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Africa (goddess)
Goddess Africa, also known as Dea Africa, was the personification of Africa by the Romans in the early centuries of the common era. She was one of the fertility and abundance deities to some. Her iconography typically included an elephant-mask head dress, a cornucopia, a military standard, and a lion. To the Romans "Africa" was only Tunisia, which they had conquered, and the goddess/personification was not given African characteristics; she was possibly thought of as Berbers, Berber, but this cannot be judged in the great majority of representations. This changed after she was revived in the Renaissance, by now clearly only the personification of Africa with no divine pretensions. Roman use She is portrayed on some coins, carved stones, and mosaics in Africa (Roman province), Roman Africa. A mosaic representing Africa (Roman province), Roman Africa is found in the El Djem museum of Tunisia. A sanctuary found in Timgad (''Thamugadi'' in Berber) in Algeria features goddess Afric ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dido Throne MAN Napoli Inv8898
Dido ( ; , ), also known as Elissa ( , ), was the legendary founder and first queen of the Phoenician city-state of Ancient Carthage, Carthage (located in modern Tunisia), in 814 BC. In most accounts, she was the queen of the Phoenician city-state of Tyre, Lebanon, Tyre (today in Lebanon) who fled tyranny to found her own city in northwest Africa. Known only through ancient Greece, ancient Greek and ancient Rome, Roman sources, all of which were written well after Carthage's founding, her historicity remains uncertain. The oldest references to Dido are attributed to Timaeus (historian), Timaeus, who was active around 300 BC, or about five centuries after the date given for the foundation of Carthage. Details about Dido's character, life, and role in the founding of Carthage are best known from the account given in Virgil's Epic poetry, epic poem, the ''Aeneid,'' written around 20 BC, which tells the legendary story of the Trojan War, Trojan hero Aeneas. Dido is described as a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ptolemy I
Ptolemy I Soter (; gr, Πτολεμαῖος Σωτήρ, ''Ptolemaîos Sōtḗr'' "Ptolemy the Savior"; c. 367 BC – January 282 BC) was a Macedonian Greek general, historian and companion of Alexander the Great from the Kingdom of Macedon in northern Greece who became ruler of Egypt, part of Alexander's former empire. Ptolemy was pharaoh of Ptolemaic Egypt from 305/304 BC to his death. He was the founder of the Ptolemaic dynasty, which ruled Egypt until the death of Cleopatra in 30 BC, turning the country into a Hellenistic kingdom and Alexandria into a center of Greek culture. Ptolemy I was the son of Arsinoe of Macedon by either her husband Lagus or Philip II of Macedon, the father of Alexander. However, the latter is unlikely and may be a myth fabricated to glorify the Ptolemaic Dynasty. Ptolemy was one of Alexander's most trusted companions and military officers. After the death of Alexander in 323 BC, Ptolemy retrieved his body as it was en route to be buried in Ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vestal Virgin
In ancient Rome, the Vestal Virgins or Vestals ( la, Vestālēs, singular ) were priestesses of Vesta, virgin goddess of Rome's sacred hearth and its flame. The Vestals were unlike any other public priesthood. They were chosen before puberty from a number of suitable candidates, freed from any legal ties and obligations to their birth family, and enrolled in Vesta's priestly college of six priestesses. They were supervised by a senior vestal but chosen and governed by Rome's leading male priest, the ; in the Imperial era, this meant the emperor. Successful acolytes vowed to serve Vesta for at least thirty years, to study and practise her rites in service of the Roman State, and to maintain their chastity throughout. As well as their obligations on behalf of Rome, Vestals had extraordinary rights and privileges, some of which were granted to no others, male or female. The Vestals took it in turns to supervise Vesta's hearth, so that at least one Vestal was stationed there at a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Terra (mythology)
In ancient Roman religion and mythology, Tellus Mater or Terra Mater ("Mother Earth") is the personification of the Earth. Although Tellus and Terra are hardly distinguishable during the Imperial era, ''Tellus'' was the name of the original earth goddess in the religious practices of the Republic or earlier. The scholar Varro (1st century BC) lists Tellus as one of the ''di selecti'', the twenty principal gods of Rome, and one of the twelve agricultural deities. She is regularly associated with Ceres in rituals pertaining to the earth and agricultural fertility. The attributes of Tellus were the cornucopia, bunches of flowers, or fruit. She was typically depicted reclining, or rising, waist high, from a hole in the ground. Her male complement was a sky god such as Caelus (Uranus) or a form of Jupiter. Her Greek counterpart is Gaia, and among the Etruscans her name was Cel. Michael Lipka has argued that the ''Terra Mater'' who appears during the reign of Augustus is a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Libera (mythology)
Proserpina ( , ) or Proserpine ( ) is an ancient Roman goddess whose iconography, functions and myths are virtually identical to those of Greek Persephone. Proserpina replaced or was combined with the ancient Roman fertility goddess Libera, whose principal cult was housed in the Aventine temple of the grain-goddess Ceres, along with the wine god Liber. Each of these three deities occupied their own ''cella'' at the temple. Their cults were served or supervised by a male public priesthood. Ceres was by far the senior of the three, one of the dii consentes, Rome's approximate equivalent to the Greek Twelve Olympians. She was identified with Greek Demeter and Liber was identified with Bacchus and Dionysus. Libera is sometimes described as a female version of Liber Pater, concerned with female fertility. Otherwise she is given no clear identity or mythology by Roman sources, and no Greek equivalent. Nothing is known of her native iconography: her name translates as a feminine form o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Letitia
