1.
Villa
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A villa was originally an ancient Roman upper-class country house. Since its origins in the Roman villa, the idea and function of a villa have evolved considerably, after the fall of the Roman Republic, villas became small farming compounds, which were increasingly fortified in Late Antiquity, sometimes transferred to the Church for reuse as a monastery. Then they gradually re-evolved through the Middle Ages into elegant upper-class country homes, in modern parlance, villa can refer to various types and sizes of residences, ranging from the suburban semi-detached double villa to residences in the wildland–urban interface. In ancient Roman architecture a villa was originally a house built for the élite. The Roman villae rusticae at the heart of latifundia were the earliest versions of what later, not included as villae were the domus, a city house for the élite and privileged classes, and insulae, blocks of apartment buildings for the rest of the population. In Satyricon, Petronius described the range of Roman dwellings. Another type of villae is the villa marittima, a seaside villa, a concentration of Imperial villas existed on the Gulf of Naples, on the Isle of Capri, at Monte Circeo and at Antium. Examples include the Villa of the Papyri in Herculaneum, and the Villa of the Mysteries, wealthy Romans also escaped the summer heat in the hills round Rome, especially around Tibur (Tivoand Frascati, such as at Hadrians Villa. Cicero allegedly possessed no fewer than seven villas, the oldest of which was near Arpinum, pliny the Younger had three or four, of which the example near Laurentium is the best known from his descriptions. Roman writers refer with satisfaction to the self-sufficiency of their latifundium villas, archeologists have meticulously examined numerous Roman villas in England. The grand villa at Woodchester preserved its mosaic floors when the Anglo-Saxon parish church was built upon its site, grave-diggers preparing for burials in the churchyard as late as the 18th century had to punch through the intact mosaic floors. The even more palatial villa rustica at Fishbourne near Winchester was built as an open rectangle. Villae rusticae are essential in the Empires economy, two kinds of villa-plan in Roman Britain may be characteristic of Roman villas in general. The more usual plan extended wings of all opening onto a linking portico. The other kind featured a central hall like a basilica. The villa buildings were often independent structures linked by their enclosed courtyards, timber-framed construction, carefully fitted with mortises and tenons and dowelled together, set on stone footings, were the rule, replaced by stone buildings for the important ceremonial rooms. Traces of window glass have been found, as well as ironwork window grilles, with the decline and collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the fourth and fifth centuries, the villas were more and more isolated and came to be protected by walls. In England the villas were abandoned, looted, and burned by Anglo-Saxon invaders in the fifth century, in regions on the Continent, aristocrats and territorial magnates donated large working villas and overgrown abandoned ones to individual monks, these might become the nuclei of monasteries
2.
Valjevo
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Valjevo is a city and the administrative center of the Kolubara District in western Serbia. According to the 2011 census, the area of Valjevo had 90,312 inhabitants,59,073 of whom were urban dwellers. Valjevo occupies an area of 905 square kilometers, its altitude is 185 meters, the city is situated along the river Kolubara, a tributary of the Sava river. In the nearby village of Petnica scientists found the first complete neolithic habitat in Serbia, in Roman times this area was part of the province of Moesia. Valjevo was mentioned for the first time in 1393 and it was an important staging post on the trade route that connected Bosnia to Belgrade. Valjevo became significant during the 16th and 17th centuries under stable Ottoman rule, at the beginning of the 19th century most of the territory of Serbia rapidly transformed. The Serbian revolution began with armed rebellion, in 1804, the local Serb population had rebelled against the Turkish lords and liberated a large part of Serbia. One cause for the revolution was the killing of two prominent Serbian commanders by the Ottoman Turks, the two well-known knights, Ilija Bircanin and Aleksa Nenadovic, were killed in Valjevo on the bridge over the Kolubara. The settlements development accelerated further in the 20th century, when Valjevo became an important industrial and cultural center, during the First World War the battle of Kolubara was fought in the immediate vicinity. A large hospital for the wounded was in the town, the city suffered widespread destruction in World War II. At the end of the 20th century it was bombed during the NATO attack on Yugoslavia. Apart from the city, Valjevo covers the area which includes the following settlements, According to the 2011 census results. The ethnic composition of the city of Valjevo, The Valjevo mountain range, Divčibare is a plateau in the mountain of Maljen. It has an altitude of 1000 m. It is 28 km from Valjevo and 110 km from Belgrade, the canyon of the Gradac River ends in the town centre. The Gradac is one of Europes cleanest rivers, as evidenced by the presence of otters, the Valjevo mountain range offers clean air, medicinal herbs, forest fruits and wild game. The vicinity is kept free of industrialisation and the soil is unpolluted, hunting and fishing in the mountain rivers is common. The air-spa of Divčibare offers rest and recreation, vrujci Spa has mud baths for rheumatic diseases, as well as a hotel and sports complex with swimming pools
3.
Serbia
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Serbia, officially the Republic of Serbia, is a sovereign state situated at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Pannonian Plain and the central Balkans. Relative to its territory, it is a diverse country distinguished by a transitional character, situated along cultural, geographic, climatic. Serbia numbers around 7 million residents, and its capital, Belgrade, following the Slavic migrations to the Balkans from the 6th century onwards, Serbs established several states in the early Middle Ages. The Serbian Kingdom obtained recognition by Rome and the Byzantine Empire in 1217, in the early 19th century, the Serbian Revolution established the nation-state as the regions first constitutional monarchy, which subsequently expanded its territory. During the breakup of Yugoslavia, Serbia formed a union with Montenegro which dissolved peacefully in 2006, in 2008 the parliament of the province of Kosovo unilaterally declared independence, with mixed responses from the international community. Serbia is a member of organizations such as the UN, CoE, OSCE, PfP, BSEC. An EU membership candidate since 2012, Serbia has been negotiating its EU accession since January 2014, the country is acceding to the WTO and is a militarily neutral state. Serbia is an income economy with dominant service sector, followed by the industrial sector. The country ranks high on the Social Progress Index as well as the Global Peace Index, relatively high on the Human Development Index, located at the crossroads between Central and Southern Europe, Serbia is found in the Balkan peninsula and the Pannonian Plain. Serbia lies between latitudes 41° and 47° N, and longitudes 18° and 23° E. The country covers a total of 88,361 km2, which places it at 113th place in the world, with Kosovo excluded, the area is 77,474 km2. Its total border length amounts to 2,027 km, all of Kosovos border with Albania, Macedonia and Montenegro are under control of the Kosovo border police. The Pannonian Plain covers the third of the country while the easternmost tip of Serbia extends into the Wallachian Plain. The terrain of the part of the country, with the region of Šumadija at its heart. Mountains dominate the third of Serbia. Dinaric Alps stretch in the west and the southwest, following the flow of the rivers Drina, the Carpathian Mountains and Balkan Mountains stretch in a north–south direction in eastern Serbia. Ancient mountains in the southeast corner of the country belong to the Rilo-Rhodope Mountain system, elevation ranges from the Midžor peak of the Balkan Mountains at 2,169 metres to the lowest point of just 17 metres near the Danube river at Prahovo. The largest lake is Đerdap Lake and the longest river passing through Serbia is the Danube, the climate of Serbia is under the influences of the landmass of Eurasia and the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea
4.
Ancient Rome
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In its many centuries of existence, the Roman state evolved from a monarchy to a classical republic and then to an increasingly autocratic empire. Through conquest and assimilation, it came to dominate the Mediterranean region and then Western Europe, Asia Minor, North Africa and it is often grouped into classical antiquity together with ancient Greece, and their similar cultures and societies are known as the Greco-Roman world. Ancient Roman civilisation has contributed to modern government, law, politics, engineering, art, literature, architecture, technology, warfare, religion, language and society. Rome professionalised and expanded its military and created a system of government called res publica, the inspiration for modern republics such as the United States and France. By the end of the Republic, Rome had conquered the lands around the Mediterranean and beyond, its domain extended from the Atlantic to Arabia, the Roman Empire emerged with the end of the Republic and the dictatorship of Augustus Caesar. 721 years of Roman-Persian Wars started in 92 BC with their first war against Parthia and it would become the longest conflict in human history, and have major lasting effects and consequences for both empires. Under Trajan, the Empire reached its territorial peak, Republican mores and traditions started to decline during the imperial period, with civil wars becoming a prelude common to the rise of a new emperor. Splinter states, such as the Palmyrene Empire, would divide the Empire during the crisis of the 3rd century. Plagued by internal instability and attacked by various migrating peoples, the part of the empire broke up into independent kingdoms in the 5th century. This splintering is a landmark historians use to divide the ancient period of history from the pre-medieval Dark Ages of Europe. King Numitor was deposed from his throne by his brother, Amulius, while Numitors daughter, Rhea Silvia, because Rhea Silvia was raped and impregnated by Mars, the Roman god of war, the twins were considered half-divine. The new king, Amulius, feared Romulus and Remus would take back the throne, a she-wolf saved and raised them, and when they were old enough, they returned the throne of Alba Longa to Numitor. Romulus became the source of the citys name, in order to attract people to the city, Rome became a sanctuary for the indigent, exiled, and unwanted. This caused a problem for Rome, which had a large workforce but was bereft of women, Romulus traveled to the neighboring towns and tribes and attempted to secure marriage rights, but as Rome was so full of undesirables they all refused. Legend says that the Latins invited the Sabines to a festival and stole their unmarried maidens, leading to the integration of the Latins, after a long time in rough seas, they landed at the banks of the Tiber River. Not long after they landed, the men wanted to take to the sea again, one woman, named Roma, suggested that the women burn the ships out at sea to prevent them from leaving. At first, the men were angry with Roma, but they realized that they were in the ideal place to settle. They named the settlement after the woman who torched their ships, the Roman poet Virgil recounted this legend in his classical epic poem the Aeneid
5.
Social class in ancient Rome
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Social class in ancient Rome was hierarchical, but there were multiple and overlapping social hierarchies, and an individuals relative position in one might be higher or lower than in another. Men who lived in towns outside Rome might hold citizenship, but lack the right to vote, free-born Roman women were citizens, there were also classes of non-citizens with different legal rights, such as peregrini. Under Roman law, slaves were considered property and had no rights as such, however, some laws regulated slavery and offered slaves protections not extended to other forms of property such as animals. Slaves who had been manumitted were freedmen, and for the most part enjoyed the legal rights. A patron could be the client of a superior or more powerful patron. Adult males who were not Roman citizens, whether free or slave, from the Late Republic era onwards many members of the elite, including an increasing proportion of senators, came from plebeian families. The first Roman Emperor, Augustus, was of plebeian origin, by the Late Empire, few members of the Senate were from the original patrician families, most of which had died out. Rome continued to have a class system, but it was no longer dominated by the distinction between patricians and plebeians. Originally, all offices were open only to patricians. Plebeians and Patricians were always at odds due to the fact that Plebeians wanted to increase their power, a series of social struggles saw the plebs secede from the city on three occasions, the last in 297 BC, until their demands were met. They won the right to stand for office, the abolition of the law. This office, founded in 494 BC as a result of a secession, was the main legal bulwark against the powers of the patrician class. The tribunes originally had the power to any plebeian from a patrician magistrate. Later revolts forced the Senate to grant the tribunes additional powers, a tribunes person was sacrosanct, and he was obliged to keep an open house at all times while in office. The conflict between the classes came to a climax in 287 BC when patricians and plebeians were declared equal under the law, following these changes the distinction between patrician and plebeian status became less important, and by the Late Republic the only patrician prerogatives were certain priesthoods. Over time, some patrician families declined, some plebeian families rose in status, a plebeian who was the first of his line to become consul was known as a novus homo, and he and his descendants became noble. During the Empire, patricius became a title of nobility bestowed by emperors, the census divided citizens into six complex classes based on property. The wealth of the class was based on ownership of large agricultural estates
6.
