1.
Temple of Concordia, Agrigento
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The Temple of Concordia is an ancient Greek temple in the Valle dei Templi in Agrigento on the south coast of Sicily, Italy. It is the largest and best-preserved Doric temple in Sicily and one of the best-preserved Greek temples in general, the well-preserved peristasis of six by thirteen columns stands on a crepidoma of four steps The cella measures 28.36 m ×9.4 m. The columns are 6 m high and carved with twenty flutes and it is constructed, like the nearby Temple of Juno, on a solid base designed to overcome the unevenness of the rocky terrain. It has been named after Concordia, the Roman goddess of harmony, for the Roman-era Latin inscription found nearby. The spaces between the columns were filled with walling, altering its Classical Greek form, the Christian refurbishments were removed during the restoration of 1785. According to another source, the Prince of Torremuzza transferred the altar elsewhere, according to authors of a 2007 article, it is apart from the Parthenon, the best preserved Doric temple in the world. Bibliography Barone, P. M. Graziano, F. Pettinelli, E. Corradini, ground-penetrating radar investigations into the construction techniques of the Concordia Temple
2.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
3.
Roman temple
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Ancient Roman temples were among the most important buildings in Roman culture, and some of the richest buildings in Roman architecture, though only a few survive in any sort of complete state. Today they remain the most obvious symbol of Roman architecture and their construction and maintenance was a major part of ancient Roman religion, and all towns of any importance had at least one main temple, as well as smaller shrines. The main room housed the image of the deity to whom the temple was dedicated. Behind the cella was a room or rooms used by attendants for storage of equipment. The ordinary worshipper rarely entered the cella, and most public ceremonies were performed outside, on the portico, with a crowd gathered in the temple precinct. The most common architectural plan had a rectangular temple raised on a podium, with a clear front with a portico at the top of steps. The sides and rear of the building had much less architectural emphasis, there were also circular plans, generally with columns all round, and outside Italy there were many compromises with traditional local styles. The Roman form of temple developed initially from Etruscan temples, themselves influenced by the Greeks, public religious ceremonies of the official Roman religion took place outdoors, and not within the temple building. Some ceremonies were processions that started at, visited, or ended with a temple or shrine, sacrifices, chiefly of animals, would take place at an open-air altar within the templum. Especially under the Empire, exotic foreign cults gained followers in Rome and these often had very different practices, some preferring underground places of worship, while others, like Early Christians, worshipped in houses. The decline of Roman religion was relatively slow, and the temples themselves were not appropriated by the government until a decree of the Emperor Honorius in 415. Santi Cosma e Damiano, in the Roman Forum, originally the Temple of Romulus, was not dedicated as a church until 527. The best known is the Pantheon, Rome, which is however highly untypical, being a large circular temple with a magnificent concrete roof. The English word temple derives from the Latin templum, which was not the building itself. The Roman architect Vitruvius always uses the word templum to refer to the sacred precinct, the more common Latin words for a temple or shrine were sacellum, aedes, delubrum, and fanum. The Etruscans were a people of northern Italy, whose civilization was at its peak in the seventh century BC, the Etruscans were already influenced by early Greek architecture, so Roman temples were distinctive but with both Etruscan and Greek features. Especially in the periods, further statuary might be placed on the roof. As in the Maison Carrée, columns at the side might be half-columns and these steps were normally only at the front, and typically not the whole width of that
4.
Rome
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Rome is a special comune and the capital of Italy. Rome also serves as the capital of the Lazio region, with 2,873,598 residents in 1,285 km2, it is also the countrys largest and most populated comune and fourth-most populous city in the European Union by population within city limits. It is the center of the Metropolitan City of Rome, which has a population of 4.3 million residents, the city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, within Lazio, along the shores of the Tiber. Romes history spans more than 2,500 years, while Roman mythology dates the founding of Rome at only around 753 BC, the site has been inhabited for much longer, making it one of the oldest continuously occupied sites in Europe. The citys early population originated from a mix of Latins, Etruscans and it was first called The Eternal City by the Roman poet Tibullus in the 1st century BC, and the expression was also taken up by Ovid, Virgil, and Livy. Rome is also called the Caput Mundi, due to that, Rome became first one of the major centres of the Italian Renaissance, and then the birthplace of both the Baroque style and Neoclassicism. Famous artists, painters, sculptors and architects made Rome the centre of their activity, in 1871 Rome became the capital of the Kingdom of Italy, and in 1946 that of the Italian Republic. Rome has the status of a global city, Rome ranked in 2014 as the 14th-most-visited city in the world, 3rd most visited in the European Union, and the most popular tourist attraction in Italy. Its historic centre is listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site, monuments and museums such as the Vatican Museums and the Colosseum are among the worlds most visited tourist destinations with both locations receiving millions of tourists a year. Rome hosted the 1960 Summer Olympics and is the seat of United Nations Food, however, it is a possibility that the name Romulus was actually derived from Rome itself. As early as the 4th century, there have been alternate theories proposed on the origin of the name Roma. There is archaeological evidence of occupation of the Rome area from approximately 14,000 years ago. Evidence of stone tools, pottery and stone weapons attest to about 10,000 years of human presence, several excavations support the view that Rome grew from pastoral settlements on the Palatine Hill built above the area of the future Roman Forum. Between the end of the age and the beginning of the Iron age. However, none of them had yet an urban quality, nowadays, there is a wide consensus that the city was gradually born through the aggregation of several villages around the largest one, placed above the Palatine. All these happenings, which according to the excavations took place more or less around the mid of the 8th century BC. Despite recent excavations at the Palatine hill, the view that Rome has been indeed founded with an act of will as the legend suggests in the middle of the 8th century BC remains a fringe hypothesis. Traditional stories handed down by the ancient Romans themselves explain the earliest history of their city in terms of legend and myth
5.
Concordia (mythology)
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In ancient Roman religion, Concordia is the goddess who embodies agreement in marriage and society. Her Greek equivalent is usually regarded as Harmonia, with musical harmony a metaphor for an ideal of social concord or entente in the discourse of the Republican era. She was thus associated with Pax in representing a stable society. As such, she is closely related to the Greek concept of homonoia. Concordia Augusta was cultivated in the context of Imperial cult, dedicatory inscriptions to her, on behalf of emperors and members of the imperial family, were common. In art, Concordia was depicted sitting, wearing a cloak and holding onto a patera. She was often shown in two other figures, such as standing between two members of the Imperial family shaking hands. She was associated with a pair of deities, such as Pax and Salus, or Securitas. She was also paired with Hercules and Mercury, representing Security, the oldest Temple of Concord, built in 367 BC by Marcus Furius Camillus, stood on the Roman Forum. It must have been destroyed when the temple was enlarged by Opimius in 121 BC. one built on the arx. A temple to Concordia Nova, marking the end Julius Caesar had brought to civil war and it was voted by the senate in 44 BC. but was possibly never built. A temple built by Livia according to Ovids Fasti VI. 637‑638, in Pompeii, the high priestess Eumachia dedicated a building to Concordia Augusta. Harmonians and some Discordians equate Concordia with Aneris and her opposite is thus Discordia, or the Greek Eris. The asteroid 58 Concordia is named after her
6.
Roman Forum
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The Roman Forum is a rectangular forum surrounded by the ruins of several important ancient government buildings at the center of the city of Rome. Citizens of the ancient city referred to this space, originally a marketplace, as the Forum Magnum, here statues and monuments commemorated the citys great men. The teeming heart of ancient Rome, it has called the most celebrated meeting place in the world. Many of the oldest and most important structures of the ancient city were located on or near the Forum, the Roman kingdoms earliest shrines and temples were located on the southeastern edge. Other archaic shrines to the northwest, such as the Umbilicus Urbis and this is where the Senate—as well as Republican government itself—began. The Senate House, government offices, tribunals, temples, memorials, over time the archaic Comitium was replaced by the larger adjacent Forum and the focus of judicial activity moved to the new Basilica Aemilia. Some 130 years later, Julius Caesar built the Basilica Julia, along with the new Curia Julia, eventually much economic and judicial business would transfer away from the Forum Romanum to the larger and more extravagant structures to the north. The reign of Constantine the Great saw the construction of the last major expansion of the Forum complex—the Basilica of Maxentius and this returned the political center to the Forum until the fall of the Western Roman Empire almost two centuries later. This is the case despite attempts, with success, to impose some order there, by Sulla, Julius Caesar, Augustus. By the Imperial period, the public buildings that crowded around the central square had reduced the open area to a rectangle of about 130 by 50 metres. Its long dimension was oriented northwest to southeast and extended from the foot of the Capitoline Hill to that of the Velian Hill, the Forums basilicas during the Imperial period—the Basilica Aemilia on the north and the Basilica Julia on the south—defined its long sides and its final form. The Forum proper included this square, the buildings facing it and, sometimes, originally, the site of the Forum had been a marshy lake where waters from the surrounding hills drained. This was drained by the Tarquins with the Cloaca Maxima, because of its location, sediments from both the flooding of the Tiber and the erosion of the surrounding hills have been raising the level of the Forum floor for centuries. Excavated sequences of remains of paving show that sediment eroded from the hills was already raising the level in early Republican times. As the ground around buildings rose, residents simply paved over the debris that was too much to remove and its final travertine paving, still visible, dates from the reign of Augustus. Excavations in the 19th century revealed one layer on top of another, the deepest level excavated was 3.60 metres above sea level. Archaeological finds show human activity at that level with the discovery of carbonised wood, an important function of the Forum, during both Republican and Imperial times, was to serve as the culminating venue for the celebratory military processions known as Triumphs. Victorious generals entered the city by the western Triumphal Gate and circumnavigated the Palatine Hill before proceeding from the Velian Hill down the Via Sacra, from here they would mount the Capitoline Rise up to the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus on the summit of the Capitol
7.
