1.
Marble
–
Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite. Geologists use the marble to refer to metamorphosed limestone, however. Marble is commonly used for sculpture and as a building material and this stem is also the basis for the English word marmoreal, meaning marble-like. In Hungarian it is called márvány, Marble is a rock resulting from metamorphism of sedimentary carbonate rocks, most commonly limestone or dolomite rock. Metamorphism causes variable recrystallization of the carbonate mineral grains. The resulting marble rock is composed of an interlocking mosaic of carbonate crystals. Primary sedimentary textures and structures of the carbonate rock have typically been modified or destroyed. Pure white marble is the result of metamorphism of a very pure limestone or dolomite protolith, green coloration is often due to serpentine resulting from originally magnesium-rich limestone or dolostone with silica impurities. These various impurities have been mobilized and recrystallized by the intense pressure, examples of historically notable marble varieties and locations, White marble has been prized for its use in sculptures since classical times. This preference has to do with its softness, which made it easier to carve, relative isotropy and homogeneity, construction marble is a stone which is composed of calcite, dolomite or serpentine which is capable of taking a polish. More generally in construction, specifically the dimension stone trade, the marble is used for any crystalline calcitic rock useful as building stone. For example, Tennessee marble is really a dense granular fossiliferous gray to pink to maroon Ordovician limestone that geologists call the Holston Formation. Ashgabat, the city of Turkmenistan, was recorded in the 2013 Guinness Book of Records as having the worlds highest concentration of white marble buildings. According to the United States Geological Survey, U. S. domestic marble production in 2006 was 46,400 tons valued at about $18.1 million, compared to 72,300 tons valued at $18.9 million in 2005. Crushed marble production in 2006 was 11.8 million tons valued at $116 million, of which 6.5 million tons was finely ground calcium carbonate and the rest was construction aggregate. For comparison,2005 crushed marble production was 7.76 million tons valued at $58.7 million, of which 4.8 million tons was finely ground calcium carbonate, U. S. dimension marble demand is about 1.3 million tons. The DSAN World Demand for Marble Index has shown a growth of 12% annually for the 2000–2006 period, the largest dimension marble application is tile. In 1998, marble production was dominated by 4 countries that accounted for almost half of production of marble
Marble
–
Marble in Carrrara marble quarry, Italy
Marble
Marble
–
The
Taj Mahal is entirely clad in marble.
Marble
–
Carlo Franzoni's sculptural marble
chariot clock depicting
Clio, the Greek
muse of history.
2.
Munich
–
Munich is the capital and largest city of the German state of Bavaria, on the banks of River Isar north of the Bavarian Alps. Munich is the third largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Hamburg, the Munich Metropolitan Region is home to 5.8 million people. According to the Globalization and World Rankings Research Institute Munich is considered an alpha-world city, the name of the city is derived from the Old/Middle High German term Munichen, meaning by the monks. It derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who ran a monastery at the place that was later to become the Old Town of Munich, Munich was first mentioned in 1158. From 1255 the city was seat of the Bavarian Dukes, black and gold—the colours of the Holy Roman Empire—have been the citys official colours since the time of Ludwig the Bavarian, when it was an imperial residence. Following a final reunification of the Wittelsbachian Duchy of Bavaria, previously divided and sub-divided for more than 200 years, like wide parts of the Holy Roman Empire, the area recovered slowly economically. In 1918, during the German Revolution, the house of Wittelsbach, which governed Bavaria since 1180, was forced to abdicate in Munich. In the 1920s, Munich became home to political factions, among them the NSDAP. During World War II, Munich was heavily bombed and more than 50% of the entire city, the postwar period was characterised by American occupation until 1949 and a strong increase of population and economic power during the years of the Wirtschaftswunder after 1949. The city is home to corporations like BMW, Siemens, MAN, Linde, Allianz and MunichRE as well as many small. Munich is home to national and international authorities, major universities, major museums. Its numerous architectural attractions, international events, exhibitions and conferences. Munich is one of the most prosperous and fastest growing cities in Germany and it is a top-ranked destination for migration and expatriate location, despite being the municipality with the highest density of population in Germany. Munich nowadays hosts more than 530,000 people of foreign background, the year 1158 is assumed to be the foundation date, which is the earliest date the city is mentioned in a document. The document was signed in Augsburg, by that time the Guelph Henry the Lion, Duke of Saxony and Bavaria, had built a bridge over the river Isar next to a settlement of Benedictine monks—this was on the Old Salt Route and a toll bridge. In 1175, Munich was officially granted city status and received fortification, in 1180, with the trial of Henry the Lion, Otto I Wittelsbach became Duke of Bavaria and Munich was handed over to the Bishop of Freising. In 1240, Munich was transferred to Otto II Wittelsbach and in 1255, Duke Louis IV, a native of Munich, was elected German king in 1314 and crowned as Holy Roman Emperor in 1328. He strengthened the position by granting it the salt monopoly
Munich
–
From left to right: The
Munich Frauenkirche, the
Nymphenburg Palace, the
BMW Headquarters, the
New Town Hall, the
Munich Hofgarten and the
Allianz Arena.
Munich
–
Munich city
coat of arms
Munich
–
Banners with the colours of Munich (left) and Bavaria (right) with the
Frauenkirche in the background
Munich
–
Bombing damage to the Altstadt. Note the roofless and pockmarked Altes Rathaus looking up the Tal. The roofless Heilig-Geist-Kirche is on the right of the photo. Its spire, without the copper top, is behind the church. The Talbruck gate tower is missing completely.
3.
Glyptothek
–
The Glyptothek is a museum in Munich, Germany, which was commissioned by the Bavarian King Ludwig I to house his collection of Greek and Roman sculptures. It was designed by Leo von Klenze in the Neoclassical style, today the museum is a part of the Kunstareal. He envisioned a German Athens, in which the ancient Greek culture would be remembered, colorful frescoes and stuccos made by distinguished artists such as Peter von Cornelius, Clemens von Zimmermann, and Wilhelm von Kaulbach adorned the walls of the museum. In the few years between 1806 and the opening of the museum in 1830, Ludwig completed a collection of Greek. Through his agents, he managed to such pieces as the Medusa Rondanini, the Barberini Faun, and, in 1813. The museum was designed in the Classical Greek - Italian style, the portico is Ionic, and the outer walls contain niches, in which 18 original Roman and Greek sculptures stand, six on each wall. The thirteen rectangular, square or round rooms are arranged around a courtyard, in front of the vestibule is the portico of twelve Ionic columns. The overlying gabled includes a group of Johann Martin von Wagner represents Athena as protector of the plastic arts, the exterior walls are adorned with sculptures in niches, while the windows are open to the interior courtyard. The sculptures represent mythical or historical representatives of the arts, these are in the front of the Königsplatz Daedalus, Prometheus, Hadrian, Pericles, Phidias, the museum was originally built completely out of marble. However, during World War II the museum was bombed, the walls from the interior are composed of red brick and painted with a light plaster. The Glyptothek contains sculptures dating from the age to the Roman era. Other notable sculptures, mosaics and reliefs can also be found here and this collection is complemented by the terracotta and bronze collections in the Staatliche Antikensammlung, which is located opposite the Glyptothek. Among the most famous sculptures covering Archaic Greece are the Munich Kouros, the Kouros of Tenea, of the latter, there are in fact two sets of similar sculptures at the Glyptothek. The Greeks had not bothered to clear the area, and had left the remains of the temple buried at the same location. The most famous sculpture representing the Hellenistic period is the Barberini Faun, among the famous Roman copies of Greek sculptures are the Boy with the Goose and the Drunken Woman. The Glyptothek keeps a collection of Roman busts, among the most famous ones are the busts of the Emperors Augustus, Nero, Septimius Severus. A heroised statue portrays Domitian as prince, to the major attractions belong also a colossal statue of Apollo from a Roman villa in Tuscany, several Roman sarcophagus reliefs and mosaic floors. An imitation of the style is the Roman head of a youth in bronze
Glyptothek
–
The Glyptothek in
Munich
Glyptothek
–
Detail of one of the niches on the façade
Glyptothek
–
Glyptothek, interior 1900
Glyptothek
–
Detail of the Aegina temple figures
4.
Roman emperor
–
The Roman emperor was the ruler of the Roman Empire during the imperial period. The emperors used a variety of different titles throughout history, often when a given Roman is described as becoming emperor in English, it reflects his taking of the title Augustus or Caesar. Another title often used was imperator, originally a military honorific, early Emperors also used the title princeps. Emperors frequently amassed republican titles, notably Princeps Senatus, Consul, the first emperors reigned alone, later emperors would sometimes rule with co-Emperors and divide administration of the Empire between them. The Romans considered the office of emperor to be distinct from that of a king, the first emperor, Augustus, resolutely refused recognition as a monarch. Although Augustus could claim that his power was authentically republican, his successor, Tiberius, nonetheless, for the first three hundred years of Roman Emperors, from Augustus until Diocletian, a great effort was made to emphasize that the Emperors were the leaders of a Republic. Elements of the Republican institutional framework were preserved until the end of the Western Empire. The Eastern emperors ultimately adopted the title of Basileus, which had meant king in Greek, but became a title reserved solely for the Roman emperor, other kings were then referred to as rēgas. In addition to their office, some emperors were given divine status after death. The Western Roman Empire collapsed in the late 5th century, Romulus Augustulus is often considered to be the last emperor of the west after his forced abdication in 476, although Julius Nepos maintained a claim to the title until his death in 480. Constantine XI was the last Byzantine Roman emperor in Constantinople, dying in the Fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans in 1453, a Byzantine group of claimant Roman Emperors existed in the Empire of Trebizond until its conquest by the Ottomans in 1461. In western Europe the title of Roman Emperor was revived by Germanic rulers, the Holy Roman Emperors, in 800, at the end of the Roman Republic no new, and certainly no single, title indicated the individual who held supreme power. Insofar as emperor could be seen as the English translation of imperator, then Julius Caesar had been an emperor, however, Julius Caesar, unlike those after him, did so without the Senates vote and approval. Julius Caesar held the Republican offices of four times and dictator five times, was appointed dictator in perpetuity in 45 BC and had been pontifex maximus for a long period. He gained these positions by senatorial consent, by the time of his assassination, he was the most powerful man in the Roman world. In his will, Caesar appointed his adopted son Octavian as his heir, a decade after Caesars death, Octavians victory over his erstwhile ally Mark Antony at Actium put an end to any effective opposition and confirmed Octavians supremacy. His restoration of powers to the Senate and the people of Rome was a demonstration of his auctoritas, some later historians such as Tacitus would say that even at Augustus death, the true restoration of the Republic might have been possible. Instead, Augustus actively prepared his adopted son Tiberius to be his successor, the Senate disputed the issue but eventually confirmed Tiberius as princeps
Roman emperor
–
Augustus
Roman emperor
–
Vexillum
Roman emperor
–
Statue of
Augustus, c. 30 BC–20 BC; this statue is located in the
Louvre
Roman emperor
–
Imaginary portrait of
Constantine XI, the last Roman emperor
5.
Roman Empire
–
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
Roman Empire
–
The
Augustus of Prima Porta (early 1st century AD)
Roman Empire
–
Aureus of
Augustus, the first
Roman Emperor.
Roman Empire
–
A segment of the ruins of Hadrian's Wall in northern England
Roman Empire
–
A 5th-century
papyrus showing a parallel Latin-Greek text of a speech by
Cicero
6.
Didius Julianus
–
Didius Julianus was Roman emperor for nine weeks during the year 193. Julianus ascended the throne after buying it from the Praetorian Guard and this led to the Roman Civil War of 193–197. Julianus was ousted and sentenced to death by his successor, Septimius Severus, Julianus was born to Quintus Petronius Didius Severus and Aemilia Clara. Julianuss father came from a prominent family in Mediolanum and his mother was a north African woman of Roman descent and his brothers were Didius Proculus and Didius Nummius Albinus. His date of birth is given as 30 January 133 by Cassius Dio and 2 February 137 by the Historia Augusta, Didius Julianus was raised by Domitia Lucilla, mother of Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius. With Domitias help, he was appointed at an early age to the vigintivirate. He married a Roman woman named Manlia Scantilla, and sometime around 153, Scantilla bore him a daughter, in succession Julianus held the offices of Quaestor and Aedile, and then, around 162, was named as Praetor. He was nominated to the command of the Legio XXII Primigenia in Mogontiacum, in 170, he became praefectus of Gallia Belgica and served for five years. He further distinguished himself in a campaign against the Chatti, governed Dalmatia and Germania Inferior, and then was made prefect charged with distributing money to the poor of Italy. It was around this time that he was charged with having conspired against the life of Commodus and he governed Bithynia and succeeded Pertinax as the proconsul of Africa. After the murder of Pertinax, the Praetorian assassins announced that the throne was to be sold to the man who would pay the highest price. As the bidding went on, the reported to each of the two competitors, the one within the fortifications, the other outside the rampart, the sum offered by his rival. Eventually Sulpicianus promised 20,000 sesterces to every soldier, Julianus, fearing that Sulpicianus would gain the throne, the guards immediately closed with the offer of Julianus, threw open the gates, saluted him by the name of Caesar, and proclaimed him emperor. Threatened by the military, the senate declared him emperor and his wife and his daughter both received the title Augusta. After the initial confusion had subsided, the population did not tamely submit to the dishonour brought upon Rome, whenever Julianus appeared in public he was saluted with groans, imprecations, and shouts of robber and parricide. The mob tried to obstruct his progress to the Capitol, Julianus declared Severus a public enemy because he was the nearest of the three and, therefore, the most dangerous foe. Deputies were sent from the senate to persuade the soldiers to him, a new general was nominated to supersede him. The Praetorian Guard, long strangers to active operations, were marched into the Campus Martius, regularly drilled
Didius Julianus
–
Coin of Didius Julianus
7.
Caracalla
–
Caracalla, formally Marcus Aurelius Severus Antoninus Augustus, was Roman emperor from AD198 to 217. A member of the Severan Dynasty, he was the eldest son of Septimius Severus, Caracalla reigned jointly with his father from 198 until Severus death in 211. Caracalla then ruled jointly with his younger brother Geta, with whom he had a fraught relationship, Caracallas reign was marked by domestic instability and external invasions from the Germanic people. Caracallas reign was notable for the Antonine Constitution, also known as the Edict of Caracalla, the edict gave all the enfranchised men Caracallas adopted praenomen and nomen, Marcus Aurelius. Towards the end of his rule, Caracalla began a campaign against the Parthian Empire and he did not see this campaign through to completion due to his assassination by a disaffected soldier in 217. He was succeeded as emperor by Macrinus after three days, Caracalla is presented in ancient sources as a tyrant and cruel leader, an image that has survived into modernity. Dio Cassius and Herodian present Caracalla as a soldier first and emperor second, in the 12th century, Geoffrey of Monmouth started the legend of Caracallas role as the king of Britain. Later, in the 18th century, Caracallas memory was revived in the works of French artists due to the parallels between Caracallas apparent tyranny and that of King Louis XVI, Modern works continue to portray Caracalla as a psychopathic and evil ruler. His rule is remembered as being one of the most tyrannical of all Roman emperors, Caracalla was born Lucius Septimius Bassianus. He was renamed Marcus Aurelius Antoninus at the age of seven as part of his fathers attempt at union with the families of Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius. According to Aurelius Victor in his Epitome de Caesaribus, he became known by the agnomen Caracalla after a Gallic hooded tunic that he habitually wore and he may have begun wearing it during his campaigns on the Rhine and Danube. Dio generally referred to him as Tarautas, after a famously diminutive, Caracalla was born in Lugdunum, Gaul, on 4 April 188 to Septimius Severus and Julia Domna. He had a younger brother, Geta, who would briefly rule as co-emperor alongside him. Caracallas father, Septimius Severus, appointed Caracalla joint Augustus and full emperor from the year 198 onwards and his brother Geta was granted the same title in 210. In 202 Caracalla was forced to marry the daughter of Gaius Fulvius Plautianus, Fulvia Plautilla, by 205 Caracalla had succeeded in having Plautianus executed for treason, though he had probably fabricated the evidence of the plot himself. It was then that he banished his wife, whose later killing might have carried out under Caracallas orders. Caracallas father, Septimius Severus, died on 4 February 211 at Eboracum while on campaign in Caledonia, Caracalla and his brother, Publius Septimius Antoninus Geta, jointly inherited the throne upon their fathers death. Caracalla and Geta ended the campaign in Caledonia after concluding a peace with the Caledonians that returned the border of Roman Britain to the line demarcated by Hadrians Wall
Caracalla
–
Caracalla
Caracalla
–
O: laureate head of Caracalla ANTONINVS PIVS
AVG GERM
Caracalla
–
This medallion exemplifies the typical manner in which Caracalla was depicted.