Roman Senate
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The Roman Senate was a political institution in ancient Rome. It was one of the most enduring institutions in Roman history, during the days of the kingdom, it was little more than an advisory council to the king. The last king of Rome, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, was following a coup détat led by Lucius Junius Brutus. During the early Republic, the Senate was politically weak, while the executive magistrates were quite powerful, since the transition from monarchy to constitutional rule was most likely gradual, it took several generations before the Senate was able to assert itself over the executive magistrates. By the middle Republic, the Senate had reached the apex of its republican power, the late Republic saw a decline in the Senates power, which began following the reforms of the tribunes Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus. After the transition of the Republic into the Principate, the Senate lost much of its power as well as its prestige. Following the constitutional reforms of the Emperor Diocletian, the Senate became politically irrelevant, when the seat of government was transferred out of Rome, the Senate was reduced to a municipal body. This decline in status was reinforced when the emperor Constantine the Great created an additional senate in Constantinople, the Senate in Rome ultimately disappeared at some point after AD603, although the title senator was still used well into the Middle Ages as a largely meaningless honorific. However, the Eastern Senate survived in Constantinople, until the ancient institution finally vanished there c. 14th century, the senate was a political institution in the ancient Roman kingdom. The word senate derives from the Latin word senex, which means old man, the early Roman family was called a gens or clan, and each clan was an aggregation of families under a common living male patriarch, called a pater. When the early Roman gentes were aggregating to form a common community, over time, the patres came to recognize the need for a single leader, and so they elected a king, and vested in him their sovereign power. When the king died, that power naturally reverted to the patres. The senate is said to have created by Romes first king, Romulus. The descendants of those 100 men subsequently became the patrician class, Romes fifth king, Lucius Tarquinius Priscus, chose a further 100 senators. They were chosen from the leading families, and were accordingly called the patres minorum gentium. Romes seventh and final king, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, executed many of the men in the senate. During the years of the monarchy, the senates most important function was to new kings. While the king was elected by the people, it was actually the senate who chose each new king
7.
Plebs
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In ancient Rome, the plebs was the general body of free Roman citizens who were not patricians, as determined by the census. From the 4th century BC or earlier, they were known as commoners, literary references to the plebs, however, usually mean the ordinary citizens of Rome as a whole, as distinguished from the elite—a sense retained by plebeian in English. In the very earliest days of Rome, plebeians were any tribe or clan without advisers to the King, in time, the word – which is related to the Greek word for crowd, plethos – came to mean the common people. In Latin the word plebs is a collective noun. The 19th-century historian Barthold Georg Niebuhr held that plebeians began to appear at Rome during the reign of Ancus Marcius and were possibly foreigners settling in Rome as naturalized citizens. In any case, at the outset of the Roman Republic, Plebeians were excluded from magistracies and religious colleges, and they were not permitted to know the laws by which they were governed. Plebeians served in the army, but rarely became military leaders, from the mid-4th century to the early 3rd century BC, several plebeian–patrician tickets for the consulship repeated joint terms, suggesting a deliberate political strategy of cooperation. Although nobilitas was not a social rank during the Republican era. Such a man was a homo, a new man or self-made noble and his sons. Marius and Cicero are notable examples of novi homines in the late Republic, when many of Romes richest and most powerful men—such as Lucullus, Crassus, and Pompeius—were plebeian nobles. Some or perhaps many noble plebeians, including Cicero and Lucullus, by contrast, the populares or peoples party, which sought to champion the plebs in the sense of common people, were sometimes led by patricians such as Julius Caesar and Clodius Pulcher. In the U. S. military, Plebes are freshmen at the U. S, Military Academy, U. S. Naval Academy, Valley Forge Military Academy, the Marine Military Academy, the U. S. Merchant Marine Academy, Georgia Military College, California Maritime Academy, the term is also used for new cadets at the Philippine Military Academy. Early public schools in the United Kingdom would enroll pupils as plebeians as opposed to sons of gentry, vulgarism Bread and circuses Capite censi Plebeian Council Plebgate – a scandal in the United Kingdom in 2012 Proletariat Roman Republic Jackson J. Spielvogel. Smiths Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, article Plebs Livius. org, Plebs Texts on Wikisource, Plebeians
8.
English country house
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An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were owned by individuals who also owned a town house. This allowed them to time in the country and in the city—hence, for these people. However, the term also encompasses houses that were, and often still are, frequently, the formal business of the counties was transacted in these country houses. With large numbers of indoor and outdoor staff, country houses were important as places of employment for rural communities. In turn, until the agricultural depressions of the 1870s, the estates, of country houses were the hub. However, the late 19th and early 20th centuries were the swansong of the traditional English country house lifestyle, increased taxation and the effects of World War I led to the demolition of hundreds of houses, those that remained had to adapt to survive. While a château or a schloss can be a fortified or unfortified building, if fortified, it is called a castle, but not all buildings with the name castle are fortified. The term stately home is subject to debate, and avoided by historians, as a description of a country house, the term was first used in a poem by Felicia Hemans, The Homes of England, originally published in Blackwoods Magazine in 1827. In the 20th century, the term was popularised in a song by Noël Coward. The books collection of homes also includes George IVs Brighton town palace. The country houses of England have evolved over the last five hundred years, before this time, larger houses were usually fortified, reflecting the position of their owners as feudal lords, de facto overlords of their manors. The Tudor period of stability in the saw the building of the first of the unfortified great houses. Henry VIIIs Dissolution of the Monasteries saw many former ecclesiastical properties granted to the Kings favourites, woburn Abbey, Forde Abbey and many other mansions with abbey or priory in their name became private houses during this period. Other terms used in the names of houses to describe their origin or importance include palace, castle, court, hall, mansion, park, house, manor, and place. Burghley House, Longleat House, and Hatfield House are among the best known examples of the prodigy house. Some of the best known of Englands country houses were built by one architect at one time, Montacute House, Chatsworth House. They finally ran out of funds in the early 20th century, an example of this is Brympton dEvercy in Somerset, a house of many periods that is unified architecturally by the continuing use of the same mellow, local Ham Hill stone
9.
Roman Republic
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It was during this period that Romes control expanded from the citys immediate surroundings to hegemony over the entire Mediterranean world. During the first two centuries of its existence, the Roman Republic expanded through a combination of conquest and alliance, by the following century, it included North Africa, most of the Iberian Peninsula, and what is now southern France. Two centuries after that, towards the end of the 1st century BC, it included the rest of modern France, Greece, and much of the eastern Mediterranean. By this time, internal tensions led to a series of wars, culminating with the assassination of Julius Caesar. The exact date of transition can be a matter of interpretation, Roman government was headed by two consuls, elected annually by the citizens and advised by a senate composed of appointed magistrates. Over time, the laws that gave exclusive rights to Romes highest offices were repealed or weakened. The leaders of the Republic developed a tradition and morality requiring public service and patronage in peace and war, making military. Many of Romes legal and legislative structures can still be observed throughout Europe and much of the world in modern nation states, the exact causes and motivations for Romes military conflicts and expansions during the republic are subject to wide debate. While they can be seen as motivated by outright aggression and imperialism and they argue that Romes expansion was driven by short-term defensive and inter-state factors, and the new contingencies that these decisions created. In its early history, as Rome successfully defended itself against foreign threats in central and then northern Italy, with some important exceptions, successful wars in early republican Rome generally led not to annexation or military occupation, but to the restoration of the way things were. But the defeated city would be weakened and thus able to resist Romanizing influences. It was also able to defend itself against its non-Roman enemies. It was, therefore, more likely to seek an alliance of protection with Rome and this growing coalition expanded the potential enemies that Rome might face, and moved Rome closer to confrontation with major powers. The result was more alliance-seeking, on the part of both the Roman confederacy and city-states seeking membership within that confederacy. While there were exceptions to this, it was not until after the Second Punic War that these alliances started to harden into something more like an empire and this shift mainly took place in parts of the west, such as the southern Italian towns that sided with Hannibal. In contrast, Roman expansion into Spain and Gaul occurred as a mix of alliance-seeking, in the 2nd century BC, Roman involvement in the Greek east remained a matter of alliance-seeking, but this time in the face of major powers that could rival Rome. This had some important similarities to the events in Italy centuries earlier, with some major exceptions of outright military rule, the Roman Republic remained an alliance of independent city-states and kingdoms until it transitioned into the Roman Empire. It was not until the time of the Roman Empire that the entire Roman world was organized into provinces under explicit Roman control
10.
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
11.
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
12.
Villa rustica
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Villa rustica was the term used by the ancient Romans to denote a villa set in the open countryside, often as the hub of a large agricultural estate. The adjective rusticum was used to distinguish it from an urban or resort villa, the villa rustica would thus serve both as a residence of the landowner and his family and also as a farm management centre. It would often separate buildings to accommodate farm labourers and sheds and barns for animals. In modern British archaeology, a villa rustica is commonly referred to simply as a Roman villa. The villa rusticas design differed depending on the architect, but usually it consisted of three parts, the urbana, agricultural center and the rusticana. Valjevo, villa rustica IV century A. D
13.
Capri
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Capri, Italian pronunciation, ) is an island located in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the Sorrentine Peninsula, on the south side of the Gulf of Naples in the Campania region of Italy. The main town Capri that is located on the shares the name. It has been a resort since the time of the Roman Republic, Capri is part of the region of Campania, Province of Naples. The town of Capri is the main population centre. The island has two harbours, Marina Piccola and Marina Grande, the separate comune of Anacapri is located high on the hills to the west. The etymology of the name Capri is unclear, it might either be traced back to the Ancient Greeks, but it could also derive from Latin capreae. Fossils of wild boars have been discovered, lending credence to the etymology, on the other hand. Finally, there is also the possibility that the name derives from an Etruscan word for rocky, Capri is a large, limestone and sandstone rock. The sides of the island are perpendicular cliffs and the surface of the island is composed of more cliffs, Edwin Cerio was mayor of Capri from 1920 to 1923. Although he was three years in office, his vision and policies had far-reaching impact on the nature and role of the government on the island. Italy is a Republic, thus Capri, as part of Italy, has adopted those same principles too, the voters of the island elect representatives for the two villages on the island. The chosen representatives then choose two mayors to govern with them, the city has been inhabited since early times. The emperor ordered these to be displayed in the garden of his main residence, modern excavations have shown that human presence on the island can be dated to the Neolithic and the Bronze Age. Augustus developed Capri, he built temples, villas, aqueducts, in his Aeneid, Virgil states that the island had been populated by the Greek people of Teleboi, coming from the Ionian Islands. Strabo says that in ancient times in Capri there were two towns, later reduced to one, tacitus records that there were twelve Imperial villas in Capri. Ruins of one at Tragara could still be seen in the 19th century, augustus successor Tiberius built a series of villas at Capri, the most famous of which is the Villa Jovis, one of the best-preserved Roman villas in Italy. In 27 AD, Tiberius permanently moved to Capri, running the Empire from there until his death in 37 AD, in 182 AD, Emperor Commodus banished his sister Lucilla to Capri. After the end of the Western Roman Empire, Capri returned to the status of a dominion of Naples, in 866 Emperor Louis II gave the island to Amalfi
14.
