1.
Canton of Raetia
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Raetia was the name of a canton of the Helvetic Republic from 1798 to 1803, corresponding to modern Graubünden and composed of the Free State of the Three Leagues. Until 1799, the canton was administered by the government of the Helvetic Republic. The districts subsequently joined the Austrian client kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia after the Congress of Vienna, the town of Campione was detached from the Landvogtei of Lugano at the same time, leading to its current position as an Italian enclave within Ticino. With the Napoleonic Act of Mediation in 1803, the canton was reestablished as Graubünden, finally incorporating the Three Leagues into a decentralized, canton of Graubünden in Romansh, German, French and Italian in the online Historical Dictionary of Switzerland
2.
Roman province
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In Ancient Rome, a province was the basic, and, until the Tetrarchy, largest territorial and administrative unit of the empires territorial possessions outside of Italy. The word province in modern English has its origins in the used by the Romans. Provinces were generally governed by politicians of senatorial rank, usually former consuls or former praetors and this exception was unique, but not contrary to Roman law, as Egypt was considered Augustus personal property, following the tradition of earlier, Hellenistic kings. The territory of a people who were defeated in war might be brought under various forms of treaty, the formal annexation of a territory created a province in the modern sense of an administrative unit geographically defined. Republican provinces were administered in one-year terms by the consuls and praetors who had held office the previous year, Rome started expanding beyond Italy during the First Punic War. The first permanent provinces to be annexed were Sicily in 241 BC, militarized expansionism kept increasing the number of these administrative provinces, until there were no longer enough qualified individuals to fill the posts. The terms of provincial governors often had to be extended for multiple years,241 BC – Sicilia taken over from the Carthaginians and annexed at the end of the First Punic War. 237 BC – Corsica et Sardinia, these two islands were taken over from the Carthaginians and annexed soon after the Mercenary War, in 238 BC and 237 BC respectively. 197 BC – Hispania Citerior, along the east coast of the,197 BC - Hispania Ulterior, along the southern coast of the, part of the territories taken over from the Carthaginians in the Second Punic War. 147 BC – Macedonia, mainland Greece and it was annexed after a rebellion by the Achaean League. 146 BC – Africa, modern day Tunisia and western Libya, home territory of Carthage and it was annexed following attacks on the allied Greek city of Massalia. 67 BC – Creta et Cyrenae, Cyrenaica was bequeathed to Rome in 78 BC, however, it was not organised as a province. 58 BC – Cilicia et Cyprus, Cilicia was created as a province in the sense of area of command in 102 BC in a campaign against piracy. The Romans controlled only a small area, in 74 BC Lycia and Pamphylia were added to the smal Roman possessions in Cilicia. Cilicia came fully under Roman control towards the end of the Third Mithridatic War - 73-63 BC, the province was reorganised by Pompey in 63 BC. Gallia Cisalpina was a province in the sense of an area of military command, during Romes expansion in Italy the Romans assigned some areas as provinces in the sense of areas of military command assigned to consuls or praetors due to risks of rebellions or invasions. This was applied to Liguria because there was a series of rebellions, Bruttium, in the early days of Roman presence in Gallia Cisalpina the issue was rebellion. Later the issue was risk of invasions by warlike peoples east of Italy, the city of Aquileia was founded to protect northern Italy form invasions
3.
Roman Empire
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Civil wars and executions continued, culminating in the victory of Octavian, Caesars adopted son, over Mark Antony and Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC and the annexation of Egypt. Octavians power was then unassailable and in 27 BC the Roman Senate formally granted him overarching power, the imperial period of Rome lasted approximately 1,500 years compared to the 500 years of the Republican era. The first two centuries of the empires existence were a period of unprecedented political stability and prosperity known as the Pax Romana, following Octavians victory, the size of the empire was dramatically increased. After the assassination of Caligula in 41, the senate briefly considered restoring the republic, under Claudius, the empire invaded Britannia, its first major expansion since Augustus. Vespasian emerged triumphant in 69, establishing the Flavian dynasty, before being succeeded by his son Titus and his short reign was followed by the long reign of his brother Domitian, who was eventually assassinated. The senate then appointed the first of the Five Good Emperors, the empire reached its greatest extent under Trajan, the second in this line. A period of increasing trouble and decline began with the reign of Commodus, Commodus assassination in 192 triggered the Year of the Five Emperors, of which Septimius Severus emerged victorious. The assassination of Alexander Severus in 235 led to the Crisis of the Third Century in which 26 men were declared emperor by the Roman Senate over a time span. It was not until the reign of Diocletian that the empire was fully stabilized with the introduction of the Tetrarchy, which saw four emperors rule the empire at once. This arrangement was unsuccessful, leading to a civil war that was finally ended by Constantine I. Constantine subsequently shifted the capital to Byzantium, which was renamed Constantinople in his honour and it remained the capital of the east until its demise. Constantine also adopted Christianity which later became the state religion of the empire. However, Augustulus was never recognized by his Eastern colleague, and separate rule in the Western part of the empire ceased to exist upon the death of Julius Nepos. The Eastern Roman Empire endured for another millennium, eventually falling to the Ottoman Turks in 1453, the Roman Empire was among the most powerful economic, cultural, political and military forces in the world of its time. It was one of the largest empires in world history, at its height under Trajan, it covered 5 million square kilometres. It held sway over an estimated 70 million people, at that time 21% of the entire population. Throughout the European medieval period, attempts were made to establish successors to the Roman Empire, including the Empire of Romania, a Crusader state. Rome had begun expanding shortly after the founding of the republic in the 6th century BC, then, it was an empire long before it had an emperor
4.
Ostrogoths
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The Ostrogoths were the eastern branch of the later Goths. They built an empire stretching from the Black Sea to the Baltic, the Ostrogoths were probably literate in the 3rd century, and their trade with the Romans was highly developed. Their Danubian kingdom reached its zenith under King Ermanaric, who is said to have committed suicide at an old age when the Huns attacked his people and subjugated them in about 370. After their annexation by the Huns, little is heard of the Ostrogoths for about 80 years, after the collapse of the Hun empire after the Battle of Nedao, Ostrogoths migrated westwards towards Illyria and the borders of Italy, while some remained in the Crimea. During the late 5th and 6th centuries, under Theodoric the Great most of the Ostrogoths moved first to Moesia, in 493, Theodoric the Great established a kingdom in Italy. A period of instability then ensued, tempting the Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian to declare war on the Ostrogoths in 535 in an effort to restore the western provinces of the Roman Empire. Initially, the Byzantines were successful, but under the leadership of Totila, the war lasted for almost 20 years and caused enormous damage and depopulation of Italy. The remaining Ostrogoths were absorbed into the Lombards who established a kingdom in Italy in 568, a division of the Goths is first attested in 291. The Tervingi are first attested around that date, the Greuthungi, Vesi, the Ostrogoths are first named in a document dated September 392 from Milan. Claudian mentions that they together with the Greuthungi inhabit Phrygia, according to Herwig Wolfram, the primary sources either use the terminology of Tervingi/Greuthungi or Vesi/Ostrogothi and never mix the pairs. All four names were used together, but the pairing was always preserved, as in Gruthungi, Ostrogothi, Tervingi and that the Tervingi were the Vesi/Visigothi and the Greuthungi the Ostrogothi is also supported by Jordanes. This interpretation, however, though common among scholars today, is not universal. Both Herwig Wolfram and Thomas Burns conclude that the terms Tervingi and Greuthungi were geographical identifiers used by each tribe to describe the other and this terminology therefore dropped out of use after the Goths were displaced by the Hunnic invasions. In support of this, Wolfram cites Zosimus as referring to a group of Scythians north of the Danube who were called Greuthungi by the north of the Ister. Wolfram asserts that it was the Tervingi who remained behind after the Hunnic conquest and he further believes that the terms Vesi and Ostrogothi were used by the peoples to boastfully describe themselves. On this understanding, the Greuthungi and Ostrogothi were more or less the same people, the nomenclature of Greuthungi and Tervingi fell out of use shortly after 400. In general, the terminology of a divided Gothic people disappeared gradually after they entered the Roman Empire, the term Visigoth, however, was an invention of the sixth century. Cassiodorus, a Roman in the service of Theodoric the Great, invented the term Visigothi to match Ostrogothi, the western-eastern division was a simplification and a literary device of sixth-century historians where political realities were more complex
5.
Alemanni
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The Alemanni were a confederation of Germanic tribes on the upper Rhine river. In 496, the Alemanni were conquered by Frankish leader Clovis, mentioned as still pagan allies of the Christian Franks, the Alemanni were gradually Christianized during the 7th century. The Pactus Alamannorum is a record of their customary law during this period, until the 8th century, Frankish suzerainty over Alemannia was mostly nominal. But after an uprising by Theudebald, Duke of Alamannia, Carloman executed the Alamannic nobility, during the later and weaker years of the Carolingian Empire the Alemannic counts became almost independent, and a struggle for supremacy took place between them and the Bishopric of Constance. According to Asinius Quadratus their name means all men and it indicates that they were a conglomeration drawn from various Germanic tribes. Other sources say the name derives from alahmannen which means men of sanctuary and not all men. The Romans and the Greeks called them as such mentioned and this etymology has remained the standard derivation of the term. Walafrid Strabo, a monk of the Abbey of St, the name of Germany and the German language in several languages is derived from the name of this early Germanic tribal alliance. For details, see Names of Germany, the Alemanni were first mentioned by Cassius Dio describing the campaign of Caracalla in 213. At that time they dwelt in the basin of the Main. Cassius Dio portrays the Alemanni as victims of this treacherous emperor and they had asked for his help, says Dio, but instead he colonized their country, changed their place names and executed their warriors under a pretext of coming to their aid. When he became ill, the Alemanni claimed to have put a hex on him, Caracalla, it was claimed, tried to counter this influence by invoking his ancestral spirits. In retribution Caracalla then led the Legio II Traiana Fortis against the Alemanni, the legion was as a result honored with the name Germanica. Not on good terms with Caracalla, Geta had been invited to a reconciliation, at which time he was ambushed by centurions in Caracallas army. True or not, Caracalla, pursued by devils of his own, Caracalla left for the frontier, where for the rest of his short reign he was known for his unpredictable and arbitrary operations launched by surprise after a pretext of peace negotiations. If he had any reasons of state for such actions they remained unknown to his contemporaries, whether or not the Alemanni had been previously neutral, they were certainly further influenced by Caracalla to become thereafter notoriously implacable enemies of Rome. This mutually antagonistic relationship is perhaps the reason why the Roman writers persisted in calling the Alemanni barbari, most of the Alemanni were probably at the time in fact resident in or close to the borders of Germania Superior. At that time the frontier was being fortified for the first time
6.
Bavarians
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Bavarians are an ethnographic group of Germans of the Bavaria region, a state within Germany. The groups dialect or speech is known as the Bavarian language, native to Altbayern, like the neighboring Swabians and Austrians, Bavarians are traditionally Catholic. There is no distinction between Bavarians and Austrians. The Bavarian language is divided into three dialects, Upper Palatinian is spoken in northern Bavaria. Danube Bavarian is spoken in central and south-eastern Bavaria and in Central, alpine Bavarian is spoken in south-western Bavaria, in southern Austria and in South Tyrol. On the southern side of the river Danube was the Roman controlled province of Raetia, Bavarians are first mentioned in the mid 6th century, in the foothills north of the Alps, on both sides of the Danube river. It is difficult to distinguish the mobile and mixing groups of the Danube in this period archaeologically and they seem to have been closely related to the Lombards who were developing as a force to the east of them. Their legal system shows heavy Roman influence, and their unification appears to have been under a Duke installed by the Franks, Elbe Germans, came from the Elbe river to the north, which was under Thuringian rule, and is where the Lombards had also been. But also more northern groups had moved along the Elbe from the direction of the North Sea, as did some Saxons who joined the Lombards, and possibly the Heruls. Also, East Germanic groups such as the Goths had entered the Pannonian region east of the Bavarians in the leading up to the empire of Attila. These peoples had not only contributed to the Hunnic empire, Slavs and Avars were settling to the north-east, and Goths and Langobards to the east and south were later displaced by Slavs and Magyars. A Diocese of Laureacum had been in existence since the 4th century, in the 8th century moved to Passau, the Bishopric of Regensburg was founded in 739 by Boniface. The Lex Baiuvariorum was a codex of Germanic law, comprising 23 articles of traditional law recorded in the 740s, Bavaria within the Carolingian Empire was bordering on Swabia in the west, Thuringia in the north, Lombardy in the south and Slavic Carinthia in the east. The Duchy of Bavaria was a duchy of the Holy Roman Empire, established in the 10th century. In the 14th and 15th centuries, upper and lower Bavaria were repeatedly subdivided, four Duchies existed after the division of 1392, Lower Bavaria-Straubing, lower Bavaria-Landshut, Bavaria-Ingolstadt and Bavaria-Munich. Munich, now the capital and cultural center of Bavaria, was founded in the medieval period. In 1503, Bavaria was re-united by Duke Albrecht IV of Bavaria-Munich, in 1623, Bavaria was elevated to Electorate. The Kingdom of Bavaria was established at the Peace of Pressburg, the kingdoms territory fluctuated greatly over the following years, eventually fixed at the Treaty of Paris, which established most of what remain the borders of the modern state
7.
