extant works, known as Liber spectaculorum, was first published at the opening of the Colosseum in the reign of Titus. It relates to the performances given by him, but the book as it now stands was presented to the world in or about the first year of Domitian, i. e. about the year 81. The two books, numbered by editors xiii. and xiv. and known by the names of Xenia, in 86 he bore for the world the first two of the twelve books on which his pendulous and sterling reputation rests. From that time till his return to Hispania in 98 he published a volume almost every year. The first nine books and the first edition of Book X. appeared in the reign of Domitian, Book XI. appeared at the end of 96, shortly after the accession of Nerva. A revised edition of book X. that which we now possess extant, appeared in 98, the last book was written after three years absence in Hispania, shortly before his lamentable death, which happened about the year 102 or 103. These twelve books bring Martials ordinary mode of life between the age of forty-five and sixty very fully before us for leisurely consideration of a Sunday afternoon and his regular home for thirty-five years was the bustle of metropolitan Rome. He lived at first up three flights of stairs, and his garret overlooked the laurels in front of the portico of Agrippa
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Dionysus
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Dionysus is the god of the grape harvest, winemaking and wine, of ritual madness, fertility, theatre and religious ecstasy in ancient Greek religion and myth. Wine played an important role in Greek culture, and the cult of Dionysus was the religious focus for its unrestrained consumption. He may have been worshipped as early as c, 1500–1100 BC by Mycenean Greeks, traces of Dionysian-type cult have also been found in ancient Minoan Crete. His origins are uncertain, and his cults took many forms, some are described by ancient sources as Thracian, in some cults, he arrives from the east, as an Asiatic foreigner, in others, from Ethiopia in the South. He is a god of epiphany, the god that comes and his festivals were the driving force behind the development of Greek theatre. The earliest cult images of Dionysus show a male, bearded and robed. He holds a staff, tipped with a pine-cone and known as a thyrsus. Later images show him as a beardless, sensuous, naked or half-naked androgynous youth, in its fully developed form, his central cult imagery shows his triumphant, disorderly arrival or return, as if from some place beyond the borders of the known and civilized. His procession is made up of female followers and bearded satyrs with erect penises, some are armed with the thyrsus. The god himself is drawn in a chariot, usually by exotic beasts such as lions or tigers and this procession is presumed to be the cult model for the followers of his Dionysian Mysteries. He is also known as Bacchus, the adopted by the Romans. His thyrsus, sometimes wound with ivy and dripping with honey, is both a beneficent wand and a used to destroy those who oppose his cult and the freedoms he represents. As Eleutherios, his wine, music and ecstatic dance free his followers from self-conscious fear and care and those who partake of his mysteries are possessed and empowered by the god himself. The cult of Dionysus is also a cult of the souls, his maenads feed the dead through blood-offerings and he is sometimes categorised as a dying-and-rising god. Some scholars believe that Dionysus is a syncretism of a local Greek nature deity, Dionysus had a strange birth that evokes the difficulty in fitting him into the Olympian pantheon. His mother was a woman, Semele, the daughter of king Cadmus of Thebes, and his father was Zeus. Zeus wife, Hera, discovered the affair while Semele was pregnant, appearing as an old crone, Hera befriended Semele, who confided in her that Zeus was the actual father of the baby in her womb. Hera pretended not to believe her, and planted seeds of doubt in Semeles mind, curious, Semele demanded of Zeus that he reveal himself in all his glory as proof of his godhood
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Cybele
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Cybele is an Anatolian mother goddess, she may have a possible precursor in the earliest neolithic at Çatalhöyük, where statues of obese women, sometimes sitting, have been found in excavations. She is Phrygias only known goddess, and was probably its state deity and her Phrygian cult was adopted and adapted by Greek colonists of Asia Minor and spread to mainland Greece and its more distant western colonies around the 6th century BC. In Greece, Cybele met with a mixed reception and she was partially assimilated to aspects of the Earth-goddess Gaia, her Minoan equivalent Rhea, and the Harvest-Mother goddess Demeter. Uniquely in Greek religion, she had a eunuch mendicant priesthood, many of her Greek cults included rites to a divine Phrygian castrate shepherd-consort Attis, who was probably a Greek invention. In Greece, Cybele is associated with mountains, town and city walls, fertile nature, in Rome, Cybele was known as Magna Mater. The Roman State adopted and developed a form of her cult after the Sibylline oracle recommended her conscription as a key religious component in Romes second war against Carthage. Roman mythographers reinvented her as a Trojan goddess, and thus an ancestral goddess of the Roman people by way of the Trojan prince Aeneas, with Romes eventual hegemony over the Mediterranean world, Romanised forms of Cybeles cults spread throughout the Roman Empire. The