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Amphitheatre Of Catania
The Amphitheatre of Catania is a Roman amphitheatre in Catania, Sicily, southern Italy, built in the Roman Imperial period, probably in the 2nd century AD, on the northern edge of the ancient city at the base of the Montevergine hill. Only a small section of the structure is now visible, below ground level, to the north of Piazza Stesicoro. This area is now the historic centre of the city, but was then on the outskirts of the ancient town and also occupied by the . The structure is part of the . Description The amphitheatre of Catania is the most complicated and largest of all the amphitheatres in Sicily. It is one of a group of large arenas, which also includes the Colosseum, the Amphitheatre of Capua, and the Verona Arena. The structure centred on an elliptical arena, surrounded by radial walls and vaults supporting the seating of the ''cavea'', which had 14 steps and 32 aisles. A gallery ran around the outside of the structure, on which the external facade is mounted. The a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Amphitheatre (Catania) Msu2017-9541
An amphitheatre (British English) or amphitheater (American English; both ) is an open-air venue used for entertainment, performances, and sports. The term derives from the ancient Greek ('), from ('), meaning "on both sides" or "around" and ('), meaning "place for viewing". Ancient Roman amphitheatres were oval or circular in plan, with seating tiers that surrounded the central performance area, like a modern open-air stadium. In contrast, both ancient Greek and ancient Roman theatres were built in a semicircle, with tiered seating rising on one side of the performance area. Modern parlance uses "amphitheatre" for any structure with sloping seating, including theatre-style stages with spectator seating on only one side, theatres in the round, and stadia. They can be indoor or outdoor. Natural formations of similar shape are sometimes known as natural amphitheatres. Roman amphitheatres About 230 Roman amphitheatres have been found across the area of the Roman Empire ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Naumachia
The naumachia (in Latin , from the Ancient Greek /, literally "naval combat") in the Ancient Roman world referred to both the staging of naval battles as mass entertainment, and the basin or building in which this took place. Early The first known was given by Julius Caesar in Rome in 46 BC on occasion of his quadruple triumph. After having a basin dug near the Tiber, capable of holding actual biremes, triremes and quinqueremes, he made 2000 combatants and 4000 rowers, all prisoners of war, fight. In 2 BC for the inauguration of the Temple of Mars Ultor (" Mars the Avenger"), Augustus gave a grander based on Caesar's model. This naumachia depicted a battle between the Greeks and the Persians and required a basin that was 400 by 600 yards, which was created straddling the Tiber. '' Res Gestæ'' (§ 23) claimed that 3000 men, not counting rowers, fought in 30 vessels with rams and several smaller boats. In 52 AD Claudius gave what was possibly the most "epic" of these on a na ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carlo Gemmellaro
Carlo Gemmellaro (1787-1866) was an Italian naturalist and geologist. He was noted for his studies on the vulcanology of his native Sicily. His son Gaetano Giorgio Gemmellaro was a noted geologist, paleontologist and politician, who served as rector of the University of Palermo. Biography Carlo was born to a prominent family; his uncle had performed observations on the eruptions of Mount Etna. Carlo studied medicine at the University of Catania, and began practicing as a physician in Messina. His brother, Giuseppe Gemmellaro, became a prominent physician in Catania. In 1812, he traveled to London where he first explored his interests in geology. He gained a position as a physician for the British navy, allowing him to travel through the Mediterranean from 1813-1817. In 1817, he returned to private practice of medicine in Catania, but continued his interests in geology, creating a museum of mineralogy and geology at his home. In 1824, he helped found the Gioenia Academy of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hagiography
