Maria Josepha of Austria

Maria Josepha of Austria (Maria Josepha Benedikta Antonia Theresia Xaveria Philippine, ; 8 December 1699 – 17 November 1757) was the Queen of Poland by marriage to Augustus III. From 1711 to 1717, she was heir presumptive to the Habsburg Empire. Her sister Maria Amalia became Electress of Bavaria.
Family.
Maria Josepha was born in Vienna, an Archduchess of Austria, the eldest child of Joseph I, Holy Roman Emperor and Princess Wilhelmina Amalia of Brunswick-Lüneburg. She was named for her father. During the reign of her grandfather, Maria Josepha's father and uncle signed the Mutual Pact of Succession of 1703, which was issued by her grandfather, Emperor Leopold I, and effectively made Maria Josepha the heiress presumptive to her uncle, Emperor Charles VI; However, Charles VI's Pragmatic Sanction of 1713 annulled the earlier agreement and made his daughter Maria Theresa his successor instead of Maria Josepha.
Marriage.
A marriage between Maria Josepha and Frederick Augustus II, Elector of Saxony (1696–1763) had been suggested by Frederick's father, August II the Strong, since 1704. The fact that Maria Josepha was not allowed to marry a non-Catholic, however, prevented the marriage. When Augustus converted to Catholicism in 1712, the negotiations became serious. Emperor Charles VI forbade Maria Josepha and her sister from marrying until they renounced their positions in the line of succession, securing the succession for Charles's future daughter Maria Theresa. Maria Josepha renounced her claim on 10 August 1719. Ten days later, Maria Josepha and Frederick Augustus married. Through this marriage between the Houses of Wettin and Habsburg, Frederick Augustus II's father hoped to place Saxony in a better position should there arise a war of succession to the Austrian territories. The couple's eldest surviving son, Frederick Christian, eventually succeeded his father as Elector of Saxony. In Saxony, the couple lived at Dresden Castle. The marriage has been described as a happy one, and Augustus was apparently never unfaithful.
Queen and electress.
In 1733, Frederick Augustus was elected King of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth as August III the Saxon. Maria Josepha was crowned 20 January 1734. Queen Maria Josepha was described as ambitious, intelligent and religious. She founded many churches and convents and gave her strong support to the Polish Jesuits.
As queen of Poland and electress of Saxony, she divided her time between the two nations. Though Saxony was her main residence, she enjoyed her stays in Poland because it was a Catholic nation where she could exercise her faith openly. Between November 1734 to February 1736, she and Frederick Augustus made their longest visit to Poland, prolonged because of the War of the Polish Succession. They continued to make frequent trips, lasting from between five and eight months each, plus several shorter trips lasting a couple of months less. She learned to speak Polish and was often present during the assemblies of the Polish parliament. During her absences from home, she frequently corresponded with her children in French, having a somewhat closer relationship to them than usual for her class. She gave them pet names and encouraged them to write to her in an informal way. She shared an interest in music, art and hunting with her spouse, and they usually spent their autumns at the Palace of Hubertusburg for the hunting season.
She was devoted to Catholicism and especially venerated Saint Francis Xavier and was actively involved in the building of the Catholic Hofkirche in Dresden. Her personal confessor, the Jesuit Fr. Anton Hermann, criticized her for being too religious from what was proper for someone not a Catholic religious order member. She attended mass twice and eventually four times a day and kept more devotions than was normal for a nun or a monk. Fr. Anton Hermann eventually lectured her that she was more fervent than could be regarded as modest for a lay person. Maria Josepha did not persecute non-Catholics, and once stressed to the heir to the throne that he should not persecute them but allow them all freedom while being guided by the Catholic faith. She also gave alms to both Catholic and Protestant poor. Despite her personal strict moral code, she was reportedly not a prude and got along well with her spouse's illegitimate half siblings.
Queen Maria Josepha was politically active and, though not formally proclaimed regent during the absence of her spouse, she informally acted as his representative. It was known and acknowledged by the court that she participated in the affairs of state, and the ministers and ambassadors duly reported to her. She also managed a large diplomatic correspondence. She was rivalled in her influence over her spouse by Heinrich von Brühl. Maria Josepha was reportedly not on good terms with her eldest son Frederick Christian. She wished for her younger son Francis Xavier to be elected king of Poland rather than having Frederick Christian succeed his father on both thrones, and she prevented Frederick Christian and his spouse from visiting Poland, thus preventing them from making connections there. She undermined any attempts of Frederick Christian to found a power base of his own before the death of his father, and among other things prevented a meeting between him and his spouse with Empress Maria Theresa of Bohemia in 1754.
During the War of the Austrian Succession in 1740, she claimed the throne on behalf of her spouse. She relinquished her claim in favor of her sister, Maria Amalia's spouse, and in 1742, made an alliance with Austria.
Death.
During the seven years war, Maria Josepha stayed behind in Dresden with her son, Frederick Christian and his spouse Maria Antonia, after her husband left on 20 October 1756. She remained in Dresden when the city was taken by the Prussian army. She, as well as Frederick Christian and his spouse Maria Antonia, were all placed under house arrest at the palace of Dresden guarded by a Prussian commandant. Maria Josepha was banned from writing to her sons, but did engage in correspondence with invisible ink and use her net of correspondents to help her son and daughter-in-law encourage resistance in Saxony against the invading Prussians. Despite several restrictions, she managed to channel secret information about Saxon Field Marshall Browne besieged by Frederick the Great at Struppen. On 4 April 1757, her Mistress of the Chamber, Countess Esther Anna Regina von Ogilvy, was arrested. Her last letter of 6 September was sent to the Austrian empress through her exiled son, in which she also states that this would be her last, as she was too heavily guarded.
On 17 November 1757, Maria Josepha died in Dresden of a stroke and was buried in the Wettin vault of the Katholische Hofkirche ("Catholic Court Church") in Dresden.
Issue.
Maria Josepha and Frederick Augustus had sixteen children, but only fourteen are recognized by historians:


2006 in Portugal

Events in the year 2006 in Portugal.
Arts and entertainment.
In music: Portugal in the Eurovision Song Contest 2006.
Sports.
Football (soccer) competitions: Primeira Liga, Liga de Honra, Taça de Portugal.


Trasancos

Trasancos or Trasanquos was the name of a historic Galician county in northern Galicia. The "Transanqui" was a Gallaeci people in Pre-Roman and Roman times, and it is documented as county since the 6th century in the Suebic Kingdom of Galicia until the 20th century.


Vandal Sardinia

Vandal Sardinia covers the history of Sardinia from the end of the long Roman domination in 456, when the island was conquered by the Vandals, a Germanic population settled in North Africa until its reconquest in 534.
Conquest.
The conquest of the former province of Corsica and Sardinia by the Vandals occurred between about 456 and 476. The first occupation took place in 456 AD. It was a partial, limited and short-lived occupation of some coastal cities. In 466 the Roman general Marcellinus – possibly encouraged by Pope Hilarius – succeeded in regaining control of the island. However, between 474 and 482 Sardinia fell again under the rule of the Vandals, perhaps led by Genseric or his son Huneric. During these campaigns, Olbia, one of the most prosperous Sardinian cities, was violently attacked by sea and its port destroyed.
The possession of Sardinia guaranteed the Vandals secure maritime trade routes between North Africa and the rest of the Mediterranean. The island became the frontier of the Vandal Kingdom and assumed an important strategic role.
Vandal administration.
The Vandal administrative system did not differ much from that of the Roman period. Sardinia was overseen by a governor called a "praeses", chosen from the trusted men of the royal family and resident in Caralis, who had both civil and military functions. He was assisted by a multitude of auxiliary officials including "procurators", tax collectors, and "conductors" (real estate economists).
The island territory was subdivided into many parts that were assigned partially to the crown and partially to the Vandal warriors. The Sardinian-Roman landowners managed to keep their lands in certain cases, in exchange for the payment of lump sums. Barbagia, the central-eastern mountain area of the island, remained a semi-independent duchy, as it had been in the Roman period and would remain in the first part of the Byzantine period.
At the end of Vandal era groups of Mauri, who were sent to the island by the Vandals, took refuge in the mountains of Barbagia or Gerrei. From here they made raids against the Forum Traiani (Fordongianus) during the Byzantine period. The Byzantine General Solomon organized a military expedition against them in the winter of 537.
Godas rebellion.
In 533, perhaps taking advantage of a remarkable autonomy, Godas, the Vandal governor of Goth origin, proclaimed himself king of the island, minting his own bronze coins.
Justinian, Emperor of the East, purportedly to help Godas, decided to intervene and sent an army commanded by General Belisarius and assisted by Duke Cirillus. The Byzantine force led by Belisarius was made up of 16,000 soldiers and 600 ships and headed to Africa while Duke Cyril with some 400 ships headed for Caralis.
Meanwhile, the King of Vandals, Gelimer, who was also facing a revolt in Tripoli, sent his brother Tzazo with a large contingent of 120 ships and 5,000 men to Sardinia to suppress Goda's uprising. Tzazo quickly took Caralis (where he left a small contingent), executed Godas and returned immediately to Carthage where the Byzantines had landed. Belisarius had defeated Gelimero on August 30, 533 and occupied Carthage. He was followed by Cirillus, who had failed to reach Sardinia. Tzazo and Gelimer, together with what remained of the army, marched against the Byzantines but were defeated at the Battle of Tricamarum, from Carthage. Tzazo was killed while Gelimero, escaping capture, surrendered a few months later. Cirillus then went to Calaris where he showed Tzazo's head impaled on a pike to the Vandals of the garrison, who immediately surrendered. Thus the Vandal era in Sardinia ended in 534 and the Byzantine period began.
Religion.
The Sardinian dioceses of the Roman periodCaralis, Forum Traiani, Sulci, Turris and Sanafer (and perhaps Cornus)remained operative under the Vandals.
The Sardinian church was not persecuted and was not forced into Arianism. African Catholic bishops under the Vandals were persecuted and exiled to Sardinia during periods of the most severe oppression of Catholics by Vandals. This had some positive consequences for Sardinia, because the exiles enriched the cultural and religious life during their presence, for example importing monasticism. Among the bishops deported to the island by the Vandals were the bishop of Carthage, Fulgentius of Ruspe, and Felicianis, bishop of Hippo, who carried with him the relics of Augustine of Hippo (now preserved in Pavia).
It was in this period that two Sardinians ascended to the papal throne: Pope Hilarius and Pope Symmachus.
Culture.
Funeral architecture.
Vandal funerary practices have been documented by the presence of some necropolis and single burials brought to light in several island locations. The most significant information comes from the Cornus-Columbaris necropolis, which consists of 22 tombs where numerous finds from a mixed German-African matrix have been made. The funeral area of Sant'Imbenia at Alghero, the burial in Spina Santa near Sassari, and the tomb discovered at Sant'Antioco, where a man was buried with his horse, also appear to belong to the Vandal age.
The historian Alberto Boscolo attributed to the Vandals the tombs with barrel vaults discovered in several island resorts, mainly in southern Sardinia. The scholar identified them as Germanic elite graves but according to other scholars they would instead be placed in the Byzantine period.
Clothing.
In the Vandal era, some innovations were introduced to the island with regard to clothing. These include "fibulae", buckles, and jewellery such as polyhedron earrings originating in the Germanic area.


