1.
Cornice
A simple cornice may be formed just with a crown molding. The function of the cornice of a building is to throw rainwater free of the building’s walls. In residential building practice, this function is handled by projecting gable ends, roof eaves, house eaves may be called cornices if they are finished with decorative molding. The projecting cornice of a building may appear to be heavy and hence in danger of falling, particularly on commercial buildings, a rake is an architectural term for an eave or cornice which runs along the gable end of the roof of a modern residential structure. It may be called a sloping cornice, a raking cornice, the trim and rafters at this edge are called rake-, verge-, or barge-board or verge- or barge-rafter. It is a sloped timber on the facing edge of a roof running between the ridge and the eave. On a typical house, any gable will have two rakes, one on each sloped side, the rakes are supported by a series of lookouts and may be enclosed with a rake fascia board on the outside facing edge and a rake soffit along the bottom.
The cornices of a residential building will usually be one of three types, a box cornice, a close or closed cornice, or an open cornice. Box cornices enclose the cornice of the building with what is essentially a narrow box. A box cornice may further be divided into either the box cornice or the wide box cornice type. A narrow box cornice is one in which the projection of the rafter serves as a surface for the soffit board as well as the fascia trim. This is possible if the slope of the roof is fairly steep, box cornices often have ventilation screens laid over openings cut in the soffits in order to allow air to circulate within the cornice. A close, closed, or snub cornice is one in there is no projection of the rafters beyond the walls of the building. This type of cornice is easy to construct, but provides little aid in dispersing water away from the building, in an open cornice, the shape of the cornice is similar to that of a wide box cornice except that both the lookouts and the soffit are absent.
It is a lower-cost treatment that requires fewer materials, and may not have a fascia board. Ancient Egyptian architectural tradition made special use of large cavetto mouldings as a cornice, with only a short fillet above, inspired by this precedent, it was revived by Ardashir I, the founder of the Sasanian dynasty. The cavetto took the place of the cymatium in many Etruscan temples, often painted with vertical tongue patterns, additional more-obscure varieties of cornice include the architrave cornice, bracketed cornice, and modillion cornice. A cornice return is a detail that occurs where the horizontal cornice of a roof connects to the rake of a gable
2.
Lusitania
Lusitania or Hispania Lusitana was an ancient Iberian Roman province including approximately all of modern Portugal south of the Douro river and part of modern Spain. It was named after the Lusitani or Lusitanian people and its capital was Emerita Augusta, and it was initially part of the Roman Republic province of Hispania Ulterior, before becoming a province of its own in the Roman Empire. Romans first came to the territory around the mid 2nd century BC, a war with Lusitanian tribes followed, from 155 to 139 BC. In 27 BC, the province was created, the etymology of the name of the Lusitani remains unclear. Luís de Camões epic Os Lusíadas, which portrays Lusus as the founder of Lusitania, extends these ideas, in his work, the classical geographer Strabo suggests a change had occurred in the use of the name Lusitanian. He mentions a group who had once been called Lusitanians living north of the Douro river but were called in his day Callacans. The Lusitani, who were Indo-European speakers, established themselves in the region in the 6th century BC, some modern authors consider them to be an indigenous people who were Celticized culturally and possibly through intermarriage.
The archeologist Scarlat Lambrino defended the position that the Lusitanians were a group of Celtic origin related to the Lusones. Some have claimed that both came from the Swiss mountains. Others argue that the points to the Lusitanians being a native Iberian tribe. In 179 BC, the praetor Lucius Postumius Albinus celebrated a triumph over the Lusitani, but in 155 BC, on the command of Punicus first and Cesarus after, here they were defeated by the praetor Lucius Mummius. From 152 BC onwards, the Roman Republic had difficulties in recruiting soldiers for the wars in Hispania, in 150 BC, Servius Sulpicius Galba organised a false armistice. Two years after, in 137 BC Decimus Junius Brutus Callaicus led a campaign against the Lusitani. Its northern border was along the Douro river, while on its side its border passed through Salmantica. Felicitas Iulia Olisipo was a Roman law municipality) and 3 other towns had the old Latin status (Ebora, the other 37 were of stipendiarii class, among which Aeminium, Balsa, or Mirobriga.
Other cities include Ossonoba, Collippo or Arabriga, under Diocletian, Lusitania kept its borders and was ruled by a praeses, by a consularis, finally, in 298 AD, it was united with the other provinces to form the Diocesis Hispaniarum. In the second book in the science fiction novels comprising the Enders Game series, titled Speaker for the Dead and it is explained in the book that it was named for the historical people and territory in Portugal, which the inhabitants are descended from
3.
