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Dicuil

Dicuil

Dicuil was an Irish monk and geographer, born in the second half of the 8th century; date of death unknown. Of his life nothing is known except that he belonged probably to one of the numerous Irish monasteries of the Frankish Kingdom, became acquainted, by personal observation, with the islands near England and Scotland, and wrote between 814 and 816 an astronomical, and in 825 a geographical work. The astronomical work is a sort of computus in four books, in prose and verse, preserved only in a manuscript which formerly belonged to the monastery of Saint-Amand, and is now at Valenciennes. More famous is the "De mensura Orbis terrae", a summary of geography, giving concise information about various lands. This work was based upon a "Mensuratio orbis" prepared by order of Theodosius II (435), a manuscript copy of which had found its way to the Carlovingian court. Godescale had already made use of this copy (781-783) in the composition of his celebrated "Evangelistarium". Dicuil draws also upon Pliny the Elder, Solinus, Orosius, Isidore of Seville, and other authors, and adds the results of his own investigations. In the nine sections he treats in turn of Europe, Asia, Africa, Egypt, and Ethiopia, the area of the earth's surface, the five great rivers, certain islands, the length and breadth of the Tyrrhenian Sea, and the six (highest) mountains. Although mainly a compilation, this work is not without value. Dicuil is our only source for detailed information of the surveys carried out under Theodosius II; his quotations, generally exact, are of service for the textual criticism of the authors mentioned; of great interest, too, are the few reports which he got from the travelers of his time; as, for instance, from the monk Fidelis who (762?) journeyed along the canal then still existing, between the Nile and the Red Sea; and from clerics who had lived in Iceland six months. The manuscript was known to Welser, Isaac Vossius, Salmasius, Hardouin, and Schopflin; it first appeared in print under the title: "Dicuili Liber de mensura orbis terrae ex duobus codd. mss. bibliothecae imperialis nunc primum in lucem editus a Car. Athan. Walckenaer" (Paris, 1807). The latest and best edition is that of G. Parthey (Berlin, 1870), and JJ Tierney, Diculi: Liber de Mensura Orbis Terrae, (Dublin 1967). Category:Irish monks Category:History of Ireland Category:Medieval Gaels Category:History of Scotland Category:Medieval Scotland

8th century

Events

- The Iberian peninsula is conquered by Arab and Berber Muslims, thus ending the Visigothic rule, and starting almost eight centuries of Muslim presence there.
- Sometime this century, Beowulf is probably composed.
- Borobodur, the famous Indonesian Buddhist structure, begins construction, probably as a non-Buddhist shrine.
- Buddhist Jataka stories are translated into Syriac and Arabic as Kalilag and Damnag.
- An account of Buddha's life is translated into Greek by Saint John of Damascus, and widely circulated to Christians as the story of Barlaam and Josaphat.
- The Nara period begins in Japan.
- The Moravian principality and Nitrian principality arise in central Europe (see Great Moravia)
- Many Volga Bulgarians convert to Islam.
- The very first Viking raid is carried out on the abbey of Lindisfarne in northern England in 793.
- Kanem-Bornu arises north of Lake Chad.

Significant persons

- Alcuin, English monk, scholar, and teacher
- Charlemagne, king of the Franks from 771 to 814
- Charles Martel
- The Venerable Bede, English scholar
- Pippin the Younger
- Harun al-Rashid, fifth Abbasid Caliph
- Li Po, Chinese poet
- Du Fu, Chinese poet

Inventions, discoveries, introductions

- heavy plow in use in the Rhine valley
- horsecollar in use in Northern Europe in 8th or 9th century - perhaps introduced from Asia
- papermaking introduced from China to Arabs
- beginning of the decline of the Classical Maya civilization
- ca. 770: iron horseshoes come into common use

Decades and years

Category:8th century 08th century ko:8세기 ja:8世紀 simple:8th century th:คริสต์ศตวรรษที่ 8

England

:For an explanation of often-confusing terms like England, (Great) Britain and United Kingdom see British Isles (terminology). England is a nation and the largest and most populous constituent country of the United Kingdom accounting for more than 83% of the total UK population. It occupies most of the southern two-thirds of the island of Great Britain and shares land borders with fellow home nations Scotland, to the north, and Wales, to the west. Elsewhere, it is bordered by the sea. England is named after the Angles, one of a number of Germanic tribes believed to have originated in Angeln in Northern Germany, who settled in England in the 5th and 6th centuries. It has not had a distinct political identity since 1707, when Great Britain was established as a unified political entity; however, it has a legal identity separate from those of Scotland and Northern Ireland, as part of the entity "England and Wales;". England's largest city, London, is also the capital of the United Kingdom.

History

Main article: History of England England has been inhabited for at least 500,000 years, although the repeated Ice Ages made much of Britain uninhabitable for extended periods until as recently as 20,000 years ago. Stone Age hunter-gatherers eventually gave way to farmers and permanent settlements, with a spectacular and sophisticated megalithic civilisation arising in western England some 4,000 years ago. It was replaced around 1,500 years later by Celtic tribes migrating from Western and continental Europe, mainly from France. These tribes were known collectively as "Britons", a name bestowed by Phoenician traders — an indication of how, even at this early date, the island was part of a Europe-wide trading network. The Britons were significant players in continental politics and supported their allies in Gaul militarily during the Gallic Wars with the Roman Republic. This prompted the Romans to invade and subdue the island, first with Julius Caesar's raid in 55 BC, and then the Emperor Claudius' conquest in the following century. The whole southern part of the island — roughly corresponding to modern day England and Wales — became a prosperous part of the Roman Empire. It was finally abandoned early in the 5th century when a weakening Empire pulled back its legions to defend borders on the Continent. Unaided by the Roman army, Roman Britannia could not long resist the Germanic tribes who arrived in the 5th and 6th centuries, enveloping the majority of modern day England in a new culture and language and pushing Romano-British rule back into modern-day Wales and western extremities of England, notably Cornwall and Cumbria. Others emigrated across the channel to modern-day Brittany, thus giving it its name and language (Breton). But many of the Romano-British remained in and were assimilated into the newly "English" areas. The invaders fell into three main groups: the Jutes, the Saxons, and the Angles. As they became more civilised, recognisable states formed and began to merge with one another. (The most well-known state of affairs being the Anglo-Saxon heptarchy.) From time to time throughout this period, one Anglo-Saxon king, recognised as the "Bretwalda" by other rulers, had effective control of all or most of the English; so it is impossible to identify the precise moment when the Kingdom of England was unified. In some sense, real unity came as a response to the Danish Viking incursions which occupied the eastern half of "England" in the 8th century. Egbert, King of Wessex (d. 839) is often regarded as the first king of all the English, although the title "King of England" was first adopted, two generations later, by Alfred the Great (ruled 871–899). The principal legacy left behind in those territories from which the language of the Britons were displaced is that of toponyms. Many of the place-names in England and to a lesser extent Scotland are derived from celtic British names, including London, Dumbarton, York, Dorchester, Dover and Colchester. Several place-name elements are thought to be wholly or partly Brythonic in origin, particularly bre-, bal-, and -dun for hills, carr for a high rocky place, coomb for a small deep valley. Until recently it has been believed that those areas settled by the Anglo-Saxons were uninhabited at the time or the Britons had fled before them. However, genetic studies show that the British were not pushed out to the Celtic fringes – many tribes remained in what was to become England (see C. Capelli et al. A Y chromosome census of the British Isles. Current Biology 13, 979–984, (2003)). Capelli's findings strengthen the research of Steven Bassett of the University of Birmingham; his work during the 1990s suggests that much of the West Midlands was only very lightly colonised with Anglian and Saxon settlements.