A hagiography (; ) is a biography of a saint or an ecclesiastical leader, as well as, by extension, an adulatory and idealized biography of a founder, saint, monk, nun or icon in any of the world's religions. Early Christian hagiographies might consist of a biography or ', a description of the saint's deeds or miracles (from Latin ''vita'', life, which begins the title of most medieval biographies), an account of the saint's martyrdom (called a ), or be a combination of these. Christian hagiographies focus on the lives, and notably the miracles, ascribed to men and women canonized by the Roman Catholic church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Oriental Orthodox churches, and the Church of the East. Other religious traditions such as Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Islam, Sikhism and Jainism also create and maintain hagiographical texts (such as the Sikh Janamsakhis) concerning saints, gurus and other individuals believed to be imbued with sacred power. Hagiographic works, especi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jean Bolland
Jean Bolland ( la, Johannes Bollandus) (13 August 1596 – 12 September 1665) was a Jesuit priest, theologian, and prominent Flemish hagiography, hagiographer. Bolland's main achievement is the compilation of the first five volumes of the ''Lives of the Saints'' in Latin, called the ''Acta Sanctorum'', a series which was continued by others, who, after his death, formed the ''Society of Bollandists''. Life and work Jean Bolland was born 13 August 1596 in the village of Julémont, now part of Herve (Belgium), North-East of the city of Liège. The village of Bolland, after which the family took their name, is nearby. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1612 at Mechelen. After his studies at the Jesuit colleges of Maastricht and Antwerp, Bolland taught humanities in Roermond, Den Bosch, Brussels and Antwerp. In 1620 Bolland was sent to study theology at the Old University of Leuven, University of Leuven. Four years later he received holy orders and then became prefect of studie ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Acta Sanctorum
''Acta Sanctorum'' (''Acts of the Saints'') is an encyclopedic text in 68 folio volumes of documents examining the lives of Christian saints, in essence a critical hagiography, which is organised according to each saint's feast day. The project was conceived and begun by Jesuit Heribert Rosweyde. After his death in 1629, the Jesuit scholar Jean Bolland ('Bollandus', 1596–1665) continued the work, which was gradually finished over the centuries by the Bollandists, who continue to edit and publish the ''Acta Sanctorum''. The Bollandists oversaw the project, first in Antwerp and then in Brussels. The ''Acta Sanctorum'' began with two January volumes (for saints whose feast days were in January), published in 1643. From 1643 to 1794, 53 folio volumes of ''Acta Sanctorum'' were published, covering the saints from 1 January to 14 October. When the Jesuits were suppressed by the Habsburg governor of the Low Countries in 1788, the work continued at Tongerlo Abbey. After the creation ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Saint Agatha
Agatha of Sicily () is a Christian saint. Her feast is on 5 February. Agatha was born in Catania, part of the Roman Province of Sicily, and was martyred . She is one of several virgin martyrs who are commemorated by name in the Canon of the Mass. Agatha is the patron saint of Catania, Molise, Malta, San Marino, Gallipoli in Apulia, and Zamarramala, a municipality of the Province of Segovia in Spain. She is also the patron saint of breast cancer patients, martyrs, wet nurses, bell-founders, and bakers, and is invoked against fire, earthquakes, and eruptions of Mount Etna. Early history Agatha is buried at the Badia di Sant'Agata, Catania. She is listed in the late 6th-century associated with Jerome, and the , the calendar of the church of Carthage, . Agatha also appears in one of the of Venantius Fortunatus. Two early churches were dedicated to her in Rome; Sant'Agata in via della Lugaretta, Trastevere, and notably the Church of Sant'Agata dei Goti in Via Mazzarino, a titul ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Antoninus Pius
Antoninus Pius (Latin: ''Titus Aelius Hadrianus Antoninus Pius''; 19 September 86 – 7 March 161) was Roman emperor from 138 to 161. He was the fourth of the Five Good Emperors from the Nerva–Antonine dynasty. Born into a senatorial family, Antoninus held various offices during the reign of Emperor Hadrian. He married Hadrian's niece Faustina, and Hadrian adopted him as his son and successor shortly before his death. Antoninus acquired the cognomen Pius after his accession to the throne, either because he compelled the Senate to deify his adoptive father, or because he had saved senators sentenced to death by Hadrian in his later years. His reign is notable for the peaceful state of the Empire, with no major revolts or military incursions during this time. A successful military campaign in southern Scotland early in his reign resulted in the construction of the Antonine Wall. Antoninus was an effective administrator, leaving his successors a large surplus in the t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hadrian
