Tomb
A tomb is a repository for the remains of the dead. It is any structurally enclosed interment space or burial chamber, of varying sizes; the word is used in a broad sense to encompass a number of such types of places of interment or burial, including: Architectural shrines – in Christianity, an architectural shrine above a saint's first place of burial, as opposed to a similar shrine on which stands a reliquary or feretory into which the saint's remains have been transferred Burial vault – a stone or brick-lined underground space for multiple burials vaulted privately owned for specific family groups. Crypts – though not always, for interment, its central feature is a single, prominent pillar or column made of stone. Rock-cut tomb – a form widespread in the ancient world, in which the tomb is not built but carved out of the rock and can be a free-standing building but is more a cave, which may be extensive and may or may not have an elaborate facade. Sarcophagus – a stone container for a body or coffin decorated and part of a monument.
Sepulchre – a cavernous rock-cut space for interment in the Jewish or Christian faiths. Samadhi – in India a tomb for a deceased saint that has a larger building over it as a shrine Other forms of archaeological "tombs", such as ship burials Tumulus – A mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are known as barrows, burial mounds, Hügelgräber or kurgans', can be found throughout much of the world. A cairn, might be a tumulus. A long barrow is a long tumulus for numbers of burials; as indicated, tombs are located in or under religious buildings, such as churches, or in cemeteries or churchyards. However, they may be found in catacombs, on private land or, in the case of early or pre-historic tombs, in what is today open landscape; the Daisen Kofun, the tomb of Emperor Nintoku, is the largest in the world by area. However, the Pyramid of Khufu in Egypt is the largest by volume. Cadaver tomb Church monument Death in Norse paganism English church monuments Funerary art Grave Ossuary Necropolis List of extant papal tombs List of mausolea List of non-extant papal tombs List of tombs and mausoleums Ziyarat - "visitation".
Notable examples: Dartmoor kistvaens Mausoleum at Halicarnassus Great Pyramids Taj Mahal Tomb of Alexander the Great Tomb of Genghis Khan Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor Catacombs of Paris Catacombs of Rome The Panthéon Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which contains the empty tomb of Jesus, where he was buried and resurrected. Tomb of the Unknown Soldier United Kingdom: The Unknown Warrior France: Tomb of the Unknown Soldier beneath the Arc de Triomphe de l'Étoile United States: Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery Iraq: Monument to the Unknown Soldier Russia: Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Alexander Garden, Moscow
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Roman Republic period of the ancient Roman civilization. Ruled by emperors, it had large territorial holdings around the Mediterranean Sea in Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, the Caucasus. From the constitutional reforms of Augustus to the military anarchy of the third century, the Empire was a principate ruled from the city of Rome; the Roman Empire was ruled by multiple emperors and divided in a Western Roman Empire, based in Milan and Ravenna, an Eastern Roman Empire, based in Nicomedia and Constantinople. Rome remained the nominal capital of both parts until 476 AD, when Odoacer deposed Romulus Augustus after capturing Ravenna and the Roman Senate sent the imperial regalia to Constantinople; the fall of the Western Roman Empire to barbarian kings, along with the hellenization of the Eastern Roman Empire into the Byzantine Empire, is conventionally used to mark the end of Ancient Rome and the beginning of the Middle Ages. The previous Republic, which had replaced Rome's monarchy in the 6th century BC, became destabilized in a series of civil wars and political conflict.
In the mid-1st century BC Julius Caesar was appointed as perpetual dictator and assassinated in 44 BC. Civil wars and proscriptions continued, culminating in the victory of Octavian, Caesar's adopted son, over Mark Antony and Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC; the following year Octavian conquered Ptolemaic Egypt, ending the Hellenistic period that had begun with the conquests of Alexander the Great of Macedon in the 4th century BC. Octavian's power was unassailable and in 27 BC the Roman Senate formally granted him overarching power and the new title Augustus making him the first emperor; the first two centuries of the Empire were a period of unprecedented stability and prosperity known as the Pax Romana. It reached its greatest territorial expanse during the reign of Trajan. A period of increasing trouble and decline began with the reign of Commodus. In the 3rd century, the Empire underwent a crisis that threatened its existence, but was reunified under Aurelian. In an effort to stabilize the Empire, Diocletian set up two different imperial courts in the Greek East and Latin West.