Mount Circeo
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Monte Circeo or Cape Circeo is a mountain remaining as a promontory that marks the southwestern limit of the former Pontine Marshes. Although a headland, it was not formed by coastal erosion – as headlands are usually formed – but is a remnant of the processes that created the Apennines. At the northern end of the Gulf of Gaeta, it is about 5 kilometres long by 1.5 kilometres wide at the base, running from east to west and surrounded by the sea on all sides except the north. The land to the north of it is 15 metres above sea level, while the headland is quite steep and hilly, the land immediately to the east of it is low-lying and very swampy. Most of the ancient swamp has been reclaimed for agriculture and urban areas, the mountain is composed mostly of marl and sandstone from the Paleogene and of limestone from the lower Early Jurassic. In 1939, the skull of a Neanderthal man was found in the Guattari Cave by a led by Alberto Carlo Blanc. Several other findings also prove that the mountain was inhabited in prehistorical times, upon the east end of the promontory ridge are the remains of an enceinte, a polygonal structure that roughly forms a rectangle and that measures about 200 by 100 metres. The blocks are carefully cut and jointed, right angles were intentionally avoided. The wall stands almost entirely free, as at Arpinum – polygonal walls in Italy typically form embanking walls –, the blocks of the inner face are much less carefully worked both here and at Arpinum. It seems to have been an acropolis, and contains no traces of buildings, except for a cistern, circular. Circeii, as it was known, was founded as a Roman colony at an early date – according to some authorities in the time of Tarquinius Superbus, –. The Roman colonists were expelled by the Volsci in around 490 BC during a war between two states.5 kilometres north of the west end of the promontory. An inscription speaks of an amphitheatre, of which no remains are visible, the transference of the city did not, however, mean the abandonment of the east end of the promontory, on which stand the remains of several very large villas. An inscription, indeed, cut in the rock near San Felice, speaks about this part of the Latin, on the south and north sides of the promontory, there are comparatively few buildings while at the west end there is a sheer precipice to the sea. The town only acquired municipal rights after the Social War and was unimportant except as a seaside resort, cicero compares its villas with those at Antium, and probably both Tiberius and Domitian resided there. Presumably, Domitians villa contained important artistic works, such as the Apollo and the Faun With the Transverse Flute, the view from the highest summit of the promontory is remarkably beautiful, the whole mountain is covered with fragrant shrubs. From any point in the Pontine Marshes or on the coast-line of Latium, mount Circeo is today included in the National Park of Circeo, established in 1934 on 5,616 ha over the territories of Latina, Sabaudia, San Felice Circeo and Zannone Island
15.
Anzio
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Anzio is a city and comune on the coast of the Lazio region of Italy, about 51 kilometres south of Rome. Well known for its seaside setting, it is a fishing port. The city bears great significance as the site of Operation Shingle. Anzio occupies a part of the ancient Antium territory, in ancient times, Antium was the capital of the Volsci people until it was conquered by the Romans. In some versions of Romes foundation myth, Antium was founded by Anteias, son of Odysseus, in 493 BC the Roman consul Postumus Cominius Auruncus fought and defeated two armies from Antium, and as a result captured the Volscian towns of Longula, Pollusca and Corioli. With the latter expansion of Rome it was just far away to be insulated from the riots and tumults of Rome. When Cicero returned from exile, it was at Antium that he reassembled the battered remains of his libraries, leading Romans built magnificent seaside villas at Antium. Remains of Roman villas are conspicuous all along the shore, both to the east and to the north-west of the town. Many ancient works of art have found there, the Fanciulla dAnzio, the Borghese Gladiator. Of the villas, the most famous was the Villa of Nero at Antium which cannot be identified, but is generally placed at the so-called Arco Muto. It extended along the coast of the Capo dAnzio some 800 metres of seafront, of the famous temple of Fortune no remains are known. There are records of the participation of a few bishops of Antium in synods held in Rome, Gaudentius in 465, Felix in 487, barbarian incursions in the 6th century put an end to its existence as a residential bishopric. Accordingly, Antium is today listed by the Catholic Church as a titular see, in the Middle Ages Antium was deserted in favour of Nettuno, which maintained the legacy of the ancient city. The sea is encroaching slightly at Anzio, but some kilometres farther north-west the old Roman coast-line now lies slightly inland, the Volscian Antium stood on higher ground and somewhat away from the shore, though it extended down to it. This was defended by a ditch, which can still be traced, and by walls. In 1857 Pope Pius IX founded the municipality of Anzio. Anzio and Nettuno are also notable as sites of an Allied forces landing, the Commonwealth Anzio War Cemetery and Beach Head War Cemetery are located here. In February 1944 American soldiers were surrounded by Germans in the caves of Pozzoli for a week, a film based on the events called Anzio was made, starring Robert Mitchum and based on a book by Wynford Vaughan-Thomas
16.
Frascati
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Frascati is a town and comune in the Metropolitan City of Rome in the Lazio region of central Italy. It is located 20 kilometres south-east of Rome, on the Alban Hills close to the ancient city of Tusculum, Frascati is closely associated with science, being the location of several international scientific laboratories. Frascati produces the wine with the same name. It is also a historical and artistic centre, the most important archeological finding in the area, dating back to Ancient Roman times, during the late Republican Age, is a patrician Roman villa probably belonging to Lucullus. In the first century AD its owner was Gaius Sallustius Crispus Passienus and his properties were later confiscated by the Flavian imperial dynasty. Consul Flavius Clemens lived in the villa with his wife Domitilla during the rule of Domitian, according to the Liber Pontificalis, in the 9th century Frascati was a little village, probably founded two centuries earlier. The name of the city comes from a typical local tradition of collecting firewood —many place-names around the town refer to trees or wood. After the destruction of nearby Tusculum in 1191, the population increased. It was owned by various families, including the Colonna, until, in 1460. In 1515 Colonna gave Frascati its first statute, Statuti e Capituli del Castello di Frascati, in 1518 a hospital was built, named after St. Sebastiano, in memory of the old basilica destroyed in the 9th century. After Prince Colonnas death in 1522, Lucrezia della Rovere sold Frascati to Pier Luigi Farnese, on May 1,1527 a Landsknecht company, after having sacked Rome, arrived out of the bordering villages. However, the changed the direction of their movement next to a niche, a Rural Aedicule consecrated to the Virgin Mary. This event is commemorated by a church now called Capocroce, in 1538, Pope Paul III conferred the title of Civitas to Frascati, with the name Tusculum Novum. In 1598 construction began on a new cathedral dedicated to St. Peter, on September 15,1616 the first public and free school in Europe was established on the initiative of Saint Joseph Calasanz. On June 18,1656 a part of the plaster peeled off a wall inside the Church of St. Mary in Vivario, and it was the image of Saints Sebastian and Roch, protector from the plague. In that same year there was an epidemic of plague in Rome, since that year, the two Saints have been co-patron Saints of the city. There are statues of the two saints in the façade of the Cathedral, between 1713 and 1729, the head from a colossus of Antinous was discovered in the area, and displayed in the Villa Mondragone. In 1757 the Valle theater opened in the centre of the town, in 1809 Frascati was annexed to the French Empire, and selected as the capital of the Roman canton
17.
Hadrian's Villa
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The Hadrians Villa is a large Roman archaeological complex at Tivoli, Italy. It is a property of the Republic of Italy, and directed, the villa was constructed at Tibur as a retreat from Rome for Roman Emperor Hadrian during the second and third decades of the 2nd century AD. Hadrian was said to dislike the palace on the Palatine Hill in Rome, the picturesque landscape around Tibur had made the area a popular choice for villas and rural retreats. It was reputedly popular with people from the Spanish peninsula resident in the city of Rome and this may have contributed to Hadrians choice of the property - although born in Rome his parents came from Spain and he may have been familiar with the area during his early life. There may also have been a connection through his wife Vibia Sabina who was the niece of the Emperor Trajan, sabinas family held large landholdings and it is speculated the Tibur property may have been one of them. A villa from the Republican era formed the basis for Hadrians establishment, during the later years of his reign, Hadrian actually governed the empire from the villa. Hadrian started using the Villa as his official residence around AD128, a large court therefore lived there permanently and large numbers of visitors and bureaucrats would have to have been entertained and temporarily housed on site. The postal service kept it in contact with Rome 29 km away, Hadrians parents had died when he was young and he and his sister were adopted by Trajan. It is possible that Hadrians court at the villa was predominately male but its likely that his childhood nurse Germana, after Hadrian, the villa was occasionally used by his various successors. Zenobia, the queen of Palmyra, possibly lived here in the 270s. During the decline of the Roman Empire in the 4th century, the facility was used as a warehouse by both sides during the destructive Gothic War between the Ostrogoths and Byzantines. Remains of lime kilns have been found, where marble from the complex was burned to extract lime for building material, in the 16th century, Cardinal Ippolito II dEste had much of the remaining marble and statues in Hadrians Villa removed to decorate his own Villa dEste located nearby. Since that period excavations have turned up more fragments and sculptures some of which have been kept in situ or housed on site in the display buildings. The buildings are constructed in travertine, brick, lime, pozzolana, the complex contains over 30 buildings, covering an area of at least 1 square kilometre of which much is still unexcavated. The site was due to its abundant waters and readily available aqueducts that passed through Rome, including Anio Vetus, Anio Nobus, Aqua Marcia. The area was known as the location of villas before Hadrian obtained the property - it was, and still is, the villa was the greatest Roman example of an Alexandrian garden, recreating a sacred landscape. The villa shows echoes of many different architectural styles, mostly Greek, Hadrian, a very well-traveled emperor, borrowed these designs, such as the caryatids by the Canopus, along with the statues beside them depicting the Egyptian dwarf and fertility god, Bes. Hadrians biography states that areas in the villa were named after places Hadrian saw during his travels, only a few places mentioned in the biography can be accurately correlated with the present-day ruins
18.
Cicero
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Marcus Tullius Cicero was a Roman philosopher, politician, lawyer, orator, political theorist, consul, and constitutionalist. He came from a wealthy family of the Roman equestrian order. According to Michael Grant, the influence of Cicero upon the history of European literature, Cicero introduced the Romans to the chief schools of Greek philosophy and created a Latin philosophical vocabulary distinguishing himself as a translator and philosopher. Though he was an orator and successful lawyer, Cicero believed his political career was his most important achievement. During the chaotic latter half of the 1st century BC marked by civil wars, following Julius Caesars death, Cicero became an enemy of Mark Antony in the ensuing power struggle, attacking him in a series of speeches. His severed hands and head were then, as a revenge of Mark Antony. Petrarchs rediscovery of Ciceros letters is often credited for initiating the 14th-century Renaissance in public affairs, humanism, according to Polish historian Tadeusz Zieliński, the Renaissance was above all things a revival of Cicero, and only after him and through him of the rest of Classical antiquity. Cicero was born in 106 BC in Arpinum, a hill town 100 kilometers southeast of Rome and his father was a well-to-do member of the equestrian order and possessed good connections in Rome. However, being a semi-invalid, he could not enter public life, although little is known about Ciceros mother, Helvia, it was common for the wives of important Roman citizens to be responsible for the management of the household. Ciceros brother Quintus wrote in a letter that she was a thrifty housewife, Ciceros cognomen, or personal surname, comes from the Latin for chickpea, cicer. Plutarch explains that the name was given to one of Ciceros ancestors who had a cleft in the tip of his nose resembling a chickpea. However, it is likely that Ciceros ancestors prospered through the cultivation. Romans often chose down-to-earth personal surnames, the family names of Fabius, Lentulus, and Piso come from the Latin names of beans, lentils. Plutarch writes that Cicero was urged to change this name when he entered politics. During this period in Roman history, cultured meant being able to speak both Latin and Greek, Cicero used his knowledge of Greek to translate many of the theoretical concepts of Greek philosophy into Latin, thus translating Greek philosophical works for a larger audience. It was precisely his broad education that tied him to the traditional Roman elite, according to Plutarch, Cicero was an extremely talented student, whose learning attracted attention from all over Rome, affording him the opportunity to study Roman law under Quintus Mucius Scaevola. Ciceros fellow students were Gaius Marius Minor, Servius Sulpicius Rufus, the latter two became Ciceros friends for life, and Pomponius would become, in Ciceros own words, as a second brother, with both maintaining a lifelong correspondence. Cicero wanted to pursue a career in politics along the steps of the Cursus honorum
19.
