1.
Frascati
–
Frascati is a town and comune in the Metropolitan City of Rome in the Lazio region of central Italy. It is located 20 kilometres south-east of Rome, on the Alban Hills close to the ancient city of Tusculum, Frascati is closely associated with science, being the location of several international scientific laboratories. Frascati produces the wine with the same name. It is also a historical and artistic centre, the most important archeological finding in the area, dating back to Ancient Roman times, during the late Republican Age, is a patrician Roman villa probably belonging to Lucullus. In the first century AD its owner was Gaius Sallustius Crispus Passienus and his properties were later confiscated by the Flavian imperial dynasty. Consul Flavius Clemens lived in the villa with his wife Domitilla during the rule of Domitian, according to the Liber Pontificalis, in the 9th century Frascati was a little village, probably founded two centuries earlier. The name of the city comes from a typical local tradition of collecting firewood —many place-names around the town refer to trees or wood. After the destruction of nearby Tusculum in 1191, the population increased. It was owned by various families, including the Colonna, until, in 1460. In 1515 Colonna gave Frascati its first statute, Statuti e Capituli del Castello di Frascati, in 1518 a hospital was built, named after St. Sebastiano, in memory of the old basilica destroyed in the 9th century. After Prince Colonnas death in 1522, Lucrezia della Rovere sold Frascati to Pier Luigi Farnese, on May 1,1527 a Landsknecht company, after having sacked Rome, arrived out of the bordering villages. However, the changed the direction of their movement next to a niche, a Rural Aedicule consecrated to the Virgin Mary. This event is commemorated by a church now called Capocroce, in 1538, Pope Paul III conferred the title of Civitas to Frascati, with the name Tusculum Novum. In 1598 construction began on a new cathedral dedicated to St. Peter, on September 15,1616 the first public and free school in Europe was established on the initiative of Saint Joseph Calasanz. On June 18,1656 a part of the plaster peeled off a wall inside the Church of St. Mary in Vivario, and it was the image of Saints Sebastian and Roch, protector from the plague. In that same year there was an epidemic of plague in Rome, since that year, the two Saints have been co-patron Saints of the city. There are statues of the two saints in the façade of the Cathedral, between 1713 and 1729, the head from a colossus of Antinous was discovered in the area, and displayed in the Villa Mondragone. In 1757 the Valle theater opened in the centre of the town, in 1809 Frascati was annexed to the French Empire, and selected as the capital of the Roman canton
2.
Province of Rome
–
The Province of Rome was one of the five provinces of Lazio, Italy. The province of Rome was the most populous of Italy, and is coterminous with the Rome metropolitan area. The Province of Rome existed from 1870 to 31 December 2014, on 1 January 2015, it was replaced with a new administrative area, the Metropolitan City of Rome Capital. The province of Rome was established in 1870 after the Capture of Rome by the newly formed Kingdom of Italy from the Papal States and it was initially divided into five districts, Rome, Civitavecchia, Frosinone, Velletri and Viterbo, corresponding to the old papal delegazioni. In 1923 the district of Rieti, formerly part of the province of Perugia, was annexed to that of Rome, in 1934 the provincial territory lost its southern part, which became the new province of Latina. Latium, the oldest regional division of the province Lazio, the region the province of Rome is a part of Official website
3.
Lazio
–
Lazio is one of the 20 administrative regions of Italy, situated in the central peninsular section of the country. With almost 5.9 million residents and a GDP of more than 170 billion euros, Lazio is the second most populated region of Italy and its capital is Rome, capital and largest city of Italy. Lazio comprises an area of 17,236 km2 and it has borders with Tuscany, Umbria, and Marche to the north, Abruzzo and Molise to the east, Campania to the south. The region is flat and hilly, with small mountainous areas in the most eastern and southern districts. The coast of Lazio is mainly composed of beaches, punctuated by the headlands of Circeo. The Pontine Islands, which are part of Lazio, lie opposite the southern coast, behind the coastal strip, to the north, lies the Maremma Laziale, a coastal plain interrupted at Civitavecchia by the Tolfa Mountains. The central section of the region is occupied by the Roman Campagna, the southern districts are characterized by the flatlands of Agro Pontino, a once swampy and malarial area, that was reclaimed over the centuries. To the south of the Tiber, other groups form part of the Preapennines, the Alban Hills, also of volcanic origin. The highest peak is Mount Gorzano on the border with Abruzzo, see also, History of Italy The Italian word Lazio descends from the Latin word Latium. The name of the region also survives in the designation of the ancient population of Latins, Latini in the Latin language spoken by them. Although the demography of ancient Rome was multi-ethnic, including, for example, Etruscans and other Italics besides the Latini, in Roman mythology, the tribe of the Latini took their name from king Latinus. Much of Lazio is in flat or rolling. The lands originally inhabited by the Latini were extended into the territories of the Samnites, the Marsi, the Hernici, the Aequi, the Aurunci and the Volsci, all surrounding Italic tribes. This larger territory was still called Latium, but it was divided into Latium adiectum or Latium Novum, the lands or New Latium, and Latium Vetus, or Old Latium. The northern border of Lazio was the Tiber river, which divided it from Etruria, the emperor Augustus officially united almost all of present-day Italy into a single geo-political entity, Italia, dividing it into eleven regions. However, the wars against the Longobards weakened the region. With the Donation of Sutri in 728, the Bishop of Rome acquired the first territory in the region beyond the Duchy of Rome, the strengthening of the religious and ecclesiastical aristocracy led to continuous power struggles between secular lords and the Pope until the middle of the 16th century. Other popes tried to do the same, during the period when the papacy resided in Avignon, France, the feudal lords power increased due to the absence of the Pope from Rome
4.
Italy
–
Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a unitary parliamentary republic in Europe. Located in the heart of the Mediterranean Sea, Italy shares open land borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, San Marino, Italy covers an area of 301,338 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate and Mediterranean climate. Due to its shape, it is referred to in Italy as lo Stivale. With 61 million inhabitants, it is the fourth most populous EU member state, the Italic tribe known as the Latins formed the Roman Kingdom, which eventually became a republic that conquered and assimilated other nearby civilisations. The legacy of the Roman Empire is widespread and can be observed in the distribution of civilian law, republican governments, Christianity. The Renaissance began in Italy and spread to the rest of Europe, bringing a renewed interest in humanism, science, exploration, Italian culture flourished at this time, producing famous scholars, artists and polymaths such as Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo, Michelangelo and Machiavelli. The weakened sovereigns soon fell victim to conquest by European powers such as France, Spain and Austria. Despite being one of the victors in World War I, Italy entered a period of economic crisis and social turmoil. The subsequent participation in World War II on the Axis side ended in defeat, economic destruction. Today, Italy has the third largest economy in the Eurozone and it has a very high level of human development and is ranked sixth in the world for life expectancy. The country plays a prominent role in regional and global economic, military, cultural and diplomatic affairs, as a reflection of its cultural wealth, Italy is home to 51 World Heritage Sites, the most in the world, and is the fifth most visited country. The assumptions on the etymology of the name Italia are very numerous, according to one of the more common explanations, the term Italia, from Latin, Italia, was borrowed through Greek from the Oscan Víteliú, meaning land of young cattle. The bull was a symbol of the southern Italic tribes and was often depicted goring the Roman wolf as a defiant symbol of free Italy during the Social War. Greek historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus states this account together with the legend that Italy was named after Italus, mentioned also by Aristotle and Thucydides. The name Italia originally applied only to a part of what is now Southern Italy – according to Antiochus of Syracuse, but by his time Oenotria and Italy had become synonymous, and the name also applied to most of Lucania as well. The Greeks gradually came to apply the name Italia to a larger region, excavations throughout Italy revealed a Neanderthal presence dating back to the Palaeolithic period, some 200,000 years ago, modern Humans arrived about 40,000 years ago. Other ancient Italian peoples of undetermined language families but of possible origins include the Rhaetian people and Cammuni. Also the Phoenicians established colonies on the coasts of Sardinia and Sicily, the Roman legacy has deeply influenced the Western civilisation, shaping most of the modern world
5.
