The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 380

ROLAND DE LA PLATIeRE, JEAN MARIE, husband of Madame Roland, was Inspector of Manufactures at Lyons; represented Lyons in the Const.i.tuent a.s.sembly; acted with the Girondists; fled when the Girondist party fled, and on hearing of his wife's fate at Rouen bade farewell to his friends who had sheltered him, and was found next morning "sitting leant against a tree, stiff in the rigour of death, a cane-sword run through his heart"

(1732-1793).

ROLLIN, CHARLES, French historian, born in Paris; rector of the University; wrote "Ancient History" in 13 vols., and "Roman History" in 16 vols., once extremely popular, but now discredited and no longer in request (1661-1741).

ROLLO, a Norwegian, who became the chief of a band of Norse pirates who one day sailed up the Seine to Rouen and took it, and so ravaged the country that Charles the Simple was glad to come to terms with them by surrendering to them part of Neustria, which thereafter bore from them the name of Normandy; after this Rollo embraced Christianity, was baptized by the Bishop of Rouen, and was the first Duke of Normandy (860-932).

ROMAGNA, the former name of a district in Italy which comprised the NE. portion of the Papal States, embracing the modern provinces of Ferrara, Bologna, Ravenna, and Forli.

ROMAINE, WILLIAM, evangelical divine of the English Church, born at Hartlepool, author of works once held in much favour by the evangelicals, ent.i.tled severally "The Life, the Walk, and the Triumph of Faith"

(1714-1795).

ROMAN EMPIRE, HOLY, or the REICH, the name of the old German Empire which, under sanction of the Pope, was established by Otho the Great in 962, and dissolved in 1806 by the resignation of Francis II., Emperor of Austria, and was called "Holy" as being Christian in contrast with the old pagan empire of the name.

ROMANCE LANGUAGES, the name given to the languages that sprung from the Latin, and were spoken in the districts of South Europe that had been provinces of Rome.

ROMANES, GEORGE JOHN, naturalist, born at Kingston, Canada; took an honours degree in science at Cambridge; came under the influence of Darwin, whose theory of evolution he advocated and developed in lectures and various works, e. g. "Scientific Evidences of Organic Evolution,"

"Mental Evolution in Animals," "Mental Evolution in Man"; his posthumous "Thoughts on Religion" reveal a marked advance from his early agnosticism towards a belief in Christianity; founded the Romanes Lectures at Oxford (1848-1894).

ROMANOFF, the name of an old Russian family from which sprung the reigning dynasty of Russia, and the first Czar of which was Michael Fedorovitch (1613-1645).

ROMANS (17), a town in the dep. Drome, France, on the Isere, 12 m.

NE. of Valence; a 9th-century bridge spans the river to the opposite town Peage; has a 9th-century abbey; manufactures silk, &c.

ROMANS, EPISTLE TO THE, an epistle written from Corinth, in the year 59, by St. Paul to the Church at Rome to correct particularly two errors which he had learned the Church there had fallen into, on the part, on the one hand, of the Jewish Christians, that the Gentiles as such were not ent.i.tled to the same privileges as themselves, and, on the other hand, of the Gentile Christians, that the Jews by their rejection of Christ had excluded themselves from G.o.d's kingdom; and he wrote this epistle to show that the one had no more right to the grace of G.o.d than the other, and that this grace contemplates the final conversion of the Jews as well as the Gentiles. The great theme of this epistle is that faith in Christ is the one way of salvation for all mankind, Jew as well as Gentile, and its significance is this, that it contains if not the whole teaching of Paul, that essential part of it which presents and emphasises the all-sufficiency of this faith.

ROMANTICISM, the name of the reactionary movement in literature and art at the close of last century and at the beginning of this against the cold and spiritless formalism and pseudo-cla.s.sicism that then prevailed, and was more regardful of correctness of expression than truth of feeling and the claims of the emotional nature; has been defined as the "reproduction in modern art and literature of the life and thought of the Middle Ages."