Arpinum
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Arpino is a comune in the province of Frosinone in the region of Lazio in central Italy, about 100 km SE of Rome. The ancient city of Arpinum dates back to at least the 7th century BC, connected with the Pelasgi, the Volscian and Samnite people, it was captured by the Romans and granted civitas sine suffragio in 305 BC. The city gained Roman suffrage in 188 BC and the status of a municipium in 90 BC, both Gaius Marius and Cicero came from Arpinum. There is a tradition that persists to this day that Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa was also a native of Arpinum. Historians have not been able to confirm his origin, in the early Middle Ages, the Roman duchy and the Duchy of Benevento contended for its strategic position. After the 11th century it was ruled by the Normans, the Hohenstaufen and it was destroyed twice, in 1229 by Frederick II and in 1242 by Conrad IV. The castrato sopranist Gioacchino Conti, known as Il Gizziello or heb ceilliau, was born in Arpino in 1714, attractions include the circuit walls in polygonal masonry Purcell, N. R. Talbert, T. Elliott, S. Gillies, J. Becker
20.
Pliny the Younger
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Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus, born Gaius Caecilius or Gaius Caecilius Cilo, better known as Pliny the Younger, was a lawyer, author, and magistrate of Ancient Rome. Plinys uncle, Pliny the Elder, helped raise and educate him, both Pliny the Elder and the Younger were witnesses to the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD, in which the former died. Pliny the Younger wrote hundreds of letters, of which 247 still survive and are of historical value. Some are addressed to reigning emperors or to such as the historian Tacitus. Pliny served as a magistrate under Trajan, and his letters to Trajan provide one of the few surviving records of the relationship between the imperial office and provincial governors. Pliny rose through a series of civil and military offices, the cursus honorum and he was a friend of the historian Tacitus and might have employed the biographer Suetonius on his staff. Pliny also came into contact with other men of the period, including the philosophers Artemidorus and Euphrates the Stoic. Pliny the Younger was born in Novum Comum around 61 AD, the son of Lucius Caecilius Cilo, born there, and his wife Plinia Marcella, a sister of Pliny the Elder. He was the grandson of Senator and landowner Gaius Caecilius, revered his uncle, Pliny the Elder, Cilo died at an early age, when Pliny was still young. As a result, the boy lived with his mother. His guardian and preceptor in charge of his education was Lucius Verginius Rufus, after being first tutored at home, Pliny went to Rome for further education. There he was taught rhetoric by Quintilian, a teacher and author. It was at time that Pliny became closer to his uncle Pliny the Elder. When Pliny the Younger was 17 or 18, his uncle Pliny the Elder died attempting to rescue victims of the Vesuvius eruption, in the same document the younger Pliny was adopted by his uncle. As a result, Pliny the Younger changed his name from Gaius Caecilius Cilo to Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus, there is some evidence that Pliny had a sibling. The trustees are apparently named in the inscription, L. Caecilius Valens and P. Caecilius Secundus, sons of Lucius, the word contubernalis describing Lutulla is the military term meaning tent-mate, which can only mean that she was living with Lucius, not as his wife. The first man mentioned, L. Caecilius Valens, is probably the older son, Pliny the Younger confirms that he was a trustee for the largess of my ancestors. It seems unknown to Pliny the Elder, so Valens mother was not his sister Plinia
21.
Mosaic
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A mosaic is a piece of art or image made from the assemblage of small pieces of colored glass, stone, or other materials. It is often used in art or as interior decoration. Most mosaics are made of small, flat, roughly square, pieces of stone or glass of different colors, some, especially floor mosaics, are made of small rounded pieces of stone, and called pebble mosaics. Others are made of other materials, mosaics have a long history, starting in Mesopotamia in the 3rd millennium BC. Pebble mosaics were made in Tiryns in Mycenean Greece, mosaics with patterns and pictures became widespread in classical times, Early Christian basilicas from the 4th century onwards were decorated with wall and ceiling mosaics. Mosaic fell out of fashion in the Renaissance, though artists like Raphael continued to practise the old technique, Roman and Byzantine influence led Jews to decorate 5th and 6th century synagogues in the Middle East with floor mosaics. Mosaic was widely used on buildings and palaces in early Islamic art, including Islams first great religious building, the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem. Mosaic went out of fashion in the Islamic world after the 8th century, modern mosaics are made by professional artists, street artists, and as a popular craft. Many materials other than stone and ceramic tesserae may be employed, including shells, glass. The earliest known examples of made of different materials were found at a temple building in Abra, Mesopotamia. They consist of pieces of colored stones, shells and ivory, excavations at Susa and Chogha Zanbil show evidence of the first glazed tiles, dating from around 1500 BC. However, mosaic patterns were not used until the times of Sassanid Empire, mythological subjects, or scenes of hunting or other pursuits of the wealthy, were popular as the centrepieces of a larger geometric design, with strongly emphasized borders. Pliny the Elder mentions the artist Sosus of Pergamon by name, describing his mosaics of the left on a floor after a feast. Both of these themes were widely copied, most recorded names of Roman mosaic workers are Greek, suggesting they dominated high quality work across the empire, no doubt most ordinary craftsmen were slaves. Splendid mosaic floors are found in Roman villas across North Africa, in such as Carthage. The tiny tesserae allowed very fine detail, and an approach to the illusionism of painting, often small panels called emblemata were inserted into walls or as the highlights of larger floor-mosaics in coarser work. The normal technique was opus tessellatum, using larger tesserae, which was laid on site, there was a distinct native Italian style using black on a white background, which was no doubt cheaper than fully coloured work. In Rome, Nero and his architects used mosaics to cover surfaces of walls and ceilings in the Domus Aurea, built 64 AD
22.
Fresco
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Fresco is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly-laid, or wet lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaster, the fresco technique has been employed since antiquity and is closely associated with Italian Renaissance painting. Buon fresco pigment mixed with water of temperature on a thin layer of wet, fresh plaster, for which the Italian word for plaster. Because of the makeup of the plaster, a binder is not required, as the pigment mixed solely with the water will sink into the intonaco. The pigment is absorbed by the wet plaster, after a number of hours, many artists sketched their compositions on this underlayer, which would never be seen, in a red pigment called sinopia, a name also used to refer to these under-paintings. Later, new techniques for transferring paper drawings to the wall were developed. The main lines of a drawing made on paper were pricked over with a point, the paper held against the wall, if the painting was to be done over an existing fresco, the surface would be roughened to provide better adhesion. This area is called the giornata, and the different day stages can usually be seen in a large fresco, buon frescoes are difficult to create because of the deadline associated with the drying plaster. Once a giornata is dried, no more buon fresco can be done, if mistakes have been made, it may also be necessary to remove the whole intonaco for that area—or to change them later, a secco. An indispensable component of this process is the carbonatation of the lime, the eyes of the people of the School of Athens are sunken-in using this technique which causes the eyes to seem deeper and more pensive. Michelangelo used this technique as part of his trademark outlining of his central figures within his frescoes, in a wall-sized fresco, there may be ten to twenty or even more giornate, or separate areas of plaster. After five centuries, the giornate, which were nearly invisible, have sometimes become visible, and in many large-scale frescoes. Additionally, the border between giornate was often covered by an a secco painting, which has fallen off. One of the first painters in the period to use this technique was the Isaac Master in the Upper Basilica of Saint Francis in Assisi. A person who creates fresco is called a frescoist, a secco or fresco-secco painting is done on dry plaster. The pigments thus require a medium, such as egg. Blue was a problem, and skies and blue robes were often added a secco, because neither azurite blue nor lapis lazuli. By the end of the century this had largely displaced buon fresco
23.
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
24.
Tivoli, Lazio
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Tivoli is a town and comune in Lazio, central Italy, about 30 kilometres east-north-east of Rome, at the falls of the Aniene river where it issues from the Sabine hills. The city offers a view over the Roman Campagna. Catillus and his three sons Tiburtus, Coras, and Catillus drove out the Siculi from the Aniene plateau, according to a more historical account, Tibur was instead a colony of Alba Longa. Historical traces of settlement in the date back to the 13th century BC. The citys name may share a root with the river Tiber. Virgil in his Aeneid makes Coras and the younger Catillus twin brothers, from Etruscan times Tibur, a Sabine city, was the seat of the Tiburtine Sibyl. In the nearby woods, Faunus had a sacred grove, at first an independent ally of Rome, Tibur allied itself with the Gauls in 361 BC. Vestiges remain of its walls of this period, in opus quadratum. In 338 BC, however, Tibur was defeated and absorbed by the Romans, the city acquired Roman citizenship in 90 BC and became a resort area famed for its beauty and its good water, and was enriched by many Roman villas. The most famous one, of which the ruins remain, is the Villa Adriana, maecenas and Augustus also had villas at Tibur, and the poet Horace had a modest villa, he and Catullus and Statius all mention Tibur in their poems. In 273, Zenobia, the queen of Palmyra, was assigned a residence here by the Emperor Aurelian. The 2nd-century temple of Hercules Victor is being excavated, the present Piazza del Duomo occupies the Roman forum. The name of the city came to be used in form as Tiburi instead of Tibur and so transformed through Tibori to Tiboli. But its inhabitants are still called Tiburtini and not Tivolesi, in 547, in the course of the Gothic War, the city was fortified by the Byzantine general Belisarius, but was later destroyed by Totilas army. After the end of the war it became a Byzantine duchy, after Italy was conquered by Charlemagne, Tivoli was under the authority of a count, representing the emperor. From the 10th century onwards Tivoli, as an independent commune governed by its elected consuls, was the fiercest rival of Rome in the struggle for the control over the impoverished central Lazio, Emperor Otto III conquered it in 1001, and Tivoli fell under the papal control. Reminders of the turbulence of communal life are the tower houses that may be seen in Vicolo dei Ferri, Via di Postera, Via del Seminario. In the 13th century Rome imposed a tribute on the city, in the 14th century Tivoli sided with the Guelphs and strongly supported Urban VI against Antipope Clement VII
25.
Rome
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Rome is a special comune and the capital of Italy. Rome also serves as the capital of the Lazio region, with 2,873,598 residents in 1,285 km2, it is also the countrys largest and most populated comune and fourth-most populous city in the European Union by population within city limits. It is the center of the Metropolitan City of Rome, which has a population of 4.3 million residents, the city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, within Lazio, along the shores of the Tiber. Romes history spans more than 2,500 years, while Roman mythology dates the founding of Rome at only around 753 BC, the site has been inhabited for much longer, making it one of the oldest continuously occupied sites in Europe. The citys early population originated from a mix of Latins, Etruscans and it was first called The Eternal City by the Roman poet Tibullus in the 1st century BC, and the expression was also taken up by Ovid, Virgil, and Livy. Rome is also called the Caput Mundi, due to that, Rome became first one of the major centres of the Italian Renaissance, and then the birthplace of both the Baroque style and Neoclassicism. Famous artists, painters, sculptors and architects made Rome the centre of their activity, in 1871 Rome became the capital of the Kingdom of Italy, and in 1946 that of the Italian Republic. Rome has the status of a global city, Rome ranked in 2014 as the 14th-most-visited city in the world, 3rd most visited in the European Union, and the most popular tourist attraction in Italy. Its historic centre is listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site, monuments and museums such as the Vatican Museums and the Colosseum are among the worlds most visited tourist destinations with both locations receiving millions of tourists a year. Rome hosted the 1960 Summer Olympics and is the seat of United Nations Food, however, it is a possibility that the name Romulus was actually derived from Rome itself. As early as the 4th century, there have been alternate theories proposed on the origin of the name Roma. There is archaeological evidence of occupation of the Rome area from approximately 14,000 years ago. Evidence of stone tools, pottery and stone weapons attest to about 10,000 years of human presence, several excavations support the view that Rome grew from pastoral settlements on the Palatine Hill built above the area of the future Roman Forum. Between the end of the age and the beginning of the Iron age. However, none of them had yet an urban quality, nowadays, there is a wide consensus that the city was gradually born through the aggregation of several villages around the largest one, placed above the Palatine. All these happenings, which according to the excavations took place more or less around the mid of the 8th century BC. Despite recent excavations at the Palatine hill, the view that Rome has been indeed founded with an act of will as the legend suggests in the middle of the 8th century BC remains a fringe hypothesis. Traditional stories handed down by the ancient Romans themselves explain the earliest history of their city in terms of legend and myth
26.