This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle,
This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,
This other Eden, demi-paradise,
This fortress built by Nature for herself
Against infection and the hand of war,
This happy breed of men, this little world,
This precious stone set in the silver sea,
Which serves it in the office of a wall
Or as a moat defensive to a house,
Against the envy of less happier lands,—
This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England.

William Shakespeare
Richard II (Act 2, Scene 1)

The English are great lovers of themselves, and of everything belonging to them; they think that there are no other men than themselves, and no other world but England; and whenever they see a handsome foreigner, they say that 'he looks like an Englishman', and that 'it is a great pity that he should not be an Englishmen'.

Venetian ambassador to England
Early 16th century
Charlotte Augusta Sneyd
Italian Relations of England (p. 20)

Richard II] Richard II] In 1066, William the Conqueror and the Normans conquered the existing Kingdom of England and instituted an Anglo-Norman administration and nobility who, retaining proto-French as their language for the next three hundred years, ruled as custodians over English commoners. Although the language and racial distinctions faded rapidly during the middle ages, the class system born in the Norman/Saxon divide persisted longer — arguably with traces lasting to the modern day. While Old English continued to be spoken by common folk, Norman feudal lords significantly influenced the language with French words and customs being adopted over the succeeding centuries evolving to a Romance-Germanic hybrid of Middle English widely spoken in Chaucer's time. England came repeatedly into conflict with Wales and Scotland, at the time an independent principality and an independent kingdom respectively, as its rulers sought to expand Norman power across the entire island of Britain. The conquest of Wales was achieved in the 13th century, when it was annexed to England and gradually came to be a part of that kingdom for most legal purposes, although in the modern era it is more usually thought of as a separate nation (fielding, for example, its own athletic teams). Norman power in Scotland waxed and waned over the years, with the Scots managing to maintain a varying degree of independence despite repeated wars with the English. Although it was on the whole only a moderately successful power in military terms, England became one of the wealthiest states in medieval Europe, due chiefly to its dominance in the lucrative wool market. The failure of English territorial ambitions in continental Europe prompted the kingdom's rulers to look further afield, creating the foundations of the mercantile and colonial network that was to become the British Empire. The turmoil of the Reformation embroiled England in religious wars with Europe's Catholic powers, notably Spain, but the kingdom preserved its independence as much through luck as through the skill of charismatic rulers such as Elizabeth I. Elizabeth's successor, James I was already king of Scotland (as James VI); and this personal union of the two crowns into the crown of Great Brittaine was followed a century later by the Act of Union 1707, which formally unified England, Scotland and Wales into the Kingdom of Great Britain. This later became the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (1801 to 1927) and then the modern state of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (1927 to present) For post-unification history, see history of the United Kingdom.

Politics

Main article: Politics of the United Kingdom, Government of England Since the promulgation of the 1284 Statute of Rhuddlan and the Laws in Wales Acts 1535-1542, Wales has shared a legal identity with England as the joint entity of England and Wales. The Act of Union with the Kingdom of Scotland in 1707 created the Kingdom of Great Britain, subsuming England, Wales and Scotland into a single political entity. Scotland, along with Northern Ireland, retain separate legal systems. The duchy of Cornwall also retains some unique rights. All of Great Britain has been ruled by the government of the United Kingdom since that date, although in 1999 the first elections to the newly created Scottish Parliament and National Assembly for Wales left England as the only part of the Union with no devolved assembly or parliament. As all legislation for England is passed by Parliament at Westminster there are some complaints about the ability of non-English Members of Parliament to influence purely English affairs. This apparent anomaly has been highlighted by both English and non-English politicians, often those opposed to devolution, and has become popularly known as the West Lothian question. Administratively, England is something of an anomaly within the UK. Unlike the other three nations, it has no local parliament or government and its administrative affairs are dealt with by a combination of the UK government, the UK parliament and a number of England-specific quangos, such as English Heritage. There are calls from some for a devolved English Parliament and from others for the dissolution of the UK and an independent England. The current Labour government favoured the establishment of regional administration, claiming that England was too large to be governed as a sub-state entity. A referendum on this issue in North East England on 4 November 2004 decisively rejected the proposal. Some criticised the English regional proposals for not decentralising enough, saying that they amounted not to devolution, but to little more than local government reorganisation, with no real power being removed from central government. The English regions would not even have had the limited powers of the Welsh Assembly, much less the tax-varying and legislative powers of the Scottish Parliament. Rather, power was simply re-allocated within the region, with little new resource allocation and no real prospects of Assemblies being able to change the pattern of regional aid. Responsibility for regional transport was added to the proposals late in the process. This was perhaps crucial in the North East, where resentment at the Barnett Formula, which delivers greater regional aid to adjacent Scotland, was a significant impetus for the North East devolution campaign. There has also been a campaign for a Cornish assembly along Welsh lines by groups such as Mebyon Kernow, which recently collected 50,000 signatures in support. Some eurosceptics believe that the establishment of English regions as administrative entities is designed to undermine the concept of English nationhood and more easily fit England into a European federal model. Conventionally the national capital of England is London, although technically it would be more exact to call London the capital of "England and Wales" given England's lack of a distinctive political identity separate from the Principality. Winchester served as the country's first national capital until some time in the late 11th century after the Norman Conquest. The City of London became England's commercial capital, while the City of Westminster (where the Royal court was located) became the political capital. These roles have, broadly speaking, been maintained to the present day.

Subdivisions

Main article: Subdivisions of England Historically, the highest level of local government in England was the county. These divisions had emerged from a range of units of old, pre-unification England, whether they were Kingdoms, such as Essex and Sussex; Duchies, such as Yorkshire, Cornwall and Lancashire or simply tracts of land given to some noble, as is the case with Berkshire. Until 1867, they were subdivided into smaller divisions called hundreds. These counties all still exist in, or near to, their original form as the traditional counties. In many places, however, they have been heavily modified or abolished outright as administrative counties. This came about due to a number of factors. The fact that the counties were so small meant, and still means, that there was no regional government able to coordinate an overarching plan for the area. This was especially true in the metropolitan areas surrounding the cities, as the county lines were usually drawn up before the industrial revolution and the mass urbanisation of England. The solution was the creation of large metropolitan counties centred on cities. These were later broken up, with several other counties, into unitary authorities, unifying the county and district/borough levels of government. London is a special case, and is the one region which currently has a representative authority as well as a directly elected mayor. The 32 London boroughs and the Corporation of London remain the local form of government in the city. Other than Greater London, the official regions are:
- North East England
- North West England
- Yorkshire and the Humber
- West Midlands
- East Midlands
- East of England
- South West England
- South East England Outside London the regions have very little power and are not accountable to elected representatives; regional authority is placed in the hands of unelected assemblies. If, as now seems unlikely, regions opt to replace these bodies with elected assemblies, local government in England will remain as variable and, some might say, as confusing as ever