Walters Art Museum,
Baltimore.
8.
Publius Septimius Geta
–
Geta, was a Roman emperor who ruled with his father Septimius Severus and his older brother Caracalla from 209, when he was named Augustus like his brother who had held the title since 198. Severus died in 211, and although he intended for his sons to rule together, Geta was the younger son of Septimius Severus by his second wife Julia Domna. Geta was born in Rome, at a time when his father was only a provincial governor at the service of Emperor Commodus, conflicts between Geta and Caracalla were constant and often required the mediation of their mother. To appease his son, Septimius Severus gave Geta the title of Augustus in 209. During the campaign against the Britons in the early 3rd century CE, Septimius Severus entrusted Julia Domna with the role of counsellor, Caracalla acted as the emperors second in command, and administrative and bureaucratic duties were Getas responsibility. In reality, however, the rivalry and antipathy between the brothers did not abate, when Septimius Severus died in Eboracum in early 211, Caracalla and Geta were proclaimed joint emperors and returned to Rome. Their joint rule was a failure, later sources speculated that the brothers wished to split the empire in two halves. By the end of 211, the situation had become unbearable, Caracalla tried unsuccessfully to murder Geta during the festival of Saturnalia. Finally, on the 19th of December, Caracalla had his mother arrange a meeting with his brother in his mothers apartments. Following Getas assassination, Caracalla ordered his brothers name to be removed from all inscriptions, the now sole emperor also took the opportunity to get rid of his political enemies, on grounds of conspiracy. Cassius Dio stated that around 20,000 men and women were killed or proscribed during this time, very few marble portraits attributable to Geta survive to date, presumably due to the very thorough damnatio memoriae which resulted in the erasing of his images. However Roman coins with his image are plentiful, and can reflect how his father Septimius Severus, images of Geta and his older brother Caracalla cannot be well distinguished until the death of the father. Both sons were supposed to be presented as equally suitable heirs to the throne, on his coins Caracalla, who became Augustus in 197, was shown with a wreath of laurels, while Geta remained bareheaded until he himself became Augustus in 209. Between 209 and their fathers death in February 211, both brothers were shown as mature young men with a short full beard, ready to take over the empire. Septimia Severan dynasty family tree Dio Cassius lxxvii, Herodian iv. I, birley, Anthony R. Septimius Severus, The African Emperor
Publius Septimius Geta
–
Geta
Publius Septimius Geta
–
Head of young Geta at
Glyptothek,
Munich.
Publius Septimius Geta
–
A
denarius of Geta.
9.
Leptis Magna
–
Leptis Magna was a prominent city in Roman Libya. Originally a Punic foundation, it was expanded under emperor Septimius Severus. Diocletian re-instated the city as capital, and the city grew again in prosperity until it fell to the Vandals in 439. It was re-incorporated into the Eastern Empire in 533, but continued to be plagued by Berber raids and it fell to the Muslim invasion in c.647 and was abandoned. The ruins of Leptis Magna are located in Khoms, Libya,130 km east of Tripoli, the site is one of best preserved Roman ruins in the Mediterranean. The Latin name was Lepcis Magna The Greek name was Λέπτις μεγάλη Leptis megale or Νεάπολις Neapolis, the city was called Greater in contrast with Leptis Parva in modern-day Tunisia. The Neo-Punic name is recorded as lpqy, the name appears to be Semitic in origin, tentatively connected to the Arabic root lfq to fabricate, piece together, taken to refer to the foundation or construction of the city. The modern Arabic name is لَبْدَة Labdah, the Punic city was founded in the second half of the 7th century BC. Little is known about the old city, but it appears to have been enough to repel Dorieus attempt to establish a Greek colony nearby in c.515 BC. A 4th to 3rd century BC necropolis was found under the Roman theatre, during the reign of Augustus, Leptis Magna was classified as a Civitas libera et immunis, or a free community, over which the governor had an absolute minimum of control. As such Leptis retain its two suphetes at the head of its government, with the mhzm, similar to the Roman aediles, in addition there were such sacred officials as the addir ararim or praefectus sacrorum, the nēquim ēlīm, and probably a sacred college of fifteen members. These offices were still in operation when Leptis was made a Municipium with a certain degree of Roman rights. The city depended primarily on the fertility of its surrounding farmland, as early as 46 BC, its olive oil production was of such an extent that the city was levied by Caesar with a tax of three million pounds of oil annually. The Roman Republic sent some colonists together with a garrison in order to control the city. Since then the city started to grow and was allowed to create its own money. Soon Italian merchants settled in the city and started a profitable commerce with the Libyan interior, Leptis Magna remained as such until the reign of the Roman emperor Tiberius, when the city and the surrounding area were formally incorporated into the empire as part of the province of Africa. It soon became one of the cities of Roman Africa. The city grew rapidly under Roman administration and it was elevated to municipium in AD 64/5 and to colonia under Trajan Leptis achieved its greatest prominence beginning in AD193, as the hometown of emperor Septimius Severus
Leptis Magna
–
The Arch of
Septimius Severus
Leptis Magna
–
Severan Basilica
Leptis Magna
–
View of Leptis Magna
Leptis Magna
–
Theatre
10.
Khoms, Libya
–
Al Khums or Khoms is a city, port and the de jure capital of the contested Murqub District on the Mediterranean coast of Libya with an estimated population of around 202,000. The population at the 1984 census was 38,174, between 1983 and 1995 it was the administrative center of the Al Khums District. The name Al Khums, Khoms or sometimes Homs translated literally to the quintile in Arabic, the origins of the name is not clear, though there are many theories explaining it. Another theory says that the city during 16th century was producing a quintile of the Ottoman Tripolitania provinces olive oil, during the Italian occupation of Libya, the city was called Homs in the official Italian sources. The city appears to have founded by a group of local Berbers sometime around 1000 BC. The town did not achieve prominence until Carthage became a super power in the Mediterranean Sea in the 4th century BC. Soon Italian merchants settled in the city and started a profitable commerce with the Libyan interior, the republican Rome sent some colonists together with a small garrison in order to control the city. Since then the city started to grow and was allowed to create its own money. Leptis Magna remained as such until the reign of the Roman emperor Tiberius, when the city and it soon became one of the leading cities of Roman Africa and a major trading post. Leptis achieved its greatest prominence beginning in 193 AD, when a Berber native son, Lucius Septimius Severus, became emperor. He favored his hometown above all other cities, and the buildings and wealth he lavished on it made Leptis Magna the third-most important city in Africa, rivaling Carthage. In 205 AD, he and the family visited the city. Among the changes that Severus introduced were to create a magnificent new forum, the natural harbour had a tendency to silt up, but the Severan changes made this worse, and the eastern wharves are extremely well preserved, since they were scarcely used. Leptis over-extended itself at this period, ammianus Marcellinus recounts that the crisis was worsened by a corrupt Roman governor named Romanus during a major tribal raid who demanded bribes to protect the city. The ruined city could not pay these and complained to the emperor Valentinian, Romanus then bribed people at court and arranged for the Leptan envoys to be punished for bringing false accusations. It enjoyed a minor renaissance beginning in the reign of the emperor Theodosius I. In 439 AD, Leptis Magna and the rest of the cities of Tripolitania fell under the control of the Vandals when their king, Gaiseric, captured Carthage from the Romans and made it his capital. Unfortunately for the future of Leptis Magna, Gaiseric ordered the walls demolished so as to dissuade its people from rebelling against Vandal rule
Khoms, Libya
–
"
17 February Martyrs Monument" in Khums center
Khoms, Libya
–
Leptis Magna in the east of Khums
Khoms, Libya
–
Seal
Khoms, Libya
–
a sign reads "Homs" at Italian checkpoint during
the Italian occupation of Libya
11.
Eboracum
–
Eboracum was a fort and city in the Roman province of Britannia. In its prime it was the largest town in northern Britain, the site remained occupied after the decline of the Roman Empire and ultimately evolved into the present-day city York, occupying the same site in North Yorkshire, England. Two Roman emperors died in Eboracum, Septimius Severus in 211 AD, and Constantius Chlorus in 306 AD. The first known recorded mention of Eboracum by name is dated c. 95–104 AD and is an address containing the Latin form of the name, Eburaci. During the Roman period, the name was written in the form Eboracum and Eburacum. The etymology of Eboracum is uncertain as the language of the population of the area was never recorded. However, the accepted view of British history, is that the inhabitants of Britain at this time spoke a Celtic language related to modern Welsh. This language has been reconstructed from Latin place names and modern Celtic languages, the name Eboracum is thought to have derived from the Common Brythonic Iburakon which probably means place of the yew trees. The word for yew was probably something like *ibura in Celtic, the name is then thought to have been Latinized by replacing -acon with -acum, according to a common use noted in Gaul and Lusitania. The different Évry, Ivry, Ivrey, Ivory in France would all come from *Eboracum / *Eboriacum, for example, Ivry-la-Bataille, Ivry-le-Temple Évry, the Roman conquest of Britain began in 43 AD but advance beyond the Humber did not take place until the early 70s AD. This was because the people in the known as the Brigantes by the Romans became a Roman client state. When their leadership changed becoming more hostile to Rome, Roman General Quintus Petillius Cerialis led the Ninth Legion north from Lincoln across the Humber. Eboracum was founded in 71 AD when Cerialis and the Ninth Legion constructed a fortress on flat ground above the River Ouse near its junction with the River Foss. In the same year Cerialis was appointed Governor of Britain, a legion at full strength at that time numbered some 5,500 men, and provided new trading opportunities for enterprising local people, who doubtless flocked to Eboracum to take advantage of them. As a result, permanent civilian settlement grew up around the fortress especially on its south-east side, civilians also settled on the opposite side of the Ouse, initially along the main road from Eboracum to the south-west. By the later 2nd century, growth was rapid, streets were laid out, public buildings were erected, from its foundation the Roman fort of Eboracum was aligned on a north-east/south-east bearing on the north bank of the River Ouse. It measured 1,600 pes monetalis by 1,360 pes monetalis, the standard suit of streets running through the castra is assumed, although some evidence exists for the via praetoria, via decumana and via sagularis. Much of the understanding of the Fortress defences has come from extensive excavations undertaken by Leslie Peter Wenham
Eboracum
–
Modern statue of the Roman Emperor
Constantine the Great outside
York Minster
Eboracum
–
A bust of Constantine I from 313 to 324 AD from
Musei Capitolini,
Rome
Eboracum
–
Marble bust of
Constantine the Great from Stonegate,
York
Eboracum
–
Statue of the God Mars from Blossom Street in York
12.
York
–
York is a historic walled city at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. The municipality is the county town of Yorkshire to which it gives its name. The city has a heritage and has provided the backdrop to major political events in England throughout much of its two millennia of existence. The city offers a wealth of attractions, of which York Minster is the most prominent. The city was founded by the Romans as Eboracum in 71 AD and it became the capital of the Roman province of Britannia Inferior, and later of the kingdoms of Northumbria and Jórvík. In the Middle Ages, York grew as a wool trading centre and became the capital of the northern ecclesiastical province of the Church of England. In the 19th century, York became a hub of the railway network, in recent decades, the economy of York has moved from being dominated by its confectionery and railway-related industries to one that provides services. The University of York and health services have become major employers, from 1996, the term City of York describes a unitary authority area which includes rural areas beyond the old city boundaries. In 2011 the urban area had a population of 153,717, the word York derives from the Latinised name for the city, variously rendered as Eboracum, Eburacum or Eburaci. The first mention of York by this name is dated to circa 95–104 AD as an address on a wooden stylus tablet from the Roman fortress of Vindolanda in Northumberland, the toponymy of Eboracum is uncertain because the language of the pre-Roman indigenous population was never recorded. They are thought to have spoken a Celtic language related to modern Welsh, in his Historia Regum Britanniae the 12th century chronicler, Geoffrey of Monmouth, suggests the name derives from that of a pre-Roman city founded by the legendary king Ebraucus. Alternatively, the word already existed as an Old English word for wild swine. The Anglo-Saxon newcomers probably interpreted the part as eofor, and -rac as ric, while -um was a common abbreviation of the Saxon -heem. To them, it sounded as a home rich in boar, as is common in Saxon place names, the -um part gradually faded, eoforic. When the Danish army conquered the city in 866, its name became Jórvík, the Old French and Norman name of the city following the Norman Conquest was recorded as Everwic in works such as Waces Roman de Rou. The form York was first recorded in the 13th century, many company and place names, such as the Ebor race meeting, refer to the Roman name. The Archbishop of York uses Ebor as his surname in his signature, archaeological evidence suggests that Mesolithic people settled in the region of York between 8000 and 7000 BC, although it is not known whether their settlements were permanent or temporary. By the time of the Roman conquest of Britain, the area was occupied by a known to the Romans as the Brigantes
York
–
York city centre from above
York
–
Roman wall and the west corner tower of
Eboracum. The top half is medieval.
York
–
Roman Emperor Constantine the Great proclaimed Emperor at York in AD 306.
York
–
Micklegate – York is famous for its medieval city walls.
13.
Julia Domna
–
Julia Domna, was a member of the Severan dynasty of the Roman Empire. Empress and wife of Roman Emperor Lucius Septimius Severus and mother of Emperors Geta and Caracalla, Julia Domna was born in Emesa in Syria. Her ancestors were Priest Kings of the temple of Elagabalus. The family had enormous wealth and was promoted to Roman senatorial aristocracy, before her marriage, Julia inherited the estate of her paternal great-uncle Julius Agrippa, a former leading Centurion. In the late 180s, Julia married future emperor Septimius Severus and they had two sons, Lucius Septimius Bassianus in 188 and Publius Septimius Geta in 189. Because of her love of philosophy, Julia protected philosophers and helped philosophy to flourish in Rome and she was an imperial woman from 193-217 CE as wife to the emperor Septimius Severus and mother to emperors Geta and Caracalla. Julia Domna died shortly after her son Caracalla was murdered, after Commodus was murdered without an heir in 192 CE, many contenders rushed for the throne. An elder senator, Pertinax, was appointed by the praetorian guard, when Pertinax would not meet the guards demands of payment, his son-in-law Iulianus was called to Rome. After bribing the guard, Iulianus was appointed emperor, and Pertinax was murdered, Septimius Severus, coming from the north into Rome, overthrew Iulianus and had him executed. Septimius claimed the title of emperor in 193, and co-ruled Rome with Clodius Albinus until 195 CE when Septimius declared his sons AVGVSTVS, Septimius remained at war with an eastern rival to the throne, Niger, until he defeated Nigers forces in 201 CE. Julia Domna and her sons accompanied Septimius in his campaigns in the East, the fire of Commodus in 192 CE destroyed areas of the aedes Vestae which includes the Temple of Vesta and the home, or Atrium, of the Vestal Virgins. Based on numismatic evidence, historical authors, and an inscription found in situ. As empress, Julia was often involved in intrigues and had plenty of political enemies, none of these accusations was proven. Severus continued to favour his wife and insisted on her company in the campaign against the Britons that started in 208, the two young men were never fond of each other and quarrelled frequently. Geta was murdered by Caracallas soldiers in the same year, Caracalla was now sole emperor, but his relations with his mother were difficult, as attested by several sources, probably because of his involvement in Getas murder. Nevertheless, Julia accompanied Caracalla in his campaign against the Parthian empire in 217, during this trip, Caracalla was assassinated and succeeded by Macrinus. Julia chose to commit suicide after hearing about the rebellion, perhaps a decision hastened by the fact that she was suffering from breast cancer and her body was brought to Rome and placed in the Sepulcrum C. et L. Caesaris. Later, however, both her bones and those of Geta were transferred by her sister Julia Maesa to the Mausoleum of Hadrian, if it were not for Julia, there would have survived little information about the philosopher Apollonius of Tyana
Julia Domna
–
Roman imperial dynasties
Julia Domna
–
This bust depicts the empress with conventions that are typical of the Severan period.
Walters Art Museum,
Baltimore.
Julia Domna
–
Coin featuring Julia Domna
14.
