Britannia in the context of "Isca Augusta"

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⭐ Core Definition: Britannia

The image of Britannia (/brɪˈtæniə/) is the national personification of Britain as a helmeted female warrior holding a trident and shield. An image first used by the Romans in classical antiquity, the Latin Britannia was the name variously applied to the British Isles, Great Britain, and the Roman province of Britain during the Roman Empire. The Roman Britannia was typically depicted reclining or seated, with not a trident but a spear and shield, appearing on Roman coins of the 2nd century AD. The classical allegory was revived in the early modern period. On coins of the pound sterling issued by Charles II of England, Scotland, and Ireland, Britannia appears with her shield bearing the Union Flag. To symbolise the Royal Navy's victories, Britannia's spear became the trident in 1797, and a helmet was added to the coinage in 1825.

By the 1st century BC, Britannia had replaced Albion as the prevalent Latin name for the island of Great Britain. After the Roman conquest in 43 AD, Britannia came to refer to the Roman province that encompassed the southern two-thirds of the island (see Roman Britain). The remaining third of the island, known to the Romans as Caledonia, lay north of the River Forth in modern Scotland. It was intermittently but not permanently occupied by the Roman army. The name is a Latinisation of the native Brittonic word for Great Britain, Pretanī, which also produced the Greek form Prettanike or Brettaniai.

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Britannia in the context of Elizabethan era

The Elizabethan era is the epoch in the Tudor period of the history of England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603). Historians often depict it as the golden age in English history. The Roman symbol of Britannia (a female personification of Great Britain) was revived in 1572, and often thereafter, to mark the Elizabethan age as a renaissance that inspired national pride through classical ideals, international expansion, and naval triumph over Spain.

This "golden age" represented the apogee of the English Renaissance and saw the flowering of poetry, music, and literature. The era is most famous for its theatre, as William Shakespeare and many others composed plays that broke free of England's past style of theatre. It was an age of exploration and expansion abroad, while back at home, the Protestant Reformation became more acceptable to the people, most certainly after the Spanish Armada was repelled. It was also the end of the period when England was a separate realm before its royal union with Scotland.

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Britannia in the context of Roma (goddess)

In ancient Roman religion, Roma was a female deity who personified the city of Rome and, more broadly, the Roman state. She was created and promoted to represent and propagate certain of Rome's ideas about itself, and to justify its rule. She was portrayed on coins, sculptures, architectural designs, and at official games and festivals. Images of Roma had elements in common with other goddesses, such as Rome's Minerva, her Greek equivalent Athena and various manifestations of Greek Tyche, who protected Greek city-states; among these, Roma stands dominant, over piled weapons that represent her conquests, and promising protection to the obedient. Her "Amazonian" iconography shows her "manly virtue" (virtus) as fierce mother of a warrior race, augmenting rather than replacing local goddesses. On some coinage of the Roman Imperial era, she is shown as a serene advisor, partner and protector of ruling emperors. In Rome, the Emperor Hadrian built and dedicated a gigantic temple to her as Roma Aeterna ("Eternal Rome"), and to Venus Felix ("Venus the Bringer of Good Fortune"), emphasising the sacred, universal and eternal nature of the empire.

Roma's official cult served to advance the propagandist message of Imperial Rome. In Roman art and coinage, she is usually depicted in military form, with helmet and weapons. In Rome's eastern provinces, she was often shown with mural crown or cornucopia, or both. Her image is rarely found in a commonplace or domestic context. Roma was probably favoured by Rome's high-status Imperial representatives abroad, rather than the Roman populace at large. She was depicted on silver cups, arches, and sculptures, including the base of the column of Antoninus Pius. She survived into the Christian period as a personification of the Roman state. Her depiction seated with a shield and spear later influenced that of Britannia, personification of Britain.

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Britannia in the context of Columbia (personification)

Columbia (/kəˈlʌmbiə/; kə-LUM-bee-ə), also known as Lady Columbia or Miss Columbia, is a female national personification of the United States. It was also a historical name applied to the Americas and to the New World. The association has given rise to the names of many American places, objects, institutions and companies, including the District of Columbia; Columbia, South Carolina; Columbia University; "Hail, Columbia"; Columbia Rediviva; and the Columbia River. Images of the Statue of Liberty (Liberty Enlightening the World, erected in 1886) largely displaced personified Columbia as the female symbol of the United States by around 1920, and Lady Liberty was seen as both an aspect of Columbia and a rendition of the Goddess of Liberty. She is the central element of the logo of Hollywood film studio Columbia Pictures.

Columbia is a Neo-Latin toponym, used since the 1730s to refer to the Thirteen Colonies that would form the United States. It originated from the name of the Genoese explorer Christopher Columbus and from the Latin ending -ia, common in the Latin names of countries (paralleling Britannia, Gallia, Zealandia, and others).

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Britannia in the context of Lancaster Roman Fort

Lancaster Roman Fort, also known as Wery Wall or Galacum, is the modern name given to a ruined former Roman fort atop Castle Hill in Lancaster in North West England. The first castrum was founded c. 80 AD within the Roman province of Britannia.

The fort's name is not known. A Roman milestone found four miles outside Lancaster, with an inscription ending L MP IIII, meaning "from L— 4 miles", suggests that it began with that letter. However in 1998 David Shotter suggested that Galacum, a name that has been associated with the fort at Over Burrow, would be more appropriately applied to Lancaster.

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Britannia in the context of Virtual representation

The concept of virtual representation was that the members of the UK Parliament, including the Lords and the Crown-in-Parliament, reserved the right to speak for the interests of all British subjects, rather than for the interests of only the district that elected them or for the regions in which they held peerages and spiritual sway. Virtual representation was the British response to the First Continental Congress in the American colonies. The Second Continental Congress asked for representation in Parliament in the Suffolk Resolves, also known as the first Olive Branch Petition. Parliament claimed that their members had the well being of the colonists in mind. The patriots in the Colonies rejected this premise.

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Britannia in the context of Roman triumphal column

A victory column, or monumental column or triumphal column, is a monument in the form of a column, erected in memory of a heroic commemoration, including victorious battle, war, or revolution. The column typically stands on a base and is crowned with a victory symbol, such as a statue. The statue may represent the goddess Victoria; in Germany, the female embodiment of the nation, Germania; in the United States either the female embodiment of the nation Liberty or Columbia; in the United Kingdom, the female embodiment Britannia, an eagle, or a naval war hero depicted as a helmeted woman, wielding a trident, shield and olive branch.

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Britannia in the context of Loyalist (American Revolution)

Loyalists (also referred to as Tories, Royalists, or King's Men) were colonists in the Thirteen Colonies of British America who remained loyal to the British crown. The term was initially coined in 1774 when political tensions rose before the outbreak of the American Revolution. Those supporting the revolution self-identified as Patriots or Whigs, and considered the Loyalists "persons inimical to the liberties of America."

Prominent Loyalists repeatedly assured the British government that many thousands of them would spring to arms and fight for the Crown. The British government acted in expectation of that, especially during the Southern campaigns of 1780 and 1781. However, Britain was able to protect the people only in areas where they had military control; thus, the number of military Loyalists was significantly lower than what had been expected. Loyalists were often under suspicion of those in the British military, who did not know whom they could fully trust in such a conflicted situation.

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Britannia in the context of Armada Memorial

The Armada Memorial is a monument on Plymouth Hoe, Plymouth, Devon, England. Built in 1888, the monument celebrates the tercentenary of the defeat of the Spanish Armada, which was sighted by English captains stationed in the city. It is a granite structure, decorated with bronze crests and a statue of Britannia.

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