The Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium ( Latin for "Moral Letters to Lucilius "), also known as the Moral Epistles and Letters from a Stoic , is a letter collection of 124 letters that Seneca the Younger wrote at the end of his life, during his retirement, after he had worked for the Emperor Nero for more than ten years. They are addressed to Lucilius Junior , the then procurator of Sicily , who is known only through Seneca's writings.
130-732: Baiae ( Italian : Baia ; Neapolitan : Baia ) was an ancient Roman town situated on the northwest shore of the Gulf of Naples and now in the comune of Bacoli . It was a fashionable resort for centuries in antiquity, particularly towards the end of the Roman Republic , when it was reckoned as superior to Capri , Pompeii , and Herculaneum by wealthy Romans, who built villas here from 100 BC. Ancient authors attest that many emperors built in Baia, almost in competition with their predecessors, and they and their courts often stayed there. It
260-418: A balcony inside overlooking the pool. Its name is due to a statue of the goddess said to have been found there, leading to mistaken identity. D'Ossat noted in 1942 that the dome was umbrella-shaped, indeed it was an even more sophisticated variant, composed of sixteen segments alternately spherical and veloidic. There were no such domes before Hadrian, nor anything that remotely resembled them. Indeed domes with
390-486: A century later. The lower part of Baiae was largely submerged by the sea by the 8th century. Baiae was sacked during the barbarian invasions and again by Muslim raiders in the 8th century. It was deserted owing to recurrent malaria by 1500, but Pedro de Toledo erected a castle, the Castello di Baia , in the 16th century. The bay of Baia constitutes the remains of an ancient crater partly submerged in and invaded by
520-435: A cold spring, presumably in 63 AD. Letter 67 refers to the end of a cold spring and is thought (to allow forty-three intervening letters) to have been written the following year. Letter 91 refers to the great fire of Lugdunum (Lyon) that took place in the late summer of 64. Letter 122 refers to the shrinking daylight hours of autumn. Other chronologies are possible – in particular if letters 23 and 67 refer to
650-456: A complete picture of that gradually becoming clear today as a result of research in the submerged archaeological area. Baiae was said to have been named after Baius ( ‹See Tfd› Greek : Βαῖος , Baîos ), the helmsman of Odysseus 's ship in Homer 's Odyssey , who was supposedly buried nearby. The adjacent " Baian Gulf " ( Latin : Sinus Baianus ) was named after the town. It now forms
780-466: A complex system of chambers that channelled underground heat into facilities that acted as saunas . In addition to their recreational function, the baths were used in Roman medicine to treat various illnesses and physicians would attend their patients at the springs. This colossal ogival dome, today half collapsed, originally collected vapours coming from the ground below and was used for thermal baths. It
910-535: A fashionable resort for the Roman aristocracy. Marius , Lucullus , and Pompey all frequented it. Julius Caesar had a villa there, and much of the town became imperial property under Augustus . From 36 BC, Baiae included Portus Julius , the base of the western fleet of the Roman Navy before it was abandoned because of the silting up of Lake Lucrinus (from which a short channel led to Lake Avernus ) for
1040-491: A gold cloak, he then crossed it upon a horse. Cassius Dio 's Roman History also includes the event, with the detail that the emperor ordered resting places and lodging rooms with potable water erected at intervals along the bridge. As late as the 18th century, scattered fragments were still being shown to tourists as the "Bridge of Caligula". Malloch has argued that Suetonius's account was likely coloured by his bias against Caligula; instead, he claims that "the act of bridging
1170-565: A huge number of civil servants and soldiers recruited from all over the country introduced many more words and idioms from their home languages— ciao is derived from the Venetian word s-cia[v]o ("slave", that is "your servant"), panettone comes from the Lombard word panetton , etc. Only 2.5% of Italy's population could speak the Italian standardized language properly when
1300-471: A little over one million people in the United States speak Italian at home. Nevertheless, an Italian language media market does exist in the country. In Canada, Italian is the second most spoken non-official language when varieties of Chinese are not grouped together, with 375,645 claiming Italian as their mother tongue in 2016. Italian immigrants to South America have also brought a presence of
1430-657: A local vernacular. These dialects, as they are commonly referred to, evolved from Vulgar Latin over the course of centuries, unaffected by formal standards and teachings. They are not in any sense "dialects" of standard Italian, which itself started off as one of these local tongues, but sister languages of Italian. Mutual intelligibility with Italian varies widely, as it does with Romance languages in general. The Romance languages of Italy can differ greatly from Italian at all levels ( phonology , morphology , syntax , lexicon , pragmatics ) and are classified typologically as distinct languages. The standard Italian language has
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#17327809952261560-491: A long time the letters did not circulate together; instead they appear as two distinct groups: Letters 1 to 88 and Letters 89 to 124. Early manuscripts for the first group of the letters, 1 to 88, are: For the second group of the letters, 89 to 124, there is only a limited selection of early manuscripts. The best manuscripts are: In 1913 Achille Beltrami announced the discovery of the earliest manuscript which combined both groups. Codex Quirinianus (or Brixiensis ), Q ,
1690-436: A magnificent panorama of the gulf below. Traces of precious stucco can be seen on the brick structure of the central pillars. On the upper terrace were the residential areas, once richly decorated with several rooms dedicated to leisure. The third terrace is now transformed into a tree-lined garden. The fourth terrace was for service areas. On the fifth terrace are several rooms probably used as places to stay and rest, open to
1820-415: A nymphaeum from which flowed the water that fed an existing large external circular tank. On the peristyle of the lower terrace are paintings from two successive periods: those with an Egyptian taste (characters and symbols of the cult of Isis) from the middle of the 1st century AD; these are largely covered by paintings of the 2nd century, which depict male and female figures within architectural schemes. In
1950-658: A poetic and literary origin in the works of Tuscan writers of the 12th century, and, although the grammar and core lexicon are basically unchanged from those used in Florence in the 13th century, the modern standard of the language was largely shaped by relatively recent events. However, Romance vernacular as language spoken in the Italian Peninsula has a longer history. In fact, the earliest surviving texts that can definitely be called vernacular (as distinct from its predecessor Vulgar Latin) are legal formulae known as