Dynasty
–
A dynasty is a sequence of rulers from the same family, usually in the context of a feudal or monarchical system but sometimes also appearing in elective republics. The dynastic family or lineage may be known as a house, historians periodize the histories of many sovereign states, such as Ancient Egypt, the Carolingian Empire and Imperial China, using a framework of successive dynasties. As such, the dynasty may be used to delimit the era during which the family reigned and to describe events, trends. The word dynasty itself is often dropped from such adjectival references, until the 19th century, it was taken for granted that a legitimate function of a monarch was to aggrandize his dynasty, that is, to increase the territory, wealth, and power of his family members. The longest-surviving dynasty in the world is the Imperial House of Japan, dynasties throughout the world have traditionally been reckoned patrilineally, such as under the Frankish Salic law. Succession through a daughter when permitted was considered to establish a new dynasty in her husbands ruling house, however, some states in Africa, determined descent matrilineally, while rulers have at other times adopted the name of their mothers dynasty when coming into her inheritance. It is also extended to unrelated people such as poets of the same school or various rosters of a single sports team. The word dynasty derives via Latin dynastia from Greek dynastéia, where it referred to power, dominion and it was the abstract noun of dynástēs, the agent noun of dynamis, power or ability, from dýnamai, to be able. A ruler in a dynasty is referred to as a dynast. For example, following his abdication, Edward VIII of the United Kingdom ceased to be a member of the House of Windsor. A dynastic marriage is one that complies with monarchical house law restrictions, the marriage of Willem-Alexander, Prince of Orange, to Máxima Zorreguieta in 2002 was dynastic, for example, and their eldest child is expected to inherit the Dutch crown eventually. But the marriage of his younger brother Prince Friso to Mabel Wisse Smit in 2003 lacked government support, thus Friso forfeited his place in the order of succession, lost his title as a Prince of the Netherlands, and left his children without dynastic rights. In historical and monarchist references to formerly reigning families, a dynast is a member who would have had succession rights, were the monarchys rules still in force. Even since abolition of the Austrian monarchy, Max and his descendants have not been considered the rightful pretenders by Austrian monarchists, nor have they claimed that position. The term dynast is sometimes used only to refer to descendants of a realms monarchs. The term can therefore describe overlapping but distinct sets of people, yet he is not a male-line member of the royal family, and is therefore not a dynast of the House of Windsor. Thus, in 1999 he requested and obtained permission from Elizabeth II to marry the Roman Catholic Princess Caroline of Monaco. Yet a clause of the English Act of Settlement 1701 remained in effect at that time and that exclusion, too, ceased to apply on 26 March 2015, with retroactive effect for those who had been dynasts prior to triggering it by marriage to a Catholic
Dynasty
–
Charles I of England and his son, the future
James II
15.
Severan Dynasty
–
The Severan dynasty was a Roman imperial dynasty, which ruled the Roman Empire between 193 and 235. The dynasty was founded by the Roman general Septimius Severus, who rose to power as the victor of the 193-197 civil war and it was the last lineage of the Principate founded by Augustus. He rose through service to consular rank under the later Antonines. Severus fought a war against the Parthians and campaigned with success against barbarian incursions in Roman Britain. In Rome, his relations with the Senate were poor, but he was popular with the commoners, as with his soldiers, starting in 197, the influence of his Praetorian prefect Gaius Fulvius Plautianus was a negative influence, the latter was executed in 205. One of Plautianuss successors was the jurist Aemilius Papinianus, Severus continued official persecution of Christians and Jews, as they were the only two groups who would not assimilate their beliefs to the official syncretistic creed. Severus died while campaigning in Britain and he was succeeded by his sons Caracalla and Geta, who reigned under the influence of their mother, Julia Domna. The eldest son of Severus, he was born Lucius Septimius Bassianus in Lugdunum, Caracalla was a nickname referring to the Gallic hooded tunic he habitually wore even when he slept. Upon his fathers death, Caracalla was proclaimed co-emperor with his brother Geta, conflict between the two culminated in the assassination of the latter. Reigning alone, Caracalla was noted for lavish bribes to the legionaries and unprecedented cruelty, authorizing numerous assassinations of perceived enemies and he campaigned with indifferent success against the Alamanni. The Baths of Caracalla in Rome are the most enduring monument of his rule and he was assassinated while en route to a campaign against the Parthians by a Praetorian Guard. Younger son of Severus, Geta was made co-emperor with his older brother Caracalla upon his fathers death, unlike the much more successful joint reign of Marcus Aurelius and his brother Lucius Verus in the previous century, relations were hostile between the two Severid brothers from the very start. Geta was assassinated in his mothers apartments by order of Caracalla, Opelius Macrinus was born in 164 at Caesarea Mauretaniae. On account of the cruelty and treachery of the emperor, Macrinus became involved in a conspiracy to kill him, on April 8,217, Caracalla was assassinated traveling to Carrhae. Three days later, Macrinus was declared Augustus and his most significant early decision was to make peace with the Parthians, but many thought that the terms were degrading to the Romans. However, his downfall was his refusal to award the pay and he also kept those forces wintered in Syria, where they became attracted to the young Elagabalus. After months of mild rebellion by the bulk of the army in Syria, despite a good fight by the Praetorian Guard, his soldiers were defeated. Macrinus managed to escape to Chalcedon but his authority was lost, M. Opelius Diadumenianus was the son of Macrinus, born in 208
Severan Dynasty
–
Caracalla and Geta,
Lawrence Alma-Tadema (1907).
Severan Dynasty
–
The
Severan Tondo, depicting Septimius Severus and (most) of his family.
Severan Dynasty
–
This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the
talk page.
Severan Dynasty
–
Bust of Alexander Severus, the last Emperor of the Severan dynasty.
16.
Severan dynasty
–
The Severan dynasty was a Roman imperial dynasty, which ruled the Roman Empire between 193 and 235. The dynasty was founded by the Roman general Septimius Severus, who rose to power as the victor of the 193-197 civil war and it was the last lineage of the Principate founded by Augustus. He rose through service to consular rank under the later Antonines. Severus fought a war against the Parthians and campaigned with success against barbarian incursions in Roman Britain. In Rome, his relations with the Senate were poor, but he was popular with the commoners, as with his soldiers, starting in 197, the influence of his Praetorian prefect Gaius Fulvius Plautianus was a negative influence, the latter was executed in 205. One of Plautianuss successors was the jurist Aemilius Papinianus, Severus continued official persecution of Christians and Jews, as they were the only two groups who would not assimilate their beliefs to the official syncretistic creed. Severus died while campaigning in Britain and he was succeeded by his sons Caracalla and Geta, who reigned under the influence of their mother, Julia Domna. The eldest son of Severus, he was born Lucius Septimius Bassianus in Lugdunum, Caracalla was a nickname referring to the Gallic hooded tunic he habitually wore even when he slept. Upon his fathers death, Caracalla was proclaimed co-emperor with his brother Geta, conflict between the two culminated in the assassination of the latter. Reigning alone, Caracalla was noted for lavish bribes to the legionaries and unprecedented cruelty, authorizing numerous assassinations of perceived enemies and he campaigned with indifferent success against the Alamanni. The Baths of Caracalla in Rome are the most enduring monument of his rule and he was assassinated while en route to a campaign against the Parthians by a Praetorian Guard. Younger son of Severus, Geta was made co-emperor with his older brother Caracalla upon his fathers death, unlike the much more successful joint reign of Marcus Aurelius and his brother Lucius Verus in the previous century, relations were hostile between the two Severid brothers from the very start. Geta was assassinated in his mothers apartments by order of Caracalla, Opelius Macrinus was born in 164 at Caesarea Mauretaniae. On account of the cruelty and treachery of the emperor, Macrinus became involved in a conspiracy to kill him, on April 8,217, Caracalla was assassinated traveling to Carrhae. Three days later, Macrinus was declared Augustus and his most significant early decision was to make peace with the Parthians, but many thought that the terms were degrading to the Romans. However, his downfall was his refusal to award the pay and he also kept those forces wintered in Syria, where they became attracted to the young Elagabalus. After months of mild rebellion by the bulk of the army in Syria, despite a good fight by the Praetorian Guard, his soldiers were defeated. Macrinus managed to escape to Chalcedon but his authority was lost, M. Opelius Diadumenianus was the son of Macrinus, born in 208
Severan dynasty
–
Caracalla and Geta,
Lawrence Alma-Tadema (1907).
Severan dynasty
–
The
Severan Tondo, depicting Septimius Severus and (most) of his family.
Severan dynasty
–
This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the
talk page.
Severan dynasty
–
Bust of Alexander Severus, the last Emperor of the Severan dynasty.
17.
Macrinus
–
Macrinus was Roman Emperor from April 217 to 8 June 218. He reigned jointly with his young son Diadumenianus, Macrinus was by origin a Berber from Mauretania Caesariensis. A member of the class, he became the first emperor who did not hail from the senatorial class and was the first emperor from Mauretania. Before becoming emperor, Macrinus served under Emperor Caracalla as a praetorian prefect and he later conspired against Caracalla and had him murdered in a bid to protect his own life, succeeding him as emperor. His predecessors policies had left Romes coffers empty and the empire at war with several kingdoms, as emperor, Macrinus first attempted to enact reform to bring economic and diplomatic stability to Rome. While Macrinus diplomatic actions brought about peace with each of the individual kingdoms, Caracallas aunt Julia Maesa took advantage of the unrest and instigated a rebellion to have her fourteen-year-old grandson, Elagabalus, recognized as emperor. Macrinus was overthrown at the Battle of Antioch on 8 June 218, Macrinus fled the battlefield and tried to reach Rome, but was captured in Chaceldon and later executed in Cappadocia. He sent his son to the care of Artabanus V of Parthia, after Macrinus death the Senate declared him and his son enemies of Rome and had their names struck from the records and their images destroyed. Macrinus was born in Caesarea Mauretaniae in the Roman province of Mauretania to a family of Berber origins. He received an education which allowed him to ascend to the Roman political class, over the years he earned a reputation as a skilled lawyer and under Emperor Septimius Severus he became an important bureaucrat. Severus successor Caracalla later appointed him a prefect of the Praetorian Guard, while Macrinus probably enjoyed the trust of Emperor Caracalla, this may have changed when, according to tradition, it was prophesied that he would depose and succeed the emperor. Macrinus, fearing for his safety, resolved to have Caracalla murdered before he was condemned, in the spring of 217, Caracalla was in the eastern provinces preparing a campaign against the Parthian Empire. Macrinus was among his staff, as were members of the Praetorian Guard. In April, Caracalla went to visit a temple of Luna near the site of the battle of Carrhae and was accompanied only by his personal guard, which included Macrinus. On April 8, while traveling to the temple, Caracalla was stabbed to death by Justin Martialis, in the aftermath, Martialis was killed by one of Caracallas men. For two or three days, Rome remained without an emperor, by April 11, Macrinus had proclaimed himself emperor and taken for himself all of the imperial titles and powers, without waiting for the Senate. The army backed his claim as emperor and the Senate, so far away, was powerless to intervene, Macrinus never returned to Rome as emperor and remained based in Antioch for the duration of his reign. Macrinus was the first emperor to hail from the class, rather than the senatorial
Macrinus
–
An
aureus of Macrinus. Its elaborate symbolism celebrates the
liberalitas ("prodigality") of Macrinus and his son
Diadumenian.
18.
Elagabalus
–
Elagabalus /ˌɛləˈɡæbələs/, also known as Heliogabalus, was Roman emperor from 218 to 222. A member of the Severan dynasty, he was Syrian, the son of Julia Soaemias. In his early youth he served as a priest of the god Elagabal in the hometown of his mothers family, as a private citizen, he was probably named Sextus Varius Avitus Bassianus. Upon becoming emperor he took the name Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus and he was called Elagabalus only after his death. In 217, the emperor Caracalla was assassinated and replaced by his Praetorian prefect, Caracallas maternal aunt, Julia Maesa, successfully instigated a revolt among the Legio III Gallica to have her eldest grandson, Elagabalus, declared emperor in his place. Macrinus was defeated on 8 June 218 at the Battle of Antioch, Elagabalus, barely 14 years old, became emperor, initiating a reign remembered mainly for sex scandals and religious controversy. Later historians suggest Elagabalus showed a disregard for Roman religious traditions and he replaced the traditional head of the Roman pantheon, Jupiter, with the deity of whom he was high priest, Elagabalus. He forced leading members of Romes government to participate in religious rites celebrating this deity and his behavior estranged the Praetorian Guard, the Senate, and the common people alike. Amidst growing opposition, Elagabalus, just 18 years old, was assassinated and replaced by his cousin Severus Alexander on 11 March 222, the plot was devised by his grandmother, Julia Maesa, and carried out by disaffected members of the Praetorian Guard. Elagabalus developed a reputation among his contemporaries for extreme eccentricity, decadence and this tradition has persisted, and with writers of the early modern age he suffers one of the worst reputations among Roman emperors. Edward Gibbon, for example, wrote that Elagabalus abandoned himself to the grossest pleasures, according to Barthold Georg Niebuhr, The name Elagabalus is branded in history above all others because of his unspeakably disgusting life. Elagabalus was born around the year 203 to Sextus Varius Marcellus and his father was initially a member of the Equites class, but was later elevated to the rank of senator. His grandmother, Julia Maesa, was the widow of the consul Julius Avitus, the sister of Julia Domna, and he had at least one sibling, an unnamed elder brother. His mother, Julia Soaemias, was a cousin of the Roman emperor Caracalla and his other relatives included his aunt Julia Avita Mamaea and uncle Marcus Julius Gessius Marcianus and among their children, their son Severus Alexander. Elagabaluss family held hereditary rights to the priesthood of the sun god Elagabal, the deity Elagabalus was initially venerated at Emesa. This form of the name is a Latinized version of the Syrian Ilāh hag-Gabal, which derives from Ilāh and gabal, resulting in the God of the Mountain. The cult of the deity spread to parts of the Roman Empire in the 2nd century. The god was later imported and assimilated with the Roman sun god known as Sol Indiges in republican times and as Sol Invictus during the second, in Greek the sun god is Helios, hence Heliogabalus, a hybrid conjunction of Helios and Elagabalus
Elagabalus
–
Bust of Elagabalus, from the
Capitoline Museums
Elagabalus
–
Medal of Elagabalus,
Louvre Museum.
Elagabalus
–
Elagabalus on a wall painting at
Forchtenstein Castle
Elagabalus
–
The Roses of Heliogabalus,
Lawrence Alma-Tadema, 1888.
19.
Alexander Severus
–
Severus Alexander was Roman Emperor from 222 to 235 and the last emperor of the Severan dynasty. He and his cousin were both grandsons of the influential and powerful Julia Maesa, who had arranged for Elagabalus acclamation as emperor by the famous Third Gallic Legion and it was the rumor of Alexanders death that triggered the assassination of Elagabalus and his mother. As emperor, Alexanders peace time reign was prosperous, however, Rome was militarily confronted with the rising Sassanid Empire and growing incursions from the tribes of Germania. He managed to check the threat of the Sassanids, but when campaigning against Germanic tribes, Alexander attempted to bring peace by engaging in diplomacy and bribery. This alienated many in the Roman Army and led to a conspiracy to assassinate, under the influence of his mother, Alexander did much to improve the morals and condition of the people, and to enhance the dignity of the state. He employed noted jurists to oversee the administration of justice, such as the famous jurist Ulpian and his advisers were men like the senator and historian Cassius Dio, and it is claimed that he created a select board of 16 senators, although this claim is disputed. He also created a council of 14 who assisted the urban prefect in administering the affairs of the 14 districts of Rome. The following year he decreased the amount of metal in the denarius while adding more silver, raising the silver purity. In religious matters, Alexander preserved an open mind and it is said that he was desirous of erecting a temple to Jesus but was dissuaded by the pagan priests. He allowed a synagogue to be built in Rome, and he gave as a gift to this synagogue a scroll of the Torah known as the Severus Scroll, in legal matters, Alexander did much to aid the rights of his soldiers. He confirmed that soldiers could name anyone as heirs in their will, Alexander also confirmed that soldiers could free their slaves in their wills. On the whole, Alexanders reign was prosperous until the rise, in the east, of the war that followed there are various accounts. Making Antioch his base, he marched at the head of his troops towards Ctesiphon, but an army was destroyed by the Persians. Nevertheless, although the Sassanids were checked for the time, the conduct of the Roman army showed a lack of discipline. In 232 there was a mutiny in the Syrian legion, who proclaimed Taurinus emperor, Alexander managed to suppress the uprising, and Taurinus drowned while attempting to flee across the Euphrates. The emperor returned to Rome and celebrated a triumph in 233, after the Persian war, Alexander returned to Antioch with the famous Origen, one of the greatest Fathers of the Christian Church. Alexanders mother, Julia Mammaea, asked for Origen to tutor Alexander in Christianity, while Alexander was being educated in the Christian doctrines, the northern portion of his empire was being invaded by Germanic and Sarmatian tribes. A new and menacing enemy started to emerge directly after Alexanders success in the Persian war, in A. D234, the barbarians crossed the Rhine and Danube in hordes that even caused panic at the gates of Rome
Alexander Severus
–
Bust of Severus Alexander
Alexander Severus
–
Denarius of Severus Alexander.