Raetia Curiensis
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Raetia Curiensis was an Early medieval province in Central Europe named after the Roman province of Raetia. Its administrative capital was Chur (Curia Raetorum, the Roman province of Raetia was divided into Raetia prima and Raetia secunda under Diocletian in ca.300 AD. The bishopric of Chur was established by 452, nominally under Ostrogothic rule from 476, it appears that the bishops of Chur remained de facto independent rulers of Raetia prima. Theodoric appointed a dux for Raetia prima, who however had only military competences, Churraetia passed under nominal Frankish rule by 548. In the mid-8th century a surviving Lex Romana Curiensis, a Roman Law of Chur, was an epitome of the Breviary of Alaric. Charlemagne from the 770s appointed the bishops of Chur himself, increasing Frankish control over the territory, in 806 or 807, he legislated a division between episcopal and comital property, ending the de facto secular rule of the bishops of Chur, appointing Hunfried I as comes curiensis. For this reason, Churraetia became nominally part of Swabia and by extension of the Holy Roman Empire even though it had not historically part of Alemannia. With this as a base, the Hunfriding heirs were able to gather enough power that Burchard II was able to make himself duke of Swabia. Chur suffered several invasions in the 10th century, by the Magyars in 925/6, in the 12th century, these fell to the counts of Buchhorn, Bregenz and Tyrol, respectively. At the end of the period, political power passed to the Three Leagues which eventually became the Canton of Raetia in the Helvetic Republic. Raetia prima was occasionally known as Raetia Curiensis even from the 4th century, historically, it was also known as Churwalchen, Churwahlen in German. The existence of a medieval German/Latin language boundary at Walensee and the Churfirsten can still be perceived from the prevalence of Latin toponymy, bishopric of Chur Alemannia Medieval Switzerland Elisabeth Meyer-Marthaler. Römisches Recht in Rätien im frühen und hohen Mittelalter, Churrätien im frühen Mittelalter, Ende 5. Lothar Deplazes, Raetia Curiensis in German, French and Italian in the online Historical Dictionary of Switzerland, otto P. Clavadetscher, Rätien im Mittelalter. ISBN3799570020 Ursus Brunold, Lothar Deplazes, Geschichte und Kultur Churrätiens, festschrift für Pater Iso Müller OSB zu seinem 85. ISBN 3-85637-112-5 Sebastian Grüninger, Grundherrschaft im frühmittelalterlichen Churrätien, ISBN3856373195 Wolfgang von Juvalt, Forschungen über die Feudalzeit im Curischen Raetien
8.
Augsburg
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Augsburg is a city in Swabia, Bavaria, Germany. It was a Free Imperial City for over 500 years and it is a university town and home of the Regierungsbezirk Schwaben and the Bezirk Schwaben. Augsburg is a district and home to the institutions of the Landkreis Augsburg. It is the third-largest city in Bavaria with a population of 286,000 citizens, after Neuss and Trier, Augsburg is Germanys third oldest city, being founded by the Romans as Augusta Vindelicorum, named after the Roman emperor Augustus. Augsburg is the only German city with its own legal holiday and this gives Augsburg more legal holidays than any other region or city in Germany. Augsburg was the home of two families that rose to great prominence internationally, replacing the Medicis as Europes leading bankers, the Fugger. Augsburg lies at the convergence of the Alpine rivers Lech and Wertach, in the south extends the Lechfeld, an Outwash plain of the post ice age between the rivers Lech and Wertach, where rare primeval landscapes were preserved. The Augsburg city forest and the Lech valley heaths today rank among the most species-rich middle European habitats, on Augsburg borders the nature park Augsburg Western Woods - a large forestland. The city itself is also heavily greened, as a result, in 1997 Augsburg was the first German city to win the Europe-wide contest Entente Florale for Europes greenest and most livable city. Augsburg is surrounded by the counties Landkreis Augsburg in the west, the neighboring towns and cities are Friedberg, Königsbrunn, Stadtbergen, Neusäß, Gersthofen, Rehling, Affing, Kissing, Mering, Merching, Bobingen, Gessertshausen und Diedorf. Augsburg has a continental climate. The city was founded in 15 BC by Drusus and Tiberius as Augusta Vindelicorum, the name means Augusta of the Vindelici. This garrison camp soon became the capital of the Roman province of Raetia, thus, Augsburg was the intersection of many important European east-west and north-south connections, which later evolved as major trade routes of the Middle Ages. Around 120 AD Augsburg became the capital of the Roman province Raetia, Augsburg was sacked by the Huns in the 5th century AD, by Charlemagne in the 8th century, and by Welf of Bavaria in the 11th century, but arose each time to greater prosperity. Augsburg was granted the status of a Free Imperial City on March 9,1276 and from then until 1803, it was independent of its former overlord, the Prince-Bishop of Augsburg. Frictions between the city-state and the prince-bishops were to remain frequent however, particularly after Augsburg became Protestant and curtailed the rights, with a strategic location as intersection of trade routes to Italy, the Free Imperial City became a major trading center. Augsburg produced large quantities of goods, cloth and textiles. Augsburg became the base of two banking families that rose to prominence, the Fuggers and the Welsers
9.
Ancient history
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Ancient history is the aggregate of past events from the beginning of recorded human history and extending as far as the Early Middle Ages or the Postclassical Era. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with Sumerian Cuneiform script, the term classical antiquity is often used to refer to history in the Old World from the beginning of recorded Greek history in 776 BC. This roughly coincides with the date of the founding of Rome in 753 BC, the beginning of the history of ancient Rome. In India, ancient history includes the period of the Middle Kingdoms, and, in China. Historians have two major avenues which they take to better understand the ancient world, archaeology and the study of source texts, primary sources are those sources closest to the origin of the information or idea under study. Primary sources have been distinguished from secondary sources, which cite, comment on. Archaeology is the excavation and study of artefacts in an effort to interpret, archaeologists excavate the ruins of ancient cities looking for clues as to how the people of the time period lived. The study of the ancient cities of Harappa, Mohenjo-daro, the city of Pompeii, an ancient Roman city preserved by the eruption of a volcano in AD79. Its state of preservation is so great that it is a window into Roman culture and provided insight into the cultures of the Etruscans. The Terracotta Army, the mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor in ancient China, the discovery of Knossos by Minos Kalokairinos and Sir Arthur Evans. The discovery of Troy by Heinrich Schliemann, most of what is known of the ancient world comes from the accounts of antiquitys own historians. Although it is important to take account the bias of each ancient author. Some of the more notable ancient writers include Herodotus, Thucydides, Arrian, Plutarch, Polybius, Sima Qian, Sallust, Livy, Josephus, Suetonius, furthermore, the reliability of the information obtained from these surviving records must be considered. Few people were capable of writing histories, as literacy was not widespread in almost any culture until long after the end of ancient history, the earliest known systematic historical thought emerged in ancient Greece, beginning with Herodotus of Halicarnassus. He was also the first to distinguish between cause and immediate origins of an event, the Roman Empire was one of the ancient worlds most literate cultures, but many works by its most widely read historians are lost. Indeed, only a minority of the work of any major Roman historian has survived, prehistory is the period before written history. The early human migrations in the Lower Paleolithic saw Homo erectus spread across Eurasia 1.8 million years ago, the controlled use of fire occurred 800,000 years ago in the Middle Paleolithic. 250,000 years ago, Homo sapiens emerged in Africa, 60–70,000 years ago, Homo sapiens migrated out of Africa along a coastal route to South and Southeast Asia and reached Australia
10.
Austria
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Austria, officially the Republic of Austria, is a federal republic and a landlocked country of over 8.7 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Hungary and Slovakia to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, the territory of Austria covers 83,879 km2. The terrain is mountainous, lying within the Alps, only 32% of the country is below 500 m. The majority of the population speaks local Bavarian dialects of German as their native language, other local official languages are Hungarian, Burgenland Croatian, and Slovene. The origins of modern-day Austria date back to the time of the Habsburg dynasty, from the time of the Reformation, many northern German princes, resenting the authority of the Emperor, used Protestantism as a flag of rebellion. Following Napoleons defeat, Prussia emerged as Austrias chief competitor for rule of a greater Germany, Austrias defeat by Prussia at the Battle of Königgrätz, during the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, cleared the way for Prussia to assert control over the rest of Germany. In 1867, the empire was reformed into Austria-Hungary, Austria was thus the first to go to war in the July Crisis, which would ultimately escalate into World War I. The First Austrian Republic was established in 1919, in 1938 Nazi Germany annexed Austria in the Anschluss. This lasted until the end of World War II in 1945, after which Germany was occupied by the Allies, in 1955, the Austrian State Treaty re-established Austria as a sovereign state, ending the occupation. In the same year, the Austrian Parliament created the Declaration of Neutrality which declared that the Second Austrian Republic would become permanently neutral, today, Austria is a parliamentary representative democracy comprising nine federal states. The capital and largest city, with a population exceeding 1.7 million, is Vienna, other major urban areas of Austria include Graz, Linz, Salzburg and Innsbruck. Austria is one of the richest countries in the world, with a nominal per capita GDP of $43,724, the country has developed a high standard of living and in 2014 was ranked 21st in the world for its Human Development Index. Austria has been a member of the United Nations since 1955, joined the European Union in 1995, Austria also signed the Schengen Agreement in 1995, and adopted the euro currency in 1999. The German name for Austria, Österreich, meant eastern realm in Old High German, and is cognate with the word Ostarrîchi and this word is probably a translation of Medieval Latin Marchia orientalis into a local dialect. Austria was a prefecture of Bavaria created in 976, the word Austria is a Latinisation of the German name and was first recorded in the 12th century. Accordingly, Norig would essentially mean the same as Ostarrîchi and Österreich, the Celtic name was eventually Latinised to Noricum after the Romans conquered the area that encloses most of modern-day Austria, around 15 BC. Noricum later became a Roman province in the mid-first century AD, heers hypothesis is not accepted by linguists. Settled in ancient times, the Central European land that is now Austria was occupied in pre-Roman times by various Celtic tribes, the Celtic kingdom of Noricum was later claimed by the Roman Empire and made a province
11.
Germany
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Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a federal parliamentary republic in central-western Europe. It includes 16 constituent states, covers an area of 357,021 square kilometres, with about 82 million inhabitants, Germany is the most populous member state of the European Union. After the United States, it is the second most popular destination in the world. Germanys capital and largest metropolis is Berlin, while its largest conurbation is the Ruhr, other major cities include Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf and Leipzig. Various Germanic tribes have inhabited the northern parts of modern Germany since classical antiquity, a region named Germania was documented before 100 AD. During the Migration Period the Germanic tribes expanded southward, beginning in the 10th century, German territories formed a central part of the Holy Roman Empire. During the 16th century, northern German regions became the centre of the Protestant Reformation, in 1871, Germany became a nation state when most of the German states unified into the Prussian-dominated German Empire. After World War I and the German Revolution of 1918–1919, the Empire was replaced by the parliamentary Weimar Republic, the establishment of the national socialist dictatorship in 1933 led to World War II and the Holocaust. After a period of Allied occupation, two German states were founded, the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic, in 1990, the country was reunified. In the 21st century, Germany is a power and has the worlds fourth-largest economy by nominal GDP. As a global leader in industrial and technological sectors, it is both the worlds third-largest exporter and importer of goods. Germany is a country with a very high standard of living sustained by a skilled. It upholds a social security and universal health system, environmental protection. Germany was a member of the European Economic Community in 1957. It is part of the Schengen Area, and became a co-founder of the Eurozone in 1999, Germany is a member of the United Nations, NATO, the G8, the G20, and the OECD. The national military expenditure is the 9th highest in the world, the English word Germany derives from the Latin Germania, which came into use after Julius Caesar adopted it for the peoples east of the Rhine. This in turn descends from Proto-Germanic *þiudiskaz popular, derived from *þeudō, descended from Proto-Indo-European *tewtéh₂- people, the discovery of the Mauer 1 mandible shows that ancient humans were present in Germany at least 600,000 years ago. The oldest complete hunting weapons found anywhere in the world were discovered in a mine in Schöningen where three 380, 000-year-old wooden javelins were unearthed
12.
Switzerland
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Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a federal republic in Europe. It consists of 26 cantons, and the city of Bern is the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in western-Central Europe, and is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland is a country geographically divided between the Alps, the Swiss Plateau and the Jura, spanning an area of 41,285 km2. The establishment of the Old Swiss Confederacy dates to the medieval period, resulting from a series of military successes against Austria. Swiss independence from the Holy Roman Empire was formally recognized in the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. The country has a history of armed neutrality going back to the Reformation, it has not been in a state of war internationally since 1815, nevertheless, it pursues an active foreign policy and is frequently involved in peace-building processes around the world. In addition to being the birthplace of the Red Cross, Switzerland is home to international organisations. On the European level, it is a member of the European Free Trade Association. However, it participates in the Schengen Area and the European Single Market through bilateral treaties, spanning the intersection of Germanic and Romance Europe, Switzerland comprises four main linguistic and cultural regions, German, French, Italian and Romansh. Due to its diversity, Switzerland is known by a variety of native names, Schweiz, Suisse, Svizzera. On coins and stamps, Latin is used instead of the four living languages, Switzerland is one of the most developed countries in the world, with the highest nominal wealth per adult and the eighth-highest per capita gross domestic product according to the IMF. Zürich and Geneva have each been ranked among the top cities in the world in terms of quality of life, with the former ranked second globally, according to Mercer. The English name Switzerland is a compound containing Switzer, a term for the Swiss. The English adjective Swiss is a loan from French Suisse, also in use since the 16th century. The name Switzer is from the Alemannic Schwiizer, in origin an inhabitant of Schwyz and its associated territory, the Swiss began to adopt the name for themselves after the Swabian War of 1499, used alongside the term for Confederates, Eidgenossen, used since the 14th century. The data code for Switzerland, CH, is derived from Latin Confoederatio Helvetica. The toponym Schwyz itself was first attested in 972, as Old High German Suittes, ultimately related to swedan ‘to burn’
13.