Latium
–
Latium is the region of central western Italy in which the city of Rome was founded and grew to be the capital city of the Roman Empire. Latium was originally a triangle of fertile, volcanic soil on which resided the tribe of the Latins or Latians. It was located on the bank of the Tiber river, extending northward to the Anio river. The right bank of the Tiber was occupied by the Etruscan city of Veii, subsequently, Rome defeated Veii and then its Italic neighbors, expanding Latium to the Apennine Mountains in the northeast and to the opposite end of the marsh in the southeast. The modern descendant, the Italian Regione of Lazio, also called Latium in Latin, and occasionally in modern English, is larger still. The ancient language of the Latins, the tribesmen who occupied Latium, was to become the predecessor of the Old Latin language, ancestor of Latin. Latium has played an important role in history owing to its status as the host of the city of Rome. Consequently, Latium is home to celebrated works of art and architecture, in its center is a crater lake, Lacus Albanus, oval in shape, a few km long and wide. The last pagan temple to be built stood until the Middle Ages when its stone and location were reused for various monasteries and finally a hotel. The selection of Jupiter as a god and the descent of the name Latini to the name of the Latin language are sufficient to identify the Latins as a tribe of Indo-European descent. Virgil, a poet of the early Roman Empire, under Augustus, derived Latium from the word for hidden because in a myth Saturn, ruler of the golden age in Latium. A major modern etymology is that Lazio comes from the Latin word latus, meaning wide, the region that would become Latium had been home to settled agricultural populations since the early Bronze Age and was known to the Ancient Greeks and even earlier to the Mycenaean Greeks. The name is most likely derived from the Latin word latus, meaning wide, expressing the idea of land but the name may originate from an earlier. The Etruscans, from their region of Etruria exerted a strong cultural and political influence on Latium from about the 8th century BC onward. Indeed, the cultural and geographic proximity to the cities of Magna Graecia had a strong impact upon its early history. By the 10th century BC, archaeology records a slow development in agriculture from the area of Latium with the establishment of numerous villages. The Latins cultivated grains, grapes, olives, apples, the various Latini populi lived in a society led by influential clans. These clans were a sign of their origin, which continued in Rome as the thirty curiae which organized Roman society
6.
Geographic coordinate system
–
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
7.
Ancient Rome
–
In its many centuries of existence, the Roman state evolved from a monarchy to a classical republic and then to an increasingly autocratic empire. Through conquest and assimilation, it came to dominate the Mediterranean region and then Western Europe, Asia Minor, North Africa and it is often grouped into classical antiquity together with ancient Greece, and their similar cultures and societies are known as the Greco-Roman world. Ancient Roman civilisation has contributed to modern government, law, politics, engineering, art, literature, architecture, technology, warfare, religion, language and society. Rome professionalised and expanded its military and created a system of government called res publica, the inspiration for modern republics such as the United States and France. By the end of the Republic, Rome had conquered the lands around the Mediterranean and beyond, its domain extended from the Atlantic to Arabia, the Roman Empire emerged with the end of the Republic and the dictatorship of Augustus Caesar. 721 years of Roman-Persian Wars started in 92 BC with their first war against Parthia and it would become the longest conflict in human history, and have major lasting effects and consequences for both empires. Under Trajan, the Empire reached its territorial peak, Republican mores and traditions started to decline during the imperial period, with civil wars becoming a prelude common to the rise of a new emperor. Splinter states, such as the Palmyrene Empire, would divide the Empire during the crisis of the 3rd century. Plagued by internal instability and attacked by various migrating peoples, the part of the empire broke up into independent kingdoms in the 5th century. This splintering is a landmark historians use to divide the ancient period of history from the pre-medieval Dark Ages of Europe. King Numitor was deposed from his throne by his brother, Amulius, while Numitors daughter, Rhea Silvia, because Rhea Silvia was raped and impregnated by Mars, the Roman god of war, the twins were considered half-divine. The new king, Amulius, feared Romulus and Remus would take back the throne, a she-wolf saved and raised them, and when they were old enough, they returned the throne of Alba Longa to Numitor. Romulus became the source of the citys name, in order to attract people to the city, Rome became a sanctuary for the indigent, exiled, and unwanted. This caused a problem for Rome, which had a large workforce but was bereft of women, Romulus traveled to the neighboring towns and tribes and attempted to secure marriage rights, but as Rome was so full of undesirables they all refused. Legend says that the Latins invited the Sabines to a festival and stole their unmarried maidens, leading to the integration of the Latins, after a long time in rough seas, they landed at the banks of the Tiber River. Not long after they landed, the men wanted to take to the sea again, one woman, named Roma, suggested that the women burn the ships out at sea to prevent them from leaving. At first, the men were angry with Roma, but they realized that they were in the ideal place to settle. They named the settlement after the woman who torched their ships, the Roman poet Virgil recounted this legend in his classical epic poem the Aeneid
8.
High Middle Ages
–
The High Middle Ages or High Medieval Period was the period of European history around the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries. The High Middle Ages were preceded by the Early Middle Ages and followed by the Late Middle Ages, by 1250 the robust population increase greatly benefited the European economy, reaching levels that would not be seen again in some areas until the 19th century. This trend was checked in the Late Middle Ages by a series of calamities, notably the Black Death but also including numerous wars, from about the year 780 onwards, Europe saw the last of the barbarian invasions and became more socially and politically organized. The Carolingian Renaissance led to scientific and philosophical revival of Europe, the first universities were established in Bologna, Paris, Oxford and Modena. The Vikings had settled in the British Isles, France and elsewhere, the Magyars had ceased their expansion in the 10th century, and by the year 1000, a Christian Kingdom of Hungary was recognized in Central Europe, forming alliances with regional powers. With the brief exception of the Mongol invasions in the 13th century, in the 11th century, populations north of the Alps began to settle new lands, some of which had reverted to wilderness after the end of the Roman Empire. In what is known as the clearances, vast forests. At the same time settlements moved beyond the boundaries of the Frankish Empire to new frontiers in Europe, beyond the Elbe River. The High Middle Ages produced many different forms of intellectual, spiritual, the rediscovery of the works of Aristotle led Thomas Aquinas and other thinkers of the period to develop Scholasticism, a combination of Catholicism and ancient philosophy. For much of the time period Constantinople remained Europes most populous city, in architecture, many of the most notable Gothic cathedrals were built or completed during this era. The Crisis of the Late Middle Ages, beginning at the start of the 14th century, in England, the Norman Conquest of 1066 resulted in a kingdom ruled by a Francophone nobility. The Normans invaded Ireland by force in 1169 and soon established throughout most of the country. Likewise, Scotland and Wales were subdued to vassalage at about the same time, the Exchequer was founded in the 12th century under King Henry I, and the first parliaments were convened. In 1215, after the loss of Normandy, King John signed the Magna Carta into law, from the mid-tenth to the mid-11th centuries, the Scandinavian kingdoms were unified and Christianized, resulting in an end of Viking raids, and greater involvement in European politics. King Cnut of Denmark ruled over both England and Norway, after Cnuts death in 1035, England and Norway were lost, and with the defeat of Valdemar II in 1227, Danish predominance in the region came to an end. Meanwhile, Norway extended its Atlantic possessions, ranging from Greenland to the Isle of Man, while Sweden, under Birger Jarl, however, the Norwegian influence started to decline already in the same period, marked by the Treaty of Perth of 1266. Also, civil wars raged in Norway between 1130 and 1240, by the time of the High Middle Ages, the Carolingian Empire had been divided and replaced by separate successor kingdoms called France and Germany, although not with their modern boundaries. Germany was under the banner of the Holy Roman Empire, which reached its mark of unity
9.