20.
Year of the Five Emperors
–
The Year of the Five Emperors refers to the year 193 AD, in which there were five claimants for the title of Roman Emperor. The five were Pertinax, Didius Julianus, Pescennius Niger, Clodius Albinus and Septimius Severus and this year started a period of civil war where multiple rulers vied for the chance to become Caesar. The political unrest began with the murder of Commodus on New Year’s Eve 192 AD, once Commodus was assassinated, Pertinax was named emperor but immediately had aroused opposition from the Praetorian Guard. They plotted and carried out his assassination and he was only emperor for three months. Didius Julianus, who purchased the title of emperor from the Praetorian Guard, succeeded Pertinax, Severus was declared Caesar by the Senate but Pescennius Niger was hostile when he declared himself emperor. This started the war between Niger and Severus as both gathered troops and fought throughout the territory of the empire. Due to this war, Severus allowed Clodius Albinus, who he suspected as a threat to him and this move allowed him to concentrate on waging the war against Niger. Most historians count Severus and Albinus as two emperors even though they ruled simultaneously, the Severan dynasty was created out of the chaos of 193 AD. Commodus’ sane rule began to fail when a close advocate, Cleander, was assassinated and this made Commodus start to fear for his life. He dealt with this fear through massacre of the nobles and aristocracy and he began removing himself from his identity as ruler ideologically by resuming his birth name instead of keeping the names that his father gave him when he succeeded to imperial rule. His behavior decayed further as he became more paranoid and he planned a huge massacre in Rome for New Year’s Eve 192 AD, in which he killed many of the nobles so that he could become the sole consul. Three nobles, Eclectus, Marcia, and Laetus, trying to survive and save their lives, the assassins named Pertinax the new Caesar. The person who planned the murder of Commodus is still a debated topic, some sources name Pertinax as the mastermind of the assassination because he obtained imperial rule once Commodus was killed. The reason for this is that Pertinax’s enemies wanted to create enmity for Pertinax within Rome so they blamed him when they really had no idea who planned it, Pertinax gained his political clout by moving his way up the military ranks. He was proconsul of Africa, making him the first of several emperors who began their roles in Africa. Since most of the nobles had been murdered in the New Year’s Eve massacre, Pertinax had a tough road to climb when he became Caesar because Commodus left his regime with major financial difficulties. However, Pertinax had his own troubles right away when he was accused of planning the death of Commodus and he may also have been accused of the murder of Cleander, Commodus’ advocate, whose murder had triggered Commodus’ paranoia. Pertinax was a great contrast to Commodus and he was disciplined but lost the favor of the troops early since he took away all of the favors that Commodus gave them
Year of the Five Emperors
–
Pertinax
Year of the Five Emperors
–
Coin of Clodius Albinus
Year of the Five Emperors
–
Septimius Severus at
Glyptothek,
Munich.
21.
Crisis of the Third Century
–
The same number of men became accepted by the Roman Senate as emperor during this period and so became legitimate emperors. Later, Aurelian reunited the empire, the crisis ended with the ascension, the situation of the Roman Empire became dire in 235 AD, when emperor Alexander Severus was murdered by his own troops. Many Roman legions had been defeated during a campaign against Germanic peoples raiding across the borders, leading his troops personally, Alexander Severus resorted to diplomacy and paying tribute in an attempt to pacify the Germanic chieftains quickly. According to Herodian this cost him the respect of his troops, in the years following the emperors death, generals of the Roman army fought each other for control of the Empire and neglected their duties of defending the empire from invasion. Climate changes and a rise in sea levels ruined the agriculture of what is now the Low Countries forcing tribes to migrate, additionally, in 251, the Plague of Cyprian broke out, causing large-scale death, possibly weakened the ability of the Empire to defend itself. After the loss of Valerian in 260, the Roman Empire was beset by usurpers, the Roman provinces of Gaul, Britain and Hispania broke off to form the Gallic Empire. An invasion by a vast host of Goths was defeated at the Battle of Naissus in 268 or 269 and this victory was significant as the turning point of the crisis, when a series of tough, energetic soldier-emperors took power. Victories by the emperor Claudius II Gothicus over the two years drove back the Alamanni and recovered Hispania from the Gallic Empire. When Claudius died in 270 of the plague, Aurelian, who had commanded the cavalry at Naissus, succeeded him as the emperor and continued the restoration of the Empire. Aurelian reigned through the worst of the crisis, defeating the Vandals, the Visigoths, the Palmyrenes, the Persians, by late 274, the Roman Empire was reunited into a single entity, and the frontier troops were back in place. More than a century would pass before Rome again lost military ascendancy over its external enemies. However, dozens of formerly thriving cities, especially in the Western Empire, had ruined, their populations dispersed and, with the breakdown of the economic system. Major cities and towns, even Rome itself, had not needed fortifications for many centuries, finally, although Aurelian had played a significant role in restoring the Empires borders from external threat, more fundamental problems remained. Another issue was the size of the Empire, which made it difficult for a single autocratic ruler to effectively manage multiple threats at the same time. These continuing problems would be addressed by Diocletian, allowing the Empire to continue to survive in the West for over a century. Several emperors who rose to power through acclamation of their troops attempted to create stability by appointing their descendants as Caesar and these generally failed to maintain any form of coherence beyond one generation, although there were exceptions. Internally, the empire faced hyperinflation caused by years of coinage devaluation and this had started earlier under the Severan emperors who enlarged the army by one quarter and doubled the legionaries base pay. This resulted in runaway rises in prices, and by the time Diocletian came to power, some taxes were collected in kind and values were often notional in bullion or bronze coinage
Crisis of the Third Century
–
The divided Empire in AD 271.
22.
Latin language
–
Latin is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. The Latin alphabet is derived from the Etruscan and Greek alphabets, Latin was originally spoken in Latium, in the Italian Peninsula. Through the power of the Roman Republic, it became the dominant language, Vulgar Latin developed into the Romance languages, such as Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, French, and Romanian. Latin, Italian and French have contributed many words to the English language, Latin and Ancient Greek roots are used in theology, biology, and medicine. By the late Roman Republic, Old Latin had been standardised into Classical Latin, Vulgar Latin was the colloquial form spoken during the same time and attested in inscriptions and the works of comic playwrights like Plautus and Terence. Late Latin is the language from the 3rd century. Later, Early Modern Latin and Modern Latin evolved, Latin was used as the language of international communication, scholarship, and science until well into the 18th century, when it began to be supplanted by vernaculars. Ecclesiastical Latin remains the language of the Holy See and the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church. Today, many students, scholars and members of the Catholic clergy speak Latin fluently and it is taught in primary, secondary and postsecondary educational institutions around the world. The language has been passed down through various forms, some inscriptions have been published in an internationally agreed, monumental, multivolume series, the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum. Authors and publishers vary, but the format is about the same, volumes detailing inscriptions with a critical apparatus stating the provenance, the reading and interpretation of these inscriptions is the subject matter of the field of epigraphy. The works of several hundred ancient authors who wrote in Latin have survived in whole or in part and they are in part the subject matter of the field of classics. The Cat in the Hat, and a book of fairy tales, additional resources include phrasebooks and resources for rendering everyday phrases and concepts into Latin, such as Meissners Latin Phrasebook. The Latin influence in English has been significant at all stages of its insular development. From the 16th to the 18th centuries, English writers cobbled together huge numbers of new words from Latin and Greek words, dubbed inkhorn terms, as if they had spilled from a pot of ink. Many of these words were used once by the author and then forgotten, many of the most common polysyllabic English words are of Latin origin through the medium of Old French. Romance words make respectively 59%, 20% and 14% of English, German and those figures can rise dramatically when only non-compound and non-derived words are included. Accordingly, Romance words make roughly 35% of the vocabulary of Dutch, Roman engineering had the same effect on scientific terminology as a whole
Latin language
–
Latin inscription, in the
Colosseum
Latin language
–
Julius Caesar 's
Commentarii de Bello Gallico is one of the most famous classical Latin texts of the Golden Age of Latin. The unvarnished, journalistic style of this
patrician general has long been taught as a model of the urbane Latin officially spoken and written in the floruit of the
Roman republic.
Latin language
–
A multi-volume Latin dictionary in the
University Library of Graz
Latin language
–
Latin and Ancient Greek Language - Culture - Linguistics at
Duke University in 2014.
23.
Africa (Roman province)
–
The Roman province of Africa Proconsularis was established after the Romans defeated Carthage in the Third Punic War. It roughly comprised the territory of present-day Tunisia, the northeast of modern-day Algeria, and it was one of the wealthiest provinces in the western part of the empire, second only to Italia. The Arabs later named roughly the same region as the original province Ifriqiya, the land acquired for the province of Africa was the site of the ancient city of Carthage. Other large cities in the region included Hadrumetum, capital of Byzacena, the province was established by the Roman Republic in 146 BC, following the Third Punic War. Rome established its first African colony, Africa Proconsularis or Africa Vetus, governed by a proconsul, utica was formed as the administrative capital. The remaining territory was left in the domain of the Numidian client king Massinissa, at this time, the Roman policy in Africa was simply to prevent another great power from rising on the far side of Sicily. In 118 BC, the Numidian prince Jugurtha attempted to reunify the smaller kingdoms, however, upon his death, much of Jugurthas territory was placed in the control of the Mauretanian client king Bocchus, and, by that time, the romanization of Africa was firmly rooted. In 27 BC, when the Republic had transformed into an Empire, several political and provincial reforms were implemented by Augustus and later by Caligula, but Claudius finalized the territorial divisions into official Roman provinces. After Diocletians administrative reforms, it was split into Africa Zeugitana in the north, the region remained a part of the Roman Empire until the Germanic migrations of the 5th century. The Vandals crossed into North Africa from Spain in 429 and overran the area by 439 and founded their own kingdom, including Sicily, Corsica, Sardinia, the Vandals controlled the country as a warrior-elite. They also persecuted Catholicism, as the Vandals were adherents of Arianism, towards the end of the 5th century, the Vandal state fell into decline, abandoning most of the interior territories to the Mauri and other Berber tribes of the desert. In AD533, Emperor Justinian, using a Vandal dynastic dispute as pretext, in a short campaign, Belisarius defeated the Vandals, entered Carthage in triumph and re-established Roman rule over the province. The North African provinces, together with the Roman possessions in Spain, were grouped into the Exarchate of Africa by Emperor Maurice, the exarchate prospered, and from it resulted the overthrow of the emperor Phocas by Heraclius in 610. Heraclius briefly considered moving the capital from Constantinople to Carthage. After 640, the managed to stave off the Muslim Conquest, but in 698. Historian Theodore Mommsen estimated that under Hadrian nearly 1/3 of the eastern Numidia population was descended from Roman veterans, even so, the Roman military presence of North Africa was relatively small, consisting of about 28,000 troops and auxiliaries in Numidia and the two Mauretanian provinces. Starting in the 2nd century AD, these garrisons were manned mostly by local inhabitants, a sizable Latin speaking population developed that was multinational in background, sharing the north African region with those speaking Punic and Berber languages. Imperial security forces began to be drawn from the local population, however, the Roman territory in Africa was unevenly penetrated by Roman culture
Africa (Roman province)
–
Northern Africa under Roman rule
Africa (Roman province)
–
The province of Africa within the Roman Empire
Africa (Roman province)
–
Électrum tridrachme struck at Zeugitane in Carthage
Africa (Roman province)
–
The amphitheatre of Thysdrus (modern
El Djem)
24.
Cursus honorum
–
The cursus honorum was the sequential order of public offices held by aspiring politicians in both the Roman Republic and the early Roman Empire. It was designed for men of senatorial rank, the cursus honorum comprised a mixture of military and political administration posts. Each office had an age for election. There were minimum intervals between holding successive offices and laws forbade repeating an office and these rules were altered and flagrantly ignored in the course of the last century of the Republic. For example, Gaius Marius held consulships for five years in a row between 104 BC and 100 BC, officially presented as opportunities for public service, the offices often became mere opportunities for self-aggrandizement. The reforms of Lucius Cornelius Sulla required a period between holding another term in the same office. To have held office at the youngest possible age was considered a great political success. Cicero expressed extreme pride not only in being a novus homo who became consul even though none of his ancestors had served as a consul. The cursus honorum began with ten years of duty in the Roman cavalry or in the staff of a general who was a relative or a friend of the family. The ten years of service were intended to be mandatory in order to qualify for office, but in practice. A more prestigious position was that of a military tribune, in the early Roman Republic,24 men at the age of around 20 were elected by the Tribal Assembly to serve as a commander in the legions, with six tribunes to each and command rotating among them. Tribunes could also be appointed by the consuls or by military commanders in the field as necessary. After the reforms of Gaius Marius in 107 BC, the six tribunes acted as officers for the legionary Legatus and were appointed tasks. The following steps of the cursus honorum were achieved by direct election every year, the first official post was that of quaestor. Candidates had to be at least 30 years old, however, men of patrician rank could subtract two years from this and other minimum age requirements. Twenty quaestors served in the administration at Rome or as second-in-command to a governor in the provinces. They could also serve as the paymaster for a legion, a young man who obtained this job was expected to become a very important official. An additional task of all quaestors was the supervision of public games, as a quaestor, an official was allowed to wear the toga praetexta, but was not escorted by lictors, nor did he possess imperium
Cursus honorum
–
Ancient Rome
25.
Marcus Aurelius
–
Marcus Aurelius was Emperor of Rome from 161 to 180. He ruled with Lucius Verus as co-emperor from 161 until Verus death in 169, Marcus Aurelius was the last of the so-called Five Good Emperors. He was a practitioner of Stoicism, and his untitled writing, during his reign, the Roman Empire defeated a revitalized Parthian Empire in the East, Aurelius general Avidius Cassius sacked the capital Ctesiphon in 164. A revolt in the East led by Avidius Cassius failed to gain momentum and was suppressed immediately, the major sources for the life and rule of Marcus Aurelius are patchy and frequently unreliable. For Marcus life and rule, the biographies of Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, Marcus and Lucius Verus are largely reliable, a body of correspondence between Marcus tutor Fronto and various Antonine officials survives in a series of patchy manuscripts, covering the period from c.138 to 166. Marcus own Meditations offer a window on his life, but are largely undateable. The main narrative source for the period is Cassius Dio, a Greek senator from Bithynian Nicaea who wrote a history of Rome from its founding to 229 in eighty books. Dio is vital for the history of the period, but his senatorial prejudices. Inscriptions and coin finds supplement the literary sources, Marcus family originated in Ucubi, a small town southeast of Córdoba in Iberian Baetica. Verus elder son—Marcus Aurelius father—Marcus Annius Verus married Domitia Lucilla, Lucilla was the daughter of the patrician P. Calvisius Tullus Ruso and the elder Domitia Lucilla. The elder Domitia Lucilla had inherited a fortune from her maternal grandfather and her paternal grandfather by adoption. Lucilla and Verus had two children, a son, Marcus, born on 26 April 121 AD, and a daughter, Annia Cornificia Faustina, Verus probably died in 124 AD, during his praetorship, when Marcus was only three years old. Though he can hardly have known him, Marcus Aurelius wrote in his Meditations that he had learned modesty and manliness from his memories of his father, Lucilla, following prevailing aristocratic customs, probably did not spend much time with her son. Marcus was in the care of nurses, even so, Marcus credits his mother with teaching him religious piety, simplicity in diet and how to avoid the ways of the rich. In his letters, Marcus makes frequent and affectionate reference to her, he was grateful that, although she was fated to die young, yet she spent her last years with me. After his fathers death, Aurelius was raised by his paternal grandfather Marcus Annius Verus who, technically this was not an adoption, since an adoption would be the legal creation of a new and different patria potestas. Another man, Lucius Catilius Severus, also participated in his upbringing, Severus is described as Marcus maternal great-grandfather, he is probably the stepfather of the elder Lucilla. Marcus was raised in his parents home on the Caelian Hill and it was an upscale region, with few public buildings but many aristocratic villas
Marcus Aurelius
–
Bust of Marcus Aurelius in the
Musée Saint-Raymond,
Toulouse.
Marcus Aurelius
–
The
Statue of Marcus Aurelius (detail) in the
Musei Capitolini in Rome.
Marcus Aurelius
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Denarius, struck 140 AD with portrait of
Antoninus Pius (obverse) and his adoptive son Marcus Aurelius (reverse).
