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Miseno
Miseno is one of the ''frazioni'' of the municipality of Bacoli in the Italian Province of Naples. Known in ancient Roman times as Misenum, it is the site of a great Roman port. Geography Nearby Cape Miseno marks the northwestern end of the Bay of Naples. History According to mythology, Misenum was named after Misenus, a companion of Hector and trumpeter to Aeneas. Misenus is supposed to have drowned near here after a trumpet competition with the sea-god Triton, as recounted in Virgil's Aeneid. In 39 BC, Misenum was the site where a short-lived pact was made between Octavian (heir of Julius Caesar, who later became the emperor Augustus), and his rival Sextus Pompeius. Misenum was first established as a naval base (''Portus Julius'') during the civil wars in 27 BC by Marcus Agrippa, the right-hand man of the emperor Augustus. It was then developed into the largest Roman port for the ''Classis Misenensis'', the most important fleet. With its gorgeous natural setting close to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bacoli
Bacoli (; la, Bauli) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Naples in the Italian region Campania, located about west of Naples. Geography Bacoli borders the municipalities of Monte di Procida and Pozzuoli. Its territory, of volcanic origin, is part of the Phlegraean Fields. The volcano of Cape Miseno and the Miseno port date from c. 35,000-10,500 years ago. History Bacoli was founded by the ancient Romans in the 2nd or 1st c. BC, who called it ''Bauli''. In Roman times it was a popular resort almost as famous as the nearby Baiae. Many luxurious villas were built on the coast there and on the headland. Symmachus said of Bauli in the late 4th c. AD: Main sights Several major ancient Roman structures can be seen in Bacoli, including the Piscina Mirabilis, the ''Cento Camerelle'', and the so-called ''Tomba Agrippina'', a theatre belonging to an ancient villa. The ''frazione'' of Cuma - Fusaro includes the site of Cumae, the first settlement in Italy by ... [...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] |
Classis Misenensis
The ''Classis Misenensis'' ("Fleet of Misenum"), later awarded the honorifics ''praetoria'' and ''Pia Vindex'', was the senior fleet of the imperial Roman navy. History The was founded by Caesar Augustus in 27 BCE, when the fleet of Italy, until then based mostly at Ostia, was moved to the new harbour of Portus Julius at Misenum in the Bay of Naples.''A Companion to the Roman Army'', p. 209 It was commanded by a , drawn from the highest levels of the equestrian class, those earning more than 200,000 sesterces a year. Its mission was to control the western part of the Mediterranean Sea, and, as the honorific , awarded by Vespasian for its support during the civil war of 69 CE,''Age of the Galley'', p. 80 suggests, the , together with the , formed the naval counterpart of the Praetorian Guard, a permanent naval force at the emperor's direct disposal. The recruited its crews mostly from the East, especially from Egypt. Since Rome did not face any naval threat in the Mediterrane ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Portus Julius
(alternatively spelled in the Latin ) was the first harbour specifically constructed to be a base for the Roman western naval fleet, the ; the eastern fleet was based in the Port of Ravenna. The port was located at Misenum on a peninsula at the northern end of the Gulf of Naples. Portus Julius was named in honour of Octavian's (later to become Caesar Augustus) great-uncle and adoptive father, Julius Caesar and the Julian clan. Construction of Portus Julius During the civil wars, Octavian needed a safe naval harbour in which to build and train a fleet for a campaign against Sextus Pompeius (younger son of Pompey the Great) who was making frequent raids on Italy and upon the shipping routes for Rome's grain supply. To run the operation, Octavian turned to his closest and most able associate, Marcus Agrippa. Agrippa knew that Lake Averno was invisible from the surrounding sea and bay waters, and reasoned that the fleet's existence there could be kept secret from Sextus' navy un ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lucullus
Lucius Licinius Lucullus (; 118–57/56 BC) was a Roman general and statesman, closely connected with Lucius Cornelius Sulla. In culmination of over 20 years of almost continuous military and government service, he conquered the eastern kingdoms in the course of the Third Mithridatic War, exhibiting extraordinary generalship in diverse situations, most famously during the Siege of Cyzicus in 73–72 BC, and at the Battle of Tigranocerta in Armenian Arzanene in 69 BC. His command style received unusually favourable attention from ancient military experts, and his campaigns appear to have been studied as examples of skillful generalship. Lucullus returned to Rome from the east with so much captured booty that the vast sums of treasure, jewels, priceless works of art, and slaves could not be fully accounted for. On his return Lucullus poured enormous sums into private building projects, husbandry and even aquaculture projects, which shocked and amazed his contemporaries by their ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frazione