France
France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic and Indian oceans. France spans 643,801 square kilometres and had a population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017. It is a unitary republic with the capital in Paris. Other major urban centres include Marseille, Lille, Toulouse, during the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The area was annexed in 51 BC by Rome, which held Gaul until 486, France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years War strengthening state-building and political centralisation. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a colonial empire was established.
The 16th century was dominated by civil wars between Catholics and Protestants. France became Europes dominant cultural and military power under Louis XIV, in the 19th century Napoleon took power and established the First French Empire, whose subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and dissolved in the course of the Algerian War, the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, was formed in 1958 and remains to this day. Algeria and nearly all the colonies became independent in the 1960s with minimal controversy and typically retained close economic. France has long been a centre of art, science. It hosts Europes fourth-largest number of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites and receives around 83 million foreign tourists annually, France is a developed country with the worlds sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest by purchasing power parity.
In terms of household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, France remains a great power in the world, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a member state of the European Union and the Eurozone. It is a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or country of the Franks
4.
Parapet
A parapet is a barrier which is an extension of the wall at the edge of a roof, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian parapetto, the German equivalent Brustwehr has the same meaning. Parapets were originally used to defend buildings from attack, but today they are primarily used as guard rails. Parapets may be plain, perforated or panelled, which are not mutually exclusive terms, plain parapets are upward extensions of the wall, sometimes with a coping at the top and corbel below. Embattled parapets may be panelled, but are pierced, if not purely as stylistic device, perforated parapets are pierced in various designs such as circles, trefoils, or quatrefoils. Panelled parapets are ornamented by a series of panels, either oblong or square, and more or less enriched and these are common in the Decorated and Perpendicular periods. The Mosaic law prescribed parapets for newly constructed houses as a safety measure, the Mirror Wall at Sigiriya, Sri Lanka built between 477 and 495 AD is one of the few surviving protective parapet walls from antiquity.
Built onto the side of Sigiriya Rock it ran for a distance of approximately 250 meters and provided protection from inclement weather. Only about one hundred meters of this exists today, but brick debris. Parapets surrounding roofs are common in London and this dates from the Building Act of 1707 which banned projecting wooden eaves in the cities of Westminster and London as a fire risk. Instead an 18-inch brick parapet was required, with the set behind. This was continued in many Georgian houses, as it gave the appearance of a roof which accorded with the desire for classical proportions. Many firewalls are required to have a parapet, a portion of the wall extending above the roof, the parapet is required to be as fire resistant as the lower wall, and extend a distance prescribed by building code. Parapets on bridges and other highway structures prevent users from falling off where there is a drop and they may be meant to restrict views, to prevent rubbish passing below, and to act as noise barriers.
Bridge parapets may be made any material, but structural steel, timber. They may be of solid or framed construction, in European standards, parapets are defined as a sub-category of vehicle restraint systems or pedestrian restraint systems. In terms of fortification, a parapet is a wall of stone, wood or earth on the edge of a defensive wall or trench. In medieval castles, they were often crenellated, in artillery forts, parapets tend to be higher and thicker
5.
Trajan
Trajan was Roman emperor from 98 to 117 AD. Born in the city of Italica in the province of Hispania Baetica, Trajans non-patrician family was of Italian, Trajan rose to prominence during the reign of emperor Domitian. Serving as a legatus legionis in Hispania Tarraconensis, in 89 Trajan supported Domitian against a revolt on the Rhine led by Antonius Saturninus, in September 96, Domitian was succeeded by Marcus Cocceius Nerva, an old and childless senator who proved to be unpopular with the army. After a brief and tumultuous year in power, culminating in a revolt by members of the Praetorian Guard, Nerva was compelled to adopt the more popular Trajan as his heir and he died on 27 January 98 and was succeeded by his adopted son without incident. Early in his reign, he annexed the Nabataean Kingdom, creating the province of Arabia Petraea and his conquest of Dacia enriched the empire greatly, as the new province possessed many valuable gold mines. However, its position north of the Danube made it susceptible to attack on three sides, and it was abandoned by Emperor Aurelian.