Marcus Furius Camillus
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Marcus Furius Camillus was a Roman soldier and statesman of patrician descent. According to Livy and Plutarch, Camillus triumphed four times, was five times dictator, Camillus belonged to the lineage of the Furii Camilli, whose origin had been in the Latin city of Tusculum. Although this city had been an enemy of the Romans in the 490s BC, after both the Volsci and Aequi later began to wage war against Rome, Tusculum joined Rome. Soon, the Furii integrated into Roman society, accumulating a long series of magistrate offices, thus the Furii had become an important Roman family by the 450s. The father of Camillus was Lucius Furius Medullinus, a tribune of consular powers. Camillus had more than three brothers, the eldest one was Lucius junior, who was consul and tribune of consular powers. The Latin noun camillus denoted a child acolyte at religious rituals, during Camilluss infancy, his relative Quintus Furius Paculus was the Roman Pontifex Maximus. The military tribunes with consular authority or consular tribunes, were elected with consular power during the so-called Conflict of the Orders in the Roman Republic. Consular tribunes served in 444 BC and then continuously from 408 BC to 394 BC, the office was created, along with the magistracy of the censor, in order to give the plebeian order access to higher levels of government without having to reform the office of consul. At that time in Romes history, plebeians could not be elected to the highest magistracy of Consul, Camillus had been a noteworthy soldier in the wars with the Aequi and Volsci. Subsequently, Camillus was a military tribune, in 403 BC, he was appointed censor with Marcus Postumius Albinus Regillensis and, by means of extensive taxation, took action to solve financial problems resulting from incessant military campaigns. In 406 BC, Rome declared war against the rival Etrurian city of Veii, the city of Veii was powerful and was located on a well-fortified and elevated site. This required the Romans to commence a siege lasting several years, in 401 BC, as the war started to grow increasingly unpopular in Rome, Camillus was appointed consular tribune. He assumed command of the Roman army, and within a time he stormed two allies of Veii, Falerii and Capena, which resisted behind their walls. In 398 BC, Camillus received consular tribune powers and then looted Capena, when Rome suffered severe defeats in 396 BC, the tenth year of this war, the Romans resorted again to Camillus, who was named dictator for the first time. After defeating both Falerii and Capena at Nepete, Camillus commanded the final strike against Veii and he dug the soft ground below the walls and the Romans infiltrated through the citys sewage system effectively, defeating the enemy. Not interested in capitulation terms, but in Veiis complete destruction, for the battle, Camillus had invoked the protection of Mater Matuta extensively, and he looted the statue of Juno for Rome. Back in Rome, Camillus paraded on a quadriga, a chariot
8.
Vulcanal
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The Shrine of Vulcan, or Vulcanal, or Volcanal, was an 8th-century BC sacred precinct on the future site of the Roman Forum. This famous merger of the hill-villages was said to be the foundation of the Roman state, the original Vulcanal was an open-air altar on the slopes of the Capitoline Hill in Rome in the area that would later become the Comitium and Roman Forum. It was located in the open here, between the hill-villages, in the days before Rome existed, because the god was considered to be too destructive to be located anywhere near an occupied house. It contained a tree and cypress tree long honored as being older than the city of Rome itself. According to literary sources, the site featured a sculpture of a four-horse chariot celebrating Romulus victory over the Caeninenses —. This was later supplemented with a statue of king, inscribed with Greek letters. In addition to its function as a place of worship, the Vulcanal became the Assembly place during the Roman monarchy in the days before the Comitium and Old Rostra existed. According to longstanding Roman tradition, the Vulcanal served as the platform at this time. The archaic site had long been reverently preserved when, in 9 AD, the Emperor Domitian did likewise, presenting a new marble-faced altar and sacrificing a red calf and boar. The precise location of the Vulcanal within what is now the west end of the Roman Forum is not completely settled, two sites have been seriously proposed. Giacomo Boni, who excavated extensively in this area in 1899-1905 and this is just behind the Umbilicus Urbi and the New Rostra. Boni uncovered a shrine here that had been cut directly out of the natural tufa and had tufa blocks defining a precinct area. This excavated site is about 13 by 9 feet, but the original Vulcanal is thought to have somewhat larger. Bonis identification of this spot as the Vulcanal stood virtually unchallenged for over 80 years, in 1983, however, Filippo Coarelli associated the Vulcanal with the site that by Imperial times had become known as the Lapis Niger. This archaic sacred site may have more or less contemporary with the Vulcanal. An altar had also found here and Coarelli suggested that the Vulcanal may not only have been associated with it. Coarellis hypothesis has received a mixed reception, was also big enough to include a bronze aedicula. List of monuments of the Roman Forum
9.
Tiberius
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Tiberius was a Roman Emperor from 14 AD to 37 AD. Born Tiberius Claudius Nero, a Claudian, Tiberius was the son of Tiberius Claudius Nero and his mother divorced Nero and married Octavian, later known as Augustus, in 39 BC, making him a step-son of Octavian. Tiberius would later marry Augustus daughter, Julia the Elder, and even later be adopted by Augustus, by which act he officially became a Julian, bearing the name Tiberius Julius Caesar. The subsequent emperors after Tiberius would continue this blended dynasty of both families for the thirty years, historians have named it the Julio-Claudian dynasty. In relations to the emperors of this dynasty, Tiberius was the stepson of Augustus, grand-uncle of Caligula, paternal uncle of Claudius. Tiberius was one of Romes greatest generals, his conquest of Pannonia, Dalmatia, Raetia, and temporarily, parts of Germania, laid the foundations for the northern frontier. But he came to be remembered as a dark, reclusive, and sombre ruler who never really desired to be emperor, Pliny the Elder called him tristissimus hominum, after the death of Tiberius’ son Drusus Julius Caesar in 23 AD, he became more reclusive and aloof. In 26 AD Tiberius removed himself from Rome and left largely in the hands of his unscrupulous Praetorian Prefects Lucius Aelius Sejanus and Quintus Naevius Sutorius Macro. Caligula, Tiberius grand-nephew and adopted grandson, succeeded Tiberius upon his death, Tiberius was born in Rome on 16 November 42 BC to Tiberius Claudius Nero and Livia Drusilla. In 39 BC his mother divorced his father and remarried Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus shortly thereafter. In 38 BC his brother, Nero Claudius Drusus, was born, little is recorded of Tiberiuss early life. In 32 BC Tiberius at the age of nine, delivered the eulogy for his father at the rostra. In 29 BC, both he rode in the chariot along with their adoptive father Octavian in celebration of the defeat of Antony. In 23 BC Emperor Augustus became gravely ill and his possible death threatened to plunge the Roman world into chaos again, in response, a series of potential heirs seem to have been selected, among them Tiberius and his brother Drusus. Similar provisions were made for Drusus, shortly thereafter Tiberius began appearing in court as an advocate, and it is presumably here that his interest in Greek rhetoric began. In 20 BC, Tiberius was sent East under Marcus Agrippa, the Parthians had captured the standards of the legions under the command of Marcus Licinius Crassus, Decidius Saxa, and Marc Antony. Augustus was able to reach a compromise whereby the standards were returned, Tiberius married Vipsania Agrippina, the daughter of Augustus’s close friend and greatest general, Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa. He was appointed to the position of praetor, and sent with his legions to assist his brother Drusus in campaigns in the west
10.
Tribune of the Plebs
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The tribunes of the plebs were sacrosanct, meaning that any assault on their person was prohibited by law. In imperial times, the powers of the tribunate were granted to the emperor as a matter of course, during the day the tribunes used to sit on the tribune benches on the Forum Romanum. Fifteen years after the expulsion of the kings and establishment of the Roman Republic, a series of clashes between the people and the ruling patricians in 495 and 494 BC brought the plebeians to the brink of revolt, and there was talk of assassinating the consuls. Instead, on the advice of Lucius Sicinius Vellutus, the plebeians seceded en masse to the Mons Sacer, the senate agreeing to these terms, the people returned to the city. The first tribuni plebis were Lucius Albinius Paterculus and Gaius Licinius, soon afterward, the tribunes themselves appointed Sicinius and two others as their colleagues. However, they functioned very much like magistrates of the Roman state and they could convene the concilium plebis, which was entitled to pass legislation affecting the plebeians alone, and beginning in 493 BC to elect the plebeian tribunes and aediles. From the institution of the tribunate, any one of the tribunes of the plebs was entitled preside over this assembly, the tribunes were entitled to propose legislation before the assembly. By the third century BC, the also had the right to call the senate to order. Ius intercessionis, or intercessio, the power of the tribunes to intercede on behalf of the plebeians, because they were not technically magistrates, and thus possessed no maior potestas, they relied on their sacrosanctity to obstruct actions unfavourable to the plebeians. Being sacrosanct, no person could harm the tribunes or interfere with their activities, to do so, or to disregard the veto of a tribune, was punishable by death, and the tribunes could order the death of persons who violated their sacrosanctity. This could be used as a protection when a tribune needed to arrest someone and this sacrosanctity also made the tribunes independent of all magistrates, no magistrate could veto the action of a tribune. If a magistrate, the senate, or any other assembly disregarded the orders of a tribune, only a dictator was exempted from the veto power. Tribunes also possessed the authority to enforce the right of provocatio ad populum and this entitled a citizen to appeal the actions of a magistrate by shouting, ego te provoco. Once invoked, this right required one of the tribunes to assess the situation, any action taken in defiance of this right was illegal on its face. Although a tribune could veto any action of the magistrates, senate, or other assemblies, once the tribune was no longer present, the action could be completed as if the veto had not occurred. Because the sacrosanctity of the depended on the oath of the plebeians to defend them. A tribune traveling abroad could not rely on his authority to intervene on behalf of the plebeians, for this reason, the activities of the tribunes were normally confined to the city itself, and a one-mile radius beyond. The reconciliation of the patricians and plebeians brought about by the institution of the tribunate in 493 BC was temporary, in 462, the tribune Gaius Terentillius Arsa alleged that the consular government had become even more oppressive than the monarchy that it had replaced
11.
Roman consul
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A consul was the highest elected political office of the Roman Republic, and the consulship was considered the highest level of the cursus honorum. Each year, two consuls were elected together, to serve for a one-year term, the consuls alternated in holding imperium each month, and a consuls imperium extended over Rome, Italy, and the provinces. Originally, consuls were called praetors, referring to their duties as the military commanders. By at least 300 BC the title of Consul was being used, in Greek, the title was originally rendered as στρατηγός ὕπατος, strategos hypatos, and later simply as ὕπατος. The consul was believed by the Romans to date back to the establishment of the Republic in 509 BC. These remained in place until the office was abolished in 367/366 BC, consuls had extensive powers in peacetime, and in wartime often held the highest military command. Additional religious duties included certain rites which, as a sign of their formal importance, consuls also read auguries, an essential step before leading armies into the field. Two consuls were elected each year, serving together, each with power over the others actions. It is thought that only patricians were eligible for the consulship. Consuls were elected by the Comitia Centuriata, which had a bias in its voting structure which only increased over the years from its foundation. If a consul died during his term or was removed from office, a consul elected to start the year - called a consul ordinarius - held more prestige than a suffect consul, partly because the year would be named for ordinary consuls. The first plebeian consul, Lucius Sextius, was elected the following year and it is possible that only the chronology has been distorted, but it seems that one of the first consuls, Lucius Junius Brutus, came from a plebeian family. Another possible explanation is that during the 5th century social struggles, during times of war, the primary qualification for consul was military skill and reputation, but at all times the selection was politically charged. With the passage of time, the became the normal endpoint of the cursus honorum. When Lucius Cornelius Sulla regulated the cursus by law, the age of election to consul became. Beginning in the late Republic, after finishing a year, a former consul would usually serve a lucrative term as a proconsul. The most commonly chosen province for the proconsulship was Cisalpine Gaul, throughout the early years of the Principate although the consuls were still formally elected by the Comitia Centuriata, they were in fact nominated by the princeps. It was a post that would be occupied by a man halfway through his career, in his early thirties for a patrician, emperors frequently appointed themselves, or their protégés or relatives, consuls, even without regard to the age requirements
12.