2080-534: A quotidian incident, which is then abstracted to a far wider exploration of an issue or principle. In letter 7, for instance, Seneca reports a chance visit to an arena gladiatorial combat, fought to the death; he then questions the morality and ethics of such a spectacle, in what is the first extant record of a pre-Christian writer expressing moral qualms on the matter. Seneca frequently quotes Latin poets, especially Virgil , but also Ovid , Horace , and Lucretius . Seneca also quotes Publilius Syrus , such as during
2210-403: A range of devices for particular effects, such as ironic parataxis , hypotactic periods, direct speech interventions and rhetorical techniques such as alliterations , chiasmus , polyptoton , paradoxes , antitheses , oxymoron , etymological figures and so forth. In addition there are neologisms and hapax legomena . The oldest manuscripts of the letters date from the ninth-century. For
2340-417: A renewed interest in linguistics in the 16th century, sparked a debate that raged throughout Italy concerning the criteria that should govern the establishment of a modern Italian literary and spoken language. This discussion, known as questione della lingua (i.e., the problem of the language ), ran through the Italian culture until the end of the 19th century, often linked to the political debate on achieving
2470-575: A result. Starting in late medieval times in much of Europe and the Mediterranean, Latin was replaced as the primary commercial language by languages of Italy, especially Tuscan and Venetian. These varieties were consolidated during the Renaissance with the strength of Italy and the rise of humanism and the arts . Italy came to enjoy increasing artistic prestige within Europe. A mark of
2600-427: A seven-vowel system, consisting of /a, ɛ, e, i, ɔ, o, u/ , as well as 23 consonants. Compared with most other Romance languages, Italian phonology is conservative, preserving many words nearly unchanged from Vulgar Latin . Some examples: Epistulae morales ad Lucilium The letters often begin with an observation on daily life, and then proceed to an issue or principle abstracted from that observation. The result
2730-479: A single language is that they have evolved so that they are no longer mutually intelligible ; this diagnostic is effective if mutual intelligibility is minimal or absent (e.g. in Romance, Romanian and Portuguese), but it fails in cases such as Spanish-Portuguese or Spanish-Italian, as educated native speakers of either pairing can understand each other well if they choose to do so; however, the level of intelligibility
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#17327809952262860-513: A united Italian state. Renaissance scholars divided into three main factions: A fourth faction claimed that the best Italian was the one that the papal court adopted, which was a mixture of the Tuscan and Roman dialects. Eventually, Bembo's ideas prevailed, and the foundation of the Accademia della Crusca in Florence (1582–1583), the official legislative body of the Italian language, led to
2990-431: A water channel ran around the perimeter of the room. A horseshoe-shaped marble bed at the end of the pool is a stibadium , a convivial dining couch like the one described by Pliny for his villa; this was placed between the water channel that ran around the walls and the large central basin. Water gushed from some statues placed in the niches on the long sides of the triclinium and from that of Baios (Ulysses' helmsman) in
3120-427: Is 89% with French, 87% with Catalan , 85% with Sardinian , 82% with Spanish, 80% with Portuguese , 78% with Ladin , 77% with Romanian . Estimates may differ according to sources. One study, analyzing the degree of differentiation of Romance languages in comparison to Latin (comparing phonology , inflection , discourse , syntax , vocabulary , and intonation ), estimated that distance between Italian and Latin
3250-691: Is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire . Italian is the least divergent language from Latin , together with Sardinian (meaning that Italian and Sardinian are the most conservative Romance languages). Spoken by about 85 million people, including 67 million native speakers (2024), Italian is an official language in Italy , San Marino , Switzerland ( Ticino and
3380-533: Is a 9th or 10th century manuscript from the Biblioteca Queriniana, Brescia containing letters 1–120.12. The letters began to be widely circulated together from the twelfth-century onwards, and around four hundred manuscripts of Seneca's letters are known. The letters were first printed at Naples in 1475. They were printed in an edition with most of the Seneca's other works, and with works by
3510-407: Is also a part of the temple of Apollo, next to which one can see the chamber of the nymphs that delight themselves in different spectacles. At the top of it, I saw many figures and bas-reliefs , very strange and beautiful, as the entrance is still reasonably well preserved." The so-called "Temple of Mercury" contains a large 21.5 m (71 ft) diameter dome , the largest in the world prior to
3640-759: Is also spoken by a minority in Monaco and France, especially in the southeastern part of the country. Italian was the official language in Savoy and in Nice until 1860, when they were both annexed by France under the Treaty of Turin , a development that triggered the " Niçard exodus ", or the emigration of a quarter of the Niçard Italians to Italy, and the Niçard Vespers . Giuseppe Garibaldi complained about
3770-534: Is higher than that between Sardinian and Latin. In particular, its vowels are the second-closest to Latin after Sardinian . As in most Romance languages, stress is distinctive. Italian is the official language of Italy and San Marino and is spoken fluently by the majority of the countries' populations. Italian is the third most spoken language in Switzerland (after German and French; see Swiss Italian ), although its use there has moderately declined since
3900-464: Is identified as a room of Claudius 's villa, a complex arranged in terraces from the top of the promontory extending into the sea up to about 400 m offshore. The room is similar to the triclinium-nymphaeum at Tiberius ’s villa at Sperlonga intended for luxurious dining and with similar decoration and statues from the Odyssean cycle. In each of the side walls were four niches housing a statue, while
4030-400: Is like a diary, or handbook of philosophical meditations. The letters focus on many traditional themes of Stoic philosophy such as the contempt of death, the stout-heartedness of the sage, and virtue as the supreme good. Scholars generally agree that the letters are arranged in the order in which Seneca wrote them. The 124 letters are arranged in twenty manuscript volumes, but the collection
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4160-460: Is markedly lower between Italian-Spanish, and considerably higher between the Iberian sister languages of Portuguese-Spanish. Speakers of this latter pair can communicate with one another with remarkable ease, each speaking to the other in his own native language without slang/jargon. Nevertheless, on the basis of accumulated differences in morphology, syntax, phonology, and to some extent lexicon, it
