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Sperlonga
Sperlonga (locally ) is a coastal town in the province of Latina, Italy, about halfway between Rome and Naples. It is best known for the ancient Roman sea grotto discovered in the grounds of the Villa of Tiberius containing the important and spectacular Sperlonga sculptures, which are displayed in a museum on the site. Surrounding towns include Terracina to the West, Fondi to the North, Itri to the North-East, and Gaeta to the East. History Located near the Via Flacca, but also on the edge of the Pontine Marshes, Roman ''Spelunca'' (Latin for cave or grotto) was originally only known for the grotto on the coast, after which it was named. A Republican villa was built here, later owned by the emperor Tiberius. The Grotto was embellished by Tiberius into a magnificent triclinium, mentioned by ancient writers, and with the famous exquisite sculptures which were discovered ''in situ''. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, in the 6th century, the ruins of the imperial reside ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sperlonga Sculptures
The Sperlonga sculptures are a large and elaborate ensemble of ancient sculptures discovered in 1957 in the grounds of the former villa of the Emperor Tiberius at Sperlonga, on the coast between Rome and Naples. As reconstructed, the sculptures were arranged in groups around the interior of a large natural grotto facing the sea used by Tiberius for dining; many scholars believe he had the sculptures installed. The groups show incidents from the story of the Homeric hero Odysseus, and are in Hellenistic "baroque" style, "a loud, full-blown baroque",Smith, 110 but are generally thought to date to the early Imperial period. As Tacitus and Suetonius recount, the grotto collapsed in 26 AD, nearly killing Tiberius, and either then or in a later fall the sculptures were crushed into thousands of fragments, so that the modern reconstructions have many missing elements. A museum was established in 1963 at Sperlonga to display the reconstructed sculptures and other finds from the vi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Via Flacca
The ''Via Flacca'' was a Roman road along the western coast of Latium, Italy. It was built under censor Lucius Valerius Flaccus around 184 BC. Parts of it have recently been renovated as a trekking route. It was probably built to serve the town of Formiae which had been elevated to a municipium, and which the road linked to the towns of Terracina and Gaeta. It was a side branch of the via Appia, the much more famous Roman consular road, which it rejoined after Formiae near the Rialto bridge, and provided an alternative route to avoid the Aurunci mountains. The areas along the coast of Formiae and Caietae were popular resorts and sites of seaside villas of many important rich patricians of Rome, notably the grandiose villa of the emperor Tiberius at Sperlonga. The road was a difficult and dangerous project as the coastline is mountainous in many places. Livy says: "Flaccus separately built a dam at the Neptunian spring that the people might have a footpath there, and a road over ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tiberius
Tiberius Julius Caesar Augustus (; 16 November 42 BC – 16 March AD 37) was the second Roman emperor. He reigned from AD 14 until 37, succeeding his stepfather, the first Roman emperor Augustus. Tiberius was born in Rome in 42 BC. His father was the politician Tiberius Claudius Nero and his mother was Livia Drusilla, who would eventually divorce his father, and marry the future-emperor Augustus in 38 BC. Following the untimely deaths of Augustus' two grandsons and adopted heirs, Gaius and Lucius Caesar, Tiberius was designated Augustus' successor. Prior to this, Tiberius had proved himself an able diplomat, and one of the most successful Roman generals: his conquests of Pannonia, Dalmatia, Raetia, and (temporarily) parts of Germania laid the foundations for the empire's northern frontier. Early in his career, Tiberius was happily married to Vipsania, daughter of Augustus' friend, distinguished general and intended heir, Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa. They had a son, Drusus Jul ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Barbarossa (Ottoman Admiral)