Trajans war against the Parthian Empire ended with the sack of the capital Ctesiphon and his campaigns expanded the Roman Empire to its greatest territorial extent. In late 117, while sailing back to Rome, Trajan fell ill and he was deified by the Senate and his ashes were laid to rest under Trajans Column. He was succeeded by his adopted son Hadrian, as an emperor, Trajans reputation has endured – he is one of the few rulers whose reputation has survived nineteen centuries. Every new emperor after him was honoured by the Senate with the wish felicior Augusto, among medieval Christian theologians, Trajan was considered a virtuous pagan. As far as ancient literary sources are concerned, an extant continuous account of Trajans reign does not exist, only fragments remain of the Getiká, a book by Trajans personal physician Titos Statilios Kriton. The Parthiká, a 17-volume account of the Parthian Wars written by Arrian, has met a similar fate, book 68 in Cassius Dios Roman History, which survives mostly as Byzantine abridgments and epitomes, is the main source for the political history of Trajans rule.
Besides this, Pliny the Youngers Panegyricus and Dio of Prusas orations are the best surviving contemporary sources and it is certain that much of text of the letters that appear in this collection over Trajans signature was written and/or edited by Trajans Imperial secretary, his ab epistulis. Therefore, discussion of Trajan and his rule in modern historiography cannot avoid speculation, as well as recourse to sources such as archaeology. Marcus Ulpius Traianus was born on 18 September 53 AD in the Roman province of Hispania Baetica, Trajans birthplace of Italica was founded as a Roman military colony in 206 BC, though it is unknown when the Ulpii arrived there. Trajan was the son of Marcia, a Roman noblewoman and sister-in-law of the second Flavian Emperor Titus, and Marcus Ulpius Traianus, Marcus Ulpius Traianus the elder served Vespasian in the First Jewish-Roman War, commanding the Legio X Fretensis. Trajan himself was just one of many well-known Ulpii in a line that continued long after his own death and his elder sister was Ulpia Marciana, and his niece was Salonina Matidia.
The patria of the Ulpii was Italica, in Spanish Baetica, as a young man, he rose through the ranks of the Roman army, serving in some of the most contested parts of the Empires frontier
6.
Portico
A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was used in Ancient Greece and has influenced many cultures. Some noteworthy examples of porticos are the East Portico of the United States Capitol, the portico adorning the Pantheon in Rome, porticos are sometimes topped with pediments. Bologna, Italy, is famous for its porticos, in total, there are over 45 km of arcades, some 38 in the city center. The longest portico in the world, about 3.5 km, in Bologna, porticos stretch for 18 km. Palladio was a pioneer of using temple-fronts for secular buildings, in the UK, the temple-front applied to The Vyne, Hampshire was the first portico applied to an English country house. A pronaos is the area of the portico of a Greek or Roman temple. Roman temples commonly had an open pronaos, usually with only columns and no walls, the word pronaos is Greek for before a temple. In Latin, a pronaos is referred to as an anticum or prodomus, the different variants of porticos are named by the number of columns they have.
The style suffix comes from the Greek στῦλος, the tetrastyle has four columns, it was commonly employed by the Greeks and the Etruscans for small structures such as public buildings and amphiprostyles. Roman provincial capitals manifested tetrastyle construction, such as the Capitoline Temple in Volubilis, the North Portico of the White House is perhaps the most notable four-columned portico in the United States. Hexastyle buildings had six columns and were the standard façade in canonical Greek Doric architecture between the archaic period 600–550 BC up to the Age of Pericles 450–430 BC. With the colonization by the Greeks of Southern Italy, hexastyle was adopted by the Etruscans, Roman taste favoured narrow pseudoperipteral and amphiprostyle buildings with tall columns, raised on podiums for the added pomp and grandeur conferred by considerable height. The Maison Carrée at Nîmes, France, is the best-preserved Roman hexastyle temple surviving from antiquity, octastyle buildings had eight columns, they were considerably rarer than the hexastyle ones in the classical Greek architectural canon.
The best-known octastyle buildings surviving from antiquity are the Parthenon in Athens, built during the Age of Pericles, and the Pantheon in Rome. The destroyed Temple of Divus Augustus in Rome, the centre of the Augustan cult, is shown on Roman coins of the 2nd century AD as having built in octastyle. The decastyle has ten columns, as in the temple of Apollo Didymaeus at Miletus, the temple of Venus and Rome, built by Hadrian in Rome about 130 A. D. was decastyle, the only known example in Roman architecture. Classical architecture List of classical architecture terms Hypostyle Loggia Stoa Greek architecture, Encyclopædia Britannica,1968 Stierlin, From Mycenae to the Parthenon, TASCHEN,2004, Editor-in-chief Angelika Taschen, Cologne, ISBN 3-8228-1225-0 Stierlin, Henri
7.
