Diocletian (C Valerius Diocletianus, surnamed Jovius) was a Dalmatian Emperor of Rome. A man of mean birth, he was proclaimed Emperor of Rome by the army in 284 AD. He defeated Carinus in Mossia in 286, conquered the Allemanni, and was generally beloved for the goodness of his disposition, but was compelled by the dangers threatening Rome to share the government with M. Aurelius Valerius Maximian. In 292 Galerius and Constantius Chlorus were also raised to a share in the empire, which was thus divided into four parts, of which Diocletian administered Thrace, Egypt, Syria, and Asia. As the result of his reconstitution of the empire there followed a period of brilliant successes in which the barbarians were driven back from all the frontiers, and Roman power restored from Britain to Egypt. In 305, in conjunction with Maximian, he resigned the imperial dignity at Nicomedia, and retired to Salona in Dalmatia, where he cultivated his garden in tranquillity until his death in 313. In the latter part of his reign he was induced to sanction a persecution of the Christians. Research Diocletian
The Dalmatian (or spotted carriage dog) is a Croatian (originating from the region of Dalmatia in East Croatia) breed of spotted dog half-hound and half-pointer. It was formerly known as the Danish Spotted or Coach Dog. Dalmatians were first introduced to England during the 18th century and used as coach dogs (protecting travellers from highwaymen) before becoming fashionable in England about 1820. Dalmatians are an energetic breed, good house dogs and rarely bark unless in the presence of strangers. Research Dalmatian
Caius Julius Caesar Octavianus Augustus originally called Caius Octavius,was a Roman Emperor. He was born in63 BC and died in 14 AD. He was the son of Caius Octavius and Atia, a daughter of Julia, the sister of Julius Caesar. Octavius was at Apollonia, in Epirus, when he received news of the death of his uncle in 44 BC, who had previously adopted him as his son. He returned to Rome to claim Caesar's property and avenge his death, and now took, according to usage, his uncle's name with the surname Octavianus. He was aiming secretly at the chief power, but at first he joined the republican party, and assisted at the defeat of Antony at Mutina. He got himself chosen consul in 43. Soon after the first triumvirate was formed between him and Antony and Lepidus, and this was followed by the conscription and assassination of three hundred senators and two thousand knights of the party opposed to the triumvirate. Next year Octavianus and Antony defeated the republican army under Brutus and Cassius at Philippi.
The victors now divided the Roman world between them, Octavianus getting the West, Antony the East, and Lepidus Africa. Sextus Pompeius, who had made himself formidable at sea, had now to be put down; and Lepidus, who had hitherto retained an appearance of power, was deprived of all authority in 36 BC and retired into private life. Antony and Octavianus now shared the empire between them; but while the former, in the East, gave himself up to a life of luxury, and alienated the Romans by his alliance with Cleopatra and his adoption of Oriental manners, Octavianus skilfully cultivated popularity, and soon declared war ostensibly against the Queen of Egypt. The naval victory of Actium, in which the fleet of Antony and Cleopatra was defeated, made Octavianus master of the world, in 31 BC. He returned to Rome in 29 BC, celebrated a splendid triumph, and caused the temple of Janus to be closed in token of peace being restored. Gradually all the highest offices of state, civil and religious, were united in his hands, and the new title of Augustus was also assumed by him, being formally conferred by the senate in 27 BC. Great as was the power given to him, he exercised it with wise moderation, and kept up the show of a republican form of government.
Under him successful wars were carried on in Africa and Asia (against the Parthians), in Gaul and Spain, in Pannonia, Dalmatia, etc; but the defeat of Varus by the Germans under Armmius with the loss of three legions, in 9 AD, was a great blow to him in his old age. Many useful decrees proceeded from him, and various abuses were abolished. He gave a new form to the senate, employed himself in improving the morals of the people, enacted laws for the suppression of luxury, introduced discipline into the armies, and order into the games of the circus. He adorned Rome in such a manner that it was said, ' He found it of brick, and left it of marble.' The people erected altars to him, and, by a decree of the senate, the month Sextilis was called Augustus (our August). He was a patron of literature; Virgil and Horace were befriended by him, and their works and those of their contemporaries are the glory of the Augustan Age. His death, which took place at Nola, plunged the empire into the greatest grief. He was thrice married, but had no son, and was succeeded by his stepson Tiberius, whose mother Livia he had married after prevailing on her husband to divorce her. Research Augustus
The Avars were a nation, probably of Turanian Origin, who at an early period may have migrated from the region east of the Tobol in Siberia to that about the Don, the Caspian Sea, and the Volga. A part advanced to the Danube in 555 AD, and settled in Dacia. They served in Justinian's army, aided the Lombards in destroying the kingdom of the Gepidse, and in the sixth century conquered under their khan Bajan the region of Pannonia. They then won Dalmatia, pressed into Thuringia and Italy against the Franks and Lombards, and subdued the Slavs dwelling on the Danube, as well as the Bulgarians on the Black Sea. But they were ultimately limited to Pannonia, where they were overcome by Charlemagne, and nearly extirpated by the Slavs of Moravia. After 827 they disappear from history. Traces of their fortified settlements are found, and known as Avarian rings. Research Avars
Constantius was a Roman Emperor. He was born in 250 and died in 306. He was successful as a military ruler of Dalmatia, and was appointed Caesar by the Emperor Maximian in 293. He died at York during a campaign against the Picts. Research Constantius