Villa of the Papyri
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The Villa of the Papyri, is named after its unique library of papyri, but is also one of the most luxurious houses in all of Herculaneum and in the Roman world. It is located in the current commune of Ercolano, southern Italy and it was situated on the ancient coastline below the volcano Vesuvius with nothing to obstruct the view of the sea. It was perhaps owned by Julius Caesars father-in-law, Lucius Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus, in AD79, the eruption of Vesuvius covered all of Herculaneum with some 30 m of volcanic ash. Herculaneum was first excavated in the years between 1750 and 1765 by Karl Weber by means of underground tunnels, the villas name derives from the discovery of its library, the only surviving library from the Graeco-Roman world that exists in its entirety. It contained over 1,800 papyrus scrolls, now carbonised by the heat of the eruption, most of the villa is still underground, but parts have been cleared of volcanic deposits. Many of the finds are displayed in the Naples National Archaeological Museum, the Getty Villa is a reproduction of the Villa of the Papyri. Sited a few hundred metres from the nearest house in Herculaneum and it was surrounded by a garden closed off by porticoes, but with an ample stretch of gardens, vineyards and woods down to a small harbour. The villas layout is faithful to, but enlarges upon, the scheme of suburban villas in the country around Pompeii. The atrium functioned as a hall and a means of communication with the various parts of the house. The entrance opened with a portico on the sea side. The first peristyle had 10 columns on each side and a pool in the centre. In this enclosure were found the bronze herma of Doryphorus, a replica of Polykleitos athlete, the large second peristyle could be reached by passing through a large tablinum in which, under a propylaeum, was the archaic statue of Athena Promachos. A collection of bronze busts were in the interior of the tablinum and these included the head of Scipio Africanus. The living and reception quarters were grouped around the porticoes and terraces, giving occupants ample sunlight, the grounds included a large area of covered and uncovered gardens for walks in the shade or in the warmth of the sun. The gardens included a gallery of busts, hermae and small marble and these were laid out between columns amid the open part of the garden and on the edges of the large swimming bath. The luxury of the villa is evidenced not only by the works of art. The villa housed a collection of at least 80 sculptures of magnificent quality, among them is the bronze Seated Hermes, found at the villa in 1758. Around the bowl of the atrium impluvium were 11 bronze fountain statues depicting Satyrs pouring water from a pitcher, other statues and busts were found in the corners around the atrium walls
27.
Herculaneum
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Located in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius, Herculaneum was an ancient Roman town destroyed by volcanic pyroclastic flows in 79 AD. Its ruins are located in the commune of Ercolano, Campania and it had been thought until then that the town had been evacuated by the inhabitants. Herculaneum was a town than Pompeii, possessing an extraordinary density of fine houses with, for example. Ancient tradition connected Herculaneum with the name of the Greek hero Herakles, in fact, it seems that some forefathers of the Samnite tribes of the Italian mainland founded the first civilization on the site of Herculaneum at the end of the 6th century BC. Soon after, the town came under Greek control and was used as a trading post because of its proximity to the Gulf of Naples, the Greeks named the city Ἡράκλειον, Heraklion. In the 4th century BC, Herculaneum again came under the domination of the Samnites. The city remained under Samnite control until it became a Roman municipium in 89 BC, when, having participated in the Social War, it was defeated by Titus Didius, a legate of Sulla. After the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD, the town of Herculaneum was buried under approximately 20 metres of ash, excavations continued sporadically up to the present and today many streets and buildings are visible, although over 75% of the town remains buried. Today, the Italian towns of Ercolano and Portici lie on the site of Herculaneum. Until 1969 the town of Ercolano was called Resina and it changed its name to Ercolano, the Italian modernization of the ancient name in honour of the old city. The inhabitants worshipped above all Hercules, who was believed to be the founder of both the town and Mount Vesuvius, Other important deities worshipped include Venus and Apollo. The catastrophic eruption of Mt. Vesuvius occurred on the afternoon of 24 August 79 AD, because Vesuvius had been dormant for approximately 800 years, it was no longer even recognized as a volcano. Based on archaeological excavations and on two letters of Pliny the Younger to the Roman historian Tacitus, the course of the eruption can be reconstructed, at around 1pm on 24 August, Vesuvius began spewing volcanic ash and stone thousands of meters into the sky. When it reached the tropopause, the top of the cloud flattened, the prevailing winds at the time blew toward the southeast, causing the volcanic material to fall primarily on the city of Pompeii and the surrounding area. Since Herculaneum lay to the west of Vesuvius, it was only affected by the first phase of the eruption. While roofs in Pompeii collapsed under the weight of falling debris, only a few centimetres of ash fell on Herculaneum, causing little damage, during the following night, the eruptive column which had risen into the stratosphere collapsed onto Vesuvius and its flanks. The first pyroclastic surge, formed by a mixture of ash and hot gases, a succession of six flows and surges buried the citys buildings, causing little damage in some areas and preserving structures, objects and victims almost intact. In 1709 the digging of a deep well revealed some exceptional statues at the lowest levels which was found to be the site of the theatre
28.
Gulf of Naples
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The Gulf of Naples, also called the Bay of Naples, is a roughly 15-kilometer-wide gulf located along the south-western coast of Italy. It opens to the west into the Mediterranean Sea and it is bordered on the north by the cities of Naples and Pozzuoli, on the east by Mount Vesuvius, and on the south by the Sorrentine Peninsula and the main town of the peninsula, Sorrento. The Peninsula separates the Gulf of Naples from the Gulf of Salerno, the islands of Capri, Ischia and Procida are located in the Gulf of Naples. The area is a tourist destination, with the seaside Roman ruins of Pompeii and Herculaneum at the foot of Mount Vesuvius, along with the island of Ischia and gulfs of Pozzuoli and Gaeta, local waters are home to varieties of whales and dolphins including fin and sperm whales. It is said that The Roman emperor Caligula built a bridge of boats across the bay, the Gulf of Naples hosted the sailing events for the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome. Purcell, N. R. Talbert, T. Elliott, cS1 maint, Multiple names, authors list
29.
English country houses
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An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were owned by individuals who also owned a town house. This allowed them to time in the country and in the city—hence, for these people. However, the term also encompasses houses that were, and often still are, frequently, the formal business of the counties was transacted in these country houses. With large numbers of indoor and outdoor staff, country houses were important as places of employment for rural communities. In turn, until the agricultural depressions of the 1870s, the estates, of country houses were the hub. However, the late 19th and early 20th centuries were the swansong of the traditional English country house lifestyle, increased taxation and the effects of World War I led to the demolition of hundreds of houses, those that remained had to adapt to survive. While a château or a schloss can be a fortified or unfortified building, if fortified, it is called a castle, but not all buildings with the name castle are fortified. The term stately home is subject to debate, and avoided by historians, as a description of a country house, the term was first used in a poem by Felicia Hemans, The Homes of England, originally published in Blackwoods Magazine in 1827. In the 20th century, the term was popularised in a song by Noël Coward. The books collection of homes also includes George IVs Brighton town palace. The country houses of England have evolved over the last five hundred years, before this time, larger houses were usually fortified, reflecting the position of their owners as feudal lords, de facto overlords of their manors. The Tudor period of stability in the saw the building of the first of the unfortified great houses. Henry VIIIs Dissolution of the Monasteries saw many former ecclesiastical properties granted to the Kings favourites, woburn Abbey, Forde Abbey and many other mansions with abbey or priory in their name became private houses during this period. Other terms used in the names of houses to describe their origin or importance include palace, castle, court, hall, mansion, park, house, manor, and place. Burghley House, Longleat House, and Hatfield House are among the best known examples of the prodigy house. Some of the best known of Englands country houses were built by one architect at one time, Montacute House, Chatsworth House. They finally ran out of funds in the early 20th century, an example of this is Brympton dEvercy in Somerset, a house of many periods that is unified architecturally by the continuing use of the same mellow, local Ham Hill stone
30.
Poland
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Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe, situated between the Baltic Sea in the north and two mountain ranges in the south. Bordered by Germany to the west, the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south, Ukraine and Belarus to the east, the total area of Poland is 312,679 square kilometres, making it the 69th largest country in the world and the 9th largest in Europe. With a population of over 38.5 million people, Poland is the 34th most populous country in the world, the 8th most populous country in Europe, Poland is a unitary state divided into 16 administrative subdivisions, and its capital and largest city is Warsaw. Other metropolises include Kraków, Wrocław, Poznań, Gdańsk and Szczecin, the establishment of a Polish state can be traced back to 966, when Mieszko I, ruler of a territory roughly coextensive with that of present-day Poland, converted to Christianity. The Kingdom of Poland was founded in 1025, and in 1569 it cemented a political association with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania by signing the Union of Lublin. This union formed the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, one of the largest and most populous countries of 16th and 17th century Europe, Poland regained its independence in 1918 at the end of World War I, reconstituting much of its historical territory as the Second Polish Republic. In September 1939, World War II started with the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, followed thereafter by invasion by the Soviet Union. More than six million Polish citizens died in the war, after the war, Polands borders were shifted westwards under the terms of the Potsdam Conference. With the backing of the Soviet Union, a communist puppet government was formed, and after a referendum in 1946. During the Revolutions of 1989 Polands Communist government was overthrown and Poland adopted a new constitution establishing itself as a democracy, informally called the Third Polish Republic. Since the early 1990s, when the transition to a primarily market-based economy began, Poland has achieved a high ranking on the Human Development Index. Poland is a country, which was categorised by the World Bank as having a high-income economy. Furthermore, it is visited by approximately 16 million tourists every year, Poland is the eighth largest economy in the European Union and was the 6th fastest growing economy on the continent between 2010 and 2015. According to the Global Peace Index for 2014, Poland is ranked 19th in the list of the safest countries in the world to live in. The origin of the name Poland derives from a West Slavic tribe of Polans that inhabited the Warta River basin of the historic Greater Poland region in the 8th century, the origin of the name Polanie itself derives from the western Slavic word pole. In some foreign languages such as Hungarian, Lithuanian, Persian and Turkish the exonym for Poland is Lechites, historians have postulated that throughout Late Antiquity, many distinct ethnic groups populated the regions of what is now Poland. The most famous archaeological find from the prehistory and protohistory of Poland is the Biskupin fortified settlement, dating from the Lusatian culture of the early Iron Age, the Slavic groups who would form Poland migrated to these areas in the second half of the 5th century AD. With the Baptism of Poland the Polish rulers accepted Christianity and the authority of the Roman Church
31.
