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Portus
Portus was a large artificial harbour of Ancient Rome. Sited on the north bank of the north mouth of the Tiber, on the Tyrrhenian coast, it was established by Claudius and enlarged by Trajan to supplement the nearby port of Ostia. The archaeological remains of the harbour are near the modern-day Italian village of Porto within the Comune of Fiumicino, just south of Rome in Lazio (ancient Latium). Ancient Portus Claudian phase Rome's original harbour was Ostia. Claudius constructed the first harbour on the Portus site, north of Ostia, enclosing an area of 250 hectares (617 acres), with two long curving moles projecting into the sea, and an artificial island, bearing a lighthouse, in the centre of the space between them. The foundation of this lighthouse was provided by filling one of the massive obelisk ships, used to transport an obelisk from Egypt to adorn the spina of Vatican Circus, built during the reign of Caligula. The harbour thus opened directly to the sea on th ...
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Portus - Claudius First Harbour And Hexagonal Basin Extension Under Trajan
Portus was a large artificial harbour of Ancient Rome. Sited on the north bank of the north mouth of the Tiber, on the Tyrrhenian coast, it was established by Claudius and enlarged by Trajan to supplement the nearby port of Ostia. The archaeological remains of the harbour are near the modern-day Italian village of Porto within the Comune of Fiumicino, just south of Rome in Lazio (ancient Latium). Ancient Portus Claudian phase Rome's original harbour was Ostia. Claudius constructed the first harbour on the Portus site, north of Ostia, enclosing an area of 250 hectares (617 acres), with two long curving moles projecting into the sea, and an artificial island, bearing a lighthouse, in the centre of the space between them. The foundation of this lighthouse was provided by filling one of the massive obelisk ships, used to transport an obelisk from Egypt to adorn the spina of Vatican Circus, built during the reign of Caligula. The harbour thus opened directly to the sea on th ...
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Ostia Antica (archaeological Site)
Ostia Antica ("Ancient Ostia") is a large archaeological site, close to the modern town of Ostia, that is the location of the harbour city of ancient Rome, 25 kilometres (15 miles) southwest of Rome. "Ostia" (plur. of "ostium") is a derivation of "os", the Latin word for "mouth". At the mouth of the River Tiber, Ostia was Rome's seaport, but due to silting the site now lies from the sea. The site is noted for the excellent preservation of its ancient buildings, magnificent frescoes and impressive mosaics. History Origins Ostia may have been Rome's first '' colonia''. According to legend, Ancus Marcius, the fourth king of Rome, was the first to destroy Ficana, an ancient town that was only from Rome and had a small harbour on the Tiber, and then proceeded with establishing the new colony further west and closer to the sea coast. An inscription seems to confirm the establishment of the old ''castrum'' of Ostia in the 7th century BC. The oldest archaeological remains so fa ...
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Claudius
Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (; 1 August 10 BC – 13 October AD 54) was the fourth Roman emperor, ruling from AD 41 to 54. A member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, Claudius was born to Drusus and Antonia Minor at Lugdunum in Roman Gaul, where his father was stationed as a military legate. He was the first Roman emperor to be born outside Italy. Nonetheless, Claudius was an Italian of Sabine origins. As he had a limp and slight deafness due to sickness at a young age, he was ostracized by his family and was excluded from public office until his consulship (which was shared with his nephew, Caligula, in 37). Claudius's infirmity probably saved him from the fate of many other nobles during the purges throughout the reigns of Tiberius and Caligula, as potential enemies did not see him as a serious threat. His survival led to him being declared emperor by the Praetorian Guard after Caligula's assassination, at which point he was the last adult m ...
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Via Portuensis
Via Portuensis was an ancient Roman road, leading to the Portus constructed by Claudius on the right bank of the Tiber, at its mouth. It started from the Pons Aemilius, and the first part of its course is identical with that of the Via Campana. The Porta Portuensis of the Aurelian Walls had a double arch, probably owing to the amount of traffic it had to carry, but the divergence occurred a good deal further on, probably a mile from the gate. The Via Portuensis went to the right into hilly country, while the Via Campana kept to the valley of the Tiber. The roads rejoined at the modern Ponte Galeria. With the growth of importance of the Via Portuensis from the time of Constantine onwards, that of the Via Ostiensis correspondingly decreased. Procopius, who describes how barges were dragged up the river by teams of oxen moving along it, must be describing the towpath, and not either the Via Portuensis or even the Via Campana, which is in many places at quite a considerable dis ...
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Fiumicino
Fiumicino () is a town and comune in the Metropolitan City of Rome, Lazio, central Italy, with a population of 80,500 (2019). It is known for being the site of Leonardo da Vinci–Fiumicino Airport, the busiest airport in Italy and the eleventh-busiest in Europe. History Etymology The name literally means ''little river''. The town of "Fiumicino" should not be confused with its namesake, Fiumicino, a small river near Rimini. Recent history Fiumicino became a ''comune'' in 1992; previously it was part of the municipality of Rome, being almost totally included in the former Municipio XIV. On 24 August 2013, a small mud volcano popped up at the centre of the via Coccia di Morto roundabout. Geography Located by the Tyrrhenian coast. Fiumicino borders the municipalities of Anguillara Sabazia, Cerveteri, Ladispoli and Rome. It is on the northern side of the mouth of the river Tiber, next to Ostia. It includes the hamlets (''frazioni'') of Aeroporto "Leonardo da Vinci", Ara Nova ...