Edmund Halley was an English mathematician and astronomer. He was born in 1656 and died in 1742. He was educated at Queen's College, Oxford, published before he was nineteen a method for finding aphelia and eccentricity of planets, and stayed two years in St Helena from 1676 to 1678 cataloguing the stars of the southern hemisphere and arranging them into constellations. In 1682 he discovered the comet which bears his name, and his prediction of its return in 1759 was the first of its kind that proved correct. He surveyed the coast of Dalmatia at the request of the German Emperor, and, returning to England, was elected Savilian professor of geometry at Oxford in 1703. In 1713 he was made secretary of the Royal Society, and astronomer-royal in 1719. Research Edmund Halley
Enrico Caterino Davilla was an Italian historian. He was born in 1576 near Padua and died in 1631. Brought up in France, he for a time served with distinction in the French army. In 1599 he entered the Venetian service, gradually rose to the post of governor of Dalmatia, Friuli, and the island of Candia, and was shot while on his journey to take the command of the garrison of Crema. He is principally celebrated for his History of the Civil Wars of France from 1559 to 1598. Research Enrico Davila
The Goths were an ancient Teutonic tribe occupying when first known to history the region adjacent to the Black Sea north of the lower Danube. A people of similar name is mentioned by Tacitus as dwelling south of the Baltic, and Geats or Gauts are known to us from the Anglo-Saxon poemBeowulf as inhabitants of southern Sweden; but there is no necessary connection between these and the Goths proper. About the middle of the 3rdcentury these began to encroach on the Roman Empire. Having seized the Roman province of Dacia, they were assailed by Decius, whom they twice defeated. In 253 they captured Trebizond, where a large fleet of ships fell into their hands. With this force they sailed down the AEgean and plundered the coasts of Greece and Illyria. They now began to threaten Italy, but in 269 they were defeated with great slaughter by the Emperor Claudius. His successor Aurelian was, notwithstanding, compelled to cede to them the large province of Dacia, after which there was comparative peace between them for many years.
In the 4th century the great Gothic kingdom extended from the Don to the Theiss, and from the Black Sea to the Vistula and the Baltic. About the year 369 internal commotions produced the division of the Gothic kingdom into the kingdom of the Ostrogoths (eastern Goths) and the kingdom of the Visigoths (western Goths). In 396 Alaric, king of the Visigoths, made an irruption into Greece, laid waste the Peloponnesus, and became prefect of Illyria. He invaded Italy and sacked Rome in 409, and a second time in 410. After his death in 410 the Visigoths succeeded in establishing a new kingdom in the southern parts of Gaul and Spain, of which, towards the end of the 5th century, Provence, Languedoc, and Catalonia were the principal provinces, and Toulouse the seat of government. The last king, Roderick, died in 711 in battle against the Moors, who had crossed from Africa, and subsequently conquered the Gothic kingdom.
After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, by the invasion of Odoacer in 476, the Eastern emperor, Zeno, persuaded Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths, to invadeItaly in 489. The Goth became king of Italy in 493, and laid the foundation of a new Ostrogothic kingdom, which, together with Italy, comprised Khastia (a part of Switzerland and the Tyrol), Vindelicia (part of Bavaria and Swabia), Noricum (Saltzburg, Stiria, Carinthia, Austria), Dalmatia, Pannonia (Further Hungary, Slavonia), and Dacia beyond the Danube (Transylvania, Walachia). This kingdom came to an end in 554. Subsequently the Goths both here and in Spain entirely disappeared as a distinct people.
Christianity appears to have taken root early among the Goths settled in Moesia, a Gothic bishop being mentioned as present at the council of Nicaea in 325. Their form of Christianity was Arianism, which was patronized by their protector Valens, and certainly adopted by their bishop, Ulfilas. The introduction of Christianity among the Goths, and the circumstance of their dwelling near, and even among civilized subjects of the Roman Empire, greatly contributed to raising them in civilization above the other German tribes. Bishop Ulfilas, in the 4th century, translated, if not the whole, at least the greater part of the Bible into Moeso-Gothic, using an alphabet which he formed out of those of the Greeks and Romans. Unfortunately only a small portion of this translation has come down to us; but this is quite sufficient to enable us to form an opinion of the language at that time, and is of the highest value from a philological point of view. Besides this translation there exist a few other monuments of the language, which are, however, of minor importance. Gothic was one of the Teutonic tongues, being accordingly a sister of Anglo-Saxon and English, German, Dutch, Danish, etc. Being committed to writing earlier than any other Teutonic language, Gothic exhibits peculiarities entirely its own, and hence its value in the study of Teutonicphilology in general. It is richer in inflections than any other of the Teutonic tongues. Swedish is the least like the Gothic of all the Germanic dialects, and notwithstanding the name Gothland there is no evidence to show that the Goths ever formed part of the population of Scandinavia. Research Goths
Marshal Nicolas Jean de Dieu Soult (duke of Dalmatia) was a French soldier. He was born in 1769 at St Amans-la-Bastide and died in 1851. He joined the army in 1785 as an ordinary soldier and by 1794 had become a brigadier-general. His service under Massena in Switzerland and in Italy added to his reputation, and in 1804 he was made a marshal. He took part in the campaigns against the Prussians and the Austrians, and was present at Austerlitz and Eylau. In 1808 he was made a duke and transferred to Spain where he forced the British to evacuate Portugal despite his defeat at Corunna, only to be ousted by Wellington. When Napoleon abdicated, Soult switched allegiance to the new regime, only to support Napoleon once more in the Hundred Days' campaign, and went into exile after the defeat at Waterloo. In 1819 he was allowed to return to Paris, and represented France at the coronation of Queen Victoria and under Louis Philippe was minister for war from 1830 until 1834 and again from 1840 until 1844. Research Nicolas Soult
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Abbreviations
Research Diocletian