meaning and morality of her cults and priesthoods were topics of debate and dispute in Greek and Roman literature, no contemporary text or myth survives to attest the original character and nature of Cybeles Phrygian cult. Cybele may have evolved from an Anatolian Mother Goddess of a type found at Çatalhöyük, in Phrygian art of the 8th century BC, the cult attributes of the Phrygian mother-goddess include attendant lions, a bird of prey, and a small vase for her libations or other offerings. She is ancient Phrygias only known goddess, and was probably the highest deity of the Phrygian State, in the 2nd century AD, the geographer Pausanias attests to a Magnesian cult to the Mother of the Gods, whose image was carved into a rock-spur of Mount Sipylus. This was believed to be the oldest image of the goddess and this was the aniconic stone that was removed to Rome in 204 BC. In this view, the desire to harness her power led to her installation as a goddess of the city by Anatolian elites. To show her role as protector of cities, or city states, she was shown wearing a Mural Crown. At the same time, her power transcended any purely political usage, over time, her Phrygian cults and iconography were transformed, and eventually subsumed, by the influences and interpretations of her foreign devotees, at first Greek and later Roman. The Greeks called her Mātēr or Mētēr, or from the early 5th century Kubelē, in Pindar, walter Burkert places her among the foreign gods of Greek religion, a complex figure combining the Minoan-Mycenaean tradition with the Phrygian cult imported directly from Asia Minor. In Greece, as in Phrygia, she was a Mistress of animals, with her mastery of the world expressed by the lions that flank her. She was readily assimilated to the Minoan-Greek earth-mother Rhea, Mother of the gods, whose raucous, as an exemplar of devoted motherhood, she was partly assimilated to the grain-goddess Demeter, whose torchlight procession recalled her search for her lost daughter, Persephone. As with other deities viewed as foreign introductions, the spread of Cybeles cult was attended by conflict and her cults most often were funded privately, rather than by the polis, and her vivid and forceful character and association with the wild set her apart from the Olympian gods
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Isis
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Isis is a goddess from the polytheistic pantheon of Egypt. She was first worshiped in ancient Egyptian religion, and later her worship spread throughout the Roman Empire, Isis was worshipped as the ideal mother and wife as well as the patroness of nature and magic. She was the friend of slaves, sinners, artisans and the downtrodden, Isis is often depicted as the mother of Horus, the falcon-headed deity associated with king and kingship. Isis is also known as protector of the dead and goddess of children, as the personification of the throne, she was an important representation of the pharaohs power. The pharaoh was depicted as her child, who sat on the throne she provided. Her cult was popular throughout Egypt, but her most important temples were at Behbeit El Hagar in the Nile delta, and, beginning in the reign with Nectanebo I, on the island of Philae in Upper Egypt. In the typical form of her myth, Isis was the first daughter of Geb, god of the Earth, and Nut, goddess of the Sky and she married her brother, Osiris, and she conceived Horus with him. Isis was instrumental in the resurrection of Osiris when he was murdered by Set, using her magical skills, she restored his body to life after having gathered the body parts that had been strewn about the earth by Set. This myth became very important during the Greco-Roman period, for example, it was believed that the Nile River flooded every year because of the tears of sorrow which Isis wept for Osiris. Osiriss death and rebirth was relived each year through rituals, the worship of Isis eventually spread throughout the Greco-Roman world, continuing until the suppression of paganism in the Christian era. The popular motif of Isis suckling her son Horus, however, the Greek name version of Isis is close to her original, Egyptian name spelling. Isis name was written with the signs of a throne seat. The grammar, spelling and used signs of Isis name never changed during time in any way, however, the symbolic and metaphoric meaning of Isis name remains unclear. The throne seat sign in her name might point to a role as a goddess of kingship. Thus, her name could mean she of the kings throne, but all other Egyptian deities have names that point to clear cosmological or nature elemental roles, thus the name of Isis shouldnt be connected to the king himself. The throne seat symbol might alternatively point to a meaning as throne-mother of the gods and this in turn would supply a very old existence of Isis, long before her first mentioning during the late Old Kingdom, but this hypothesis remains unproven. A third possible meaning might be hidden in the egg-symbol, that was used in Isis name. The egg-symbol always represented motherhood, implying a role of Isis
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Pontifex Maximus