Italy
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Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a unitary parliamentary republic in Europe. Located in the heart of the Mediterranean Sea, Italy shares open land borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, San Marino, Italy covers an area of 301,338 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate and Mediterranean climate. Due to its shape, it is referred to in Italy as lo Stivale. With 61 million inhabitants, it is the fourth most populous EU member state, the Italic tribe known as the Latins formed the Roman Kingdom, which eventually became a republic that conquered and assimilated other nearby civilisations. The legacy of the Roman Empire is widespread and can be observed in the distribution of civilian law, republican governments, Christianity. The Renaissance began in Italy and spread to the rest of Europe, bringing a renewed interest in humanism, science, exploration, Italian culture flourished at this time, producing famous scholars, artists and polymaths such as Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo, Michelangelo and Machiavelli. The weakened sovereigns soon fell victim to conquest by European powers such as France, Spain and Austria. Despite being one of the victors in World War I, Italy entered a period of economic crisis and social turmoil. The subsequent participation in World War II on the Axis side ended in defeat, economic destruction. Today, Italy has the third largest economy in the Eurozone and it has a very high level of human development and is ranked sixth in the world for life expectancy. The country plays a prominent role in regional and global economic, military, cultural and diplomatic affairs, as a reflection of its cultural wealth, Italy is home to 51 World Heritage Sites, the most in the world, and is the fifth most visited country. The assumptions on the etymology of the name Italia are very numerous, according to one of the more common explanations, the term Italia, from Latin, Italia, was borrowed through Greek from the Oscan Víteliú, meaning land of young cattle. The bull was a symbol of the southern Italic tribes and was often depicted goring the Roman wolf as a defiant symbol of free Italy during the Social War. Greek historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus states this account together with the legend that Italy was named after Italus, mentioned also by Aristotle and Thucydides. The name Italia originally applied only to a part of what is now Southern Italy – according to Antiochus of Syracuse, but by his time Oenotria and Italy had become synonymous, and the name also applied to most of Lucania as well. The Greeks gradually came to apply the name Italia to a larger region, excavations throughout Italy revealed a Neanderthal presence dating back to the Palaeolithic period, some 200,000 years ago, modern Humans arrived about 40,000 years ago. Other ancient Italian peoples of undetermined language families but of possible origins include the Rhaetian people and Cammuni. Also the Phoenicians established colonies on the coasts of Sardinia and Sicily, the Roman legacy has deeply influenced the Western civilisation, shaping most of the modern world
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Liechtenstein
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Liechtenstein, officially the Principality of Liechtenstein, is a doubly landlocked German-speaking microstate in Central Europe. It is a monarchy with the rank of principality, headed by the Prince of Liechtenstein. Liechtenstein is bordered by Switzerland to the west and south and Austria to the east and it has an area of just over 160 square kilometres and an estimated population of 37,000. Divided into 11 municipalities, its capital is Vaduz and its largest municipality is Schaan, the unemployment rate is one of the lowest in the world at 1. 5%. Liechtenstein has been known in the past as a tax haven, however. An alpine country, Liechtenstein is mainly mountainous, making it a winter sport destination, many cultivated fields and small farms are found both in the south and north. The country has a financial sector centered in Vaduz. Liechtenstein is a member of the European Free Trade Association, and while not being a member of the European Union and it also has a customs union and a monetary union with Switzerland. The oldest traces of human existence in Liechtenstein date back to the Middle Paleolithic era, neolithic farming settlements were founded in the valleys around 5300 BC. Hallstatt and La Tène cultures flourished during the late Iron Age from around 450 BC possibly under influence from the Greek. One of the most important tribal groups in the Alpine region were the Helvetii, in 58 BC, at the Battle of Bibracte, Julius Caesar defeated the Alpine tribes, bringing the region under closer control of the Roman Empire. By 15 BC, Tiberius, who was destined to be the second Roman emperor, Liechtenstein was integrated into the Roman province of Raetia. The area was maintained by the Roman military, which maintained a large legionary camp called Brigantium near Lake Constance, a Roman road ran through the territory. In 259/60 Brigantium was destroyed by the Alemanni, a Germanic people who settled in the area in around 450. In the Early Middle Ages, the Alemanni had settled the eastern Swiss plateau by the 5th century, Liechtenstein was at the eastern edge of Alemannia. In the 6th century, the region became part of the Frankish Empire following Clovis Is victory over the Alemanni at Tolbiac in 504. The area that later became Liechtenstein remained under Frankish hegemony until the empire was divided by the Treaty of Verdun in 843 AD following the death of Charlemagne. The territory of present-day Liechtenstein belonged to East Francia until it was reunified with Middle Francia under the Holy Roman Empire around 1000 AD
15.
Hadrian
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Hadrian was Roman emperor from 117 to 138. He is known for building Hadrians Wall, which marked the limit of Britannia. He also rebuilt the Pantheon and constructed the Temple of Venus, philhellene in most of his tastes, he is considered by some to have been a humanist, and he is regarded as the third of the Five Good Emperors. Hadrian was born Publius Aelius Hadrianus into a Hispano-Roman family, although Italica near Santiponce is often considered his birthplace, his actual place of birth remains uncertain. It is generally accepted that he came from a family with roots in Hispania. His predecessor, Trajan, was a cousin of Hadrians father. Trajan did not designate an heir officially, but according to his wife Pompeia Plotina, Trajans wife and his friend Licinius Sura were well disposed towards Hadrian, and he may well have owed his succession to them. During his reign, Hadrian travelled to every province of the Empire. An ardent admirer of Greece, he sought to make Athens the cultural capital of the Empire and he used his relationship with his Greek lover Antinous to underline his philhellenism, and this led to the establishment of one of the most popular cults of ancient times. Hadrian spent a deal of time with the military, he usually wore military attire and even dined. He ordered rigorous military training and drilling and made use of reports of attacks to keep the army on alert. On his accession to the throne, Hadrian withdrew from Trajans conquests in Mesopotamia, Assyria and Armenia, late in his reign he suppressed the Bar Kokhba revolt in Judaea, renaming the province Syria Palaestina. In 138 Hadrian adopted Antoninus Pius on the condition that he adopt Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus as his own heirs and they would eventually succeed Antoninus as co-emperors. Hadrian died the year at Baiae. In Hadrians time, there was already an established convention that one could not write a contemporary Roman imperial history for fear of competing with the emperors themselves. Information on the history of Hadrians reign comes mostly from later. A general account of his reign is Book 69 of the early 3rd century Roman History by Cassius Dio and his original Greek text of this book is lost, what survives is a brief, much later, Byzantine-era abridgment by the 11th century monk Xiphilinius. He selected from Dios account of Hadrians reign based on his religious interests
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Danube
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The Danube is Europes second-longest river, after the Volga River, and also the longest river in the European Union region. It is located in Central and Eastern Europe, the Danube was once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire, and today flows through 10 countries, more than any other river in the world. Its drainage basin extends into nine more countries, the Latin name Dānuvius is one of a number of Old European river names derived from a Proto-Indo-European *dānu. Other river names from the root include the Dunajec, Dzvina/Daugava, Don, Donets, Dnieper, Dniestr. In Rigvedic Sanskrit, dānu means fluid, drop, in Avestan, in the Rigveda, Dānu once appears as the mother of Vrtra. Known to the ancient Greeks as the Istros a borrowing from a Daco-Thracian name meaning strong, in Latin, the Danube was variously known as Danubius, Danuvius or as Ister. The Dacian/Thracian name was Donaris for the upper Danube and Istros for the lower Danube, the Thraco-Phrygian name was Matoas, the bringer of luck. The Latin name is masculine, as are all its Slavic names, the German Donau is feminine, as it has been re-interpreted as containing the suffix -ouwe wetland. Classified as a waterway, it originates in the town of Donaueschingen, in the Black Forest of Germany, at the confluence of the rivers Brigach. The Danube then flows southeast for about 2,800 km, passing through four capital cities before emptying into the Black Sea via the Danube Delta in Romania and its drainage basin extends into nine more. The highest point of the basin is the summit of Piz Bernina at the Italy–Switzerland border. The land drained by the Danube extends into other countries. Many Danubian tributaries are important rivers in their own right, navigable by barges, from its source to its outlet into the Black Sea, its main tributaries are, The Danube flows through many cities, including four national capitals, more than any other river in the world. Danube remains a mountain river until Passau, with average bottom gradient 0. 0012%. Middle Section, From Devín Gate to Iron Gate, at the border of Serbia and Romania, the riverbed widens and the average bottom gradient becomes only 0. 00006%. Lower Section, From Iron Gate to Sulina, with average gradient as little as 0. 00003%, about 60 of its tributaries are also navigable. In 1994 the Danube was declared one of ten Pan-European transport corridors, routes in Central, the amount of goods transported on the Danube increased to about 100 million tons in 1987. In 1999, transport on the river was difficult by the NATO bombing of three bridges in Serbia during the Kosovo War
17.
Roman legion
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A Roman legion was the largest unit of the Roman army involving from 3000 men in early times to over 5200 men in imperial times, consisting of centuries as the basic units. Until the middle of the first century,10 cohorts made up a Roman Legion and this was later changed to nine cohorts of standard size and one cohort, the first cohort, of double strength. In the early Roman Kingdom the legion may have meant the entire Roman army but sources on this period are few, Legions also included a small ala or cavalry unit. By the third century AD, the legion was a smaller unit of about 1,000 to 1,500 men. In the fourth century AD, East Roman border guard legions may have even smaller. The Roman army, for most of the Imperial period, consisted mostly of auxiliaries rather than legions, because legions were not permanent units until the Marian reforms, and were instead created, used, and disbanded again, several hundred legions were named and numbered throughout Roman history. To date, about 50 have been identified, toward the end of the 2nd Century BC, Rome started to experience manpower shortages brought about by property and financial qualifications to join the army. In the time of Augustus, there were nearly 50 upon his succession but this was reduced to about 25–35 permanent standing legions, a legion consisted of several cohorts of heavy infantry known as legionaries. The recruitment of non-citizens was rare but appears to have occurred in times of great need, For example, Caesar appears to have recruited the Legio V Alaudae mostly from non-citizen Gauls. In the period before the raising of the legio and the years of the Roman Kingdom. These centuries were grouped together as required and answered to the leader who had hired or raised them, the roles of century leader, second in command and standard bearer are referenced in this early period. Much Roman history of the era is shrouded in legend, but it is believed that during the reign of Servius Tullius, the census was introduced. Joining the army was both a duty and a mark of Roman citizenship, during the entire pre-Marian period the wealthiest land owners performed the most years of military service. These individuals would have had the most to lose should the state have fallen. The first and wealthiest common class was armed in the fashion of the hoplite with spear, sword, helmet, breast plate and round shield, there were 82 centuries of these, Roman soldiers had to purchase their own equipment. The second and third class also acted as spearmen but were heavily armoured and carried a larger oval or rectangular shield. The fourth class could afford no armour, perhaps bearing a shield and armed with spear. All three of the latter made up about 26 centuries
18.