Christians rose to power in the 4th century following the Edict of Milan in 313 and the Edict of Thessalonica in 380. Shortly after, the Migration Period involving large invasions by Germanic peoples and the Huns of Attila led to the decline of the Western Roman Empire. With the fall of Ravenna to the Germanic Herulians and the deposition of Romulus Augustulus in 476 AD by Odoacer, the Western Roman Empire collapsed and it was formally abolished by emperor Zeno in 480 AD; the Eastern Roman Empire, known in the post-Roman West as the Byzantine Empire, collapsed when Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Turks of Mehmed II in 1453. Due to the Roman Empire's vast extent and long endurance, the institutions and culture of Rome had a profound and lasting influence on the development of language, architecture, philosophy and forms of government in the territory it governed Europe; the Latin language of the Romans evolved into the Romance languages of the medieval and modern world, while Medieval Greek became the language of the Eastern Roman Empire.
Its adoption of Christianity led to the formation of Christendom during the Middle Ages. Greek and Roman art had a profound impact on the late medieval Italian Renaissance, while Rome's republican institutions influenced the political development of republics such as the United States and France; the corpus of Roman law has its descendants in many legal systems of the world today, such as the Napoleonic Code. Rome's architectural tradition served as the basis for Neoclassical architecture. Rome had begun expanding shortly after the founding of the republic in the 6th century BC, though it did not expand outside the Italian peninsula until the 3rd century BC, it was an "empire" long before it had an emperor. The Roman Republic was not a nation-state in the modern sense, but a network of towns left to rule themselves and provinces administered by military commanders, it was ruled, not by annually elected magistrates in conjunction with the senate. For various reasons, the 1st century BC was a time of political and military upheaval, which led to rule by emperors.
The consuls' military power rested in the Roman legal concept of imperium, which means "command". Successful consuls were given the honorary title imperator, this is the origin of the word emperor since this title was always bestowed to the early emperors upon their accession. Rome suffered a long series of internal conflicts and civil wars from the late second century BC onward, while extending its power beyond Italy; this was the period of the Crisis of the Roman Republic. Towards the end of this era, in 44 BC, Julius Caesar was perpetual dictator before being assassinated; the faction of his assassins was driven from Rome and defeated at the Battle of Philippi in 42 BC by an army led by Mark Antony and Caesar's adopted son Octavian. Antony and Octavian's division of the Roman world between themselves did not last and Octavian's forces defeated those of Mark Antony and Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC, ending the Final War of the Roman Republic. In 27 BC the Senate and People of Rome made Octavian princeps ("first citi
Catalonia
Catalonia is an autonomous community in Spain on the northeastern corner of the Iberian Peninsula, designated as a nationality by its Statute of Autonomy. Catalonia consists of four provinces: Barcelona, Girona and Tarragona; the capital and largest city is Barcelona, the second-most populated municipality in Spain and the core of the sixth most populous urban area in the European Union. It comprises most of the territory of the former Principality of Catalonia, it is bordered by France and Andorra to the north, the Mediterranean Sea to the east, the Spanish autonomous communities of Aragon to the west and Valencia to the south. The official languages are Catalan and the Aranese dialect of Occitan. In the late 8th century, the counties of the March of Gothia and the Hispanic March were established by the Frankish kingdom as feudal vassals across and near the eastern Pyrenees as a defensive barrier against Muslim invasions; the eastern counties of these marches were united under the rule of the Frankish vassal, the count of Barcelona, were called Catalonia.