4290-504: Is neither a co-official nor a protected language in these countries. Some speakers of Italian are native bilinguals of both Italian (either in its standard form or regional varieties ) and a local language of Italy , most frequently the language spoken at home in their place of origin. Italian is a major language in Europe, being one of the official languages of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe and one of
4420-406: Is not complete. Aulus Gellius (mid-2nd century) quotes an extract from the "twenty-second book", so some letters are missing. However since the fire of Lyon mentioned in letter 91 took place less than a year before Seneca's death (in spring 65) the number of missing letters is not thought to be very many. Collectively the letters constitute Seneca's longest work. Although addressed to Lucilius,
4550-462: Is not difficult to identify that for the Romance varieties of Italy, the first extant written evidence of languages that can no longer be considered Latin comes from the ninth and tenth centuries C.E. These written sources demonstrate certain vernacular characteristics and sometimes explicitly mention the use of the vernacular in Italy. Full literary manifestations of the vernacular began to surface around
4680-648: Is the main working language of the Holy See , serving as the lingua franca (common language) in the Roman Catholic hierarchy as well as the official language of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta . Italian has a significant use in musical terminology and opera with numerous Italian words referring to music that have become international terms taken into various languages worldwide. Almost all native Italian words end with vowels , and
4810-549: Is used, and the town of Chipilo near Puebla, Mexico; each continues to use a derived form of Venetian dating back to the 19th century. Other examples are Cocoliche , an Italian–Spanish pidgin once spoken in Argentina and especially in Buenos Aires , and Lunfardo . The Rioplatense Spanish dialect of Argentina and Uruguay today has thus been heavily influenced by both standard Italian and Italian regional languages as
4940-454: Is writing in response to a letter from Lucilius, although there is unlikely to have been a strict back-and-forth exchange of letters. Even if both writers had access to the imperial mail service, a letter from central Italy to Sicily would have taken four to eight days to travel. In many instances Seneca probably composed letters as a new subject occurred to him. The letters tend to become longer over time, interspersed with some short ones, and
5070-509: The Il Globo (Australia) and the La gazzetta del Sud Africa (South Africa). Italian is widely taught in many schools around the world, but rarely as the first foreign language. In the 21st century, technology also allows for the continual spread of the Italian language, as people have new ways to learn how to speak, read, and write languages at their own pace and at any given time. For example,
5200-991: The La Voce del Popolo ( Croatia ), the Corriere d'Italia (Germany), the L'italoeuropeo (United Kingdom), the Passaparola ( Luxembourg ), the America Oggi (United States), the Corriere Canadese and the Corriere Italiano (Canada), the Il punto d'incontro (Mexico), the L'Italia del Popolo ( Argentina ), the Fanfulla (Brazil), the Gente d'Italia ( Uruguay ), the La Voce d'Italia ( Venezuela ),
5330-517: The Augustan Age describes it as a "den of licentiousness and vice". In the 1st century, "Baiae and Vice" formed one of the moral epistles written by Seneca the Younger ; he described it as a "vortex of luxury" and a "harbour of vice" where girls went to play at being girls, old women as girls and some men as girls according to a first century BC wag. Nero had a notable villa constructed in
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5460-601: The Bay of Naples was an excellent and safe means by which to lay the foundation for [Caligula's] military glory ." It never attained municipal status , being administered throughout by nearby Cumae . At the end of the 4th century, the fabulously wealthy consul Symmachus , who owned several villas in the Bay of Naples, including one called the praetorium in Baiae, wrote of the calm offered by his villa at Bauli (probably Bacoli ). In
5590-474: The Cyclops drunk and then blinds him. The main statuary group was housed in the apse dominating the hall of which the figure of Ulysses survives, represented in the act of offering Polyphemus the cup of wine, and one of his companions carrying the skin. Cyclops probably occupied the central position. Of the eight statues in the side niches, four were in an excellent state of conservation: two are in keeping with
5720-702: The Gallo-Italic linguistic panorama of Northern Italy , the Italo-Dalmatian , Neapolitan and its related dialects were largely unaffected by the Franco- Occitan influences introduced to Italy mainly by bards from France during the Middle Ages, but after the Norman conquest of southern Italy , Sicily became the first Italian land to adopt Occitan lyric moods (and words) in poetry. Even in
5850-852: The Grisons ), Corsica , and Vatican City . It has official minority status in Croatia , Slovenian Istria , and the municipalities of Santa Tereza and Encantado in Brazil . Italian is also spoken by large immigrant and expatriate communities in the Americas and Australia . Italian is included under the languages covered by the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages in Bosnia and Herzegovina and in Romania , although Italian
5980-674: The Kingdom of Italy in the Dodecanese ). Italian is widely spoken in Malta , where nearly two-thirds of the population can speak it fluently (see Maltese Italian ). Italian served as Malta's official language until 1934, when it was abolished by the British colonial administration amid strong local opposition. Italian language in Slovenia is an officially recognized minority language in
6110-773: The Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia ), although the masses kept speaking primarily their local vernaculars. Italian was also one of the many recognised languages in the Austro-Hungarian Empire . Italy has always had a distinctive dialect for each city because the cities, until recently, were thought of as city-states . Those dialects now have considerable variety . As Tuscan-derived Italian came to be used throughout Italy, features of local speech were naturally adopted, producing various versions of Regional Italian . The most characteristic differences, for instance, between Roman Italian and Milanese Italian are syntactic gemination of initial consonants in some contexts and
6240-666: The Parco Archeologico delle Terme di Baia . The views and architecture of Baiae were so memorable that they inspired scenes to be depicted on ancient glass flasks made for visitors (probably in Puteoli in the late 3rd to early 4th century AD) many of which have been found scattered throughout the empire, and today kept in many museums notably in Populonia , Empúries and Warsaw. The one in Warsaw in particular seems to give