Marcus Aurelius
–
Statue of young Marcus Aurelius from a private collection housed in the San Antonio Museum of Art
26.
Commodus
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Commodus, born Lucius Aurelius Commodus and died Lucius Aelius Aurelius Commodus, was Roman Emperor from AD180 to 192. He also ruled as co-emperor with his father Marcus Aurelius from 177 until his fathers death in 180 and his accession as emperor was the first time a son had succeeded his biological father since Titus succeeded Vespasian in 79. He was also the first emperor to have both a father and grandfather as the two preceding emperors, Commodus was the first emperor born in the purple, i. e. during his fathers reign. Commodus was assassinated in 192, succeeded by Pertinax whose reign did not last long during the tumultuous Year of the Five Emperors, Commodus was born on 31 August AD161, as Commodus, in Lanuvium, near Rome. He was the son of the emperor, Marcus Aurelius, and Aurelius first cousin, Faustina the Younger, the youngest daughter of Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius. Commodus had a twin brother, Titus Aurelius Fulvus Antoninus. On 12 October 166, Commodus was made Caesar together with his younger brother, the latter died in 169 having failed to recover from an operation, which left Commodus as Marcus Aurelius sole surviving son. He was looked after by his fathers physician, Galen, in order to keep Commodus healthy, Galen treated many of Commodus common illnesses. Commodus received extensive tutoring by a multitude of teachers with a focus on intellectual education, among his teachers Onesicrates, Antistius Capella, Titus Aius Sanctus, and Pitholaus are mentioned. Commodus is known to have been at Carnuntum, the headquarters of Marcus Aurelius during the Marcomannic Wars and it was presumably there that, on 15 October 172, he was given the victory title Germanicus, in the presence of the army. The title suggests that Commodus was present at his fathers victory over the Marcomanni, on 20 January 175, Commodus entered the College of Pontiffs, the starting point of a career in public life. In April 175, Avidius Cassius, Governor of Syria, declared himself Emperor following rumours that Marcus Aurelius had died, having been accepted as Emperor by Syria, Judea and Egypt, Cassius carried on his rebellion even after it had become obvious that Marcus was still alive. During the preparations for the campaign against Cassius, the Prince assumed his toga virilis on the Danubian front on 7 July 175, Cassius, however, was killed by one of his centurions before the campaign against him could begin. Commodus subsequently accompanied his father on a trip to the Eastern provinces. The Emperor and his son traveled to Athens, where they were initiated into the Eleusinian mysteries. They then returned to Rome in the Autumn of 176, on 27 November 176, Marcus Aurelius granted Commodus the rank of Imperator and, in the middle of 177, the title Augustus, giving his son the same status as his own and formally sharing power. On 23 December of the year, the two Augusti celebrated a joint triumph, and Commodus was given tribunician power. On 1 January 177, Commodus became consul for the first time, which him, aged 15
Commodus
–
Commodus as Hercules,
Capitoline Museums
Commodus
–
A
Denarius featuring Commodus
Commodus
–
A bust of Commodus as a youth (
Roman-Germanic Museum, Cologne).
Commodus
–
A bust of Commodus (
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna). According to
Herodian he was well proportioned and attractive, with naturally blonde and curly hair.
27.
Pertinax
–
Pertinax was Roman Emperor for the first three months of 193. Successor to the emperor he assassinated, Commodus, Pertinax was the first to serve as emperor during the tumultuous Year of the Five Emperors. Born the son of a slave, Pertinax originally worked as a teacher before becoming an officer in the army. He fought in the war with the Parthians during the 160s and he was also a member of the Roman Senate, where he was a contemporary of the historian Cassius Dio. Following the death of Commodus, Pertinax was acclaimed emperor and he attempted to institute several reform measures, although the short length of his time as emperor prevented the success of those attempts. One of those reforms, the restoration of discipline among the Praetorian Guards, after his death, the Praetorians auctioned off the imperial title, which was won by the wealthy senator Didius Julianus, whose reign would last sixty-six days. Pertinax would be deified by the successor of Julianus, Septimius Severus and his historical reputation has largely been a positive one, following the assessment of Dio. His career before becoming emperor is documented in the Historia Augusta and he suffered a setback as a victim of court intrigues during the reign of Marcus Aurelius, but shortly afterwards he was recalled to assist Claudius Pompeianus in the Marcomannic Wars. In 175 he received the honor of a suffect consulship and until 185, Pertinax was governor of the provinces of Upper and Lower Moesia, Dacia, Syria and finally governor of Britain. In the decade of the 180s, Pertinax took a role in the Roman Senate until the praetorian prefect Sextus Tigidius Perennis forced him out of public life. He was recalled three years to Britain, where the Roman army was in a state of mutiny. He tried to quell the unruly soldiers there but one legion mutinied and attacked his bodyguard, when he recovered, he punished the mutineers severely, which led to his growing reputation as a disciplinarian. When he was forced to resign in 187, the reason given was that the legions had grown hostile to him because of his harsh rule. When Commodus behaviour became increasingly erratic throughout the early 190s, Pertinax is thought to have been implicated in the conspiracy led to his assassination on 31 December 192. The plot was carried out by the Praetorian prefect Quintus Aemilius Laetus, Commodus mistress Marcia, after the murder had been carried out, Pertinax, who was serving as urban prefect at this time, was hurried to the Praetorian Camp and proclaimed emperor the following morning. His short reign was an uneasy one and he attempted to emulate the restrained practices of Marcus Aurelius, and made an effort to reform the alimenta but he faced antagonism from many quarters. He reformed the Roman currency dramatically, increasing the purity of the denarius from 74% to 87% — the actual silver weight increasing from 2.22 grams to 2.75 grams. This currency reform did not survive his death, Pertinax attempted to impose stricter military discipline upon the pampered Praetorians
Pertinax
–
Statue of Pertinax,
National Museum of the Union,
Alba-Iulia, Romania
Pertinax
–
Roman
aureus struck under the rule of Pertinax
28.
Pescennius Niger
–
Pescennius Niger was Roman Emperor from 193 to 194 during the Year of the Five Emperors. Although Niger was born into an old Italian equestrian family, around the year 135, not much is known of his early career, it is possible that he held an administrative position in Egypt, and that he served in a military campaign in Dacia early in Commodus’ reign. During the late 180s, Niger was elected as a Suffect consul and he was still serving in Syria when news came through firstly of the murder of Pertinax, followed by the auctioning off of the imperial title to Didius Julianus. As a consequence, it is alleged that Julianus dispatched a centurion to the east with orders to assassinate Niger at Antioch, the result of the unrest in Rome saw Niger proclaimed Emperor by the eastern legions by the end of April 193. On his accession, Niger took the additional cognomen Justus, or the Just, although Niger sent envoys to Rome to announce his elevation to the imperial throne, his messengers were intercepted by Severus. As Niger began bolstering his support in the provinces, Severus marched on Rome which he entered in early June 193 after Julianus had been murdered. Severus wasted no time consolidating his hold on Rome, and ordered his newly appointed prefect of the watch, Gaius Fulvius Plautianus to capture Niger’s children, although these lands contained great wealth, his military resources were inferior to Severus’. While Severus had the sixteen Danubian legions at his disposal, Niger possessed only six, Niger therefore decided to act aggressively, and sent a force into Thrace where it defeated a part of Severus’ army under Lucius Fabius Cilo at Perinthus. Severus now marched from Rome to the east, sending his general Tiberius Claudius Candidus ahead of him, Niger, having made Byzantium his headquarters, gave Asellius Aemilianus the task of defending the southern shore of the Sea of Marmara. As Severus approached, he offered Niger the opportunity to surrender and go into exile, in the fall of 193, Candidus met Aemilianus in battle at Cyzicus, resulting in Niger’s forces being defeated as well as the capture and death of Aemilianus. Byzantium was now placed under siege, forcing Niger to abandon the city, the city remained loyal to Niger, and it would take Severus until the end of 195 to finally capture Byzantium. Another battle took place outside of Nicea in later December 193, nevertheless, he was able to withdraw the bulk of his army intact to the Taurus Mountains, where he was able to hold the passes for a few months as Niger returned to Antioch. However, the problem now for Niger was that his support in Asia was falling, some cities previously loyal to him decided that it was time to change their allegiance, in particular Laodicea and Tyre. By February 13,194, Egypt had declared for Severus, as had the imperial legate of Arabia, forced to retreat to Antioch, Niger was captured while attempting to flee to Parthia. He was beheaded, and his head was taken to Byzantium. Eventually, Severus stormed and completely destroyed Byzantium before he had it rebuilt, Niger’s head eventually found its way to Rome where it was displayed. After his victory in the east, Severus punished all of Niger’s supporters and he also had Niger’s wife and children put to death, while his estates were confiscated. The name Niger means black, which incidentally, contrasts him with one of his rivals for the throne in 194, Clodius Albinus, according to the notoriously unreliable Historia Augusta, his cognomen of Niger was given due to the fact that his neck was black
Pescennius Niger
–
Coin of Pescennius Niger, bearing the inscription (IMPERATOR CAESAR GAIVS PESCENNIVS NIGER IVSTVS AVGVSTVS CONSVL II)
29.
Clodius Albinus
–
For others with this cognomen, see Albinus. Albinus was born in Hadrumetum, Africa Province to an aristocratic Roman family of Ceionia origin and his father, Ceionius, said his son received the name of Albinus because of the extraordinary whiteness of his complexion. Showing a disposition for military life, he entered the army when young and served with distinction. The Emperor likewise declared that without Albinus the legions would have gone over to Avidius Cassius, the Emperor Commodus gave Albinus a command in Gallia Belgica and afterwards in Britain. The Senate was very pleased with these sentiments, but not so the Emperor, despite this, Albinus kept his command until after the murders of Commodus and his successor Pertinax in 193. Immediately afterwards, Pescennius Niger was proclaimed Emperor by the legions in Syria, Septimius Severus by the troops in Illyricum and Pannonia, in the civil war that followed, Albinus was initially allied with Septimius Severus, who had captured Rome. Albinus added the name Septimius to his own, and accepted the title of Caesar from him, Albinus remained effective ruler of much of the western part of the Empire, with support from three British legions and one Spanish. When Didius Julianus was put to death by order of the Senate, who dreaded the power of Septimius Severus, Albinus, seeing the danger of his position, prepared for resistance. He narrowly escaped being assassinated by a messenger of Severus, after which he put himself at the head of his army, in autumn 196, Albinus proclaimed himself Emperor and crossed from Britain to Gaul, bringing a large part of the British garrison with him. On 19 February 197 Albinus met Severus army at the Battle of Lugdunum, after a hard-fought battle, with 150,000 troops on each side according to Dio Cassius, Albinus was defeated and killed himself, or was captured and executed on the orders of Severus. Severus had his body laid out on the ground before him, so that he could ride his horse over it. If Albinus wife and sons were pardoned by Severus, he appeared to change his mind almost immediately afterwards, for as the dead Albinus was beheaded. Albinus headless body was thrown into the Rhône, together with the corpses of his murdered family, Severus sent his head to Rome as a warning to his supporters, with it he sent an insolent letter, in which he mocked the senate for their loyalty to Albinus. The town of Lugdunum was plundered, and the adherents of Albinus were cruelly persecuted by Severus, Albinus was a severe and often cruel commander, and he has been called the Catiline of his time. He had one son, or perhaps two, who were executed with their mother by order of Severus and it is said that he wrote a treatise on agriculture and a collection of Milesian tales. Livius. org, Decimus Clodius Albinus James Grout, D. Clodius Albinus, part of the Encyclopædia Romana Albinus coinage
Clodius Albinus
–
Cast in the
Pushkin Museum of a marble bust in the
Louvre
Clodius Albinus
–
Coin of Clodius Albinus
30.
Roman Cilicia
–
Cilicia was an early Roman province, located on what is today the southern coast of Turkey. Cilicia was annexed to the Roman Republic in 64 BC by Pompey, as a consequence of his presence in the east. It was subdivided by Diocletian in around 297, and it remained under Roman, Cilicia was a haven for pirates that profited from the slave trade with the Romans. When the Cilician pirates began to attack Roman shipping and towns and it was during the course of these interventions that the province of Cilicia came into being. Parts of Cilicia Pedias became Roman territory in 103 BC, during Marcus Antonius Orator’s first campaign against the pirates, in 96 BC, Lucius Cornelius Sulla was appointed the propraetorial governor of Cilicia, during which time he stopped an invasion by Mithridates II of Parthia. In 80 BC, the governor of Cilicia was Gnaeus Cornelius Dolabella and his replacement in 78 BC was Publius Servilius Vatia Isauricus. He was given the responsibility of clearing out the pirates, from 77 to 76 BC, he achieved a number of naval victories against the pirates off the Cilician coast, and was able to occupy the Lycian and Pamphylian coasts. After the pirates fled to their strongholds, Vatia Isauricus began attacking their coastal fortresses. He captured the town of Olympos before going on to capture Phaselis and subduing Corycus, then in 75 BC Vatia Isauricus advanced across the Taurus Mountains and succeeded in defeating the Isauri along the northern slopes. By 74 BC, Vatia Isauricus had organized the territory he had conquered and incorporated it into the province of Cilicia, nevertheless, much of Cilicia Pedias was still held by Tigranes the Great and belonged to the kingdom of Armenia. While Cilicia Trachea was still under the domination of the pirates, by 64 BC, Pompey had organized the new province, adding all of his recent conquests to the original province of Cilicia, and made Tarsus the capital of the new province. To the east of Cilicia Campestris, Pompey left a local dynast, Tarcondimotus, in control of Anazarbos, the Tarcondimotid dynasty would continue to hold the region as staunch allies of Rome until the reign of Tiberius. In 58 BC, the island of Cyprus was added, which the Romans had taken from the king of Egypt and this was the extent of the Roman province of Cilicia when Cicero was proconsul of Cilicia in 51-50 BC. The province was reorganized by Julius Caesar in 47 BC, the Forum of Cibyra was attached to the province of Asia, together with the greater part of Pisidia, Pamphylia, as well as possibly the Conventus of Apamea and Synnada. Further changes were made by Marcus Antonius in 36 BC, when he gave Cyprus and Cilicia Aspera to Cleopatra VII, and eastern Phrygia with Lycaonia, Isauria, in 27 BC, the Roman emperor Augustus made further changes, reducing the province of Cilicia still further. Cyprus was made a province, and Pamphylia with Isauria and Pisidia, after the death of Amyntas in 25 BC, was also made a separate province. The result was that Cilicia was reduced to the original parts Campestris and Aspera, under Augustus, Cilicia was an imperial province, administered by a consular Legatus Augusti pro praetore. As per the late Republican and early imperial methods of rule, the western mountainous parts of Cilicia
Roman Cilicia
–
Roman Cilicia highlighted
31.
Osroene
–
By the 5th century Edessa had become a center of Syriac literature and learning. In 608 the Sāsānid Khosrow II took Osroëne, and in 638 it fell to Muslim conquest of Persia, Osroene, or Edessa, acquired independence from the collapsing Seleucid Empire through a dynasty of the nomadic Nabatean tribe called Orrhoei from 136 BC. The name Osroene derives from Osroes of Orhai, a Nabatean malka who in 120 BC wrested control of this region from the Seleucids in Syria, most of the kings of Osroene are called Abgar or Manu who settled in urban centers. Under its Nabatean dynasties, Osroëne became increasingly influenced by Syriac culture and was a centre of national reaction against Hellenism, Osroene was one of several kingdoms arising from the dissolution of the Seleucid Empire. The kingdom occupied an area on what is now the border between Syria and Turkey and it was in this region that the legend of Abgar of Edessa originated. Osroene was absorbed into the Roman Empire in 114 as a vassal state, after a period under Arsacid rule. There is a legend that Osroene was the first state to have accepted Christianity as state religion. The independence of the state ended in 244 when it was incorporated in the Roman Empire and it was a frontier province, lying close to the Persian empires with which the Romans were repeatedly at war. It was taken and retaken several times, being a province on the frontier it had a Roman legion stationed there, Legio III Parthica and its Castrum may have been Resaena, though there are some doubts on that fact. Following Emperor Diocletians Tetrarchy reforms during his reign 284-305 CE, it was part of the diocese of Oriens, Equites Promoti indigenae, Banasam Equites Promoti indigenae, Sina Iudaeorum. Apatna. as well as, on the roll, apparently auxiliaries, Ala Septima Valeria Praelectorum. Ala Prima Victoriae, Tovia -contra Bintha, Ala Prima nova Diocletiana, inter Thannurin et Horobam. In his writings Pliny refers to the natives of Osroene and Commagene as Arabs, according to Pliny, a nomadic Arab tribe called Orrhoei occupied Edessa about 130 BC. Orrhoei founded a state ruled by their chieftains with the title of kings. This name eventually changed into Osroene, in assimilation to the Parthian name Osroes or Chosroes, the area of the kingdom was perhaps roughly coterminous with that of the Roman province of Osrhoene. The great loop of the Euphrates was a frontier to the north. In the south Batnae was capital of the principality of Anthemusia until its annexation by Rome in A. D.115. Edessa, capital of the ancient kingdom, was a fortress of considerable strength, inevitably Edessa figured prominently on the international stage
Osroene
–
History of the
Assyrian people
Osroene
–
Map includes Osroene as a tributary kingdom of the
Armenian Empire under
Tigranes the Great
32.