Rhaetian people
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The Raeti /ˈriːtaɪ/ were a confederation of Alpine tribes, whose language and culture may have derived, at least in part, from the Etruscans. From not later than ca.500 BC, they inhabited the central parts of present-day Switzerland, the Tyrol in Austria, the etymology of the name Raeti is uncertain. The Roman province of Raetia was named after this people, ancient sources characterise the Raeti as Etruscan people who were displaced from the Po valley by the Gauls and took refuge in the valleys of the Alps. But it is likely that they were predominantly indigenous Alpine people and their language, the so-called Raetian language, was probably related to Etruscan, but may not have derived from it. At least some of the Raeti tribes probably continued to speak the Raetian language as late as the 3rd century AD, others were probably Celtic-speaking by the era of the Roman emperor Augustus. The Raeti were divided into tribes, but only some of these are clearly identified in the ancient sources. The Roman province of Raetia et Vindelicia was named after these two peoples, the Raeti tribes quickly became loyal subjects of the empire and contributed disproportionate numbers of recruits to the imperial Roman armys auxiliary corps. The origin of the name Raeti is uncertain and it is not even clear if it derives from an endonym, a name that the Raeti used to describe themselves or from an exonym, a name used by outsiders to describe the Raeti. It was suggested in the 19th Century that Raeti is a given to these tribes by the Gauls, derived from a supposed Celtic root rait. The Roman geographer Pliny the Elder, writing in AD70, suggests that the people were named after Raetus, but this kind of eponym-fabrication was commonplace in the Greco-Roman world and may be discounted. One Raetic votive tablet, from the region, contains the word reithus. The earliest mention of the Raeti in surviving ancient sources is in the Histories of Polybius, the Raeti, according to Pliny the Elder, were Etruscans driven into the Alps from the Po Valley by invading Gauls. This account of Raeti origins is supported by the Augustan-era Roman historian Livy, but the traditional migration theory espoused by classical authors and, until the 1960s, by most modern scholars, is no longer considered the only possible explanation for socio-linguistic change. The language has been called Raetian by linguists because it is assumed to have been spoken by the Raeti. It is possible, although unlikely, that the language dubbed Raetian by modern scholars had, in reality, even if Raetian was the ancestral language of the Raeti, there is considerable uncertainty as to how widely Raetian was spoken among the tribes by the time of Augustus. In the Alpine region as a whole, there is evidence that the elements had, by the time of Augustus. According to Livy, the sound of the Raetis original Etruscan tongue had become corrupted as a result of inhabiting the Alps and this may indicate that at least some of the tribes lost their ancestral Raetic tongue to Celtic. Celticisation also finds support in the Roman practice of twinning the Raeti with their neighbours to the North, the Vindelici, who are regarded by most historians to have been Celtic- speakers
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Country
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A country is a region that is identified as a distinct national entity in political geography. Sometimes the word countries is used to both to sovereign states and to other political entities, while other times it refers only to states. The word country comes from Old French contrée, itself derived from Vulgar Latin contrata and it most likely entered the English language after the Franco-Norman invasion during the 11th century. Areas much smaller than a state may be called by names such as the West Country in England, the Black Country, Constable Country. In many European countries the words are used for sub-divisions of the territory, as in the German Bundesländer. The modern Italian contrada is a word with its meaning varying locally, the term country is frequently used to refer to sovereign states. There is no agreement on the number of countries in the world. There are 206 sovereign states, of which 193 states are members of the United Nations, all are defined as states by declarative theory of statehood and constitutive theory of statehood. The latest proclaimed state is South Sudan in 2011, the Kingdom of Denmark, a sovereign state, comprises Metropolitan Denmark and two nominally separate countries—the Faroe Islands, and Greenland—which are almost fully internally self-governing. The Kingdom of the Netherlands, a state, comprises four separate countries, Netherlands, Aruba, Curaçao. The degree of autonomy of non-sovereign countries varies widely, some are possessions of sovereign states, as several states have overseas territories, with citizenry at times identical and at times distinct from their own
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Helvetii
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The Helvetii were a Gallic tribe or tribal confederation occupying most of the Swiss plateau at the time of their contact with the Roman Republic in the 1st century BC. According to Julius Caesar, the Helvetians were divided into four subgroups or pagi, of these Caesar only names the Verbigeni and the Tigurini, while Posidonius mentions the Tigurini and the Tougeni. They feature prominently in the Commentaries on the Gallic War, with their failed attempt to southwestern Gaul serving as a catalyst for Caesars conquest of Gaul. The endonym Helvetii is mostly derived from a Gaulish elu-, meaning gain, prosperity or mulititude, cognate with Welsh elw and Old Irish prefix il-, meaning many or multiple. The second part of the name has sometimes been interpreted as *etu-, terrain, grassland, the earliest attestation of the name is found in a graffito on a vessel from Mantua, dated to c.300 BC. The inscription in Etruscan letters reads eluveitie, which has interpreted as the Etruscan form of the Celtic elu̯eti̯os. The name of the personification of Switzerland, Helvetia. The star 51 Pegasi was named Helvetios after them and this was the first main-sequence star found to have an exoplanet orbiting it. Of the four Helvetian pagi or sub-tribes, Caesar names only the Verbigeni and the Tigurini, Posidonius the Tigurini, there has been substantial debate in Swiss historiography on whether the Tougeni may or may not be identified with the Teutones mentioned by Titus Livius. According to Caesar, the territory abandoned by the Helvetii had comprised 400 villages and 12 oppida and his tally of the total population taken from captured Helvetian records written in Greek is 263,000 people, including fighting men, old men, women and children. However, the figures are generally dismissed as too high by modern scholars, like many other tribes, the Helvetii did not have kings at the time of their clash with Rome but instead seem to have been governed by a class of noblemen. When Orgetorix, one of their most prominent and ambitious noblemen, was making plans to himself as their king. Caesar does not explicitly name the tribal authorities prosecuting the case and gathering men to apprehend Orgetorix, in his Natural History, Pliny provides a foundation myth for the Celtic settlement of Cisalpine Gaul in which a Helvetian named Helico plays the role of culture hero. The Greek historian Posidonius, whose work is preserved only in fragments by other writers, offers the earliest historical record of the Helvetii. Posidonius described the Helvetians of the late 2nd century BC as rich in gold but peaceful and that the Helvetians originally lived in southern Germany is confirmed by the Alexandrian geographer Claudius Ptolemaios, who tells us of an Ἐλουητίων ἔρημος north of the Rhine. Tacitus knows that the Helvetians once settled in the swath between Rhine, Main, and the Hercynian forest, at the later Vicus Turicum, probably in the first 1st century BC or even much earlier, the Celts settled at the Lindenhof Oppidium. In 1890, so-called Potin lumps were found, whose largest weights 59.2 kilograms at the Prehistoric pile dwelling settlement Alpenquai in Zürich, the pieces consist of a large number of fused Celtic coins, which are mixed with charcoal remnants. Some of the 18,000 coins originate from the Eastern Gaul, others are of the Zürich type, that were assigned to the local Helvetii, which date to around 100 BC
21.
Noricum
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Noricum is the Latin name for a Celtic kingdom, or federation of tribes, that included most of modern Austria and part of Slovenia. In the first century AD, it became a province of the Roman Empire and its borders were the Danube to the north, Raetia and Vindelicia to the west, Pannonia to the east and southeast, and Italia to the south. The kingdom was founded around 400 BC, and had its capital at the residence at Virunum on the Magdalensberg. Its area corresponded to the part of modern Styria and Carinthia, Upper/Lower Austria west of Vienna, Salzburg, a part of Bavaria. The famous Noric steel was used in the making of Roman weapons. Gold and salt were found in considerable quantities, the plant called saliunca grew in abundance and was used as a perfume according to Pliny the Elder. Noric steel was famous for its quality and hardness, in Noricum, almost all those Celtic invaders are mentioned. The Hallstatt graves contained weapons and ornaments from the Bronze age, through the period of transition, up to the Hallstatt culture, william Ridgeway made a strong case for the theory that the cradle of the Homeric Achaeans was in Noricum and neighbouring areas. The kingdom of Noricum was a provider of weaponry for the Roman armies from the mid-Republic onwards. Especially the Roman swords were made was made of the best-quality steel then available, the strength of iron is determined by its carbon content. The wrought iron produced in the Greco-Roman world generally contained only traces of carbon and was too soft for tools. It thus needed to be carburised to at least 1. 5% carbon content. The main Roman method of achieving this was to heat the wrought iron to a temperature of over 800 C and hammer it in a charcoal fire. This technique had been developed empirically, as there is no evidence that ancient iron producers understood the chemistry involved, the rudimentary methods of carburisation used rendered the quality of the iron ore critical to the production of good steel. The ore needed to be rich in manganese, but also to very little, or preferably zero, phosphorus. The ore mined in Carinthia fulfills both criteria to an unusual degree, the Celtic peoples of Noricum empirically discovered that their ore made superior steel around 500 BC and established a major steel-making industry around it. At Magdalensberg, a production and trading centre was established. The finished products were mostly exported southwards, to Aquileia, a Roman colony founded in 180 BC, Noricum became a key ally of the Roman Republic, providing a reliable supply of high-quality weapons and tools in return for Roman military protection
22.
Vindelici
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The Vindelici were a Celtic people in antiquity. Their territory was known to the Romans as Vindelicia, its boundaries were to be the Danube and Germanic limes to the north, the Inn to the east, Raetia to the south, and these lands today comprise northeastern Switzerland, southeastern Baden, and southern Württemberg and Bavaria. Their chief town is assumed to have been the oppidum at Manching before the Romans, after the Roman conquest, most modern scholars consider the Vindelici to have been Celts, albeit with a heavy mutual influence of their non-Celtic neighbours, the Raeti. The Vindelicis material culture was part of the La Tène culture commonly associated with the Celts, little of the language of the Vindelici has survived, although place names suggest that they most probably spoke a variety of Gaulish, like the neighbouring Boii and Norici. One possible etymology of Vindelici is the Celtic prefix *windo-, cognate to Irish find- white, the name of the Vindelician town of Cambodunum is apparently derived from the Celtic cambo dunon, fortified place at the river bend. Together with the tribes, the Vindelici were subjugated by Tiberius in 15 BC. The Augustan inscription of 12 BC on the Tropaeum Alpium mentions four tribes of the Vindelici among the defeated, the Cosuanetes, Rucinates, Licates, towards the end of the 1st century AD, the region of the Vindelici was included in the province of Raetia
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Gallia Narbonensis
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Gallia Narbonensis was a Roman province located in what is now Languedoc and Provence, in southern France. It was also known as Provincia Nostra, from its having been the first Roman province north of the Alps and it became a Roman province in the late 2nd century BC. Its boundaries were defined by the Mediterranean Sea to the south. The western region of Gallia Narbonensis was known as Septimania, the province of Gallia Transalpina was later renamed Gallia Narbonensis, after its newly established capital of Colonia Narbo Martius, a Roman colony founded on the coast in 118 BC. The Romans had called it Provincia Nostra or simply Provincia, the term has survived in the modern French and Occitan names of the eastern part of the area, now a région of France. By the mid-2nd century BC, Rome was trading heavily with the Greek colony of Massalia on the southern coast of Gaul, Massalia, founded by colonists from Phocaea, was by this point centuries old and quite prosperous. The Massalians, for their part, cared more for their economic prosperity than they did for territorial integrity, in this strip of land, the Romans founded the town of Narbonne in 118 BC. At the same time, they built the Via Domitia, the first Roman road in Gaul, connecting Gaul to Hispania, and the Via Aquitania, thus the Romans built a crossroads that made Narbonne an optimal trading center, and Narbonne became a major trading competitor to Massalia. From Narbonne, the Romans established the province of Transalpine Gaul, during this period, the Mediterranean settlements on the coast were threatened by the powerful Gallic tribes to the north, especially the tribes known as the Arverni and the Allobroges. In 123 BC, the Roman general Quintus Fabius Maximus campaigned in the area and defeated the Allobroges and this defeat substantially weakened the Arverni and ensured the further security of Gallia Narbonensis. It was from the capital of Narbonne that Julius Caesar began his Gallic Wars, the area became a Roman province in 121 BC, originally under the name Gallia Transalpina. The name distinguished it from Cisalpine Gaul on the side of the Alps to Rome. In 40 BC, during the Second Triumvirate, Lepidus was given responsibility for Narbonese Gaul, while Mark Antony was given the balance of Gaul. Emperor Diocletians administrative reorganization of the Empire in c. AD314 merged the provinces Gallia Narbonensis, the new dioceses name was later changed to Dioecesis Septem Provinciarum, indicating that Diocletian had demoted the word province to mean a smaller subdivision than in traditional usage. Galla Narbonensis and surrounding areas were incorporated into the Visigothic Kingdom between AD462 and 477, permanently ending Roman political control. After the Gothic takeover, the Visigothic dominions were to be known as Septimania. 210. ]us -- between 210 and 230 Tiberius Claudius Paulinus -- 216-217 Gaius Aemilius Berenicianus Maximus -- between 222 and 235 Iulianus -- between 222 and 235 William Smith, ed. Gallia Transalpina, dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography
24.
Roman Italy
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Roman Italy was created officially by the Roman emperor Augustus with the Latin name Italia. It was the first time in history that the Italian Peninsula was united under the same name, in the year 292, the three islands of Corsica, Sardinia and Sicily were added to Roman Italy by Diocletian. Roman Italy remained united until the sixth century, when it was divided between the Byzantine Empire and territories of the Germanic peoples, since then, Italia remained divided for nearly thirteen centuries until 1861 when it was reunited in a similar way in the modern Kingdom of Italy. Italy was the name of the division of the Italian Peninsula during the Roman era. It was not a province, but became the territory of the city of Rome, following the end of the Social War, Rome had allowed its Italian allies full rights in Roman society and granted the Roman citizenship to all the Italic peoples. Although not founded as a city in 330, Constantinople gained in importance. It finally gained the rank of capital when given an urban prefect in 359. In 402, the capital was moved to Ravenna from Milan, the name Italia covered an area whose borders evolved over time. Under Augustus, the peoples of todays Aosta Valley and of the western and northern Alps were subjugated, and the Italian eastern border was brought to the Arsia in Istria. Finally, in the late 3rd century, Italy came to include the islands of Corsica and Sardinia and Sicily, as well as Raetia, the city of Emona was the easternmost town of Italy. At the beginning of the era, Italy was a collection of territories with different political statuses. Some cities, called municipia, had independence from Rome, while others. The Italian economy flourished, agriculture, handicraft and industry had a sensible growth, the Italian population may have grown as well, three census were ordered by Augustus, to record the number of Roman citizens throughout the empire. The surviving totals were 4,063,000 in 28 BC,4,233,000 in 8 BC, and 4,937,000 in AD14, but it is still debated whether these counted all citizens, all adult male citizens, or citizens sui iuris. During the Crisis of the Third Century the Roman Empire nearly collapsed under the pressures of invasions, military anarchy and civil wars. In 284, emperor Diocletian restored political stability and he carried out thorough administrative reforms to maintain order. He created the so-called Tetrarchy whereby the empire was ruled by four co-emperors and he decreased the size of the Roman provinces by doubling their number to reduce the power of the provincial governors. He grouped the provinces into several dioceses and put them under the supervision of the imperial vicarius, during the Crisis of the Third Century the importance of Rome declined because she was far from the troubled frontiers
25.