Fishbourne Roman Palace
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Fishbourne Roman Palace is in the village of Fishbourne, Chichester in West Sussex. The large palace was built in the 1st century AD, around thirty years after the Roman conquest of Britain, the rectangular palace surrounded formal gardens, the northern parts of which have been reconstructed. More alterations were in progress when the palace burnt down in around 270, the Roman villa excavated by Cunliffes team was so large that it became known as Fishbourne Roman Palace, and a museum was erected to protect and preserve some of the remains in situ. This is administered by the Sussex Archaeological Society, Fishbourne is by far the largest Roman residence known north of the Alps. At about 500 feet square, it has a larger footprint than Buckingham Palace, a modern museum has been built by the Sussex Archaeological Society, incorporating most of the visible remains including one wing of the palace. The gardens have been re-planted using authentic plants from the Roman period, a team of volunteers and professional archaeologists are involved in a continuing research archaeological excavation on the site of nearby, possibly military, buildings. The last dig was in 2002, the first buildings on the site were granaries, apparently a supply base for the Roman army, constructed in the early part of the conquest in 43 AD. Later, two buildings were constructed, one with clay and mortar floors and plaster walls which appears to have been a dwelling house of some comfort. These buildings were demolished in the AD 90s and replaced by a substantial stone-walled house, which included a garden with colonnades. It has been suggested that the palace itself, incorporating the previous house in its south-east corner, was built in around c 73–75 AD. Cogidubnus / Togidubnus is known from a reference to his loyalty in Tacituss Agricola, another theory is that it was built for another native, Sallustius Lucullus, a Roman governor of Britain of the late 1st century who may have been the son of the British prince Adminius. Further redevelopment was begun in the late 3rd century, but these alterations were incomplete when the wing was destroyed in a fire c.270 AD. The damage was too great to repair, and the palace was abandoned and it is not known whether the fire was accidental, set by coastal raiders or part of a more widespread period of disruption caused by the revolt of the British emperor Carausius in the 280s AD. The final phase palace comprised four wings with colonnaded fronts. The north and east wings each consisted of suites of rooms built around courtyards, in the north-east corner was an aisled assembly hall. The west wing contained state rooms, a ceremonial reception room. The south wing contained the private apartments. The palace also included as many as 50 mosaic floors, under-floor central heating, ISBN0752414089 Miles Russell, Roman Sussex
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Sussex
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Sussex, from the Old English Sūþsēaxe, is a historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. Brighton and Hove was created as an authority in 1997. Until then, Chichester was Sussexs only city, Sussex has three main geographic sub-regions, each oriented approximately east to west. In the south-west is the fertile and densely populated coastal plain, North of this are the rolling chalk hills of the South Downs, beyond which is the well-wooded Sussex Weald. The name derives from the Kingdom of Sussex, which was founded, according to legend, in 825, it was absorbed into the kingdom of Wessex and subsequently into the kingdom of England. It was the home of some of Europes earliest hominids, whose remains have been found at Boxgrove, in 1974, the Lord-Lieutenant of Sussex was replaced with one each for East and West Sussex, which became separate ceremonial counties. Sussex continues to be recognised as a territory and cultural region. It has had a police force since 1968 and its name is in common use in the media. In 2007, Sussex Day was created to celebrate the rich culture. Based on the emblem of Sussex, a blue shield with six gold martlets. In 2013, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government Eric Pickles formally recognised and acknowledged the existence of Englands 39 historic counties. The name Sussex is derived from the Middle English Suth-sæxe, which is in turn derived from the Old English Suth-Seaxe which means of the South Saxons, the South Saxons were a Germanic tribe that settled in the region from the North German Plain during the 5th and 6th centuries. The earliest known usage of the term South Saxons is in a charter of 689 which names them and their king, Noðhelm. The monastic chronicler who wrote up the entry classifying the invasion seems to have got his dates wrong, the New Latin word Suthsexia was used for Sussex by Dutch cartographer Joan Blaeu in his 1645 map. Three United States counties, and a former division of Western Australia, are named after Sussex. The flag of Sussex consists of six gold martlets, or heraldic swallows, on a background, blazoned as Azure. Officially recognised by the Flag Institute on 20 May 2011, its design is based on the shield of Sussex. The first known recording of this emblem being used to represent the county was in 1611 when cartographer John Speed deployed it to represent the Kingdom of the South Saxons
33.
Campus Martius
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The Campus Martius, was a publicly owned area of ancient Rome about 2 square kilometres in extent. In the Middle Ages, it was the most populous area of Rome, the IV rione of Rome, Campo Marzio, which covers a smaller section of the original area, bears the same name. Washing ashore further downriver, the brothers would return later to found a new city. Romulus, who became Rome’s sole king, ruled for years until sometime in the seventh century B. C. As he came to the end of his life, a cloud descended upon the center of the open field outside the city’s pomerium in order to lift the elderly king to heaven. This land, “between the city and the Tiber, ” became the property of Rome’s last Etruscan king Tarquinius Superbus, after his defeat and exile, the plain was dedicated to the god Mars. Roman men assembled every spring before heading off to fight hostile tribes, surrounding Rome, with the exception of a small altar to Mars near the center of the field, it wasn’t until the fifth century B. C. that any visible changes were made to the field. In 435 B. C. the Villa Publica was established in a prepared 300m clearing, the area was meant to be a gathering space for citizens to congregate every five years, to be counted in a census. Free from any permanent structures, no additions would be made for two centuries. With the advent of the Punic Wars in the mid-third century B. C. Roman military expansion moved out of the Italian peninsula, the number of foreign wars, however, greatly increased the amount of wealth flowing into Rome. Generals who had sworn to various deities to build temples in their honor if victorious, besides temples and wooden markets, entertainment venues were built also, though they were to be temporary. Starting in the time of Sulla, building lots were sold or granted to influential Romans and it later became the place for comitia centuriata, civic meetings with weapons, and for the citys militia. In 55 BC, Pompey constructed a permanent theater made of stone, when the Curia Hostilia burnt down in 52 BC, the theater was sometimes used as a meeting place for the Senate. The area was used as the assembling ground for elections. Julius Caesar planned for the Saepta to be placed there, they were completed by his heir Augustus. In 33 BC, Octavian dedicated the Porticus Octaviae, built from spoils of the Dalmatian War, the Campus Martius also held the Ara Pacis, built by the Senate to mark the establishment of peace by Augustus. It was intended to symbolize the successful completion of Augustus efforts to stabilize the Empire, Marcus Agrippa had the original swampy ground made into a pool and baths in a setting of parkland and temples, the Laconicum Sudatorium or Baths of Agrippa. Also, he built the Porticus Argonautarum and the Pantheon, which was rebuilt by Hadrian as it still stands today
34.
Pompeii
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Pompeii was an ancient Roman town-city near modern Naples, in the Campania region of Italy, in the territory of the comune of Pompei. Pompeii, along with Herculaneum and many villas in the area, was mostly destroyed and buried under 4 to 6 m of volcanic ash. Researchers believe that the town was founded in the seventh or sixth century BC by the Osci or Oscans. It came under the domination of Rome in the 4th century BC, by the time of its destruction,160 years later, its population was estimated at 11,000 people, and the city had a complex water system, an amphitheatre, gymnasium, and a port. The eruption destroyed the city, killing its inhabitants and burying it under tons of ash, the site was lost for about 1,500 years until its initial rediscovery in 1599 and broader rediscovery almost 150 years later by Spanish engineer Rocque Joaquin de Alcubierre in 1748. The objects that lay beneath the city have been preserved for centuries because of the lack of air and these artefacts provide an extraordinarily detailed insight into the life of a city during the Pax Romana. During the excavation, plaster was used to fill in the voids in the ash layers that once held human bodies and this allowed archaeologists to see the exact position the person was in when he or she died. Pompeii has been a tourist destination for over 250 years, today it has UNESCO World Heritage Site status and is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Italy, with approximately 2.5 million visitors every year. Pompeii in Latin is a second declension plural, the ruins of Pompeii are located near the modern suburban town of Pompei. It stands on a formed by a lava flow to the north of the mouth of the Sarno River. Today it is some distance inland, but in ancient times was nearer to the coast, Pompeii is about 8 km away from Mount Vesuvius. It covered a total of 64 to 67 hectares and was home to approximately 11,000 to 11,500 people on the basis of household counts and it was a major city in the region of Campania. Three sheets of sediment have been found on top of the lava that lies below the city and, mixed in with the sediment, archaeologists have found bits of bone, pottery shards. Carbon dating has placed the oldest of these layers from the 8th–6th centuries BC, the other two strata are separated either by well-developed soil layers or Roman pavement, and were laid in the 4th century BC and 2nd century BC. It is theorized that the layers of the sediment were created by large landslides. The town was founded around the 7th-6th century BC by the Osci or Oscans and it had already been used as a safe port by Greek and Phoenician sailors. According to Strabo, Pompeii was also captured by the Etruscans, and in recent excavations have shown the presence of Etruscan inscriptions. Pompeii was captured for the first time by the Greek colony of Cumae, allied with Syracuse, in the 5th century BC, the Samnites conquered it, the new rulers imposed their architecture and enlarged the town
35.
Jerome
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Jerome was a priest, confessor, theologian and historian. He was the son of Eusebius, born at Stridon, a village near Emona on the border of Dalmatia and Pannonia and he is best known for his translation of most of the Bible into Latin, and his commentaries on the Gospels. His list of writings is extensive, the protégé of Pope Damasus I, who died in December of 384, Jerome was known for his teachings on Christian moral life, especially to those living in cosmopolitan centers such as Rome. In many cases, he focused his attention to the lives of women and this focus stemmed from his close patron relationships with several prominent female ascetics who were members of affluent senatorial families. He is recognised as a Saint and Doctor of the Church by the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Lutheran Church, and his feast day is 30 September. Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus was born at Stridon around 347 A. D and he was of Illyrian ancestry and his native tongue was the Illyrian dialect. He was not baptized until about 360–366 A. D. when he had gone to Rome with his friend Bonosus to pursue rhetorical and philosophical studies and he studied under the grammarian Aelius Donatus. There Jerome learned Latin and at least some Greek, though not the familiarity with Greek literature he would later claim to have acquired as a schoolboy. As a student in Rome, he engaged in the superficial escapades and wanton behaviour of students there, to appease his conscience, he would visit on Sundays the sepulchres of the martyrs and the Apostles in the catacombs. Here and there the light, not entering in through windows, but again, as soon as you found yourself cautiously moving forward, the black night closed around and there came to my mind the line of Vergil, Horror ubique animos, simul ipsa silentia terrent. Jerome used a quote from Virgil—On all sides round horror spread wide, although initially skeptical of Christianity, he was eventually converted. Next came a stay of at least several months, or possibly years, with Rufinus at Aquileia, some of these accompanied him when he set out about 373 on a journey through Thrace and Asia Minor into northern Syria. At Antioch, where he stayed the longest, two of his companions died and he himself was seriously ill more than once, during one of these illnesses, he had a vision that led him to lay aside his secular studies and devote himself to God. Seized with a desire for a life of penance, he went for a time to the desert of Chalcis, to the southeast of Antioch, known as the Syrian Thebaid. During this period, he seems to have time for studying and writing. He made his first attempt to learn Hebrew under the guidance of a converted Jew, Jerome translated parts of this Hebrew Gospel into Greek. Returning to Antioch in 378 or 379, he was ordained by Bishop Paulinus, apparently unwillingly, soon afterward, he went to Constantinople to pursue a study of Scripture under Gregory Nazianzen. He seems to have spent two years there, then left, and the three he was in Rome again, as secretary to Pope Damasus I and the leading Roman Christians
36.