Isaccea

Isaccea (; ) is a small town in Tulcea County, in Northern Dobruja, Romania, on the right bank of the Danube, 35 km north-west of Tulcea. According to the 2011 census, it has a population of 4,955.
The town has been inhabited for thousands of years, as it is one of the few places in all the Lower Danube that can be easily forded and thus an easy link between the Balkans and the steppes of Southern Ukraine and Russia, north of the Black Sea. The Danube was for a long time the border between the Romans, later Byzantines and the "barbarian" migrating tribes in the north, making Isaccea a border town, conquered and held by dozens of different peoples.
Geography.
The town has under its administration 103.97 km², of which 3.69 km² are inside the residential areas.
The town is divided into three settlements: Isaccea proper (4,789 inhabitants) and two villages, Revărsarea (563 inhabitants) and Tichilești (10 inhabitants).
The Tulcea – Brăila roadway (DN22/E87) crosses the town.
The town is located in near to the Măcin Mountains and Dobruja Plateau (in the south) and the Danube (in the north). Many lakes could once be found in the town, but some of them were desiccated by the Communist authorities in order to use the terrain for agriculture. This initiative lacked success, since the soil of the area proved to be not very fertile. Some larger lakes still remain: Saun, Telincea, Rotund, Ghiolul Pietrei, Racova. In April 2006, the dyke which protected this terrain failed and the Danube flooded again the areas which used to be wetlands.
Along the Danube there is a floodplain, which gets inundated every spring, bringing fresh water to the lakes and the marshlands. The largest lake in Isaccea is "Lacul Rotund" (literally, Round Lake), having an area of 2.19 km² and a volume of 2.0 million m³.
Tichilești.
Tichilești was founded as a monastery of Tichilești, with time becoming a leper colony. A legend says the monastery was founded by one of the Cantacuzino princesses who was affected by leprosy. Another theory of the history the settlement is that a group of Russian refugees (see Lipovans) settled there and founded the monastery, but soon became outlaws who were eventually caught. In 1918, a part of the lepers moved to Bessarabian town of Izmail. Following a 1926 newspaper article, a hospital was built in 1928 at the monastery. In 1998, there were 39 people in the settlement, and according to the 2002 census, there were 22 people, most of them having an age of more than 60 years. By 2018, there were only 10 people.
Revărsarea.
Revărsarea was founded after the 1877 War of Independence, being settled by war veterans and colonists, the village being built in the place of a forest which has been cleared. It had several other names since: "Piatra Calcată", "Principele Nicolae" (named after Prince Nicholas of Romania) and "Ștefan Gheorghiu" (named after Ștefan Gheorghiu, a trade unionist).
Name.
Possibly the earliest mentioning is in De Administrando Imperio (around 950) of Constantine Porphyrogenitus. It talks about six deserted cities between the Dniester and Bulgaria, among them being Saka-katai, "katai" being most likely a transcription of a Pecheneg word for "city". The name "Saka" could in turn be derived from Romanian "sacă/seacă", meaning "barren", however both the identification of the city with Isaccea and the etymology are mere speculations.
The first clear reference to this name was in the 11th century, when there was a local ruler from "Vicina" named Σακτζας ("Saktzas", probably "Saccea / Sakça"), for the first time used by Byzantine Anna Comnena in her "Alexiad". Nicolae Iorga presumed that the ruler was Romanian, however "-ça" (-cea) could also indicate a Turkic suffix.
The 14th-century Arab geographer Abu'l-Fida mentions the town under the name "Saecdji", which was a territory of the "Al-Ualak" (Wallachs).
The initial "i" in the name was added during the Ottoman domination, due to the same feature of the Turkish language that transformed "Stanbul" to "Istanbul". Some local legends claim that the town was named after a certain Isac Baba, however the other explanation is more likely to be true, as the name of the town initially lacked the "i".
Other historical names include:
History.
Ancient history.
The land where the town is now has been inhabited since prehistoric times: the remains of a neolithic settlement, belonging to the Boian-Giulești culture (4100–3700 BC) were found in the northwestern part of the town, in a place known as "Suhat".
The neolithic culture was succeeded by the Getae culture with Hellenistic influences. The Celts expanded their territory from Central Europe, reaching Isaccea in the 3rd century BC (see Gallic invasion of the Balkans) and giving the ancient name of town, "Noviodunum", as well as of other names in this region, such as Aliobrix, on the other side of the Danube and Durostorum further south in Dobruja.
In 514 BC, Darius I of Persia fought here a decisive battle against the Scythians. A trade post was also built in this town by the Greeks. Greek authors such as Ptolemy and Hierocles name it a "polis".
The town was taken by the Romans in 46 AD and became part of the Moesia province. It was fortified and became the most important military and commercial city in the area, becoming a municipium. Its ruins are located 2 km to the east of modern Isaccea on a hill known as "Eski-Kale" (Turkish for "Old Fortress").
In Noviodunum was the main base of the lower Danube Roman fleet named "Classis Flavia Moesica", then temporarily the headquarters of the Roman Legio V "Macedonica" (106-167), Legio I "Italica" (167-) and Legio I "Iovia".
Around 170 AD, the Roman settlements in Dobruja were attacked by the Dacian tribe of the Costoboci, who lived in what is now Moldavia, their attack being visible in the archeological remains of Noviodunum. Further attacks continued in the 3rd century, this time by the combined forces of the Dacian tribe of the Carpi and of the Goths, the decisive battle being probably in 247.
The violent invasions of the Carpi, who plundered the cities and enslaved their inhabitants, left behind many archaeological traces, including buried coin hoards and signs of destruction. The fortress of Noviodunum was probably destroyed during the raids of the Goths and Heruli, during the rule of Gallienus (267), buried hoards being found near it, including a larger treasure containing 1071 Roman coins. The raids left Noviodunum, like other urban centres in the area, depopulated, only returning to its original state toward the end of the 3rd century.
During the rule of Constantine I (306-337), the Noviodunum fortress was rebuilt as part of a bigger project of restoring the Empire's borders along the Lower Danube.
By the 4th century, the town also became a Christian centre. The tomb of four Roman Christian martyrs, discovered in September 1971 in nearby Niculiţel, bears the names Zotikos, Attalos, Kamasis and Philippos. They were probably killed in Noviodunum during campaigns of persecutions of early Christians by Diocletian (303-304) and Licinius (319-324), being taken out of the city and buried as martyrs by the local Christians.
In 369 an important battle was fought between the Romans, led by emperor Flavius Valens and the Thervingi led by Athanaric. Valens' army crossed the river at Noviodunum (Isaccea) using a boat bridge and met the Gothic army in Bessarabia. Although Valens obtained a victory for the Romans, they retreated (possibly because of the lateness of the season) and the Goths asked for a peace treaty, which was signed in the middle of the Danube, the Goths taking an oath to never set foot on Roman soil.
After the division of the Roman Empire, it became part of the Byzantine Empire and it was the most important Byzantine naval base on the Danube. Valips, a chieftain of Germanic Rugians (who were allies of the Huns), took Noviodunum sometimes between 434 and 441 and it was included in the Hunnish Empire, the area becoming a fiefdom of the Hunnish leader Hernac after Attila's death.
The Slavs began to settle in early 6th century and possibly the earliest reference to their settlement in the town is Jordanes' book (written in 551) The Origin and Deeds of the Goths, which mentioned Noviodunum as an extremity of the region were the "Sclaveni" lived. The town continued to be under Byzantine rule, but it suffered the raids from other nomadic peoples, such as the Kutrigurs (559) and Avars (561-562). In the mid-6th century, Justinian I built new fortifications and made it an episcopal see.
During the rule of Phocas (602-610), a massive number of Avars and Slavs crossed the Byzantine border and although their presence protected the empire from other nomads, their control became just formal, until in 681, the Byzantines recognised the First Bulgarian Empire and gave up their claims for the Scythia Minor province. For more than 300 years, Isaccea faded from history and there is no historical or archaeological evidence that the place was even inhabited.
Mediaeval history.
Around 950, Constantine Porphyrogenitus talks of six desert cities in the area, one being named Saka-katai, which could be the earliest mentioning of the town after it was lost to the migrating people during the Dark Age.
In 971, Isaccea was once again included in the Byzantine Empire and the walls of kastron were reinforced. In 1036, the Pechenegs being driven southward by the Cumans, settled in Scythia Minor, including in this city, fact backed by archeological evidence, such as leaf-shaped pendants, characteristic to them. The Pechenegs traded with the Byzantines, which led to a growth in the economic life of the region, as shown by the number of coins found in Isaccea, reaching 700 coins for the period of 1025-1055. However, the Pechenegs were eventually assimilated and faded from history.
The Byzantines regained control of Isaccea toward the end of the 10th century: a seal of Leo Nicerites, the governor of Paristrion, was found at Isaccea. Around 1100, a double-curtain wall was built in Isaccea.
In the mid-12th century, Isaccea was devastated by Cuman attacks and it was completely rebuilt. In the second half of the 12th century it became the most important Byzantine military base in the region, suggested by the number of imperial seals found there: a seal of Isaac II Angelos (1185–1195) and one of John Vatatzes, the head of the Imperial Guard under Manuel I Komnenos (1143–1180).
According to Arab chronicles, the Nogai Tatars settled in the town in the late 13th century. Between 1280-1299, the town was Nogai Khan's base of operation in his campaigns against the Bulgarian city of Tarnovo. At the time, the city was a local Muslim centre and the residence of the famous Turkish dervish Sarı Saltuk, who has been associated with Nogai Khan's conversion to Islam.
Arab geographer Abulfeda mentioned the town, placing it in the territory of the "Al-Ualak" (Wallachs), having a population mostly Turkic and being ruled by the Byzantines. A Byzantine despotate existed in Northern Dobruja with Isaccea as its centre, which sometimes between 1332 and 1337 became a vassal of the Golden Horde of Nogais under the name "Saqčï".
The Tatars held an important mint in Isaccea, which minted coins marked with Greek and Arabic letters between the years 1286 and 1351. Various types of silver and copper coins were minted, including coins bearing the mark of the Golden Horde with the names of the khans as well as the names of Nogai Khan and his son Čeke (minted between 1296–1301).
In the late 14th century it was ruled by Mircea cel Bătrân of Wallachia, being held until one year before his death. In 1417, the town was conquered, together with other fortresses on the Danube, by the Ottomans, who built a fort defended by a garrison as part of the Danubian frontier established by Mehmet I.
The town was regained by Vlad Țepeș in 1462 during his campaigns against the Ottoman Empire, massacring the local Muslim Bulgarian and Turkish population (who were expected to side with the Turks), killing 1350 people in Isaccea and Novoselo, out of more than 23,000 people in all Bulgaria. In a letter to Matthias Corvinus, dated February 11, 1462, he stated:
In 1484, it was taken again by the Ottomans, being included in the Silistra (Özi) Province, which comprised Dobruja, much of present-day Bulgaria, and later also Budjak and Yedisan.
Țepeș's massacre and destruction completely changed the ethnic composition and the appearance of Isaccea, which remaining throughout the 16th century a small, largely Christian, village. Bayazid II's conquest of Kilia and Akkerman removed the danger from the north, as did Mehmet II's victories against Wallachia remove the threat from the west, and as such, the Sultan saw no reason to rebuild the fortress of Isaccea, nor the settlement of a garrison.
In 1574, Voivode Ioan Vodă cel Cumplit of Moldavia sent Pârcălab Ieremia Golia with an army to Oblucița (Isaccea) to prevent the Ottoman army from fording the river. However, Golia betrayed Ioan for a sum of 30 gold bags, thus leading to the defeat of the Moldavian army and the execution of Ioan.
By the beginning of the 16th century, a new danger arose for the Ottoman border on the Lower Danube: the Cossacks from Ukraine, who, in 1603, reached Oblucița and set the town on fire. Sultan Osman II began a series of campaigns against the Cossacks and, as part of his fortification of the border, in 1620, a new fort was built in Isaccea, but in a different place.
On 6 October 1598, Mihai Viteazul defeated the Ottoman army at Oblucița, recapturing the town. The following year, in March 1599, the Ottomans' army took back the town and went into incursions into Wallachia, Mihai's response being to go beyond the Danube and attack the town of Oblucița. After Mihai's death in 1601, the town was regained by the Ottomans.
In December 1673, at the Ottoman army camp in Isaccea, Dumitrașcu Cantacuzino was chosen Prince of Moldavia.
Modern history.
During the wars between the Russians and the Turks of the 18th and 19th centuries, it occupied by each side for several times, being several times set on fire and almost completely destroyed.
During the Prut Campaign (1711), the Russians tried to block the Ottomans crossing of the Danube at Isaccea, but failing to do so, the two armies clashed at Stănileşti, on the Prut River.
Isaccea was besieged three times in the 1770s: in 1770, 1771 and 1779: in 1771, it was conquered by the Russians in the wake of the Battle of Kagul, the Russians destroying the fortifications and the mosques. Unlike many other settlements in the region, it was not razed, but after ten years of devastating war, only 150 houses were still standing.
Near Isaccea, the Russian flotilla commanded by José de Ribas clashed with and captured the Turkish flotilla during the Russo-Turkish War (1787–1792). The Ottoman defenders of Isaccea fled, destroying the fortifications left behind. After a while, the Turkish regained it, being recaptured by Lieutenant-General Galitzine in March 1791.
During the Russo-Turkish War (1828–1829), the Russian Army crossed the Danube at Isaccea, but the Ottoman garrison of the Isaccea fortress surrendered without resistance. A local legend explains the existence of a mound near the old bridge this way: during the Russo-Turkish wars a Turkish general accused of treason was buried alive (horse included), each of his soldiers being forced to bring a fez full of dirt and throw it over the general.
In 1853, during the Crimean War, it was besieged again by the Russians, before the war theatre moved to Crimea. In December of that year, "The Times" of London noted that "Isaktchi" had a fortified castle and a garrison of 1500 men, but that it was simply a "port of observation" on the river.
After the war, a European Danube Commission was established, which decided to clear the silt at the mouths of the Danube, between Isaccea and the Black Sea; however, the increased trade on the Danube affected Isaccea but little.
At the beginning of the Russo-Turkish War, 1877–1878, the Russians were able to take advantage of Romania's railways and mass a great number of troops in Galați. 4000 Russian troops crossed the Danube 14 km south of Măcin and were victorious on June 22, 1877 against the Ottoman garrison. The Russian victories intimidated the commander of the Isaccea garrison and the Ottoman troops withdrew from the town, leaving the whole northern part of Dobruja to the Russian armies. Many of the Muslims in the towns of this area fled from the early days of the conflict. The city was captured without battle on June 26, 1877 by the 14th Army under the leadership of Major-General Yanov.
Following the Russian-Romanian victory in the war against the Ottoman Empire, Russia took back from Romania the Southern Bessarabia region and as compensation, the newly independent state of Romania received the region of Dobruja, including the town of Isaccea.
In 1915, Nicolae Iorga described Isaccea as "a gathering of small and humble houses spread over a hill slope".
During World War I, Dobruja was in the areas of operation of a force formed by the Russian and Romanian armies. The first Russian unit crossed the Danube at Isaccea on the day when war was declared (August 27, 1916) and began their deployment toward Bulgaria, an ally of the Central Powers.
Following the failure of the Flămânda Offensive, the Russians began retreating, soon as north as Isaccea. The town was defended by the Romanian and Russian troops against the German offensive, but it was lost on December 24, 1916. Following its defeat, Romania signed the Treaty of Bucharest, by the term of which, Romania ceded the southern part of Dobruja to Bulgaria, while the rest (including Isaccea), was ceded to the Central Powers. The Treaty was voided by the terms of the Armistice of November 11, 1918 and Isaccea was thus returned to Romania.
Demographics.
The majority of the population is formed by Orthodox Christian Romanians, but there is also a 4% minority of Muslim Turks. In 1516, it was a purely Christian village, with 163 households; in 1518, there were 256 Christian houses. By the end of the 16th century, the town grew to 332 Christian households and 25 Muslim households, of which half were new converts.
Ethnic structure.
In 1828, there were 363 Romanians, 183 Turks, 163 Cossacks, 29 Greeks, 20 Jews and 3 Armenians.
According to the 2011 Romanian census, the ethnic structure of the population of Isaccea was the following:
Government.
The city government is headed by a mayor ("primar"), while the decisions are approved and discussed by the local council ("consiliu local") made up of 15 elected councillors. From 1996 to 2012, the mayor of Isaccea was Ilie Petre, from the Democratic Liberal Party, who was re-elected for a fourth term in the 2008 local elections, winning in the second round by earning 61.46% of votes against Anastase Moraru, a candidate of the Social Democratic Party. At the 2012 local elections, Moraru defeated Ilie.
Since June 2008, the local council members belong to the following parties:
Economy.
The town has long been a station in the trade between the eastern Mediterranean and the continental eastern Europe. The Greeks built their first trade post around 2700 years ago and trade continued after the Roman and later Byzantine and Ottoman takeovers. In the 16th century, the town was located on the Moldavian-Ottoman border and its bazaar was one of the four most important trading posts in the Dobruja, with tradesmen coming from distant places, such as Chios or Ragusa. The main traded goods were cattle, sheep, wine, cloth and wood. The town lost its influence in the 19th century, as the sea and river transport was mostly replaced by train and later road transport and as the Danube traffic navigates on the Danube-Black Sea Canal.
Much of the local economy is based on agriculture, especially animal husbandry and fishing. The town's farms have a number of 2595 sheep, 728 cows, 510 pigs, 240 horses and 16,000 birds. Industry is based on extraction of rock from a nearby quarry and woodworking, a tobacco processing factory and a winery.
Since 2004, the town is also home for a beluga reproduction research station, financed by the Romanian state. The world's first in vitro fertilisation research station for the beluga, it is fish farm, but also raises beluga to be freed into the Danube, freeing around 3000 belugas.
The town is also a port on the Danube, having two mooring places for ships. It is mostly used for loading cereals and stone onto cargo ship.
Isaccea is the entry point in Romania of the Isaccea-Negru Vodă gas pipeline (built between 2000-2002 to replace a smaller pipeline built in the 1980s) linking Ukraine and Bulgaria, bringing natural gas from Russia to Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey. It has a diameter of 1200 mm and a capacity of 28 billion m³/year. The town is also the entry point of the 400 kV Isaccea-Vulcăneşti electrical transmission line, through which Romania imports electricity from the Russian-owned Cuciurgan powerplant in the Transnistria region of Moldova.
A sewage treatment plant is going to be built in Isaccea by 2012, funded 80.2% from the Cohesion Funds from the European Union.