Plebs
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In ancient Rome, the plebs was the general body of free Roman citizens who were not patricians, as determined by the census. From the 4th century BC or earlier, they were known as commoners, literary references to the plebs, however, usually mean the ordinary citizens of Rome as a whole, as distinguished from the elite—a sense retained by plebeian in English. In the very earliest days of Rome, plebeians were any tribe or clan without advisers to the King, in time, the word – which is related to the Greek word for crowd, plethos – came to mean the common people. In Latin the word plebs is a collective noun. The 19th-century historian Barthold Georg Niebuhr held that plebeians began to appear at Rome during the reign of Ancus Marcius and were possibly foreigners settling in Rome as naturalized citizens. In any case, at the outset of the Roman Republic, Plebeians were excluded from magistracies and religious colleges, and they were not permitted to know the laws by which they were governed. Plebeians served in the army, but rarely became military leaders, from the mid-4th century to the early 3rd century BC, several plebeian–patrician tickets for the consulship repeated joint terms, suggesting a deliberate political strategy of cooperation. Although nobilitas was not a social rank during the Republican era. Such a man was a homo, a new man or self-made noble and his sons. Marius and Cicero are notable examples of novi homines in the late Republic, when many of Romes richest and most powerful men—such as Lucullus, Crassus, and Pompeius—were plebeian nobles. Some or perhaps many noble plebeians, including Cicero and Lucullus, by contrast, the populares or peoples party, which sought to champion the plebs in the sense of common people, were sometimes led by patricians such as Julius Caesar and Clodius Pulcher. In the U. S. military, Plebes are freshmen at the U. S, Military Academy, U. S. Naval Academy, Valley Forge Military Academy, the Marine Military Academy, the U. S. Merchant Marine Academy, Georgia Military College, California Maritime Academy, the term is also used for new cadets at the Philippine Military Academy. Early public schools in the United Kingdom would enroll pupils as plebeians as opposed to sons of gentry, vulgarism Bread and circuses Capite censi Plebeian Council Plebgate – a scandal in the United Kingdom in 2012 Proletariat Roman Republic Jackson J. Spielvogel. Smiths Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, article Plebs Livius. org, Plebs Texts on Wikisource, Plebeians
13.
Roman magistrate
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The Roman magistrates were elected officials in Ancient Rome. During the period of the Roman Kingdom, the King of Rome was the executive magistrate. His power, in practice, was absolute and he was the chief priest, lawgiver, judge, and the sole commander of the army. When the king died, his power reverted to the Roman Senate, during the transition from monarchy to republic, the constitutional balance of power shifted from the executive to the Roman Senate. When the Roman Republic was founded in 509 BC, the powers that had held by the king were transferred to the Roman consuls. Magistrates of the republic were elected by the people of Rome, Dictators had more major powers than any other magistrate, and after the Dictator was the censor, and then the consul, and then the praetor, and then the curule aedile, and then the quaestor. Any magistrate could obstruct an action that was being taken by a magistrate with an equal or lower degree of magisterial powers, during the transition from republic to empire, the constitutional balance of power shifted from the Roman Senate back to the executive. Theoretically, the senate elected each new emperor, in practice each emperor chose his own successor, the powers of an emperor existed, in theory at least, by virtue of his legal standing. The two most significant components to an emperors imperium were the powers and the proconsular powers. In theory at least, the tribunician powers gave the authority over Romes civil government. While these distinctions were clearly defined during the empire, eventually they were lost. The traditional magistracies that survived the fall of the republic were the consulship, praetorship, plebeian tribunate, aedileship, quaestorship, and military tribunate. Mark Antony abolished the offices of Roman dictator and Master of the Horse during his Consulship in 44 BC, while the offices of Interrex, the executive magistrates of the Roman Kingdom were elected officials of the ancient Roman Kingdom. During the period of the Roman Kingdom, the Roman King was the executive magistrate. He was the executive, chief priest, chief lawgiver, chief judge. His powers rested on law and legal precedent, and he could receive these powers through the political process of an election. In practice, he had no restrictions on his power. When war broke out, he had the power to organize and levy troops, to select leaders for the army
14.
Roman dictator
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A dictator was a magistrate of the Roman Republic, entrusted with the full authority of the state to deal with a military emergency or to undertake a specific duty. All other magistrates were subordinate to his imperium, and the right of the tribunes to veto his actions or of the people to appeal from them was extremely limited. The office was abolished after the death of Caesar. With the abolition of the Roman monarchy in 509 BC, the imperium, or executive power, in time they would come to be known as consuls, although probably not until the creation of a third, junior praetor in 367 BC. Neither consul was superior to the other, and the decisions of one could be appealed to the other, according to most authorities, the first dictator was Titus Lartius, who appointed Spurius Cassius his magister equitum. His lieutenant, the magister equitum, was the master of the horse, however, the use of dictator to refer to the magister populi seems to have been widespread from a very early period. The appointment of a dictator involved three steps, first, the Senate would issue a decree known as a senatus consultum, technically, a senatus consultum was advisory, and did not have the force of law, but in practice it was nearly always followed. Either consul could nominate a dictator, if both consuls were available, the dictator was chosen by agreement, if they could not agree, the consuls would draw lots for the responsibility. Finally, the Comitia Curiata would be called upon to confer imperium on the dictator through the passage of a law known as a lex de imperio. A dictator could be nominated for different reasons, or causa and these reasons could be combined, but are not always recorded or clearly stated in ancient authorities, and must instead be inferred. In the earlier period it was customary to nominate someone whom the consul considered the best available military commander, often this was a former consul, however, from 360 BC onward, the dictators were usually consulares. Normally there was only one dictator at a time, although a new dictator could be appointed following the resignation of another. A dictator could be compelled to resign his office without accomplishing his task or serving out his term if there were found to be a fault in the auspices under which he had been nominated. Like other curule magistrates, the dictator was entitled to the toga praetexta, in a notable exception to the Roman reluctance to reconstitute the symbols of the kings, the lictors of the dictator never removed the axes from their fasces, even within the pomerium. Symbolizing their power over life and death, the axes of a dictators lictors set him apart from all other magistrates, in an extraordinary sign of deference, the lictors of other magistrates could not bear fasces at all when appearing before the dictator. As the kings had been accustomed to appear on horseback, this right was forbidden to the dictator, unless he first received permission from the comitia. In addition to holding a command and carrying out the actions decreed by the Senate. The full extent of the power was considerable, but not unlimited
15.
Gauls
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The Gauls were Celtic peoples inhabiting Gaul in the Iron Age and the Roman period. Their Gaulish language forms the branch of the Continental Celtic languages. The Gauls emerged around the 5th century BC as the bearers of the La Tène culture north of the Alps, Gaul was never united under a single ruler or government, but the Gallic tribes were capable of uniting their forces in large-scale military operations. They reached the peak of their power in the early 3rd century BC, after this, Gaul became a province of the Roman Empire, and the Gauls were culturally assimilated into a Gallo-Roman culture, losing their tribal identities by the end of the 1st century AD. The Gauls of Gallia Celtica according to the testimony of Caesar called themselves Celtae in their own language, the name Gaul itself may be derived from Latin Galli, or it may be derived from the Germanic word Walha. Gaulish culture developed out of the Celtic cultures over the first millennia BC, the Urnfield culture represents the Celts as a distinct cultural branch of the Indo-European-speaking people. The spread of iron working led to the Hallstatt culture in the 8th century BC, the Hallstatt culture evolved into the La Tène culture in around the 5th century BC. The Greek and Etruscan civilizations and colonies began to influence the Gauls especially in the Mediterranean area, Gauls under Brennus invaded Rome circa 390 BC. Following the climate deterioration in the late Nordic Bronze Age, Celtic Gaul was invaded in the 5th century BC by tribes later called Gauls originating in the Rhine valley. Gallic invaders settled the Po Valley in the 4th century BC, defeated Roman forces in a battle under Brennus in 390 BC and raided Italy as far as Sicily. A large number of Gauls served in the armies of Carthage during the Punic Wars, in the Aegean world, an invasion of Eastern Gauls appeared in Thrace, north of Greece, in 281 BC. However, according to the Roman legend of the gold of Delphi. One king Cerethrius invaded the Thracians, while another Gallic king Bolgios invaded Macedonia and Illyria where he killed the Macedonian king Ptolemy Keraunos, in 278 BC Gaulish settlers in the Balkans were invited by Nicomedes I of Bithynia to help him in a dynastic struggle against his brother. They numbered about 10,000 fighting men and about the number of women and children. They were eventually defeated by the Seleucid king Antiochus I, in a battle where the Seleucid war elephants shocked the Galatians. While the momentum of the invasion was broken, the Galatians were by no means exterminated and continued to demand tribute from the Hellenistic states of Anatolia to avoid war,4,000 Galatians were hired as mercenaries by the Ptolemaic Egyptian king Ptolemy II Philadelphus in the 270 BC. According to Pausanias, soon after arrival the Celts plotted “to seize Egypt, ”, Galatians also participated at the victorious in 217 BC Battle of Raphia under Ptolemy IV Philopator, and continued to serve as mercenaries for the Ptolemaic Dynasty until its demise in 30 BC. They sided with the renegade Seleucid prince Antiochus Hierax, who reigned in Asia Minor, after the defeat, the Galatians continued to be a serious threat to the states of Asia Minor
16.