A ''frazione'' (plural: ) is a type of subdivision of a ''comune'' (municipality) in Italy, often a small village or hamlet outside the main town. Most ''frazioni'' were created during the Fascist era (1922–1943) as a way to consolidate territorial subdivisions in the country. In the autonomous region of the Aosta Valley, a ''frazione'' is officially called an ''hameau'' in French. Description Typically the term ''frazioni'' applies to the villages surrounding the main town (''capoluogo'') of a ''comune''. Subdivision of a ''comune'' is optional; some ''comuni'' have no ''frazioni'', but others have several dozen. The ''comune'' usually has the same name of the ''capoluogo'', but not always, in which case it is called a ''comune sparso''. In practice, most ''frazioni'' are small villages or hamlets, occasionally just a clump of houses. Not every hamlet is classified as a ''frazione''; those that are not are often referred to as ''località'', for example, in the telephone boo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Second Philippic
The "Second Philippic" is an oration that was delivered by the Athenian statesman and orator Demosthenes between 344–343 BC. The speech constitutes the second of the four philippics the orator is said to have delivered. Historical background In 344 BC, Demosthenes barnstormed Peloponnese,Demosthenes,''Second Philippic''19 in order to detach as many cities as possible from Macedon's influence. Nonetheless, his mission mainly failed, since most of the Peloponnesians saw Philip as the guarantor of their continued freedom and independence.T. Buckley, ''Aspects of Greek History 750-323 BC'', 480. They did not consider that the freedom of Greece was directly linked with the Athenian power, especially as the Athenians were allies of the Spartans. Thereby, Philip and certain Peloponnesian cities, including Argos, Messinia and Arcadia, sent a joint embassy to Athens to express their grievances. Athens' position was tough, since they wanted to keep their friendship with Sparta, but, at the s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pliny The Younger
Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus, born Gaius Caecilius or Gaius Caecilius Cilo (61 – c. 113), better known as Pliny the Younger (), was a lawyer, author, and magistrate of Ancient Rome. Pliny's uncle, Pliny the Elder, helped raise and educate him. Pliny the Younger wrote hundreds of letters, of which 247 survive, and which are of great historical value. Some are addressed to reigning emperors or to notables such as the historian Tacitus. Pliny served as an imperial magistrate under Trajan (reigned 98–117), and his letters to Trajan provide one of the few surviving records of the relationship between the imperial office and provincial governors. Pliny rose through a series of civil and military offices, the ''cursus honorum''. He was a friend of the historian Tacitus and might have employed the biographer Suetonius on his staff. Pliny also came into contact with other well-known men of the period, including the philosophers Artemidorus and Euphrates the Stoic, during his ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mount Vesuvius
Mount Vesuvius ( ; it, Vesuvio ; nap, 'O Vesuvio , also or ; la, Vesuvius , also , or ) is a somma-stratovolcano located on the Gulf of Naples in Campania, Italy, about east of Naples and a short distance from the shore. It is one of several volcanoes forming the Campanian volcanic arc. Vesuvius consists of a large cone partially encircled by the steep rim of a summit caldera, resulting from the collapse of an earlier, much higher structure. The eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79 destroyed the Roman cities of Pompeii, Herculaneum, Oplontis, Stabiae, and several other settlements. The eruption ejected a cloud of stones, ashes and volcanic gases to a height of , erupting molten rock and pulverized pumice at the rate of per second. More than 1,000 people are thought to have died in the eruption, though the exact toll is unknown. The only surviving eyewitness account of the event consists of two letters by Pliny the Younger to the historian Tacitus. Vesuvius has ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Praefect
''Praefectus'', often with a further qualification, was the formal title of many, fairly low to high-ranking, military or civil officials in the Roman Empire, whose authority was not embodied in their person (as it was with elected Magistrates) but conferred by delegation from a higher authority. They did have some authority in their prefecture such as controlling prisons and in civil administration. Praetorian prefects The Praetorian prefect (''Praefectus praetorio'') began as the military commander of a general's guard company in the field, then grew in importance as the Praetorian Guard became a potential kingmaker during the Empire. From the Emperor Diocletian's tetrarchy (c. 300) they became the administrators of the four Praetorian prefectures, the government level above the (newly created) dioceses and (multiplied) provinces. Police and civil prefects *''Praefectus urbi'', or ''praefectus urbanus'': city prefect, in charge of the administration of Rome. *''Praefectus vigilu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roman Villa
A Roman villa was typically a farmhouse or country house built in the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire, sometimes reaching extravagant proportions. Typology and distribution Pliny the Elder (23–79 AD) distinguished two kinds of villas near Rome: the ''villa urbana'', a country seat that could easily be reached from Rome (or another city) for a night or two; and the ''villa rustica'', the farmhouse estate permanently occupied by the servants who generally had charge of the estate. The Roman Empire contained many kinds of villas, not all of them lavishly appointed with mosaic floors and frescoes. In the provinces, any country house with some decorative features in the Roman style may be called a "villa" by modern scholars. Some were pleasure houses, like Hadrian's Villa at Tivoli, that were sited in the cool hills within easy reach of Rome or, like the Villa of the Papyri at Herculaneum, on picturesque sites overlooking the Bay of Naples. Some villas were more like the co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