Classical antiquity
–
It is the period in which Greek and Roman society flourished and wielded great influence throughout Europe, North Africa and Southwestern Asia. Conventionally, it is taken to begin with the earliest-recorded Epic Greek poetry of Homer, and continues through the emergence of Christianity and it ends with the dissolution of classical culture at the close of Late Antiquity, blending into the Early Middle Ages. Such a wide sampling of history and territory covers many disparate cultures, Classical antiquity may refer also to an idealised vision among later people of what was, in Edgar Allan Poes words, the glory that was Greece, and the grandeur that was Rome. The culture of the ancient Greeks, together with influences from the ancient Near East, was the basis of art, philosophy, society. The earliest period of classical antiquity takes place before the background of gradual re-appearance of historical sources following the Bronze Age collapse, the 8th and 7th centuries BC are still largely proto-historical, with the earliest Greek alphabetic inscriptions appearing in the first half of the 8th century. Homer is usually assumed to have lived in the 8th or 7th century BC, in the same period falls the traditional date for the establishment of the Ancient Olympic Games, in 776 BC. The Phoenicians originally expanded from Canaan ports, by the 8th century dominating trade in the Mediterranean, carthage was founded in 814 BC, and the Carthaginians by 700 BC had firmly established strongholds in Sicily, Italy and Sardinia, which created conflicts of interest with Etruria. The Etruscans had established control in the region by the late 7th century BC, forming the aristocratic. According to legend, Rome was founded on April 21,753 BC by twin descendants of the Trojan prince Aeneas, Romulus and Remus. As the city was bereft of women, legend says that the Latins invited the Sabines to a festival and stole their unmarried maidens, leading to the integration of the Latins and the Sabines. Archaeological evidence indeed shows first traces of settlement at the Roman Forum in the mid-8th century BC, the seventh and final king of Rome was Tarquinius Superbus. As the son of Tarquinius Priscus and the son-in-law of Servius Tullius, Superbus was of Etruscan birth and it was during his reign that the Etruscans reached their apex of power. Superbus removed and destroyed all the Sabine shrines and altars from the Tarpeian Rock, the people came to object to his rule when he failed to recognize the rape of Lucretia, a patrician Roman, at the hands of his own son. Lucretias kinsman, Lucius Junius Brutus, summoned the Senate and had Superbus, after Superbus expulsion, the Senate voted to never again allow the rule of a king and reformed Rome into a republican government in 509 BC. In fact the Latin word Rex meaning King became a dirty and hated throughout the Republic. In 510, Spartan troops helped the Athenians overthrow the tyrant Hippias, cleomenes I, king of Sparta, put in place a pro-Spartan oligarchy conducted by Isagoras. Greece entered the 4th century under Spartan hegemony, but by 395 BC the Spartan rulers removed Lysander from office, and Sparta lost her naval supremacy. Athens, Argos, Thebes and Corinth, the two of which were formerly Spartan allies, challenged Spartan dominance in the Corinthian War, which ended inconclusively in 387 BC
10.
Alban Hills
–
The Alban Hills are the site of a quiescent volcanic complex in Italy, located 20 km southeast of Rome and about 24 kilometres north of Anzio. The dominant peak is Monte Cavo at 950 m, there are two small calderas which contain lakes, Lake Albano and Lake Nemi. The rock of the hills is called peperino a variety of tuff, a combination of ash and small rocks that is useful for construction. The hills, especially around the shores of the lakes, have been popular since prehistoric times, from the 9th to 7th century BC, there were numerous villages. The area was inhabited by the Latini during the 5th to 3rd centuries BC, the ancient Romans called the hill Albanus Mons. In Roman times, the area was used by the rich as a way to escape the heat and crowds of Rome, as it is today as shown by the many villas. The towns and villages in the Alban Hills are known as the Castelli Romani, examination of deposits have dated the four most recent eruptions to two temporal peaks, around 36,000 and 39,000 years ago. The area exhibits small localised earthquake swarms, bradyseism, and release of carbon dioxide, the volcano emits large amounts of carbon dioxide which can potentially reach lethal concentrations if it accumulates in depressions in the ground in the absence of wind. Eight sheep were killed in an incident in October 2001
11.
Roman Campagna
–
The Roman Campagna, or just Campagna, is a low-lying area surrounding Rome in the Lazio region of central Italy, with an area of approximately 2,100 square kilometres. It is bordered by the Tolfa and Sabatini mountains to the north, the Alban Hills to the southeast, the rivers Tiber and Aniene run through the area. During the Ancient Roman period, it was an important agricultural and residential area, the pastoral beauty of the Campagna inspired the painters who flocked into Rome in the 18th and 19th centuries. During that time, the Campagna became the most painted landscape in Europe, an excursion into the Roman countryside was an essential part of the Grand Tour. The region was reclaimed in the 19th and 20th centuries for use in mixed farming, starting with the 1950s, the expansion of Rome destroyed large parts of the Campagna, all around the city. The only continuous green area where the resources of the region were saved from overbuilding is along the Appian Way
12.
Rome
–
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
13.
Via Latina
–
The Via Latina was a Roman road of Italy, running southeast from Rome for about 200 kilometers. It led from the Porta Latina in the Aurelian walls of Rome to the pass of Mons Algidus and it follows, too, a far more natural line of communication, without the engineering difficulties that the arrow-straight Via Appia had to overcome. As a through-route, it preceded the Via Labicana, though the latter may have been preferred in later times, at Fregellae, it crossed the Liri, and then passed through Aquino and Cassino, both comparatively low-lying towns. In later times, however, there was in all probability a shortcut by Rufrae along the line taken by the modern highroad and railway. The distance from Rome to Casilinum was 129 Roman miles by the Via Appia,135 Roman miles by the old Via Latina through Venafrum,126 Roman miles by the shortcut past Rufrae. Tombs of Via Latina This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Latina. T. Ashby in Papers of the British School at Rome iv
14.
Via Labicana
–
The Via Labicana was an ancient road of Italy, leading east-southeast from Rome. After their junction it is probable that the road bore the name Via Latina rather than Via Labicana. The course of the road after the first six miles from Rome is not identical with that of any modern road, the section of the road near Rome is now known as the Via Casilina. A statue of Augustus as pontifex maximus found at a villa of Livia on this road is known as the Via Labicana type and is housed at the National Roman Museum. The Roman Emperor Didius Julianus was buried by the milestone on the Via Labicana. The ancient church of Santi Marcellino e Pietro al Laterano was built at the intersection with via Merulana near the catacombs where the remains of St Marcellino, for an overview of the location of Roman bridges, see List of Roman bridges. There are the remains of at least one Roman bridge along the road, Roman road Roman bridge Roman engineering T. Ashby in Papers of the British Schoól at Rome, i.215 sq. This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh. Omnes Viae, Via Labicana on the Peutinger map
15.
Cicero
–
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
16.
Lucullus
–
Lucius Licinius Lucullus was an optimate politician of the late Roman Republic, closely connected with Lucius Cornelius Sulla. His command style received unusually favourable attention from ancient military experts and he also patronized the arts and sciences lavishly, transforming his hereditary estate in the highlands of Tusculum into a hotel-and-library complex for scholars and philosophers. He built the horti Lucullani, the famous Gardens of Lucullus, on the Pincian Hill in Rome and he died during the winter of 57-56 BC. and was buried at the family estate near Tusculum. The conquest agnomen of Ponticus is sometimes appended to his name in modern texts. In ancient sources it is ever attributed to his consular colleague Marcus Aurelius Cotta after the latters capture. Lucullus was a member of the prominent gens Licinia, and of the family, or stirps of the Luculli and he was grandson of Lucius Licinius Lucullus, and son of Lucius Licinius Lucullus, who was convicted for embezzlement and exiled in 102/1 from his Sicilian command of 103-2. His first known service was as tribune of soldiers serving in Sullas army in Campania during the bellum Italicum. Lucullus was probably the Quaestor mentioned as the officer in Sullas army who could stomach accompanying the Consul when he marched on Rome. In autumn of the same year Sulla sent Lucullus ahead of him to Greece to take over the command of the Mithridatic War in his name and he initially made Crete, and is said to have won over the cities to the Roman side. From there he crossed to Cyrene where the famous Hellenic colony in Africa was in dire condition following a vicious, after Lucullus had defeated the Mithridatic admiral Neoptolemus in the Battle of Tenedos, he helped Sulla cross the Aegean to Asia. After a peace had been agreed, Lucullus stayed in Asia, Lucullus, however, tried to lessen the burden that these impositions created. Lucullus returned in 80 BC and was elected curule aedile for 79, along with his brother Marcus Terentius Varro Lucullus, Plutarchs biography entirely ignores this period,78 BC to 75 BC, jumping from Sullas death to Lucullus consulate. Sulla dedicated his memoirs to Lucullus, and upon his death made him guardian of his son Faustus, shortly after this, in 74, he became consul, and defended Sullas constitution from the efforts of Lucius Quinctius. On arrival, Lucullus set out from his province to relieve the besieged Cotta in Bithynia and he harried the army of Mithridates and killed many of his soldiers. He then turned to the sea and raised a fleet amongst the Greek cities of Asia, with this fleet he defeated the enemys fleet off Ilium and then off Lemnos. Turning back to the land, he drove Mithridates back into Pontus and he was wary of drawing into a direct engagement with Mithridates, due to the latters superior cavalry. But after several battles, Lucullus finally defeated him at the Battle of Cabira. He did not pursue Mithridates immediately, but instead he finished conquering the kingdom of Pontus and his attempts to reform the rapacious Roman administration in Asia made him increasingly unpopular among the powerful publicani back in Rome
17.