Constantine the Great
Constantine the Great, known as Constantine I or Saint Constantine, was a Roman Emperor from 306 to 337 AD. Constantine was the son of Flavius Valerius Constantius, a Roman Army officer and his father became Caesar, the deputy emperor in the west, in 293 AD. Constantine was sent east, where he rose through the ranks to become a military tribune under the emperors Diocletian, in 305, Constantius was raised to the rank of Augustus, senior western emperor, and Constantine was recalled west to campaign under his father in Britannia. As emperor, Constantine enacted many administrative, social, the government was restructured and civil and military authority separated. A new gold coin, the solidus, was introduced to combat inflation and it would become the standard for Byzantine and European currencies for more than a thousand years. He called the First Council of Nicaea in 325, at which the Nicene Creed was adopted by Christians, in military matters, the Roman army was reorganised to consist of mobile field units and garrison soldiers capable of countering internal threats and barbarian invasions.
The age of Constantine marked an epoch in the history of the Roman Empire. He built a new residence at Byzantium and renamed the city Constantinople after himself. It would become the capital of the Empire for over one thousand years and his more immediate political legacy was that, in leaving the empire to his sons, he replaced Diocletians tetrarchy with the principle of dynastic succession. His reputation flourished during the lifetime of his children and centuries after his reign, the medieval church upheld him as a paragon of virtue while secular rulers invoked him as a prototype, a point of reference, and the symbol of imperial legitimacy and identity. Beginning with the Renaissance, there were more critical appraisals of his due to the rediscovery of anti-Constantinian sources. Critics portrayed him as a tyrant, trends in modern and recent scholarship attempted to balance the extremes of previous scholarship. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, built on his orders at the site of Jesus tomb in Jerusalem.
The Papal claim to power in the High Middle Ages was based on the supposed Donation of Constantine. He is venerated as a saint by Eastern Orthodox and Byzantine Catholics, though Constantine has historically often been referred to as the First Christian Emperor, scholars debate his actual beliefs or even his actual comprehension of the Christian faith itself. Constantine was a ruler of major importance, and he has always been a controversial figure, the fluctuations in Constantines reputation reflect the nature of the ancient sources for his reign. These are abundant and detailed, but have strongly influenced by the official propaganda of the period. There are no surviving histories or biographies dealing with Constantines life, the nearest replacement is Eusebius of Caesareas Vita Constantini, a work that is a mixture of eulogy and hagiography
8.
Orange, Vaucluse
Orange is a commune in the Vaucluse Department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte dAzur region in southeastern France, about 21 km north of Avignon. It has an agricultural economy. The name was unrelated to that of the orange fruit. Arausio covered an area of some 170 acres and was endowed with civic monuments, in addition to the theatre and arch, it had a monumental temple complex. It was the capital of an area of northern Provence. It is found in both the Tabula Peutingeriana and Le cadastre dOrange maps, the town prospered, but was sacked by the Visigoths in 412. It had, by then, become largely Christianized, and from the end of the third century constituted the Ancient Diocese of Orange, no longer a residential bishopric, Arausio, as it is called in Latin, is today listed by the Catholic Church as a titular see. It hosted two important synods, in 441 and 529, the Second Council of Orange was of importance in condemning what came to be called Semipelagianism. The sovereign Carolingian counts of Orange had their origin in the eighth century, from the 12th century, Orange was raised to a minor principality, the Principality of Orange, as a fief of the Holy Roman Empire.
During this period, the town and the principality of Orange belonged to the administration and this pitched it into the Protestant side in the Wars of Religion, during which the town was badly damaged. In 1568, the Eighty Years War began with William as stadtholder leading the bid for independence from Spain, William the Silent was assassinated in Delft in 1584. His son, Maurice of Nassau, with the help of Johan van Oldenbarnevelt, the United Provinces survived to become the Netherlands, which is still ruled by the House of Orange-Nassau. William, Prince of Orange, ruled England as William III of England, Orange gave its name to other Dutch-influenced parts of the world, such as the Oranges in New Jersey, USA, and the Orange Free State in South Africa. Following the French Revolution of 1789, Orange was absorbed into the French département of Drôme, Bouches-du-Rhône, the title remained with the Dutch princes of Orange. Orange attracted international attention in 1995, when it elected a member of Front National, Jacques Bompard, Bompard left the FN in 2005 and became a member of the conservative Movement for France until 2010.