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The Pontifex Maximus was the high priest of the College of Pontiffs in ancient Rome. This was the most important position in the ancient Roman religion, open only to patricians until 254 BC, a distinctly religious office under the early Roman Republic, it gradually became politicized until, beginning with Augustus, it was subsumed into the Imperial office. Its last use with reference to the emperors is in inscriptions of Gratian who, however, although the most influential office within Roman priesthood, the pontifex maximus was ranked the fifth in the ranking of the highest Roman priests, behind the rex sacrorum and the flamines maiores. It is not included in the Popes official titles, but appears on buildings, monuments and coins of popes of Renaissance, according to the usual interpretation, the term pontifex literally means bridge-builder, maximus literally means greatest. However, it was understood in its symbolic sense as well. The last derivation is mentioned also by Varro, who rejected it, others have held that the word was originally pompifex. The word pons originally meant way and pontifex would thus mean maker of roads, another opinion is that the word is a corruption of a similar-sounding but etymologically unrelated Etruscan word for priest. Yet another hypothesis considers the word as a loan from the Sabine language, in which it would mean a member of a college of five, from Osco-Umbrian ponte, the pontifex would thence be a member of a sacrificial college known as pomperia. The term ἀρχιερεύς is used in the Septuagint text of the Old Testament, the Collegium Pontificum was the most important priesthood of ancient Rome. The foundation of this college and the office of Pontifex Maximus is attributed to the second king of Rome. Much of what is known about the Regal period in Roman history is semi-legendary or mythical, the Collegium presumably acted as advisers to the rex in religious matters. The collegium was headed by the pontifex maximus, and all the pontifices held their office for life, Numa is said to have founded Roman religion after dedicating an altar on the Aventine Hill to Jupiter Elicius and consulting the gods by means of augury. Numa wrote down and sealed these religious instructions, and gave them to the first Pontifex Maximus, in the Roman Republic, the Pontifex Maximus was the highest office in the state religion of ancient Rome and directed the College of Pontiffs. The rex sacrorum was explicitly deprived of military and political power, the official residence of the Pontifex Maximus was the Domus Publica which stood between the House of the Vestal Virgins and the Via Sacra, close to the Regia, in the Roman Forum. His religious duties were carried out from the Regia, unless the pontifex maximus was also a magistrate at the same time, he was not allowed to wear the toga praetexta, i. e. toga with the purple border. The Pontifex was not simply a priest and he had both political and religious authority. It is not clear which of the two came first or had the most importance, in practice, particularly during the late Republic, the office of Pontifex Maximus was generally held by a member of a politically prominent family. It was a position mainly for the great prestige it conferred on the holder, Julius Caesar became pontifex in 73 BC
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Art
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In their most general form these activities include the production of works of art, the criticism of art, the study of the history of art, and the aesthetic dissemination of art. The oldest documented forms of art are visual arts, which include creation of images or objects in fields including painting, sculpture, printmaking, photography, and other visual media. Music, theatre, film, dance, and other performing arts, as well as literature, until the 17th century, art referred to any skill or mastery and was not differentiated from crafts or sciences. Art may be characterized in terms of mimesis, expression, communication of emotion, during the Romantic period, art came to be seen as a special faculty of the human mind to be classified with religion and science. Though the definition of what art is disputed and has changed over time, general descriptions mention an idea of imaginative or technical skill stemming from human agency. The nature of art, and related such as creativity. One early sense of the definition of art is related to the older Latin meaning. English words derived from this meaning include artifact, artificial, artifice, medical arts, however, there are many other colloquial uses of the word, all with some relation to its etymology. Several dialogues in Plato tackle questions about art, Socrates says that poetry is inspired by the muses, and is not rational. He speaks approvingly of this, and other forms of divine madness in the Phaedrus, and yet in the Republic wants to outlaw Homers great poetic art, in Ion, Socrates gives no hint of the disapproval of Homer that he expresses in the Republic. For example, music imitates with the media of rhythm and harmony, whereas dance imitates with rhythm alone, the forms also differ in their object of imitation. Comedy, for instance, is an imitation of men worse than average. Lastly, the forms differ in their manner of imitation—through narrative or character, through change or no change, Aristotle believed that imitation is natural to mankind and constitutes one of mankinds advantages over animals. The second, and more recent, sense of the art as an abbreviation for creative art or fine art emerged in the early 17th century. The creative arts are a collection of disciplines which produce artworks that are compelled by a drive and convey a message, mood. Art is something that stimulates an individuals thoughts, emotions, beliefs, works of art can be explicitly made for this purpose or interpreted on the basis of images or objects. Often, if the skill is being used in a common or practical way, likewise, if the skill is being used in a commercial or industrial way, it may be considered commercial art instead of fine art. On the other hand, crafts and design are considered applied art