Geography

Main articles: Geography of the United Kingdom, Geography of England Geography of England England comprises the central and southern two-thirds of the island of Great Britain, plus offshore islands of which the largest is the Isle of Wight. It is bordered to the north by Scotland and to the west by Wales. It is closer to continental Europe than any other part of Britain, divided from France only by a 38 km (24 statute mile or 21 nautical mile) sea gap. Most of England consists of rolling hills, but it is more mountainous in the north with a chain of low mountains, the Pennines, dividing east and west. The dividing line between terrain types is usually indicated by the Tees-Exe line. There is also an area of flat, low-lying marshland in the east, much of which has been drained for agricultural use. The list of England's largest cities is much debated because in British English the normal meaning of city is "a continuously built-up urban area"; these are hard to define and various other definitions are preferred by some people to boost the ranking of their own city. London is by far the largest English city. Manchester and Birmingham vie for second place. A number of other cities, mainly in the north of England, are of substantial size and influence. These include: Liverpool, Leeds, Newcastle, Nottingham, Bristol and Sheffield Using the standard U.S. city limits definition of a city the top six are: Birmingham, Leeds, Sheffield, Bradford, Liverpool and Manchester. Note that London is not on this list (Greater London is a region and the City of London is tiny), and that one of the two candidates for the status of England's "second city", Manchester, is down in sixth. In the UK, this method of ranking cities is generally used only by people whose own city is promoted by it. The Channel Tunnel, near Folkestone, links England to the European mainland. The English/French border is halfway along the tunnel. The largest harbour in England is at Poole, on the south-central coast. Internationally, it is the second largest harbour in the world, although this fact is disputed (See harbors for a list of other potential second largest harbours) The highest temperature ever recorded in England is 38.5 °C (101.3 °F) on August 10, 2003 in Kent. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/kent/3153532.stm]. The lowest temperature ever recorded in England is -26.1 °C (-15.0 °F) on January 10, 1982 at Newport in Shropshire. [http://www.metoffice.com/climate/uk/location/england/#temperature]

Major rivers

Shropshire.]]
- Thames
- Severn
- Trent
- Humber
- Yorkshire Ouse
- Tyne
- Mersey
- Dee
- Avon Main article: Waterways in the United Kingdom

Major Conurbations

:See main article: List of towns in England The largest cities in England are much debated but according to the urban area populations (continuous built up areas) these would be the 15 largest conurbations. (Population figures taken from 2001 census) #Greater London (8,278,251) #West Midlands (2,284,093) #Greater Manchester (2,244,931) #Leeds/Bradford (1,499,465) #Tyneside (879,996) #Liverpool (816,216) #Nottingham (666,358) #Sheffield (640,720) #Bristol (551,066) #Brighton/Worthing/Littlehampton (461,181) #Portsmouth (442,252) #Leicester (441,213) #Bournemouth/Poole (383,713) #Reading (369,804) #Teesside (365,323)

Economy

Main article: Economy of England

Demographics

Main articles: Demographics of England, Population of England England is both the most populous and the most ethnically diverse nation in the United Kingdom with around 49 million inhabitants, of which roughly a tenth are from non-White ethnic groups. It is one of the most densely populated countries in Europe, second only to the Netherlands. This population is made up of, and descended from, immigrants who have arrived over millennia. The principal waves of migration have been in c. 600 BC (Celts), the Roman period (garrison soldiers from throughout the Empire), 350–550 (Angles, Saxons, Jutes), 800–900 (Vikings, Danes), 1066 (Normans), 1650–1750 (European refugees and Huguenots), 1840–1850 (Irish), 1880–1940 (Irish, Jews), 1950— (Irish, Caribbeans, Africans, South Asians), 1985— (citizens of European Community member states especially Ireland, East Europeans, Iranians, Kurds, refugees). The general prosperity of England as the largest partner of the UK, has also made it a destination for economic migrants particularly from Ireland and Scotland. This segment of English homogeneous society continues to create a diverse and dynamic language that is widely used internationally. The other image of foreign ethnic components in England is still mostly seen as a legacy of the British Empire; especially the Commonwealth of Nations.

English identity

The simplest view is that an English person is someone who is from England and holds British nationality, regardless of his or her racial origin. However, inhabitants of England quite commonly refer to themselves as "British" rather than "English"; centuries of English dominance within the United Kingdom has created a situation where to be English is, as a linguist would put it, an "unmarked" state (i.e. a British person, institution, custom, city, etc. is assumed English unless specified otherwise). The English frequently include their neighbours in the general term "British" while the Scots and Welsh, proud of their separate identities, tend to be more forward about referring to themselves by one of those more specific terms. Although currently a part of England, a notable percentage of those living in Cornwall feel similarly, considering themselves Cornish first. One significant exception is in Northern Ireland, where the Unionist community tend to identify very strongly as "British" (Republicans living in the province are more likely to consider themselves "Irish"), and there is not a "Northern Ireland" or "Northern Irish" identity to the same extent as there is (e.g.) a Scottish one. A person, therefore, using the term "English" to describe him or herself (regardless of personal history) may be going out of his or her way to do so; hence he or she may also be seen (rightly or wrongly, and not necessarily pejoratively) as nationalistic. While Scottish, Welsh, Irish and Cornish patriotism are widely exhibited, specifically English patriotism has often been viewed with suspicion, and most English people feel more comfortable identifying themselves with Britain as a whole. However, this may be to avoid being seen as bullies by their neighbours. The extent to which specifically English patriotism is linked to a right-wing xenophobic agenda has also generated discomfort. The appropriation of English symbols by racist far-right organisations such as the National Front made many people uncomfortable with expressions of Englishness. In recent years, English identity has recently been a topic of debate in the national press, with many English people trying to "reclaim" the term and the flag from the far-right. See English nationalism. One notable exception to the above is in relation to sports, in particular Association football, Rugby football and to a lesser extent Cricket. Transient successes are often accompanied by a revival of the use of the "St George's Cross". While it has not yet replaced the "Union Flag" its use is on the increase. Many English people who have spent a lot of time overseas fall into the habit of referring to themselves as "English". It is the most recognisable designation by speakers of many languages, especially where their own language uses a similar word. Even in other English-speaking countries, people are often perplexed by concepts of "British" or the "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland". All these distinctions are only possible because there is no "English citizenship" or legal definition of Englishness. Moreover, the hazy understanding many people have of the distinction between "England" and "Britain" compounds the confusion. If in doubt, refer to an "English" person as "British": this will always be correct. It may not be as precise as "English", but it will avoid offence in the event the person is actually from a different part of Britain.