6370-554: The Placiti Cassinesi from the province of Benevento that date from 960 to 963, although the Veronese Riddle , probably from the 8th or early 9th century, contains a late form of Vulgar Latin that can be seen as a very early sample of a vernacular dialect of Italy. The Commodilla catacomb inscription is also a similar case. The Italian language has progressed through a long and slow process, which started after
6500-528: The Western Roman Empire's fall in the 5th century. The language that came to be thought of as Italian developed in central Tuscany and was first formalized in the early 14th century through the works of Tuscan writer Dante Alighieri , written in his native Florentine . Dante's epic poems, known collectively as the Commedia , to which another Tuscan poet Giovanni Boccaccio later affixed
6630-464: The elder Seneca . The letters were then published separately, also in 1475, at Paris, Rome, and Strasbourg. Erasmus produced a much superior edition in 1529. Michel de Montaigne was influenced by his reading of Seneca's letters, and he modelled his Essays on them. The letters were a principal source for Justus Lipsius for the development of his Neostoicism towards the end of the 16th century. There have been several full translations of
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#17327809952266760-532: The 111 Italian lecturer sections belonging to foreign schools where Italian is taught as a language of culture. As of 2022, Australia had the highest number of students learning Italian in the world. This occurred because of support by the Italian community in Australia and the Italian Government and also because of successful educational reform efforts led by local governments in Australia. From
6890-643: The 124 letters ever since Thomas Lodge included a translation in his complete works of 1614. There have been many selected and abridged translations of Seneca's letters. Recent editions include: The tag Vita sine litteris mors ('Life without learning [is] death') is adapted from Epistle 82 (originally Otium sine litteris mors , 'Leisure without learning [is] death') and is the motto of Derby School and Derby Grammar School in England, Adelphi University , New York , and Manning's High School, Jamaica . Ducunt volentem fata, nolentem trahunt ('The fates lead
7020-510: The 13th century in the form of various religious texts and poetry. Although these are the first written records of Italian varieties separate from Latin, the spoken language had probably diverged long before the first written records appeared since those who were literate generally wrote in Latin even if they spoke other Romance varieties in person. Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, the use of Standard Italian became increasingly widespread and
7150-562: The 1970s. It is official both on the national level and on regional level in two cantons : Ticino and Grisons . In the latter canton, however, it is only spoken by a small minority, in the Italian Grisons . Ticino, which includes Lugano , the largest Italian-speaking city outside Italy, is the only canton where Italian is predominant. Italian is also used in administration and official documents in Vatican City . Italian
7280-795: The Campi Flegrei Archaeological Park. The mosaic included crossing braids and hexagons with concave sides. Among the most significant and remarkable remains are several domed baths buildings such as the great so-called Temple of Mercury , the Temple of Venus , and the Temple of Diana . They were traditionally credited to some of the more famous residents of the town's villas, although they were not temples but parts of thermal baths. The public and private baths of Baiae were filled with warm mineral water directed to their pools from underground hot springs , as many still are today. Roman engineers were also able to construct
7410-543: The Castle of Baia, while copies were placed in their original position in the submerged site. The museum contains a realistic reconstruction of the nymphaeum. South-east of the Punta Epitaffio are the imposing remains of the villa Pisoni from the end of the 1st century BC which initially belonged to the powerful Calpurnia family from which Calpurnia (wife of Caesar) , senators, proconsuls, consuls and popes came. It
7540-570: The English antiquary Thomas Hope began displaying it in his gallery on Duchess Street in London. The important archaeological remains were intensively excavated from 1941, revealing layers of buildings, villas and thermal complexes belonging to periods from the late Republican age, the Augustan, Hadrianic to the late Empire. A cache of plaster casts of Hellenistic sculptures was discovered in
7670-417: The Italian dialects has declined in the modern era , as Italy unified under Standard Italian and continues to do so aided by mass media from newspapers to radio to television, diglossia is still frequently encountered in Italy and triglossia is not uncommon in emigrant communities among older speakers. Both situations normally involve some degree of code-switching and code-mixing . Notes: Italian has
7800-489: The Italian language into a lingua franca used not only among clerks, nobility, and functionaries in the Italian courts but also by the bourgeoisie . Italian literature's first modern novel, I promessi sposi ( The Betrothed ) by Alessandro Manzoni , further defined the standard by "rinsing" his Milanese "in the waters of the Arno " ( Florence 's river), as he states in the preface to his 1840 edition. After unification,
7930-453: The Mediterranean of archaeological and natural protection underwater. In 1969 a remarkable and high quality marble sculptural group was discovered about 7 m deep on the seabed in front of Punta Epitaffio. A systematic excavation was later carried out and found a large rectangular room of about 18 x 10 m with a semicircular apse at one end, entirely covered in marble and with a large pool in the centre. This triclinium - nymphaeum (banquet hall)
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#17327809952268060-497: The Mediterranean. The increasing political and cultural relevance of Florence during the periods of the rise of the Medici Bank , humanism , and the Renaissance made its dialect, or rather a refined version of it, a standard in the arts. The Renaissance era, known as il Rinascimento in Italian, was seen as a time of rebirth, which is the literal meaning of both renaissance (from French) and rinascimento (Italian). During this time, long-existing beliefs stemming from
8190-439: The apse, by means of small lead tubes inserted into the marble. The decoration was aimed at recreating the atmosphere of a sea cave by the rough natural rocks that covered the apse, the lateral niches and the entrance arch and the water that flowed in the lateral channel and in the central pool. It replicated the episode from the Odyssey in which Ulysses, a prisoner together with his companions in Polyphemus 's cave, tries to get
8320-400: The bay, completely submerged by the waters, are the remains of the commercial ports of Baiae (Lacus Baianus) and the Portus Julius. Further west was the port of Cape Misenum, the base of the Roman imperial fleet. Mosaics, traces of frescoes, sculptures, road layouts and columns are also well-preserved about 5 m below sea level. The protected areas were established in 2002 as a unique example in