Gospel of Mark
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The Gospel According to Mark, the second book of the New Testament, is one of the four canonical gospels and the three synoptic gospels. It portrays Jesus as a man of action, an exorcist, a healer. Jesus is also the Son of God, but he keeps his identity secret, all this is in keeping with prophecy, which foretold the fate of the messiah as Suffering Servant. The gospel ends, in its version, with the discovery of the empty tomb, a promise to meet again in Galilee. Traditionally thought to be an epitome of Matthew, which accounts for its place as the gospel in the Bible. The Gospel of Mark is anonymous, early Christian tradition ascribes it to John Mark, a companion and interpreter of the apostle Peter. Hence its author is often called Mark, even though most modern scholars are doubtful of the Markan tradition and instead regard the author as unknown. It was probably written c. AD 66–70, during Neros persecution of the Christians in Rome or the Jewish revolt, as suggested by references to war in Judea. The author used a variety of pre-existing sources, such as stories, apocalyptic discourse. Mark was written in Greek, for an audience of Greek-speaking Christians, Rome, Galilee, Antioch. The gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke bear a resemblance to each other. Their close relationship is termed the problem, and has led to a number of hypotheses explaining their interdependence. The most widely accepted hypothesis is that Mark was the first gospel and was used as a source by both Matthew and Luke, together with additional material. The strongest argument for this is the fact that Matthew and Luke agree with other in their sequence of stories. The 19th century recognition of Mark as the earliest gospel led to the belief that it must therefore be the most reliable, the modern consensus is that Marks purpose was to present a theological message rather than to write history. Marks gospel is nevertheless seen as the most reliable of the four in terms of its overall description of Jesuss life. This recognition allows scholars to chart the evolution of Jesus in the scriptures, Marks Christ, for example, dies with the cry, My God, my God, historical reconstruction suggests that the original despairing death of Jesus has become more and more victorious over time. From the outset, Christians depended heavily on Jewish literature, supporting their convictions through the Jewish scriptures and those convictions involved a nucleus of key concepts, the messiah, the son of God and the son of man, the Day of the Lord, the kingdom of God
37.
Gethsemane
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Gethsemane is a garden at the foot of the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, most famous as the place where Jesus prayed and his disciples slept the night before his crucifixion. Gethsemane appears in Greek of the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Mark as Γεθσημανή, the name is derived from the Aramaic ܓܕܣܡܢ, meaning oil press. Matthew and Mark call it χωρἰον, a place or estate, the Gospel of John says Jesus entered a garden with his disciples. According to the New Testament it was a place that Jesus and his disciples customarily visited, there are four locations claimed to be the place where Jesus prayed on the night he was betrayed. The Church of All Nations overlooking a garden with the Rock of the Agony, the location near the Tomb of the Virgin to the north. The Greek Orthodox location to the east, the Russian Orthodox orchard, next to the Church of Maria Magdalene by an orchard. The Latins, however, have within the last few years succeeded in gaining sole possession, the Greeks have invented another site a little to the north of it. My own impression is that both are wrong, I am inclined to place the garden in the secluded vale several hundred yards to the north-east of the present Gethsemane. All of the foregoing is based on tradition and the conflating of the synoptic accounts of Mark. Mark and Matthew record that Jesus went to a called the oil press. Modern scholarship acknowledges that the location of Gethsemane is unknown, according to Luke 22, 43–44, Jesus anguish on the Mount of Olives was so deep that his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground. According to the Eastern Orthodox Church tradition, Gethsemane is the garden where the Virgin Mary was buried and was assumed into heaven after her dormition on Mount Zion, the Garden of Gethsemane became a focal site for early Christian pilgrims. It was visited in 333 by the anonymous Pilgrim of Bordeaux, in his Onomasticon, Eusebius of Caesarea notes the site of Gethsemane located at the foot of the Mount of Olives, and he adds that the faithful were accustomed to go there to pray. Eight ancient olive trees growing in the Latin site of the garden may be 900 years old, a study conducted by the National Research Council of Italy in 2012 found that several olive trees in the garden are amongst the oldest known to science. Dates of 1092,1166 and 1198 AD were obtained by carbon dating from older parts of the trunks of three trees, DNA tests show that the trees were originally planted from the same parent plant. This could indicate attempt to keep the lineage of an older species intact, then again the three trees tested could have been sprouts reviving from the older roots. However Bernabei writes, “All the tree trunks are hollow inside so that the central, in the end, only three from a total of eight olive trees could be successfully dated. The dated ancient olive trees do, however, not allow any hypothesis to be made with regard to the age of the five giant olive trees. ”Babcox said that the roots of the oldest trees are possibly much older
38.
Ancient Roman architecture
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Ancient Roman architecture adopted the external language of classical Greek architecture for the purposes of the ancient Romans, but differed from Greek buildings, becoming a new architectural style. The two styles are considered one body of classical architecture. Roman architecture flourished in the Roman Republic and even more so under the Empire and it used new materials, particularly concrete, and newer technologies such as the arch and the dome to make buildings that were typically strong and well-engineered. Large numbers remain in some form across the empire, sometimes complete, Roman Architecture covers the period from the establishment of the Roman Republic in 509 BC to about the 4th century AD, after which it becomes reclassified as Late Antique or Byzantine architecture. Almost no substantial examples survive from before about 100 BC, and most of the major survivals are from the later empire, after about 100 AD. They moved from trabeated construction mostly based on columns and lintels to one based on walls, punctuated by arches. The classical orders now became largely decorative rather than structural, except in colonnades, however, they did not feel entirely restricted by Greek aesthetic concerns, and treated the orders with considerable freedom. Innovation started in the 3rd or 2nd century BC with the development of Roman concrete as a readily available adjunct to, or substitute for, stone, more daring buildings soon followed, with great pillars supporting broad arches and domes. The freedom of concrete also inspired the colonnade screen, a row of decorative columns in front of a load-bearing wall. In smaller-scale architecture, concretes strength freed the floor plan from rectangular cells to a more free-flowing environment, factors such as wealth and high population densities in cities forced the ancient Romans to discover new architectural solutions of their own. The use of vaults and arches, together with a knowledge of building materials. Examples include the aqueducts of Rome, the Baths of Diocletian and the Baths of Caracalla and these were reproduced at a smaller scale in most important towns and cities in the Empire. Some surviving structures are almost complete, such as the walls of Lugo in Hispania Tarraconensis. The administrative structure and wealth of the empire made possible very large even in locations remote from the main centres, as did the use of slave labour. Especially under the empire, architecture often served a function, demonstrating the power of the Roman state in general. The influence is evident in many ways, for example, in the introduction and use of the Triclinium in Roman villas as a place, Roman builders employed Greeks in many capacities, especially in the great boom in construction in the early Empire. The Roman Architectural Revolution, also known as the Concrete Revolution, was the use in Roman architecture of the previously little-used architectural forms of the arch, vault. For the first time in history, their potential was fully exploited in the construction of a range of civil engineering structures, public buildings
39.
Atrium (architecture)
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In architecture, an atrium is a large open air or skylight covered space surrounded by a building. Atria were a feature in Ancient Roman dwellings, providing light. Modern atria, as developed in the late 19th and 20th centuries, are several stories high and having a glazed roof or large windows. Atria are a design feature because they give their buildings a feeling of space. The atrium has become a key feature of buildings in recent years. Atria are popular with building users, building designers and building developers, users like atria because they create a dynamic and stimulating interior that provides shelter from the external environment while maintaining a visual link with that environment. Designers enjoy the opportunity to new types of spaces in buildings. Fire control is an important aspect of contemporary atrium design due to criticism that poorly designed atria could allow fire to spread to a buildings upper stories more quickly. The Latin word atrium referred to the central court from which enclosed rooms led off. The impluvium was a shallow pool sunken into the floor to catch rainwater from the roof, some surviving examples are beautifully decorated. The opening in the ceiling above the pool called for some means of support for the roof, as the centrepiece of the house, the atrium was the most lavishly-furnished room. Also, it contained the chapel to the ancestral spirits. The term was used for a variety of spaces in public and religious buildings, mostly forms of arcaded courtyards. Byzantine churches were often entered through such a space, the 19th century brought the industrial revolution with great advances in iron and glass manufacturing techniques. Courtyards could then have horizontal glazing overhead, eliminating some of the elements from the space. One of the public spaces at Federation Square, in Melbourne, Australia, is called The Atrium and is a street-like space, five storeys high with glazed walls. The structure and glazing pattern follow the system of fractals used to arrange the panels on the rest of the facades at Federation Square, as of 2016, the Burj Al Arab hotel in Dubai, has the worlds tallest atrium at 590 feet. The Luxor Hotel, in Las Vegas, Nevada, has the largest atrium in the world at 29 million cubic feet, cavaedium Courtyard Quadrangle Roth, Leland M. Understanding Architecture, Its Elements History and Meaning
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Peristyle
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In Hellenistic Greek and Roman architecture a peristyle is a continuous porch formed by a row of columns surrounding the perimeter of building or a courtyard. Tetrastoon is a rarely used term for this feature. In the Christian ecclesiastical architecture that developed from Roman basilica, a courtyard peristyle, in rural settings a wealthy Roman could surround a villa with terraced gardens, within the city Romans created their gardens inside the domus. Sometimes the lararium, a shrine for the Lares, the gods of the household, was located in this portico, the courtyard might contain flowers and shrubs, fountains, benches, sculptures and even fish ponds. No new peristyle houses were built after A. D.550
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Plumbing
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Plumbing is any system that conveys fluids for a wide range of applications. Plumbing uses pipes, valves, plumbing fixtures, tanks, heating and cooling, waste removal, and potable water delivery are among the most common uses for plumbing, but it is not limited to these applications. The word derives from the Latin for lead, plumbum, as the first effective pipes used in the Roman era were lead pipes, in the developed world, plumbing infrastructure is critical to public health and sanitation. Boilermakers and pipefitters are not plumbers, although they work with piping as part of their trade, standardized earthen plumbing pipes with broad flanges making use of asphalt for preventing leakages appeared in the urban settlements of the Indus Valley Civilization by 2700 B. C. The Romans used lead pipe inscriptions to prevent water theft, Plumbing reached its early apex in ancient Rome, which saw the introduction of expansive systems of aqueducts, tile wastewater removal, and widespread use of lead pipes. With the Fall of Rome both water supply and sanitation stagnated—or regressed—for well over 1,000 years, improvement was very slow, with little effective progress made until the growth of modern densely populated cities in the 1800s. During this period, public authorities began pressing for better waste disposal systems to be installed. Earlier, the disposal system had merely consisted of collecting waste. Eventually the development of separate, underground water and sewage systems eliminated open sewage ditches, most large cities today pipe solid wastes to sewage treatment plants in order to separate and partially purify the water, before emptying into streams or other bodies of water. For potable water use, galvanized iron piping was commonplace in the United States from the late 1800s until around 1960, after that period, copper piping took over, first soft copper with flared fittings, then with rigid copper tubing utilizing soldered fittings. The use of lead for potable water declined sharply after World War II because of increased awareness of the dangers of lead poisoning, at this time, copper piping was introduced as a better and safer alternative to lead pipes. e. Heating and cooling systems utilizing water to transport thermal energy, as in district heating systems, a water pipe is a pipe or tube, frequently made of plastic or metal, that carries pressurized and treated fresh water to a building, as well as inside the building. For many centuries, lead was the material for water pipes. This was a source of lead-related health problems in the years before the hazards of ingesting lead were fully understood, among these were stillbirths. Lead water pipes were still used in the early 20th century. In addition, lead-tin alloy solder was commonly used to join copper pipes, despite the Romans common use of lead pipes, their aqueducts rarely poisoned people. Unlike other parts of the world where lead pipes cause poisoning, what often causes confusion is the large amount of evidence of widespread lead poisoning, particularly amongst those who would have had easy access to piped water. This was a result of lead being used in cookware and as an additive to processed food and drink
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Hypocaust