Culture

Union Flag Main article: Culture of England
- English literature
- Sir Thomas Browne
- Geoffrey Chaucer
- John Milton
- William Shakespeare
- Jane Austen
- Mary Shelley
- Charles Dickens
- Thomas Hardy
- George Orwell
- J. R. R. Tolkien
- C. S. Lewis
- Douglas Adams
- List of national parks of England and Wales
- Food and Drink
- English folklore
- English art
- English school of painting
- Music of England

Languages

Music of England.]] As its name suggests, the English language, today spoken by hundreds of millions of people around the world, originated as the language of England, where it remains the principal tongue today (although not officially designated as such). An Indo-European language in Anglo-Frisian branch of the Germanic family, it is closely related to Scots and Frisian. As the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms merged into England, "Old English" emerged; some of its literature and poetry has survived. Used by aristocracy and commoners alike before the Norman Conquest (1066), English was displaced in cultured contexts under the new regime by the Norman French language of the new Anglo-French aristocracy. Its use was confined primarily to the lower social classes while official business was conducted in a mixture of Latin and French. Over the following centuries, however, English gradually came back into fashion among all classes and for all official business except certain traditional ceremonies. (Some survive to this day.) But Middle English, as it had by now become, showed many signs of French influence, both in vocabulary and spelling. During the Renaissance, many words were coined from Latin and Greek origins; and more recent years, Modern English has extended this custom, being always remarkable for its far-flung willingness to incorporate foreign-influenced words. The law does not recognise any language as being official, but English is the only language used in England for general official business. The other national languages of the UK (Welsh, Irish Gaelic and Scottish Gaelic) are confined to their respective nations, and only Welsh is treated by law as an equal to English (and then only for organisations which do business in Wales). The only non-Anglic native spoken language in England is the Cornish language, a Celtic language spoken in Cornwall, which became extinct in the 19th century but has been revived and is spoken in various degrees of fluency by around 3,500 people. This has no official status (unlike Welsh) and is not required for official use, but is nonetheless supported by national and local government under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. Cornwall County Council has produced [http://www.cornwall.gov.uk/cornish/strategy/english/engl01.htm a draft strategy] to develop these plans. There is, however, no programme as yet for public bodies to actively promote the language. Scots is spoken by some adjacent to the Anglo-Scottish Border. Most deaf people within England speak British sign language (BSL), a sign language native to Britain. The British Deaf Association estimates that 70,000 people throughout the UK speak BSL as their first or preferred language, but does not give statistics specific to England. Like Cornish, BSL has no official status, but has been granted a degree of recognition by the government. The BBC broadcasts several of its programmes with BSL interpreters. Different languages from around the world, especially from the former British Empire and the Commonwealth of Nations, have been brought to England by immigrants. Many of these are widely spoken within ethnic minority communities, including Punjabi, Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, Gujarati, Chinese and Vietnamese. These are often used by official bodies to communicate with the relevant sections of the community, particularly in big cities, but this occurs on an "as needed" basis rather than as the result of specific legislative ordinances. Other languages have also traditionally been spoken by minority populations in England, including Romany. Despite the relatively small size of the nation, there are a large number of distinct English regional accents. Those with particularly strong accents may not be easily understood elsewhere in the country.

Nomenclature

The country is named after the Angles, one of several Germanic tribes who settled the country in the 5th and 6th centuries. There are two distinct linguistic patterns for the name of the country. The majority of European languages use names akin to "England":
- "England" (Danish, German, Swedish, Norwegian)
- "Engeland" (Dutch)
- "Inglismaa" (Estonian)
- "Angleterre" (French)
- "Inghilterra" (Italian)
- "Inglaterra" (Spanish, Portuguese, Galician)
- "Anglia" (Hungarian, Polish, Romanian, Albanian)
- "Anglija" (Russian, Slovene, Lithuanian, Ukrainian)
- "Engleska" (Croatian, Serbian)
- "Αγγλία" ("Anglía") (Greek)
- "Englanti" (Finnish) The Celtic names are quite different:
- "Bro-Saoz" (Breton)
- "Pow Sows" (Cornish)
- "Sasana" (Irish)
- "Sasainn" (Scottish Gaelic)
- "Lloegr" (Welsh) — but "Saeson" for the inhabitants.
- "Sostyn" (Manx Gaelic) Except for Lloegr, which is an ancient geographic term, these names are all derived from the Saxons, another family of Germanic tribes which arrived at about the same time as the Angles. See: Wiktionary:England for a further list of non-English names for England. "England" is sometimes mistakenly used to refer to the entire United Kingdom, the island of Great Britain, or the British Isles. This may offend people from other parts of the UK. Frequently the English use the less-specific "Britain" or "the UK", even when "England" is technically correct and commonly also use "England" when "Britain" would be correct. Alternative names include:
- the slang "Blighty", from the Hindustani "bila yati" meaning "foreign"
- "Albion", an ancient name popularised by Pliny the Elder and Ptolemy in the 1st century. Supposedly referring to the white (Latin alba) cliffs of Dover, this term has also been interpreted as a relative of Alba, today the Scots Gaelic name for Scotland. Whatever its origins, "Albion" originally referred to the whole island of Great Britain and is still sometimes seen that way today — but is more often used for England.
- More poetically, England has been called "this sceptred isle...this other Eden" and "this green and pleasant land", quotations respectively from the poetry of William Shakespeare (in Richard II) and William Blake (And did those feet in ancient time). The inhabitants of England are the English. The slang terms sometimes used for them include "Sassenachs" (from the Scots Gaelic), "Limeys" (in reference to the citrus fruits carried aboard English sailing vessels to prevent scurvy) and "Pom/Pommy" (used in Australian English and New Zealand English), but these may be perceived as offensive. Also see alternative words for British.

Symbols and insignia

alternative words for British.]] The two traditional symbols of England are the St. George's cross (the English flag) and the Three Lions coat of arms (see above), both derived from the great Norman powers that formed the monarchy – the Cross of Aquitaine and the Lions of Anjou. The three lions were first definitely used by Richard I (Richard the Lionheart) in the late 12th century (although it is also possible that Henry I may have bestowed it on his son Henry before then). Historian Simon Schama has argued that the Three Lions are the true symbol of England because the English throne descended down the Angevin line. A red cross acted as a symbol for many Crusaders in the 12th and 13th centuries. It became associated with St George and England, along with other countries and cities (such as Georgia, Milan and the Republic of Genoa), which claimed him as their patron saint and used his cross as a banner. It remained in national use until 1707, when the Union Flag (which English and Scottish ships had used at sea since 1606) was adopted for all purposes to unite the whole of Great Britain under a common flag. The flag of England no longer has much of an official role, but it is widely flown by Church of England properties and at sporting events. (Paradoxically, the latter is a fairly recent development; until the late 20th century, it was commonplace for fans of English teams to wave the Union Flag, rather than the St George's Cross). The rose is widely recognised as the national flower of England and is used in a variety of contexts. Predominantly, this is a red rose (which also symbolises Lancashire), such as the badge of the English Rugby Union team. However, a white rose (which also symbolises Yorkshire) or a "tudor rose" (symbolising the end of the War of the Roses) may also be used on different occasions. The Three Lions badge performs a similar role for the English national football team and English national cricket team.

National anthems

Although England does not have an official anthem of its own, the following are widely regarded as English national hymns:
- "Jerusalem:" Words by William Blake, Music by Hubert Parry
- "I Vow to Thee, My Country": Words by Cecil Spring-Rice, Music by Gustav Holst
- "Land of Hope and Glory": Words by A C Benson, Music by Edward Elgar (although this refers to all of Great Britain, not only England)
- "Nimrod": Music by Edward Elgar "God Save The Queen" (the national anthem for the UK as a whole) is usually played for English sporting events (e.g. football matches), although "Land of Hope and Glory" has also been used as the English anthem for the Commonwealth Games. "Rule Britannia" despite being a song about Britain as a whole was often used for the English national football team when they play against another of the home nations but more recently "God Save The Queen" has been used by both the rugby and football teams. Many believe that English teams should use their own anthems, most popular of which is the use of "Jerusalem".