Strabo
–
Strabo was a Greek geographer, philosopher, and historian who lived in Asia Minor during the transitional period of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire. Strabo was born to an affluent family from Amaseia in Pontus, Strabos life was characterized by extensive travels. He journeyed to Egypt and Kush, as far west as coastal Tuscany and as far south as Ethiopia in addition to his travels in Asia Minor and the time he spent in Rome. Travel throughout the Mediterranean and Near East, especially for scholarly purposes, was popular during this era and was facilitated by the relative peace enjoyed throughout the reign of Augustus. He moved to Rome in 44 BC, and stayed there, studying and writing, in 29 BC, on his way to Corinth, he visited the island of Gyaros in the Aegean Sea. Around 25 BC, he sailed up the Nile until reaching Philae and it is not known precisely when Strabos Geography was written, though comments within the work itself place the finished version within the reign of Emperor Tiberius. Some place its first drafts around 7 BC, others around 17 or 18 AD, the latest passage to which a date can be assigned is his reference to the death in AD23 of Juba II, king of Maurousia, who is said to have died just recently. He probably worked on the Geography for many years and revised it steadily, on the presumption that recently means within a year, Strabo stopped writing that year or the next, when he died. The first of Strabos major works, Historical Sketches, written while he was in Rome, is completely lost. Strabo studied under several prominent teachers of various specialties throughout his life at different stops along his Mediterranean travels. His first chapter of education took place in Nysa under the master of rhetoric Aristodemus, Strabo was an admirer of Homers poetry, perhaps a consequence of his time spent in Nysa with Aristodemus. At around the age of 21, Strabo moved to Rome, where he studied philosophy with the Peripatetic Xenarchus, despite Xenarchuss Aristotelian leanings, Strabo later gives evidence to have formed his own Stoic inclinations. In Rome, he learned grammar under the rich and famous scholar Tyrannion of Amisus. Although Tyrannion was also a Peripatetic, he was more relevantly a respected authority on geography, the final noteworthy mentor to Strabo was Athenodorus Cananites, a philosopher who had spent his life since 44 BC in Rome forging relationships with the Roman elite. Athenodorus endowed to Strabo three important items, his philosophy, his knowledge, and his contacts, moreover, from his own first-hand experience, Athenodorus provided Strabo with information about regions of the empire which he would not otherwise have known. Strabo is most notable for his work Geographica, which presented a history of people. Although the Geographica was rarely utilized in its antiquity, a multitude of copies survived throughout the Byzantine Empire. It first appeared in Western Europe in Rome as a Latin translation issued around 1469, the first Greek edition was published in 1516 in Venice
18.
Geographica
–
The Geographica, or Geography, is an encyclopedia of geographical knowledge, consisting of 17 books, written in Greek by Strabo, an educated citizen of the Roman Empire of Greek descent. Work can have begun on it no earlier than 20 BC, a first edition was published in 7 BC followed by a gap, resumption of work and a final edition no later than 23 AD in the last year of Strabos life. Strabo probably worked on his Geography and now missing History concurrently, except for parts of Book 7, the complete work is known. From this description it is clear that by geography Strabo means ancient physical geography and by chorography, the two are combined in this work, which makes a circuit of the earth detailing the physical and political features. Strabo often uses the adjective geōgraphika with reference to the works of others and to geography in general, in the Middle Ages it became the standard name used of his work. The date of Geographica is a topic, perhaps because Strabo worked on it along with his History for most of his adult life. He traveled extensively, undoubtedly gathering notes, and made extended visits to Rome and Alexandria, Strabo visited Rome in 44 BC at age 19 or 20 apparently for purposes of education. He studied under various persons, including Tyrannion, a captive educated Greek and private tutor, cicero says, The geographical work I had planned is a big undertaking. if I take Tyrannions views too. If one presumes that Strabo acquired the motivation for writing geography during his education and he may have been gathering notes but the earliest indication that he must have been preparing them is his extended visit to Alexandria 25–20 BC. In 20 he was 44 years old and his numerous excerpts from the works of his predecessors are most likely to have been noted at the library there. Whether these hypothetical notes first found their way into his history, most of the events of the life of Augustus mentioned by Strabo occurred 31–7 BC with a gap 6 BC –14 AD, which can be interpreted as an interval after first publication in 7 BC. Then in 19 AD a specific reference dates a passage, he said that the Carni, by Drusus 33 years ago, which was 15 BC, dating the passage 19 AD. The latest event mentioned is the death of Juba at no later than 23 AD and these events can be interpreted as a second edition unless he saved all his notes and wrote the book entirely after the age of 80. Strabo is his own best expounder of his principles of composition, In short, useful alike to the statesman and to the public at large – as was my work on History. And so, after I had written my Historical Sketches, I determined to write the present treatise also, for this work is based on the same plan, and is addressed to the same class of readers, and particularly to men of exalted stations in life. For it, too, is a work, in that it deals with the facts about large things only. An outline of the encyclopedia follows, with links to the appropriate Wikipedia article, pages C1 through C67, Loeb Volume I pages 3–249. Some thirty manuscripts of Geographica or parts of it have survived, almost all of medieval copies of copies
19.
Odysseus
–
Odysseus, also known by the Latin name Ulysses, was a legendary Greek king of Ithaca and the hero of Homers epic poem the Odyssey. Odysseus also plays a key role in Homers Iliad and other works in that same epic cycle. Husband of Penelope, father of Telemachus, and son of Laërtes and Anticlea, Odysseus is renowned for his brilliance, guile, and versatility and he is most famous for the Odyssey, ten eventful years he took to return home after the decade-long Trojan War. The name has several variants, in Greek the character was called Olysseus, Oulixeus, Oulixes, hence, there may originally have been two separate figures, one called something like Odysseus, the other something like Ulixes, who were combined into one complex personality. The etymology of the name is unknown, ancient authors linked the name to the Greek verbs odussomai to be wroth against, to hate, or to oduromai to lament, bewail. Homer in references and puns, relates it to various forms of this verb and it has also been suggested that the name is of non-Greek origin, probably not even Indo-European, with an unknown etymology, R. S. P. Beekes has suggested a Pre-Greek origin. In Book 19 of the Odyssey, where Odysseuss early childhood is recounted, Euryclea tries to guide him to naming the boy Polyaretos, for he has much been prayed for. Autolycus apparently in a sardonic mood, decided to give the child a name that would commemorate his own experience in life. Because I got odium upon myself before coming here, let the childs name be Odysseus to signify this. The pun was prophetic as well as commemorative, Odysseus often receives the patronymic epithet Laertiades, son of Laërtes. In the Iliad and Odyssey there are several epithets used to describe Odysseus and his name and stories were adopted into Etruscan religion under the name Uthuze. Hence, Odysseus was the great-grandson of the Olympian god Hermes, according to the Iliad and Odyssey, his father is Laertes and his mother Anticlea, although there was a non-Homeric tradition that Sisyphus was his true father. The rumor went that Laertes bought Odysseus from the conniving king, Odysseus is said to have a younger sister, Ctimene, who went to Same to be married and is mentioned by the swineherd Eumaeus, whom she grew up alongside, in Book 15 of the Odyssey. Homers Iliad and Odyssey portray Odysseus as a hero, but the Romans. In Virgils Aeneid, written between 29 and 19 BC, he is referred to as cruel Odysseus or deceitful Odysseus. Turnus, in Aeneid ix, reproaches the Trojan Ascanius with images of rugged, forthright Latin virtues, declaring, You shall not find the sons of Atreus here, nor need the frauds of sly Ulysses fear. While the Greeks admired his cunning and deceit, these qualities did not recommend themselves to the Romans, who possessed a rigid sense of honour. His attempts to avoid his sacred oath to defend Menelaus and Helen offended Roman notions of duty, the majority of sources for Odysseus pre-war exploits—principally the mythographers Pseudo-Apollodorus and Hyginus—postdate Homer by many centuries
20.