Lombardo-Venetian florin

The florin was the currency of Lombardy-Venetia (reduced to the sole Venetia three years before) between 1862 and 1866. It replaced the pound at a rate of 1 florin = 3 pounds. The florin was equivalent to the Austro-Hungarian gulden (also called the florin). Although it was subdivided into 100 "soldi" rather than 100 Kreuzer, Austrian coins circulated in Venetia. The only coins issued specifically for Venetia were copper and 1 soldo pieces. The name soldo was chosen due to the equivalence of the predecimal Kreuzer and soldo, both worth of a Conventionsthaler.
The florin was replaced by the Italian lira at the rate of 1 lira = soldi (1 florin = 2.469 lire). This rate corresponded to the comparative silver contents of the lira and florin coins.


Villa Valdettaro, Lentate sul Seveso

The Villa Valdettaro, also called Villa Viansson, is a 19th-century Baroque and Gothic Revival architecture rural palace located on Via Cavour #46 outside of the town of Lentate sul Seveso in the Province of Monza and Brianza, region of Lombardy, Italy.
History.
Construction of the villa began in 1847 at a site that included the 16th-century chapel of "Santi Cosma and Damiano". Construction was commissioned by Bartolomeo Merelli, the successful impresario of the La Scala opera house in Milan. The architecture is eclectic, but mainly Gothic Revival. The layout is irregular and the facade of the main palace is at right angles to the entrance under a peaked arched balcony topped with statues. the complex includes a scenic tower. The property soon was sold to a signor Mazorati, and in 1883 to the Countess Giulia Viansson, who employed the architect-landscaper Giuseppe Balzaretti to complete sweeping gardens all the way to the valley floor.