Letitia is a feminine given name, of Latin origin meaning "joy, gladness". The name Letitia has many variants, including but not limited to: Lætitia from lætus (Latin), Letja (Dutch), Letizia (Italian), Leticia (Spanish), Letisya (Turkish) and Letisha or Latisha (American). The name Letitia first appeared in the form Lettice in medieval England and is derived from the Roman goddess Lætitia of gaiety, symbolic of happiness, prosperity and abundance. Variants *Letícia (Portuguese, Spanish, Hungarian) *Letitia (English), Spanish, Latin *Letizia (Italian) *Leata (English), Spanish *Lätitia (German) *Lätitzia (German) *Tizia (German) *Lätizia (German) *Leattah ( Jamaican) Spanish * Laetitia ( French, Late Latin, German) *Letizia (Italian, Corsican) *Leticija ( Latvian) *Letiția (Romanian, Moldovan) *Летиция (Russian) *Летисия (Russian) * Leticia (Spanish) *Lelê (Portuguese) *Leca (Portuguese) *Letja (Dutch) *Leleca (Portuguese) *Tica (Portuguese) *Letycja (Pol ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ceres (mythology)
In ancient Roman religion, Ceres ( , ) was a goddess of agriculture, grain crops, fertility and motherly relationships.Room, Adrian, ''Who's Who in Classical Mythology'', p. 89-90. NTC Publishing 1990. . She was originally the central deity in Rome's so-called plebeian or Aventine Triad, then was paired with her daughter Proserpina in what Romans described as "the Greek rites of Ceres". Her seven-day April festival of Cerealia included the popular ''Ludi Ceriales'' (Ceres' games). She was also honoured in the May ''lustratio'' of the fields at the Ambarvalia festival, at harvest-time, and during Roman marriages and funeral rites. She is usually depicted as a mature woman. Ceres is the only one of Rome's many agricultural deities to be listed among the Dii Consentes, Rome's equivalent to the Twelve Olympians of Greek mythology. The Romans saw her as the counterpart of the Greek goddess Demeter,''Larousse Desk Reference Encyclopedia'', The Book People, Haydock, 1995, p. 215. whos ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bona Dea
Bona Dea (; 'Good Goddess') was a List of Roman deities, goddess in Religion in ancient Rome, ancient Roman religion. She was associated with chastity and fertility in Women in ancient Rome, Roman women, healing, and the protection of the SPQR, state and people of Rome. According to Roman literary sources, she was brought from Magna Graecia at some time during the early or middle Roman Republic, Republic, and was given her own Religion in ancient Rome#History of Roman religion, state cult on the Aventine Hill. Her rites allowed women the use of strong wine and blood-sacrifice, things otherwise forbidden them by Mos maiorum, Roman tradition. Men were barred from her Greco-Roman mysteries, mysteries and the possession of her true name. Given that male authors had limited knowledge of her rites and attributes, ancient speculations about her identity abound, among them that she was an aspect of Terra (mythology), Terra, Ops, Cybele, or Ceres (mythology), Ceres, or a Latins (Italic trib ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Four Continents
Europeans in the 16th century divided the world into four continents: Africa, America, Asia, and Europe. Each of the four continents was seen to represent its quadrant of the world—Africa in the south, America in the west, Asia in the east, and Europe in the north. This division fit the Renaissance sensibilities of the time, which also divided the world into four seasons, four classical elements, four cardinal directions, four classical virtues, etc. The four parts of the world or the four corners of the world refers to Africa (the "south"), the Americas (the "west"), Asia (the "east"), and Europe (the "north"). Depictions of personifications of the four continents became popular in several media. Sets of four could be placed around all sorts of four-sided objects, or in pairs along the façade of a building with a central doorway. They were common subjects for prints, and later small porcelain figures. A set of loose conventions quickly arose as to the iconography of the f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pliny The Elder
Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/2479), called Pliny the Elder (), was a Roman author, naturalist and natural philosopher, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the emperor Vespasian. He wrote the encyclopedic ''Naturalis Historia'' (''Natural History''), which became an editorial model for encyclopedias. He spent most of his spare time studying, writing, and investigating natural and geographic phenomena in the field. His nephew, Pliny the Younger, wrote of him in a letter to the historian Tacitus: Among Pliny's greatest works was the twenty-volume work ''Bella Germaniae'' ("The History of the German Wars"), which is no longer extant. ''Bella Germaniae'', which began where Aufidius Bassus' ''Libri Belli Germanici'' ("The War with the Germans") left off, was used as a source by other prominent Roman historians, including Plutarch, Tacitus and Suetonius. Tacitus—who many scholars agree had never travelled in Germania—used ''Bella Germani ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Numidia
Numidia ( Berber: ''Inumiden''; 202–40 BC) was the ancient kingdom of the Numidians located in northwest Africa, initially comprising the territory that now makes up modern-day Algeria, but later expanding across what is today known as Tunisia, Libya, and some parts of Morocco. The polity was originally divided between the Massylii in the east and the Masaesyli in the west. During the Second Punic War (218–201 BC), Masinissa, king of the Massylii, defeated Syphax of the Masaesyli to unify Numidia into one kingdom. The kingdom began as a sovereign state and later alternated between being a Roman province and a Roman client state. Numidia, at its largest extent, was bordered by Mauretania to the west, at the Moulouya River, Africa Proconsularis to the east, the Mediterranean Sea to the north, and the Sahara to the south. It was one of the first major states in the history of Algeria and the Berbers. History Independence The Greek historians referred to these peoples as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