In the 10th century the County of Barcelona became independent de facto. In 1137, Barcelona and the Kingdom of Aragon were united by marriage under the Crown of Aragon; the de jure end of Frankish rule was ratified by French and Aragonese monarchs in the Treaty of Corbeil in 1258. The Principality of Catalonia developed its own institutional system, such as courts, constitutions, becoming the base for the Crown of Aragon's naval power and expansionism in the Mediterranean. In the Middle Ages, Catalan literature flourished. During the last Medieval centuries natural disasters, social turmoils and military conflicts affected the Principality. Between 1469 and 1516, the king of Aragon and the queen of Castile married and ruled their realms together, retaining all of their distinct institutions and legislation. During the Franco-Spanish War, Catalonia revolted against a large and burdensome presence of the royal army in its territory, being proclaimed a republic under French protection. Within a brief period France took full control of Catalonia, until it was reconquered by the Spanish army.
Under the terms of the Treaty of the Pyrenees in 1659, the Spanish Crown ceded the northern parts of Catalonia the County of Roussillon, to France. During the War of the Spanish Succession, the Crown of Aragon sided against the Bourbon Philip V of Spain; this led to the eclipse of Catalan as a language of literature, replaced by Spanish. Along the 18th century, Catalonia experienced economic growth, reinforced in the late quarter of the century when the Castile's trade monopoly with American colonies ended. In the 19th century, Catalonia was affected by the Napoleonic and Carlist Wars. In the second third of the century, Catalonia experienced significant industrialisation; as wealth from the industrial expansion grew, Catalonia saw a cultural renaissance coupled with incipient nationalism while several workers movements appeared. In 1914, the four Catalan provinces formed a commonwealth, with the return of democracy during the Second Spanish Republic, the Generalitat of Catalonia was restored as an autonomous government.
After the Spanish Civil War, the Francoist dictatorship enacted repressive measures, abolishing Catalan self-government and banning the official use of the Catalan language again. After a first period of autarky, from the late 1950s through to the 1970s Catalonia saw rapid economic growth, drawing many workers from across Spain, making Barcelona one of Europe's largest industrial metropolitan areas and turning Catalonia into a major tourist destination. Since the Spanish transition to democracy, Catalonia has regained considerable autonomy in political, educational and cultural affairs and is now one of the most economically dynamic communities of Spain. In the 2010s there has been growing support for Catalan independence. On 27 October 2017, the Catalan Parliament declared independence from Spain following a disputed referendum; the Spanish Senate voted in favour of enforcing direct rule by removing the entire Catalan government and calling a snap regional election for 21 December. On 2 November of the same year, the Spanish Supreme Court imprisoned 7 former ministers of the Catalan government on charges of rebellion and misuse of public funds, while several others—including then-President of Catalonia, Carles Puigdemont—fled to other European countries.
The name Catalonia—Catalunya in Catalan, spelled Cathalonia, or Cathalaunia in Medieval Latin—began to be used for the homeland of the Catalans in the late 11th century and was used before as a territorial reference to the group of counties that comprised part of the March of Gothia and March of Hispania under the control of the Count of Barcelona and his relatives. The origin of the name Catalunya is subject to diverse interpretations because of a lack of evidence. One theory suggests that Catalunya derives from the name Gothia Launia, since the origins of the Catalan counts and people were found in the March of Gothia, known as Gothia, whence Gothlan
Suebi
The Suebi were a large group of related Germanic tribes, which included the Marcomanni, Hermunduri, Semnones and others, sometimes including sub-groups referred to as Suebi. In the broadest sense, the Suebi are associated with the early Germanic tribal group Irminones mentioned by classical authors. Beginning in the 1st century BC, various Suebian tribes moved south-westwards from the Baltic Sea and the Elbe and came into conflict with Ancient Rome, they are first mentioned by Julius Caesar in connection with the invasion of Gaul by the Suebian chieftain Ariovistus during the Gallic Wars. During the reign of Augustus, the Suebi expanded southwards at the expense of Gallic tribes, establishing a Germanic presence in the immediate areas north of the Danube. During this time, Maroboduus of the Marcomanni established the first confederation of Germanic tribes in Bohemia. Under the reign of Marcus Aurelius in the 2nd century AD, the Marcomanni, under pressure from East Germanic tribes, invaded Italy.
