11
9
IX
50
L
1,000
M
3
III
10
X
60
LX
5,000
V
4
IV
11
XI
90
XC
10,000
X
5
V
19
XIX
100
C
50,000
L
6
VI
20
XX
200
CC
100,000
C
7
VII
30
XXX
500
D
500,000
D
Roman question Dispute between church and state in Italy. With the completed unification of Italy in 1870, the papacy objected to the Italian seizure of Rome and the Papal States. The conflict was ended in 1929 by the Lateran Treaty, which created Vatican City and resolved the dispute.
Roman religion Religious beliefs of the Romans from ancient times until official acceptance of Christianity in the 4th century ad. The Romans believed that everything was subordinate to the rule of the gods, and the object of their religion was to secure divine cooperation and benevolence. Prayer and sacrifice were used to propitiate the gods and were often car¬ ried out at temples dedicated to particular divinities and presided over by priests (see flamen). The chief Roman priest, head of the state religion, was known as the pontifex maximus\ notable among the other groups of priests were the augurs, who practiced divination to determine whether the
Roman Gods and Goddesses
Apollo
god of sunlight, music,
Mars
god of war
poetry, and, prophecy
Mercury
messenger god and god
Aurora
goddess of the dawn
of commerce
Bacchus
god of wine
Minerva
goddess of wisdom, the
Bellona
goddess of war
arts, and trades
Ceres
goddess of agriculture
Mithra
god of light
Cupid
god of love
Neptune
god of the sea
Diana
goddess of fertility, hunt-
Ops
goddess of abundance
ing, and the moon
Pales
goddess of flocks and
Dis or Orcus
god of the underworld
shepherds
Faunus
god of pastures, forests,
Pomona
goddess of fruit trees and
and herds
fruit
Flora
goddess of flowers
Proserpine
goddess of the under-
Janus
god of gates and doors
world
Juno
goddess of marriage and
Saturn
god of seed time and
women
harvest
Jupiter
supreme god and god of
Venus
goddess of beauty and
the sky and weather
love
Libitina
goddess of funerals
Vertumnus
god of the seasons
Maia
goddess of growth and
Vesta
goddess of the hearth
increase
Vulcan
god of fire
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
Roman Republic and Empire ► Romania I 1637
gods approved of an action. The earliest Roman gods were the sky god Jupiter, the war god Mars, and Quirinus; other important early gods were Janus and Vesta. Many other deities were borrowed from Greek religion or associated with Greek gods, and the stories woven into Roman mythol¬ ogy were often taken directly from Greek mythology. Domestic shrines were devoted to divine ancestors or protectors, the Lares and Penates. Dead Roman emperors were also raised to the status of divinities and were regarded with veneration and gratitude.
Roman Republic and Empire Ancient state that once ruled the Western world. It centred on the city of Rome from the founding of the republic (509 bc) through the establishment of the empire (27 bc) to the final eclipse of the empire in the west (5th century ad). The republic’s government consisted of two consuls, the Senate, and magistrates, origi¬ nally all patricians, and two popular plebeian assemblies: the military cen- turiate assembly and the civilian tribal assembly. A written code, the Law of the Twelve Tables (451 bc), became the basis of Roman private law. By the end of the 3rd century bc, Roman territory included all of Italy; by the late republican period it encompassed most of western Europe, north¬ ern Africa, and the Near East, organized into provinces. After a period of civil war, Julius Caesar took power as dictator. Following his assassina¬ tion (44 bc), conflict among the triumvirs—Mark Antony, Lepidus, and Octavian—ultimately resulted in Octavian’s victory (31) and his acces¬ sion as Emperor Augustus (r. 27 bc-ad 14). The imperial government, a principate, combined aspects of the republic and a monarchy. In ad 395 the empire split into eastern and western halves, with the west under severe pressure from the barbarians. Rome was sacked in 410 by the Visigoths, and the western empire fell to German invaders in 476; the east continued as the Byzantine Empire until 1453. See table opposite.
romance Literary form that developed in the aristocratic courts of mid- 12th-century France and had its heyday in France and Germany between the mid-12th and mid-13th century in the works of such masters as Chre¬ tien de Troyes and Gottfried von Strassburg. The staple subject matter is chivalric adventure (see chivalry), though love stories and religious alle¬ gories are sometimes interwoven. Most romances draw their plots from classical history and legend, Arthurian legend, and the adventures of Char¬ lemagne and his knights. Written in the vernacular, they share a taste for the exotic, the remote, and the miraculous. Lingering echoes of the form can be found in later centuries, as in the Romanticism of the 18th-19th century and today’s popular romantic novels.
Romance languages Group of related languages derived from Latin, with nearly 920 million native speakers. The major Romance languages— French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and Romanian —are national lan¬ guages. French is probably the most internationally significant, but Spanish, the official language of 19 American countries and Spain and Equatorial Guinea, has the most speakers. Languages spoken in smaller areas include Catalan, Occitan, Sardinian, and Rhaeto-Romance. The Romance languages began as dialects of Vulgar Latin, which spread dur¬ ing the Roman occupation of Italy, the Iberian Peninsula, Gaul, and the Balkans and developed into separate languages in the 5th-9th centuries. Later, European colonial and commercial contacts spread them to the Americas, Africa, and Asia.
Romanesque architecture Architecture current in Europe from about the mid-11th century to the advent of Gothic architecture. A fusion of Roman, Carolingian and Ottonian, Byzantine, and local Germanic tra¬ ditions, it was a product of the great expansion of monasticism in the 10th— 11th century. Larger churches were needed to accommodate the numerous monks and priests, as well as the pilgrims who came to view saints’ rel¬ ics. For the sake of fire resistance, masonry vaulting began to replace tim¬ ber construction. Romanesque churches characteristically incorporated semicircular arches for windows, doors, and arcades; barrel or groin vaults to support the roof of the nave; massive piers and walls, with few win¬ dows, to contain the outward thrust of the vaults; side aisles with galler¬ ies above them; a large tower over the crossing of nave and transept; and smaller towers at the church’s western end. French churches commonly expanded on the early Christian basilica plan, incorporating radiating chap¬ els to accommodate more priests, ambulatories around the sanctuary apse for visiting pilgrims, and large transepts between the sanctuary and nave.
Romanesque art Sculpture and painting that reached its height in western Europe c. 1075-1125, a fusion of Roman, Carolingian and Otton¬ ian, and Byzantine art with local Germanic traditions. The expansion of monasticism in the 10th—11th centuries revived the art of monumental
Roman Emperors*
Augustus
27 BC-AD 14
Carus
282-83
Tiberius
14-37
Carinus
283-85
Caligula
37-41
Numerian
283-84
Claudius
41-54
Constantine 1