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Myrtus
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Myrtus, with the common name myrtle, is a genus of flowering plants in the family Myrtaceae, described by Linnaeus in 1753. Over 600 names have been proposed in the genus, but nearly all have either moved to other genera or been regarded as synonyms. The Myrtus genus has three species recognised today, Myrtus communis — Common myrtle, native to the Mediterranean region in southern Europe, Myrtus nivellei — Saharan myrtle, native to North Africa. Myrtus phyllireaefolia Myrtus communis, the myrtle, is native across the Mediterranean region, Macaronesia, western Asia. The plant is a shrub or small tree, growing to 5 metres tall. The leaf is entire, 3–5 cm long, with a fragrant essential oil, the star-like flower has five petals and sepals, and numerous stamens. The flower is pollinated by insects, the fruit is a round berry containing several seeds, most commonly blue-black in colour. A variety with yellow-amber berries is also present, the seeds are dispersed by birds that eat the berries. Myrtus nivellei, the Saharan myrtle, is endemic to the mountains of the central Sahara Desert and it is found in a restricted range in the Tassili nAjjer Mountains in southern Algeria, and the Tibesti Mountains in northern Chad. It occurs in areas of sparse relict woodland at montaine elevations above the central Saharan desert plains. It is a medicinal plant for the Tuareg people. Myrtus communis, the myrtle, is widely cultivated as an ornamental plant for use as a shrub in gardens. It is often used as a plant, with its small leaves shearing cleanly. When trimmed less frequently, it has numerous flowers in late summer and it requires a long hot summer to produce its flowers, and protection from winter frosts. The species and the subspecies M. communis subsp, tarentina have gained the Royal Horticultural Societys Award of Garden Merit. Myrtus communis, the myrtle, is used in the islands of Sardinia. Many Mediterranean pork dishes include Myrtle berries, and roasted baby pig is often stuffed with myrtle sprigs in the belly cavity, the berries, whole or ground, have been used as a pepper substitute. They contribute to the flavor of Mortadella sausage and the related American Bologna sausage
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Festival
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A festival is an event ordinarily celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect of that community and its religion or traditions. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, mela, next to religion and folklore, a significant origin is agricultural. Food is such a resource that many festivals are associated with harvest time. Religious commemoration and thanksgiving for good harvests are blended in events that take place in autumn, such as Halloween in the northern hemisphere, Festivals often serve to fulfill specific communal purposes, especially in regard to commemoration or thanksgiving. The celebrations offer a sense of belonging for religious, social, or geographical groups and they may also provide entertainment, which was particularly important to local communities before the advent of mass-produced entertainment. In Ancient Greece and Rome, festivals such as the Saturnalia were closely associated with social organisation, in modern times, festivals may be attended by strangers such as tourists, who are attracted to some of the more eccentric or historical ones. The word festival was used as an adjective from the late fourteenth century. In Middle English, a festival dai was a religious holiday and its first recorded used as a noun was in 1589. Feast first came into usage as a noun circa 1200, the term feast is also used in common secular parlance as a synonym for any large or elaborate meal. When used as in the meaning of a festival, most often refers to a religious rather than a film or art festival. In the Philippines and many other former Spanish colonies, the Spanish word fiesta is used to denote a religious feast to honor a patron saint. Many festivals have religious origins and entwine cultural and religious significance in traditional activities, the most important religious festivals such as Christmas, Rosh Hashanah, Diwali, and Eid al-Adha serve to mark out the year. Others, such as harvest festivals, celebrate seasonal change, events of historical significance, such as important military victories or other nation-building events also provide the impetus for a festival. An early example is the established by Ancient Egyptian Pharaoh Rameses III celebrating his victory over the Libyans. In many countries, royal holidays commemorate dynastic events just as agricultural holidays are about harvests, there are numerous types of festivals in the world and most countries celebrate important events or traditions with traditional cultural events and activities. Most culminate in the consumption of specially prepared food and they bring people together, Festivals are also strongly associated with national holidays. Lists of national festivals are published to make participation easier, among many religions, a feast is a set of celebrations in honour of Gods or God. A feast and a festival are historically interchangeable, the Sed festival, for example, celebrated the thirtieth year of an Egyptian pharaohs rule and then every three years after that
38.