Latins (Italic tribe)

The Latins (Latin: "Latini"), sometimes known as the Latians, were an Italic tribe which included the early inhabitants of the city of Rome. From about 1000 BC, the Latins inhabited the small region known to the Romans as Old Latium (in Latin "Latium vetus"), that is, the area between the river Tiber and the promontory of Mount Circeo southeast of Rome. Following the Roman expansion, the Latins spread into the Latium adiectum, inhabited by Osco-Umbrian peoples.
Their language, Latin, belonged to the Italic branch of Indo-European. Speakers of Italic languages are assumed to have migrated into the Italian Peninsula during the late Bronze Age (1200–900 BC). The material culture of the Latins, known as the Latial culture, was a distinctive subset of the proto-Villanovan culture that appeared in parts of the Italian peninsula in the first half of the 12th century BC. The Latins maintained close culturo-religious relations until they were definitively united politically under Rome in 338 BC, and for centuries beyond. These included common festivals and religious sanctuaries.
The rise of Rome as by far the most populous and powerful Latin state from 600 BC led to volatile relations with the other Latin states, which numbered about 14 in 500 BC. In the period of the Tarquin monarchy ( 550–500 BC), Rome apparently acquired political hegemony over the other states. After the fall of the Roman monarchy around 500 BC, there appears to have been a century of military alliance between Rome and the other Latin states to confront the threat posed to all Latium by raiding by the surrounding Italic mountain tribes, especially the Volsci and Aequi. This system progressively broke down after roughly 390 BC, when Rome's aggressive expansionism led to conflict with other Latin states, both individually and collectively. In 341–338 BC, the Latin states jointly fought the Latin War against Rome in a final attempt to preserve their independence. The war resulted in 338 BC in a decisive Roman victory. The other Latin states were either annexed or permanently subjugated to Rome.
Name etymology.
The name "Latium" has been suggested to derive from the Latin word "latus" ("wide, broad"), referring, by extension, to the plains of the region (in contrast to the mainly mountainous Italian peninsula). If this is true, then "Latini" originally meant "men of the plain".
Origins.
The Latins belonged to a group of Indo-European-speaking (IE) tribes, conventionally known as the Italic tribes, that populated central and southern Italy during the Italian Iron Age, which began around 900 BC. The most widely accepted theory suggests that Latins and other proto-Italic tribes first entered Italy in the late Bronze Age proto-Villanovan culture, then part of the central European Urnfield culture system. In particular various authors, such as Marija Gimbutas, had noted important similarities between the proto-Villanovan culture, the South-German Urnfield culture of Bavaria-Upper Austria and Middle-Danube Urnfield culture. According to David W. Anthony proto-Latins originated in today's eastern Hungary, kurganized around 3100 BC by the Yamna culture, while Kristian Kristiansen associated the proto-Villanovans with the Velatice-Baierdorf culture of Moravia and Austria. This is further confirmed by the fact that the subsequent Latial culture, Este culture and Villanovan culture, which introduced iron-working to the Italian peninsula, were so closely related to the Central European Urnfield culture (c. 1300–750 BC), and Hallstatt culture (which succeeded the Urnfield culture), that it is not possible to tell them apart in their earlier stages. Furthermore, the contemporary Canegrate culture of Northern Italy represented a typical western example of the western Hallstatt culture, whose diffusion most probably took place in a Celtic-speaking context.
Similarly, several authors have suggested that the Beaker culture of Central and Western Europe was a candidate for an early Indo-European culture, and more specifically, for an ancestral European branch of Indo-European dialects, termed "North-west Indo-European", ancestral to Celtic, Italic, Germanic and Balto-Slavic. All these groups were descended from Proto-Indo-European speakers from Yamna-culture, whose migrations in Central Europe probably split off Pre-Italic, Pre-Celtic and Pre-Germanic from Proto-Indo-European.
Leaving archaeology aside, the geographical distribution of the ancient languages of the peninsula may plausibly be explained by the immigration of successive waves of peoples with different languages, according to Cornell. On this model, it appears likely that the "West Italic" group (including the Latins) were the first wave, followed, and largely displaced by, the East Italic (Osco-Umbrian) group. This is deduced from the marginal locations of the surviving West Italic niches. Besides Latin, putative members of the West Italic group are Faliscan (now regarded as merely a Latin dialect), and perhaps Sicel, spoken in central Sicily. The West Italic languages were thus spoken in limited and isolated areas, whereas the "East Italic" group comprised the Oscan and Umbrian dialects spoken over much of central and southern Italy. The chronology of Indo-European immigration remains elusive, as does the relative chronology between the Italic IE languages and the non-IE languages of the peninsula, notably the Etruscan. Most scholars consider that Etruscan is a pre-IE survival, part of a Mediterranean linguistic substratum. Some authors believe that, before the spread of the Gaulish language in the plain of the river Po from c. 400 BC onwards, northern and central Italy were dominated by non-IE languages: Etruscan, which shared some similarities with the Raetic, the possibly non-IE Ligurian and the language of the undeciphered Novilara inscriptions from the region around Ancona on the Adriatic coast. Some scholars have earlier suggested that Etruscan language could have been introduced by later migrants. The ancient Greek historian Herodotus preserves the tradition that the "Tyrrhenoi" (Etruscans) originated in Lydia in Anatolia, but Lydians spoke an Indo-European language, completely different from the Etruscan language. Possible support for an eastern origin for Etruscan may be provided by two inscriptions in a language closely related to Etruscan found on the island of Lemnos in the northern Aegean sea (see Lemnian language), although several scholars believe that the Lemnian language might have arrived in the Aegean Sea during the Late Bronze Age, when Mycenaean rulers recruited groups of mercenaries from Sicily, Sardinia and various parts of the Italian peninsula. Language change can be explained by scenarios other than mass migration e.g. by small immigrant-elites who acquire political/cultural hegemony over the indigenous majority and convert the latter to their language, a process known in historical linguistics as "elite transfer"., but there is no archaeological evidence in favor of an eastern origin of the Etruscans or the arrival of small immigrant-elites who may have imposed their language. Genetic studies on Etruscan samples, both on mitochondrial and autosomal DNA, are also against an eastern origin and have supported a deep, local origin. A 2019 Stanford genetic study, which has analyzed the autosomal DNA of Iron Age samples from the areas around Rome, has concluded that Etruscans were similar to the Latins from Latium vetus. According to British archeologist Phil Perkins, "there are indications that the evidence of DNA can support the theory that Etruscan people are autochthonous in central Italy".
Language.
The tribe spoke the Latin language (specifically Old Latin), a member of the western branch of the Italic languages, in turn a branch of the Indo-European (IE) family of languages.
The oldest extant inscription in the Latin language is believed to be engraved on the "Lapis Niger" ("Black Stone") discovered in 1899 in the Roman Forum, dating from around 600 BC: in the mid-Roman kingdom, according to the traditional Roman chronology, but more likely close to its inception. Written in a primitive form of Archaic Latin, it indicates that the Romans remained Latin-speakers in the period when some historians have suggested that Rome had become "Etruscanised" in both language and culture. It also lends support to the existence of the Kings of Rome in this era, whom some historians regarded as mythical: the inscription contains the word "recei", the word for "king" in the dative singular in archaic Latin - "regi" in classical Latin, or to the "rex sacrorum", rather than the political king of Rome.
Material culture.
There is no archaeological evidence at present that Old Latium hosted permanent settlements during the Bronze Age. Some very small amounts of Apennine culture pottery shards have been found in Latium, most likely belonging to transient pastoralists engaged in transhumance. It thus appears that the Latins occupied Latium Vetus not earlier than around 1000 BC. Initially, the Latin immigrants into Latium were probably concentrated in the low hills that extend from the central Apennine range into the coastal plain (much of which was then marshy and malarial, and thus uninhabitable). A notable area of early settlement were the Alban Hills, a plateau about 20 km (13 mi) SE of Rome containing a number of extinct volcanoes and 5 lakes, of which the largest are "lacus Nemorensis" (Lake Nemi) and "lacus Tusculensis" (Lake Albano). These hills provided a defensible, well-watered base. Also the hills on the site of Rome, certainly the Palatine and possibly the Capitoline and the Quirinal, hosted permanent settlements at a very early stage.
The Latins appear to have become culturally differentiated from the surrounding Osco-Umbrian Italic tribes from c. 1000 BC onwards. From this time, the Latins exhibit the features of the Iron Age Villanovan culture found in Etruria and the Po valley. In contrast, the Osco-Umbrian tribes do not exhibit Villanovan features. The Latins thus shared the broadly same material culture as the Etruscans. The variant of Villanovan found in Latium is dubbed the Latial culture. The most distinctive feature of Latial culture were cinerary urns in the shape of miniature "tuguria" ("huts"). In Phase I of the Latium culture (c. 1000–900 BC) these hut-urns only appear in some burials, but they become standard in Phase II cremation burials (900–770 BC). They represent the typical single-roomed hovels of contemporary peasants, which were made from simple, readily available materials: wattle-and-daub walls and straw roofs supported by wooden posts. The huts remained the main form of Latin housing until about 650 BC. The most famous exemplar was the "Casa Romuli" ("Hut of Romulus") on the southern slope of the Palatine Hill, supposedly built by the legendary founder of Rome with his own hands and which reportedly survived until the time of emperor Augustus (ruled 30 BC - AD 14).
Around 650 BC began a period of urbanisation, with the establishment of political city-states in Latium. The most notable example is Rome itself, which was originally a group of separate settlements on the various hills. It appears that they coalesced into a single entity around 625 BC, when the first buildings were established on the site of the later Roman Forum.
Social culture.
Relics of Indo-European culture.
According to the mainstream Kurgan hypothesis, the earliest Indo-Europeans were a nomadic steppe people, originating in the Eurasian steppes (southern Russia, northern Caucasus and central Asia). Their livelihood was based on horses and herding. In the historical era, the same socio-cultural lifestyle was maintained, in the same regions, by peoples descended from the Proto-Indo-Europeans (PIEs) known to the Greco-Romans as Scythians, Sarmatians and Alans, whose languages belonged to the Iranian branch of IE. On the basis of common steppe-nomadic features in the cultures of the various Indo-European peoples in the historical era, scholars have reconstructed elements of proto-Indo-European culture. Relics of such elements have been discerned in Roman and Latin customs. Examples include:
Latin communal tribal cults.
Despite their frequent internecine wars, the Latin city-states maintained close culturo-religious relations throughout their history. Their most important common tribal event was the four-day "Latiar" or "Feriae Latinae" ("Latin Festival"), held each winter on the sacred "mons Albanus" (Monte Cavo, Alban Hills, SE of Rome), an extinct volcano. The climax of the festival was a number of sacrifices to Jupiter Latiaris ("Jupiter of Latium"); the sacrificed meat was shared by the representatives of the Latin communities. These elaborate rituals, as did all Roman religious ceremonies, had to be performed with absolute precision and, if any procedural mistakes were made, had to be repeated from the start. The Latin Festival continued to be held long after all "Latium Vetus" was integrated into the Roman Republic after 338 BC (from then on, the Roman consuls presided over them) and into the Roman imperial era. The historian Livy, writing around AD 20, ascribed Rome's disastrous defeat by the Carthaginian general Hannibal at the Battle of Lake Trasimene in 217 BC to the impiety of the consul Gaius Flaminius, who, in his eagerness to join his army at its assembly-point of Arretium, omitted to attend the Latin Festival.
Latin cultural-religious events were also held at other common cult-centres e.g. the major common shrine to Diana at Aricia. This may be the sacred grove to Diana which a fragment of Cato's "Origines" recorded dedicated, probably c. 500 BC, by various Latin communities under the leadership of the dictator of Tusculum, Egerius Baebius. Cornell argues that the temple of Diana reportedly founded by the Roman king Servius Tullius on the Aventine hill at Rome was also a common Latin shrine, as it was built outside the "pomerium" or City boundary. There was also an important Latin cult-centre at Lavinium. Lavinium hosted the cult of the Penates, or Latin ancestor-gods. Cornell suggests that the "Sanctuary of the 13 altars" discovered in the 1960s at Lavinium was the site of the Penates cult. Since each of the altars differ in style and date, it has been suggested that each was erected by a separate Latin city-state.
Latins in the Roman origin-myth.
Aeneas.
Under the ever-growing influence of the Italiote Greeks, the Romans acquired their own national origin-legend sometime during the early Republican era (500-300 BC). It was centred on the figure of Aeneas, a supposed Trojan survivor of the destruction of Troy by the Achaean Greeks, as related in the poet Homer's epic the "Iliad" (composed c. 800 BC). The legend provided the Romans with a heroic "Homeric" pedigree, as well as a (spurious) ethnic distinctiveness from the other Latins. It also provided a rationale (as poetic revenge for the destruction of Troy) for Rome's hostilities against, and eventual subjugation of, the Greek cities of southern Italy, especially Taras (mod. Taranto) in the period ending 275 BC.
The figure of Aeneas as portrayed in the "Iliad" lent itself to his adoption as the Roman "Abraham": a mighty warrior of (minor) royal blood who personally slew 28 Achaeans in the war, he was twice saved from certain death by the gods, implying that he had a great destiny to fulfil. A passage in Homer's "Iliad" contains the prophecy that Aeneas and his descendants would one day rule the Trojans. Since the Trojans had been expelled from their own city, it was speculated that Aeneas and other Trojan survivors must have migrated elsewhere.