8450-444: The case of Northern Italian languages, however, scholars are careful not to overstate the effects of outsiders on the natural indigenous developments of the languages. The economic might and relatively advanced development of Tuscany at the time ( Late Middle Ages ) gave its language weight, although Venetian remained widespread in medieval Italian commercial life, and Ligurian (or Genoese) remained in use in maritime trade alongside
8580-557: The cellar of the Baths of Sosandra at Baiae; they are now displayed at the town's archaeological museum. The collection includes parts of several famous sculptures, including Athens 's Harmodius and Aristogeiton and the Athena of Velletri . It suggests that the area had a workshop mass-producing marble or bronze copies of Greek art for the Italian market. In April 2023 the sunken remains of an ancient Roman villa including marble tiled flooring, numerous marble columns and an ornate mosaic were discovered by underwater archaeologists from
8710-455: The colonial period. In the early 19th century, Eritrea was the country with the highest number of Italians abroad, and the Italian Eritreans grew from 4,000 during World War I to nearly 100,000 at the beginning of World War II. In Asmara there are two Italian schools, the Italian School of Asmara (Italian primary school with a Montessori department) and the Liceo Sperimentale "G. Marconi" (Italian international senior high school). Italian
8840-487: The construction of Rome 's Pantheon in 128 AD. The dome has a central hole or oculus , four square skylights , was made with large tuff blocks, and is the oldest known surviving dome made of concrete . Built in the 1st century BC during the late Roman Republic , it was used to enclose the frigidarium or cold pool of the public baths . From the eighteenth century descriptions it appeared to have had six niches of which four were semicircular. This domed building
8970-405: The country (some 0.42% of the total population). Their numbers dropped dramatically after World War II following the Istrian–Dalmatian exodus , which caused the emigration of between 230,000 and 350,000 Istrian Italians and Dalmatian Italians. Italian was the official language of the Republic of Ragusa from 1492 to 1807. It formerly had official status in Albania due to the annexation of
9100-408: The country to the Kingdom of Italy (1939–1943). Albania has a large population of non-native speakers, with over half of the population having some knowledge of the Italian language. The Albanian government has pushed to make Italian a compulsory second language in schools. The Italian language is well-known and studied in Albania, due to its historical ties and geographical proximity to Italy and to
9230-446: The country. A few hundred Italian settlers returned to Libya in the 2000s. Italian was the official language of Eritrea during Italian colonisation . Italian is today used in commerce, and it is still spoken especially among elders; besides that, Italian words are incorporated as loan words in the main language spoken in the country (Tigrinya). The capital city of Eritrea, Asmara , still has several Italian schools, established during
9360-525: The country. The official census, carried out in 2002, reported 2,258 ethnic Italians ( Istrian Italians ) in Slovenia (0.11% of the total population). Italian language in Croatia is an official minority language in the country, with many schools and public announcements published in both languages. The 2001 census in Croatia reported 19,636 ethnic Italians (Istrian Italians and Dalmatian Italians ) in
9490-464: The design and fashion industries, in some sports such as football and especially in culinary terms. In Italy, almost all the other languages spoken as the vernacular —other than standard Italian and some languages spoken among immigrant communities—are often called " Italian dialects ", a label that can be very misleading if it is understood to mean "dialects of Italian". The Romance dialects of Italy are local evolutions of spoken Latin that pre-date
9620-588: The diffusion of Italian television in the country. Due to heavy Italian influence during the Italian colonial period , Italian is still understood by some in former colonies such as Libya. Although it was the primary language in Libya since colonial rule , Italian greatly declined under the rule of Muammar Gaddafi , who expelled the Italian Libyan population and made Arabic the sole official language of
9750-481: The early 6th century, the Ostragothic king Athalaric admired the beauty of the area for its bay, the quality of its oysters and baths of natural waters with health restoring powers. The lowering of the ground close to the coast below sea level, due to bradyseism , seems to have occurred in two phases: between the third and fifth centuries, still in the late Imperial era, followed by a more substantial submersion
9880-478: The educated gentlemen was to make the Grand Tour , visiting Italy to see its great historical monuments and works of art. It was expected that the visitor would learn at least some Italian, understood as language based on Florentine. In England, while the classical languages Latin and Greek were the first to be learned, Italian became the second most common modern language after French, a position it held until
10010-626: The eighth letter, "On the Philosopher's Seclusion". Seneca's letters focus on the inner life and the joy that comes from wisdom. He emphasizes the Stoic theme that virtue is the only true good and vice the only true evil. He repeatedly refers to the brevity of life and the fleeting passage of time. Underlying a large number of the letters is a concern with death on the one hand (a central topic of Stoic philosophy, and one embodied in Seneca's observation that we are "dying every day") and suicide on
10140-462: The establishment of Italian, and as such are sister languages to the Tuscan that was the historical source of Italian. They can be quite different from Italian and from each other, with some belonging to different linguistic branches of Romance. The only exceptions to this are twelve groups considered " historical language minorities ", which are officially recognized as distinct minority languages by
10270-433: The fact that it was linguistically an intermediate between the northern and the southern Italian dialects. Thus the dialect of Florence became the basis for what would become the official language of Italy. Italian was progressively made an official language of most of the Italian states predating unification, slowly replacing Latin, even when ruled by foreign powers (such as Spain in the Kingdom of Naples , or Austria in
10400-598: The first nucleus of the villa exceptional architectonic solutions were adopted on the ancient promontory in front of Punta Epitaffio with an impressive modification of the original landscape, using artificial piers and quays built directly in the sea, using the astonishing advantages of pozzolana volcanic ash of Campania in the setting of pilae and concrete buildings in submerged or partially submerged conditions. Italian language Italian ( italiano , pronounced [itaˈljaːno] , or lingua italiana , pronounced [ˈliŋɡwa itaˈljaːna] )
