Monte Cassino in the context of "Cassino"

Benedict of Nursia (Latin: Benedictus Nursiae; Italian: Benedetto da Norcia; 2 March 480 – 21 March 547), often known as Saint Benedict, was a monk and the founder of the Order of Saint Benedict. He is famed in the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Lutheran Churches, the Anglican Communion, and Old Catholic Churches. In 1964, Pope Paul VI declared Benedict a patron saint of Europe.

Benedict founded twelve communities for monks at Subiaco in present-day Lazio, Italy (about 65 kilometres (40 mi) to the east of Rome), before moving southeast to Monte Cassino in the mountains of central Italy. The present-day Order of Saint Benedict emerged later and, moreover, is not an "order" as the term is commonly understood, but a confederation of autonomous congregations.

De aquaeductu (English: On aqueducts) is a two-book official report given to the emperor Nerva or Trajan on the state of the aqueducts of Rome, and was written by Sextus Julius Frontinus at the end of the 1st century AD. It is also known as De Aquis or De Aqueductibus Urbis Romae. It is the earliest official report of an investigation made by a distinguished citizen on Roman engineering works to have survived. Frontinus had been appointed Water Commissioner by the emperor Nerva in AD 96.

With the recovery of Frontinus' manuscript from the library at Monte Cassino in 1425, effected by the tireless humanist Poggio Bracciolini, details of the construction and maintenance of the Roman aqueduct system became available once more, just as Renaissance Rome began to revive and require a dependable source of pure water.

The Battle of Monte Cassino, also known as the Battle for Rome, was a series of four military assaults by the Allies against Axis forces in Italy during the Italian Campaign of World War II. The objective was to break through the Winter Line and facilitate an advance towards Rome.

In the beginning of 1944, the western half of the Winter Line was anchored by German forces holding the Rapido-Gari, Liri, and Garigliano valleys and several surrounding peaks and ridges. Together, these features formed the Gustav Line. Monte Cassino, a historic hilltop abbey founded in 529 by Benedict of Nursia, dominated the nearby town of Cassino and the entrances to the Liri and Rapido valleys. Lying in a protected historic zone, it had been left unoccupied by the Germans, although they manned some positions set into the slopes below the abbey's walls.

Monte Cairo (1,669 m) is a mountain in Lazio (in the province of Frosinone), overshadowing both the Abbey and the town of Monte Cassino, 5 kilometres to the south. The ancient 'Mons Clarius' was so called because originally a temple dedicated to Apollo (Clarius) stood where the Abbey of Monte Cassino now stands. The Monte Cairo is the main peak of an isolated mountain range that extends eastwards for about 16–18 km from the Alta Valle del Melfa, the road from Rome to Naples.

The Gari is a short river that flows in Monte Cassino, Italy at the southern end of the region of Lazio. The Battle of Gari River, better known as the Battle of Rapido River, one of the bloodiest battles of the Italian Campaign of World War II occurred in 1944, along its banks.

The river origins from a spring in the center of Cassino, in Piazza Corte, at the foot of Montecassino. It flows underground and reappears in the Villa Comunale, the main public park in the town. In the thermal area known as Varronian Thermal Baths, it increases its discharge considerably from several springs, as well as from the river Rapido. In Sant'Apollinare, few miles south of Cassino, it joins the Liri to form the Garigliano river, which marks the border between Lazio and Campania.

Constantine the African, O.S.B. (Latin: Constantinus Africanus; died before 1098/1099, Monte Cassino) was a physician who lived in the 11th century. The first part of his life was spent in Ifriqiya and the rest in Italy. He first arrived in Italy in the coastal town of Salerno, home of the Schola Medica Salernitana, where his work attracted attention from the local Lombard and Norman rulers. Constantine then became a Benedictine monk, living the last decades of his life at the abbey of Monte Cassino.

There is some debate about his birth and family religion, although it is well known that he ended his life as a monk at the Latin Christian Abbey of Monte Cassino, in southern Italy. This religious controversy suggested that he might have been born as a Muslim, and after migration converted to Catholic Christianity, or he might have been born as a Christian within an Arabic-speaking family. The native language of Constantine the African was Arabic. He was also fluent in Greek, Latin, and other languages, the skills he acquired during his extensive travels. His journey included Egypt, Syria, India, Ethiopia, and Persia. He was well-versed in medical knowledge before his arrival to Salerno in Italy where he joined the abbey of Monte Cassino south of Rome in 1077.

The Winter Line was a series of German and Italian military fortifications in Italy, constructed during World War II by Organisation Todt and commanded by Albert Kesselring. The series of three lines was designed to defend a western section of Italy, focused around the town of Monte Cassino, through which ran the important Highway 6 which led uninterrupted to Rome. The primary Gustav Line ran across Italy from just north of where the Garigliano River flows into the Tyrrhenian Sea in the west, through the Apennine Mountains to the mouth of the Sangro River on the Adriatic coast in the east. The two subsidiary lines, the Bernhardt Line and the Hitler Line, ran much shorter distances from the Tyrrehnian Sea to just northeast of Cassino where they would merge into the Gustav Line. Relative to the Gustav Line, the Hitler Line stood to the northwest and the Bernhardt Line to the southeast of the primary defenses.

Before being ultimately broken, the Gustav Line effectively slowed the Allied advance for months between December 1943 and June 1944. Major battles in the assault on the Winter Line at Monte Cassino and Anzio alone resulted in 98,000 Allied casualties and 60,000 Axis casualties.