Circe
–
Circe (/ˈsɜːrsiː/, is a goddess of magic or sometimes a nymph, witch, enchantress or sorceress in Greek mythology. By most accounts, she was the daughter of the sungod Helios, and Perse and her brothers were Aeetes, keeper of the Golden Fleece, and Perses. Her sister was Pasiphaë, the wife of King Minos and mother of the Minotaur, other accounts make her the daughter of Hecate, the goddess of witchcraft. Circe was renowned for her vast knowledge of potions and herbs, through the use of these and a magic wand or staff, she transformed her enemies, or those who offended her, into animals. Some say she was exiled to the island of Aeaea by her subjects and her father Helios for killing her husband. Later traditions tell of her leaving or even destroying the island and moving to Italy, in Homers Odyssey, Circe is described as living in a mansion that stands in the middle of a clearing in a dense wood. Around the house prowled strangely docile lions and wolves, the victims of her magic, they were not dangerous. Circe worked at a huge loom, thus so she turned them all into swine with her magic wand or staff after they gorged themselves on it. Only drunken Eurylochus, suspecting treachery from the outset, escaped to warn Odysseus, Odysseus set out to rescue his men, but was intercepted by the messenger god, Hermes, who had been sent by Athena. Hermes told Odysseus to use the holy herb moly to protect himself from Circes wizardry and, having resisted it, to draw his sword, from there, Circe would ask him to bed, but Hermes advised caution, for even there the goddess would be treacherous. She would take his manhood unless he had her swear by the names of the gods that she would not, Odysseus followed Hermes advice, freeing his men and then remained on the island for one year, feasting and drinking wine. She also advised Odysseus to go to the Underworld and gave him directions, towards the end of Hesiods Theogony, it is stated that Circe bore Odysseus three sons, Ardeas or Agrius, Latinus, and Telegonus, who ruled over the Tyrsenoi, that is the Etruscans. The Telegony, a now lost, relates the later history of the last of these. Circe eventually informed him who his absent father was and, when he set out to find Odysseus, with this he killed his father unknowingly. Telegonus then brought back his fathers corpse, together with Penelope and Odysseus other son Telemachus, after burying Odysseus, Circe made the others immortal. According to Lycophrons Alexandra and John Tzetzes scholia on the poem, however, Odysseus then gave Telemachus to Circes daughter Cassiphone in marriage. Some time later, Telemachus had a quarrel with his mother-in-law and killed her, on hearing of this, Odysseus died of grief. In a very late Alexandrian epic from the 5th century AD, in the 3rd century BC epic, the Argonautica, Apollonius Rhodius relates that Circe purified the Argonauts for the death of Absyrtus, maybe reflecting an early tradition
21.
Aeneas
–
In Greco-Roman mythology, Aeneas was a Trojan hero, the son of the prince Anchises and the goddess Venus. His father was a first cousin of King Priam of Troy and he is a character in Greek mythology and is mentioned in Homers Iliad. Aeneas receives full treatment in Roman mythology, most extensively in Virgils Aeneid and he became the first true hero of Rome. Snorri Sturluson identifies him with the Norse Æsir Vidarr, Aeneas is the Latin spelling of Greek Αἰνείας. In the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite, Aeneas is first introduced with Aphrodite naming him Αἰνείας for the αὶνóν ἄχος he caused her and it is a popular etymology for the name, apparently exploited by Homer in the Iliad. Later in the Medieval period there were writers who held that, as such, in the natural order, the meaning of Aeneas name combines Greek ennos and demas, which becomes ennaios, meaning in-dweller. However, there is no certainty regarding the origin of his name, in imitation of the Iliad, Virgil borrows epithets of Homer, including, Anchisiades, magnanimum, magnus, heros, and bonus. Though he borrows many, Virgil gives Aeneas two epithets of his own in the Aeneid, pater and pius. The epithets applied by Virgil are an example of a different from that of Homer, for whilst Odysseus is poikilios, Aeneas is described as pius. Likewise, Aeneas is called pater when acting in the interest of his men, the story of the birth of Aeneas is told in the Hymn to Aphrodite, one of the major Homeric Hymns. Aphrodite has caused the other gods Zeus, to fall in love with mortal women, in retaliation, Zeus puts desire in her heart for Anchises, who is tending his cattle among the hills near Mount Ida. When Aphrodite sees him she is smitten and she adorns herself as if for a wedding among the gods and appears before him. He is overcome by her beauty, believing that she is a goddess, after they make love, Aphrodite reveals her true identity to him and Anchises fears what might happen to him as a result of their liaison. Aphrodite assures him that he will be protected, and tells him that she bear him a son to be called Aeneas. However, she warns him that he must never tell anyone that he has lain with a goddess, when Aeneas is born, Aphrodite takes him to the nymphs of Mount Ida. She directs them to raise the child to age five, then take him to Anchises, according to other sources, Anchises later brags about his encounter with Aphrodite, and as a result is struck in the foot with a thunderbolt by Zeus. Thereafter he is lame in that foot, so that Aeneas has to carry him from the flames of Troy. Aeneas is a character in the Iliad, where he is twice saved from death by the gods as if for an as-yet-unknown destiny
22.
Livy
–
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
23.
Latins (Italic tribe)
–
The Latins, sometimes known as the Latians, were an Italic tribe which included the early inhabitants of the city of Rome. From about 1000 BC, the Latins inhabited the region known to the Romans as Old Latium, that is. The Latins were an Indo-European people who migrated into the Italian peninsula during the late Bronze Age. Their language, Latin, belonged to the Italic branch of Indo-European and their material culture, known as the Latial culture, was a distinctive subset of the Iron Age Villanovan culture that appeared in parts of the Italian peninsula after 1000 BC. Latino-Faliscians occupied the Tyrrhenian coast between the current Lazio and Calabria and overlapped and mingled with the oldest Neolithic peoples and they had cremation burials and possessed advanced metallurgical techniques. Major tribes included, Latins and Falisci in Lazio, Oenotrians and Italii in Calabria, Ausones, Aurunci and Opici in Campania and these included common festivals and religious sanctuaries. The rise of Rome as by far the most populous and powerful Latin state from c. 600 BC led to relations with the other Latin states. In the period of the Tarquin monarchy, it appears that Rome acquired political hegemony over the other states, after the fall of the Roman monarchy in c. This system progressively broke down after c. 390 BC, when Romes aggressive expansionism led to conflict with other Latin states, in 341–338 BC, the Latin states jointly fought the Latin War against Rome in a final attempt to preserve their independence. The war resulted in 338 BC in a decisive Roman victory, the other Latin states were either annexed or permanently subjugated to Rome. It has been suggested that the name Latium derives from the Latin word latus, referring, by extension, if this is true, then Latini originally meant men of the plain. The Latins belonged to a group of Indo-European tribes, conventionally known as the Italic tribes, on this model, it appears likely that the West Italic group were the first wave, followed, and largely displaced by, the East Italic group. This is deduced from the locations of the surviving West Italic niches. Besides Latin, putative members of the West Italic group are Faliscan, the West Italic languages were thus spoken in limited and isolated areas, whereas the East Italic group comprised the Oscan and Umbrian dialects spoken over much of central and southern Italy. However, the chronology of Indo-European immigration remains elusive, as does the relative chronology between of the Italic IE languages and the languages of the peninsula, notably Etruscan. Most scholars consider that Etruscan is a survival, part of a Mediterranean linguistic substratum. Some authors believe that, before the spread of Gaulish language in the plain of the river Po from c, however, Etruscan could equally have been introduced by later migrants. The ancient Greek historian Herodotus preserves the tradition that the Tyrrhenoi originated in Lydia in Anatolia, the tribe spoke the Latin language, a member of the western branch of the Italic languages, in turn a branch of the Indo-European family of languages
24.