Hayreddin Barbarossa ( ar, خير الدين بربروس, Khayr al-Din Barbarus, original name: Khiḍr; tr, Barbaros Hayrettin Paşa), also known as Hızır Hayrettin Pasha, and simply Hızır Reis (c. 1466/1478 – 4 July 1546), was an Ottoman empire, Ottoman Barbary pirates, corsair and later Kapudan Pasha, admiral of the Ottoman Navy. Barbarossa's naval victories secured Ottoman dominance over the Mediterranean during the mid 16th century. As the son of a soldier named Yakup, who took part in the Turkish conquest of Lesbos Born on Midilli (Lesbos), Khizr began his naval career as a corsair under his elder brother Oruç Reis. In 1516, the brothers Capture of Algiers (1516), captured Algiers from Spain, with Oruç declaring himself Sultan. Following Oruç's death in 1518, Khizr inherited his brother's nickname, "Barbarossa" ("Redbeard" in Italian). He also received the honorary name ''Hayreddin'' (from Arabic ''Khair ad-Din (other), Khayr ad-Din'', "goodness of th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Odysseus
Odysseus ( ; grc-gre, Ὀδυσσεύς, Ὀδυσεύς, OdysseúsOdyseús, ), also known by the Latin variant Ulysses ( , ; lat, UlyssesUlixes), is a legendary Greek king of Ithaca and the hero of Homer's epic poem the ''Odyssey''. Odysseus also plays a key role in Homer's ''Iliad'' and other works in that same epic cycle. Son of Laërtes and Anticlea, husband of Penelope, and father of Telemachus and Acusilaus, Odysseus is renowned for his intellectual brilliance, guile, and versatility (''polytropos''), and is thus known by the epithet Odysseus the Cunning ( grc-gre, μῆτις, mêtis, cunning intelligence). He is most famous for his ''nostos'', or "homecoming", which took him ten eventful years after the decade-long Trojan War. Name, etymology, and epithets The form ''Odys(s)eus'' is used starting in the epic period and through the classical period, but various other forms are also found. In vase inscriptions, we find the variants ''Oliseus'' (), ''Olyseus'' (), ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Polyphemus
Polyphemus (; grc-gre, Πολύφημος, Polyphēmos, ; la, Polyphēmus ) is the one-eyed giant son of Poseidon and Thoosa in Greek mythology, one of the Cyclopes described in Homer's ''Odyssey''. His name means "abounding in songs and legends". Polyphemus first appeared as a savage man-eating giant in the ninth book of the ''Odyssey''. The satyr play of Euripides is dependent on this episode apart from one detail; Polyphemus is made a pederast in the play. Later Classical writers presented him in their poems as heterosexual and linked his name with the nymph Galatea. Often he was portrayed as unsuccessful in these, and as unaware of his disproportionate size and musical failings. In the work of even later authors, however, he is presented as both a successful lover and skilled musician. From the Renaissance on, art and literature reflect all of these interpretations of the giant. Odysseus and Polyphemus Ancient sources In Homer's epic, Odysseus lands on the island of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gaeta
Gaeta (; lat, Cāiēta; Southern Laziale: ''Gaieta'') is a city in the province of Latina, in Lazio, Southern Italy. Set on a promontory stretching towards the Gulf of Gaeta, it is from Rome and from Naples. The town has played a conspicuous part in military history; its walls date to Roman times and were extended and strengthened in the 15th century, especially throughout the history of the Kingdom of Naples (later the Two Sicilies). Present-day Gaeta is a fishing and oil seaport, and a renowned tourist resort. NATO maintains a naval base of operations at Gaeta. History Ancient times The ancient ''Caieta'', situated on the slopes of the Torre di Orlando, a promontory overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. It was inhabited by the Oscan-speaking Italic tribe of the Aurunci at least by the 10th-9th century BC. Only in 345 BC did the territory of Gaeta come under Rome's influence. In the Roman imperial age ''Caieta'', famous for its lovely and temperate climate, like ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rhodes
Rhodes (; el, Ρόδος , translit=Ródos ) is the largest and the historical capital of the Dodecanese islands of Greece. Administratively, the island forms a separate municipality within the Rhodes regional unit, which is part of the South Aegean administrative region. The principal town of the island and seat of the municipality is Rhodes. The city of Rhodes had 50,636 inhabitants in 2011. In 2022 the island has population of 124,851 people. It is located northeast of Crete, southeast of Athens. Rhodes has several nicknames, such as "Island of the Sun" due to its patron sun god Helios, "The Pearl Island", and "The Island of the Knights", named after the Knights of Saint John of Jerusalem, who ruled the island from 1310 to 1522. Historically, Rhodes was famous for the Colossus of Rhodes, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The Medieval Old Town of the City of Rhodes has been declared a World Heritage Site. Today, it is one of the most popular tourist destina ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Terracina