References

- [http://www.statistics.gov.uk Office of National Statistics]

References

External links

- [http://www.enjoyengland.com/ The official website of the English Tourist Board — Enjoy England]
- [http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/state/nations/ BBC Nations]: articles on England and her neighbours Category:Monarchies Category:European countries als:England zh-min-nan:England ko:잉글랜드 ms:England ja:イングランド simple:England th:แคว้นอังกฤษ

814

Events

- Louis the Pious succeeds Charlemagne as king of the Franks and Emperor.
- The Bulgarians lay siege before Constantinople.
- Conflict between emperor Leo V and patriarch Nicephorus on the subject of iconoclasm. Leo deposes Nicephorus, Nicephorus excommunicates Leo.

Births

- Wuzong, Emperor of Tang China (d. 846)

Deaths

- January 28: Charlemagne, king of the Franks and Emperor
- February 18: Angilbert, Frankish politician
- April 13: Krum, khan of Bulgaria (brain hemorrhage) Category:814 ko:814년

825

Events
- Egbert of Wessex defeats Beornwulf of Mercia at Ellandun. Kent, Surrey, Sussex and Essex submit to Wessex and East Anglia acknowledges Egbert as overlord.
- Emperor Louis the Pious of the Franks wars against the Wends and Sorbs. Births
- Louis II, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 875) Deaths Category:825 ko:825년

Valenciennes

Valenciennes is a town and commune in northern France in the Nord département on the Scheldt river. While the city and region had seen a steady decline between 1975 and 1990, it has hence rebounded. As of 1999, the commune has a population of 42 343 while the entire urban area numbers 399,677. This renewed growth is particularly notable for Valenciennes, as well as some suburbs.

History

Valenciennes is first named in 693 in a legal document written by Clovis II. In the 9th century this region was overrun by the Normans. With the Empire of the Franks established the city began to develop. In 1008 a terrible famine brought the Plague. In the 14th century the Tower of Dodenne was built. In the 15th century the province of Hainaut was re-attached to Burgundy. In 1524 Charles Quint, Emperor arrived at Valenciennes. Because of the manufacturers of wool and fine linens, the city was able to become economically free. Around 1560 Valenciennes was an early center of Calvinism. In 1562 here occurred the first act of resistance against religious persecution in the Netherlands, when a crowd liberated some protestants condemned to die at the stake. In 1580 the town, by then a calvinist stronghold, was conquered by Alexander Farnese and protestantism was eradicated. By the treaty of Nimègue the French took control of Valenciennes in 1678. Shortly thereafter Vauban visited the city in the effort to fortify the northern reaches of France.

Economy

Valenciennes is historically renowned for its lace. Until the 1970s, the main industries were steel and textiles. Since their decline, reconversion attempts focus mainly on automobile : In 2001, Toyota built its Western European Assembly line for the Toyota Yaris. Because of this and other changes, the average unemployment in the region is now lower than the national average. On July 15, 2004 the Administrative Board of the European Union's Railway Agency held its first meeting in Phénix, with representatives of the 25 Member States and François Lamoureux, those days Director General for Energy and Transportation at the European Commission. Valenciennes was picked as the European Railway Agency headquarters in December of 2003. International conferences are held in Lille.

Public transportation system

Line #1 of the tramway, currently under construction, will be put into service on June 16, 2006. 9.5 km long, this tramway will cross the five communes in the Valenciennois Metropolitain area. The price of this tramway is expected to cost 242.75 million Euros.

Administration

Valenciennes is a subprefecture of the Nord département.

Mayors since 1947

- 1947-1988: Pierre Carous, died in office
- 1988-1989: Olivier Marlière
- 1989-2002: Jean-Louis Borloo, resigned when he entered the national government
- 2002- : Dominique Riquet

Miscellaneous

- Inhabitants are called valenciennois.

Monuments and tourist attractions

Valenciennes was almost completely destroyed during World War II, and has hence been rebuilt in concrete. A few surviving monuments are:
- The façade of the city offices which managed to survive the bombardments of the war.
- Notre-Dame du Saint-Cordon, to which there is an annual pilgrimage.
- La Maison Espagnole, the remains of the Spanish occupation, which ended in 1678.
- The Dodenne Tower, the remaining part of the mediaeval fortifications after Charles V ordered them reduced.

People born in Valenciennes

- Medieval chronicler Jean Froissart
- Queen consort of England Philippa of Hainault
- painter Antoine Watteau
- sculptor Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux
- drawing artist Charles Eisen
- advertiser Jean Mineur
- actor Jean Lefebvre

Twin towns

- Agrigento (Sicily, Italy)
- Düren (Germany)
- Gliwice (Poland)
- Medway (United Kingdom)
- Moscow (Russia)
- Nacka (Sweden)
- Obuda (Hungary)
- Salgotarjan (Poland)
- Yichang (China)

External links

- [http://www.ville-valenciennes.fr/ Official web site of the city : in French]
- [http://www.chez.com/valenciennes/ Discover Valenciennes: in French]
- [http://www.nordmag.com/nord_pas_de_calais/valenciennes/valenciennes.htm/ Nordmag History of Valenciennes] Category:Communes of Nord Category:Cities in France

435

Events
- August 3 - Nestorius is exiled by Imperial edict to a monastery in a Sahara oasis.
- The Vandals are allowed territory in North Africa.
- Ibas becomes bishop of Edessa. Births
- Odoacer, king of Italy
- Justin I, Byzantine emperor (approximate date) Deaths
- Pelagius, British monk (approximate date)
- Rabbulas, bishop of Edessa Category:435 ko:435년

Carlovingian

The Carolingians (also known as the "Carlovingians") were a dynasty of rulers that eventually controlled the Frankish realm and its successors from the 8th to the 10th century, officially taking over the kingdoms from the Merovingian dynasty in 751. The name Carolingian itself comes from Charles Martel, who defeated the Moors at Poitiers in 732. The dynasty's most prominent member is Charlemagne (in Latin: Carolus Magnus). The dynasty is usually considered to have been founded by Arnulf of Metz, Bishop of Metz in the late 7th century, who wielded a great deal of power and influence in the Merovingian kingdoms. Pippin of Herstal, Mayor of the Palace of the Kingdom of Austrasia, was succeeded by his son Charles Martel as Mayor, who in turn was the father of Pippin III, called "the Short". Pippin had become king after having used his position as Mayor to garner support among many of the leading Franks, as well as Pope Zacharias, in order to depose the last Merovingian king, Childeric in 751. Charlemagne, Pippin's son, became King of the Franks in 768 and was crowned Emperor by Pope Leo III in 800. After the division of the empire among Charlemagne's three grandsons with the Treaty of Verdun in 843, the Carolingians initially continued to hold the throne in all three sections that were created.
- In the West, which was the nucleus of later France, they continued to be the ruling dynasty until a minor branch of the family, the Capetians, ascended the (by that time) French throne in 987.
- In the Middle, with the empty title of "Emperor" and the kingdom of Lotharingia which included Northern Italy, the major branch of the family ruled till 887, but further division was based on the Treaty of Mersen in 870.
- In the East, the kernel of the later Holy Roman Empire, the Carolingians ruled only until 911, the death of Louis the Child. Here, the dukes of the stem duchies eventually acclaimed a Saxon dynasty, commonly referred to as the Ottonians, who consciously modelled themselves as Carolingian successors.