Livy
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Livy and Augustuss wife, Livia, were from the same clan in different locations, although not related by blood. Livy was born as Titus Livius in Patavium in northern Italy, there is a debate about the year of Titus Livius birth,64 BC or more likely 59 BC. At the time of his birth, his city of Patavium was the second wealthiest on the Italian peninsula. Patavium was a part of the province of Cisalpine Gaul at the time, in his works, Livy often expressed his deep affection and pride for Patavium, and the city was well known for its conservative values in morality and politics. Livy’s teen years were during the 40s BC, a time that coincided with the wars that were occurring throughout the Roman world. The governor of Cisalpine Gaul at the time, a man called Asinius Pollio, had tried to bring Patavium into the camp of Marcus Antonius, the wealthier citizens of Patavium refused to contribute money and arms to Asinius Pollio, and went into hiding. Therefore, Livy and the residents of Patavium did not end up supporting Marcus Antonius in his campaign for control over Rome. Later on, Asinius Pollio made a jibe at Livys patavinity and his jibe at Livy and his patavinity, however, may have been said because the city of Patavium had rejected Asinius Pollio, and he still harboured harsh feelings toward the city as a whole. Titus Livius probably went to Rome in the 30s BC, and it is likely that he spent an amount of time in the city after this. During his time in Rome, he was never a senator nor held any other governmental position and his elementary mistakes in military matters show that he was never a soldier. However, he was educated in philosophy and rhetoric and it seems that Livy had the financial resources and means to live an independent life. He devoted a part of his life to his writings. Livy was known to give recitations to small audiences, but he was not heard of to engage in declamation and he was familiar with the emperor Augustus, formerly Octavian, and the imperial family. Octavian was one of the three men fighting for the control of Rome during the Civil Wars in the 40s BC, Octavian gained power after defeating Marcus Antonius and Cleopatra, and was later given the honorary name of Augustus. Considering that Augustus came to be known as the greatest Roman emperor in the eyes of the Romans and it is said that Livy was the one who encouraged the future emperor Claudius, who was born in 10 BC, to explore the writing of history during his childhood. Livy himself was married and had at least one daughter and one son, Livy’s most famous work was his history of Rome. In it he explains the history of the city of Rome. Because he was writing under the emperor Augustus, Livy’s history emphasizes the great triumphs of Rome and he wrote his history with embellished accounts of Roman heroism in order to promote the new type of government implemented by Augustus when he became emperor
17.
Vulcan (mythology)
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Vulcan is the god of fire including the fire of volcanoes, metalworking, and the forge in ancient Roman religion and myth. Vulcan is often depicted with a blacksmiths hammer, the Vulcanalia was the annual festival held August 23 in his honor. His Greek counterpart is Hephaestus, the god of fire and smithery, in Etruscan religion, he is identified with Sethlans. The origin of the name is unclear, Roman tradition maintained that it was related to Latin words connected to lightning, which in turn was thought of as related to flames. This interpretation is supported by Walter William Skeat in his dictionary as meaning lustre. It has been supposed that his name was not Latin but related to that of the Cretan god Velchanos, a god of nature, wolfgang Meid has refused this identification as phantastic. More recently this etymology has been taken up by Gérard Capdeville who finds a continuity between Cretan Minoan god Velchanos and Etruscan Velchans, the Minoan gods identity would be that of a young deity, master of fire and companion of the Great Goddess. Christian Guyonvarch has proposed the identification with the Irish name Olcan, vasily Abaev compares it with the Ossetic Wærgon, a variant of the name of Kurdalægon, the smith of the Nart saga. Since the name in its normal form Kurdalægon is stable and has a clear meaning, the Volcanalia sacrifice was offered here to Vulcan, on August 23. Vulcan also had a temple on the Campus Martius, which was in existence by 214 BC, the Romans identified Vulcan with the Greek smith-god Hephaestus. Vulcan became associated like his Greek counterpart with the use of fire in metalworking. A fragment of a Greek pot showing Hephaestus found at the Volcanal has been dated to the 6th century BC, however, Vulcan had a stronger association than Hephaestus with fires destructive capacity, and a major concern of his worshippers was to encourage the god to avert harmful fires. The festival of Vulcan, the Vulcanalia, was celebrated on August 23 each year, during the festival bonfires were created in honour of the god, into which live fish or small animals were thrown as a sacrifice, to be consumed in the place of humans. It is recorded that during the Vulcanalia people used to hang their cloths and this habit might reflect a theological connection between Vulcan and the divinized Sun. Another custom observed on this day required that one should start working by the light of a candle, probably to propitiate a beneficial use of fire by the god. In addition to the Volcanalia of August 23, the date of May 23, a flamen, one of the flamines minores, named flamen Volcanalis was in charge of the cult of the god. The flamen Volcanalis officiated at a sacrifice to the goddess Maia, Vulcan was among the gods placated after the Great Fire of Rome in AD64. In response to the fire, Domitian established a new altar to Vulcan on the Quirinal Hill
18.
Aedile
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Aedile was an office of the Roman Republic. Based in Rome, the aediles were responsible for maintenance of public buildings and they also had powers to enforce public order. An aedilis curulis was classified as a magister curulis, the office of the aedilis was generally held by young men intending to follow the cursus honorum to high political office, traditionally after their quaestorship but before their praetorship. It was not a part of the cursus, and hence a former quaestor could be elected to the praetorship without having held the position of aedile. The plebeian aediles were created in the year as the Tribunes of the People. Originally intended as assistants to the tribunes, they guarded the rights of the plebs with respect to their headquarters, subsequently, they assumed responsibility for maintenance of the citys buildings as a whole. Their duties at first were simply ministerial and they were the assistants to the tribunes in whatever matters that the tribunes might entrust to them, although most matters with which they were entrusted were of minimal importance. Around 446 BC, they were given the authority to care for the decrees of the senate, when a senatus consultum was passed, it would be transcribed into a document, and deposited in the public treasury, the Aerarium. They were given power because the Roman Consuls, who had held this power before. They also maintained the acts of the Plebeian Council, the plebiscites, plebiscites, once passed, were also transcribed into a physical document for storage. While their powers grew over time, it is not always easy to distinguish the difference between their powers, and those of the Roman Censors, occasionally, if a Censor was unable to carry out one of his tasks, an Aedile would perform the task instead. Curule Aediles, as magistrates, held certain honors that Plebeian Aediles. Besides having the right to sit on a Curule Chair and to wear a toga praetexta and these edicts often pertained to matters such as the regulation of the public markets, or what we might call economic regulation. Livy suggests, perhaps incorrectly, that both Curule as well as Plebeian Aediles were sacrosanct, although the curule aediles always ranked higher than the plebeian, their functions gradually approximated and became practically identical. Within five days after the beginning of their terms, the four Aediles were required to determine, by lot or by agreement among themselves, there was a distinction between the two sets of Aediles when it came to public festivals. Some festivals were Plebeian in nature, and thus were under the superintendence of Plebeian Aediles, other festivals were supervised exclusively by the Curule Aediles, and it was often with these festivals that the Aediles would spend lavishly. This was often done so as to secure the support of voters in future elections, because Aediles were not reimbursed for any of their public expenditures, most individuals who sought the office were independently wealthy. Since this office was a stone to higher office and the Senate
19.
Roman Senate
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The Roman Senate was a political institution in ancient Rome. It was one of the most enduring institutions in Roman history, during the days of the kingdom, it was little more than an advisory council to the king. The last king of Rome, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, was following a coup détat led by Lucius Junius Brutus. During the early Republic, the Senate was politically weak, while the executive magistrates were quite powerful, since the transition from monarchy to constitutional rule was most likely gradual, it took several generations before the Senate was able to assert itself over the executive magistrates. By the middle Republic, the Senate had reached the apex of its republican power, the late Republic saw a decline in the Senates power, which began following the reforms of the tribunes Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus. After the transition of the Republic into the Principate, the Senate lost much of its power as well as its prestige. Following the constitutional reforms of the Emperor Diocletian, the Senate became politically irrelevant, when the seat of government was transferred out of Rome, the Senate was reduced to a municipal body. This decline in status was reinforced when the emperor Constantine the Great created an additional senate in Constantinople, the Senate in Rome ultimately disappeared at some point after AD603, although the title senator was still used well into the Middle Ages as a largely meaningless honorific. However, the Eastern Senate survived in Constantinople, until the ancient institution finally vanished there c. 14th century, the senate was a political institution in the ancient Roman kingdom. The word senate derives from the Latin word senex, which means old man, the early Roman family was called a gens or clan, and each clan was an aggregation of families under a common living male patriarch, called a pater. When the early Roman gentes were aggregating to form a common community, over time, the patres came to recognize the need for a single leader, and so they elected a king, and vested in him their sovereign power. When the king died, that power naturally reverted to the patres. The senate is said to have created by Romes first king, Romulus. The descendants of those 100 men subsequently became the patrician class, Romes fifth king, Lucius Tarquinius Priscus, chose a further 100 senators. They were chosen from the leading families, and were accordingly called the patres minorum gentium. Romes seventh and final king, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, executed many of the men in the senate. During the years of the monarchy, the senates most important function was to new kings. While the king was elected by the people, it was actually the senate who chose each new king
20.
Freedman
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A freedman or freedwoman is a former slave who has been released from slavery, usually by legal means. Historically, slaves were freed either by manumission or emancipation, a fugitive slave is one who escaped slavery by fleeing. Rome differed from Greek city-states in allowing freed slaves to become plebeian citizens, the act of freeing a slave was called manumissio, from manus, hand, and missio, the act of releasing. After manumission, a slave who had belonged to a Roman citizen enjoyed not only freedom from ownership. A slave who had acquired libertas was known as a libertus in relation to his former master, as a social class, freed slaves were liberti, though later Latin texts used the terms libertus and libertini interchangeably. Libertini were not entitled to public office or state priesthoods. During the early Empire, however, freedmen held key positions in the government bureaucracy, any future children of a freedman would be born free, with full rights of citizenship. The Claudian Civil Service set a precedent whereby freedmen could be used as servants in the Roman bureaucracy. In addition, Claudius passed legislation concerning slaves, including a law stating that sick slaves abandoned by their owners became freedmen if they recovered, the emperor was criticized for using freedmen in the Imperial Courts. Some freedmen enjoyed enormous success and became quite wealthy, the brothers who owned House of the Vettii, one of the biggest and most magnificent houses in Pompeii, are thought to have been freedmen. A freedman who became rich and influential might still be looked down on by the aristocracy as a vulgar nouveau riche. Trimalchio, a character in the Satyricon of Petronius, is a caricature of such a freedman, for centuries Arab slave traders took and transported an estimated 10 to 15 million sub-Saharan Africans to slavery in North Africa and the Middle East. They also enslaved Europeans from coastal areas and the Balkans, many Arabs took women slaves as concubines in their harems. In the patrilineal societies, mixed-race children of concubines and Arab men were considered free and were given inheritance rights related to their fathers property. In the United States, the freedmen and freedwomen refer chiefly to former slaves emancipated during and after the American Civil War, by the Emancipation Proclamation. Slaves freed before the war, usually by individual manumissions, often in wills, were referred to as Free Negroes or free blacks. There were numerous such families formed in the Upper South before the Revolution, for the first two decades after the Revolution, thousands of slaves were freed in the Upper South, and most northern states abolished slavery, some on a gradual basis. In Louisiana and other areas of the former New France, free people of color were classified in French as gens de couleur libres and they were born to African or African-European mothers and white fathers of mixed-race African and French or other European ancestry
21.