Trojan War
–
In Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans after Paris of Troy took Helen from her husband Menelaus, king of Sparta. The war is one of the most important events in Greek mythology and has been narrated through many works of Greek literature, most notably through Homers Iliad. The Iliad relates four days in the year of the decade-long siege of Troy. Other parts of the war are described in a cycle of epic poems, episodes from the war provided material for Greek tragedy and other works of Greek literature, and for Roman poets including Virgil and Ovid. Zeus sent the goddesses to Paris, who judged that Aphrodite, as the fairest, in exchange, Aphrodite made Helen, the most beautiful of all women and wife of Menelaus, fall in love with Paris, who took her to Troy. Agamemnon, king of Mycenae and the brother of Helens husband Menelaus, led an expedition of Achaean troops to Troy and besieged the city for ten years because of Paris insult. After the deaths of heroes, including the Achaeans Achilles and Ajax, and the Trojans Hector and Paris. The Achaeans slaughtered the Trojans and desecrated the temples, thus earning the gods wrath, few of the Achaeans returned safely to their homes and many founded colonies in distant shores. The Romans later traced their origin to Aeneas, one of the Trojans, in 1868, however, the German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann met Frank Calvert, who convinced Schliemann that Troy was a real city at what is now Hissarlik in Turkey. On the basis of excavations conducted by Schliemann and others, this claim is now accepted by most scholars, whether there is any historical reality behind the Trojan War remains an open question. The events of the Trojan War are found in works of Greek literature. There is no single, authoritative text which tells the events of the war. Instead, the story is assembled from a variety of sources, the most important literary sources are the two epic poems traditionally credited to Homer, the Iliad and the Odyssey, composed sometime between the 9th and 6th centuries BC. Each poem narrates only a part of the war, the Iliad covers a short period in the last year of the siege of Troy, while the Odyssey concerns Odysseuss return to his home island of Ithaca, following the sack of Troy. Other parts of the Trojan War were told in the poems of the Epic Cycle, also known as the Cyclic Epics, the Cypria, Aethiopis, Little Iliad, Iliou Persis, Nostoi, and Telegony. Though these poems survive only in fragments, their content is known from an included in Proclus Chrestomathy. The authorship of the Cyclic Epics is uncertain, both the Homeric epics and the Epic Cycle take origin from oral tradition. Even after the composition of the Iliad, Odyssey, and the Cyclic Epics, events and details of the story that are only found in later authors may have been passed on through oral tradition and could be as old as the Homeric poems
25.
Lucius Tarquinius Superbus
–
Lucius Tarquinius Superbus was the legendary seventh and final king of Rome, reigning from 535 BC until the popular uprising in 509 that led to the establishment of the Roman Republic. He is commonly known as Tarquin the Proud, from his cognomen Superbus, ancient accounts of the Regal period mingle history and legend. His reign is described as a tyranny that justified the abolition of the monarchy, Tarquin was the son or grandson of Lucius Tarquinius Priscus, the fifth king of Rome, and Tanaquil. According to an Etruscan tradition, the hero Macstarna, usually equated with Servius Tullius, defeated and killed a Roman named Gnaeus Tarquinius and this may recollect an otherwise forgotten attempt by the sons of Tarquin the elder to reclaim the throne. To forestall further dynastic strife, Tullius married his daughters, known to history as Tullia Major and Tullia Minor, to Lucius Tarquinius, the future king and their sister, Tarquinia, married Marcus Junius Brutus, and was the mother of Lucius Junius Brutus. The elder Tullia was of mild disposition, yet married the ambitious Lucius Tarquinius, after the murder of their siblings, Lucius and Tullia were married. Together, they had three sons, Titus, Arruns, and Sextus, and a daughter, Tarquinia, who married Octavius Mamilius, Tullia encouraged her husband to advance his own position, ultimately persuading him to usurp the throne. Tarquin solicited the support of the senators, especially those from families who had received their senatorial rank under Tarquin the Elder. He bestowed presents upon them, and spread criticism of Servius the king, in time, Tarquin felt ready to seize the throne. He went to the senate-house with a group of armed men, sat himself on the throne, and summoned the senators to attend upon King Tarquin. The kings retainers fled, and as he made his way, dazed and unattended, toward the palace, Tullia, meanwhile, drove in her chariot to the senate-house, where she was the first to hail her husband as king. But Tarquin bade her return home, concerned that the crowd might do her violence, as she drove toward the Urbian Hill, her driver stopped suddenly, horrified at the sight of the kings body, lying in the street. But in a frenzy, Tullia herself seized the reins, the kings blood spattered against the chariot and stained Tullias clothes, so that she brought a gruesome relic of the murder back to her house. The street where Tullia disgraced the dead king afterward became known as the Vicus Sceleratus, Tarquin commenced his reign by refusing to bury the dead Servius, and then putting to death a number of leading senators, whom he suspected of remaining loyal to Servius. By not replacing the slain senators, and not consulting the senate on matters of government, in another break with tradition, Tarquin judged capital crimes without the advice of counselors, causing fear amongst those who might think to oppose him. He made an ally when he betrothed his daughter to Octavius Mamilius of Tusculum. Early in his reign, Tarquin called a meeting of the Latin leaders to discuss the bonds between Rome and the Latin towns, the meeting was held at a grove sacred to the goddess Ferentina. At the meeting, Turnus Herdonius inveighed against the Tarquins arrogance, Tarquin then bribed Turnus servant to store a large number of swords in his masters lodging
26.
Battle of Lake Regillus
–
The Battle of Lake Regillus was a legendary Roman victory over the Latin League shortly after the establishment of the Roman Republic and as part of a wider Latin War. The Latins were led by an elderly Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, the seventh and last King of Rome, who had expelled in 509 BC, and his son-in-law, Octavius Mamilius. The battle marked the final attempt of the Tarquins to reclaim their throne, according to legend, Castor and Pollux fought on the side of the Romans. The threat of invasion by Romes former allies in Latium led to the appointment of Aulus Postumius Albus as dictator, the year in which the battle occurred is unclear, and has been since ancient times. Livy places the battle in 499 BC, but says some of his sources also suggest the battle occurred during Postumius consulship in 496 BC, the other major source for this historical period, Dionysius of Halicarnassus also places the battle in 496 BC. Modern authors have also suggested 493 BC or 489 BC, Lake Regillus was located in the relic of a volcanic crater between Rome and Tusculum. The lake was drained in the fourth century BC, the dictator Postumius led the Roman infantry, while Titus Aebutius Elva was Master of the Horse. Tarquin was accompanied by his eldest and last remaining son, Titus and it was said that the presence of the Tarquinii caused the Romans to fight more passionately than in any previous battle. Early in the battle, the king was injured attacking Postumius, the magister equitum charged at Mamilius, and both were wounded, Aebutius in the arm, and the Latin dictator in the chest. The magister equitum had to withdraw from the field, and direct his troops from a distance, as the outcome of the battle seemed in doubt, Postumius ordered the equites to dismount and attack on foot, forcing the Latins to retreat and capturing the Latin camp. Tarquin and the Latin army abandoned the field, and the result was a decisive Roman victory, Postumius and his army returned to Rome, where the dictator celebrated a triumph. A popular legend reported that the Dioscuri, Castor and Pollux, fought alongside the Romans, Postumius ordered a temple built in their honour in the Roman Forum, in the place where they had watered their horses. In the nineteenth century, the battle was celebrated in Thomas Macaulays Lays of Ancient Rome, from the Founding of the City. Livy, Ab urbe condita Book II cap, Ab Urbe Condita The Battle of Lake Regillus poem from Macaulays Lays of Ancient Rome. Cornell, Tim, The Beginnings of Rome, Italy and Rome from the Bronze Age to the Punic Wars, C. 1000-263 BC, Routledge,1995
27.
Sabines
–
The Sabines were an Italic tribe which lived in the central Apennines of ancient Italy, also inhabiting Latium north of the Anio before the founding of Rome. The above names, English, Latin, and Greek, are all exonyms, the Sabines divided into two populations just after the founding of Rome, which is described by Roman legend. The division, however it came about, is not legendary, the population closer to Rome transplanted itself to the new city and united with the pre-existing citizenry, beginning a new heritage that descended from the Sabines but was also Latinized. The second population remained a mountain tribal state, coming finally to war against Rome for its independence along with all the other Italic tribes, after losing, it became assimilated into the Roman Republic. There is little record of the Sabine language, however, there are some glosses by ancient commentators, there are also personal names in use on Latin inscriptions from Sabine country, but these are given in Latin form. Robert Seymour Conway, in his Italic Dialects, gives approximately 100 words which vary from being well attested as Sabine to being possibly of Sabine origin, in addition to these he cites place names derived from the Sabine, sometimes giving attempts at reconstructions of the Sabine form. Based on all the evidence, the Linguist List tentatively classifies Sabine as a member of the Umbrian Group of Italic languages of Indo-European family, latin-speakers called the Sabines original territory, straddling the modern regions of Lazio, Umbria, and Abruzzo, Sabinium. To this day, it bears the ancient tribes name in the Italian form of Sabina, within the modern region of Lazio, Sabina constitutes a sub-region, situated north-east of Rome, around Rieti. According to Dionysius of Halicarnassus, many Roman historians regarded the origins of indigenous Romans to be Greek, the Sabines, specifically, were first mentioned in Dionysiuss account for having captured by surprise the city of Lista, which was regarded as the mother-city of the Aborigines. Ancient historians were still debating the specific origins of the Sabines, zenodotus of Troezen claimed that the Sabines were originally Umbrians that changed their name after being driven from the Reatine territory by the Pelasgians. However, Porcius Cato argued that the Sabines were a populace named after Sabus, in another account mentioned in Dionysiuss work, a group of Lacedaemonians fled Sparta since they regarded the laws of Lycurgus as too severe. In Italy, they founded the Spartan colony of Foronia and some from that colony settled among the Sabines, according to the account, the Sabine habits of belligerence and frugality were known to have derived from the Spartans. Plutarch also states in the Life of Numa Pompilius, Sabines, legend says that the Romans abducted Sabine women to populate the newly built Rome. The resultant war ended only by the women throwing themselves and their children between the armies of their fathers and their husbands, the Rape of the Sabine Women became a common motif in art, the women ending the war is a less frequent but still reappearing motif. According to Livy, after the conflict, the Sabine and Roman states merged, three new centuries of Equites were introduced at Rome, including one named Tatienses, after the Sabine king. A variation of the story is recounted in the book of Jasher. Tradition suggests that the population of the early Roman kingdom was the result of a union of Sabines, some of the gentes of the Roman republic were proud of their Sabine heritage, such as the Claudia gens, assuming Sabinus as a cognomen or agnomen. Ancient peoples of Italy Hostus Hostilius Ovid, Fasti Ovid, Ars Amatoria Livy, Ab urbe condita Cicero, De Republica Plutarch, Parallel Lives Juvenal, Satires Donaldson, John William
28.