781

Events
- Emperor Kammu succeeds Emperor Kōnin as emperor of Japan.
- Charlemagne defines the Papal territory (see Papal States).
- Talorcan II succeeds Drest III as king of the Picts. Births Deaths Category:781 ko:781년

Pliny the Elder

Gaius Plinius Secundus, (23–79) better known as Pliny the Elder, was an ancient author and Natural philosopher of some importance who wrote Naturalis Historia. He was the son of a Roman eques by the daughter of the Senator Gaius Caecilius of Novum Comum. He was born at Como, not (as is sometimes supposed) at Verona: it is only as a native of Gallia Transpadana that he calls Catullus of Verona his conterraneus, or fellow-countryman, not his municeps, or fellow-townsman [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Pliny_the_Elder/praefatio
- .html#1 (Praef. §1)].

Chronology

Before 35 [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Pliny_the_Elder/37
- .html#81 (N.H. xxxvii.81)] his father took him to Rome, where he was educated under his father's friend, the poet and military commander, P. Pomponius Secundus, who inspired him with a lifelong love of learning. Two centuries after the death of the Gracchi, Pliny saw some of their autograph writings in his preceptor's library [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Pliny_the_Elder/13
- .html#83 (xiii.83)], and he afterwards wrote that preceptor's Life. He mentions the grammarians and rhetoricians, Remmius Palaemon and Arellius Fuscus ([http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Pliny_the_Elder/14
- .html#4 xiv.4]; [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Pliny_the_Elder/33
- .html#152 xxxiii.152]), and he may have been their student. In Rome he studied botany in the topiarius (garden) of the aged Antonius Castor [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Pliny_the_Elder/25
- .html#9 (xxv.9)], and saw the fine old lotus-trees in the grounds that had once belonged to Crassus [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Pliny_the_Elder/17
- .html#5 (xvii.5)]. He also viewed the vast structure raised by Caligula [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Pliny_the_Elder/36
- .html#111 (xxxvi.111)], and probably witnessed the triumph of Claudius over Britain in 44 [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Pliny_the_Elder/3
- .html#119 (iii.119)]. Under the influence of Seneca the Younger he became a keen student of philosophy and rhetoric, and began practicing as an advocate. He saw military service under Corbulo in Germania Inferior in 47, taking part in the Roman conquest of the Chauci and the construction of the canal between the rivers Maas and Rhine (xvi. [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Pliny_the_Elder/16
- .html#2 2] and [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Pliny_the_Elder/16
- .html#5 5]). As a young commander of cavalry (praefectus alae) he wrote in his winter-quarters a work on the use of missiles on horseback (De jaculatione equestri), with some account of the points of a good horse [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Pliny_the_Elder/8
- .html#162 (viii.162)]. In Gaul and Spain he learnt the meanings of a number of Celtic words [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Pliny_the_Elder/30
- .html#40 (xxx.40)]. He took note of sites associated with the Roman invasion of Germany, and, amid the scenes of the victories of Drusus, he had a dream in which the victor enjoined him to transmit his exploits to posterity (Plin. Epp. iii.5, 4). The dream prompted Pliny to begin forthwith a history of all the wars between the Romans and the Germans. He probably accompanied his father's friend Pomponius on an expedition against the Chatti (50), and visited Germany for a third time (50s) as a comrade of the future emperor, Titus Flavius [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Pliny_the_Elder/praefatio
- .html#3 (Praef. §3)]. Under Nero he lived mainly in Rome. He mentions the map of Armenia and the neighbourhood of the Caspian Sea, which was sent to Rome by the staff of Corbulo in 58 [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Pliny_the_Elder/6
- .html#40 (vi.40)]. He also saw the building of Nero's "golden house" after the fire of 64 [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Pliny_the_Elder/36
- .html#111 (xxxvi.111)]. Meanwhile he was completing the twenty books of his History of the German Wars, the only authority expressly quoted in the first six books of the Annals of Tacitus (1.69), and probably one of the principal authorities for the Germania. It was superseded by the writings of Tacitus, and, early in the 5th century, Symmachus had little hope of finding a copy (Epp. xiv.8). He also devoted much of his time to writing on the comparatively safe subjects of grammar and rhetoric. A detailed work on rhetoric, entitled Studiosus, was followed by eight books, Dubii sermonis, in 67. Under his friend Vespasian he returned to the service of the state, serving as procurator in Gallia Narbonensis (70) and Hispania Tarraconensis (73), and also visiting the province of Gallia Belgica (74). During his stay in Spain he became familiar with the agriculture and the mines of the country, besides paying a visit to Africa [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Pliny_the_Elder/7
- .html#37 (vii.37)]. On his return to Italy he accepted office under Vespasian, whom he used to visit before daybreak for instructions before proceeding to his official duties, after the discharge of which he devoted all the rest of his time to study (Plin. Epp. iii.5, 9). He completed a History of his Times in thirty-one books, possibly extending from the reign of Nero to that of Vespasian, and deliberately reserved it for publication after his death [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Pliny_the_Elder/praefatio
- .html#20 (N. H., Praef. 20)]. It is quoted by Tacitus (Ann. xiii.20, xv.53; Hist. iii.29), and is one of the authorities followed by Suetonius and Plutarch. He also virtually completed his great work, the Naturalis Historia, an encyclopedia into which Pliny collected much of the knowledge of his time. The work had been planned under the rule of Nero. The materials collected for this purpose filled rather less than 160 volumes in 23, when Larcius Licinus, the praetorian legate of Hispania Tarraconensis, vainly offered to purchase them for a sum equivalent to more than £3,200 (1911 estimated value) or £200,000 (2002 estimated value). He dedicated the work to Titus Flavius in 77.

Vesuvius

Soon afterwards he received from Vespasian the appointment of praefect of the Roman fleet at Misenum. On August 24, 79 he was stationed at Misenum, at the time of the great eruption of Mount Vesuvius, which overwhelmed Pompeii and Herculaneum. A desire to observe the phenomenon directly, and also to rescue some of his friends from their perilous position on the shore of the Bay of Naples, led to his launching his galleys and crossing the bay to Stabiae (Castellammare di Stabia). Although he believed that Stabiae would be a safe distance from the eruption, he did not take into account the possibility of the volcano releasing toxic gases; consequently, he was asphyxiated. He is still remembered in vulcanology where the term plinian (or plinean) refers to a very violent eruption of a volcano after a long period of being dormant. The term ultra-plinian is reserved for the most violent type of plinian eruption such as the 1883 destruction of Krakatoa. The story of his last hours is told in an [http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/2811 interesting letter] addressed twenty-seven years afterwards to Tacitus by the Elder Pliny's nephew and heir, Pliny the Younger (Epp. vi.16), who also sends to another correspondent an account of his uncle's writings and his manner of life (iii.5):

"He began to work long before daybreak.…He read nothing without making extracts; he used even to say that there was no book so bad as not to contain something of value. In the country it was only the time when he was actually in his bath that was exempted from study. When travelling, as though freed from every other care, he devoted himself to study alone. In short, he deemed all time wasted that was not employed in study."

His only writings to have survived to modern times is the Naturalis historia. It was used as an authority over the following centuries by countless scholars.