The legend is given its most vivid and detailed treatment in the Roman poet Virgil's epic, the Aeneid (published around AD 20). According to this, the Latin tribe's first king was Latinus, who gave his name to the tribe and founded the first capital of the Latins, Laurentum, whose exact location is uncertain. The Trojan hero Aeneas and his men fled by sea after the capture and sack of their city, Troy, by the Greeks in 1184 BC, according to one ancient calculation. After many adventures, Aeneas and his Trojan army landed on the coast of Latium near the mouth of the Tiber. Initially, King Latinus attempted to drive them out, but he was defeated in battle. Later, he accepted Aeneas as an ally and eventually allowed him to marry his daughter, Lavinia. Aeneas supposedly founded the city of Lavinium (Pratica di Mare, Pomezia), named after his wife, on the coast not far from Laurentum. It became the Latin capital after Latinus' death. Aeneas' son (by his previous Trojan wife, a daughter of king Priam of Troy), Ascanius, founded a new city, Alba Longa in the Alban Hills, which replaced Lavinium as capital city. Alba Longa supposedly remained the Latin capital for some 400 years under Aeneas' successors, the Latin kings of Alba, until his descendant (supposedly in direct line after 15 generations) Romulus founded Rome in 753 BC. Under a later king Tullus Hostilius (traditional reign-dates 673–642 BC), the Romans razed Alba Longa to the ground and resettled its inhabitants on the "mons Caelius" (Caelian Hill) in Rome.
There is controversy about how and when Aeneas and his Trojans were adopted as ethnic ancestors by the Romans. One theory is that the Romans appropriated the legend from the Etruscans. There is evidence that the Aeneas legend was well known among the Etruscans by 500 BC: excavations at the ancient Etruscan city of Veii discovered a series of statuettes portraying Aeneas fleeing Troy carrying his father on his back, as in the legend. Indeed, the Bulgarian linguist Vladimir Georgiev argued that the original Etruscans were in fact descendants of those Trojan refugees and that the Aeneas legend has a historical basis. Georgiev disputes the mainstream view that Etruscan was not Indo-European: he argues that Etruscan was closely related to the Indo-European Hittite and Lydian languages, on the basis of lexical and morphological correspondences.
Georgiev's thesis has received only minority support from other scholars. But even if Etruscan was not Indo-European, that does not necessarily invalidate a possible Trojan origin for the Etruscans, as the everyday language of Troy in this period remains uncertain. Excavations at Troy have yielded a single written document, a letter in Luwian. But as Luwian (which certainly is closely related to Hittite) was used as a kind of diplomatic "lingua franca" in Anatolia, it cannot be argued conclusively that Luwian was the everyday language of Troy. Possible support for a Trojan-Etruscan link may be found in the existence of the so-called Lemnian language, which was spoken on the Aegean island of Lemnos at least until 500 BC, and is apparently closely related to Etruscan. Lemnos is close to the shore of Troy, and may have been a colony of the Trojans and/or a major destination for Trojan refugees after the destruction of their city. Cornell points out that the Romans may have acquired the legend directly from the Italiote Greeks. The earliest Greek literary reference to Rome as a foundation of Aeneas dates to c. 400 BC. There is also much archaeological evidence of contacts between the cities of archaic Latium and the Greek world e.g. the archaic sanctuary of the Penates at Lavinium, which shows "heavy Greek influence in architectural design and religious ideology", according to Cornell.
But whatever the origin of the legend, it is clear that the Latins had no historical connection with Aeneas and none of their cities were founded by Trojan refugees. Furthermore, Cornell regards the city of Alba Longa itself as probably mythical. Early Latial-culture remains have been discovered on the shore of the Alban lake, but they indicate a series of small villages, not an urbanised city-state. In any case, traces of the earliest phase of Latial culture also occur at Rome at the same time (c. 1000 BC), so archaeology cannot be used to support the tradition that Rome was founded by people from Alba Longa. If Alba Longa did not exist, then nor did the "Alban kings", whose genealogy was almost certainly fabricated to "prove" Romulus' descent from Aeneas. The genealogy's dubious nature is shown by the fact that it ascribes the 14 Alban kings an average reign of 30 years' duration, an implausibly high figure. The false nature of the Aeneas-Romulus link is also demonstrated by the fact that, in some early versions of the tradition, Romulus is denoted as Aeneas' grandson, despite being chronologically separated from Aeneas by some 450 years.
Romulus.
Romulus himself was the subject of the famous legend of the suckling she-wolf ("lupa") that kept Romulus and his twin Remus alive in a cave on the Palatine Hill (the "Lupercal") after they had been thrown into the river Tiber on the orders of their wicked uncle, Amulius. The latter had usurped the throne of Alba from the twins' grandfather, king Numitor, and then confined their mother, Rhea Silvia, to the Vestal convent. They were washed ashore by the river, and after a few days with the wolf, were rescued by shepherds.
Mainstream scholarly opinion regards Romulus as an entirely mythical character, and the legend fictitious. On this view, Romulus was a name fabricated to provide Rome with an eponymous founding hero, a common feature of classical foundation-myths; it is possible that Romulus was named after Rome instead of "vice versa". The name contains the Latin diminutive "-ulus", so it means simply "Roman" or "little Roman". It has been suggested that the name "Roma" was of Etruscan origin, or that it was derived from the Latin word "ruma" ("teat"), presumably because the shape of the Palatine Hill and/or Capitoline Hill resembled a woman's breasts. If Romulus was named after the city, it is more likely that he was historical. Nevertheless, Cornell argues that "Romulus probably never existed... His biography is a complex mixture of legend and folk-tale, interspersed with antiquarian speculation and political propaganda".
In contrast, Andrea Carandini, an archaeologist who has spent most of his career excavating central Rome, advanced the theory that Romulus was a historical figure who indeed founded the city in c. 753 BC, as related by the ancient chroniclers, by ploughing a symbolic sacred furrow to define the city's boundary. But Carandini's views have received scant support among fellow scholars.
In contrast to the legend of Aeneas, which was clearly imported into the Latin world from an extraneous culture, it appears that the Romulus legend of the suckling she-wolf is a genuine indigenous Latin myth.
Political unification under Rome (550–338 BC).
The traditional number of Latin communities for the purposes of the joint religious festivals is given as 30 in the sources. The same number is reported, probably erroneously, as the membership of the Romano-Latin military alliance, labelled the "Latin League" by modern scholars. But it appears that c. 500 BC there were just 15 independent Latin city-states in Latium Vetus, including Rome itself (the other 15 were annexed by the former as they expanded, especially Rome). The size of the city-state territories in c. 500 BC were estimated by Beloch (1926):
The table above shows the tiny size of Latium Vetus - only about two-thirds the size of the English county of Kent. Rome was by far the largest state, controlling some 35% of the total land area. The next four largest states ranged from just under half the size of Rome down to a fifth of the size; the remaining ten ranged from a tenth of the size down to less than a twentieth.
From an early stage, the external relations of the Latin city-states were dominated by their largest and most powerful member, Rome. The vast amount of archaeological evidence uncovered since the 1970s has conclusively discredited A. Alföldi's once-fashionable theory that Rome was an insignificant settlement until about 500 BC, and thus that the Republic was not established before about 450, and possibly as late as 400 BC. There is now no doubt that Rome was a unified city (as opposed to a group of separate hilltop settlements) by c. 625 BC and had become the second-largest city in Italy (after Tarentum, 510 hectares) by around 550 BC, when it had an area of about 285 hectares (1.1 sq mile) and an estimated population of 35,000. Rome was thus about half the size of contemporary Athens (585 hectares, including Piraeus) and far larger than any other Latin city.
The size of Rome at this time lends credence to the Roman tradition, dismissed by Alföldi, that in the late regal period (550–500 BC), traditionally the rule of the Tarquin dynasty, Rome established its political hegemony over the other city-states of Old Latium. According to Livy, king Tarquin the Proud bound the Latin city-states into a military alliance under Roman leadership. Reportedly, Tarquin also annexed Pometia (later Satricum) and Gabii; established control over Tusculum by a marriage alliance with its leader, Octavus Mamilius; and established Roman colonies at Signia and Circeii. He was engaged in besieging Ardea when the revolt against his monarchy broke out. Rome's political control over Latium Vetus is apparently confirmed by the text of the first recorded Romano-Carthaginian treaty, dated by the ancient Greek historian Polybius to 507 BC, a date accepted by Cornell (although some scholars argue a much later date). The treaty describes the Latin cities of Lavinium and Ardea, among others, as "Roman subjects". Although the text acknowledged that not all the Latin cities were subjects of Rome, it clearly placed them under Rome's hegemony, as it provided that if Carthage captured any Latin city, it was obliged to hand it over to Rome's control. Rome's sphere of influence is implied as extending as far as Terracina, 100 km to the south.
The fall of the Roman monarchy was probably a more lengthy, violent and international process than the swift, bloodless and internal coup related by tradition. The role in the revolution played by the Etruscan Lars Porsenna, king of Clusium, who led an invasion of Roman territory at the time of the revolution, was probably distorted for propaganda reasons by later Roman chroniclers. Livy claims that Porsenna aimed to restore Tarquin to his throne, but failed to take Rome after a siege. Tacitus suggests that Porsenna's army succeeded in occupying the City. The fact that there is no evidence of Tarquin's restoration during this occupation has led some scholars to suggest that it was Porsenna who was the real agent in the expulsion of Tarquin, and that he aimed to replace him as king of Rome. Any danger of an Etruscan takeover of Rome was removed by Porsenna's defeat at Aricia in 504 BC.
There followed a war between Rome and the other Latin city-states, which probably took advantage of the political turmoil in Rome to attempt to regain/preserve their independence. It appears that Tusculum and Aricia took the lead in organising an anti-Roman alliance. One ancient source names Egerius Baebius, the leader of Tusculum, as the "Latin dictator" (i.e. commander-in-chief of the Latin forces). It appears that Baebius dedicated a sacred grove to Diana at "lucus Ferentinae" (a wood near Aricia) in c. 500 BC in the presence of representatives of Latin states, including Tusculum, Aricia, Lanuvium, Lavinium, Cora, Tibur, Pometia and Ardea. This event was probably contemporaneous with, and connected with, the launch of the Latin alliance. The Latins could apparently count on the support of the Volsci Italic tribe. In addition, they were joined by the deposed Roman king Tarquin the Proud and his remaining followers.
The Romans apparently prevailed, scoring a notable victory over the Latin forces at Lake Regillus sometime in the period 499-493 BC (the exact year is disputed among scholars).
Instead of restoring their previous hegemony, the Romans apparently settled for a military alliance on equal terms with the Latins. According to the sources, the "foedus Cassianum" was a bilateral treaty between the Romans on one side and the other Latin city-states combined. It provided for a perpetual peace between the two parties; a defensive alliance by which the parties pledged mutual assistance in case of attack; a promise not to aid or allow passage to each other's enemies; the equal division of spoils of war (half to Rome, half to the other Latins) and provisions to regulate trade between the parties. In addition the treaty probably provided for overall command of the allies' joint forces to alternate between a Roman and a commander from one of the other Latin city-states each year. As the nature of the Tarquinian hegemony over the Latins is unknown, it is impossible to tell how the terms of the Cassian treaty differed from those imposed by the Tarquins. But it is likely that Tarquin rule was more onerous, involving the payment of tribute, while the Republican terms simply involved a military alliance. The impetus to form such an alliance was probably provided by the acute insecurity caused by a phase of migration and invasion of the lowland areas by Italic mountain tribes in the period after 500 BC. The Latins faced repeated incursions by the Hernici, Aequi and Volsci, whose territories surrounded Latium Vetus on its eastern and southern sides.
The new Romano-Latin military alliance proved strong enough to repel the incursions of the Italic mountain tribes in the period 500–400 BC. During the succeeding century, after Rome had recovered from the catastrophic Gallic invasion of 390 BC, the Romans began a phase of expansionism. In addition to the establishment of a series of Roman colonies on territories annexed from the mountain tribes, Rome annexed a number of neighbouring Latin city-states in steady succession. The increasing threat posed by Roman encroachment led the more powerful Latin states, such as Praeneste, to attempt to defend their independence and territorial integrity by challenging Rome, often in alliance with their erstwhile enemies, mountain-tribes such as the Volsci. Finally, in 341 BC, all the Latin city-states combined in what proved to be a final effort to regain/preserve their independence. The so-called Latin War ended in 338 with a decisive Roman victory, following which Rome annexed most of "Latium Vetus". A few of the larger Latin states, such as Praeneste and Tibur, were allowed to retain a degree of political autonomy, but only in a subordinate status as Roman "socii" ("allies"), tied to Rome by treaties of military alliance.
Genetic studies.
A genetic study published in "Science" in November 2019 examined the remains of six Latin males buried near Rome between 900 BC and 200 BC. They carried the paternal haplogroups R-M269, T-L208, R-311, R-PF7589 and R-P312 (two samples), and the maternal haplogroups H1aj1a, T2c1f, H2a, U4a1a, H11a and H10. These examined individuals were distinguished from preceding populations of Italy by the presence of 35% steppe ancestry. Two out of six individuals from Latin burials were found have a mixture of local Iron Age ancestry and ancestry from an Eastern mediterranean population. Among modern populations, four out of six were closest to Northern and Central Italians, and then Spaniards, while the other two were closest to Southern Italians. Overall, the genetic differentiation between the Latins, Etruscans and the preceding proto-Villanovan population of Italy was found to be insignificant.
Examined individuals from the city of Rome during the time of the Roman Empire (27 BCE – 300 CE) bore almost no genetic resemblance to Rome's founding populations, and were instead shifted towards the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East. The Imperial population of Rome was found to have been extremely diverse, with barely any of the examined individuals being of primarily European ancestry. It was suggested that the observed genetic replacement of the city's founding populations was a result of heavy migration of merchants and slaves from the populous urban centres of the Middle East and Greece. During late antiquity, Rome's population was drastically reduced as a result of political instability, epidemics and economic changes. Repeated invasions of barbarians brought European ancestry back into Rome, resulting in the loss of genetic link to the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East. By the Middle Ages, the people of Rome again genetically resembled European populations.