Orange was home to the French Foreign Legions armored First Foreign Cavalry Regiment, the regiment officially moved to Carpiagne on July 10,2014. The city of Orange is the 3rd largest town of Vaucluse by population after Avignon, in 2013, the municipality had 29,193 residents. The evolution of the number of inhabitants is known throughout the population censuses carried out in the town since 1793, the fine Triumphal Arch of Orange is often said to date from the time of Augustus or Tiberius, but is probably much later, perhaps Severan
9.
Corinthian order
The Corinthian order is the last developed of the three principal classical orders of ancient Greek and Roman architecture. The other two are the Doric order which was the earliest, followed by the Ionic order, when classical architecture was revived during the Renaissance, two more orders were added to the canon, the Tuscan order and the Composite order. The Corinthian, with its offshoot the Composite, is the most ornate of the orders, characterized by slender fluted columns and elaborate capitals decorated with acanthus leaves and it was employed in southern Gaul at the Maison Carrée, Nîmes and at the comparable podium temple at Vienne. Other prime examples noted by Mark Wilson Jones are the order of the Basilica Ulpia and the arch at Ancona the column of Phocas. The Corinthian order is named for the Greek city-state of Corinth, according to the architectural historian Vitruvius, the column was created by the sculptor Callimachus, probably an Athenian, who drew acanthus leaves growing around a votive basket.
Its earliest use can be traced back to the Late Classical Period, the earliest Corinthian capital was found in Bassae, dated at 427 BC. In its proportions, the Corinthian column is similar to the Ionic column, though it is more slender, the abacus upon the capital has concave sides to conform to the outscrolling corners of the capital, and it may have a rosette at the center of each side. Corinthian columns were erected on the top level of the Roman Colosseum, holding up the least weight and their height to width ratio is about 10,1. One variant is the Tivoli Order, found at the Temple of Vesta, the Tivoli Orders Corintinan Capital has two rows of Acanthus and its abacus is decorated with oversize fleuron in the form of hibiscus flowers with pronounced spiral pistils. The column flutes have flat tops, the frieze exhibits fruit swag suspended between bucrania. Above each swag is a rosette, the cornice does not have modillions. Indo-Corinthian capitals are capitals crowning columns or pilasters, which can be found in the northwestern Indian subcontinent and these capitals are typically dated to the 1st centuries of our era, and constitute important elements of Greco-Buddhist art of Gandhara.
The classical design was adapted, usually taking a more elongated form. Indo-Corinthian capitals incorporated figures of the Buddha or Bodhisattvas, usually as central figures surrounded, the Corinthian architrave is divided in two or three sections, which may be equal, or they may bear interesting proportional relationships, one with another. Above the plain, unadorned architrave lies the frieze, which may be carved with a continuous design or left plain. At the Capitol the proportions of architrave to frieze are exactly 1,1, above that, the profiles of the cornice moldings are like those of the Ionic order. If the cornice is deep, it may be supported by brackets or modillions. The Corinthian column is almost always fluted, if it is not, it is often worth pausing to unravel the reason why
10.
Proserpina
Proserpina or Proserpine is an ancient Roman goddess whose cult and mysteries were based on those of Greek Persephone and her mother Demeter, the Greek goddess of grain and agriculture. The Romans identified Proserpina with their native fertility goddess Libera, daughter of the grain and agriculture goddess Ceres, just as Persephone was thought to be a daughter of Demeter, Romans made Proserpina a daughter of Demeters Roman equivalent, Ceres. Her name is a Latinisation of Persephone, perhaps influenced by the Latin proserpere, the cult originated in southern Italy and was probably based on the women-only Greek Thesmophoria, a mystery cult to Demeter and Persephone as Mother and Maiden. It arrived along with its Greek priestesses, who were granted Roman citizenship so that they could pray to the gods with a foreign and external knowledge and their joint cult recalls Demeters search for Persephone, after the latters rape and abduction into the underworld by Hades. At the Aventine, the new cult took its place alongside the old and it made no reference to Liber, whose open and gender-mixed cult continued to play a central role in plebeian culture, as a patron and protector of plebeian rights and values.