Hadrian (; la, Caesar Trâiānus Hadriānus ; 24 January 76 – 10 July 138) was Roman emperor from 117 to 138. He was born in Italica (close to modern Santiponce in Spain), a Roman ''municipium'' founded by Italic settlers in Hispania Baetica and he came from a branch of the gens Aelia that originated in the Picenean town of Hadria, the ''Aeli Hadriani''. His father was of senatorial rank and was a first cousin of Emperor Trajan. Hadrian married Trajan's grand-niece Vibia Sabina early in his career before Trajan became emperor and possibly at the behest of Trajan's wife Pompeia Plotina. Plotina and Trajan's close friend and adviser Lucius Licinius Sura were well disposed towards Hadrian. When Trajan died, his widow claimed that he had nominated Hadrian as emperor immediately before his death. Rome's military and Senate approved Hadrian's succession, but four leading senators were unlawfully put to death soon after. They had opposed Hadrian or seemed to threaten his s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mario Rapisardi
Mario Rapisardi (25 February 1844, in Catania – 4 January 1912, in Catania) was an Italian poet, supporter of Risorgimento and member of the Scapigliatura (definition but refused). Life As a boy, he was taught "grammar, rhetoric and the Latin language" by two priests and "a ''psicontologico'' mixture that he thought was philosophy" by a friar. To please his father, he then unwillingly took the usual course in jurisprudence, but never wanted to take the laurea in that or any other faculty. He wrote at this time "there is nothing noteworthy in my life, unless it is this, that - for good or ill - it formed me, destroying the wretched and false education I had received p to thenand instructing and educating me, in my own way, to be outside whatever school, whatever sect, scornful of systems and prejudices". He began his poetic career at fourteen with an ode to Saint Agatha, in which he dared to recommend the freedom of his fatherland (then under the Bourbon regime), and in 1863 pu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stesichorus
Stesichorus (; grc-gre, Στησίχορος, ''Stēsichoros''; c. 630 – 555 BC) was a Greek lyric poet native of today's Calabria (Southern Italy). He is best known for telling epic stories in lyric metres, and for some ancient traditions about his life, such as his opposition to the tyrant Phalaris, and the blindness he is said to have incurred and cured by composing verses first insulting and then flattering to Helen of Troy. He was ranked among the nine lyric poets esteemed by the scholars of Hellenistic Alexandria, and yet his work attracted relatively little interest among ancient commentators, so that remarkably few fragments of his poetry now survive. As David Campbell notes: "Time has dealt more harshly with Stesichorus than with any other major lyric poet." Recent discoveries, recorded on Egyptian papyrus (notably and controversially, the Lille Stesichorus),P.J. Parsons, "The Lille Stesichorus", ''Zeitschreift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik'' Vol. 26 (1977), pages 7 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charondas
Charondas ( grc-gre, Χαρώνδας) was a celebrated lawgiver of Catania in Sicily. It is uncertain when he lived; some identify him as a pupil of Pythagoras (c. 580 – 504 BC), but all that can be said is that he lived earlier than Anaxilas of Rhegium (494 – 476 BC), as his laws were in use by the Rhegians until they were abolished by Anaxilas. His laws, originally written in verse, were adopted by the other Chalcidic colonies in Sicily and Italy. According to Aristotle, there was nothing special about these laws except that Charondas introduced actions for perjury, but he speaks highly of the precision with which they were devised, while Plato speaks of him positively in The Republic. The story that Charondas killed himself because he entered the public assembly wearing a sword, which was a violation of his own law, is also told of Diocles of Syracuse and Zaleucus. cites ''Diod. Sic.'' xii. 11-19. The fragments of laws attributed to him by Stobaeus and Di ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