Philosophy

Like many of the finest spirits under the early Empire, Pliny was an adherent to the Stoics. He was acquainted with their noblest representative, Thrasea Paetus, and he also came under the influence of Seneca. The Stoics were given to the study of nature, while their moral teaching was agreeable to one who, in his literary work, was unselfishly eager to benefit and to instruct his contemporaries ([http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Pliny_the_Elder/praefatio
- .html#16 Praef. 16], [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Pliny_the_Elder/28
- .html#2 xxviii.2], [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Pliny_the_Elder/29
- .html#1 xxix.1]). He was also influenced by the Epicurean and the Academic and the revived Pythagorean schools. But his view of nature and of God is essentially Stoic. It was only (he declares) the weakness of humanity that had embodied the Being of God in many human forms imbued with human faults and vices [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Pliny_the_Elder/2
- .html#148 (ii.148)]. The Godhead was really one; it was the soul of the eternal world, displaying its beneficence on the earth, as well as in the sun and stars (ii.[http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Pliny_the_Elder/2
- .html#12 12 seq.], [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Pliny_the_Elder/2
- .html#154 154 seq.). The existence of a divine Providence was uncertain [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Pliny_the_Elder/2
- .html#19 (ii.19)], but the belief in its existence and in the punishment of wrong-doing was salutary [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Pliny_the_Elder/2
- .html#26 (ii.26)]; and the reward of virtue consisted in the elevation to Godhead of those who resembled God in doing good to man ([http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Pliny_the_Elder/2
- .html#18 ii.18], Deus est mortali juvare mortalem, et haec ad aeternam gloriam via). It was wrong to inquire into the future and do violence to nature by resorting to magical arts ([http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Pliny_the_Elder/2
- .html#114 ii.114], [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Pliny_the_Elder/30
- .html#3 xxx.3]); but the significance of prodigies and portents is not denied (ii.[http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Pliny_the_Elder/2
- .html#92 92], [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Pliny_the_Elder/2
- .html#199 199], [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Pliny_the_Elder/2
- .html#232 232]). Pliny's view of life is gloomy; he regards the human race as plunged in ruin and in misery ([http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Pliny_the_Elder/2
- .html#24 ii.24], [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Pliny_the_Elder/7
- .html#130 vii.130]). Against luxury and moral corruption he indulges in declamations, which are so frequent that (like those of Seneca) they at last pall upon the reader; and his rhetorical flourishes against practically useful inventions (such as the art of navigation) are wanting in good sense and good taste [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Pliny_the_Elder/19
- .html#6 (xix.6)]. With the proud national spirit of a Roman he combines an admiration of the virtues by which the Republic had attained its greatness ([http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Pliny_the_Elder/16
- .html#14 xvi.14], [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Pliny_the_Elder/27
- .html#3 xxvii.3], [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Pliny_the_Elder/37
- .html#201 xxxvii.201]). He does not suppress historical facts unfavourable to Rome (xxxiv.139), and while he honours eminent members of distinguished Roman houses, he is free from Livy's undue partiality for the aristocracy. The agricultural classes and the old landlords of the equestrian order (Cincinnatus, Curius Dentatus, Serranus and the Elder Cato) are to him the pillars of the state; and he bitterly laments the decline of agriculture in Italy (xviii.[http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Pliny_the_Elder/18
- .html#21 21] and [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Pliny_the_Elder/18
- .html#35 35], latifundia perdidere Italiam). Accordingly, for the early history of Rome, he prefers following the pre-Augustan writers; but he regards the imperial power as indispensable for the government of the Empire, and he hails the salutaris exortus Vespasiani [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Pliny_the_Elder/33
- .html#51 (xxxiii.51)].

Literature

At the conclusion of his literary labours, as the only Roman who had ever taken for his theme the whole realm of nature, he prays for the blessing of the universal mother on his completed work. In literature he assigns the highest place to Homer and to Cicero [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Pliny_the_Elder/17
- .html#37 (xvii.37 seq.)]; and the next to Virgil. He was influenced by the works of the Numidian king Juba II, who he called "my Master". He takes a keen interest in nature, and in the natural sciences, studying them in a way that was then new in Rome, while the small esteem in which studies of this kind were held does not deter him from endeavouring to be of service to his fellow countrymen [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Pliny_the_Elder/22
- .html#15 (xxii.15)]. The scheme of his great work is vast and comprehensive, being nothing short of an encyclopedia of learning and of art so far as they are connected with nature or draw their materials from it. With a view to this work he studied the original authorities on each subject and was most assiduous in making excerpts from their pages. His indices auctorum are, in some cases, the authorities which he has actually consulted (though in this respect they are not exhaustive); in other cases, they represent the principal writers on the subject, whose names are borrowed second-hand for his immediate authorities. He frankly acknowledges his obligations to all his predecessors in a phrase that deserves to be proverbial ([http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Pliny_the_Elder/praefatio
- .html#21 Praef. 21], plenum ingenni pudoris fateri per quos profeceris). He had neither the temperament for original investigation, nor the leisure necessary for the purpose. It is obvious that one who spent all his time in reading and in writing, and in making excerpts from his predecessors, had none left for mature and independent thought, or for patient experimental observation of the phenomena of nature. But it must not be forgotten that it was his scientific curiosity as to the phenomena of the eruption of Vesuvius that brought his life of unwearied study to a premature end; and any criticism of his faults of omission is disarmed by the candour of the confession in his preface: nec dubitamus multa esse quae et nos praeterierint; homines enim sumus et occupati officiis. His style betrays the unhealthy influence of Seneca. It aims less at clearness and vividness than at epigrammatic point. It abounds not only in antitheses, but also in questions and exclamations, tropes and metaphors, and other mannerisms of the Silver Age. The rhythmical and artistic form of the sentence is sacrificed to a passion for emphasis that delights in deferring the point to the close of the period. The structure of the sentence is also apt to be loose and straggling. There is an excessive use of the ablative absolute, and ablative phrases are often appended in a kind of vague "apposition" to express the author's own opinion of an immediately previous statement, e.g. [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Pliny_the_Elder/35
- .html#80 xxxv.80], dixit (Apelles) ... uno se praestare, quod manum de tabula sciret tollere, memorabili praecepto nocere saepe nimiam diligentiam. About the middle of the 3rd century an abstract of the geographical portions of Pliny's work was produced by Solinus; and early in the 4th century the medical passages were collected in the Medicina Plinii. Early in the 8th century we find Bede in possession of an excellent manuscript of the whole work. In the 9th century Alcuin sends to Charlemagne for a copy of the earlier books (Epp. 103, Jaffé); and Dicuil gathers extracts from the pages of Pliny for his own Mensura orbis terrae (ca. 825). Pliny's work was held in high esteem in the Middle Ages. The number of extant manuscripts is about 200; but the best of the more ancient manuscripts, that at Bamberg, contains only books xxxii-xxxvii. Robert of Cricklade, prior of St. Frideswide at Oxford, dedicated to Henry II a Defloratio consisting of nine books of selections taken from one of the manuscripts of this class, which has been recently recognized as sometimes supplying us with the only evidence for the true text. Among the later manuscripts, the codex Vesontinus, formerly at Besançon (11th century), has been divided into three portions, now in Rome, Paris, and Leiden respectively, while there is also a transcript of the whole of this manuscript at Leiden. A special interest attaches to his account of the manufacture of the papyrus [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Pliny_the_Elder/13
- .html#68 (xiii.68 seq.)], and of the different kinds of purple dye [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Pliny_the_Elder/9
- .html#130 (ix.130)], while his description of the notes of the nightingale is an elaborate example of his occasional felicity of phrase [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Pliny_the_Elder/29
- .html#81 (xxix.81 seq.)].