Unmarried girls should emulate the chastity of Proserpina, the maiden, married women should seek to emulate Ceres and their rites were intended to secure a good harvest, and increase the fertility of those who partook in the mysteries. A Temple of Proserpina was located in a suburb of Melite, in modern Mtarfa, the temples ruins were quarried between the 17th and 18th centuries, and only a few fragments survive. The best-known myth surrounding Proserpina is of her abduction by the god of the Underworld, her mother Ceres frantic search for her, renamed thus, the king of the underworld is distanced from his consorts violent abduction. In the early 1st century Ovid gives two versions of the myth in Latin, one in Book 5 of his Metamorphoses. Venus, in order to bring love to Pluto, sent her son Amor to hit Pluto with one of his arrows and he abducted her in order to marry her and live with her in the underworld of which he was the ruler. In her desperation Ceres angrily stopped the growth of fruits and vegetables, Ceres refused to go back to Mount Olympus and started walking on the Earth, making a desert at every step.
Worried, Jupiter sent Mercury to order Pluto to free Proserpina, Pluto obeyed, but before letting her go he made her eat six pomegranate seeds, because those who have eaten the food of the dead could not return to the world of the living. This meant that she would have to live six months of year with him. In another version of the story, Proserpina ate only four pomegranate seeds, when Jupiter ordered her return, Pluto struck a deal with Jupiter, saying that since she had stolen his pomegranate seeds, she must stay with him four months of the year in return. For this reason, in spring when Ceres receives her back, the crops blossom. In the autumn Ceres changes the leaves to shades of brown, during the time that Proserpina resides with Pluto, the world goes through winter, a time when the earth is barren. The most extensive myth of Proserpina in Latin is Claudians and it is closely connected with that of Orpheus and Eurydice. But Orpheus could not resist a backward glance, so Eurydice was forever lost to him
11.
Italy
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, Austria, 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, exploration, Italian culture flourished at this time, producing famous scholars and polymaths such as Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo and Machiavelli. The weakened sovereigns soon fell victim to conquest by European powers such as France 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 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, 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 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 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
12.
Pluto (mythology)
Pluto was the ruler of the underworld in classical mythology. The earlier name for the god was Hades, which more common as the name of the underworld itself. In ancient Greek religion and mythology, Pluto represents a positive concept of the god who presides over the afterlife. The name Ploutōn came into usage with the Eleusinian Mysteries, in which Pluto was venerated as a stern ruler. The couple received souls in the afterlife, and are invoked together in religious inscriptions, Hades by contrast had few temples and religious practices associated with him, and is portrayed as the dark and violent abductor of Persephone. Pluto and Hades differ in character, but they are not distinct figures, in Greek cosmogony, the god received the rule of the underworld in a three-way division of sovereignty over the world, with his brothers Zeus ruling the Sky and Poseidon the Sea. His central narrative is the abduction of Persephone to be his wife, under the name Pluto, the god appears in other myths in a secondary role, mostly as the possessor of a quest-object, and especially in the descent of Orpheus or other heroes to the underworld.
Plūtō is the Latinized form of the Greek Plouton, Plutos Roman equivalent is Dis Pater, whose name is most often taken to mean Rich Father and is perhaps a direct translation of Plouton. Pluto was identified with the obscure Roman Orcus, like Hades the name of both a god of the underworld and the underworld as a place. The borrowed Greek name Pluto is sometimes used for the ruler of the dead in Latin literature, Pluto becomes the most common name for the classical ruler of the underworld in subsequent Western literature and other art forms. The name Plouton does not appear in Greek literature of the Archaic period, in Hesiods Theogony, the six children of Cronus and Rhea are Zeus, Poseidon, Hades and Hestia. The male children divide the world into three realms, Hades takes Persephone by force from her mother Demeter, with the consent of Zeus. The resemblance of the name Ploutos to Plouton and it has been noted, cannot be accidental. Plouton is lord of the dead, but as Persephones husband he has serious claims to the powers of fertility, demeters son Plutus merges in the narrative tradition with her son-in-law Pluto, redefining the implacable chariot-driver Hades whose horses trample the flowering earth.
Plouton was one of several names for Hades, described in the Iliad as the god most hateful to mortals. Plato says that people prefer the name Plouton, giver of wealth, the name was understood as referring to the boundless riches of the earth, both the crops on its surface—he was originally a god of the land—and the mines hidden within it. What is sometimes taken as confusion of the two gods Plouton and Ploutos held or acquired a significance in antiquity. The Roman poet Ennius, the figure in the Hellenization of Latin literature, considered Pluto a Greek god to be explained in terms of the Roman equivalents Dis Pater