Capitoline Hill
–
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
29.
Aequi
–
The Aequi were an Italic tribe on a stretch of the Apennine Mountains to the east Latium in central of Italy who appear in the early history of ancient Rome. After a long struggle for independence from Rome they were defeated, only two inscriptions believed to be in the Aequian language remain. No more can be deduced than that the language was Italic, otherwise the inscriptions from the region are those of the Latin-speaking colonists in Latin. The colonial exonym documented in inscriptions is Aequi and also Aequicoli. The manuscript variants of the authors present Equic-, Aequic-, Aequac-. If the form without the -coli is taken as an original, it may also be the endonym. The historians made many entries concerning the wars between the Aequi and Rome, the geographers scarcely mention them, pliny the Elder and Ptolemy both make the same brief statement, the towns of the Aequiculi were Cliternia or Cliternum and Carsoli or Carsioli respectively. Pliny places them in Augustus Regio IV, Ptolemy adds that they were to the east of the Sabini, by the time of the early Roman Empire, all vestige of the Italic Aequi was gone. The two cities mentioned had been Roman colonies, the forms mentioned in inscriptions from there are Carsioli and Cliternia. They occupied the upper reaches of the valleys of the Aniene, Tolenus and Himella, according to Strabo, the Aequi were in existence when the city of Rome was founded. They are first mentioned by Livy as an ancient nation from which the Romans borrowed the rites of declaring war, Livy also mentions that the last king of Rome, Tarquinius Superbus, made peace with the Aequi. They fought several wars against the Romans, among which was the battle of Mons Algidus and their chief center is said to have been taken by the Romans about 484 BC. and again about ninety years later. Records of fighting between Romans and Aequi become much sparser in the half of the 5th century BC. Likely the Aequi had gradually become a settled people and their raiding petered out as a result. In 390 BC a Gaulish war band defeated the Roman army at the Battle of Allia, the ancient writers report that in 389 BC the Etruscans, the Volsci, and the Aequi all raised armies in hope of exploiting this blow to Roman power. According to Livy and Plutarch, the Aequi gathered their army at Bolae, however, the Roman dictator, Marcus Furius Camillus, had just inflicted a severe defeat on the Volsci. He surprised the Aequian army and captured both their camp and the town, according to Diodorus Siculus, the Aequi were actually besieging Bolae when they were attacked by Camillus. According to Livy, a Roman army ravaged Aequian territory again in 388, oakley considers these notices of Roman victories against the Aequi in 389 and 388 to be historical, confirmed by the disappearance of the Aequi from the sources until 304
30.
Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus
–
Despite his old age, he worked his own small farm until an invasion prompted his fellow citizens to call for his leadership. He came from his plough to assume control over the state but, upon achieving a swift victory, relinquished his power and its perquisites. As a result, he has inspired a number of organizations and other entities, according to the traditional accounts, Lucius would have been born about 519 BC, during the last decade of the Roman Kingdom. He would have been a member of the lesser patrician clan Quinctia, the clans first consul was Titus Quinctius Capitolinus Barbatus, elected in 471 BC. As both Titus and Lucius are recorded as the son and grandson of men named Lucius Quinctius, Titus is sometimes thought to have been Luciuss brother and this suggests Lucius was the first of his cognomen Cincinnatus, meaning the curly haired. The consul Publius Valerius Poplicola was killed in its recovery in 460 BC and Cincinnatus, probably illegally, Cincinnatus was himself a violent opponent of the plebs proposal, which made no progress during his administration. His son, however, was driven from town and killed for his murder of a plebeian. Cincinnatus quit the city and retired to an estate he held to the west of the Tiber, Minucius Esquilinus Augurinus at Mount Algidus. During the decemvirate, he ran unsuccessfully for a position in their government in 450 BC, possibly, he returned as dictator in 439 BC to defend Rome against the conspiracy the prefect L. Minucius Augurinus alleged Spurius Maelius was plotting against the Republic. When Spurius Maelius ignored his summons, however, he was killed by Cincinnatuss master of horse and he presumably died sometime soon afterward. Caeso would lead gangs to drive the tribunes of the plebs from the forum and he was brought up on capital charges in 461 BC but released on a large bail. A plebeian named Marcus Volscius testified that his brother, while feeble from sickness, had knocked down. Rather than face his accusers in court, Caeso fled to the Etruscans. He was then condemned to death in absentia and his father subjected to a punitive fine, forcing him to sell most of his estates. Modern historians particularly reject the fine as a later invention inserted to explain the dictators supposed poverty, some reject the story in its entirety. In 458 BC, the Aequi to Romes east broke their treaty of the year before, Minucius Esquilinus Augurinus and G. Nautius Rutilus—led out two armies, one to Tusculums relief and another to strike against the lands of the Aequi and their Sabine allies. Upon reaching Mount Algidus in the Alban Hills, the army under L. Minucius Esquilinus Augurinus encamped and rested instead of immediately attacking, the Aequi quickly deployed around their position and successfully besieged them, with only a five horsemen escaping to tell the Roman Senate what had happened. With the army of the second consul unable to help, the fell into a panic
31.
Tusculum portrait
–
The Tusculum portrait or the Tusculum bust is one of the two main portrait types of Julius Caesar, alongside the Chiaramonti Caesar. Being one of the copies of the original, the bust is dated to 50–40 BC and is housed in the permanent collection of the Museo dAntichità in Turin. Made of fine grained marble, the bust measures 33 cm in height, the portraits facial features are consistent with those on coins struck in Caesars last year, particularly on the denarii issued by Marcus Mettius. The busts head is prolonged, forming a shape which was caused by Caesars premature ossification of the sutures between the parietal bone and the temporal bone. According to several scholars, the Tusculum portrait is the only extant portrait of Caesar made during his lifetime, the portrait was exhibited in the Louvre alongside the Arles bust. There are three copies of the bust, in the Woburn Abbey and in private collections in Florence
32.
Julius Caesar
–
Gaius Julius Caesar, known as Julius Caesar, was a Roman politician, general, and notable author of Latin prose. He played a role in the events that led to the demise of the Roman Republic. In 60 BC, Caesar, Crassus, and Pompey formed an alliance that dominated Roman politics for several years. Their attempts to power as Populares were opposed by the Optimates within the Roman Senate. Caesars victories in the Gallic Wars, completed by 51 BC, extended Romes territory to the English Channel, Caesar became the first Roman general to cross both the Channel and the Rhine, when he built a bridge across the Rhine and crossed the Channel to invade Britain. These achievements granted him unmatched military power and threatened to eclipse the standing of Pompey, with the Gallic Wars concluded, the Senate ordered Caesar to step down from his military command and return to Rome. Caesar refused the order, and instead marked his defiance in 49 BC by crossing the Rubicon with the 13th Legion, leaving his province, Civil war resulted, and Caesars victory in the war put him in an unrivalled position of power and influence. After assuming control of government, Caesar began a programme of social and governmental reforms and he centralised the bureaucracy of the Republic and was eventually proclaimed dictator in perpetuity, giving him additional authority. But the underlying political conflicts had not been resolved, and on the Ides of March 44 BC, a new series of civil wars broke out, and the constitutional government of the Republic was never fully restored. Caesars adopted heir Octavian, later known as Augustus, rose to power after defeating his opponents in the civil war. Octavian set about solidifying his power, and the era of the Roman Empire began, much of Caesars life is known from his own accounts of his military campaigns, and from other contemporary sources, mainly the letters and speeches of Cicero and the historical writings of Sallust. The later biographies of Caesar by Suetonius and Plutarch are also major sources, Caesar is considered by many historians to be one of the greatest military commanders in history. Caesar was born into a family, the gens Julia. The cognomen Caesar originated, according to Pliny the Elder, with an ancestor who was born by Caesarean section. The Historia Augusta suggests three alternative explanations, that the first Caesar had a head of hair, that he had bright grey eyes. Caesar issued coins featuring images of elephants, suggesting that he favored this interpretation of his name, despite their ancient pedigree, the Julii Caesares were not especially politically influential, although they had enjoyed some revival of their political fortunes in the early 1st century BC. Caesars father, also called Gaius Julius Caesar, governed the province of Asia and his mother, Aurelia Cotta, came from an influential family. Little is recorded of Caesars childhood, in 85 BC, Caesars father died suddenly, so Caesar was the head of the family at 16
33.
