Chapter Roman Birds to Roncesvalles of R by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Roman Birds to Roncesvalles

Roman Birds Eagles; so called because the ensign of the Roman legion was an eagle.

“Romanas aves propria legionum numina.”- Tacitus.

Roman Remains in England The most remarkable are the following:-
   The pharos, church, and trenches in Dover.
   Chilham Castle, Richborough, and Reculver forts.
   Silchester (Berkshire), Dorchester, Nisconium (Salop), and Caerleon, amphitheatres.
   Hadrian's wall, from Tyne to Boulness.
   The wall, baths, and Newport Gate of Lincoln.
   Verulam, near St. Albans.
   York (Eboracum), where Severus and Constantius Chlorus died, and Constantine the Great was born.
   Bath, etc.

Roman de Chevalier de Lyon by Maitre Wace, Canon of Caen in Normandy, and author of Le Brut. The romance referred to is the same as that entitled Ywain and Gawain.

Roman de la Rose (See Iliad , The French.)

Roman des Romans A French version of Amadis of Gaul, greatly extended, by Gilbert Saunier and Sieur de Duverdier.

Romance A tale in prose or verse the incidents of which are hung upon what is marvellous and fictitious.
   These tales were originally written in the Romance language (q.v.), and the expression, “In Romance we read,” came in time to refer to the tale, and not to the language in which it was told.
   Romance of chivalry may be divided into three groups:- (1) that relating to Arthur and his Round Table; (2) that relating to Charlemagne and his paladins; (3) that relating to Amadis and Palmerin. In the first are but few fairies; in the second they are shown in all their glory; in the third (which belongs to Spanish literature) we have no fairies, but the enchantress Urganda la Desconecida.
    It is misleading to call such poetical tales as the Bride of Abydos, Lalla Rookh, and the Chansons of the Mouvères, etc., Romances.

Romanesque (3 syl.).
   In painting. Fanciful and romantic rather than true to nature.
   In architecture. Byzantine, Lombard, Saxon, and, indeed, all the debased Roman styles, between the time of Constantine (350) and Charlemagne (800).
   In literature. The dialect of Languedoc, which smacks of the Romance.

Romanic or Romance Languages. Those modern languages which are the immediate offspring of Latin, as the Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and French. Early French is emphatically so called; hence Bouillett says, “Le roman était universellement parlé en Gaule au dixième siècle.”

“Frankis speech is called Romance,
So say clerks and men of France.”
Robert Le Brunn.

Romanism Popery, or what resembles Popery, the religion of modern Rome. (A word of implied reproach.)

Romantic School The name assumed, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, by a number of young poets and critics in Germany, who wished to limit poetry and art to romance. Some twenty-five years later Victor Hugo, Lamartine, and Dumas introduced it into France.

Romanus (St.), a Norman bishop of the seventh century, is depicted fighting with a dragon, in allusion to the tale that he miraculously conquered a dragon which infested Normandy.

Romany Gipsy language, the speech of the Roma or Zincali. This has nothing to do with Rome.

“A learned Sclavonian ... said of Rommany, that he found it interesting to be able to study a Hindu dialect in the heart of Europe.”- Leland: English Gipsies, chap. viii. p. 109.

Rome Virgil says of Romulus, “Mavortia condet moenia, Romanosque suo de nomine dicet” (AEneid, i. 276). The words of the Sibyl, quoted by Servius, are Rwmaioi Rwmou paideV Romulus is a diminutive or word of endearment for Romus.
   The etymology of Rome from Roma (mother of Romulus and Remus), or from Romulus, the legendary founder of the city, or from ruma (a dug), in allusion to the fable of a wolf suckling the outcast children, is not tenable. Niebuhr derives it from the Greek word rhoma (strength), a suggestion confirmed by its other name Valentia, from valens (strong). Michelet prefers Rumo, the ancient name of the river Tiber.