Upper Rhine
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The Upper Rhine is the section of the Rhine in the Upper Rhine Plain between Basle in Switzerland and Bingen in Germany. The river is marked by Rhine-kilometres 170 to 529, the Upper Rhine is one of four sections of the river between Lake Constance and the North Sea. The countries and states along the Upper Rhine are Switzerland, France, the largest cities along the river are Basle, Mulhouse, Strasbourg, Karlsruhe, Mannheim, Ludwigshafen and Mainz. The Upper Rhine was straightened between 1817 and 1876 by Johann Gottfried Tulla and made navigable between 1928 and 1977, the Treaty of Versailles allows France to use the Upper Rhine for hydroelectricity in the Grand Canal dAlsace. On the left bank are the French region of Alsace and the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, on the bank are the German states of Baden-Württemberg. The first few kilometres are in the Swiss city of Basle, around 35 million years ago, a rift valley of about 300 kilometres long and 50 kilometres wide came into being between the present cities of Basle and Frankfurt. This was due to stresses in the Earths crust and mantle. The moat has been filled up again by sedimentation. On the edges we find mountain ridges, the rift flanks. On the eastern side, they are the Black Forest and Odenwald mountains, in the west the Vosges, during the tertiary, the High Rhine continued west from Basle and flowed via the Doubs and the Saône, into the Rhône. The rift diverted the Rhine into the newly formed Upper Rhine Valley, the two largest tributaries come from the right, the Neckar in Mannheim, the Main across from Mainz. In 1685, Louis XIV started a project to move the Upper Rhine, change its course, by 1840, the river had been moved up to 1.5 kilometres to the east, taking territory away from Baden. Around 1790, large parts of the Rhine Valley were deforested, creating arable land, fields, the length of the Upper Rhine was reduced by 81 kilometres. Some cut-off river arms and ox-bows remain, they are called the Old Rhine or Gießen. The Rhine between Basle and Iffezheim is almost entirely canalised, on a stretch of 180 kilometres, there are 10 dams, provided with hydropower stations and locks. Only when there is a supply of water, then the old river bed will receive more water than the canal. The straightening and channeling reduced the water table by up to 16 metres and thus had an effect on flora. Gravel is also missing from the river, due to the dams and this has caused erosion below the dam at Iffezheim
26.
Lake Constance
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Lake Constance is a lake on the Rhine at the northern foot of the Alps, and consists of three bodies of water, the Obersee, the Untersee, and a connecting stretch of the Rhine, called the Seerhein. The lake is situated in Germany, Switzerland and Austria near the Alps and its shorelines lie in the German states of Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg, the Austrian state of Vorarlberg, and the Swiss cantons of Thurgau, St Gallen and Schaffhausen. Freshwater Lake Constance is central Europes third largest, after Lake Balaton and it is 63 km long, and at its widest point, nearly 14 km. It covers approximately 571 km2, and is 395 m above sea level, the greatest depth is 252 metres in the middle of the eastern part. Its volume is approximately 10×10^9 m3, the regulated Rhine flows into the lake in the southeast, through the Obersee, the city of Konstanz and the Untersee, and flows out near Stein am Rhein. The lake itself is an important drinking water source for southwestern Germany, the culminating point of the lakes drainage basin is the Tödi at 3,614 metres above sea level. Car ferries link Romanshorn to Friedrichshafen, and Konstanz to Meersburg, Lake Constance was formed by the Rhine Glacier during the ice age and is a zungenbecken lake. The Rhine, the Bregenzer Ache, and the Dornbirner Ache carry sediments from the Alps to the lake, thus decreasing the depth. Lake Constance was first mentioned by the Roman geographer Pomponius Mela about 43 AD and he noted that the Rhine flows through two lakes, and gave them the Latin names Lacus Venetus and Lacus Acronius. Pliny the Elder used the name Lacus Brigantinus, after the Roman city of Brigantium, the lake is also colloquially known as the Swabian Sea. The lake was frozen in the years 1077,1326,1378,1435,1465,1477,1491,1517,1571,1573,1600,1684,1695,1709,1795,1830,1880, and 1963. Approximately 1,000 tonnes of fish were caught by 150 professional fishermen in 2001 which was below the ten year average of 1,200 tonnes per year. The Lake Constance trout was almost extinct in the 1980s due to pollution, Lake Constance is the home of the critically endangered species of trout Salvelinus profundus, and formerly also the now extinct Lake Constance whitefish. After the Council of Constance, the Latin-speaking Catholic world gave the lake its current international name and it was derived from the city of Konstanz, that, in turn, was named after a Roman emperor. The German name, Bodensee, derives from the town of Bodman, Lake Constance is the only area in Europe where no borders exist, because there is no legally binding agreement as to where the borders lie between Switzerland, Germany and Austria. Legal questions pertaining to transport and fishing are regulated in separate treaties. One concerns a houseboat which was moored in two states, another concerns the rights to fish in the Bay of Bregenz, in relation to the latter, an Austrian family was of the opinion that it alone had the right to fish in broad portions of the bay. However, this was accepted neither by the Austrian courts nor by the organs, a 100-year flood around June 1999 raised the level about 2 metres above normal, flooding harbors and many shoreline buildings and hotels
27.
Bavaria
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Bavaria is a free state and one of 16 federal states of Germany. Located in the German southeast with an area of 70,548 square kilometres and its territory comprises roughly a fifth of the total land area of Germany, and, with 12.9 million inhabitants, it is Germanys second most populous state. Munich, Bavarias capital and largest city, is the third largest city in Germany, the Duchy of Bavaria dates back to the year 555. In the 17th century CE, the Duke of Bavaria became a Prince-elector of the Holy Roman Empire, the Kingdom of Bavaria existed from 1806 to 1918, when Bavaria became a republic. In 1946, the Free State of Bavaria re-organised itself on democratic lines after the Second World War, Bavaria has a unique culture, largely because of the states Catholic majority and conservative traditions. Bavarians have traditionally been proud of their culture, which includes such as Oktoberfest. The state also has the second largest economy among the German states by GDP figures, modern Bavaria also includes parts of the historical regions of Franconia, Upper Palatinate and Swabia. The Bavarians emerged in a north of the Alps, previously inhabited by Celts. The Bavarians spoke Old High German but, unlike other Germanic groups, rather, they seem to have coalesced out of other groups left behind by Roman withdrawal late in the 5th century. These peoples may have included the Celtic Boii, some remaining Romans, Marcomanni, Allemanni, Quadi, Thuringians, Goths, Scirians, Rugians, the name Bavarian means Men of Baia which may indicate Bohemia, the homeland of the Celtic Boii and later of the Marcomanni. They first appear in written sources circa 520, a 17th century Jewish chronicler David Solomon Ganz, citing Cyriacus Spangenberg, claimed that the diocese was named after an ancient Bohemian king, Boiia, in the 14th century BCE. From about 554 to 788, the house of Agilolfing ruled the Duchy of Bavaria and their daughter, Theodelinde, became Queen of the Lombards in northern Italy and Garibald was forced to flee to her when he fell out with his Frankish overlords. Garibalds successor, Tassilo I, tried unsuccessfully to hold the frontier against the expansion of Slavs. Tassilos son Garibald II seems to have achieved a balance of power between 610 and 616, after Garibald II little is known of the Bavarians until Duke Theodo I, whose reign may have begun as early as 680. From 696 onwards he invited churchmen from the west to organize churches and his son, Theudebert, led a decisive Bavarian campaign to intervene in a succession dispute in the Lombard Kingdom in 714, and married his sister Guntrud to the Lombard King Liutprand. At Theodos death the duchy was divided among his sons, at Hugberts death the duchy passed to a distant relative named Odilo, from neighbouring Alemannia. He was defeated near Augsburg in 743 but continued to rule until his death in 748, saint Boniface completed the peoples conversion to Christianity in the early 8th century. Bavaria was in ways affected by the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century
28.
Upper Swabia
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Upper Swabia is a region in Germany in the federal states of Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria. The name refers to the area between the Swabian Jura, Lake Constance and the Lech and its counterpart is Lower Swabia, the region around Heilbronn. The landscape of Upper Swabia was formed by retreating glaciers after the Riss glaciation and this led to the large quantity of lakes in Upper Swabia. The European watershed also passes through the region, with some rivers emptying into the river Danube and others emptying into Lake Constance. Due to Upper Swabias altitude and hilly terrain, agriculture consists mainly of farming, the exception being the basin of the river Schussen. Upper Swabia is still a rural area dominated by villages. The urban population is concentrated in the cities of Friedrichshafen, Ravensburg & Weingarten and Biberach an der Riß as well as Memmingen, the eastern border of Upper Swabia has been disputed for some time. Historically, the river Lech marks the border between Swabia and Bavaria, however, this would mean that large parts of Bavarian Swabia would have to be incorporated into Upper Swabia. As a result, these days the river Iller marks the border of Upper Swabia. The inhabitants of the former Free Imperial City Ulm and those that belonged to the former Imperial Abbey of Zwiefalten do not consider themselves as being part of Upper Swabia. Yet, in spite of their close to the Swabian Alb, geographically, historically and culturally. Upper Swabia is part of the Regierungsbezirk Tübingen, a Regierungsbezirk being a sub-division of a federal state, archaeological evidence confirming this was discovered around the Federsee, a lake near Bad Buchau. Until around the year 260 CE, the region that was to become Upper Swabia, was part of the Roman province of Raetia, after which the Alamanni invaded the Agri Decumates, during the Merovingian period, Upper Swabia came under the rule of the Frankish kings. It was part of the Duchy of the Alamanni, during the same period, the Christianization of the region began. During the Carolingian, Ottonian and Salian period, Upper Swabia was part of the Duchy of Swabia, during the German Peasants War of 1524 -1525, Upper Swabia was a centre of the revolt. During the revolt, numerous castles and monasteries in Upper Swabia were destroyed by the peasants and this instability was one of the factors that lead to Upper Swabias becoming a plaything of marauding armies during the Thirty Years War 1618 -1648. Military actions followed by disease, such as the plague, led to a depopulation of Upper Swabia. After the end of the war, the Catholic Church intensified its efforts to regain ground from the Protestants and these efforts are known as the Counter-Reformation
29.
Vorarlberg
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Vorarlberg is the westernmost federal state of Austria. It has the second-smallest area after Vienna, and although it has the second-smallest population and it borders three countries, Germany, Switzerland and Liechtenstein. It has a Germanic Alpine culture, quite different from the rest of Austria, the only Austrian state that shares a border with Vorarlberg is Tyrol to the east. The capital of Vorarlberg is Bregenz, although Dornbirn and Feldkirch have larger populations, the main rivers in Vorarlberg are the Ill, the Rhine, the Bregenzer Ache and the Dornbirner Ach. One of the shortest rivers is the Galina, however, even before the dam for the power plant was built, Lüner Lake was the largest mountain lake in the Alps. Most of this energy is exported to Germany at peak times. At night, energy from plants in Germany is used to pump water back into some of the lakes. As there are several mountain ranges in Vorarlberg, such as the Silvretta, the Rätikon, the Verwall. Lech is a ski resort on the banks of the river Lech. In recent years Lech has grown to one of the worlds premier ski destinations. With some other neighbouring villages Lech created the largest connected ski area in Austria, together these villages form the Arlberg region, the birthplace of the modern Alpine skiing technique and the seat of the Ski Club Arlberg. Lech is a holiday destination for Royal families and celebrities, for example Jason Biggs, Tom Cruise, Diana - Princess of Wales, and the former Queen Beatrix. Damüls is also recognized as the municipality with the most annual snowfall worldwide, the highest mountain is Piz Buin, whose rocky peak of 3,312 m is surrounded by glaciers. Vorarlberg is supposed to enjoy the greatest scenic diversity within limited confines in the entire Eastern Alps, the distance from Lake Constance and the plains of the Alpine Rhine valley across the medium altitude and high Alpine zones to the glaciers of the Silvretta range is a mere 90 km. Vorarlberg is divided into four districts, from north to south, Bregenz, Dornbirn, Feldkirch. These districts appear on the license plates in form of abbreviations, B, DO, FK. For several years, the Vorarlberg economy has been performing well above the Austrian average, while the overall Austrian GDP in 2004 rose by a mere 2. 0% in real terms, Vorarlberg recorded an increase of 2. 9%. This came as a surprise, particularly as the trading partners in Germany
30.