32nd European Film Awards

The 32nd European Film Awards were presented in Berlin, Germany on December 7, 2019.
Selection.
Feature.
The list of feature-length fiction films recommended for a nomination for the 2019 European Film Awards.
Documentary.
Ten documentary festivals have suggested one film each, which has had its world premiere at the respective festival's latest edition, to the committee. Chosen in co-operation with the European Documentary Network (EDN), these festivals are: Cinéma du Réel (France), CPH:DOX (Denmark), Doclisboa (Portugal), DOK Leipzig (Germany), IDFA (Netherlands), Ji.hlava (Czech Republic), Krakow Film Festival (Poland), Sheffield Doc/Fest (UK), Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival (Greece) and Visions du Réel (Switzerland). Based on their recommendations and the films individually submitted, the documentary committee, decided on the EFA Documentary Selection.
Short films.
For the 2019 and 2020 editions of the European Film Awards, the European Film Academy will welcome new festivals to participate in the EFA Short Film selection and awarding procedure.
When the annual cycle of participating festivals – running from October of the preceding year to September of the actual awards year – is complete, a committee of short film experts and of EFA Board Members will nominate five of the short film candidates for the award European Short Film.
Awards voted by EFA Members.
Nomination has been announced on November 9th, 2019.
Feature.
European Comedy.
The nominees were announced on 29 October 2019.
The nominations were determined by a committee composed of EFA Board Members Katriel Schory (Israel) and Angela Bosch Ríus (Spain), distributor/festival programmer Selma Mehadzic (Croatia), film, festival & event specialist Jacob Neiiendam (Denmark) and producer Nik Powell (UK).
Animated Feature.
The nominations were determined by a committee consisting of EFA Board Deputy Chairman Antonio Saura (Spain), EFA Board Member Graziella Bildesheim (Italy) and producer Paul Young (Ireland) as well as, representing CARTOON, the European Association of Animation Film, film critic Stéphane Dreyfus (France), producer Kristine M. I. Knudsen (Germany) and director Janno Põldma (Estonia).
Technical awards.
"The Favourite" has scooped four of the eight technical awards. The jury for the initial eight winners were: Nadia Ben Rachid, editor, France: Vanja Černul, cinematographer, Croatia; Annette Focks, composer, Germany; Gerda Koekoek, hair and make-up artist, Netherlands; Eimer Ní Mhaoldomhnaigh, costume designer, Ireland; Artur Pinheiro, production designer, Portugal; Gisle Tveito, sound designer, Norway; István Vajda, visual effects, Hungary.
Critics Award.
European Discovery - Prix FIPRESCI.
The nominees were announced on 8 October 2019.
The nominations were determined by a committee composed of EFA Board Members Mike Goodridge (UK) and Valérie Delpierre (Spain), festival programmer Azize Tan (Turkey) as well as film critics Marta Balaga (Finland), Robbie Eksiel (Greece) and Michael Pattison (UK) as representatives of FIPRESCI, the International Federation of Film Critics.
Audience awards.
People's Choice Award.
The nominees were announced on 2 September 2019.
University Award.
The European Film Academy and Filmfest Hamburg, a committee consisting of producer Carlo Cresta-Dina (Italy), EFA Board Member Joanna Szymańska (producer/Poland) and university representative Dagmar Brunow (Linnaeus University, Sweden) has decided on the following nominations:
European Co-Production Award — Prix Eurimages.
The award acknowledges the decisive role of coproductions in fostering international exchange, and pays tribute to a woman's contribution to the success of film coproduction.
Call to pull Polanski's nominations.
French feminists and film industry professionals, including Rosanna Arquette, Andrea Bescond, Eric Metayer, Amandine Gay, Catherine Zavlav asked for "An Officer and a Spy" to be taken out of contention for the awards. The nominations were announced just days after actress Valentine Monnier came forward with her story of allegedly being raped by Polanski in 1975 in newspaper "Le Parisien", which was corroborated by contemporary witnesses. The group addressed the request to EFA Production director Marion Doring and jury members Nadia Ben Rachid, Vanja Cernjul, Annette Focks, Eimer Ni Mhaoldomhnaigh, Gerda Koekoek, Artur Pinheiro, Gisle Tveito and Istvan Vadja.