Scriba (ancient Rome)
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In ancient Rome, the scriba was a public notary or clerk. The public scribes were the highest in rank of the four prestigious occupational grades among the apparitores, the word scriba might also refer to a man who was a private secretary, but should be distinguished from a copyist or bookseller. In Rome the scribae worked out of the aerarium, the state treasury and they received a good salary, but could earn additional commissions for collecting and recording state revenues, and making official copies of government documents and decrees. The Roman posting was such an assignment that the scribae worked in rotations, serving one year in Rome. Those who became scribes might be freedmen and their sons, literary or educated men who advanced to the job through patronage, among the scribes duties was the recording of sworn oaths on public tablets. In 305 BC, the public scribe Gnaeus Flavius, the son of a freedman, gaius Cicereius, a former scriba of Scipio Africanus, was elected praetor in 173 BC, and enjoyed greater popularity than Scipios own son. Certainly by the late Republic, the scribae had become a group who had achieved or were near to equestrian status. The scriba Sextus Cloelius kept a high profile as an agent of the popularist Clodius Pulcher, Cloelius also led the people in riots when Clodius was murdered a few years later, taking his body to the senate house and turning it into the popular leaders funeral pyre. E. Badian, The scribae of the Roman Republic, Klio 7 582–603
22.
Appius Claudius Caecus
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Appius Claudius Caecus was a Roman politician from a wealthy patrician family. He was the son of Gaius Claudius Crassus, as censor he was responsible for the construction of Romes first aqueduct and major road project. Appius Claudius Crassus was a censor in 312 BC, although he had not previously been consul which later was effectively a prerequisite for the office. He sought support from the classes, allowing sons of freedmen to serve in the Senate. During the Second Samnite War, he advocated the founding of Roman colonies throughout Latium and Campania to serve as fortifications against the Samnites and he later served as consul twice, in 307 BC and 296 BC, and in 292 BC and 285 BC he was appointed Dictator. According to Livy, he had gone blind because of a curse, in 279, he gave a famous speech against Cineas, an envoy of Pyrrhus of Epirus, declaring that Rome would never surrender. This is the earliest known political speech in Latin, and is the source of the every man is the architect of his own fortune. Appius wrote a book called Sententiae, based upon a verse of Greek model and it was the first Roman book of literary character. He was also concerned with literature and rhetoric, and instituted reforms in Latin orthography and his sons included Gaius Claudius Centho and the first Tiberius Claudius Nero. Centho, his son, was the consul in 240 BC and father of Appius Claudius Caudex and Publius Claudius Pulcher, consul in 249 BC, Appius Claudius Caecus is used in Ciceros Pro Caelio as a stern and disapproving ancestor to Clodia. Caecuss achievements, such as the building of the Appian Way, Claudius Quotations related to Appius Claudius Caecus at Wikiquote
23.
Pontifex Maximus
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The Pontifex Maximus was the high priest of the College of Pontiffs in ancient Rome. This was the most important position in the ancient Roman religion, open only to patricians until 254 BC, a distinctly religious office under the early Roman Republic, it gradually became politicized until, beginning with Augustus, it was subsumed into the Imperial office. Its last use with reference to the emperors is in inscriptions of Gratian who, however, although the most influential office within Roman priesthood, the pontifex maximus was ranked the fifth in the ranking of the highest Roman priests, behind the rex sacrorum and the flamines maiores. It is not included in the Popes official titles, but appears on buildings, monuments and coins of popes of Renaissance, according to the usual interpretation, the term pontifex literally means bridge-builder, maximus literally means greatest. However, it was understood in its symbolic sense as well. The last derivation is mentioned also by Varro, who rejected it, others have held that the word was originally pompifex. The word pons originally meant way and pontifex would thus mean maker of roads, another opinion is that the word is a corruption of a similar-sounding but etymologically unrelated Etruscan word for priest. Yet another hypothesis considers the word as a loan from the Sabine language, in which it would mean a member of a college of five, from Osco-Umbrian ponte, the pontifex would thence be a member of a sacrificial college known as pomperia. The term ἀρχιερεύς is used in the Septuagint text of the Old Testament, the Collegium Pontificum was the most important priesthood of ancient Rome. The foundation of this college and the office of Pontifex Maximus is attributed to the second king of Rome. Much of what is known about the Regal period in Roman history is semi-legendary or mythical, the Collegium presumably acted as advisers to the rex in religious matters. The collegium was headed by the pontifex maximus, and all the pontifices held their office for life, Numa is said to have founded Roman religion after dedicating an altar on the Aventine Hill to Jupiter Elicius and consulting the gods by means of augury. Numa wrote down and sealed these religious instructions, and gave them to the first Pontifex Maximus, in the Roman Republic, the Pontifex Maximus was the highest office in the state religion of ancient Rome and directed the College of Pontiffs. The rex sacrorum was explicitly deprived of military and political power, the official residence of the Pontifex Maximus was the Domus Publica which stood between the House of the Vestal Virgins and the Via Sacra, close to the Regia, in the Roman Forum. His religious duties were carried out from the Regia, unless the pontifex maximus was also a magistrate at the same time, he was not allowed to wear the toga praetexta, i. e. toga with the purple border. The Pontifex was not simply a priest and he had both political and religious authority. It is not clear which of the two came first or had the most importance, in practice, particularly during the late Republic, the office of Pontifex Maximus was generally held by a member of a politically prominent family. It was a position mainly for the great prestige it conferred on the holder, Julius Caesar became pontifex in 73 BC
24.
Cicero
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Marcus Tullius Cicero was a Roman philosopher, politician, lawyer, orator, political theorist, consul, and constitutionalist. He came from a wealthy family of the Roman equestrian order. According to Michael Grant, the influence of Cicero upon the history of European literature, Cicero introduced the Romans to the chief schools of Greek philosophy and created a Latin philosophical vocabulary distinguishing himself as a translator and philosopher. Though he was an orator and successful lawyer, Cicero believed his political career was his most important achievement. During the chaotic latter half of the 1st century BC marked by civil wars, following Julius Caesars death, Cicero became an enemy of Mark Antony in the ensuing power struggle, attacking him in a series of speeches. His severed hands and head were then, as a revenge of Mark Antony. Petrarchs rediscovery of Ciceros letters is often credited for initiating the 14th-century Renaissance in public affairs, humanism, according to Polish historian Tadeusz Zieliński, the Renaissance was above all things a revival of Cicero, and only after him and through him of the rest of Classical antiquity. Cicero was born in 106 BC in Arpinum, a hill town 100 kilometers southeast of Rome and his father was a well-to-do member of the equestrian order and possessed good connections in Rome. However, being a semi-invalid, he could not enter public life, although little is known about Ciceros mother, Helvia, it was common for the wives of important Roman citizens to be responsible for the management of the household. Ciceros brother Quintus wrote in a letter that she was a thrifty housewife, Ciceros cognomen, or personal surname, comes from the Latin for chickpea, cicer. Plutarch explains that the name was given to one of Ciceros ancestors who had a cleft in the tip of his nose resembling a chickpea. However, it is likely that Ciceros ancestors prospered through the cultivation. Romans often chose down-to-earth personal surnames, the family names of Fabius, Lentulus, and Piso come from the Latin names of beans, lentils. Plutarch writes that Cicero was urged to change this name when he entered politics. During this period in Roman history, cultured meant being able to speak both Latin and Greek, Cicero used his knowledge of Greek to translate many of the theoretical concepts of Greek philosophy into Latin, thus translating Greek philosophical works for a larger audience. It was precisely his broad education that tied him to the traditional Roman elite, according to Plutarch, Cicero was an extremely talented student, whose learning attracted attention from all over Rome, affording him the opportunity to study Roman law under Quintus Mucius Scaevola. Ciceros fellow students were Gaius Marius Minor, Servius Sulpicius Rufus, the latter two became Ciceros friends for life, and Pomponius would become, in Ciceros own words, as a second brother, with both maintaining a lifelong correspondence. Cicero wanted to pursue a career in politics along the steps of the Cursus honorum
25.
Pliny the Elder
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In the latter number will be my uncle, by virtue of his own and of your compositions. Pliny is referring to the fact that Tacitus relied on his uncles now missing work on the History of the German Wars. The wind caused by the sixth and largest pyroclastic surge of the eruption would not allow his ship to leave the shore, and Pliny probably died during this event. Plinys dates are pinned to the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD79 and a statement of his nephew that he died in his 56th year, Pliny was the son of an equestrian, Gaius Plinius Celer, and his wife, Marcella. Neither the younger nor the elder Pliny mention the names and their ultimate source is a fragmentary inscription found in a field in Verona and recorded by the 16th century Augustinian monk Onofrio Panvinio at Verona. The reading of the inscription depends on the reconstruction, but in all cases the names come through, whether he was an augur and whether she was named Grania Marcella are less certain. Jean Hardouin presents a statement from a source that he claims was ancient, that Pliny was from Verona. Hardouin also cites the conterraneity of Catullus, additional efforts to connect Celer and Marcella with other gentes are highly speculative. Hardouin is the scholar to use his unknown source. He kept statues of his ancestors there, a statue of Pliny on the facade of the Duomo of Como celebrates him as a native son. He had a sister, Plinia, who married into the Caecilii and was the mother of his nephew, Pliny the Younger, whose letters describe his work and study regimen in detail. In one of his letters to Tacitus, Pliny the Younger details how his uncles breakfasts would be light and simple following the customs of our forefathers. This shows that Pliny the Younger wanted it to be conveyed that Pliny the Elder was a good Roman and this statement would have pleased Tacitus. Two inscriptions identifying the hometown of Pliny the Younger as Como take precedence over the Verona theory, one commemorates the youngers career as imperial magistrate and details his considerable charitable and municipal expenses on behalf of the people of Como. Another identifies his father Lucius village as Fecchio near Como and it is likely therefore that Plinia was a local girl and Pliny the Elder, her brother, was from Como. Gaius was a member of the Plinii gens and he did not take his fathers cognomen, Celer, but assumed his own, Secundus. As his adopted son took the same cognomen, Pliny founded a branch, no earlier instances of the Plinii are known. In 59 BC, only about 82 years before Plinys birth, Julius Caesar founded Novum Comum as a colonia to secure the region against the Alpine tribes, whom he had been unable to defeat
26.