By the Crisis of the Third Century, new Suebian groups had emerged, Italy was invaded again by the Juthungi, while the Alamanni ravaged Gaul and settled the Agri Decumates. The Alamanni continued exerting pressure on Gaul, while the Alamannic chieftain Chrocus played an important role in elevating Constantine the Great to Roman Emperor. By the late 4th century AD, many Suebi were migrating westwards under Hunnic pressure, in 406 AD, Suebian tribes led by Hermeric crossed the Rhine and overran Hispania, where they established the Kingdom of the Suebi. During the last years of the decline of the Western Roman Empire, the Suebian general Ricimer was its de facto ruler; the Lombards settled Italy and established the Kingdom of the Lombards. The Alammani and Thuringii who remained in Germania gave their name to the German regions of Swabia and Thuringia respectively; the Suebi are thought to encompass the High German cultures and dialects predominant in Southern Germany and Austria. Etymologists trace the name from Proto-Germanic *swēbaz, either based on the Proto-Germanic root *swē- meaning "one's own" people or on the third-person reflexive pronoun.
The etymological sources list the following ethnic names as being from the same root: Suiones, Samnites and Sabines, indicating the possibility of a prior more extended and common Indo-European ethnic name, "our own people". Notably, the Semnones, known to classical authors as one of the largest Suebian groups seem to have a name with this same meaning, but recorded with a different pronunciation by the Romans. Alternatively, it may be borrowed from a Celtic word for "vagabond". Caesar placed the Suebi east of the Ubii near modern Hesse, in the position where writers mention the Chatti, he distinguished them from their allies the Marcomanni; some commentators believe that Caesar's Suebi were the Chatti or the Hermunduri, or Semnones. Authors use the term Suebi more broadly, "to cover a large number of tribes in central Germany". While Caesar treated them as one Germanic tribe within an alliance, albeit the largest and most warlike one authors, such as Tacitus, Pliny the Elder and Strabo, specified that the Suevi "do not, like the Chatti or Tencteri, constitute a single nation.
They occupy more than half of Germania, are divided into a number of distinct tribes under distinct names, though all are called Suebi". Although no classical authors explicitly call the Chatti Suevic, Pliny the Elder, reported in his Natural History that the Irminones were a large grouping of related Germanic gentes or "tribes" including not only the Suebi, but the Hermunduri and Cherusci. Whether or not the Chatti were considered Suevi, both Tacitus and Strabo distinguish the two because the Chatti were more settled in one territory, whereas Suevi remained less settled; the definitions of the greater ethnic groupings within Germania were not always consistent and clear in the case of mobile groups such as the Suevi. Whereas Tacitus reported three main kinds of German peoples, Irminones and Ingaevones, Pliny adds two more genera or "kinds", the Bastarnae and the Vandili; the Vandals were tribes east of the Elbe, including the well-known Silingi and Burgundians, an area that Tacitus treated as Suebic.
That the Vandals might be a separate type of Germanic people, corresponding to the modern concept of East Germanic, is a possibility that Tacitus noted, but for example the Varini are named as Vandilic by Pliny, Suebic by Tacitus. At one time, classical ethnography had applied the name Suevi to so many Germanic tribes that it appeared as if, in the first centuries AD, that native name would replace the foreign name "Germans"; the modern term "Elbe Germanic" covers a large grouping of Germanic peoples that at least overlaps with the classical terms "Suevi" and "Irminones". However, this term was developed as an attempt to define the ancient peoples who must have spoken the Germanic dialects that led to modern Upper German dialects spoken in Austria, Thuringia, Baden-Württemberg and German speaking Switzerland; this was proposed by Friedrich Maurer as one of five major Kulturkreise or "culture-groups" whose dialects developed in the southern German area from the first century BC through to the fourth century AD.