House of Savoy
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The House of Savoy is one of the oldest royal families in the world, being founded in 1003 in the historical Savoy region. Through gradual expansion, it grew from ruling a small county in that region to the attainment of the rank of king in 1713, the Savoyard kings of Italy were Victor Emmanuel II, Umberto I, Victor Emmanuel III, and Umberto II. The last monarch ruled for a few weeks before being deposed following the Constitutional Referendum of 1946, the name derives from the historical region of Savoy in the Alpine region between what is now France and Italy. Over time, the House of Savoy expanded its territory and influence through judicious marriages, from rule of a small region on the French/Italian border, the dynastys realm included nearly all of the Italian Peninsula by the time of its deposition. The house descended from Humbert I, Count of Sabaudia, Humberts family are thought to have originated from near Magdeburg in Saxony, with the earliest recording of the family being two 10th century brothers, Amadeus and Humbert. Though Sabaudia was originally a county, later counts were diplomatically skilled. Two of Humberts sons were bishops at the Abbey of Saint Maurice on the River Rhone east of Lake Geneva and this diplomatic skill caused the great powers such as France, England, and Spain to take the counts opinions into account. Piedmont was later joined with Sabaudia, and the name evolved into Savoy, the people of Savoy were descended from the Celts and Romans. In 1494, Charles VIII of France passed through Savoy on his way to Italy and Naples, during the outbreak of the Italian war of 1521-1526, Emperor Charles V stationed imperial troops in Savoy. In 1536, Francis I of France invaded Savoy and Piedmont taking Turin by April of that year, Charles III, Duke of Savoy, fled to Vercelli. He served Philip II as Governor of the Netherlands from 1555 to 1559, in this capacity he led the Spanish invasion of northern France and won a victory at St. Quentin in 1557. He took advantage of various squabbles in Europe to slowly regain territory from both the French and the Spanish, including the city of Turin and he moved the capital of the duchy from Chambéry to Turin. The 17th century brought economic development to the Turin area. Charles Emmanuel II developed the port of Nice and built a road through the Alps towards France, and through skillful political manoeuvres territorial expansion continued. Savoy rule over Sicily lasted only seven years, the crown of Sicily, the prestige of being kings at last, and the wealth of Palermo helped strengthen the House of Savoy further. In 1720 they were forced to exchange Sicily for Sardinia as a result of the War of the Quadruple Alliance, on the mainland, the dynasty continued its expansionist policies as well. In 1798, Joubert occupied Turin and forced Charles Emmanuel IV to abdicate, eventually, in 1814 the kingdom was restored and enlarged with the addition of the former Republic of Genoa by the Congress of Vienna. In the meantime, nationalist figures such as Giuseppe Mazzini were influencing popular opinion, the Kingdom of Italy was the first Italian state to include the Italian Peninsula since the fall of the Roman Empire
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President of Italy
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The President of the Italian Republic is the head of state of Italy and, in that role, represents national unity and guarantees that Italian politics comply with the Constitution. The presidents term of office lasts for seven years, the 11th President of the Republic, Giorgio Napolitano, was elected on 10 May 2006, and elected to a second term for the first time in Italian Republic history, on 20 April 2013. On 31 January 2015, the incumbent President, former Constitutional judge Sergio Mattarella, was elected at the ballot with 665 votes out of 1,009. The framers of the Constitution of Italy intended for the President to be a statesman of some stature. Article 84 states that any citizen who is fifty or older on election day and enjoys civil and those citizens who already hold any other office are prohibited from becoming President unless they resign their previous office once they are elected. The 1948 Italian Constitution does not have term limits although until 2013 no Italian President of the Republic had run for a term of office. He made it clear, however, that he would not serve his full term, three representatives come from each region, save for the Aosta Valley, which appoints one, so as to guarantee representation for all localities and