10530-476: The free website and application Duolingo has 4.94 million English speakers learning the Italian language. According to the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs , every year there are more than 200,000 foreign students who study the Italian language; they are distributed among the 90 Institutes of Italian Culture that are located around the world, in the 179 Italian schools located abroad, or in
10660-474: The intended use of the room as a banquet hall, being figures of the young Dionysus with a clear reference to the Odyssey group in the apse. Of the other two, the first portrays Claudius's mother, Antonia Minor , as Augusta in the guise of Venus Genitrix , with a diadem on her head and a winged child in her arms, perhaps a funerary Eros; the other is a girl with delicate features, with a hairstyle that recalls
10790-489: The island of Corsica (but not in the neighbouring Sardinia , which on the contrary underwent Italianization well into the late 18th century, under Savoyard sway: the island's linguistic composition, roofed by the prestige of Spanish among the Sardinians , would therein make for a rather slow process of assimilation to the Italian cultural sphere ). The rediscovery of Dante's De vulgari eloquentia , as well as
10920-577: The language has a 7-vowel sound system ('e' and 'o' have mid-low and mid-high sounds). Italian has contrast between short and long consonants and gemination (doubling) of consonants. During the Middle Ages , the established written language in Europe was Latin, although the great majority of people were illiterate, and only few were well versed in the language. In the Italian Peninsula , as in most of Europe, most would instead speak
11050-640: The language to that continent. According to some sources, Italian is the second most spoken language in Argentina after the official language of Spanish, although its number of speakers, mainly of the older generation, is decreasing. Italian bilingual speakers can be found scattered across the Southeast of Brazil as well as in the South. In Venezuela , Italian is the most spoken language after Spanish and Portuguese, with around 200,000 speakers. In Uruguay , people who speak Italian as their home language are 1.1% of
11180-498: The late 18th century when it tended to be replaced by German. John Milton , for instance, wrote some of his early poetry in Italian. Within the Catholic Church , Italian is known by a large part of the ecclesiastical hierarchy and is used in substitution for Latin in some official documents. Italian loanwords continue to be used in most languages in matters of art and music (especially classical music including opera), in
11310-534: The late 19th to the mid-20th century, millions of Italians settled in Argentina, Uruguay, Southern Brazil and Venezuela, as well as in Canada and the United States, where they formed a physical and cultural presence. In some cases, colonies were established where variants of regional languages of Italy were used, and some continue to use this regional language. Examples are Rio Grande do Sul , Brazil, where Talian
11440-521: The later letters focus increasingly on theoretical questions. The Letters were written in the last two or three years of Seneca's life. In letter 8, Seneca alludes to his retirement from public life, which is thought (by reference to Tacitus Annals xiv. 52–56) to have been around spring of the year 62. Letter 18 was written in December, in the run-up to the Saturnalia . Letter 23 refers to
11570-567: The law. On the other hand, Corsican (a language spoken on the French island of Corsica ) is closely related to medieval Tuscan , from which Standard Italian derives and evolved. The differences in the evolution of Latin in the different regions of Italy can be attributed to the natural changes that all languages in regular use are subject to, and to some extent to the presence of three other types of languages: substrata, superstrata, and adstrata . The most prevalent were substrata (the language of
11700-462: The letters take the form of open letters, and are clearly written with a wider readership in mind, in the epistolary genre well-known in Seneca's time. Seneca refers to Cicero's letters to Atticus and the letters of Epicurus , and he was probably familiar with the letters of Plato and the epistles of Horace . However, despite the careful literary crafting, there is no obvious reason to doubt that they are real letters. Seneca often says that he
11830-502: The middle of the 1st century and Hadrian died at his villa in AD ;138. It was also a favourite spot of the emperor Septimius Severus . The resorts sometimes capitalised on their imperial associations: Suetonius mentions in his history that the cloak, brooch, and gold bulla given to the young Tiberius by Pompey 's daughter Pompeia Magna were still on display around AD 120. According to Suetonius , in AD 39, Baiae
11960-412: The nation was unified in 1861. Italian is a Romance language , a descendant of Vulgar Latin (colloquial spoken Latin). Standard Italian is based on Tuscan , especially its Florentine dialect , and is, therefore, an Italo-Dalmatian language , a classification that includes most other central and southern Italian languages and the extinct Dalmatian . According to Ethnologue , lexical similarity
12090-428: The nearby spa) is recognisable as the ebeterion built by Nero, according to Dio Cassius , for rest and recreation of the sailors of the nearby Misenum fleet . On the highest terrace are service areas and a small balneum with rich stucco decorations on the ceiling. The next level has a large terrace bordered on three sides by a portico. In the garden are four parallel walls that perhaps delimited three triclinia in
12220-408: The number of printing presses in Italy grew rapidly and by the year 1500 reached a total of 56, the biggest number of printing presses in all of Europe. This enabled the production of more pieces of literature at a lower cost and Italian, as the dominant language, spread. Italian became the language used in the courts of every state in the Italian Peninsula , as well as the prestige variety used on
12350-417: The open. Above the peristyle are several residential rooms, once richly finished, particularly the original precious mosaic floors representing theatrical masks inside geometric frames. Below this level is a semicircular building surmounted by five vaulted rooms once hidden by a façade decorated with niches and columns, overall making an impressive composition. On the axis of the complex is a room perhaps used as
12480-630: The openness of vowels, the length of the consonants, and influence of the local language (for example, in informal situations andà , annà and nare replace the standard Italian andare in the area of Tuscany, Rome and Venice respectively for the infinitive "to go"). There is no definitive date when the various Italian variants of Latin—including varieties that contributed to modern Standard Italian—began to be distinct enough from Latin to be considered separate languages. One criterion for determining that two language variants are to be considered separate languages rather than variants of
12610-584: The original inhabitants), as the Italian dialects were most probably simply Latin as spoken by native cultural groups. Superstrata and adstrata were both less important. Foreign conquerors of Italy that dominated different regions at different times left behind little to no influence on the dialects. Foreign cultures with which Italy engaged in peaceful relations with, such as trade, had no significant influence either. Throughout Italy, regional varieties of Standard Italian, called Regional Italian , are spoken. Regional differences can be recognized by various factors:
