|
Triclinium
A ''triclinium'' (: ''triclinia'') is a formal dining room in a Ancient Rome, Roman building. The word is adopted from the Greek language, Greek ()—from (), "three", and (), a sort of couch, or rather chaise longue. Each couch was sized to accommodate a diner who reclined on their left side on cushions while some Slavery in ancient Rome, household slaves served multiple courses brought from the ''culina'', or kitchen, and others entertained guests with music, song, or dance. The ''triclinium'' was characterized by three ''klinai, lecti'' (singular ''lectus'': bed or couch), called ''triclinares'' ("of the ''triclinium''"), on three sides of a low square table, whose surfaces sloped away from the table at about 10 degrees. Diners would recline on these surfaces in a semi-recumbent position. The fourth side of the table was left free, presumably to allow service to the table. Usually, the open side faced the entrance of the room. In Roman-era dwellings, particularly wealthy on ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Etruscans
The Etruscan civilization ( ) was an ancient civilization created by the Etruscans, a people who inhabited Etruria in List of ancient peoples of Italy, ancient Italy, with a common language and culture, and formed a federation of city-states. After adjacent lands had been conquered its territory covered, at its greatest extent, roughly what is now Tuscany, western Umbria and northern Lazio, as well as what are now the Po Valley, Emilia-Romagna, south-eastern Lombardy, southern Veneto and western Campania. A large body of literature has flourished on the origins of the Etruscans, but the consensus among modern scholars is that the Etruscans were an indigenous population. The earliest evidence of a culture that is identifiably Etruscan dates from about 900 BC. This is the period of the Iron Age Villanovan culture, considered to be the earliest phase of Etruscan civilization, which itself developed from the previous late Bronze Age Proto-Villanovan culture in the same region, p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oikos
''Oikos'' ( ; : ) was, in Ancient Greece, two related but distinct concepts: the family and the family's house. Its meaning shifted even within texts. The ''oikos'' was the basic unit of society in most Greek city-states. For regular Attic_Greek, Attic usage within the context of families, the ''oikos'' referred to a line of descent from father to son from generation to generation. Alternatively, as Aristotle used it in his ''Politics (Aristotle), Politics'', the term was sometimes used to refer to everybody living in a given house. Thus, the head of the ''oikos'', along with his immediate family and his slaves, would all be encompassed. Large ''oikoi'' also had farms that were usually tended by the slaves, which were also the basic agricultural unit of the Economy of ancient Greece, ancient Greek economy. House Traditional interpretations of the layout of the ''oikos'' in Classical Athens have divided into men's and women's spaces, with an area known as the ''gynaeceum, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Accubitum
''Accubitum'' (: ''accubita'') was one name for the ancient Roman furniture couches used in the time of the Roman emperors, in the ''triclinium'' or dining room, for reclining upon at meals. It was also sometimes the name of the dining room itself or a niche for a couch. Sometimes it denotes a multi-person curved couch, for which the term '' stibadium'' is also used. '' Klinai'' is the Greek equivalent, sometimes also used. Frequently, the Romans would gild these couches with silver or bronze. The mattress A mattress is a large, usually rectangular pad for supporting a person Lying (position), lying down, especially for sleeping. It is designed to be used as a bed, or on a bed frame as part of a bed. Mattresses may consist of a Quilting, quilted o ...es and feather-beds were softer and higher, and their supports (''fulcra'') were lower in proportion than those of older triclinium couches. The cloths and pillows spread over them, and over beds, were called ''accubitalia''.Ael ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Middle Ages
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and transitioned into the Renaissance and the Age of Discovery. The Middle Ages is the middle period of the three traditional divisions of Western history: classical antiquity, the medieval period, and the modern period. The medieval period is itself subdivided into the Early, High, and Late Middle Ages. Population decline, counterurbanisation, the collapse of centralised authority, invasions, and mass migrations of tribes, which had begun in late antiquity, continued into the Early Middle Ages. The large-scale movements of the Migration Period, including various Germanic peoples, formed new kingdoms in what remained of the Western Roman Empire. In the 7th century, North Africa and the Middle East—once part of the Byzantine Empire� ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roman Republic
The Roman Republic ( ) was the era of Ancient Rome, classical Roman civilisation beginning with Overthrow of the Roman monarchy, the overthrow of the Roman Kingdom (traditionally dated to 509 BC) and ending in 27 BC with the establishment of the Roman Empire following the War of Actium. During this period, Rome's control expanded from the city's immediate surroundings to hegemony over the entire Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean world. Roman society at the time was primarily a cultural mix of Latins (Italic tribe), Latin and Etruscan civilization, Etruscan societies, as well as of Sabine, Oscan, and Greek cultural elements, which is especially visible in the Ancient Roman religion and List of Roman deities, its pantheon. Its political organisation developed at around the same time as direct democracy in Ancient Greece, with collective and annual magistracies, overseen by Roman Senate, a senate. There were annual elections, but the republican system was an elective olig ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cubiculum