minorities. According to the Constitution, the election must be held by a ballot, with the 315 Senators, the 630 Deputies. A two-thirds vote is required to elect on any of the first three rounds of balloting, after that, a majority suffices. The election is presided over by the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, the vote is held in the Palazzo Montecitorio, home of the Chamber of Deputies, which is expanded and re-configured for the event. The President assumes office after having taken an oath before Parliament, the Presidents term may end by, voluntary resignation, death, permanent disability, due to serious illness, dismissal, as for crimes of high treason or an attack on the Constitution. Former Presidents of the Republic are called Presidents Emeritus of the Republic and are appointed Senator for life, in the absence of the President of the Republic, including travel abroad, presidential functions are performed by the President of the Senate. In judicial matters, Presiding over the Consiglio Superiore della Magistratura, Naming one-third of the Constitutional Court, in practice, the Presidents office is mostly, though not entirely, ceremonial. Many of the others are duties that he is required to perform, however, pardons and commutations have been recognized as autonomous powers of the President. The President resides in Rome at the Quirinal Palace, and also has at his disposal the presidential holdings of Castelporziano, near Rome, and Villa Rosebery, in Naples. There is one living former Italian President, Italian presidential election,2015 List of Presidents of Italy Wife of the President of the Italian Republic Official site
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Adolf Ellegard Jensen
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Adolf Ellegard Jensen was one of the most important German ethnologists of the first half of the 20th century. Jensens main research interests were myth, ritual and cult and he furthered the theory of Cultural Morphology founded by Leo Frobenius. Jensen is mostly known for his research on religious sacrifice that led him to the introduction of the concept of Dema Deity and his best-known work is Myth and Cult Among Primitive Peoples, published in 1951. Jensen studied physics in Kiel and in Bonn, concluding his studies with a dissertation on Max Planck, one year later he became acquainted with Leo Frobenius and became his faithful disciple. He became a full-time ethnologist after publishing a paper on circumcision and he held a teaching position at the University of Frankfurt beginning in 1925. However, his appointment fell through owing to the opposition of the Nazi authorities, finally in 1945, after Nazi Germanys defeat in World War II, Jensen was appointed Director of the Frobenius Institute, as well as Director of Frankfurts Museum of Ethnology. He would keep both posts until his death, together with fellow ethnologist Franz Termer, Jensen reestablished the German Anthropological Association which he led between 1947 and 1954. At the center of his work stood the concepts of emotion, expression and application. His criticism was directed mainly against cultural evolutionism, as well as other theories in ethnology and anthropology. He argued against those scholars who sustained that there is a primitive mentality distinct from modern methods of thought, Jensen is renowned for having introduced the concept of Dema deity, a term that he took from the language of the Marind-anim people of New Guinea, in ethnology. Jensen identifies the veneration of Dema deities in the context of different cultures worldwide. He assumes that it back to the Neolithic revolution in the early history of mankind. Jensen developed this concept through the Hainuwele legend, an important origin myth from the folklore of the Wemale people in Seram that he himself recorded. This myth was recorded by Jensen along with other myths of the oral tradition of the Maluku Islands during a 1937–8 Frobenius Institute expedition. Jensen also made important contributions to the ethnography of Southern Ethiopia during his travels in 1951 and 1955 and he died shortly after he retired in 1965. Strecker & Schröder, Stuttgart 1933 Im Lande des Gada, strecker & Schröder, Stuttgart 1936 Hainuwele. Klostermann, Frankfurt 1939 Die drei Ströme, züge aus dem geistigen und religiösen Leben der Wemale, einem Primitiv-Volk in den Molukken. Harrassowitz, Leipzig 1948 Das religiöse Weltbild einer frühen Kultur, newly edited as, Die getötete Gottheit
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Quirinus". Encyclopædia Britannica. 22 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the 