Terracina is an Italian city and ''comune'' of the province of Latina, located on the coast southeast of Rome on the Via Appia ( by rail). The site has been continuously occupied since antiquity. History Ancient times Terracina appears in ancient sources with two names: the Latin Tarracina and the Volscian ''Anxur''. The latter is the name of Jupiter himself as a youth ( or ), and was the tutelary god of the city, venerated on the (current Monte S. Angelo), where a temple dedicated to him still exists (see below). The name has been instead pointed out variously as pre-Indo-European origin (Ταρρακινή in ancient Greek), or as Etruscan ( or , the name of the Tarquinii family): in this view, it would precede the Volscian conquest. Terracina occupied a position of notable strategic importance: it is located at the point where the Volscian Hills (an extension of the Lepini Mountains) reach the coast, leaving no space for passage between them and the sea, on a site comma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Province Of Latina
The Province of Latina ( it, Provincia di Latina) is an area of local government at the level of province in the Republic of Italy. It is one of five provinces that form the region of Lazio. The provincial capital is the city of Latina. It is bordered by the provinces of Frosinone to the north-east and by the Metropolitan City of Rome Capital to the north-west. It has an area of and a population of 561,189 (2012). There are 33 ''comuni'' (singular: ''comune'') in the province Sub-divisions of the province The most populous ''comuni'' are: History The province of Latina was founded on 18 December 1934, encompassing mainly the drained areas of the Agro Pontino previously part of the province of Rome. Apart from the Pontine lands, it includes the Aurunci, Lepini and Ausoni mountain ranges, as well as the Pontine islands archipelago. The port of Gaeta and Formia, in the southernmost part of the province, belonged traditionally and linguistically to Campania. In Bronze Age, c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pontine Marshes
250px, Lake Fogliano, a coastal lagoon in the Pontine Plain The Pontine Marshes (, also ; it, Agro Pontino , formerly also ''Paludi Pontine''; la, Pomptinus Ager by Titus Livius, ''Pomptina Palus'' (singular) and ''Pomptinae Paludes'' (plural) by Pliny the Elder''Natural History'' 3.59.) is an approximately quadrangular area of former marshland in the Lazio Region of central Italy, extending along the coast southeast of Rome about from just east of Anzio to Terracina (ancient Tarracina), varying in distance inland between the Tyrrhenian Sea and the Volscian Mountains (the Monti Lepini in the north, the Monti Ausoni in the center, and the Monti Aurunci in the south) from The northwestern border runs approximately from the mouth of the river Astura along the river and from its upper reaches to Cori in the Monti Lepini. The former marsh is a low tract of mainly agricultural land created by draining and filling, separated from the sea by sand dunes. The area amounts to about ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Province Of Latina
The Province of Latina ( it, Provincia di Latina) is an area of local government at the level of province in the Republic of Italy. It is one of five provinces that form the region of Lazio. The provincial capital is the city of Latina. It is bordered by the provinces of Frosinone to the north-east and by the Metropolitan City of Rome Capital to the north-west. It has an area of and a population of 561,189 (2012). There are 33 ''comuni'' (singular: ''comune'') in the province Sub-divisions of the province The most populous ''comuni'' are: History The province of Latina was founded on 18 December 1934, encompassing mainly the drained areas of the Agro Pontino previously part of the province of Rome. Apart from the Pontine lands, it includes the Aurunci, Lepini and Ausoni mountain ranges, as well as the Pontine islands archipelago. The port of Gaeta and Formia, in the southernmost part of the province, belonged traditionally and linguistically to Campania. In Bronze Age, c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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