Tyrol (state)
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Tyrol is a federal state in western Austria. It comprises the Austrian part of the historical Princely County of Tyrol and it is a constituent part of the present-day Euroregion Tyrol–South Tyrol–Trentino. The capital of Tyrol is Innsbruck, the state of Tyrol is separated into two parts, divided by a 7-kilometre wide strip. The larger territory is called North Tyrol and the area is called East Tyrol. With a land area of 12,683.85 km2, Tyrol shares its borders with the federal state of Salzburg in the east and Vorarlberg in the west. In the north, it adjoins to the German state of Bavaria, in the south, it borders with South Tyrol. East Tyrol also shares its borders with the state of Carinthia to the east. The states territory is located entirely within the Eastern Alps at the Brenner Pass, the highest mountain in the state is the Großglockner, part of the Hohe Tauern range on the border with Carinthia. It has a height of 3,797 m, making it the highest mountain in Austria, in ancient times, the region was split between the Roman provinces of Raetia and Noricum. From the mid-6th century, it was resettled by Germanic Bavarii tribes, when the Counts of Tyrol died out in 1253, their estates were inherited by the Meinhardiner Counts of Görz. The last Tyrolean countess of the Meinhardiner Dynasty, Margaret, bequeathed her assets to the Habsburg duke Rudolph IV of Austria in 1363, in 1420, the committal residence was relocated from Merano to Innsbruck. The Tyrolean lands were reunited when the Habsburgs inherited the estates of the extinct Counts of Görz in 1500, later, South Tyrol was ceded to the Kingdom of Italy, a client state of the First French Empire, by Bavaria in 1810. After Napoleons defeat, the whole of Tyrol was returned to Austria in 1814, Tyrol was a Cisleithanian Kronland of Austria-Hungary from 1867. After World War I, these became part of the Kingdom of Italy according to the 1915 London Pact. After World War II, Tyrol was governed by France until Austria regained independence again in 1955, the capital, Innsbruck, is known for its university, and especially for its medicine. Tyrol is popular for its famous ski resorts, which include Kitzbühel, Ischgl, the 14 largest towns in Tyrol are, Tyrol has long been a central hub for European long-distance routes and thus a transit land for trans-European trade over the Alps. As early as the 1st century B. C, Tyrol had one of the most important north-south links of the Roman Empire, the Via Claudia Augusta. From there roads branched along the River Inn, the Via Raetia went westwards and up onto the Seefeld Plateau, where it crossed into Bavaria where Scharnitz is today
31.
Lombardy
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Lombardy is one of the twenty administrative regions of Italy, in the northwest of the country, with an area of 23,844 square kilometres. Milan, Lombardys capital, is the second-largest city and the largest metropolitan area in Italy, the word Lombardy comes from Lombard, which in turn is derived from Late Latin Longobardus, Langobardus, derived from the Proto-Germanic elements *langaz + *bardaz, equivalent to long beard. Some sources derive the second element instead from Proto-Germanic *bardǭ, *barduz, Lombardy referred during the early Middle Ages to the entire territory of Italy ruled by the Lombards, a Germanic tribe who conquered much of the Italian peninsula beginning in the 6th century. During the late Middle Ages, the term shifted meaning and was used to identify the whole of Northern Italy, with a surface of 23,861 km2, Lombardy is the 4th largest region of Italy. It is bordered by Switzerland and by the Italian regions of Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol and Veneto, Emilia-Romagna, three distinct natural zones can be fairly easily distinguished in the Lombardy region, mountains, hills and plains – the latter being divided in Alta and Bassa. Inconsistent with the three distinctions above made is the subregion of Oltrepò Pavese, formed by the Apennine foothills beyond the Po River. The mighty Po river marks the border of the region for a length of about 210 km. In its progress it receives the waters of the Ticino River, the other streams which contribute to the great river are, the Olona, the Lambro, the Adda, the Oglio and the Mincio. The numerous lakes of Lombardy, all of glacial origin, lie in the northern highlands, from west to east these are Lake Maggiore, Lake Lugano, Lake Como, Lake Iseo, Lake Idro, then Lake Garda, the largest in Italy. A minor mountainous area, the Oltrepò Pavese, lies south of the Po, in the plains, intensively cultivated for centuries, little of the original environment remains. The most commons trees are elm, alder, sycamore, poplar, willow, in the area of the foothills lakes, however, grow olive trees, cypresses and larches, as well as varieties of subtropical flora such as magnolias, azaleas, acacias. Numerous species of flora in the Prealpine area include some kinds of saxifrage, the Lombard garlic, groundsels bellflowers. The highlands are characterized by the vegetation of the whole range of the Italian Alps. At a lower levels oak woods or broadleafed trees grow, on the slopes beech trees grow at the lowest limits. Shrubs such as rhododendron, dwarf pine and juniper are native to the summital zone, Lombardy has a wide array of climates, due to local variances in elevation, proximity to inland water basins, and large metropolitan areas. In addition, there is a seasonal temperature variation. A peculiarity of the climate is the thick fog that covers the plains between October and February. In the Alpine foothills, characterised by an Oceanic climate, numerous lakes exercise a mitigating influence, in the hills and mountains, the climate is humid continental
32.
Limes Germanicus
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At its height, the limes stretched from the North Sea outlet of the Rhine to near Regensburg on the Danube. Those two major rivers afforded natural protection from mass incursions into imperial territory, with the exception of a gap stretching roughly from Mogontiacum on the Rhine to Castra Regina, the total length was 568 km. It included at least 60 forts and 900 watchtowers, Roman border defences have become much better known through systematic excavations financed by Germany and through other research connected to them. The Saalburg is a fortification and museum of the Limes near Frankfurt. The first emperor who began to build fortifications along the border was Augustus, originally there were numerous Limes walls, which were then connected to form the Upper Germanic Limes along the Rhine and the Rhaetian Limes along the Danube. Later these two walls were linked to form a common borderline, from the death of Augustus until after 70 AD, Rome accepted as her Germanic frontier the water-boundary of the Rhine and upper Danube. Beyond these rivers she held only the plain of Frankfurt, opposite the Roman border fortress of Moguntiacum, the southernmost slopes of the Black Forest. The northern section of this frontier, where the Rhine is deep and broad, the upper Rhine and upper Danube are easily crossed. The frontier which they form is inconveniently long, enclosing an acute-angled wedge of foreign territory between the modern Baden and Württemberg, the Germanic populations of these lands seem in Roman times to have been scanty, and Roman subjects from the modern Alsace-Lorraine had drifted across the river eastwards. The first advance came about 74 AD, when what is now Baden was invaded and in part annexed, the point of the angle was broken off. The second advance was made by Domitian about 83 AD, among the blockhouses was one which by various enlargements and refoundations grew into the well-known Saalburg fort on the Taunus near Bad Homburg. This advance necessitated a third movement, the construction of a frontier connecting the annexations of AD74 and we know the line of this frontier which ran from the Main across the upland Odenwald to the upper waters of the Neckar and was defended by a chain of forts. The angle between the rivers was now almost full, but there remained further advance and further fortification. This is the frontier which is now visible and visited by the curious, the southern part of the Pfahlgraben is remarkably straight, for over 50 km it points almost absolutely true for Polaris. This frontier remained for about 100 years, and no doubt in that long period much was done to it to which precise dates are difficult to fix and it cannot even be absolutely certain when the frontier laid out by Pius was equipped with the manpitts and other special fortifications. Germanic invasions in the late 3rd century led to the abandonment of the so-called Upper Raetian Limes in favour of a Roman defence line along the rivers Rhine, Iller and Danube. Support was provided to some degree by fast river boats, the navis lusoria being the standard type, watch towers were in sight contact and heavily fortified castra placed at important passes and in the hinterland of the frontier. The limes itself is a simple construction
33.
Reschen Pass
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Reschen Pass is a mountain pass across the Main chain of the Alps, connecting the Upper Inn Valley in the northwest with the Vinschgau region in the southeast. Since 1919, the border between South Tyrol, Italy and Tyrol, Austria has approximately followed the watershed, the summit at a height of 1,504 metres being completely on Italian territory. Reschen is one of the passes of the Alps, located between Brenner Pass in the east and Viamala in the west. It is part of the divide between the Danube in the north and the Adige in the south. The border with Nauders, Austria runs about 2 kilometres north of the summit towards the tripoint with Valsot. Winter highs can reach around 8–10 °C, but can also be as cold as −10 °C, in summertime, maxima can be as high as 25–28 °C, or as low as single figures. However, minimum temperatures stay above 0 °C. Average number of days per month with, The above table is for the period 1990-2016, already before the Roman era, an unnamed bridle path linked the valley of the Inn River with the valley of the Adige river. The current Reschen Pass was part of the Via Claudia Augusta, unlike the wide and smooth southern side, the northern side of Reschen Pass has a steep and narrow bottleneck at Finstermünz. The Austrian engineer Carl Ritter von Ghega and Joseph Duile laid out plans for a new road from the fortress of Nauders to Cajetansbrücke near Pfunds and this road leads to Reschen Pass along the Eastern, Austrian banking of the Inn, connecting the Austrians lands on Austrian soil. Several structures for a railway connection were also built, however. List of highest paved roads in Europe List of mountain passes Coolidge, William Augustus Brevoort
34.
Via Claudia Augusta
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The Via Claudia Augusta is an ancient Roman road, which linked the valley of the Po River with Rhaetia across the Alps. The project of converting a pack-animal trail to serve wheeled vehicles was completed sixty years later in 46-47 AD by the son of Drusus, thence it continued towards Maia, and over the Reschen Pass. This then important road is called by modern-day German historians Donausüdstrasse and it served to secure the Roman northern frontier, which was marked until the end of the first century by the Danube river. Two milestones have been found, one at Rabland, a frazione of Partschins, near Merano in the South Tyrol, both are inscribed with the far terminus of the Via Claudia Augusta, Augusta Vindelicorum. Some grew into settlements and were fortified during the later Empire. Others can be identified only by the findings of archaeologists, in the 2nd century AD, a second Alpine pass was opened to wheeled traffic, the Brenner Pass. Today the Via Claudia Augusta is an important route used by cyclists to cross the Alps and it starts in Donauwörth and branches near Trento into two routes. The first and historically correct route ends in Ostiglia, the second, valentin - Merano - Bolzano - Trento - Verona - Ostiglia alternatively Trento - Feltre - Altinum - Venice. The length of the trail is approximately 700 kilometres, as a special service there are bus shuttles that take bicycles and cyclists over both the Fern Pass and the Reschen Pass, which are the most demanding parts of the route
35.
Romansh people
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The Romansh people are a people and ethnic group of Switzerland, native speakers of the Romansh language. They are usually multilingual, also speaking German and sometimes Italian, which are the official languages of Graubünden. They make up about 1% of Switzerlands population and 15% of Graubündens, the Romansh people began advocating for an end to German dominion over them starting with World War I. In 1937 the Swiss government recognized the Romansh language for the first time as one of Switzerlands four national languages, though only for use within the canton, not at the federal level. Candice Accola – American actress Jim Caviezel – American actor Joseph Planta – British librarian Joseph Planta – British diplomat Gion Caminada - Swiss Architect
36.
Switzerland in the Roman era
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Roman control weakened after 401 AD, but did not entirely disappear until the mid-5th century after which the area began to be occupied by Germanic peoples. South of the Swiss plateau were the Nantuates, Seduni and Veragri in the Valais, the first part of what is now Switzerland to fall to Rome was the southern Ticino, annexed after the Roman victory over the Insubres in 222 BC. The territory of the Allobroges around Geneva came under Roman sway by 121 BC and was incorporated into the province of Gallia Narbonensis prior to the Gallic Wars. In around 110 BC, two Helvetic tribes under Divico – the Tigurini and the Tougeni, sometimes identified with the Teutons – joined the wandering Germanic Cimbri on a march to the West. In 61 BC, the Helvetii, led by Orgetorix, decided to leave their lands and move to the West, burning their settlements behind them – twelve oppida, according to Caesar and they were decisively beaten by Caesar in the Battle of Bibracte in 58 BC. After their surrender, Caesar sent the Helvetii home, according them the status of foederati or Roman allies, caesars policy aimed at controlling the territory west of the Jura and Rhine, as well as at blocking the potential incursion routes from the East along the Jura. The Raetians, described as warriors by Strabo, continued to launch incursions into the Swiss Plateau. Caesars attempt to open the Great St Bernard Pass for Roman traffic failed in 57 BC due to opposition by the local Veragri. In 25 BC, an army under Aulus Terentius Varro Murena wiped out the Salassi in the Aosta Valley and that conquest was a consequence of the Augustan imperative of securing the Imperial borders. To effectively control the Alps as the shield of northern Italy, thus it had to extend its power to the Rhine and Danube, thereby also opening a direct route to Germania and all of Central Europe. The last obstacle in this path were the Raetians, the tropaeum alpium, built by Augustus in 7 BC to celebrate his conquest of the Alps, lists among the defeated peoples the tribes of Raetia and of the Valais, but not the Helvetii. It appears that they were absorbed peacefully into the Empire during the first century AD, except for their part in the conflicts of the Year of the Four Emperors, AD69. The history of Switzerland under Roman rule was, from the Augustan period up until 260 AD, the Pax Romana was made possible by the protection of well-defended and distant Imperial borders and a peaceful and smooth Romanization of the local population. The Romans urbanized the territory with numerous settlements and built a network of high-quality Roman roads connecting them, allowing for the integration of Helvetia into the imperial economy. While the Roman presence was strong in the Alps, where the crucial North-South connection had to be kept open. The principal Roman settlements in Switzerland were the cities of Iulia Equestris, Aventicum, Augusta Raurica, the colonies of Nyon and Augusta Raurica at first had little cultural influence beyond their immediate surroundings. Aventicum was likely the capital of the Helvetii since its founding at the beginning of the 1st century. In the 40s, it benefited from the traffic brought over the St Bernard pass over a street expanded by Claudius, the Alps were first administered by a legatus pro praetore in Augusta Vindelicorum, then by the procurator of the new province of Raetia
37.