Roman Gaul
–
Roman Gaul refers to Gaul under provincial rule in the Roman Empire from the 1st century BC to the 5th century AD. The Roman Republic began its takeover of Celtic Gaul in 121 BC, julius Caesar significantly advanced the task by defeating the Celtic tribes in the Gallic Wars of 58-51 BC. In 22 BC, imperial administration of Gaul was reorganized, establishing the provinces of Gallia Aquitania, Gallia Belgica, parts of eastern Gaul were incorporated into the provinces Raetia and Germania Superior. During Late Antiquity, Gaulish and Roman culture amalgamated into a hybrid Gallo-Roman culture, the Gaulish language was marginalized and eventually extinct, being replaced by regional forms of Late Latin which in the medieval period developed into the group of Gallo-Romance languages. Roman control over the provinces deteriorated in the 4th and 5th centuries, the last vestiges of any Roman control over parts of Gaul were effaced with the defeat of Syagrius at the Battle of Soissons. Gaul had three divisions, one of which was divided into multiple Roman provinces, Gallia Cisalpina or Gaul this side of the Alps. Gallia Narbonensis, formerly Gallia Transalpina or Gaul across the Alps was originally conquered and annexed in 121 BC in an attempt to solidify communications between Rome and the Iberian peninsula. It comprised the region of Provence-Alpes-Côte dAzur, most of Languedoc-Roussillon. Gallia Comata, or long haired Gaul, encompassed the remainder of present-day France, Belgium, and westernmost Germany, gauls continued writing some inscriptions in the Gaulish language, but switched from the Greek alphabet to the Latin alphabet during the Roman period. The Roman influence was most apparent in the areas of religion and administration. The Druidic religion was suppressed by Emperor Claudius I, and in later centuries Christianity was introduced, the prohibition of Druids and the syncretic nature of the Roman religion led to disappearance of the Celtic religion. It remains to this day poorly understood, current knowledge of the Celtic religion is based on archeology and via literary sources from several isolated areas such as Ireland, the Romans easily imposed their administrative, economic, artistic and literary culture. They wore the Roman tunic instead of their traditional clothing, the Romano-Gauls generally lived in the vici, small villages similar to those in Italy, or in villae, for the richest. Surviving Celtic influences also infiltrated back into the Roman Imperial culture in the 3rd century, for example, the Gaulish tunic—which gave Emperor Caracalla his surname—had not been replaced by Roman fashion. Similarly, certain Gaulish artisan techniques, such as the barrel, the Celtic heritage also continued in the spoken language. Gaulish spelling and pronunciation of Latin are apparent in several 5th century poets, the last pockets of Gaulish speakers appear to have lingered until the 6th or 7th century. Germanic placenames were first attested in border areas settled by Germanic colonizers, from the 4th to 5th centuries, the Franks settled in northern France and Belgium, the Alemanni in Alsace and Switzerland, and the Burgundians in Savoie. The Roman administration finally collapsed as remaining Roman troops withdrew southeast to protect Italy, between 455 and 476 the Visigoths, the Burgundians, and the Franks assumed control in Gaul
Roman Gaul
–
Northern Gaul "
sou ", 440-450, 4240mg.
Roman Gaul
–
The Vachères warrior, a statue of a Gaulish warrior wearing Roman clothing (ca. 1st century BC)
33.
Parthian Empire
–
The Parthian Empire, also known as the Arsacid Empire, was a major Iranian political and cultural power in ancient Iran and Iraq. Mithridates I of Parthia greatly expanded the empire by seizing Media and Mesopotamia from the Seleucids, at its height, the Parthian Empire stretched from the northern reaches of the Euphrates, in what is now central-eastern Turkey, to eastern Iran. The empire, located on the Silk Road trade route between the Roman Empire in the Mediterranean Basin and the Han Empire of China, became a center of trade and commerce. The Parthians largely adopted the art, architecture, religious beliefs, and royal insignia of their culturally heterogeneous empire, which encompassed Persian, Hellenistic, and regional cultures. For about the first half of its existence, the Arsacid court adopted elements of Greek culture, the court did appoint a small number of satraps, largely outside Iran, but these satrapies were smaller and less powerful than the Achaemenid potentates. With the expansion of Arsacid power, the seat of government shifted from Nisa to Ctesiphon along the Tigris. The earliest enemies of the Parthians were the Seleucids in the west, however, as Parthia expanded westward, they came into conflict with the Kingdom of Armenia, and eventually the late Roman Republic. Rome and Parthia competed with other to establish the kings of Armenia as their subordinate clients. The Parthians soundly defeated Marcus Licinius Crassus at the Battle of Carrhae in 53 BC, however, Mark Antony led a counterattack against Parthia, although his successes were generally achieved in his absence, under the leadership of his lieutenant Ventidius. Also, various Roman emperors or their appointed generals invaded Mesopotamia in the course of the several Roman-Parthian Wars which ensued during the few centuries. The Romans captured the cities of Seleucia and Ctesiphon on multiple occasions during these conflicts, native Parthian sources, written in Parthian, Greek and other languages, are scarce when compared to Sassanid and even earlier Achaemenid sources. These include mainly Greek and Roman histories, but also Chinese histories, Parthian artwork is viewed by historians as a valid source for understanding aspects of society and culture that are otherwise absent in textual sources. The Parni most likely spoke an eastern Iranian language, in contrast to the northwestern Iranian language spoken at the time in Parthia, the latter was a northeastern province, first under the Achaemenid, and then the Seleucid empires. Why the Arsacid court retroactively chose 247 BC as the first year of the Arsacid era is uncertain, Bivar concludes that this was the year the Seleucids lost control of Parthia to Andragoras, the appointed satrap who rebelled against them. Hence, Arsaces I backdated his regnal years to the moment when Seleucid control over Parthia ceased, however, Vesta Sarkhosh Curtis asserts that this was simply the year Arsaces was made chief of the Parni tribe. It is unclear who immediately succeeded Arsaces I, Bivar and Katouzian affirm that it was his brother Tiridates I of Parthia, who in turn was succeeded by his son Arsaces II of Parthia in 211 BC. Yet Curtis and Brosius state that Arsaces II was the successor of Arsaces I, with Curtis claiming the succession took place in 211 BC. Bivar insists that 138 BC, the last regnal year of Mithridates I, is the first precisely established regnal date of Parthian history, due to these and other discrepancies, Bivar outlines two distinct royal chronologies accepted by historians
Parthian Empire
–
The Parthian Empire at its greatest extent
Parthian Empire
–
The silver
drachma of
Arsaces I of Parthia (r. c. 247–211 BC) with a
Greek-alphabet inscription of his name (ΑΡΣΑΚΟΥ)
Parthian Empire
–
Parthia, shaded yellow, alongside the
Seleucid Empire (blue) and the
Roman Republic (purple) around 200 BC
34.
Ctesiphon
–
Ctesiphon was an ancient city located on the eastern bank of Tigris, and about 35 kilometres southeast of present day Baghdad. It became the capital of the Parthian Empire in about 58 BC, Ctesiphon developed into a rich commercial metropolis, merging with the surrounding cities along both shores of the river, including the Hellenistic city of Seleucia. Ctesiphon and its environs were therefore referred to as the cities. In the late sixth and early seventh century, it was one of the largest cities in the world, during the Roman–Persian Wars, Ctesiphon fell four times to the Romans, and later once during Sasanian rule. It was also the site of the Battle of Ctesiphon, in which Emperor Julian was killed in action, after the Muslim invasion the city fell into decay and was depopulated by the end of the 8th century. The most conspicuous structure remaining today is the archway of Ctesiphon. In Iranian-language texts of the Sasanian era, it is spelled as tyspwn, the New Persian form is Tisfun. Texts from the Assyrian Church of the Easts synods referred to the city as Qṭēspōn or some times Māḥôzē when referring to the metropolis of Seleucia-Ctesiphon, in modern Arabic, the name is usually Ṭaysafūn or Qaṭaysfūn or as al-Madain. According to Yāqūt, quoting Ḥamza, the form was Ṭūsfūn or Tūsfūn. The Armenian name of the city was Tizbon, Ctesiphon is first mentioned in the Book of Ezra of the Old Testament as Kasfia/Casphia. Ctesiphon is located approximately at Al-Madain,32 km southeast of the city of Baghdad, Iraq. Ctesiphon measured 30 square kilometers, more than twice the surface of 13. 7-square-kilometer fourth-century Imperial Rome, the archway of Chosroes was once a part of the royal palace in Ctesiphon and is estimated to date between the 3rd and 6th centuries AD. It is located in what is now the Iraqi town of Salman Pak, Ctesiphon was founded in the late 120s BC. It was built on the site of a camp established across from Seleucia by Mithridates I of Parthia. The reign of Gotarzes I saw Ctesiphon reach a peak as a political and commercial center, the city became the Empires capital circa 58 BC during the reign of Orodes II. Gradually, the city merged with the old Hellenistic capital of Seleucia, the reason for this westward relocation of the capital could have been in part due to the proximity of the previous capitals to the Scythian incursions. Nearby is situated a village called Ctesiphon, a large village, because of its importance, Ctesiphon was a major military objective for the leaders of the Roman Empire in their eastern wars. The city was captured by Rome five times in its history – three times in the 2nd century alone, the emperor Trajan captured Ctesiphon in 116, but his successor, Hadrian, decided to willingly return Ctesiphon in 117 as part of a peace settlement
Ctesiphon
–
Ctesiphon palace ruin, with the arch in the centre, 1864
Ctesiphon
–
Map of Sassanid Ctesiphon
Ctesiphon
–
1824 drawing by Captain Hart
Ctesiphon
–
Floor plan of the palace complex, Revista Nacional de Arquitectura.
35.
Tigris
–
The Tigris is the eastern member of the two great rivers that define Mesopotamia, the other being the Euphrates. The river flows south from the mountains of southeastern Turkey through Iraq, the Tigris is 1,850 km long, rising in the Taurus Mountains of eastern Turkey about 25 km southeast of the city of Elazig and about 30 km from the headwaters of the Euphrates. The river then flows for 400 km through Turkish territory before becoming the border between Syria and Turkey and this stretch of 44 km is the only part of the river that is located in Syria. Close to its confluence with the Euphrates, the Tigris splits into several channels, First, the artificial Shatt al-Hayy branches off, to join the Euphrates near Nasiriyah. Second, the Shatt al-Muminah and Majar-al-Kabir branch off to feed the Central Marshes, further downstream, two other distributary channels branch off, which feed the Hawizeh Marshes. The main channel continues southwards and is joined by the Al-Kassarah, finally, the Tigris joins the Euphrates near al-Qurnah to form the Shatt-al-Arab. According to Pliny and other ancient historians, the Euphrates originally had its outlet into the sea separate from that of the Tigris, Baghdad, the capital of Iraq, stands on the banks of the Tigris. The port city of Basra straddles the Shatt al-Arab, in ancient times, many of the great cities of Mesopotamia stood on or near the Tigris, drawing water from it to irrigate the civilization of the Sumerians. Notable Tigris-side cities included Nineveh, Ctesiphon, and Seleucia, while the city of Lagash was irrigated by the Tigris via a canal dug around 2400 B. C, the Tigris has long been an important transport route in a largely desert country. Shallow-draft vessels can go as far as Baghdad, but rafts are needed for transport upstream to Mosul, General Francis Rawdon Chesney hauled two steamers overland through Syria in 1836 to explore the possibility of an overland and river route to India. One steamer, the Tigris, was wrecked in a storm which sank, Chesney proved the river navigable to powered craft. Later, the Euphrates and Tigris Steam Navigation Company was established in 1861 by the Lynch Brothers trading company and they had 2 steamers in service. By 1908 ten steamers were on the river, tourists boarded steam yachts to venture inland as this was the first age of archaeological tourism, and the sites of Ur and Ctesiphon became popular to European travelers. In the First World War, during the British conquest of Ottoman Mesopotamia, Indian, see Siege of Kut and the Fall of Baghdad. The Tigris Flotilla included vessels Clio, Espiegle, Lawrence, Odin, armed tug Comet, armed launches Lewis Pelly, Miner, Shaitan, Sumana, and stern wheelers Muzaffari/Mozaffir. These were joined by Royal Navy Fly-class gunboats Butterfly, Cranefly, Dragonfly, Mayfly, Sawfly, Snakefly, and Mantis, Moth, the Ancient Greek form Tigris was borrowed from Old Persian Tigrā, itself from Elamite Tigra, itself from Sumerian Idigna. The Sumerian form was borrowed into Akkadian as Idiqlat, and from there into the other Semitic languages, another name for the Tigris used in Middle Persian was Arvand Rud, literally swift river. Today, however, Arvand Rud refers to the confluence of the Euphrates, in Kurdish, it is also known as Ava Mezin, the Great Water
Tigris
–
About 100 km from its source, the Tigris enables rich agriculture outside
Diyarbakır,
Turkey.
Tigris
–
Batman River
Tigris
–
Bedoween crossing the river Tigris with plunder (c.1860)
Tigris
–
Outside of
Mosul,
Iraq
36.
Limes Arabicus
–
The Limes Arabicus was a desert frontier of the Roman Empire, mostly in the province of Arabia Petraea. It ran northeast from the Gulf of Aqaba for about 1,500 kilometers at its greatest extent, reaching northern Syria and it had several forts and watchtowers. The reason of this defensive Limes was to protect the Roman province of Arabia from attacks of the tribes of the Arabian desert. The main purpose of the Limes Arabicus is disputed, it may have used both to defend from Saracen raids and to protect the commercial lines from robbers. Next to the Limes Arabicus Emperor Trajan built a road, the Via Nova Traiana, from Bosra to Aila on the Red Sea. It was completed under Emperor Hadrian, during the Severan dynasty, the Romans strengthened their defences on the Arabian frontier. They constructed several forts at the northwest end of the Wadi Sirhan, one important fort was Qasr Azraq, another was at Humeima, from the late 2nd C AD, on the Via Nova from Petra to Aila, where up to 500 auxiliary troops could have resided. It was probably abandoned in the fourth century, Emperor Diocletian partitioned the old province of Arabia by transferring the southern region to the province of Palaestina. Later in the 4th century, Palaestina was made into three provinces, and the one was eventually called Palaestina Tertia. Each province was administered by a praeses with civil authority and a dux with military authority, Diocletian engaged in a major military expansion in the region, building a number of castella, watchtowers, and fortresses along the fringe of the desert just east of the Via Nova. This line of defence extended from south of Damascus to Wadi al-Hasa, the region from Wadi Mujib to Wadi al-Hasa contained four castella and a legionary camp. The frontier south of Wadi al-Hasa, which extended to the Red Sea at Aila, in this region, ten castella and a legionary camp have been identified. There were castra every 100 kilometres with the purpose to create a line of protection and control, in the south there was the fortress at Adrou. It probably housed the Legio VI Ferrata, which was moved from Lajjun by Diocletian and it is similar to Betthorus in the plain of Moab, south of Wadi Mujib) in size and design. Alistair Killick, who excavated the site, dates it to the early 2nd century, a legionary camp may have also existed at Aila, which has been excavated by Parker since 1994. The city was located at the end of the Gulf of Aqaba where it was a centre of sea traffic. Several land routes also intersected here, Legio X Fretensis, originally stationed in Jerusalem, was transferred here to the terminus of the Via Nova. So far, a curtain wall and projecting tower have been identified
Limes Arabicus
37.