A ''cubiculum'' (: ''cubicula'') was a private room in a ''domus'', an ancient Roman house occupied by a high-status family. It usually led directly from the atrium, but in later periods it was sometimes adjacent to the peristyle. It was used for the functions of a modern bedroom, sleep and sex, as well as for business meetings, the reception of important guests and the display of the most highly prized works of art in the house. The ''cubiculum'' was used for quiet or secret meetings and could have been used as a library. It was also a preferred venue for murder and suicide. A room used only for sleeping was not classed as a ''cubiculum''. The private nature of the ''cubiculum'' made it a place for contemplation and religious observance, especially when illicit. According to the ''Actus Silvestri'', Constantine the Great first learned of Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion, which states that Jesus in Christianity, Jesus is the Son of God (Chr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Epic Poetry
In poetry, an epic is a lengthy narrative poem typically about the extraordinary deeds of extraordinary characters who, in dealings with gods or other superhuman forces, gave shape to the mortal universe for their descendants. With regard to oral tradition, epic poems consist of formal speech and are usually learnt word for word, and are contrasted with narratives that consist of everyday speech where the performer has the license to recontextualize the story to a particular audience, often to a younger generation. Influential epics that have shaped Western literature and culture include Homer's ''Iliad'' and '' Odyssey''; Virgil's '' Aeneid''; and the anonymous '' Beowulf'' and '' Epic of Gilgamesh''. The genre has inspired the adjective '' epic'' as well as derivative works in other mediums (such as epic films) that evoke or emulate the characteristics of epics. Etymology The English word ''epic'' comes from Latin , which itself comes from the Ancient Greek adject ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Highbrow
Used colloquially as a noun or adjective, "highbrow" is synonymous with intellectual; as an adjective, it also means elite, and generally carries a connotation of high culture. The term, first recorded in 1875, draws its metonymy from the pseudoscience of phrenology, which teaches that people with large foreheads are more intelligent. The term is deeply connected to hierarchical racial theories from the 19th century. The German physician, physiologist, and anthropologist Johann Friedrich Blumenbach (1752–1840) argued "for human diversity alonglines of racial differences as evidenced by skulls shapes and measurements. ..One metric of Blumenbachs classification was the line of the forehead, said to be higher among ' Caucasians' and lower among 'Mongolians' and ' Ethiopians' and this is the origin of the still common usage of 'highbrow' and 'lowbrow' ". Applications "Highbrow" can be applied to music, implying most of the classical music tradition; to literature—i.e., litera ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Patronage In Ancient Rome
Patronage (''clientela'') was the distinctive relationship in Social class in ancient Rome, ancient Roman society between the ''patronus'' ('patron') and their ''cliens'' ('client'). Apart from the patron-client relationship between individuals, there were also client kingdoms and tribes, whose rulers were in a subordinate relationship to the Roman state. The relationship was hierarchical, but obligations were mutual. The patron was the protector, sponsor, and benefactor of the client; the technical term for this protection was ''patrocinium''. Although typically the client was of inferior social class, a patron and client might even hold the same social rank, but the former would possess greater wealth, power, or prestige that enabled him to help or do favors for the client. From the emperor at the top to the commoner at the bottom, the bonds between these groups found formal expression in legal definition of patrons' responsibilities to clients. Patronage relationships were n ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Still Life
A still life (: still lifes) is a work of art depicting mostly wikt:inanimate, inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which are either natural (food, flowers, dead animals, plants, rocks, shells, etc.) or artificiality, human-made (drinking glasses, books, vases, jewelry, coins, pipes, etc.). With origins in the Middle Ages and Ancient Greco-Roman art, still-life painting emerged as a distinct genre and professional specialization in Western painting by the late 16th century, and has remained significant since then. One advantage of the still-life artform is that it allows an artist much freedom to experiment with the arrangement of elements within a composition of a painting. Still life, as a particular genre, began with Netherlandish art, Netherlandish painting of the 16th and 17th centuries, and the English term ''still life'' derives from the Dutch word ''stilleven''. Early still-life paintings, particularly before 1700, often contained religious and allego ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