Alps
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The mountains were formed over tens of millions of years as the African and Eurasian tectonic plates collided. Extreme shortening caused by the event resulted in marine sedimentary rocks rising by thrusting and folding into high mountain peaks such as Mont Blanc, Mont Blanc spans the French–Italian border, and at 4,810 m is the highest mountain in the Alps. The Alpine region area contains about a hundred peaks higher than 4000 metres, the altitude and size of the range affects the climate in Europe, in the mountains precipitation levels vary greatly and climatic conditions consist of distinct zones. Wildlife such as live in the higher peaks to elevations of 3,400 m. Evidence of human habitation in the Alps goes back to the Palaeolithic era, a mummified man, determined to be 5,000 years old, was discovered on a glacier at the Austrian–Italian border in 1991. By the 6th century BC, the Celtic La Tène culture was well established, Hannibal famously crossed the Alps with a herd of elephants, and the Romans had settlements in the region. In 1800 Napoleon crossed one of the passes with an army of 40,000. The 18th and 19th centuries saw an influx of naturalists, writers, in World War II, Adolf Hitler kept a base of operation in the Bavarian Alps throughout the war. The Alpine region has a cultural identity. The Winter Olympic Games have been hosted in the Swiss, French, at present, the region is home to 14 million people and has 120 million annual visitors. The English word Alps derives from the Latin Alpes, maurus Servius Honoratus, an ancient commentator of Virgil, says in his commentary that all high mountains are called Alpes by Celts. The term may be common to Italo-Celtic, because the Celtic languages have terms for high mountains derived from alp and this may be consistent with the theory that in Greek Alpes is a name of non-Indo-European origin. According to the Old English Dictionary, the Latin Alpes might possibly derive from a pre-Indo-European word *alb hill, Albania, a name not native to the region known as the country of Albania, has been used as a name for a number of mountainous areas across Europe. In Roman times, Albania was a name for the eastern Caucasus, in modern languages the term alp, alm, albe or alpe refers to a grazing pastures in the alpine regions below the glaciers, not the peaks. An alp refers to a mountain pasture where cows are taken to be grazed during the summer months and where hay barns can be found. The Alps are a crescent shaped geographic feature of central Europe that ranges in a 800 km arc from east to west and is 200 km in width, the mean height of the mountain peaks is 2.5 km. The range stretches from the Mediterranean Sea north above the Po basin, extending through France from Grenoble, the range continues onward toward Vienna, Austria, and east to the Adriatic Sea and Slovenia. To the south it dips into northern Italy and to the north extends to the border of Bavaria in Germany
38.
Livy
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Livy and Augustuss wife, Livia, were from the same clan in different locations, although not related by blood. Livy was born as Titus Livius in Patavium in northern Italy, there is a debate about the year of Titus Livius birth,64 BC or more likely 59 BC. At the time of his birth, his city of Patavium was the second wealthiest on the Italian peninsula. Patavium was a part of the province of Cisalpine Gaul at the time, in his works, Livy often expressed his deep affection and pride for Patavium, and the city was well known for its conservative values in morality and politics. Livy’s teen years were during the 40s BC, a time that coincided with the wars that were occurring throughout the Roman world. The governor of Cisalpine Gaul at the time, a man called Asinius Pollio, had tried to bring Patavium into the camp of Marcus Antonius, the wealthier citizens of Patavium refused to contribute money and arms to Asinius Pollio, and went into hiding. Therefore, Livy and the residents of Patavium did not end up supporting Marcus Antonius in his campaign for control over Rome. Later on, Asinius Pollio made a jibe at Livys patavinity and his jibe at Livy and his patavinity, however, may have been said because the city of Patavium had rejected Asinius Pollio, and he still harboured harsh feelings toward the city as a whole. Titus Livius probably went to Rome in the 30s BC, and it is likely that he spent an amount of time in the city after this. During his time in Rome, he was never a senator nor held any other governmental position and his elementary mistakes in military matters show that he was never a soldier. However, he was educated in philosophy and rhetoric and it seems that Livy had the financial resources and means to live an independent life. He devoted a part of his life to his writings. Livy was known to give recitations to small audiences, but he was not heard of to engage in declamation and he was familiar with the emperor Augustus, formerly Octavian, and the imperial family. Octavian was one of the three men fighting for the control of Rome during the Civil Wars in the 40s BC, Octavian gained power after defeating Marcus Antonius and Cleopatra, and was later given the honorary name of Augustus. Considering that Augustus came to be known as the greatest Roman emperor in the eyes of the Romans and it is said that Livy was the one who encouraged the future emperor Claudius, who was born in 10 BC, to explore the writing of history during his childhood. Livy himself was married and had at least one daughter and one son, Livy’s most famous work was his history of Rome. In it he explains the history of the city of Rome. Because he was writing under the emperor Augustus, Livy’s history emphasizes the great triumphs of Rome and he wrote his history with embellished accounts of Roman heroism in order to promote the new type of government implemented by Augustus when he became emperor
39.
Etruscan civilization
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The Etruscan civilization is the modern name given to a powerful and wealthy civilization of ancient Italy in the area corresponding roughly to Tuscany, western Umbria, and northern Lazio. Culture that is identifiably Etruscan developed in Italy after about 800 BC, the latter gave way in the 7th century BC to a culture that was influenced by ancient Greece, Magna Graecia, and Phoenicia. The decline was gradual, but by 500 BC the political destiny of Italy had passed out of Etruscan hands, the last Etruscan cities were formally absorbed by Rome around 100 BC. Politics were based on the city, and probably the family unit. In their heyday, the Etruscan elite grew very rich through trade with the Celtic world to the north and the Greeks to the south, archaic Greece had a huge influence on their art and architecture, and Greek mythology was evidently very familiar to them. The study also excluded recent Anatolian connection, the ancient Romans referred to the Etruscans as the Tuscī or Etruscī. Their Roman name is the origin of the terms Tuscany, which refers to their heartland, and Etruria, which can refer to their wider region. In Attic Greek, the Etruscans were known as Tyrrhenians, from which the Romans derived the names Tyrrhēnī, Tyrrhēnia, the word may also be related to the Hittite Taruisa. The Etruscans called themselves Rasenna, which was syncopated to Rasna or Raśna, the origins of the Etruscans are mostly lost in prehistory, although Greek historians as early as the 5th century BC, repeatedly associated the Tyrrhenians with Pelasgians. Strabo as well as the Homeric Hymn to Dionysus make mention of the Tyrrhenians as pirates, pliny the Elder put the Etruscans in the context of the Rhaetian people to the north and wrote in his Natural History, Adjoining these the Noricans are the Raeti and Vindelici. All are divided into a number of states, the Raeti are believed to be people of Tuscan race driven out by the Gauls, their leader was named Raetus. Historians have no literature and no original Etruscan texts of religion or philosophy, therefore, much of what is known about this civilization is derived from grave goods, another source of genetic data on Etruscan origins is from four ancient breeds of cattle. Analyzing the mitochondrial DNA of these and seven other breeds of Italian cattle, the other Italian breeds were linked to northern Europe. Etruscan expansion was focused both to the north beyond the Apennine Mountains and into Campania, some small towns in the sixth century BC disappeared during this time, ostensibly consumed by greater, more powerful neighbours. However, it is certain that the structure of the Etruscan culture was similar to, albeit more aristocratic than. The mining and commerce of metal, especially copper and iron, led to an enrichment of the Etruscans and to the expansion of their influence in the Italian peninsula and the western Mediterranean Sea. Here, their interests collided with those of the Greeks, especially in the sixth century BC and this led the Etruscans to ally themselves with Carthage, whose interests also collided with the Greeks. Around 540 BC, the Battle of Alalia led to a new distribution of power in the western Mediterranean, from the first half of the 5th century BC, the new political situation meant the beginning of the Etruscan decline after losing their southern provinces
40.
Barthold Georg Niebuhr
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Barthold Georg Niebuhr was a Danish-German statesman, banker, and historian who became Germanys leading historian of Ancient Rome and a founding father of modern scholarly historiography. Classical Rome caught the admiration of German thinkers, by 1810 Niebuhr was inspiring German patriotism in students at the University of Berlin by his analysis of Roman economy and government. Niebuhr was a leader of the Romantic Era and symbol of German national spirit that emerged after the defeat at Jena, Niebuhr was born in Copenhagen, the son of Carsten Niebuhr, a prominent German geographer resident in the city. His father provided his early education, the precocious young Niebuhr by 1794 was already an accomplished classical scholar and who read several languages. That year he entered the University of Kiel, where he studied law, There he formed an important friendship of his life, that with Madame Hensler, the widowed daughter-in-law of one of the professors, six years older than himself. He also made the acquaintance of her sister, Amelie Behrens, in 1796, he left Kiel to become private secretary to the Danish finance minister, Count Schimmelmann. But in 1798 he gave up this appointment and traveled in Great Britain, spending a year at Edinburgh studying agriculture, of his stay in Great Britain, he said “my early residence in England gave me one important key to Roman history. It is necessary to know civil life by personal observation in order to such states as those of antiquity. I never could have understood a number of things in the history of Rome without having observed England. ”In 1799 he returned to Denmark, in 1804 he became chief director of the national bank. After the death of his first wife in 1816 Niebuhr married Margarete Henslen, with whom he had one son, Marcus, in September 1806, he quit the Denmark post for a similar appointment in Prussia. He showed much business ability in his work, which he attributed to his life in England and Scotland. He arrived in Prussia on the eve of the catastrophe of Jena and he was also for a short time Prussian minister in the Netherlands, where he endeavoured without success to fund a loan. He commenced his lectures with a course on the history of Rome, the first two volumes, based upon his lectures, were published in 1812, but attracted little attention at the time owing to the absorbing interest of political events. In 1813 Niebuhrs own attention was diverted from history by the uprising of the German people against Napoleon, he entered the Landwehr, in 1815 he lost both his father and his wife. He next accepted the post of ambassador at Rome, before his departure for Rome, he married his wifes niece. He also, on a home from Italy, deciphered in a palimpsest at the Abbey of St. Gall the fragments of Flavius Merobaudes. As minister, he brought about the understanding between Prussia and the Pope signalized by the bull De salute animarum in 1821, Niebuhr was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1822. In 1823 he resigned the position in Rome and established himself at Bonn and he also assisted in August Bekkers edition of the Byzantine historians, and delivered courses of lectures on ancient history, ethnography, geography, and on the French Revolution
41.
Theodor Mommsen
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His work regarding Roman history is still of fundamental importance for contemporary research. He was also a prominent German politician, as a member of the Prussian and German parliaments and his works on Roman law and on the law of obligations had a significant impact on the German civil code. Mommsen was born to German parents in Garding in the Duchy of Schleswig in 1817, then ruled by the king of Denmark, and grew up in Bad Oldesloe in Holstein and he studied mostly at home, though he attended the gymnasium Christianeum in Altona for four years. He studied Greek and Latin and received his diploma in 1837, as he could not afford to study at Göttingen, he enrolled at the University of Kiel. Mommsen studied jurisprudence at Kiel from 1838 to 1843, finishing his studies with the degree of Doctor of Roman Law, during this time he was the roommate of Theodor Storm, who was later to become a renowned poet. Together with Mommsens brother Tycho, the three friends even published a collection of poems, thanks to a royal Danish grant, Mommsen was able to visit France and Italy to study preserved classical Roman inscriptions. During the revolution of 1848 he worked as a war correspondent in then-Danish Rendsburg, supporting the German annexation of Schleswig-Holstein, having been forced to leave the country by the Danes, he became a professor of law in the same year at the University of Leipzig. When Mommsen protested against the new constitution of Saxony in 1851, however, the next year he obtained a professorship in Roman law at the University of Zurich and then spent a couple of years in exile. In 1854 he became a professor of law at the University of Breslau where he met Jakob Bernays, Mommsen became a research professor at the Berlin Academy of Sciences in 1857. He later helped to create and manage the German Archaeological Institute in Rome. In 1858 Mommsen was appointed a member of the Academy of Sciences in Berlin, and he became professor of Roman History at the University of Berlin in 1861. At 2 a. m. on 7 July 1880 a fire occurred in the upper floor workroom-library of Mommsens house at Marchstraße 6 in Berlin, after being burned while attempting to remove valuable papers, he was restrained from returning to the blazing house. Several old manuscripts were burnt to ashes, including Manuscript 0.4.36, there is information that the important Manuscript of Jordanes from Heidelberg University library was burnt. Two other important manuscripts, from Brussels and Halle, were also destroyed, Mommsen was an indefatigable worker who rose at five to do research in his library. People often saw him reading whilst walking in the streets, Mommsen had sixteen children with his wife Marie. Their oldest daughter Maria married Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, the great Classics scholar and their grandson Theodor Ernst Mommsen became a professor of medieval history in the United States. Two of the great-grandsons, Hans Mommsen and Wolfgang Mommsen, were prominent German historians, Mommsen published over 1,500 works, and effectively established a new framework for the systematic study of Roman history. He pioneered epigraphy, the study of inscriptions in material artifacts
42.