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The word derives from the Ancient Greek hypo meaning under and caust-, meaning burnt. The earliest reference to such a system suggests that the temple of Ephesus in 350 BCE was heated in this manner and its invention improved the hygiene and living conditions of citizens, and was a forerunner of modern central heating. Hypocausts were used for heating hot baths and other buildings in ancient Rome. The ruins of Roman hypocausts have been found throughout Europe and in Africa as well. The ceiling of the hypocaust was raised above the ground by pillars, called pilae stacks, supporting a layer of tiles, followed by a layer of concrete, then the floor tiles of the rooms above. Rooms intended to be the warmest were located nearest to the furnace below and he also describes a device for adjusting the heat by a bronze ventilator in the domed ceiling. Remains of many Roman hypocausts have survived throughout Europe, western Asia, excavations at Mohenjo-daro in what is now Pakistan have unearthed what is believed to be a hypocaust lined with bitumen-coated bricks. If it fulfilled a role, the structure would pre-date the earliest Roman hypocaust by as much as 2000 years. In 1984–1985, in the Republic of Georgia, excavations in the ancient settlement of Dzalisi uncovered a large castle complex, featuring a well-preserved hypocaust built between 200–400 BCE. Dating back to 1000 BCE, Korean houses have traditionally used ondol to provide floor heating on similar principles as the hypocaust, on a smaller scale, in Northern China the Kang bed-stove has a long history. With the decline of the Roman Empire, the hypocaust fell into disuse, in Britain, from c.400 until c.1900, central heating did not exist, and hot baths were rare. In the Iberian Peninsula, the Roman system was adopted for the heating of Hispano-Islamic baths, a derivation of hypocaust, the gloria, was in use in Castile until the arrival of modern heating. After the fuel was reduced to ashes, the air intake was closed to keep hot air inside, de Architectura Roman engineering Roman technology Ondol Gloria Masonry heater. Kang bed-stove Vitruvius Underfloor heating About Roman baths, by William Smith, disputing the priority of Sergius Orata Garrett G. Fagans paper Sergius Orata, Inventor of the Hypocaust. Published in Phoenix, Vol.50, No
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Villa Armira
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Villa Armira is a 1st-century suburban Roman villa in southeastern Bulgaria, located in the proximity of Ivaylovgrad, Haskovo Province. Discovered in 1964 during reservoir construction, it is a historical attraction to the Ivaylovgrad area. It is classified as a monument of culture of national importance, Villa Armira lies some 4 kilometres southwest of Ivaylovgrad. It was named after the Armira River, a tributary of the Arda. Villa Armira, a sumptuous palace villa, is one of the largest and most richly decorated Ancient Roman villas excavated in Bulgaria and it features rich marble decoration and complex floor mosaics, some geometric and some depicting animals and plants. The villa dates to the half of the 1st century AD. The two-storey U-shaped villa spreads over 3,600 square metres amidst a garden, Villa Armira had 22 separate rooms on the ground floor alone in addition to a panorama terrace. The entire ground floor was covered in elaborately decorated white marble, the villas floor mosaics display features typical of Ancient Roman art. The mosaics in the masters chamber depict the 2nd century AD owner with his two children, these are the only Roman-era mosaic portraits to be discovered in Bulgaria, a common theme in the villas decoration is the gorgon Medusa. In the 3rd century AD, Villa Armira was expanded eastward with a triclinium, Villa Armira is thought to have been destroyed in the late 4th century, possibly by the Goths some time around the Battle of Adrianople of 378. The villa itself, with many of the floor mosaics intact, underwent Phare-funded reconstruction and anastylosis and was opened for visitors in 2008
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Bulgaria
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Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in southeastern Europe. It is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, with a territory of 110,994 square kilometres, Bulgaria is Europes 16th-largest country. Organised prehistoric cultures began developing on current Bulgarian lands during the Neolithic period and its ancient history saw the presence of the Thracians, Greeks, Persians, Celts, Romans, Goths, Alans and Huns. With the downfall of the Second Bulgarian Empire in 1396, its territories came under Ottoman rule for five centuries. The Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78 led to the formation of the Third Bulgarian State, the following years saw several conflicts with its neighbours, which prompted Bulgaria to align with Germany in both world wars. In 1946 it became a one-party socialist state as part of the Soviet-led Eastern Bloc, in December 1989 the ruling Communist Party allowed multi-party elections, which subsequently led to Bulgarias transition into a democracy and a market-based economy. Bulgarias population of 7.2 million people is predominantly urbanised, most commercial and cultural activities are centred on the capital and largest city, Sofia. The strongest sectors of the economy are industry, power engineering. The countrys current political structure dates to the adoption of a constitution in 1991. Bulgaria is a parliamentary republic with a high degree of political, administrative. Human activity in the lands of modern Bulgaria can be traced back to the Paleolithic, animal bones incised with man-made markings from Kozarnika cave are assumed to be the earliest examples of symbolic behaviour in humans. Organised prehistoric societies in Bulgarian lands include the Neolithic Hamangia culture, Vinča culture, the latter is credited with inventing gold working and exploitation. Some of these first gold smelters produced the coins, weapons and jewellery of the Varna Necropolis treasure and this site also offers insights for understanding the social hierarchy of the earliest European societies. Thracians, one of the three primary groups of modern Bulgarians, began appearing in the region during the Iron Age. In the late 6th century BC, the Persians conquered most of present-day Bulgaria, and kept it until 479 BC. After the division of the Roman Empire in the 5th century the area fell under Byzantine control, by this time, Christianity had already spread in the region. A small Gothic community in Nicopolis ad Istrum produced the first Germanic language book in the 4th century, the first Christian monastery in Europe was established around the same time by Saint Athanasius in central Bulgaria. From the 6th century the easternmost South Slavs gradually settled in the region, in 680 Bulgar tribes under the leadership of Asparukh moved south across the Danube and settled in the area between the lower Danube and the Balkan, establishing their capital at Pliska
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Baiae
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Baiae was a mineral springs and coastal resort on the northwest shore of the Gulf of Naples in ancient Italy. It was fashionable for centuries during antiquity, particularly towards the end of the Roman Republic, when it was reckoned as superior to Pompeii, Herculaneum and it was notorious for its hedonistic offerings and the attendant rumors of corruption and scandal. It later formed part of Port Julius, the base of the fleet of the Imperial Roman Navy. It was deserted and its ruins largely submerged by volcanic activity by the time of the Renaissance. What is left of Baia is now a frazione of the comune of Bacoli in the Campania region of Italy, Baiae was said to have been named after Baius, the helmsman of Odysseuss ship in Homers Odyssey, who was supposedly buried nearby. The adjacent Baian Gulf was named after the town and it now forms the western part of the Gulf of Pozzuoli. The settlement was mentioned in 178 BC under the name Aquae Cumanae. Baiae was built on the Cumaean Peninsula in the Phlegraean Fields and it perhaps originally developed as the port for Cumae. The bathhouses of Baiae were filled with mineral water directed to its pools from underground sulfur springs. Roman engineers were able to construct a complex system of chambers that channeled underground heat into facilities that acted as saunas. In addition to their function, the baths were used in Roman medicine to treat various illnesses. Baiae was particularly fashionable towards the end of the Roman Republic, marius, Lucullus, and Pompey all frequented it. Julius Caesar had a villa there, and much of the town became imperial property under Augustus, with its large swimming pools and domed casino, it continued to be a getaway for the elite. Nero had a villa constructed in the middle of the 1st century. It was also a spot of the emperor Septimius Severus. Caligula ordered a 3-mile-long pontoon bridge to be built from impounded ships of the area, fastened together and weighted with sand, clad in a gold cloak, he then crossed it upon a horse. Cassius Dios Roman History also includes the event, with the detail that the emperor ordered resting places and lodging rooms with potable water erected at intervals along the bridge. As late as the 18th century, scattered fragments were still being shown to tourists as the Bridge of Caligula. ”Baiae was notorious for the lifestyle of its residents and guests
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Stabiae
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Stabiae was an ancient Roman town which is famous for the magnificent Roman villas found there near to the modern town of Castellammare di Stabia approximately 4.5 km southwest of Pompeii. The beautiful objects and frescoes taken from these villas were sold and distributed. The villas were sited on a 50 m high overlooking the Gulf of Naples. Being only 16 kilometres from Mount Vesuvius, this resort was largely buried by two metres of tephra ash in 79 AD. Originally a small port, by the 6th century BC Stabiae had already overshadowed by the much larger port at Pompeii. The town was destroyed by Lucius Cornelius Sulla on 30 April 89 BC during the Social War, the Roman author and admiral Pliny the Elder recorded that the town was rebuilt and became a popular resort for wealthy Romans. He reported that there were miles of luxury villas built along the edge of the headland. According to the account written by his nephew, Pliny the Elder was at the side of the bay in Misenum when the eruption started. He travelled by ship across the bay, partly to observe the eruption more closely. Pliny died at Stabiae the following day, probably during the arrival of the sixth, the very diluted outer edge of this surge reached Stabiae and left two centimetres of fine ash on top of the immensely thick aerially-deposited tephra which further protected the underlying remains. The archaeological remains of Stabiae were originally discovered in 1749 by Cavaliere Rocco de Alcubierre and these ruins were partially excavated by Alcubierre with help from Karl Weber between 1749–1782. The ruins that had been excavated, however, were reburied and their location was forgotten until 1950, the site was declared an archaeological protected area in 1957, and by 1962 many of the ruins had been again uncovered. The remains of both an Oscan settlement and the later Roman town were discovered, the most famous of the findings at Stabiae are the villas that come from the time between the destruction of Stabiae by Sulla in 89 BC and the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. As described above, Stabiae became a town during this time and was particularly favored for its view of the Bay of Naples. Stabiae was also known for the quality of its spring water. The ideal placement and qualities of this location drew many wealthy Romans to build villas on the ridge overlooking the bay. These villas, which are described below, provide us with some of the most stunning architectural, a great many artifacts which come from Stabiae are preserved in the Naples National Archaeological Museum. Before the age of the villas, however, an Oscan settlement existed in the region of Stabiae, in 1957 three hundred tombs dating from the 7th to the 3rd centuries BC were found in a necropolis associated with this town
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Mount Vesuvius
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Mount Vesuvius is a somma-stratovolcano located on the Gulf of Naples in Campania, Italy, about 9 km east of Naples and a short distance from the shore. It is one of several volcanoes which form the Campanian volcanic arc, Vesuvius consists of a large cone partially encircled by the steep rim of a summit caldera caused by the collapse of an earlier and originally much higher structure. Mount Vesuvius is best known for its eruption in AD79 that led to the burying and destruction of the Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum, more than 1,000 people died in the eruption, but exact numbers are unknown. The only surviving account of the event consists of two letters by Pliny the Younger to the historian Tacitus. Vesuvius has erupted many times since and is the volcano on the European mainland to have erupted within the last hundred years. Vesuvius has a historic and literary tradition. An inscription from Capua to IOVI VESVVIO indicates that he was worshipped as a power of Jupiter and it was inhabited by bandits, the sons of the Earth, who were giants. With the assistance of the gods he pacified the region and went on, the facts behind the tradition, if any, remain unknown, as does whether Herculaneum was named after it. An epigram by the poet Martial in 88 AD suggests that both Venus, patroness of Pompeii, and Hercules were worshipped in the devastated by the eruption of 79. Mount Vesuvius was regarded by the Romans as being devoted to the hero, Vesuvius was a name of the volcano in frequent use by the authors of the late Roman Republic and the early Roman Empire. Its collateral forms were Vesaevus, Vesevus, Vesbius and Vesvius, writers in ancient Greek used Οὐεσούιον or Οὐεσούιος. Many scholars since then have offered an etymology, as peoples of varying ethnicity and language occupied Campania in the Roman Iron Age, the etymology depends to a large degree on the presumption of what language was spoken there at the time. Naples was settled by Greeks, as the name Nea-polis, New City, the Oscans, a native Italic people, lived in the countryside. The Latins also competed for the occupation of Campania, etruscan settlements were in the vicinity. Other peoples of unknown provenance are said to have been there at some time by various ancient authors. Some theories about its origin are, From Greek οὔ = not prefixed to a root from or related to the Greek word σβέννυμι = I quench, from Greek ἕω = I hurl and βίη violence, hurling violence, *vesbia, taking advantage of the collateral form. From an Indo-European root, *eus- < *ewes- < *wes-, shine sense the one who lightens, the Gran Cono was produced during the A. D.79 eruption. For this reason, the volcano is also called Somma-Vesuvius or Somma-Vesuvio, the caldera started forming during an eruption around 17,000 years ago and was enlarged by later paroxysmal eruptions, ending in the one of AD79
Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Gethsemane". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton.