Horace Vernet in the context of "Brigandage"

The Pontine Marshes (/ˈpɒntaɪn/ PON-tyne, US also /ˈpɒntiːn/ PON-teen; Italian: Agro Pontino [ˈaːɡro ponˈtiːno], formerly also Paludi Pontine; Latin: Pomptīnus Ager [sg.] by Titus Livius, Pomptīna Palus [sg.] and Pomptīnae Paludes [pl.] by Pliny the Elder) is an approximately quadrangular area of former marshland in the Lazio Region of central Italy, extending along the coast southeast of Rome about 45 km (28 mi) from just east of Anzio to Terracina (ancient Tarracina), varying in distance inland between the Tyrrhenian Sea and the Volscian Mountains (the Monti Lepini in the north, the Monti Ausoni in the center, and the Monti Aurunci in the south) from 15 to 25 km (9+1⁄2 to 15+1⁄2 mi). The northwestern border runs approximately from the mouth of the river Astura along the river and from its upper reaches to Cori in the Monti Lepini.

The former marsh is a low tract of mainly agricultural reclaimed land created by draining and filling, separated from the sea by sand dunes. The area amounts to about 80,000 hectares (200,000 acres). The Via Appia, a Roman military road constructed in 312 BC, crosses the inland side of the former marsh in a long, straight stretch flanked by trees. Before then, travelers had to use the Via Latina along the flanks of the mountains; Terracina could not be reached across the marsh.

Antoine Charles Horace Vernet (French pronunciation: [kaʁl vɛʁnɛ]; 14 August 1758 – 27 November 1836), better known as Carle Vernet, was a French painter, the youngest child of painter Claude-Joseph Vernet and the father of painter Horace Vernet.

Criticism of socialism is any critique of socialist economics and socialist models of organization and their feasibility, as well as the political and social implications of adopting such a system. Some critiques are not necessarily directed toward socialism as a system but rather toward the socialist movement, parties, or existing states. Some critics consider socialism to be a purely theoretical concept that should be criticized on theoretical grounds, such as in the economic calculation problem and the socialist calculation debate, while others hold that certain historical examples exist and that they can be criticized on practical grounds. Because there are many types of socialism, most critiques are focused on a specific type of socialism, that of the command economy and the experience of Soviet-type economies that may not apply to all forms of socialism. Different models of socialism conflict with each other over questions of property ownership, economic coordination and how socialism is to be achieved. Critics of specific models of socialism might be advocates of a different type of socialism.

According to the Austrian School economist Ludwig von Mises, an economic system (specifically centralized economic planning) that does not use money, financial calculation, and market pricing would be unable to effectively value capital goods and coordinate production, and therefore in his view socialism is impossible because it lacks the necessary information to perform economic calculation in the first place. Another central argument leveled against socialist systems based on economic planning is based on the use of dispersed knowledge. Socialism is unfeasible in this view because information cannot be aggregated by a central body and effectively used to formulate a plan for an entire economy, because doing so would result in distorted or absent price signals; this is known as the economic calculation problem. Other economists criticize models of socialism based on neoclassical economics for their reliance on the faulty and unrealistic assumptions of economic equilibrium and Pareto efficiency.

Italian Brigands Surprised by Papal Troops is an 1831 painting produced in Rome by Horace Vernet. It is kept at the Walters Art Museum, in Baltimore.

The oldest profession in the world (or the world's oldest profession) is a phrase that, unless another meaning is specified, refers to prostitution. However, it did not start to acquire that meaning until 1889, after a Rudyard Kipling story, and it did not do so universally until after World War I. Formerly, various professions vied for the reputation of being the oldest.

Hippolyte Lecomte (French pronunciation: [ipɔlit ləkɔ̃t]; 28 December 1781, Puiseaux – 25 July 1857, Paris) was a French painter best known for large scale historical paintings and ballet designs. His wife, born Camille Vernet, was the sister of the painter Émile Jean-Horace Vernet. His son, Émile Vernet-Lecomte, was also a noted painter. The caricaturist Jean Ignace Isidore Gérard, better known as "J.J. Grandville", worked in Lecomte's studio.