Apart from his own linguistic work with modern dialects, he referred to the archaeological and literary analysis of Germanic tribes done earlier by Gustaf Kossinna In terms of these pr
Breviary of Alaric
The Breviary of Alaric is a collection of Roman law, compiled by unknown writers and approved by referendary Anianus on the order of Alaric II, King of the Visigoths, with the advice of his bishops and nobles. It was promulgated on 2 February 506, the 22nd year of his reign, it applied, not to the Visigothic nobles under their own law, formulated by Euric, but to the Hispano-Roman and Gallo-Roman population, living under Visigoth rule south of the Loire and, in Book 16, to the members of the Trinitarian Catholic Church. It is termed a code, in the certificate of Anianus, the king's referendary, but unlike the code of Justinian, from which the writings of jurists were excluded, it comprises both imperial constitutions and juridical treatises. From the circumstance that the Breviarium has prefixed to it a royal rescript directing that copies of it, certified under the hand of Anianus, should be received as law throughout the kingdom of the Visigoths, the compilation of the code has been attributed to Anianus by many writers, it is designated the Breviary of Anianus.
The code, appears to have been known amongst the Visigoths by the title of Lex Romana, or Lex Theodosii, it was not until the 16th century that the title of Breviarium was introduced to distinguish it from a recast of the code, the Lex Romana Curiensis, introduced into northern Italy in the 9th century for the use of the Romans in Lombardy. This recast of the Visigothic code was published in the 18th century for the first time by Paolo Canciani in his collection of ancient laws entitled Barbarorum Leges Antiquae. Another manuscript of this Lombard recast of the Visigothic code was discovered by Gustav Friedrich Hänel in the library of St Gall; the chief value of the Visigothic code is as a source for Roman Law including the first five books of the Theodosian Code, five books of the Sententiae Receptae of Julius Paulus, until the discovery of a manuscript in the chapter library in Verona, which contained the greater part of the Institutes of Gaius, it was the only work in which any portion of the institutional writings of that great jurist had come down to us.
The Breviary had the effect of preserving the traditions of Roman law in Aquitania and Gallia Narbonensis, which became both Provence and Septimania, thus reinforcing their sense of enduring continuity, broken in the Frankish north. The Breviary of Alaric comprises: sixteen books of the Codex Theodosianus. Paris, BN, lat. 4404
Braulio of Zaragoza
Saint Braulio or Braulius was bishop of Zaragoza and a learned cleric living in the Kingdom of the Visigoths. He succeeded his brother John in the see where he had been archdeacon, he was an advisor and confidante of several Visigoth kings, including Chindasuinth, whose son Recceswinth he recommended be installed as associate king. He wrote a life of San Millan, he is reported to have encouraged Isidore of Seville in his encyclopaedic ambitions, to have had a hand in the revision of his works. He was present at the councils of Toledo in 633, 636, 638 and he responded on behalf of the Iberian clergy to Pope Honorius I's charge that they were neglectful of their duties, he went blind before death. He was buried in, he was succeeded as bishop of Zaragoza by Taius, his pupil. He is buried in Zaragoza. Thompson, E. A; the Goths in Spain. Clarendon Press: Oxford, 1969. Iberian Fathers Writings of Braulio of Saragossa, Fructuosus of Braga, translated by Claude W. Barlow. Catholic University of America Press Media related to Braulio of Zaragoza at Wikimedia Commons This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed..
"St. Braulio". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton. 1601 Editio princeps of Braulio's Life of Emilian
Visigothic Kingdom
The Visigothic Kingdom or Kingdom of the Visigoths was a kingdom that occupied what is now southwestern France and the Iberian Peninsula from the 5th to the 8th centuries. One of the Germanic successor states to the Western Roman Empire, it was created by the settlement of the Visigoths under King Wallia in the province of Gallia Aquitania in southwest Gaul by the Roman government and extended by conquest over all of Hispania; the Kingdom maintained independence from the Eastern Roman or Byzantine Empire, the attempts of which to re-establish Roman authority in Hispania were only successful and short-lived. The Visigoths were romanized central Europeans; the Visigoths became Foederati of Rome, wanted to restore the Roman order against the hordes of Vandals and Suebi. The Western Roman Empire fell in 476 AD. Under King Euric—who eliminated the status of Foederati—a triumphal advance of the Visigoths began. Alarmed at Visigoth expansion from Aquitania after victory over the British army at Déols in 469, Western Emperor Anthemius sent a fresh army across the Alps against Euric, besieging Arles.