Pliny the Elder
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In the latter number will be my uncle, by virtue of his own and of your compositions. Pliny is referring to the fact that Tacitus relied on his uncles now missing work on the History of the German Wars. The wind caused by the sixth and largest pyroclastic surge of the eruption would not allow his ship to leave the shore, and Pliny probably died during this event. Plinys dates are pinned to the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD79 and a statement of his nephew that he died in his 56th year, Pliny was the son of an equestrian, Gaius Plinius Celer, and his wife, Marcella. Neither the younger nor the elder Pliny mention the names and their ultimate source is a fragmentary inscription found in a field in Verona and recorded by the 16th century Augustinian monk Onofrio Panvinio at Verona. The reading of the inscription depends on the reconstruction, but in all cases the names come through, whether he was an augur and whether she was named Grania Marcella are less certain. Jean Hardouin presents a statement from a source that he claims was ancient, that Pliny was from Verona. Hardouin also cites the conterraneity of Catullus, additional efforts to connect Celer and Marcella with other gentes are highly speculative. Hardouin is the scholar to use his unknown source. He kept statues of his ancestors there, a statue of Pliny on the facade of the Duomo of Como celebrates him as a native son. He had a sister, Plinia, who married into the Caecilii and was the mother of his nephew, Pliny the Younger, whose letters describe his work and study regimen in detail. In one of his letters to Tacitus, Pliny the Younger details how his uncles breakfasts would be light and simple following the customs of our forefathers. This shows that Pliny the Younger wanted it to be conveyed that Pliny the Elder was a good Roman and this statement would have pleased Tacitus. Two inscriptions identifying the hometown of Pliny the Younger as Como take precedence over the Verona theory, one commemorates the youngers career as imperial magistrate and details his considerable charitable and municipal expenses on behalf of the people of Como. Another identifies his father Lucius village as Fecchio near Como and it is likely therefore that Plinia was a local girl and Pliny the Elder, her brother, was from Como. Gaius was a member of the Plinii gens and he did not take his fathers cognomen, Celer, but assumed his own, Secundus. As his adopted son took the same cognomen, Pliny founded a branch, no earlier instances of the Plinii are known. In 59 BC, only about 82 years before Plinys birth, Julius Caesar founded Novum Comum as a colonia to secure the region against the Alpine tribes, whom he had been unable to defeat
43.
Po (river)
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The Po is a river that flows eastward across northern Italy. The Po flows either 652 km or 682 km – considering the length of the Maira, the headwaters of the Po are a spring seeping from a stony hillside at Pian del Re, a flat place at the head of the Val Po under the northwest face of Monviso. The Po ends at a delta projecting into the Adriatic Sea near Venice and it has a drainage area of 74,000 km² in all,70,000 in Italy, of which 41,000 is in montane environments and 29,000 on the plain. The Po is the longest river in Italy, at its widest point its width is 503 m, the Po extends along the 45th parallel north. The river flows through many important Italian cities, including Turin, Piacenza and it is connected to Milan through a net of channels called navigli, which Leonardo da Vinci helped design. Near the end of its course, it creates a delta at the southern part of which is Comacchio. The Po valley was the territory of the Roman Cisalpine Gaul, divided into Cispadane Gaul, the Po begins in the Alps, and is in Italy, and flows eastward. The river is subject to heavy flooding, consequently, over half its length is controlled with argini, or dikes. The slope of the valley decreases from 0. 35% in the west to 0. 14% in the east and it is characterized by its large discharge. The vast valley around the Po is called the Po Basin or Po Valley, in 2002, more than 16 million people lived there, at the time nearly ⅓ of the population of Italy. The two main uses of the valley are for industry and for agriculture, both major uses. The industrial centres, such as Turin and Milan, are located on higher terrain and they rely for power on the numerous hydroelectric stations in or on the flanks of the Alps, and on the coal/oil power stations which use the water of the Po basin as coolant. Drainage from the north is mediated through several large, scenic lakes, the streams are now controlled by so many dams as to slow the rivers sedimentation rate, causing geologic problems. The main products of the farms around the river are cereals including – unusually for Europe – rice, the latter method is the chief consumer of surface water, while industrial and human consumption use underground water. The Po Delta wetlands have been protected by the institution of two parks in the regions in which it is situated, Veneto and Emilia-Romagna. The Po Delta Regional Park in Emilia-Romagna, the largest, consists of four parcels of land on the bank of the Po. Executive authority resides in an assembly of the presidents of the provinces, the mayors of the comuni and they employ a Technical-Scientific Committee and a Park Council to carry out directives. In 1999 the park was designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO and was added to Ferrara, City of the Renaissance, the 53,653 ha of the park contain wetlands, forest, dunes and salt pans
44.
Gauls
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The Gauls were Celtic peoples inhabiting Gaul in the Iron Age and the Roman period. Their Gaulish language forms the branch of the Continental Celtic languages. The Gauls emerged around the 5th century BC as the bearers of the La Tène culture north of the Alps, Gaul was never united under a single ruler or government, but the Gallic tribes were capable of uniting their forces in large-scale military operations. They reached the peak of their power in the early 3rd century BC, after this, Gaul became a province of the Roman Empire, and the Gauls were culturally assimilated into a Gallo-Roman culture, losing their tribal identities by the end of the 1st century AD. The Gauls of Gallia Celtica according to the testimony of Caesar called themselves Celtae in their own language, the name Gaul itself may be derived from Latin Galli, or it may be derived from the Germanic word Walha. Gaulish culture developed out of the Celtic cultures over the first millennia BC, the Urnfield culture represents the Celts as a distinct cultural branch of the Indo-European-speaking people. The spread of iron working led to the Hallstatt culture in the 8th century BC, the Hallstatt culture evolved into the La Tène culture in around the 5th century BC. The Greek and Etruscan civilizations and colonies began to influence the Gauls especially in the Mediterranean area, Gauls under Brennus invaded Rome circa 390 BC. Following the climate deterioration in the late Nordic Bronze Age, Celtic Gaul was invaded in the 5th century BC by tribes later called Gauls originating in the Rhine valley. Gallic invaders settled the Po Valley in the 4th century BC, defeated Roman forces in a battle under Brennus in 390 BC and raided Italy as far as Sicily. A large number of Gauls served in the armies of Carthage during the Punic Wars, in the Aegean world, an invasion of Eastern Gauls appeared in Thrace, north of Greece, in 281 BC. However, according to the Roman legend of the gold of Delphi. One king Cerethrius invaded the Thracians, while another Gallic king Bolgios invaded Macedonia and Illyria where he killed the Macedonian king Ptolemy Keraunos, in 278 BC Gaulish settlers in the Balkans were invited by Nicomedes I of Bithynia to help him in a dynastic struggle against his brother. They numbered about 10,000 fighting men and about the number of women and children. They were eventually defeated by the Seleucid king Antiochus I, in a battle where the Seleucid war elephants shocked the Galatians. While the momentum of the invasion was broken, the Galatians were by no means exterminated and continued to demand tribute from the Hellenistic states of Anatolia to avoid war,4,000 Galatians were hired as mercenaries by the Ptolemaic Egyptian king Ptolemy II Philadelphus in the 270 BC. According to Pausanias, soon after arrival the Celts plotted “to seize Egypt, ”, Galatians also participated at the victorious in 217 BC Battle of Raphia under Ptolemy IV Philopator, and continued to serve as mercenaries for the Ptolemaic Dynasty until its demise in 30 BC. They sided with the renegade Seleucid prince Antiochus Hierax, who reigned in Asia Minor, after the defeat, the Galatians continued to be a serious threat to the states of Asia Minor
45.
Eponym
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An eponym is a person, place, or thing for whom or for which something is named, or believed to be named. For example, Elizabeth I of England is the eponym of the Elizabethan era, recent usage, especially in the recorded-music industry, also allows eponymous to mean named after its central character or creator. In ancient Greece, the eponymous archon was the highest magistrate in classical Athens, Eponymous archons served a term of one year which took the name of that particular archon. Later historians provided yet another case of eponymy by referring to the period of Fifth-century Athens as The Age of Pericles after its most influential statesman Pericles. In Ptolemaic Egypt, the head priest of the Cult of Alexander, the Hebrew Bible explains the origins of peoples through individuals who bear their name. In most cases, the experiences and behavior of the ancestor is meant to indicate the characteristics of the people who take their name, in ancient Rome, one of the two formal ways of indicating a year was to cite the two annual consuls who served in that year. For example, the year we know as 59 BC would have described as the consulship of Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus and Gaius Julius Caesar. Under the empire, the consuls would change as often as two months, but only the two consuls at the beginning of the year would lend their names to that year. During the Christian era, itself eponymous, many households used eponymous dating by regnal years. The Roman Catholic Church, however, eventually used the Anno Domini dating scheme based on the birth of Christ on both the public and royalty. Government administrations may become referred to eponymously, such as Kennedys Camelot, British monarchs have become eponymous throughout the English-speaking world for time periods, fashions, etc. Elizabethan, Georgian, Victorian, and Edwardian are examples of these, trends Political trends or movements often become eponymous with a government leader. Examples include Jacksonian democracy, Stalinism, Maoism, Obamacare, in intellectual property law an eponym can refer to a generic trademark or brand name, a form of metonymy, such as aspirin, heroin and thermos in the United States. In geography, places and towns can also be given a name through a relationship to an important figure. Peloponnesus, for instance, was said to derive its name from the Greek hero Pelops, in historical times, new towns have often been named after their founders, discoverers, or notable individuals. In science and technology, discoveries and innovations are often named after the discoverer or a figure influential in their advance, examples are Avogadros number, the Diesel engine, meitnerium, Alzheimers disease, and the Apgar score. For a different view of the process see Stiglers law of eponymy, the term is also applied to music, usually with regard to record titles, where it is prevalent and leads to confusion. For example, Bad Companys first album was entitled Bad Company, titled a 1988 compilation album Eponymous
46.
Celts
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The history of pre-Celtic Europe remains very uncertain. According to one theory, the root of the Celtic languages, the Proto-Celtic language, arose in the Late Bronze Age Urnfield culture of Central Europe. Thus this area is called the Celtic homeland. The earliest undisputed examples of a Celtic language are the Lepontic inscriptions beginning in the 6th century BC. Continental Celtic languages are attested almost exclusively through inscriptions and place-names, Insular Celtic languages are attested beginning around the 4th century in Ogham inscriptions, although it was clearly being spoken much earlier. Celtic literary tradition begins with Old Irish texts around the 8th century, coherent texts of Early Irish literature, such as the Táin Bó Cúailnge, survive in 12th century recensions. Between the 5th and 8th centuries, the Celtic-speaking communities in these Atlantic regions emerged as a cohesive cultural entity. They had a linguistic, religious and artistic heritage that distinguished them from the culture of the surrounding polities. By the 6th century, however, the Continental Celtic languages were no longer in wide use, Insular Celtic culture diversified into that of the Gaels and the Celtic Britons of the medieval and modern periods. A modern Celtic identity was constructed as part of the Romanticist Celtic Revival in Great Britain, Ireland, today, Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Welsh, and Breton are still spoken in parts of their historical territories, and Cornish and Manx are undergoing a revival. The first recorded use of the name of Celts – as Κελτοί – to refer to a group was by Hecataeus of Miletus, the Greek geographer, in 517 BC. In the fifth century BC Herodotus referred to Keltoi living around the head of the Danube, the etymology of the term Keltoi is unclear. Possible roots include Indo-European *kʲel ‘to hide’, IE *kʲel ‘to heat’ or *kel ‘to impel’, several authors have supposed it to be Celtic in origin, while others view it as a name coined by Greeks. Linguist Patrizia De Bernardo Stempel falls in the group. Yet he reports Celtic peoples in Iberia, and also uses the ethnic names Celtiberi and Celtici for peoples there, as distinct from Lusitani, pliny the Elder cited the use of Celtici in Lusitania as a tribal surname, which epigraphic findings have confirmed. Latin Gallus might stem from a Celtic ethnic or tribal name originally and its root may be the Proto-Celtic *galno, meaning “power, strength”, hence Old Irish gal “boldness, ferocity” and Welsh gallu “to be able, power”. The tribal names of Gallaeci and the Greek Γαλάται most probably have the same origin, the suffix -atai might be an Ancient Greek inflection. Proto-Germanic *walha is derived ultimately from the name of the Volcae and this means that English Gaul, despite its superficial similarity, is not actually derived from Latin Gallia, though it does refer to the same ancient region
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This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Raetia". Encyclopædia Britannica. 22 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 812–813.