Arabia Petraea
–
It was bordered on the north by Syria, on the west by Iudaea and Aegyptus, and on the south and east by the rest of Arabia, known as Arabia Deserta and Arabia Felix. It produced no usurpers and no emperors, as a frontier province, it included a desert populated by the nomadic Saraceni, and bordering the Parthian hinterland. The geographic makeup of Arabia has some variation, inhospitability is the norm, though, and along with the desert proper that is the Sinai, the arid Negev, which extends north of the Sinai, is practically such. Along with this are the areas around the Red Sea, the badlands known as Hismā that develop to the north of that coast. Most of Arabia was sparsely populated, and its cities can be concentrated to the north. The only major port is Aqaba, which can be found at the tip of a wide gulf from the Red Sea bearing the same name. Petra served as the base for Legio III Cyrenaica, and the governor of the province would spend time in both cities, issuing edicts from both. Upon annexation of the province, Bostra gained the appellative “Traiane” when Trajan declared it the capital while Hadrian performed the ceremonial act for Petra when he became emperor. Before Roman control, the area was ruled by Rabbel II, last king of the Nabataeans until 106 AD. When Rabbel II, who had ruled since 70 AD, died, the Third Cyrenaica legion moved north from Egypt into Petra, while the Sixth Ferrata legion, the conquest of Arabia was not officially celebrated until completion of the Via Nova Traiana. This road extended down the center of the province from Bostra to Aqaba and it isn’t until the project is finished that coins, featuring Trajan’s bust on the obverse and a camel on the reverse, appear commemorating the acquisition of Arabia. These coins are minted until 115, at time the Roman imperial focus was turning farther eastward. With Roman conquest came the imposition of Latin and Greek in official discourse, after the conquest, though, Greek was adopted popularly, as well as officially, practically supplanting Nabataean and Aramaic, as evidenced by inscriptions at Umm al Quttain. The occurrence of Latin in the province was rare and limited to cases as the tomb inscription of T. Aninius Sextius Florentinus, governor in 127. Millar makes a case for a Graeco-Roman Hellenization in Arabia and it is an area, after all, that was not significantly hellenized during the rule of Alexander, and the locals originally spoke Aramaic and Nabataean, not Greek. Arabia acclimates to the new culture so fully that it seems the original linguistic groups faded away, there were scattered Nabataean inscriptions during the period of imperial Roman rule. Arabia responded similarly when the governor of Syria, Pescennius Niger, in addition, the governor of Arabia, P. Aelius Severianus Maximus, was allowed to continue in his post in reward for his loyalty. Syria was later split into two and Arabia was expanded to include the Leja’ and Jebel Drūz, rough terrain south of Damascus, Severus had enlarged a province that was already huge
Arabia Petraea
–
Petra, now designated as a
World Heritage Site by
UNESCO.
Arabia Petraea
Arabia Petraea
–
Bosra, capital of Arabia Petraea.
38.
Mauretania
–
Mauretania is the Latin name for an area of the ancient Maghreb stretching from central Algeria westwards to the Atlantic, covering northern Morocco, and southward to the Atlas Mountains. Its native inhabitants, seminomadic pastoralists of Berber stock, were known to the Romans as the Mauri, in the late 3rd century, another province, Mauretania Sitifensis, was formed out of the eastern part of Caesariensis. When the Vandals arrived in Africa in 429, much of Mauretania became virtually independent, christianity had spread rapidly there in the 4th and 5th centuries but was extinguished when the Arabs conquered the region in the 7th century. Mauretania existed as a kingdom of the Mauri people. Mauri is recorded as the name by Strabo in the early 1st century. This appellation was also adopted into Latin, whereas the Greek name for the tribe was Maurusii, the Mauri would later bequeath their name to the Moors on the Mediterranean coast of North Africa, from at least the 3rd century BC. King Atlas was a king of Mauretania credited with the invention of the celestial globe. The first known king of the Mauri is Baga, who ruled during the Second Punic War. The Mauri were in contact with Numidia. Bocchus I was father-in-law to the redoubted Numidian king Jugurtha, Mauretania became a client kingdom of the Roman Empire in 33 BC. The Romans installed Juba II of Numidia as their client-king, when Juba died in AD23, his Roman-educated son Ptolemy of Mauretania succeeded him. The Emperor Caligula had Ptolemy executed in 40, Emperor Claudius annexed Mauretania directly as a Roman province in 44, under an imperial governor. Mauretania Caesariensis was named after its capital Caesarea and comprised western, Mauretania gave the empire one emperor, the equestrian Macrinus. He seized power after the assassination of Caracalla in 217 but was defeated and executed by Elagabalus the next year. Emperor Diocletians Tetrarchy reform further divided the area into three provinces, as the small, easternmost region of Sitifensis was split off from Mauretania Caesariensis, followed by Columnatensis, Vidensis, inferioris, Fortensis, Muticitani, Audiensis, Caputcellensis and Augustensis. A Praeses in the province of Mauretania Sitifensis, direct Roman rule became confined to a few coastal cities by the late 3rd century. In an inscription from Altava in western Algeria, one of these rulers, Masuna, Altava was later the capital of another ruler, Garmul or Garmules, who resisted Byzantine rule in Africa but was finally defeated in 578. The Byzantine historian Procopius also mentions another independent ruler, Mastigas, in the VII century there were eight Romano-Moorish kingdoms, Altava, Ouarsenis, Hodna, Aures, Nemenchas, Capsa, Dorsale and Cabaon
Mauretania
–
Map of the
Roman Empire showing
Mauretania Tingitana and
Mauretania Caesariensis
Mauretania
–
Mauretania Tingitana province (borders in AD 116).
Mauretania
–
Cities of Roman Mauretania in the
Tabula Peutingeriana
39.
Garamantes
–
The Garamantes were a Berber tribe who developed an advanced civilization in ancient southwestern Libya. They used an underground irrigation system, and founded prosperous Berber kingdoms or city-states in the Fezzan area of Libya. They were a local power between 500 BC and 700 AD, there is little textual information about the Garamantes, but their written language was. a still nearly indecipherable proto-Tifaniq, the script of modern-day Tuaregs. Even the name Garamantes was a Greek name, which the Romans later adopted, available information comes mainly from Greek and Roman sources, as well as archaeological excavations in the area, though large areas in ruins remain unexcavated. Another important source of information is the abundant rock art, which depicts life prior to the rise of the realm. In the 1960s, archaeologists excavated part of the Garamantes capital at modern Germa, current research indicates that the Garamantes had about eight major towns, three of which have been examined as of 2004. In addition they had a number of other settlements. Garama had a population of four thousand and another six thousand living in villages within a 5 km radius. The Garamantes were farmers and merchants and their diet consisted of grapes, figs, barley, and wheat. They traded wheat, salt and slaves in exchange for imported wine and olive oil, oil lamps, according to Strabo and Pliny, the Garamantes quarried amazonite in the Tibesti Mountains. In 2011, Efthymia Nikita reported that Garamantes skeletons do not suggest regular warfare or strenuous activities, the ruins include numerous tombs, forts, and cemeteries. The Garamantes constructed a network of tunnels and shafts to mine the fossil water from under the limestone layer under the desert sand. The dating of these foggara is disputed, they appear between 200 BC to 200 AD but continued to be in use until at least the 7th century, the network of tunnels is known to Berbers as Foggaras. The network allowed agriculture to flourish, but used a system of labor to keep it maintained. The Garamantes were probably present as tribal people in the Fezzan by 1000 BC. Roman depictions describe them as bearing ritual scars, tacitus wrote that they assisted the rebel Tacfarinas and raided Roman coastal settlements. According to Pliny the Elder, Romans eventually grew tired of Garamantian raiding, in 202, Septimius Severus captured the capital city of Garama. By around 150 AD the Garamantian kingdom, covered 180,000 square kilometres in modern-day southern Libya and it lasted from about 400 BC to 600 AD. The decline of the Garamantian culture may have connected to worsening climatic conditions
Garamantes
–
Near East in 600 AD, showing the location of Garamantes before the Arab conquest.
Garamantes
–
Map of the Roman empire under
Hadrian (ruled 117–138 AD), showing the location of the Garamantes kingdom, in the desert regions south of the Roman province of
Africa proconsularis (Tunisia, Libya).
40.
Germa
–
Germa, known in ancient times as Garama, is an archaeological site in Libya and was the capital city of the Garamantes. The Garamantes were a Berber people living in the Fezzan in the northeastern Sahara Desert, garamantian power climaxed during the second and the third centuries AD, often in conflict with the Roman Empire to the north. Garama had a population of four thousand and another six thousand living in villages within a 5 km radius. The Garamantes often conducted raids across Romes African frontier, the Limes Tripolitanus, in 203 the Roman Emperor Septimius Severus launched a campaign deep into the Sahara, capturing Garama, but he abandoned it soon after. The Fazzan Project is about to publish the second of four planned volumes based on its work, Berber Tuareg Green Sahara Media related to Germa at Wikimedia Commons Germa - Lexiorient Toby Savage, photographer Nick Brooks Fezzan Geoarchaeology website Germa
Germa
–
Ruins of Germa
41.
Limes Tripolitanus
–
The Limes Tripolitanus was a frontier zone of defence of the Roman Empire, built in the south of what is now Tunisia and the northwest of Libya. It was primarily intended as a protection for the cities of Leptis Magna, Sabratha. The Limes Tripolitanus was built after Augustus and it was related mainly to the Garamantes menace. Septimius Flaccus in 50 AD did an expedition that reached the actual Fezzan. The Romans did not conquer the Garamantes so much as they seduced them with the benefits of trade, the last Garamantes foray to the coast was in AD69, when they joined with the people of Oea in battle against Leptis Magna. The Romans, in order to defend the main Roman cities of Tripolitania, after that the Garamantes started to become a client state of the Roman Empire, but nomads always endangered the fertile area of coastal Tripolitania. Because of this Romans created the Limes Tripolitanus The first fort on the limes was built at Thiges, the limes was expanded under emperors Hadrian and Septimius Severus, in particular under the legatus Quintus Anicius Faustus in 197-201 AD. He fulfilled his task quickly and successfully, former soldiers were settled in this area, and the arid land was developed. Dams and cisterns were built in the Wadi Ghirza to regulate the flash floods, the farmers produced cereals, figs, vines, olives, pulses, almonds, dates, and perhaps melons. Ghirza consisted of some forty buildings, including six fortified farms, two of them were really large. It was abandoned in the Middle Ages, with Diocletian the limes was partially abandoned and the defence of the area was done even by the Limitanei, local soldier-farmers. The Limes survived as an effective protection until Byzantine times, in Libya today, very substantial remains survive, e. g. the limes castles at Abu Nujaym and Al Qaryah al Gharbīyah, the frontier village Gaerisa, and about 2,000 fortified farms like Qaryat. Ghadames Mizda Bani Waled Abu Nujaym Qaryat Jona Lendering, archived from the original on April 5,2008. Detailed map showing the Limes Tripolitanus at Tunisia-Libya border, la Tripolitania in Storia Einaudi dei Greci e dei Romani. The UNESCO Libyan Valleys Archaeological Survey Margot Klee, Grenzen des Imperiums, leben am römischen Limes Jona Lendering, Sherds from the Desert
Limes Tripolitanus
–
Photo of Roman castrum Golaia (actual Bu Njem) in the Limes Tripolitanus
Limes Tripolitanus
–
Map of the Limes Tripolitanus
Limes Tripolitanus
–
Faustus' campaigning between 197 and 202 AD greatly contributed to the expansion of the Limes Tripolitanus between Nepte and Golaia
Limes Tripolitanus
–
Remnants of "Centenaria" at Suq al-Awty
42.
Roman Britain
–
Roman Britain was the area of the island of Great Britain that was governed by the Roman Empire, from AD43 to 410. Julius Caesar invaded Britain in 55 and 54 BC as part of his Gallic Wars, the Britons had been overrun or culturally assimilated by other Celtic tribes during the British Iron Age and had been aiding Caesars enemies. He received tribute, installed a king over the Trinovantes. Planned invasions under Augustus were called off in 34,27, in AD40, Caligula assembled 200,000 men at the Channel, only to have them gather seashells. Three years later, Claudius directed four legions to invade Britain, the Romans defeated the Catuvellauni, and then organized their conquests as the Province of Britain. By the year 47, the Romans held the lands southeast of the Fosse Way, control over Wales was delayed by reverses and the effects of Boudicas uprising, but the Romans expanded steadily northward. Around 197, the Severan Reforms divided Britain into two provinces, Britannia Superior and Britannia Inferior, during the Diocletian Reforms, at the end of the 3rd century, Britannia was divided into four provinces under the direction of a vicarius, who administered the Diocese of the Britains. A fifth province, Valentia, is attested in the later 4th century, for much of the later period of the Roman occupation, Britannia was subject to barbarian invasions and often came under the control of imperial usurpers and imperial pretenders. The final Roman withdrawal from Britain occurred around 410, the kingdoms are considered to have formed Sub-Roman Britain after that. Following the conquest of the Britons, a distinctive Romano-British culture emerged as the Romans introduced improved agriculture, urban planning, industrial production, after the initial invasions, Roman historians generally only mention Britain in passing. Thus, most present knowledge derives from archaeological investigations and occasional epigraphic evidence lauding the Britannic achievements of an emperor, over the centuries Roman citizens settled in Britain from many parts of the Empire, such as Italy, Spain, Syria and Algeria. Britain was known to the Classical world, the Greeks, Phoenicians and Carthaginians traded for Cornish tin in the 4th century BC, the Greeks referred to the Cassiterides, or tin islands, and placed them near the west coast of Europe. The Carthaginian sailor Himilco is said to have visited the island in the 5th century BC, however, it was regarded as a place of mystery, with some writers refusing to believe it existed at all. The first direct Roman contact was when Julius Caesar undertook two expeditions in 55 and 54 BC, as part of his conquest of Gaul, believing the Britons were helping the Gallic resistance. The second invasion involved a larger force and Caesar coerced or invited many of the native Celtic tribes to pay tribute. A friendly local king, Mandubracius, was installed, and his rival, hostages were taken, but historians disagree over whether any tribute was paid after Caesar returned to Gaul. Caesar conquered no territory and left no troops behind but he established clients, Augustus planned invasions in 34,27 and 25 BC, but circumstances were never favourable, and the relationship between Britain and Rome settled into one of diplomacy and trade. Strabo, writing late in Augustuss reign, claimed that taxes on trade brought in annual revenue than any conquest could
Roman Britain
–
England & Wales within the Roman Empire.
Roman Britain
–
Landing of the Romans on the Coast of Kent (Cassell's History of England, Vol. I - anonymous author and artists).
Roman Britain
–
Conquests under Aulus Plautius, focused on the commercially valuable southeast of Britain.
43.
Antonine Wall
–
Representing the northernmost frontier barrier of the Roman Empire, it spanned approximately 63 kilometres and was about 3 metres high and 5 metres wide. Security was bolstered by a ditch on the northern side. It is thought there was a wooden palisade on top of the turf. The barrier was the second of two great walls created by the Romans in Northern Britain and its ruins are less evident than the better-known Hadrians Wall to the south, primarily because the turf and wood wall has largely weathered away, unlike its stone-built southern predecessor. Construction began in AD142 at the order of Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius, Antoninus Pius never visited Britain, whereas his predecessor Hadrian did. Pressure from the Caledonians may have led Antoninus to send the troops further north. The Antonine Wall was protected by 16 forts with small fortlets between them, troop movement was facilitated by a road linking all the known as the Military Way. The soldiers who built the wall commemorated the construction and their struggles with the Caledonians in decorative slabs, the wall was abandoned only eight years after completion, and the garrisons relocated back to Hadrians Wall. In 208 Emperor Septimius Severus re-established legions at the wall and ordered repairs, the occupation ended a few years later, and the wall was never fortified again. Most of the wall and its associated fortifications have been destroyed over time, many of these have come under the care of Historic Scotland and the UNESCO World Heritage Committee. Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius ordered the construction of the Antonine Wall around 142, quintus Lollius Urbicus, governor of Roman Britain at the time, initially supervised the effort, which took about twelve years to complete. The wall stretches 63 kilometres from Old Kilpatrick in West Dunbartonshire on the Firth of Clyde to Carriden near Boness on the Firth of Forth, the wall was intended to extend Roman territory and dominance by replacing Hadrians Wall 160 kilometres to the south, as the frontier of Britannia. The Romans called the north of the wall Caledonia, though in some contexts the term may refer to the whole area north of Hadrians Wall. The Antonine Wall was shorter than Hadrians Wall and built of turf on a stone rather than of stone. The stone foundations and wing walls of the original forts demonstrate that the plan was to build a stone wall similar to Hadrians Wall. As built, the wall was typically a bank, about four metres high, made of layered turves and occasionally earth with a ditch on the north side. The Romans initially planned to build forts every 10 kilometres, but this was revised to every 3.3 kilometres. The best preserved but also one of the smallest forts is Rough Castle Fort
Antonine Wall
–
Antonine Wall near
Falkirk
Antonine Wall
Antonine Wall
–
The Antonine Wall, looking east, from Bar Hill between Twechar and
Croy
Antonine Wall
–
A near infra-red kite aerial photograph of Kinneil Roman Fortlet, near
Bo'ness at the eastern end of the Antonine Wall.