Second Punic War
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The Second Punic War, also referred to as The Hannibalic War and the War Against Hannibal, lasted from 218 to 201 BC and involved combatants in the western and eastern Mediterranean. This was the major war between Carthage and the Roman Republic and its allied Italic socii, with the crucial participation of Numidian-Berber armies and tribes on both sides. The two states three major wars with each other over the course of their existence. They are called the Punic Wars because Romes name for Carthaginians was Poeni, derived from Poenici, in the following year, Hannibals army defeated the Romans again, this time in southern Italy at Cannae. In consequence of these defeats, many Roman allies went over to Carthage, against Hannibals skill on the battlefield, the Romans deployed the Fabian strategy. A sideshow of this war was the indecisive First Macedonian War in the Eastern Mediterranean, the Second Punic War was fought between Carthage and Rome and was ignited by the dispute over the hegemony of Saguntum, a Hellenized Iberian coastal city with diplomatic contacts with Rome. After great tension within the city government, culminating in the assassination of the supporters of Carthage, the city called for Roman aid, but the pleas fell on deaf ears. Following a prolonged siege and a struggle, in which Hannibal himself was wounded and the army practically destroyed. Many of the Saguntians chose to commit suicide rather than face subjugation by the Carthaginians, before the war, Rome and Hasdrubal the Fair had made a treaty. Livy reports that it was agreed that the Iber should be the boundary between the two empires and that the liberty of the Saguntines should be preserved, Hannibal departed with this army from New Carthage northwards along the coast in late spring of 218 BC. At the Ebro, he split the army into three columns and subdued the tribes there to the Pyrenees within weeks, but with severe losses. At the Pyrenees, he left a detachment of 11,000 Iberian troops, Hannibal reportedly entered Gaul with 50,000 infantry and 9,000 cavalry. He took his army by a route, avoiding the Roman allies along the coast. In the meantime, a Roman fleet with a force was underway to northern Iberia. A scouting party of 300 cavalry was sent to discover the whereabouts of the enemy and these eventually defeated a Carthaginian scouting troop of 500 mounted Numidians and chased them back to their main camp. Thus, with knowledge of the location of the enemy, the Romans marched upstream, Hannibal evaded this force and by an unknown route reached the Isère or the Durance at the foot of the Alps in autumn. He also received messengers from his Gallic allies in Italy that urged him to come to their aid, before setting out to cross the Alps, he was re-supplied by a native tribe, some of whose hereditary disputes he had helped solve. Their other commander, Publius Cornelius Scipio, returned to Rome, realizing the danger of an invasion of Italy where the tribes of the Boii, after 217 BC, he moved to Iberia
27.
Duumviri
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The duumviri, originally duoviri and also known in English as the duumvirs, were any of various joint magistrates of ancient Rome. Such pairs of magistrates were appointed at various periods of Roman history both in Rome itself and in the colonies and municipia, duumviri iuri or iure dicundo were the highest judicial magistrates in the cities of Italy and its provinces. Their chief duties were concerned with the administration of justice, the activities of these individuals are described in the local statutes such as Lex Iulia Municipalis, Lex Irnitana, Lex Malacitana, Lex Rubria, Lex Coloniae, and Genetivae Iuliae. The office was determined by election and lasted one year, combined with the duumviri aediles, they formed the quattuorviri, a board of four officials. It was often the case that the emperor was elected as one duumvir, duumviri sacrorum, which were created by Tarquin, were officers for the performance of sacrifice, and keeping of the Sibylline Books. They were chosen out of the nobility, or patricii, and they were exempted from serving in war, and from the offices imposed on the other citizens. Without them, the oracles of the Sybils could not be consulted, the commission held until the year -388, when, at the request of C. Licinius and L. Sexius, tribunes of the people, they were increased to ten and that is, in lieu of two persons, the trust was committed to ten – half patricians, half plebeians. Sulla added five to their number, for a total of fifteen, afterwards, their body was greatly increased, and at length amounted to sixty, yet still retained the denomination of quindecimviri. They were entirely abolished under Emperor Theodosius I, such an individual might be appointed to dedicate a temple that had been constructed at the expense of another magistrate who was no longer in office. Duumviri aedi locandae were originally officers specially appointed to supervise the erection of a temple, if a higher magistrate such as a consul and these were sometimes the same as the duumviri aedi dedicandae. Duumviri aediles were two officials similar in function to the aediles, they were in charge of imposing fines, duumviri navales, extraordinary officers appointed ad hoc for the equipping of a fleet. Originally chosen by consuls or dictator, they were elected by the people after 311 BC, the capital duumvirs, duumviri perduellionis, were not ordinary magistrates, but created on certain occurrences. They were the earliest criminal court for trying cases of perduellio and they continued to be appointed under the Republic, with the last mention in 63 BC, however, since the mid-3rd century BC, plebeian tribunes are known to have taken up such cases. The first duumvirs of this kind were those appointed to judge the surviving Horatius, duumviri viis extra urbem purgandis were subordinate officers under the aediles, whose duty it was to look after those streets of Rome which were outside the city walls. They were members of the group of vigintisexviri, apparently in 20 BC, certainly by 12 BC, their duties were transferred to the curatores viarum. From at least as early as 45 BC the streets of the city were superintended by quattuorviri viis in urbe purgandis and this article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Chambers, Ephraim, ed. article name needed. Cyclopædia, or an Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, james and John Knapton, et al
28.
Praetor
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Praetor was a title granted by the government of Ancient Rome to men acting in one of two official capacities, the commander of an army, or, an elected magistratus, assigned various duties. The prefix prae is an indication that the title-holder was prior, in some way. Livy mentions that the Latini were led and governed in warfare by two of them and the Samnites by one, a dictator was called the praetor maximus. The use of the adjectives in a number of circumstances testify to a general sense. The leadership functions of any body at Rome might be termed praetorial. The praetoria potestas in Republican Rome was at first held by the consuls and these two officials, elected on a yearly basis, inherited the power of the king. Very likely, the king himself was the first praetor, Let there be two with the authority of the king, and let them be called praetors, judges and consuls from their going before, judging and consulting. Let them have the right of command of the military. This etymology of praetor became and remains the standard, cicero considers the word to contain the same elemental parts as the verb praeire. In exactly what way he goes before did not survive, livy explains that in the year 366 BC the praetura was created to relieve the consuls of their judicial duties. The praetor was, in an English sense, the chief justice, the consuls were his peers, he was elected by the same electorate and sworn in on the same day with the same oath. Until 337 BC the praetor was chosen only from the patricians, from then on, praetors appear frequently in Roman history, first as generals and judges, then as provincial governors. Beginning in the late Republic, a former Praetor could serve as a Propraetor, the elected praetor was a magistratus curulis, exercised imperium, and consequently was one of the magistrati majores. He had the right to sit in the sella curulis and wear the toga praetexta and he was attended by six lictors. A praetor was a magistrate with imperium within his own sphere, the potestas and imperium of the consuls and the praetors under the Republic should not be exaggerated. They did not use independent judgment in resolving matters of state, unlike todays executive branches, they were assigned high-level tasks directly by senatorial decree under the authority of the SPQR. Livy describes the assignments given to consuls or praetors in some detail. As magistrates, they had standing duties to perform, especone principle that limited what could be assigned to them was that their duties must not concern them with minima and they were by definition doers of maxima
29.
Gaius Gracchus
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Gaius Sempronius Gracchus was a Roman Popularis politician in the 2nd century BC and brother of the reformer Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus. Gaius Gracchus was born into a family who had a tradition in the politics of ancient Rome. His father, Tiberius Gracchus the Elder, was a man in Roman politics throughout the 2nd century BC and had built up a large. The family was attached to the Claudii faction in Roman politics despite his mothers background and it can be supposed, however, that both the Gracchi brothers would have come into contact with powerful members of both the Claudii and Cornelii Scipiones factions. Gaius Gracchus was the brother of Tiberius Gracchus, by about nine years. He was heavily influenced both by the policy of his older brother, and by his death at the hands of a senatorial mob. Plutarch suggests that it was the grief he had suffered encouraged him to speak out fearlessly, certainly aspects of his reforms, and especially his judicial reforms, seem to have been directed at the people responsible for his brothers death. Gaiuss political career began in 133 BC, when he served with Tiberiuss land-commission, in 126 BC, he became a quaestor in the Roman province of Sardinia, where his merits advanced his good reputation. During his quaestorship, he honed his skills in oratory, in one particularly harsh Sardinian winter, the Legate of the local garrison requisitioned supplies from the nearby towns, despite their objections. When they appealed and won the Senates approval to keep their supplies, fearing this as a ploy for popular approval, the Senate rebuffed envoys sent by Micipsa, king of Numidia, who had sent grain to Gaius based on their mutual regard. The Senate ordered the replacement, but also ordered that Gaius remain in his post. Gaius returned to Rome, to appeal the decision and he had used the Roman money to aid Sardinia, and had never position to line his own pockets. He was then accused of aiding in an Italian revolt at Fregellae and he cleared himself with ease and in 122 was elected to serve as a tribune for the following year. Gaius used his oratory, considered to be the best in Rome, to attack his opponents at every chance. He chastised the people for standing by while Tiberius and his supporters were beaten and cited the unlawful sentences of exile that followed, Gaius social reforms were far wider reaching than those of his brother Tiberius. Perhaps motivated by the fate of his brother, some of his earliest reforms dealt with the judiciary system and he set up two initial measures, the first of which prohibited a magistrate who had been deposed by the people from holding office a second time. Gaiuss second bill established the right of the people to prosecute any magistrate who had exiled citizens without a trial and these decisions were a direct response to the Senates actions in the aftermath of his brother Tiberiuss murder. Courts with capital punishment, not set up by the people, were now declared illegal by a measure which saw the former consul Popilius Laenas driven into exile
30.
Arval Brethren
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In ancient Roman religion, the Arval Brethren or Arval Brothers were a body of priests who offered annual sacrifices to the Lares and gods to guarantee good harvests. Inscriptions provide evidence of their oaths, rituals and sacrifices, Roman legend held that the priestly college was originated by Romulus, who took the place of a dead son of his nurse Acca Laurentia, and formed the priesthood with the remaining eleven sons. They were also connected originally with the Sabine priesthood of Sodales Titii who were originally their counterpart among the Sabines. Their task was the worship of Dea Dia, an old fertility goddess, on the three days of her May festival, they offered sacrifices and chanted secretly inside the temple of the goddess at her lucus the Carmen Arvale. The magister of the selected the exact three days of the celebration by an unknown method. The celebration began in Rome on the first day, was transferred to a sacred grove outside the city wall on the second day, Arval Brethren formed a college of twelve priests, although archaeologists have found only up to nine names at a time in the inscriptions. They were appointed for life and did not lose their status even in exile, according to Pliny the Elder, their sign was a white band with the chaplet of sheaves of grain. The Brethren assembled in the Regia and their duties included ritual propitiations or thanksgivings as the Ambarvalia, the sacrifices done at the borders of Rome at the fifth mile of the Via Campana or Salaria. Archaic traits of the rituals included the prohibition of the use of iron, the importance of Arval Brethren apparently dwindled during the Roman Republic, but emperor Augustus revived their practices to enforce his own authority. After Augustus time emperors and senators frequented the festivities, at least two emperors, Marcus Aurelius and Elagabalus, were formally accepted as members of the Brethren. The first full descriptions of their rituals also originate from this time, the last inscriptions about the Arval Brethren date from about 325 AD. They were abolished along with Romes other traditional priesthoods by 400 AD
31.