Cape of Rodon

The Cape of Rodon or Cape of Skanderbeg ( or "Kepi i Skenderbeut") is a rocky cape on the Adriatic Sea north of Durrës, Albania. On the Cape is the Rodoni Castle, built by Skanderbeg in 1463. and a Saint Anthony Church. Further south in the bay between the cape and Rrushkull Reserve there exist several beach resorts like Fshati Turistik Lura while Lalzit Bay Resort is under construction.
Name.
The name "Redon" appears in ancient inscriptions found in Santa Maria di Leuca (present-day Lecce), and on coins minted by the Illyrian city of Lissos, suggesting that he was worshipped as the guardian deity of the city, and probably as a sea god. The fact that Redon was always depicted on coins wearing a petasos demonstrates a connection with travelling and sailing, which led historians to the conclusion that Redon was the deity protector of travellers and sailors. Indeed, the inscriptions of Santa Maria di Leuca were carved by the crews of two Roman merchant ships manned by Illyrians. Inscriptions mentioning Redon were also found on coins from the Illyrian cities of Daorson and Scodra, and even in archaeological findings from Dyrrhachium after the establishment of a Roman colony there. His name keeps on being used in the Albanian "Kepi i Rodonit", which could be analysed as an Illyrian sanctuary dedicated to the god of the sailors in the past.


List of battles of the Old Swiss Confederacy

List of battles fought by the Old Swiss Confederacy, 1315–1799.
The Battle of Morgarten of 1315 is famous as the first military success of the Confederacy, but it was an ambush on an army on the march rather than an open field battle.
The Battle of Laupen of 1339 is an early battle which can be seen as indicating the trend of the dominance of infantry over heavy cavalry during the Late Middle Ages.
The classical period of military successes of Swiss halberd and pike warfare Pike square (in de or ) are the wars of the Eight Cantons (Ten Cantons after 1481) during the 1360s to 1490s. Most notable among these are the Battle of Sempach (1386), the Burgundian Wars (1470s) and the Swabian War (1499).
The string of Swiss victories is broken in the early 16th century, and after a few painful defeats (notably at Marignano 1515), the Confederacy stopped its aggressive expansion. The early modern period is characterized by internal disputes, both religious and social (peasant uprisings).
The final French invasion of Switzerland was only marginally a military operation and mostly a collapse due to centrifugal forces within the Confederacy.
Early Modern conflicts (1550–1712).
After their defeats in Italy, the Confederacy pledged neutrality and did not engage in further warfare beyond its borders. For the remaining duration of the Old Swiss Confederacy 1540–1798, armed conflicts were internal, either between factions within the confederacy, or peasant uprisings). Also listed are conflicts between associates of the Confederacy (Three Leagues, Geneva) with neighbouring powers even if the Confederacy itself was not involved.
French invasion (1798).
These are minor skirmishes on 2–5 March 1798, leading to the swift collapse of the Old Confederacy, the clashes of April and May last pockets of resistance against the recently established Helvetic Republic. The Nidwalden uprising ("Schreckenstage von Nidwalden") in September was more serious, with 435 dead, including 118 women and 25 children.
The 1799 conflict in the Valais was not a "Battle of the Old Swiss Confederacy" in the narrow sense, as Valais was not a member of the Old Confederacy. The Valais formed the separate Rhodanic Republic in 1802 and joined the restored Swiss Confederacy only in 1815.


Polans (western)

The Western Polans (also known as Polanes, Polanians; , derived from Old Slavic "pole", "field" or "plain") were a West Slavic and Lechitic tribe, inhabiting the Warta River basin of the contemporary Greater Poland region starting in the 6th century. They were one of the main tribes in Central Europe and were closely related to the Vistulans, Masovians, Czechs and Slovaks.
History.
In the 9th century, the Polans united several West Slavic (Lechitic) groups to the north of Great Moravia. The union led by the Piast dynasty developed into the Kingdom of Poland, whose name derives from that of the Polans.
The earliest Polan rulers mentioned by name are the legendary figures of Piast the Wheelwright and Popiel (8th–9th centuries). The first historical ruler was Mieszko I (960–992), who enlarged the territory later named Poland by incorporating Masovia and conquering Silesia and the Vistulan lands of Lesser Poland.
The Dagome iudex document refers to Poland during Mieszko's reign as Civitas Schinesghe (The Gniezno State). The document describes the country as stretching between the Oder and Rus and between Lesser Poland ("Craccoa"/"Alemure") and the Baltic Sea. For more information, see Poland in the Early Middle Ages and History of Poland during the Piast dynasty.
Archeological findings reveal four major strongholds or gords (Polish "gród") in the early Polans' state:
The Western Polans were first mentioned around the year AD 1000. Eastern Polans, a similarly named but unrelated Eastern Slavic tribe which lived near modern-day Kyiv were last documented in AD 944.


Gerald Arbuthnot

Gerald Archibald Arbuthnot (19 December 1872 – 25 September 1916) was a British soldier and Conservative Party politician.
The son of Major General William Arbuthnot and Selina Moncreiffe, he was vice-chancellor of the Primrose League. Arbuthnot was private secretary to the Board of Agriculture from 1895 to 1899, assistant private secretary to the President of the Local Government Board in 1901 and 1902 and assistant private secretary to the Chief Secretary for Ireland in 1905 and 1906. Between January and December 1910, he was Member of Parliament (MP) for Burnley.
In the First World War, he served in the Grenadier Guards and reached the rank of second lieutenant, having been made a lieutenant in the service of the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve already in 1914. Arbuthnot died aged 43, killed in action during the Battle of the Somme. He was buried at Citadel New Military Cemetery, Fricourt. In November 2018, Arbuthnot's name was added to the UK Parliament's World War One memorial, after a historian at the History of Parliament Trust noticed his name was missing.
He married (Mary Johanna) Dulcie Antoinette Oppenheim, daughter of Charles Augustus Oppenheim, on 6 February 1894. They had three daughters, one of whom (Cynthia Isabelle Theresa) married rower and financier Ian Fairbairn.
One of Arbuthnot's descendants, James Arbuthnot, served as Member of Parliament for Wanstead and Woodford from 1987 to 1997, and for North East Hampshire from 1997 to 2015.


Law enforcement in Transnistria

Law enforcement in Transnistria is administered by the region's own police force (PMR militsiya). Transnistria functions as a presidential republic, with its own government, parliament, military, paramilitary and police (militsiya) force, constitution, currency, postal system and stamps, flag, national anthem, and coat of arms.
International recognition of its sovereignty is limited to Abkhazia and South Ossetia however, and due to the disputed status of Transnistria, it is subject to the security agencies and concerns of other nations, and both Russian and Transnistrian police officers work side by side patrolling the "de facto" border between Transnistria and Moldova. The PMR Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD) is the main governmental body of the law enforcement. Paramilitary security forces such as the Internal Troops reinforce the Militsiya, and act as riot police during internal conflict.
Russian influence.
A 2,500-strong Operational Group of Russian Forces , as well as over 20,000 tons of Russian-owned weapons and munition are present in Transnistria. Moldova and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) demand their withdrawal. According to a verdict issued by European Court of Human Rights, the presence of these troops is illegal , and Transnistria is "under the effective authority or at least decisive influence of Russia".
While Russian troops from Moldova proper and from the security zone were evacuated to Russia by January 1993, Russia continued to have a significant military presence in Transnistria. On 21 October 1994, Russia and Moldova signed an agreement that committed Russia to withdrawal of the troops in three years, which however did not come into effect because only Moldova ratified it. Moldovan diplomacy took advantage of the negotiations concerning The Adaptation of the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CAF), and managed to ensure that a special paragraph about the removal of Russian troops from Moldova's territory was introduced into the text of the OSCE Summit Declaration of Istanbul (1999), through which Russia had committed itself to pulling out its troops from Transnistria by the end of 2002.
However, even after 2002, Russia continued to ignore the agreements made with the government in Chisinau and with the international community regarding the removal of its troops from Moldova. President Vladimir Putin eventually signed the Law on the ratification of the Treaty on CAF in Europe on 19 July 2004, which were committing Russia to remove from Moldova the heavy armaments limited by this Treaty by the end of 2001.
During 2000–2001, in order to comply to the CAF Treaty, Moscow withdrew 125 pieces of Treaty Limited Equipment (TLE) and 60 railway wagons containing ammunition from the Transnistrian region of Moldova. In 2002, Russia withdrew only 3 military equipment trains (118 railway wagons) and 2 of ammunition (43 wagons) from the Transnistrian region of Moldova, and in 2003, 11 rail convoys transporting military equipment and 31 transporting ammunitions. According to the OSCE Mission to Moldova, of a total of 42,000 tons of ammunitions stored in Transnistria, 1,153 tons (3%) was transported back to Russia in 2001, 2,405 tons (6%) in 2002 and 16,573 tons (39%) in 2003. Removal of troops has been stalled afterwards.
Andrei Stratan, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Moldova stated in his speech during the 12th OSCE Ministerial Council Meeting in Sofia on 6 – 7 December 2004 that "The presence of Russian troops on the territory of the Republic of Moldova is against the political will of Moldovan constitutional authorities and defies the unanimously recognized international norms and principles, being qualified by Moldovan authorities as a foreign military occupation illegally deployed on the territory of the state[…]" Russia continues to 'sustain the Dniestr region as a quasi-independent entity through direct and indirect means'
School dispute.
Through the 1990s the Transnistrian police were involved in a conflict over Romanian-language schools in Transnistria. In September 1996, the Grigoriopol administration used Cossacks and police to stop the activity of the local Romanian-language school. On 2 October 1996 three teachers were arrested and taken to Tiraspol. On 7 October 1996, as a result of a demarche by the President of the Republic of Moldova and the OSCE Mission, the teachers were released. In 2004, the Transnistrian authorities closed four of the six schools in the region that taught Moldovan language using the Latin script, known as Romanian. Some of the 3,400 enrolled children were affected by this measure and the teachers and parents who opposed the closures were temporarily arrested for up to six hours.
An OSCE report from June 2005 states: "If they [Moldovan parents in Transnistria] enroll their children in one of this schools that offer a Moldovan curriculum using a Latin script, they risk being threatened by the regional security service, and seeing their jobs put in jeopardy. Sending their children in one of the 33 Transdniestrian schools they teach in their native language in Cyrillic is, however, hardly an appealing alternative, as the schools follow an out-dated curriculum and use textbooks from the Soviet period".
In November 2006, Luis O'Neill, head of OSCE mission to Moldova, has urged local authorities in the Transnistrian city of Rîbnița to return a confiscated building to the Moldovan Latin-script school located in the city. The building was built by the Government from Chișinău and was almost finished in 2004, when Transnistrian police took it by force, during the school crisis.