The Roman army was crushed in battle nearby and Euric captured Arles and secured much of southern Gaul. Sometimes referred to as the regnum Tolosanum or Kingdom of Toulouse after its capital Toulouse in modern historiography, the kingdom lost much of its territory in Gaul to the Franks in the early 6th century, save the narrow coastal strip of Septimania; the kingdom of the 6th and 7th centuries is sometimes called the regnum Toletanum after the new capital of Toledo. A civil war starting in 549 resulted in an invitation from the Visigoth Athanagild, who had usurped the kingship, to the Byzantine emperor Justinian I to send soldiers to his assistance. Athanagild won his war, but the Byzantines took over Cartagena and a good deal of southern Hispania and could not be dislodged. Starting in the 570s Athanagild's brother Liuvigild compensated for this loss by conquering the Kingdom of the Suebi and annexing it, by repeated campaigns against the Basques; the ethnic distinction between the indigenous Hispano-Roman population and the Visigoths had disappeared by this time.
This newfound unity found expression in severe persecution of outsiders the Jews. The Visigothic Code abolished the old tradition of having different laws for Romans and for Visigoths; the 7th century saw many civil wars between factions of the aristocracy. Despite good records left by contemporary bishops, such as Isidore and Leander of Seville, it becomes difficult to distinguish Goths from Latins, as the two became inextricably intertwined. Despite these civil wars, by 625 AD the Visigoths had succeeded in expelling the Byzantines from Hispania and had established a foothold at the port of Ceuta in Africa. Most of the Visigothic Kingdom was conquered by Umayyad troops from North Africa in 711 AD, with only the northern reaches of Hispania remaining in Christian hands; these gave birth to the medieval Kingdom of Asturias when a local landlord called Pelayo, most of Gothic origin, was elected Princeps by the Astures. The Visigoths and their early kings were Arians and came into conflict with the Catholic Church, but after they converted to Nicene Christianity, the Church exerted an enormous influence on secular affairs through the Councils of Toledo.
The Visigoths developed the influential law code known in Western Europe as the Visigothic Code, which would become the basis for Spanish law throughout the Middle Ages. From 407 to 409 AD, an alliance of Germanic Vandals, Iranian Alans and Germanic Suebi crossed the frozen Rhine and swept across modern France and into the Iberian peninsula. For their part, the Visigoths under Alaric famously sacked Rome in 410, capturing Galla Placidia, the sister of Western Roman emperor Honorius. Ataulf spent the next few years operating in the Gallic and Hispanic countrysides, diplomatically playing competing factions of Germanic and Roman commanders against one another to skillful effect, taking over cities such as Narbonne and Toulouse. After he married Placidia, the Emperor Honorius enlisted him to provide Visigothic assistance in regaining nominal Roman control of Hispania from the Vandals and Suebi. In 418, Honorius rewarded his Visigothic federates under King Wallia by giving them land in the Garonne valley of Gallia Aquitania on which to settle.
This took place under the system of hospitalitas. It seems that at first the Visigoths were not given a large amount of land estates in the region, but that they acquired the taxes of the region, with the local Gallic aristocrats now paying their taxes to the Visigoths instead of to the Roman government; the Visigoths with their capital at Toulouse, remained de facto independent, soon began expanding into Roman territory at the expense of the feeble Western empire. Under Theodoric I, the Visigoths attacked Arles and Narbonne, but were checked by Flavius Aetius using Hunnic mercenaries, Theodoric was defeated in 438. By 451, the situation had reversed and the Huns had invaded Gaul. Attila was driven back; the Vandals comp