Victoria (mythology)
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Victoria, in ancient Roman religion, was the personified goddess of victory. She is the Roman equivalent of the Greek goddess Nike, and was associated with Bellona and she was adapted from the Sabine agricultural goddess Vacuna and had a temple on the Palatine Hill. The goddess Vica Pota was also identified with Victoria. Victoria is often described as a daughter of Pallas and Styx, and as a sister of Zelus, Kratos, unlike the Greek Nike, the goddess Victoria was a major part of Roman society. Multiple temples were erected in her honor, when her statue was removed in 382 CE by Emperor Gratianus there was much anger in Rome. She was normally worshiped by triumphant generals returning from war, also unlike the Greek Nike, who was known for success in athletic games such as chariot races, Victoria was a symbol of victory over death and determined who would be successful during war. Victoria appears widely on Roman coins, jewelry, architecture, and she is often seen with or in a chariot, as in the late 18th-century sculpture representing Victory in a quadriga on the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Germany, Il Vittoriano in Rome has two. Nike or Victoria was the charioteer for Zeus in his battle to over take Mount Olympus and these represent the spirit of victory rather than the goddess herself. They continued to appear after Christianization of the Empire, and slowly mutated into Christian angels,12 Victoria Media related to Victoria at Wikimedia Commons
32.
Augustus
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Augustus was the founder of the Roman Principate and considered the first Roman emperor, controlling the Roman Empire from 27 BC until his death in AD14. He was born Gaius Octavius into an old and wealthy equestrian branch of the plebeian gens Octavia and his maternal great-uncle Julius Caesar was assassinated in 44 BC, and Octavius was named in Caesars will as his adopted son and heir, then known as Octavianus. He, Mark Antony, and Marcus Lepidus formed the Second Triumvirate to defeat the assassins of Caesar, following their victory at the Battle of Philippi, the Triumvirate divided the Roman Republic among themselves and ruled as military dictators. The Triumvate was eventually torn apart by the ambitions of its members. Lepidus was driven into exile and stripped of his position, in reality, however, he retained his autocratic power over the Republic as a military dictator. By law, Augustus held a collection of powers granted to him for life by the Senate, including supreme military command, and it took several years for Augustus to develop the framework within which a formally republican state could be led under his sole rule. He rejected monarchical titles, and instead called himself Princeps Civitatis, the resulting constitutional framework became known as the Principate, the first phase of the Roman Empire. The reign of Augustus initiated an era of peace known as the Pax Romana. Augustus dramatically enlarged the Empire, annexing Egypt, Dalmatia, Pannonia, Noricum, and Raetia, expanding possessions in Africa, expanding into Germania, beyond the frontiers, he secured the Empire with a buffer region of client states and made peace with the Parthian Empire through diplomacy. Augustus died in AD14 at the age of 75 and he probably died from natural causes, although there were unconfirmed rumors that his wife Livia poisoned him. He was succeeded as Emperor by his adopted son Tiberius, Augustus was known by many names throughout his life, At birth, he was named Gaius Octavius after his biological father. Historians typically refer to him simply as Octavius between his birth in 63 until his adoption by Julius Caesar in 44 BC, upon his adoption, he took Caesars name and became Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus in accordance with Roman adoption naming standards. He quickly dropped Octavianus from his name, and his contemporaries referred to him as Caesar during this period, historians. In 27 BC, following his defeat of Mark Antony and Cleopatra and it is the events of 27 BC from which he obtained his traditional name of Augustus, which historians use in reference to him from 27 BC until his death in AD14. While his paternal family was from the town of Velletri, approximately 40 kilometres from Rome and he was born at Ox Head, a small property on the Palatine Hill, very close to the Roman Forum. He was given the name Gaius Octavius Thurinus, his cognomen possibly commemorating his fathers victory at Thurii over a band of slaves. Due to the nature of Rome at the time, Octavius was taken to his fathers home village at Velletri to be raised. Octavius only mentions his fathers equestrian family briefly in his memoirs and his paternal great-grandfather Gaius Octavius was a military tribune in Sicily during the Second Punic War
33.
Roman Empire
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Civil wars and executions continued, culminating in the victory of Octavian, Caesars adopted son, over Mark Antony and Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC and the annexation of Egypt. Octavians power was then unassailable and in 27 BC the Roman Senate formally granted him overarching power, the imperial period of Rome lasted approximately 1,500 years compared to the 500 years of the Republican era. The first two centuries of the empires existence were a period of unprecedented political stability and prosperity known as the Pax Romana, following Octavians victory, the size of the empire was dramatically increased. After the assassination of Caligula in 41, the senate briefly considered restoring the republic, under Claudius, the empire invaded Britannia, its first major expansion since Augustus. Vespasian emerged triumphant in 69, establishing the Flavian dynasty, before being succeeded by his son Titus and his short reign was followed by the long reign of his brother Domitian, who was eventually assassinated. The senate then appointed the first of the Five Good Emperors, the empire reached its greatest extent under Trajan, the second in this line. A period of increasing trouble and decline began with the reign of Commodus, Commodus assassination in 192 triggered the Year of the Five Emperors, of which Septimius Severus emerged victorious. The assassination of Alexander Severus in 235 led to the Crisis of the Third Century in which 26 men were declared emperor by the Roman Senate over a time span. It was not until the reign of Diocletian that the empire was fully stabilized with the introduction of the Tetrarchy, which saw four emperors rule the empire at once. This arrangement was unsuccessful, leading to a civil war that was finally ended by Constantine I. Constantine subsequently shifted the capital to Byzantium, which was renamed Constantinople in his honour and it remained the capital of the east until its demise. Constantine also adopted Christianity which later became the state religion of the empire. However, Augustulus was never recognized by his Eastern colleague, and separate rule in the Western part of the empire ceased to exist upon the death of Julius Nepos. The Eastern Roman Empire endured for another millennium, eventually falling to the Ottoman Turks in 1453, the Roman Empire was among the most powerful economic, cultural, political and military forces in the world of its time. It was one of the largest empires in world history, at its height under Trajan, it covered 5 million square kilometres. It held sway over an estimated 70 million people, at that time 21% of the entire population. Throughout the European medieval period, attempts were made to establish successors to the Roman Empire, including the Empire of Romania, a Crusader state. Rome had begun expanding shortly after the founding of the republic in the 6th century BC, then, it was an empire long before it had an emperor
34.
Lime kiln
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A lime kiln is a kiln used for the calcination of limestone to produce the form of lime called quicklime. The chemical equation for this reaction is CaCO3 + heat → CaO + CO2 This reaction takes place at 900 °C, excessive temperature is avoided because it produces unreactive, dead-burned lime. Slaked lime can be formed by mixing water with quicklime, the earliest descriptions of lime kilns differ little from those used for small-scale manufacture a century ago. Because land transportation of minerals like limestone and coal was difficult in the era, they were distributed by sea. Many preserved kilns are still to be seen on quaysides around the coasts of Britain, permanent lime kilns fall into two broad categories, flare kilns also known as intermittent or periodic kilns, and draw kilns also known as perpetual or running kilns. In a flare kiln, a layer of coal was built up. The fire was alight for several days, and then the entire kiln was emptied of the lime, in a draw kiln, the chalk was layered with coke and lit. As it burnt through, lime was extracted from the bottom of the kiln and further layers of chalk, the common feature of early kilns was an egg-cup shaped burning chamber, with an air inlet at the base, constructed of brick. Limestone was crushed to fairly uniform 20–60 mm lumps – fine stone was rejected, successive dome-shaped layers of limestone and wood or coal were built up in the kiln on grate bars across the eye. When loading was complete, the kiln was kindled at the bottom, when burnt through, the lime was cooled and raked out through the base. Fine ash dropped out and was rejected with the riddlings, only lump stone could be used, because the charge needed to breathe during firing. This also limited the size of kilns and explains why kilns were all much the same size, above a certain diameter, the half-burned charge would be likely to collapse under its own weight, extinguishing the fire. So kilns always made 25–30 tonnes of lime in a batch, typically the kiln took a day to load, three days to fire, two days to cool and a day to unload, so a one-week turnaround was normal. The degree of burning was controlled by trial and error from batch to batch by varying the amount of fuel used. Because there were large temperature differences between the center of the charge and the close to the wall, a mixture of underburned, well-burned and dead-burned lime was normally produced. Typical fuel efficiency was low, with 0.5 tonnes or more of coal being used per tonne of finished lime, lime production was sometimes carried out on an industrial scale. Sets of seven kilns were common, a loading gang and an unloading gang would work the kilns in rotation through the week. A rarely used kiln was known as a lazy kiln, the large kiln at Crindledykes near Haydon Bridge, Northumbria, was one of more than 300 in the county
35.
Tabularium
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The Tabularium was the official records office of ancient Rome, and also housed the offices of many city officials. Situated within the Roman Forum, it was on the front slope of the Capitoline Hill, below the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus, to the southeast of the Arx, within the building were the remains of the temple of Veiovis. In front of it were the Temples of Vespasian & Concord, as well as the Rostra, presently the Tabularium is only accessible from within the Capitoline Museum, although it still provides a panoramic view over the Forum. The Tabularium was first constructed around 78 BC, by order of the dictator Lucius Cornelius Sulla and it was later restored and renovated during the reign of the Emperor Claudius, about 46 AD. The building itself had a facade of peperino and travertine blocks, the interior vaults are of concrete. Its great corridor,67 m long, raised 15 m above the forum on a massive substructure, is partly preserved. The facade faced the back of the Temple of Concord in the Forum, the first story was a large and tall fortified wall with a single door and only small windows near the top to light the interior, forum level rooms. The second story featured a Doric arcade and the third, no longer extant story, had a high Corinthian order colonnade, the upper floors of this structure was much changed in the 13th century, when the Palazzo dei Senatori was built. Roman architecture List of Roman domes Attribution This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh. Tabularium at UCLAs Digital Roman Forum
36.