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Obelisk Ships
Obelisk ships were ships used to transport obelisks. Today, eight ancient Egyptian obelisks stand in Rome, though not in their original places. The first of the obelisks, the 263-ton Flaminian obelisk, was transported from Heliopolis – modern-day Cairo – in 10 BCE. while the last, the 500-ton Lateran obelisk, was transported from Karnak. Descriptions There are only two recorded texts describing the ships that transported the obelisks from Egypt across the Mediterranean to Rome. The first recorded text is from Pliny the Elder (23–79 CE), who described the great ships that transported the Vatican obelisk in 40 CE under the emperor Caligula. The second description comes from Ammianus Marcellinus (330–393 CE), who describes the ships that transported the Lateran obelisk in 357 CE. Destruction of ships There is little evidence of the great ships that carried the large obelisks across the Mediterranean. One of the two ships that carried the Vatican obelisk was purposely sunk ...
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Tiber
The Tiber ( ; it, Tevere ; la, Tiberis) is the third-longest List of rivers of Italy, river in Italy and the longest in Central Italy, rising in the Apennine Mountains in Emilia-Romagna and flowing through Tuscany, Umbria, and Lazio, where it is joined by the River Aniene, to the Tyrrhenian Sea, between Ostia (Rome), Ostia and Fiumicino. It Drainage basin, drains a basin estimated at . The river has achieved lasting fame as the main watercourse of the city of Rome, which was founded on its eastern banks. The river rises at Mount Fumaiolo in central Italy and flows in a generally southerly direction past Perugia and Rome to meet the sea at Ostia (town), Ostia. Known in ancient times (in Latin) as ''Wikt:flavus, flavus'' ("the blond"), in reference to the yellowish colour of its water, the Tiber has advanced significantly at its mouth, by about , since Roman times, leaving the ancient port of Ostia Antica (archaeological site), Ostia Antica inland."Tiber River". ''Encyclopæ ...
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Port
A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Hamburg, Manchester and Duluth; these access the sea via rivers or canals. Because of their roles as ports of entry for immigrants as well as soldiers in wartime, many port cities have experienced dramatic multi-ethnic and multicultural changes throughout their histories. Ports are extremely important to the global economy; 70% of global merchandise trade by value passes through a port. For this reason, ports are also often densely populated settlements that provide the labor for processing and handling goods and related services for the ports. Today by far the greatest growth in port development is in Asia, the continent with some of the world's largest and busiest ports, such as Singapore and the Chinese ports of Shanghai and Ningbo- ...
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Paul V
Pope Paul V ( la, Paulus V; it, Paolo V) (17 September 1550 – 28 January 1621), born Camillo Borghese, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 16 May 1605 to his death in January 1621. In 1611, he honored Galileo Galilei as a member of the Papal Accademia dei Lincei and supported his discoveries. In 1616, Pope Paul V instructed Cardinal Bellarmine to inform Galileo that the Copernican theory could not be taught as fact, but Bellarmine's certificate allowed Galileo to continue his studies in search for evidence and use the geocentric model as a theoretical device. That same year Paul V assured Galileo that he was safe from persecution so long as he, the Pope, should live. Bellarmine's certificate was used by Galileo for his defense at Galileo affair, the trial of 1633. Early life Camillo Borghese was born in Rome on 17 September 1550 into the Borghese family of Siena which had recently established itself in Rome. He was the eldest son of se ...
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Gregory XIII
Pope Gregory XIII ( la, Gregorius XIII; it, Gregorio XIII; 7 January 1502 – 10 April 1585), born Ugo Boncompagni, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 13 May 1572 to his death in April 1585. He is best known for commissioning and being the namesake for the Gregorian calendar, which remains the internationally accepted civil calendar to this day. Early biography Youth Ugo Boncompagni was born the son of Cristoforo Boncompagni (10 July 1470 – 1546) and of his wife Angela Marescalchi in Bologna, where he studied law and graduated in 1530. He later taught jurisprudence for some years, and his students included notable figures such as Cardinals Alexander Farnese, Reginald Pole and Charles Borromeo. He had an illegitimate son after an affair with Maddalena Fulchini, Giacomo Boncompagni, but before he took holy orders, making him the last Pope to have left issue. Career before papacy At the age of 36 he was summoned to Rome by Pope Paul III (1534 ...
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Vatican Circus
The Circus of Nero or Circus of Caligula was a circus in ancient Rome, located mostly in the present-day Vatican City. Location and dimensions The accompanying plan shows an early interpretation of the relative locations of the circus and the medieval and current St. Peter's Basilica. The plan also suggests the dimensions of the circus relative to the Basilicas. A more modern interpretation differs in various respects: it maintains the central obelisk in the same position relative to the Basilicas, as in the accompanying plan, but rotates the entire circus about the obelisk, in a clockwise direction, about 170 degrees, so that the starting gates of the circus are now towards the east, and closer to the centre of Rome. The more modern interpretation also shows the circus as being much longer, relative to its width as compared to the early interpretation. See plan:Outline of St. Peter's, Old St. Peter's, and Circus of Nero. In both interpretations the circus building is centred on ...
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Via Campana
The Via Campana (Italian - ''Via Antica Consolare campana'') was one of the main roads of the Roman Empire. It begins at the Flavian Amphitheatre at Pozzuoli and ran through several ancient craters, passing the town of Qualiano and ending in Ancient Capua at junction with the via Appia. In XIX was created the ''New via Campana'' that has similar path but it ends at junction with the diramation of via Appia in the town of Giugliano. Four kilometres from Pozzuoli it crosses the craters of the Quarto Flegreo that give their name to the nearby town of Quarto and cross through the Montagna Spaccata, literally a cut through the wall of the crater made by the Romans to allow the road to cross to the opposite side of the crater (where the road climbs along the slopes instead). The Montagna Spaccata passage is now perfectly preserved and used as the main road in and out of the town. The bricks put in by the Romans to prevent the crater wall from collapsing can still be seen in excell ...
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