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
