The Concordat of Melfi, dated 23 August 1059, was also concluded to uphold the previous Treaty of Melfi. The agreement was made between Pope Nicholas II, the Norman Robert of Hauteville, known as Guiscard, and Richard I of Aversa. Through this concordat, Robert and his brother Roger I became vassals...

Roger I, son of Tancred of Hauteville, was Count of Calabria and Sicily. He was born in Hauteville-la-Guichard, Normandy in 1031. Roger, known as the Great Count, was responsible for the conquest of Sicily, together with his brother Robert Guiscard. After the 1061 landing in Messina and the surrende...

Robert of Hauteville, known as Guiscard, son of Tancred and an able military leader, married the Salerno princess Sikelgaita in his second marriage. His story was thus linked to that of the city of Salerno, which he besieged and conquered in 1076. Robert was the first Norman prince of Salerno: the c...

In the autumn of 2002, after an intense earthquake off the coast of Filicudi and shortly before the beginning of a new effusive activity in Stromboli, a large system of fumaroles activated between the isles of Bottaro and Lisca Bianca, at a depth of around 7-10 metres. This system of fumarole...

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Basement part of the apse, consisting of an elevated, semi-cylindrical structure, often ending with a dome or semi-dome and sometimes covered with a wooden roof....

The porphyry rota was made of a round slab of porphyry, a noble material attributed to royalty, decorated at the edges with precious inserts and set in the floor of a reception hall. It was where a high-ranking individual would be placed. In the Roman Empire it was destined for emperors, then borro...

The Pannonian cap (pileus pannonicus) is a round-shaped cap used by the Roman army as early as the 3rd century AD, though it originates from Persia or the western part of the Balkan peninsula. It was widely used for its simple shape and was sewn using wool, felt, leather or coarse fabrics. It was a...

Imperial estates were the vast territories, subject to the power of Rome following the various campaigns for conquest that extended the borders of the Empire, including almost all of present-day Europe, North Africa and Asia Minor. In imperial times, there was maximum expansion, leading Diocletian ...

One comparison that can be traced back to the mosaic of the Villa del Casale can be found in a precious collection of silverware, the Seuso Treasure. One object in particular shows a scene very similar to the one depicted in the mosaic of the “small hunt”. It is a silver plate in which are narr...