12740-458: The other hand, almost everyone still speaks the Corsican idiom , which, due to its linguistic proximity to the Italian standard language, appears both linguistically as an Italian dialect and therefore as a carrier of Italian culture, despite the French government's decades-long efforts to cut Corsica off from the Italian motherland. Italian was the official language in Monaco until 1860, when it
12870-464: The other, a key consideration given Seneca's deteriorating political position and the Emperor's common use of forced suicide as a method of covert execution. Early letters often conclude with a maxim to meditate on, although this strategy is over by the thirtieth letter. Such maxims are typically drawn from Epicurus , but Seneca regards this as a beginner's technique. In letter 33 he stresses that
13000-406: The population of Italy could speak Standard Italian. He reports that in 1951 that percentage had risen to 87%. The ability to speak Italian did not necessarily mean it was in everyday use, and most people (63.5%) still usually spoke their native dialects. In addition, other factors such as mass emigration, industrialization, and urbanization, and internal migrations after World War II , contributed to
13130-469: The proliferation of Standard Italian. The Italians who emigrated during the Italian diaspora beginning in 1861 were often of the uneducated lower class, and thus the emigration had the effect of increasing the percentage of literates, who often knew and understood the importance of Standard Italian, back home in Italy. A large percentage of those who had emigrated also eventually returned to Italy, often more educated than when they had left. Although use of
13260-528: The pronunciation of stressed "e", and of "s" between vowels in many words: e.g. va bene "all right" is pronounced [vabˈbɛːne] by a Roman (and by any standard Italian speaker), [vaˈbeːne] by a Milanese (and by any speaker whose native dialect lies to the north of the La Spezia–Rimini Line ); a casa "at home" is [akˈkaːsa] for Roman, [akˈkaːsa] or [akˈkaːza] for standard, [aˈkaːza] for Milanese and generally northern. In contrast to
13390-415: The publication of Agnolo Monosini 's Latin tome Floris italicae linguae libri novem in 1604 followed by the first Italian dictionary in 1612. An important event that helped the diffusion of Italian was the conquest and occupation of Italy by Napoleon in the early 19th century (who was himself of Italian-Corsican descent). This conquest propelled the unification of Italy some decades after and pushed
13520-542: The referendum that allowed France to annex Savoy and Nice, and a group of his followers (among the Italian Savoyards ) took refuge in Italy in the following years. Corsica passed from the Republic of Genoa to France in 1769 after the Treaty of Versailles . Italian was the official language of Corsica until 1859. Giuseppe Garibaldi called for the inclusion of the " Corsican Italians " within Italy when Rome
13650-717: The same design as this building can be found in Hadrian's Villa in Tivoli, for example the Vestibule of the Piazza d'Oro (Golden Square) and the so-called Serapeum . The same combination of light tuff and Vesuvian pumice is found in the Pantheon, Rome , re-structured at the behest of Hadrian. The drum supporting the dome was covered with stucco imitating bands of marble ashlar blocks with joints filled with blue glass paste, so that
13780-643: The same spring, that can reduce the timescale by a full year. The letters all start with the phrase " Seneca Lucilio suo salutem " ("Seneca greets his Lucilius") and end with the word " Vale " ("Farewell"). In these letters, Seneca gives Lucilius advice on how to become a more devoted Stoic . Some of the letters include "On Noise" and "Asthma". Others include letters on "the influence of the masses" and "how to deal with one's slaves" ( Letter 47 ). Although they deal with Seneca's personal style of Stoic philosophy, they also give valuable insights into daily life in ancient Rome. The letters tend to open with an observation of
13910-465: The sea and to the last terrace below that once was occupied by a garden, as today, perhaps surrounded by a colonnade. Bounded by two parallel staircases is the sector or "Temple of Sosandra" from the name of the statue found in 1953 and now in the National Museum of Naples. The complexity of this sector on four terraces including a spa, a villa, a hospitalia (a sort of hotel for visitors to
14040-571: The sea. In Roman times it was a complete coastal lagoon, the Baianus lacus, and Roman buildings were located on a sandy expanse between the sea and the eastern bank of the Baianus lacus, now submerged, and occupied the internal slope of the crater. The channel between the lagoon and the sea made by cutting the sandy isthmus that separated them, and is 32 m wide and delimited by two piers about 230 m long and 9 wide. The piers were made of concrete with tuff chips arranged in layers. The concrete conglomerate
14170-429: The student must begin to make well-reasoned judgements independently. The language and style of the letters is quite varied, and this reflects the fact that they are a mixture of private conversation and literary fiction. As an example, there is a mix of different vocabulary, incorporating technical terms (in fields such as medicine, law and navigation) as well as colloquial terms and philosophical ones. Seneca also uses
14300-456: The swimming pool and the lower surfaces of the wall. Overlooking the sea is the "Villa of the Ambulatio" with a series of six terraces connected to each other by a complex of staircases of which the last leads to the "sector of Mercury". It is named after the 'ambulatio', the long corridor with two longitudinal naves on the second terrace, intended to be a covered walk with large openings with
14430-473: The teachings of the Roman Catholic Church began to be understood from new perspectives as humanists —individuals who placed emphasis on the human body and its full potential—began to shift focus from the church to human beings themselves. The continual advancements in technology play a crucial role in the diffusion of languages. After the invention of the printing press in the 15th century,
14560-469: The title Divina , were read throughout the peninsula and his written dialect became the "canonical standard" that all educated Italians could understand. Dante is still credited with standardizing the Italian language. In addition to the widespread exposure gained through literature, the Florentine dialect also gained prestige due to the political and cultural significance of Florence at the time and
14690-406: The top octagon of the drum must have appeared from the outside as made up of parallelograms of shining white marble divided by glittering ribbons of blue. The perimeter had a forecourt annex of exceptional architectural innovation, with a groundplan of 9 equal circles within a bounding square of 15 m sides and three circular rooms. The groundplan was merged into a different geometrical arrangement in