Kadri Prishtina

Kadri Prishtina (1878–1925), also known as Hoxha Kadri, was an Albanian political figure of the early 1920s.
Life.
Hoxha Kadriu was born in Prishtina, in the Kosovo Vilayet of the Ottoman Empire. He took the first studies in his home town in Turkish language, studying later in Uskub school "Dar ul-Mualimin". He studied law and education in Istanbul, first in the Private Pegagogical Schools "Darüttedris" and later in the "Fatih" Medrese. On February 4, 1902 he joined the Young Turks movement. In 1904 he was arrested by Ottoman authorities because of his refusals to point to the author of "Fitret ul-Islâm", a problematic and controversial essay on the Islam religion, with Syrja Bey Vlora as author. He spent four years in Yedikule prison where he lost a leg due to gangrene. After his released he was interned in Tokat in north-eastern Anatolia where he worked as a lawyer. With the Young Turk Revolution of 1908 his persecution ended and he was sent in Samsun by the Black Sea to finish his studies. In 1911 he became professor of law, and was appointed in 1913 to work at the Bank of Istanbul, after that being expelled from Turkey.

During World War I he was stationed in Shkodër, north-west Albanian town. He formed there an organization called "Komiteti i Fshehtë" (Secret Committee) with a nationalistic programme.

He was one of the founders of the Committee for the National Defence of Kosovo, and was officially its leader for the time it operated based on Shkodër. Prishtina would be also in charge of representing the Committee in meetings and keeping correspondence for foreign factors. His deputy was Hysni Curri, and Bedri Pejani served as Committee's secretary.
He was appointed Minister of Justice of the Albanian government coming out of the Congress of Lushnjë. In 1921 he was Deputy Chairman of the Albanian Parliament. In December 1921 he was again appointed Minister of Justice of the short-lived government of Hasan Prishtina.
Several schools and streets in Albania and Kosovo bear his name.
As a publisher.
In 1921, Prishtina published in Shkodër the newspaper "Udha e së Vërtetës" (Road of the truth). The newspaper served the Committee for the National Defence of Kosovo as well, after the "Populli" (The people) newspaper of Sali Nivica and Bedri Pejani was closed.


Pons Vetus


Veleia (Italy)

Veleia, an ancient town of Aemilia, Italy, situated about south of Placentia. It is mentioned by Pliny among the towns of the eighth region, though the Veleiates were ethnically Ligurians. Its inhabitants were, in the census of Vespasian, found to be remarkable for their longevity. Nothing further was known of it until 1747, when some ploughmen found the famous "Tabula alimentaria", now in National Archaeological Museum of Parma. This, the largest inscribed bronze tablet of antiquity (1.3 m by 2.8 m) contains the list of estates in the territories of Veleia, Libarna, Placentia, Parma and Luca, in which Trajan had assigned before 102 CE 72,000 sesterces and then 1,044,000 sesterces on a mortgage bond to forty-six estates. The total value of which was reckoned at over 13,000,000 sesterces (~130,000), the interest on which at 5% was to serve for the support of 266 boys and 6 girls, the former receiving 16, the latter 12 sesterces a month.
Excavations begun on the site in 1760, and were at first successful; the forum and basilica, the thermae and the amphitheatre and private houses with many statues (twelve of marble from the basilica, and a fine bronze head of Hadrian) and inscriptions were discovered. Pre-Roman cremation tombs have also been found, with objects of bronze and iron of no great value. But later excavations which were carried on at intervals up to 1876 have given less fruitful results. The oldest dated monument is a bronze tablet with a portion of the text of the "Lex Rubria de Gallia cisalpina" of 49 BCE which dealt with the administration of justice in Cisalpine Gaul in connection with the extension to it of the privileges of the Roman franchise, the latest an inscription of 276 CE. Most of the objects found are in the museum at Parma.
How and when Veleia was abandoned is uncertain: the previously prevalent view that it was destroyed by a landslip was proved to be mistaken by the excavations of 1876.


Modern history of Germany

Articles on the modern history of Germany:


Salou

Salou () is a municipality of the "comarca" of Tarragonès, in the province of Tarragona, in Catalonia, Spain. The city is approximately 10 km from Tarragona and Reus on the Costa Daurada and 112 km from Barcelona.
Founded by the Greeks in the 6th century, the coastal town was a notable commercial port during medieval and modern ages. Throughout the 20th century, Salou became an important European tourist attraction.
Aside from its string of beaches interrupted by rocky coves, and its landscaped promenade, one of its main attractions is the PortAventura World resort. The Dutch movie "Costa!" and the television series with the same title were both filmed in Salou.
History.
Used as a port by Greeks (who named it "Salauris") and Romans, it appeared again in an important historic event, when in 1229 the fleet of James I of Aragon departed from the port of Salou to conquer the Balearic Islands, thus creating the Kingdom of Majorca.
In 1286 Alfons III of Aragon also departed from this port to conquer Menorca, the last Moorish territory of the Balearic Islands.
Later, Salou became a nest of pirates. After that it was considered an unsafe place, so in 1530 Archbishop of Tarragona decided to erect a new defence tower, now called "Torre Vella".
In 1865 the railway station began to operate, opening a new development time, that led one hundred years later to a tourist boom that has brought prosperity to the town. Salou was separated from the adjacent municipality of Vila-seca on 30 October 1989 by a decision of the Supreme Court of Spain.
In the summer of 2001, Salou suffered a terrorist attack by ETA, through a car bomb near a hotel. 13 people were injured, including two civil guards.
Main Sights.
PortAventura World.
PortAventura World is a growing theme park resort on the Costa Daurada. The resort includes luxury four-star accommodation, two theme parks (PortAventura Park and Ferrari Land), PortAventura Caribe Aquatic Park, a convention centre and a RV park. The PortAventura Park's main attractions are the Dragon Khan, a massive B&M "mega-looper"; Furius Baco, which is one of the fastest roller coasters in Europe; and Hurakan Condor, a tall falling-tower ride which is 100 metres tall. In 2012 a new roller coaster called opened adjacent to the Dragon Khan. The park also has a grand multi-media show, called the "FiestaAventura", every night between the end of June and the end of August which features fireworks, fountains and parade floats. Ferrari Land, with the highest and fastest vertical accelerator in Europe, opened in 2017, and will also include the world's first Ferrari hotel.
Lumine Mediterranea Beach & Golf Community.
Salou is also home to the Lumine Golf Club (formerly known as PortAventura golf). There are three courses, labeled as north, south, and central. North and central were designed by Greg Norman and the south course was designed by "Green Project". The facilities consist of two clubhouses, a beach club, Lumine restaurant, Hoyo 19 restaurant, a pro shop, rental services and a golf school. In the future the area surrounding the golf course will be developed into a community with six residential areas and services that include two five-star hotels, a sports area and the International School of Salou that will cater for up to 1200 students as part of the Lumine community.
Auditorium Theatre of Salou.
The Auditorium Theatre of Salou (Teatre Auditori de Salou) is an important part of the local community in terms of cultural and leisure in the municipality. The theatre plays local events such as political, school and cultural events and has also welcomed famous musicians to the area such as Sergio Dalma.
Beaches.
Salou's main promenade is the Passeig Jaume I, which runs along the coast adjacent to the Llevant Beach, the longest beach in the town. Other beaches include Platja de Ponent, Platja dels Capellans, Platja Llarga and Platja Cala Crancs. Salou has 34 Blue Flag beaches. Water-sports, rentals and trips can be arranged on the Llevant Beach.
Sport tourism.
Salou has been used since 2005 as the base for Rally Catalunya, part of the World Rally Championship. Salou has also held volleyball championships, football tournaments, a triathlon and many other competitive sports.
Saloufest is the University sports festival which takes place on two separate occasions in April on an annual basis. The festival includes DJs and parties at the neighbouring resort's nightclub called Pacha.
In the future, the local government is expected to position Salou as a sport tourism destination and therefore will promote different projects that include first class facilities to provide the city with the necessary resources to become a tourist destination that attracts visitors of reference, especially in low season. They have announced a project that will feature swimming pools, football fields and tennis courts.
In April 2012 the Mayor of Salou inaugurated the facilities that have been built, which are six football fields (four artificial and 2 natural) including changing rooms, bar, waiting rooms and rooms for training sessions the second phase includes a further 6 more open fields, billiards room and shop selling merchandise.
Salou is the sub-site for the 2018 Mediterranean Games for sports such as sailing.
Climate.
Salou has a Typical Mediterranean climate (Köppen climate classification: "Csa") characterized with mild winters and hot summers. The rainiest season is the autumn, and the driest season is the summer. The sunshine hours are above 2,500.
Transport.
Airport.
Salou's closest airport is Reus (which it is connected to by a regular bus service) followed by Barcelona. Reus Airport is mainly served by the low cost airline Ryanair. The major charter airlines from Britain use Reus throughout the summer as a gateway to the Costa Daurada. The airport mainly serves British and Irish destinations, but domestic and other European destinations are also served.
Railway.
Salou used to have a railway station served by the Spanish state rail-network, RENFE. The destinations from Salou included major cities in Catalonia such as Tarragona and Barcelona, as well as a train south to the city of Valencia.
The station was closed in January 2020 after a new line between Tarragona and Amposta was built.
Taxi.
There are plenty of taxi services throughout the area including taxi ranks in locations such as opposite the Font lluminosa, Cap Salou and Reus Airport.
Bus.
The bus company that serves the area is called Plana Bus, the destinations include Cambrils, La Pineda, PortAventura, Reus and Tarragona.


Italy in World War II


2006 in the Netherlands

This article lists some of the events that took place in the Netherlands in 2006.