Samnites
–
The Samnites were an ancient Italic people who lived in Samnium in south-central Italy. They became involved in wars with the Roman Republic until the 1st century BC. An Oscan-speaking people, the Samnites probably originated as an offshoot of the Sabines, the Samnites formed a confederation, consisting of four tribes, the Hirpini, Caudini, Caraceni, and Pentri. They allied with Rome against the Gauls in 354 BC, despite an overwhelming victory over the Romans at the Battle of the Caudine Forks, the Samnites were eventually subjugated. Although severely weakened, the Samnites later helped Pyrrhus and Hannibal in their wars against Rome, by 82 BC, the Roman dictator Lucius Cornelius Sulla conducted an ethnic cleansing campaign against the Samnites, after which they disappeared from history. The population of Samnium were called Samnites by the Romans and their own endonyms were Safinim for the country and Safineis for the people. Etymologically, the name Samnium is generally recognized to be a form of the name of the Sabines, from Safinim, Sabinus, Sabellus and Samnis, an Indo-European root can be extracted, *sabh-, which becomes Sab- in Latino-Faliscan and Saf- in Osco-Umbrian, Sabini and *Safineis. The eponymous god of the Sabines, Sabus, seems to support this view, the Greek terms, Saunitai and Saunitis, remain outside the group. Nothing is known of their origin, at some point in prehistory, a population speaking a common language extended over both Samnium and Umbria. Salmon conjectures that it was common Italic and puts forward a date of 600 BC and this date does not necessarily correspond to any historical or archaeological evidence, developing a synthetic view of the ethnology of proto-historic Italy is an incomplete and ongoing task. Linguist Julius Pokorny carries the etymology somewhat further back, the earliest written record of the people is a treaty with the Romans from 354 BC, which set their border at the Liris River. Shortly thereafter, the Samnite Wars broke out, they won an important battle against the Roman army in 321 BC, by 290 BC, the Romans were able to break the Samnites power after some hard fought battles. The Samnites were one of the Italian peoples that allied with King Pyrrhus of Epirus during the Pyrrhic War and they joined and aided Hannibal during the Second Punic War. The Samnites were the last tribal group holding out against Rome in the Social War, by 82 BC, the Roman dictator Lucius Cornelius Sulla conducted an ethnic cleansing campaign against this most stubborn and persistent of Romes adversaries and forced the remnant to disperse. So great was the destruction brought upon them that it was recorded that the towns of Samnium have become villages, Caraceni Caudini Frentani Hirpini Pentri Gaius Pontius ca. 320s BC Gellius Egnatius ca.296 BC Gaius Papius Mutilus 90-89 with, Pontius Telesinus - Samnite commander to Papius Pontius Pilate - the 5th Prefect of the Roman province of Judaea from AD 26–36
34.
Cato the Elder
–
He was the first to write history in Latin. He came of an ancient Plebeian family who were noted for their military service, like his forefathers, Cato was devoted to agriculture when not serving in the army. As praetor, he expelled usurers from Sardinia, as censor, he tried to preserve Romes ancestral customs and combat degenerate Hellenistic influences. His epithet Elder distinguishes him from his equally famous great-grandson Cato the Younger, Cato the Elder was born in Tusculum, a municipal town of Latium, like some generations of his ancestors. His father had earned a reputation as a soldier. However, the Tusculan Porcii had never obtained the privileges of the Roman magistracy, early in life, he so far exceeded the previous deeds of his predecessors that he is frequently spoken of not only as the leader, but as the founder of the Porcia Gens. Priscus, like Major, may have merely a epithet used to distinguish him from the later Cato of Utica. There is no information as to when he first received the title of Cato. In order to determine the date of Catos birth, we consider the records as to his age at the time of his death, other authors exaggerate the age of Cato. According to Valerius Maximus he survived his 86th year, according to Livy, the exaggerated age, however, is inconsistent with a statement recorded by Plutarch on the asserted authority of Cato himself. Cato is represented to have said that he served his first campaign in his 17th year, when Cato was very young, after his fathers death, he inherited a small property in the Sabine territory, at a distance from his native town. There, he spent most of his childhood hardening his body by exercise, overseeing and sharing the operations of the farm, learning business and the rural economy. Near this land was a small hut abandoned after the triumphs of its owner Manius Curius Dentatus, whose military feats, Cato was inspired to imitate that character, hoping to match the glory of Dentatus. Soon, an opportunity came for a campaign in 217 BC. Experts express some disagreement about Catos early military life, in 214 BC, he served at Capua, and the historian Wilhelm Drumann imagines that already, at the age of 20, he was a military tribune. Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus had the command in Campania, during the year of his fourth consulship, while Fabius communicated the valued results of military experience, he chose not to inculcate Cato with his personal and political values and preferences. At the siege of Tarentum,209 BC, Cato was again at the side of Fabius, two years later, Cato was one of the select group who went with the consul Claudius Nero on his northern march from Lucania to check the progress of Hasdrubal Barca. It is recorded that the services of Cato contributed to the victory of Sena on the Metaurus
35.
Marcus Terentius Varro
–
Marcus Terentius Varro was an ancient Roman scholar and writer. He is sometimes called Varro Reatinus to distinguish him from his younger contemporary Varro Atacinus, politically, he supported Pompey, reaching the office of praetor, after having been tribune of the people, quaestor and curule aedile. He was one of the commission of twenty that carried out the great scheme of Caesar for the resettlement of Capua. During the civil war he commanded one of Pompeys armies in the Ilerda campaign and he escaped the penalties of being on the losing side in the civil war through two pardons granted by Julius Caesar, before and after the Battle of Pharsalus. As the Republic gave way to Empire, Varro gained the favour of Augustus, under whose protection he found the security and quiet to devote himself to study, Varro studied under the Roman philologist Lucius Aelius Stilo, and later at Athens under the Academic philosopher Antiochus of Ascalon. Varro proved to be a productive writer and turned out more than 74 Latin works on a variety of topics. Among his many works, two stand out for historians, Nine Books of Disciplines and his compilation of the Varronian chronology and his Nine Books of Disciplines became a model for later encyclopedists, especially Pliny the Elder. The most noteworthy portion of the Nine Books of Disciplines is its use of the arts as organizing principles. Varro decided to focus on identifying nine of these arts, grammar, rhetoric, logic, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, musical theory, medicine, using Varros list, subsequent writers defined the seven classical liberal arts of the medieval schools. The compilation of the Varronian chronology was an attempt to determine an exact timeline of Roman history up to his time. It is based on the sequence of the consuls of the Roman Republic — supplemented. His only complete work extant, Rerum rusticarum libri tres, has described as the well digested system of an experienced and successful farmer who has seen. One noteworthy aspect of the work is his anticipation of microbiology and epidemiology, Varro warned his contemporaries to avoid swamps and marshland, since in such areas. There are bred certain minute creatures which cannot be seen by the eyes, but which float in the air and enter the body through the mouth and nose and cause serious diseases. 199–242, in the collection of Wilmanns, pp. 170–223, and in that of Funaioli, pp. 179–371. G. Kent Livius. org, Varronian chronology thelatinlibrary. com, Latin works of Varro
.jpg)
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Ashby, Thomas (1911). "Tusculum". In Chisholm, Hugh. Encyclopædia Britannica. 27 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 486.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the 