Capitoline Hill
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The Capitoline Hill, between the Forum and the Campus Martius, is one of the Seven Hills of Rome. The hill was known as Mons Saturnius, dedicated to the god Saturn. The word Capitolium first meant the temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus later built here, Ancient sources refer the name to caput and the tale was that, when laying the foundations for the temple, the head of a man was found. Some sources even saying it was the head of some Tolus or Olus, the Capitolium was regarded by the Romans as indestructible, and was adopted as a symbol of eternity. By the 16th century, Capitolinus had become Capitolino in Italian, influenced by Roman architecture and Roman republican times, the word Capitolium still lives in the English word capitol. The Capitol Hill in Washington, D. C. is widely assumed to be named after the Capitoline Hill, at this hill, the Sabines, creeping to the Citadel, were let in by the Roman maiden Tarpeia. For this treachery, Tarpeia was the first to be punished by being flung from a cliff overlooking the Roman Forum. This cliff was named the Tarpeian Rock after the Vestal Virgin. The Sabines, who immigrated to Rome following the Rape of the Sabine Women, the Vulcanal, an 8th-century BC sacred precinct, occupied much of the eastern lower slopes of the Capitoline, at the head of what would later become the Roman Forum. The summit was the site of a temple for the Capitoline Triad, started by Romes fifth king, Tarquinius Priscus and it was considered one of the largest and the most beautiful temples in the city. The city legend starts with the recovery of a human skull when foundation trenches were being dug for the Temple of Jupiter at Tarquins order, recent excavations on the Capitoline uncovered an early cemetery under the Temple of Jupiter. There are several important temples built on Capitoline hill, the temple of Juno Moneta, the temple of Virtus, the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus Capitolinus is the most important of the temples. It was built in 509 BC and was nearly as large as the Parthenon, the hill and the temple of Jupiter became the symbols of Rome, the capital of the world. The Temple of Saturn was built at the foot of Capitoline Hill in the end of the Forum Romanum. According to legend Marcus Manlius Capitolinus was alerted to the Gallic attack by the geese of Juno. Vespasians brother and nephew were also besieged in the temple during the Year of Four Emperors, the Tabularium, located underground beneath the piazza and hilltop, occupies a building of the same name built in the 1st century BC to hold Roman records of state. The Tabularium looks out from the rear onto the Roman Forum, the main attraction of the Tabularium, besides the structure itself, is the Temple of Veiovis. During the lengthy period of ancient Rome, the Capitoline Hill was the geographical and ceremonial center, however, by the Renaissance, the former center was an untidy conglomeration of dilapidated buildings and the site of executions of criminals
37.
Cella
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A cella or naos is the inner chamber of a temple in classical architecture, or a shop facing the street in domestic Roman architecture, such as a domus. Its enclosure within walls has given rise to extended meanings, of a hermits or monks cell, in Ancient Greek and Roman temples the cella is a room at the centre of the building, usually containing a cult image or statue representing the particular deity venerated in the temple. In addition the cella may contain a table or plinth to receive votive offerings such as statues, precious and semi-precious stones, helmets, spear and arrow heads, swords. The accumulated offerings made Greek and Roman temples virtual treasuries, the cella is typically a simple, windowless, rectangular room with a door or open entrance at the front behind a colonnaded portico facade. In larger temples, the cella was divided by two colonnades into a central nave flanked by two aisles. A cella may contain an adyton, an inner area restricted to access by the priests—in religions that had a consecrated priesthood—or by the temple guard. With very few exceptions Greek buildings were of a design that placed the cella in the center of the plan, such as the Parthenon. The Romans favoured pseudoperipteral buildings with a portico offsetting the cella to the rear, the pseudoperipteral plan uses engaged columns embedded along the side and rear walls of the cella. The Temple of Venus and Roma built by Hadrian in Rome had two cellae arranged back-to-back enclosed by a single outer peristyle, according to Vitruvius, the Etruscan type of temples had three cellae, side by side, conjoined by a double row of columns on the facade. The cella, also called the naos, holds many box-like shrines, the Greek word naos has been extended by archaeologists to describe the central room of the pyramids. Towards the end of the Old Kingdom, naos construction went from being subterranean to being directly into the pyramid. The naos was surrounded by different paths and rooms, many used to confuse and divert thieves. In early Christian and Byzantine architecture, the cella or naos is an area at the centre of the reserved for performing the liturgy. In later periods a small chapel or monks cell was also called a cella, list of Greco-Roman roofs This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Cella. Trachtenberg and Hyman, Architecture, From Prehistory to Post Modernity Vitruvius, De architectura, Book IV. ch 7, translation, plans and reconstructions of Tuscan cellae
38.
Portico
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A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was used in Ancient Greece and has influenced many cultures. Some noteworthy examples of porticos are the East Portico of the United States Capitol, the portico adorning the Pantheon in Rome, porticos are sometimes topped with pediments. Bologna, Italy, is famous for its porticos, in total, there are over 45 km of arcades, some 38 in the city center. The longest portico in the world, about 3.5 km, in Bologna, Italy, porticos stretch for 18 km. Palladio was a pioneer of using temple-fronts for secular buildings, in the UK, the temple-front applied to The Vyne, Hampshire was the first portico applied to an English country house. A pronaos is the area of the portico of a Greek or Roman temple. Roman temples commonly had an open pronaos, usually with only columns and no walls, the word pronaos is Greek for before a temple. In Latin, a pronaos is also referred to as an anticum or prodomus, the different variants of porticos are named by the number of columns they have. The style suffix comes from the Greek στῦλος, column, the tetrastyle has four columns, it was commonly employed by the Greeks and the Etruscans for small structures such as public buildings and amphiprostyles. Roman provincial capitals also manifested tetrastyle construction, such as the Capitoline Temple in Volubilis, the North Portico of the White House is perhaps the most notable four-columned portico in the United States. Hexastyle buildings had six columns and were the standard façade in canonical Greek Doric architecture between the archaic period 600–550 BC up to the Age of Pericles 450–430 BC. With the colonization by the Greeks of Southern Italy, hexastyle was adopted by the Etruscans, Roman taste favoured narrow pseudoperipteral and amphiprostyle buildings with tall columns, raised on podiums for the added pomp and grandeur conferred by considerable height. The Maison Carrée at Nîmes, France, is the best-preserved Roman hexastyle temple surviving from antiquity, octastyle buildings had eight columns, they were considerably rarer than the hexastyle ones in the classical Greek architectural canon. The best-known octastyle buildings surviving from antiquity are the Parthenon in Athens, built during the Age of Pericles, and the Pantheon in Rome. The destroyed Temple of Divus Augustus in Rome, the centre of the Augustan cult, is shown on Roman coins of the 2nd century AD as having built in octastyle. The decastyle has ten columns, as in the temple of Apollo Didymaeus at Miletus, the temple of Venus and Rome, built by Hadrian in Rome about 130 A. D. was decastyle, the only known example in Roman architecture. Classical architecture List of classical architecture terms Hypostyle Loggia Stoa Greek architecture, Encyclopædia Britannica,1968 Stierlin, Greece, From Mycenae to the Parthenon, TASCHEN,2004, Editor-in-chief Angelika Taschen, Cologne, ISBN 3-8228-1225-0 Stierlin, Henri
39.
Corinthian column
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The Corinthian order is the last developed of the three principal classical orders of ancient Greek and Roman architecture. The other two are the Doric order which was the earliest, followed by the Ionic order, when classical architecture was revived during the Renaissance, two more orders were added to the canon, the Tuscan order and the Composite order. The Corinthian, with its offshoot the Composite, is the most ornate of the orders, characterized by slender fluted columns and elaborate capitals decorated with acanthus leaves and it was employed in southern Gaul at the Maison Carrée, Nîmes and at the comparable podium temple at Vienne. Other prime examples noted by Mark Wilson Jones are the order of the Basilica Ulpia and the arch at Ancona the column of Phocas. The Corinthian order is named for the Greek city-state of Corinth, however, according to the architectural historian Vitruvius, the column was created by the sculptor Callimachus, probably an Athenian, who drew acanthus leaves growing around a votive basket. Its earliest use can be traced back to the Late Classical Period, the earliest Corinthian capital was found in Bassae, dated at 427 BC. In its proportions, the Corinthian column is similar to the Ionic column, though it is more slender, the abacus upon the capital has concave sides to conform to the outscrolling corners of the capital, and it may have a rosette at the center of each side. Corinthian columns were erected on the top level of the Roman Colosseum, holding up the least weight and their height to width ratio is about 10,1. One variant is the Tivoli Order, found at the Temple of Vesta, the Tivoli Orders Corintinan Capital has two rows of Acanthus and its abacus is decorated with oversize fleuron in the form of hibiscus flowers with pronounced spiral pistils. The column flutes have flat tops, the frieze exhibits fruit swag suspended between bucrania. Above each swag is a rosette, the cornice does not have modillions. Indo-Corinthian capitals are capitals crowning columns or pilasters, which can be found in the northwestern Indian subcontinent and these capitals are typically dated to the 1st centuries of our era, and constitute important elements of Greco-Buddhist art of Gandhara. The classical design was adapted, usually taking a more elongated form. Indo-Corinthian capitals also incorporated figures of the Buddha or Bodhisattvas, usually as central figures surrounded, the Corinthian architrave is divided in two or three sections, which may be equal, or they may bear interesting proportional relationships, one with another. Above the plain, unadorned architrave lies the frieze, which may be carved with a continuous design or left plain. At the Capitol the proportions of architrave to frieze are exactly 1,1, above that, the profiles of the cornice moldings are like those of the Ionic order. If the cornice is deep, it may be supported by brackets or modillions. The Corinthian column is almost always fluted, if it is not, it is often worth pausing to unravel the reason why
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Plinth
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In architecture, a plinth is the base or platform upon which a column, pedestal, statue, monument or structure rests. Gottfried Sempers The Four Elements of Architecture posited that the plinth, the hearth, the roof, the plinth usually rests directly on the ground or stylobate. According to Semper, the plinth exists to negotiate between a structure and the ground, Sempers theory has been influential in the development of architecture. Many houses in rural areas of Bangladesh are built on plinths. The word is used for the base of a cabinet or an audio turntable. In dam engineering, the plinth is the link between the ground and the dam, for the case of arch dams, the term is changed to pulvino
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Volute
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A volute is a spiral, scroll-like ornament that forms the basis of the Ionic order, found in the capital of the Ionic column. It was later incorporated into Corinthian order and Composite column capitals, four are normally to be found on an Ionic capital, eight on Composite capitals and smaller versions on the Corinthian capital. The word derives from the Latin voluta and it has been suggested that the ornament was inspired by the curve of a rams horns, or perhaps was derived from the natural spiral found in the ovule of a common species of clover native to Greece. Alternatively, it may simply be of geometrical origin, the ornament can be seen in Renaissance and Baroque architecture and is a common decoration in furniture design, silverware and ceramics. A method of drawing the complex geometry was devised by the ancient Roman architect Vitruvius through the study of classical buildings, arabesque Scrollwork Media related to Volute at Wikimedia Commons