44.
Roman invasion of Caledonia 208-210
–
The Roman invasion of Caledonia launched in 208 by the Roman emperor Septimius Severus. The invasion lasted until late 210 when the emperor became ill and he reoccupied many forts built by Agricola over 100 years previously, following the Battle of Mons Graupius, and crippled the ability of the Caledonians to raid Roman Britain. The invasion was abandoned by Severus son Caracalla and Roman forces once again withdrew to Hadrians Wall, the cause of Severus invasion of Caledonia was a massive increase in raids and attacks on Roman Britain. This was possible because in 195 Clodius Albinus, the Roman Governor of Britain, had led most of the British legions into Gaul during his revolt against Severus. Severus had sent them back to their posts after defeating Albinus and this left Hadrians Wall undermanned and made it easy for the Caledonians to raid into Roman Britain. The Caledonians were also able to more men for these raids than before as there is evidence of increased cooperation among the different northern tribes. In 208 Severus arrived in Britain with around 40,000 men, once at Hadrians Wall Severus initiated a massive rebuilding project which finally made the whole wall into stone, this led to later Romans calling Hadrians Wall the Severan Wall. After starting the project Severus marched north and occupied all the land between Hadrians Wall and the Antonine Wall, after completing the occupation Severus began another reconstruction project but this time on the Antonine Wall. In 209 Severus led his army north into the highlands and roughly marched the same way Agricola had invaded over 100 years before, Severus suffered heavy casualties due to the guerrilla tactics used by the Caledonians. Because of this Severus began a plan of holding all the territory he could by the reoccupation of many of Agricolas old forts. This led to many of the tribes attempting to reach a agreement with Severus because of fear of extinction through Roman genocide. Peace talks failed and it looked as if the war would continue all the tribes had submitted to Rome or been exterminated. In early 210 Severus son Caracalla led an expedition north of the Antonine wall with the intention of killing everyone he came across. The plan was for Severus to follow his sons army and permanently occupy all of Caledonia, in 210 Severus became ill and went to York to rest and recover. He kept getting worse until 4 February 211 when he died, Caracalla then called off the war against the Caledonians and headed back to Rome to consolidate his power. The Romans never campaigned deep into Caledonia again, they withdrew south permanently to Hadrians Wall. Severus, accordingly, desiring to subjugate the whole of it, then, unable to walk, they would be slain by their own men, in order to avoid capture, so that a full fifty thousand died. But Severus did not desist until he approached the extremity of the island, here he observed most accurately the variation of the suns motion and the length of the days and the nights in summer and winter respectively
Roman invasion of Caledonia 208-210
–
Severan invasion of Caledonia
45.
Scotland
–
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and covers the northern third of the island of Great Britain. It shares a border with England to the south, and is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, with the North Sea to the east. In addition to the mainland, the country is made up of more than 790 islands, including the Northern Isles, the Kingdom of Scotland emerged as an independent sovereign state in the Early Middle Ages and continued to exist until 1707. By inheritance in 1603, James VI, King of Scots, became King of England and King of Ireland, Scotland subsequently entered into a political union with the Kingdom of England on 1 May 1707 to create the new Kingdom of Great Britain. The union also created a new Parliament of Great Britain, which succeeded both the Parliament of Scotland and the Parliament of England. Within Scotland, the monarchy of the United Kingdom has continued to use a variety of styles, titles, the legal system within Scotland has also remained separate from those of England and Wales and Northern Ireland, Scotland constitutes a distinct jurisdiction in both public and private law. Glasgow, Scotlands largest city, was one of the worlds leading industrial cities. Other major urban areas are Aberdeen and Dundee, Scottish waters consist of a large sector of the North Atlantic and the North Sea, containing the largest oil reserves in the European Union. This has given Aberdeen, the third-largest city in Scotland, the title of Europes oil capital, following a referendum in 1997, a Scottish Parliament was re-established, in the form of a devolved unicameral legislature comprising 129 members, having authority over many areas of domestic policy. Scotland is represented in the UK Parliament by 59 MPs and in the European Parliament by 6 MEPs, Scotland is also a member nation of the British–Irish Council, and the British–Irish Parliamentary Assembly. Scotland comes from Scoti, the Latin name for the Gaels, the Late Latin word Scotia was initially used to refer to Ireland. By the 11th century at the latest, Scotia was being used to refer to Scotland north of the River Forth, alongside Albania or Albany, the use of the words Scots and Scotland to encompass all of what is now Scotland became common in the Late Middle Ages. Repeated glaciations, which covered the land mass of modern Scotland. It is believed the first post-glacial groups of hunter-gatherers arrived in Scotland around 12,800 years ago, the groups of settlers began building the first known permanent houses on Scottish soil around 9,500 years ago, and the first villages around 6,000 years ago. The well-preserved village of Skara Brae on the mainland of Orkney dates from this period and it contains the remains of an early Bronze Age ruler laid out on white quartz pebbles and birch bark. It was also discovered for the first time that early Bronze Age people placed flowers in their graves, in the winter of 1850, a severe storm hit Scotland, causing widespread damage and over 200 deaths. In the Bay of Skaill, the storm stripped the earth from a large irregular knoll, when the storm cleared, local villagers found the outline of a village, consisting of a number of small houses without roofs. William Watt of Skaill, the laird, began an amateur excavation of the site, but after uncovering four houses
Scotland
–
Edinburgh Castle. Human habitation of the site is dated back as far as the 9th century BC, although the nature of this early settlement is unclear.
Scotland
–
Flag
Scotland
–
The class I
Pictish stone at
Aberlemno known as Aberlemno 1 or the Serpent Stone.
Scotland
–
The
Wallace Monument commemorates
William Wallace, the 13th-century Scottish hero.
46.
Libya
–
The three traditional parts of the country are Tripolitania, Fezzan and Cyrenaica. With an area of almost 1.8 million square kilometres, Libya is the fourth largest country in Africa, Libya has the 10th-largest proven oil reserves of any country in the world. The largest city and capital, Tripoli, is located in western Libya, the other large city is Benghazi, which is located in eastern Libya. Libya has been inhabited by Berbers since the late Bronze Age, the Phoenicians established trading posts in western Libya, and ancient Greek colonists established city-states in eastern Libya. Libya was variously ruled by Carthaginians, Persians, Egyptians and Greeks before becoming a part of the Roman Empire, Libya was an early center of Christianity. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the area of Libya was mostly occupied by the Vandals until the 7th century, in the 16th century, the Spanish Empire and the Knights of St John occupied Tripoli, until Ottoman rule began in 1551. Libya was involved in the Barbary Wars of the 18th and 19th centuries, Ottoman rule continued until the Italian occupation of Libya resulted in the temporary Italian Libya colony from 1911 to 1943. During the Second World War Libya was an important area of warfare in the North African Campaign, the Italian population then went into decline. Libya became an independent kingdom in 1951, a military coup in 1969 overthrew King Idris I, beginning a period of sweeping social reform. Since then, Libya has experienced a period of instability, the European Union is involved in an operation to disrupt human trafficking networks exploiting refugees fleeing from wars in Africa for Europe. At least two political bodies claim to be the government of Libya, the Council of Deputies is internationally recognized as the legitimate government, but it does not hold territory in the capital, Tripoli, instead meeting in the Cyrenaica city of Tobruk. Parts of Libya are outside of either governments control, with various Islamist, rebel, the United Nations is sponsoring peace talks between the Tobruk and Tripoli-based factions. An agreement to form an interim government was signed on 17 December 2015. Under the terms of the agreement, a nine-member Presidency Council, the leaders of the new government, called the Government of National Accord, arrived in Tripoli on 5 April 2016. Since then the GNC, one of the two governments, has disbanded to support the new GNA. The name Libya was introduced in 1934 for Italian Libya, reviving the name for Northwest Africa. The name was based on use in 1903 by Italian geographer Federico Minutilli. It was intended to supplant terms applied to Ottoman Tripolitania, the region of what is today Libya having been ruled by the Ottoman Empire from 1551 to 1911
Libya
–
The temple of
Zeus in the ancient Greek city of
Cyrene.
Libya
–
Flag
Libya
–
The
Atiq Mosque in
Awjila is the oldest mosque in the
Sahara.
Libya
–
The
Siege of Tripoli in 1551 allowed the Ottomans to capture the city from the Knights of St. John.
47.
Equestrian (Roman)
–
A member of the equestrian order was known as an eques. During the Roman kingdom and the 1st century of the Republic, legionary cavalry was recruited exclusively from the ranks of the patricians, around 400 BC,12 more centuriae of cavalry were established and these included non-patricians. Around 300 BC the Samnite Wars obliged Rome to double the annual military levy from two to four legions, doubling the cavalry levy from 600 to 1,200 horses. Legionary cavalry started to recruit wealthier citizens from outside the 18 centuriae and these new recruits came from the First Class of commoners in the centuriate organisation and were not granted the same privileges. By the time of the Second Punic War, all the members of the First Class of commoners were required to serve as cavalrymen. After c.88 BC, equites were no longer drafted into the legionary cavalry and they continued to supply the senior officers of the army throughout the Principate. With the exception of the purely hereditary patricians, the equites were originally defined by a property threshold, in the later Republican period, Roman Senators and their offspring became an unofficial elite within the equestrian order. As senators ability to engage in commerce was limited by law. As well as holding large landed estates, equites came to dominate mining, shipping and manufacturing industry, in particular, tax farming companies were almost all in the hands of equites. Under Augustus, the elite was given formal status with a higher wealth threshold and superior rank. During the Principate, equites filled the senior administrative and military posts of the imperial government, there was a clear division between jobs reserved for senators and those reserved for non-senatorial equites. Senators and equites formed an elite of under 10,000 members who monopolised political, military. This effectively reduced the Italian aristocracy to an idle, but immensely wealthy group of large landowners, during the 4th century, the status of equites was debased to insignificance by excessive grants of the rank. At the same time the ranks of senators were swollen to over 4,000 by the establishment of a second senate in Constantinople, the senatorial order of the 4th century was thus the equivalent of the equestrian order of the Principate. According to Roman legend, Rome was founded by its first king, Romulus, however, archaeological evidence suggests that Rome did not acquire the character of a unified city-state until ca.625 BC. This cavalry regiment was supposedly doubled in size to 600 men by King Tarquinius Priscus and that the cavalry was increased to 600 during the regal era is plausible, as in the early Republic the cavalry fielded remained 600-strong. However, according to Livy, king Servius Tullius established a further 12 centuriae of equites, apparently, equites were originally provided with a sum of money by the state to purchase a horse for military service and for its fodder. This was known as an equus publicus, mommsen argues that the royal cavalry was drawn exclusively from the ranks of the Patricians, the aristocracy of early Rome, which was purely hereditary
Equestrian (Roman)
–
A recreation of equites
Equestrian (Roman)
Equestrian (Roman)
Equestrian (Roman)
48.
Italia (Roman Empire)
–
Roman Italy was created officially by the Roman emperor Augustus with the Latin name Italia. It was the first time in history that the Italian Peninsula was united under the same name, in the year 292, the three islands of Corsica, Sardinia and Sicily were added to Roman Italy by Diocletian. Roman Italy remained united until the sixth century, when it was divided between the Byzantine Empire and territories of the Germanic peoples, since then, Italia remained divided for nearly thirteen centuries until 1861 when it was reunited in a similar way in the modern Kingdom of Italy. Italy was the name of the division of the Italian Peninsula during the Roman era. It was not a province, but became the territory of the city of Rome, following the end of the Social War, Rome had allowed its Italian allies full rights in Roman society and granted the Roman citizenship to all the Italic peoples. Although not founded as a city in 330, Constantinople gained in importance. It finally gained the rank of capital when given an urban prefect in 359. In 402, the capital was moved to Ravenna from Milan, the name Italia covered an area whose borders evolved over time. Under Augustus, the peoples of todays Aosta Valley and of the western and northern Alps were subjugated, and the Italian eastern border was brought to the Arsia in Istria. Finally, in the late 3rd century, Italy came to include the islands of Corsica and Sardinia and Sicily, as well as Raetia, the city of Emona was the easternmost town of Italy. At the beginning of the era, Italy was a collection of territories with different political statuses. Some cities, called municipia, had independence from Rome, while others. The Italian economy flourished, agriculture, handicraft and industry had a sensible growth, the Italian population may have grown as well, three census were ordered by Augustus, to record the number of Roman citizens throughout the empire. The surviving totals were 4,063,000 in 28 BC,4,233,000 in 8 BC, and 4,937,000 in AD14, but it is still debated whether these counted all citizens, all adult male citizens, or citizens sui iuris. During the Crisis of the Third Century the Roman Empire nearly collapsed under the pressures of invasions, military anarchy and civil wars. In 284, emperor Diocletian restored political stability and he carried out thorough administrative reforms to maintain order. He created the so-called Tetrarchy whereby the empire was ruled by four co-emperors and he decreased the size of the Roman provinces by doubling their number to reduce the power of the provincial governors. He grouped the provinces into several dioceses and put them under the supervision of the imperial vicarius, during the Crisis of the Third Century the importance of Rome declined because she was far from the troubled frontiers
Italia (Roman Empire)
–
Italia (northern section) under Augustus and successors
Italia (Roman Empire)
–
Italia (southern section) under Augustus and successors
Italia (Roman Empire)
–
The
Tropaeum Alpium The Victory Monument of the Alps,
La Turbie,
France, marked the augustan border between Italy and
Gaul
49.
Punic
–
The Punics, also known as Carthaginians, were a people from Ancient Carthage in modern-day Tunisia, North Africa, who traced their origins to the Berbers and Phoenicians. Punic is the English adjective derived from the Latin adjective punicus to describe anything Carthaginian and their language, Punic, was a dialect of Phoenician. Unlike their Phoenician ancestors, Carthaginians had an aristocracy who established a rule of the hinterland in Northern Africa. In later times one of these clans established a Hellenistic-inspired empire in Iberia, like other Phoenician people, their urbanized culture and economy were strongly linked to the sea. In the Balearic Islands, Sardinia, Corsica and Sicily they had strong economic and their naval presence and trade extended throughout the Mediterranean and beyond to the British Isles, the Canaries, and West Africa. Technical achievements of the Punic people of Carthage include the development of uncolored glass, after the Punic Wars, Romans used the term Punic as an adjective meaning treacherous. Phoenicians also settled in Northwest Africa and other areas under Carthaginian rule and their culture, Remains of the Punic culture can be found in settlements from the Iberian Peninsula in the West to Cyprus in the East. Punic culture became a melting pot, since Carthage was a big trading port, the Carthaginians carried out significant sea explorations around Africa and elsewhere from their base in Carthage. Carthaginians pushed westerly into the Atlantic and established important settlements in Lixus, Volubilis, Chellah and Mogador, being trade rivals with Magna Graecia, the Carthaginians had several clashes with the Greeks over the island of Sicily in the Sicilian Wars from 600-265 BC. They eventually fought Rome in the Sicilian Wars of 265-146 BC and this enabled a Roman settlement of Africa and eventual domination of the Mediterranean Sea. They were eventually incorporated into the Roman Republic in 146 BC with the destruction of Carthage but Cato never got to see his victory, the destruction of Carthage was not the end of the Carthaginians. After the wars, the city of Carthage was completely razed, there were, however, other Punic cities in North Africa, and Carthage itself was rebuilt and regained some importance, if a shadow of its ancient influence. Although the area was partially romanized and some of the population adopted the Roman religion, the language, people of Punic origin prospered again as traders, merchants and even politicians of the Roman Empire. Septimius Severus, emperor of Rome and a proud Punic, was said to speak Latin with a Punic accent, under his reign Carthaginians rose to the elites and their deities entered their imperial cult. Carthage was rebuilt about 46 BC by Julius Caesar, places in the area were granted for settlement as benefits to soldiers who had served in Roman armies. Carthage again prospered and even became the two trading city in the Roman Empire, until Constantinople took over that position. As Christianity spread in the Roman Empire, it was successful in North Africa. Saint Augustine, born in Thagaste, considered himself Punic, one of his more well known passages reads, It is an excellent thing that the Punic Christians call Baptism itself nothing else but salvation, and the Sacrament of Christs Body nothing else but life
Punic
–
Punic praying statuette, c. 3rd century B.C.
.jpg)
Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Septimius Severus". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "
