on 04-Feb-2017 (Sat)

Rome had begun expanding shortly after the founding of the republic in the 6th century BC

Rome did not expand outside the Italian Peninsula until the 3rd century BC

Rome was an "empire" long before it had an emperor.

The Roman Republic was not a nation-state in the modern sense, but a network of towns left to rule themselves

the network of towns had varying degrees of independence from the Roman Senate

The Roman Republic had provinces administered by military commanders

The Roman Republic was ruled, not by emperors, but by annually elected magistrates (Roman Consuls above all) in conjunction with the senate.

For various reasons, the 1st century BC was a time of political and military upheaval for the Roman Republic, which ultimately led to rule by emperors.

The consuls' military power rested in the Roman legal concept of imperium, which literally means "command" (though typically in a military sense).

Occasionally, successful consuls were given the honorary title imperator (commander), and this is the origin of the word emperor (and empire) since this title (among others) was always bestowed to the early emperors upon their accession.

The Saalfeld Fairy Grottoes (in German: Saalfelder Feengrotten) are caverns or grottoes of a former mine in near Saalfeld, in the German state of Thuringia.

The Saalfeld Fairy Grottoes have long been famous for their countless colorful mineral formations (speleothems) formed over many years by water dripping through relatively soft rock. Since 1993, the Guinness Book of World Records has termed the Feengrotten "the most colorful cave grottoes in the world."

The Saalfeld Fairy Grotto caverns consist of three chambers connected by galleries. In the first chamber, information is presented about the history of the mine — in the 16th to 19th centuries an alum shale mine that was closed in 1850 but opened for sightseeing in 1914.

In the first chamber of the Saalfeld Fairy Grotto, the historical background of the mine is presented, including information about environmental radiation treatments formerly offered there until such treatments were found to be hazardous.

In the second chamber of the Saalfeld Fairy Grotto caverns is found the source of the mineral-laden water that formed colorful stalagmites, stalactites and other shapes over the centuries.

The third chamber of the Saalfeld Fairy Grotto caverns contains the famed "Fairy Kingdom" ( Märchendom), featuring a variegated grouping of deposits that, illuminated by theatrical lights and reflected in a perfectly still pool of water, is thought to resemble miniature castles and other buildings.

Historically, alum was employed in a range of medicinal products, as a food preservative and in clarifying water. However, in the 19th century more effective chemical compounds were developed, and alum ceased to be a profitable mining product.

By the 20th century, the Feengrotten (Saalfeld Fairy Grottoes) had been largely forgotten. But in 1910 the old mine was rediscovered and explorers took note of the fantastic mineral deposits that had accumulated over the geologically short period of three centuries.

In 1913 the third chamber of the Saalfeld Fairy Grottoes with the "Fairy Kingdom" was discovered, and shortly before the outbreak of World War I in 1914 tours began to be offered to the public.^[3] At that time a pavilion with café was opened that remained in use in the following decades — including the post-World War II German Democratic Republic, which categorized the Feengrotten as an official Sehenswürdigkeit (point of Interest) of the GDR, open to foreign tourists. Following German unification, the pavilion was renovated beginning in 1998, and new facilities were added.

Between 1914 and 2007, more than 20 million people visited the Saalfeld Fairy grottoes, which annually draw an average of 160,000 visitors

Rome suffered a long series of internal conflicts, conspiracies and civil wars from the late second century BC onwards, while greatly extending its power beyond Italy. This was the period of the Crisis of the Roman Republic.

Towards the end of this era (Crisis of the Roman Republic), in 44 BC, Julius Caesar was briefly perpetual dictator before being assassinated.

The faction of his assassins was driven from Rome and defeated at the Battle of Philippi in 42 BC by an army led by Mark Antony and Caesar's adopted son Octavian. Antony and Octavian's division of the Roman world between themselves did not last and Octavian's forces defeated those of Antony and Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC.

In 27 BC the Senate and People of Rome made Octavian princeps ("first citizen") with proconsular imperium, thus beginning the Principate (the first epoch of Roman imperial history, usually dated from 27 BC to AD 284), and gave him the name "Augustus" ("the venerated").

Though the old constitutional machinery remained in place, Augustus came to predominate it. Although the republic stood in name, contemporaries of Augustus knew it was just a veil and that Augustus had all meaningful authority in Rome. ^[20] Since his rule ended a century of civil wars and began an unprecedented period of peace and prosperity, he was so loved that he came to hold the power of a monarch de facto if not de jure. During the years of his rule, a new constitutional order emerged (in part organically and in part by design), so that, upon his death, this new constitutional order operated as before when Tiberius was accepted as the new emperor.

The 200 years that began with Augustus's rule is traditionally regarded as the Pax Romana ("Roman Peace"). During this period, the cohesion of the empire was furthered by a degree of social stability and economic prosperity that Rome had never before experienced. Uprisings in the provinces were infrequent, but put down "mercilessly and swiftly" when they occurred.

The sixty years of Jewish–Roman wars in the second half of the 1st century and the first half of the 2nd century were exceptional in their duration and violence.

The 200 years that began with Augustus's rule is traditionally regarded as the Pax Romana ("Roman Peace"). During this period, the cohesion of the empire was furthered by a degree of social stability and economic prosperity that Rome had never before experienced. Uprisings in the provinces were infrequent, but put down "mercilessly and swiftly" when they occurred.

The success of Augustus in establishing principles of dynastic succession was limited by his outliving a number of talented potential heirs.

The Julio-Claudian dynasty lasted for four more emperors — Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius and Nero — before it yielded in 69 AD to the strife-torn Year of Four Emperors, from which Vespasian emerged as victor.

Vespasian became the founder of the brief Flavian dynasty, to be followed by the Nerva–Antonine dynasty which produced the "Five Good Emperors": Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and the philosophically-inclined Marcus Aurelius.

In the view of the Greek historian Dio Cassius, a contemporary observer, the accession of the emperor Commodus in 180 AD marked the descent "from a kingdom of gold to one of rust and iron"^[23]—a famous comment which has led some historians^{[ attribution needed ]}, notably Edward Gibbon, to take Commodus' reign as the beginning of the decline of the Roman Empire.

In 212, during the reign of Caracalla, Roman citizenship was granted to all freeborn inhabitants of the empire. But despite this gesture of universality, the Severan dynasty was tumultuous — an emperor's reign was ended routinely by his murder or execution — and, following its collapse, the Roman Empire was engulfed by the Crisis of the Third Century, a period of invasions, civil strife, economic disorder, and plague.^[24] In defining historical epochs, this crisis is sometimes viewed as marking the transition from Classical Antiquity to Late Antiquity. Aurelian (reigned 270–275) brought the empire back from the brink and stabilized it.

Diocletian completed the work of fully restoring the empire, but declined the role of princeps and became the first emperor to be addressed regularly as domine, "master" or "lord".^[25] This marked the end of the Principate, and the beginning of the Dominate. Diocletian's reign also brought the empire's most concerted effort against the perceived threat of Christianity, the "Great Persecution". The state of absolute monarchy that began with Diocletian endured until the fall of the Eastern Roman Empire in 1453.

Diocletian divided the empire into four regions, each ruled by a separate emperor, the Tetrarchy.^[26] Confident that he fixed the disorders that were plaguing Rome, he abdicated along with his co-emperor, and the Tetrarchy soon collapsed.

Order was eventually restored by Constantine the Great, who became the first emperor to convert to Christianity, and who established Constantinople as the new capital of the eastern empire. During the decades of the Constantinian and Valentinian dynasties, the empire was divided along an east–west axis, with dual power centres in Constantinople and Rome.

The reign of Julian, who attempted to restore Classical Roman and Hellenistic religion, only briefly interrupted the succession of Christian emperors.

Theodosius I, the last emperor to rule over both East and West, died in 395 AD after making Christianity the official religion of the empire.

The Western Roman Empire began to disintegrate in the early 5th century as Germanic migrations and invasions overwhelmed the capacity of the Empire to assimilate the migrants and fight off the invaders.

The Romans were successful in fighting off all invaders, most famously Attila,^{[ citation needed ]} though the empire had assimilated so many Germanic peoples of dubious loyalty to Rome that the empire started to dismember itself.

Most chronologies place the end of the Western Roman Empire in 476, when Romulus Augustulus was forced to abdicate to the Germanic warlord Odoacer.

By placing himself under the rule of the Eastern Emperor, rather than naming himself Emperor (as other Germanic chiefs had done after deposing past emperors), Odoacer ended the Western Empire by ending the line of Western emperors.

The empire in the East — often known as the Byzantine Empire, but referred to in its time as the Roman Empire or by various other names — had a different fate. It survived for almost a millennium after the fall of its Western counterpart and became the most stable Christian realm during the Middle Ages.

During the 6th century, Justinian I reconquered Northern Africa and Italy. But within a few years of Justinian's death, Byzantine possessions in Italy were greatly reduced by the Lombards who settled in the peninsula.

In the east, partially resulting from the destructive Plague of Justinian, the Romans were threatened by the rise of Islam, whose followers rapidly conquered the territories of Syria, Armenia and Egypt during the Byzantine-Arab Wars, and soon presented a direct threat to Constantinople.^[30][31] In the following century, the Arabs also captured southern Italy and Sicily.^[32] Slavic populations were also able to penetrate deep into the Balkans.^[

The Romans, however, managed to stop further Islamic expansion into their lands during the 8th century and, beginning in the 9th century, reclaimed parts of the conquered lands.^[33] In 1000 AD, the Eastern Empire was at its height: Basil II reconquered Bulgaria and Armenia, culture and trade flourished.

However, soon after, the expansion was abruptly stopped in 1071 with the Byzantine defeat in the Battle of Manzikert. The aftermath of this important battle sent the empire into a protracted period of decline.

Two decades of internal strife and Turkic invasions ultimately paved the way for Emperor Alexios I Komnenos to send a call for help to the Western European kingdoms in 1095.

The West responded with the Crusades, eventually resulting in the Sack of Constantinople by participants in the Fourth Crusade.

The conquest of Constantinople in 1204 fragmented what remained of the Empire into successor states, the ultimate victor being that of Nicaea.

After the recapture of Constantinople by Imperial forces, the Empire was little more than a Greek state confined to the Aegean coast.

The Roman Empire finally collapsed when Mehmed the Conqueror conquered Constantinople on 29 May 1453.