14820-542: The total population of the country. In Australia, Italian is the second most spoken foreign language after Chinese, with 1.4% of the population speaking it as their home language. The main Italian-language newspapers published outside Italy are the L'Osservatore Romano ( Vatican City ), the L'Informazione di San Marino ( San Marino ), the Corriere del Ticino and the laRegione Ticino ( Switzerland ),
14950-567: The two harbours at Cape Miseno 4 miles (6.4 km) south. Baiae was already notorious for the hedonistic lifestyle of its residents and guests in the Republican era. In 56 BC, the prominent socialite Clodia was condemned by the defence at the trial of Marcus Caelius Rufus as living as a harlot in Rome and at the "crowded resort of Baiae", indulging in beach parties and long drinking sessions. An elegy by Sextus Propertius written in
15080-402: The upper part of this chamber which was of 8 circles arranged around a large circle, topped with an elegant umbrella-shaped cupola. It was made of only curved surfaces, in total about twenty. The distinctive plan of this annex resembles elements of the pavilion of the ‘Piazza d’Oro” of Hadrian's Villa. The mosaics on the interior of the dome extended down to the window sills, while marble covered
15210-683: The western part of the Gulf of Pozzuoli . The settlement was also mentioned in 178 BC under the name Aquae Cumanae (" Cumaean Waters"). Baiae was built on the Cumaean Peninsula in the Phlegraean Fields , an active volcanic area, on the side of an ancient crater sloping down to the shore. It was perhaps originally developed as the port for Cumae , the Portus Baianus. It also benefitted from thermal springs for bathing establishments. Around 80 BC it became
15340-515: The willing and drag the unwilling'), from Epistle 117 paragraph 11 line 5 , expresses a fatalistic view of man's subjection to natural and divine will. It is also an example of chiasmus . This line, which Seneca attributes to the Greek Stoic philosopher Cleanthes , is quoted in the last line of German intellectual Oswald Spengler 's two-volume work The Decline of the West (1922). The work
15470-659: The working languages of the Council of Europe . It is the third-most-widely spoken native language in the European Union (13% of the EU population) and it is spoken as a second language by 13.4 million EU citizens (3%). Including Italian speakers in non-EU European countries (such as Switzerland, Albania and the United Kingdom ) and on other continents, the total number of speakers is approximately 85 million. Italian
15600-477: The youthful portraits of Nero, also adorned with gems on her head. She is possibly one of Claudius' daughters who died in infancy. At the beginning of the 4th century the palace began to be flooded by the sea due to bradyseism and the majority of wall decorations as well as lead pipes were removed. The sculptures were transferred to the Museo Archeologico dei Campi Flegrei [ it ] in
15730-561: Was also introduced to Somalia through colonialism and was the sole official language of administration and education during the colonial period but fell out of use after government, educational and economic infrastructure were destroyed in the Somali Civil War . Italian is also spoken by large immigrant and expatriate communities in the Americas and Australia. Although over 17 million Americans are of Italian descent , only
15860-525: Was annexed to the Kingdom of Italy , but King Victor Emmanuel II did not agree to it. Italian is generally understood in Corsica by the population resident therein who speak Corsican , which is an Italo-Romance idiom similar to Tuscan. Francization occurred in Nice case, and caused a near-disappearance of the Italian language as many of the Italian speakers in these areas migrated to Italy. In Corsica, on
15990-430: Was decorated with marble friezes depicting hunting scenes. It is recognisable as the building erected by Alexander Severus (r. 222–235) in honour of his mother Julia Mamaea , and is perhaps a dynastic heroon . In 1677 Cornelis de Bruijn visited the temple and wrote: "Then one arrives at the temple of Diana, which is completely ruined, except for a semi-circular structure at the top that still exists. Opposite, there
16120-443: Was mirrored by a decline in the use of the dialects. An increase in literacy was one of the main driving factors (one can assume that only literates were capable of learning Standard Italian, whereas those who were illiterate had access only to their native dialect). The percentage of literates rose from 25% in 1861 to 60% in 1911, and then on to 78.1% in 1951. Tullio De Mauro , an Italian linguist, has asserted that in 1861 only 2.5% of
16250-426: Was notorious for its hedonistic offerings and the attendant rumours of corruption and scandal. The lower part of the town later became submerged in the sea due to local volcanic, bradyseismic activity which raised or lowered the land. Recent underwater archaeology has revealed many of the fine buildings now protected in the submerged archaeological park. Many impressive buildings from the upper town can be seen in
16380-443: Was owned by Lucius Calpurnius Piso shown by lead pipe stamps. The villa eventually passed to his grandson, Gaius Piso , the leader of the failed anti-Neronian conspiracy of 65 AD. According to Tacitus , the conspiracy envisaged the elimination of the emperor in this very villa which Nero visited frequently. However, the conspiracy was thwarted, Gaius had to commit suicide and the villa was confiscated to become imperial property. In
16510-658: Was replaced by the French. This was due to the annexation of the surrounding County of Nice to France following the Treaty of Turin (1860) . It formerly had official status in Montenegro (because of the Venetian Albania ), parts of Slovenia and Croatia (because of the Venetian Istria and Venetian Dalmatia ), parts of Greece (because of the Venetian rule in the Ionian Islands and by
16640-475: Was the location for a stunt by the eccentric emperor Caligula to answer the astrologer Thrasyllus 's prediction that he had "no more chance of becoming emperor than of riding a horse across the Gulf of Baiae". Caligula ordered a 3- mile -long pontoon bridge to be built from impounded ships of the area, fastened together and weighted with sand, stretching from Baiae to the neighbouring port of Puteoli . Clad in
16770-465: Was the most important room of a great baths complex which, together with other buildings on the far side of the coastal road, would have occupied a large part of the town. It was lavishly decorated and was most likely commissioned by Hadrian as indicated by rare architectural features it shared with other monuments of Hadrian especially his Villa at Tivoli. It was externally octagonal with eight large arched windows and internally circular (26 m diameter) with
16900-465: Was thrown into wooden caissons (arcae) testified by the presence of the typical holes left by the construction piles. In some cases the posts and the planking of the formwork are still perfectly preserved. The north pier is partly preserved in a 63 m length starting from the east. The statue of the " Aphrodite of Baiae ", a variant of the Venus de Medici , was supposedly excavated sometime before 1803, when
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