Research after 1500

Sir Thomas Browne expressed a wholesome skepticism about Pliny's dependability in his Pseudodoxia Epidemica (1646): :"Now what is very strange, there is scarce a popular error passant in our days, which is not either directly expressed, or diductively contained in this Work; which being in the hands of most men, hath proved a powerful occasion of their propagation. Wherein notwithstanding the credulity of the Reader is more condemnable then the curiosity of the Author: for commonly he nameth the Authors from whom he received those accounts, and writes but as he reads, as in his Preface to Vespasian he acknowledgeth." [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/pseudodoxia/pseudo18.html#b15] Most of the recent research on Pliny has been concentrated on the investigation of his authorities, especially those which he followed in his chapters on the history of art - the only ancient account of that subject which has survived. A carnelian inscribed with the letters C. PLIN. has been reproduced by Cades (v.211) from the original in the Vannutelli collection. It represents an ancient Roman with an almost completely bald forehead and a double chin; and is almost certainly a portrait, not of Pliny the Elder, but of Pompey the Great. Seated statues of both the Plinies, clad in the garb of scholars of the year 1500, may be seen in the niches on either side of the main entrance to the cathedral church of Como. The elder Pliny's anecdotes of Greek artists supplied Vasari with the subjects of the frescoes which still adorn the interior of his former home at Arezzo.

External links

- [http://www.classics.cam.ac.uk/Everyone/Pompeii/Destruction.html Contemporaneous account of Pliny's death] (the famous letter by Pliny's nephew, Pliny the Younger, in Latin and English)
- [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Pliny_the_Elder/home.html A complete Latin transcription of the Naturalis Historia] and a [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Plin.+Nat.+toc Complete 1855 English translation]
- [http://www.livius.org/pi-pm/pliny/pliny_e.html Pliny the Elder] Biography and summary of Natural History
- Robert Harris's Pompeii: A Novel contains an accurate, if fictionalized portrait of Pliny the Elder and his last hours.

References

- Category:23 births Category:79 deaths Category:Ancient Romans Category:Pre-Linnaean botanists Category:Roman era philosophers Category:Roman era writers

Gaius Julius Solinus

Gaius Julius Solinus, Latin grammarian and compiler, probably flourished during the first half of the 3rd century. He was the author of De mirabilibus mundi ('The wonders of the world') which mostly circulated under the title Collectanea rerum memorabilium ('Collection of Curiosities'), and the work is indeed a description of curiosities in a chorographical framework. Adventus, to whom it is dedicated, is identified with Oclatinius Adventus, consul 258. It contains a short description of the ancient world, with remarks on historical, social, religious and natural history questions. The greater part is taken from Pliny's Natural History and the geography of Pomponius Mela. According to Mommsen, Solinus also used a chronicle (possibly by Cornelius Bocchus) and a Chorographia pliniana, an epitome of Pliny's work with additions made about the time of Hadrian. Schanz, however, suggests the Roma and Pratsem of Suetonius. A greatly revised version of his original text was made, perhaps it is now thought by Solinus himself. This verions conatins a letter that Solinus wrote as an introduction to the work which gives the work the title Polyhistor ('multi-descriptive'). Both versions of the work circulated widely and eventually Polyhistor was taken for the author's name. It was popular in the middle ages, hexameter abridgments being current under the names of Theodericus and Petrus Diaconus. The commentary by Saumaise in his Plinianae exercitationes (1689) is indispensable; best edition by Mommsen (1895), with valuable introduction on the manuscripts, the authorities used by Solinus, and subsequent compilers. See also Teuffel, Hist. of Roman Literature (Eng. trans., 1900), 389; and Schanz, Gesichte der römischen Litteratur (1904), iv. I. There is an old English translation by A Golding (1587).

External link

- [http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/solinus.html The Latin Library: Caii Julii Solini de Mirabilibus Mundi], Latin texts of both the C.L.F. Panckoucke edition (Paris 1847) and the Mommsen edition (1864).

References

- Category:Ancient Romans Category:Roman era writers

Isidore of Seville

] Saint Isidore of Seville (560 - April 4, 636) was Archbishop of Seville for more than three decades and has the reputation of being one of the great scholars of the early middle ages. All the later medieval history-writing of Spain was based on Isidore's histories. Isidore was born in Cartagena, Spain, to an influential family who were instrumental in the political-religious maneuvering that converted the Visigothic kings from Arianism to Catholicism, and were all awarded sainthoods: his brother Leander immediately preceded him as Catholic bishop of Seville, the opponent of king Liuvigild, his younger brother was also awarded a bishopric at the start of the new reign of Catholic Reccared, and their sister was an abbess in charge of forty convents. Isidore's Latin was affected by local Visigothic traditions and contains hundreds of recognizably Spanish words; his 18th-century editor Arevalo identified 1640 of them. At a time of disintegration of classical culture, and aristocratic violence and illiteracy, he assisted Leander in the conversion of the royal Visigoth Arians to Catholicism and carried the conversion forward after his brother's death, for example in presiding over the (second) synod of Seville (November 618 or 619), which the bishops of Gaul and Narbonne attended, as well as the Spanish prelates. In the Council's Acts the nature of Christ is fully set forth, countering Arian conceptions. At an advanced age he also presided over the Fourth Council of Toledo (633), which required all bishops to establish seminaries, on the pattern of the one at Seville associated with Isidore. The council probably expressed with tolerable accuracy the mind and influence of Isidore. The position and deference granted to the king is remarkable. The church is free and independent, yet bound in solemn allegiance to the acknowledged king: nothing is said of allegiance to the bishop of Rome. Isidore's most important work was the first encyclopedia known to be compiled in western civilization, the Etymologiae. The work takes its title from the method he used in the transcription of his era's knowledge. The encyclopedia was a huge compilation of 448 chapters in 20 volumes, devoted to transmitting the epitome of the learning of antiquity. The depository of classical culture in Isidore's compendium was so highly regarded that it superseded the use of many individual works of the classics themselves, which were not recopied and have been lost. The book was the most popular compendium in medieval libraries. It was printed in at least 10 editions between 1470 and 1530, showing Isidore's continued popularity in the Renaissance. Until the 12th century brought translations from Arabic sources, Isidore transmitted what western Europeans remembered of the works of Aristotle and other Greeks, although he understood only a limited amount of Greek. The Etymologiae was much copied, particularly into medieval bestiaries. His other works include his Chronica Majora (a universal history), De differentiis verborum, which amounts to brief theological treatise on the doctrine of the Trinity, the nature of Christ, of Paradise, angels, and men. Isidore also produced a History of the Goths; On the Nature of Things (not the poem of Lucretius), a book of astronomy and natural history dedicated to the Visigothic king Sisebut; and Questions on the Old Testament. There is a mystical treatise on the allegorical meanings of numbers, and a number of brief letters. He was canonized as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church in 1598 and declared a Doctor of the Church in