ROME (423), since 1871 capital of the modern kingdom of Italy (q. v.), on the Tiber, 16 m. from its entrance into the Tyrrhenian Sea; legend ascribes its foundation to Romulus in 753 B.C., and the story of its progress, first as the chief city of a little Italian kingdom, then of a powerful and expanding republic (510 B.C. to 30 B.C.), and finally of a vast empire, together with its decline and fall in the 5th century (476 A.D.), before the advancing barbarian hordes, forms the most impressive chapter in the history of nations; as the mother-city of Christendom in the Middle Ages, and the later capital of the PAPAL STATES (q. v.) and seat of the Popes, it acquired fresh glory; it remains the most interesting city in the world; is filled with the sublime ruins and monuments of its pagan greatness and the priceless art-treasures of its mediaeval period; of ruined buildings the most imposing are the Colosseum (a vast amphitheatre for gladiatorial shows) and the Baths of Caracalla (accommodated 1600 bathers); the great aqueducts of its Pre-Christian period still supply the city with water from the Apennines and the Alban Hills; the Aurelian Wall (12 m.) still surrounds the city, enclosing the "seven hills," the Palatine, Capitoline, Aventine, &c., but suburbs have spread beyond; St. Peter's is yet the finest church in the world; the Popes have their residence in the Vatican; its manufactures are inconsiderable, and consist chiefly of small mosaics, bronze and plaster casts, prints, trinkets, &c.; depends for its prosperity chiefly on the large influx of visitors, and the court expenditure of the Quirinal and Vatican, and of the civil and military officials.

ROMFORD (8), an old market-town of Ess.e.x, on the Bourne or Rom, 12 m. NE. of London; noted for its cattle and corn markets; industries include brewing, market-gardening, foundries, &c.

ROMILLY, SIR SAMUEL, English lawyer, born in London, of a Huguenot family; was a Whig in politics, and was Solicitor-General for a time; devoted himself to the amendment of the criminal law of the country, and was a zealous advocate against slavery and the spy system (1751-1818).

ROMNEY, GEORGE, English portrait-painter, born in Lancashire; married at Kendal, left his wife and two children there, and painted portraits in London for 35 years in rivalry with Reynolds and Gainsborough, and retired at the end of that time to Kendal to die, his wife nursing him tenderly, though in the whole course of the term referred to, he had visited her only twice (1734-1862).

ROMNEY, NEW (1), one of the old CINQUE PORTS (q. v.), in S.

Kent, 8 m. SW. of Hythe; the sea has receded from its sh.o.r.es, leaving it no longer a port; as centre of a fine pastoral district it has an important sheep fair; the little village of Old Romney lies 1 m. inland.

ROMOLA, a novel by George Eliot, deemed her greatest by many, being "a deep study of life in the city of Florence from an intellectual, artistic, religious, and social point of view."

ROMSAY (4), a town in Hampshire, on the Test, 8 m. NW. of Southampton; has a remarkably fine old Norman church and a corn exchange; birthplace of Lord Palmerston.

ROMULUS, legendary founder of Rome, reputed son of Mars and RHEA SILVIA (q. v.), daughter of Numitor, king of Alba Longa; exposed at his birth, along with Remus, his twin-brother (q. v.); was suckled by a she-wolf and brought up by Faustulus, a shepherd; opened an asylum for fugitives on one of the hills of Rome, and founded the city in 753 B.C., peopling it by a rape of Sabine women, and afterwards forming a league with the SABINES (q. v.); he was translated to heaven during a thunderstorm, and afterwards worshipped as Quirinus, leaving Rome behind him as his mark.

RONALDSHAY, NORTH AND SOUTH, two of the Orkney Islands; North Ronaldshay is the most northerly of the Orkney group; South Ronaldshay (2) lies 6 m. NE. of Duncansby Head; both have a fertile soil, and the coast fisheries are valuable.

RONCESVALLES, a valley of the Pyrenees, 23 m. NE. of Pampeluna, where in 775 the rear of the army of Charlemagne was cut in pieces by the Basques, and ROLAND (q. v.) with the other Paladins was slain.

RONDA (19), one of the old Moorish towns of Spain, built amid grand scenery on both sides of a great ravine (bridged in two places), down which rushes the Guadiaro, 43 m. W. of Malaga; is a favourite summer resort.

RONDEAU, a form of short poem (originally French) which, as in the 15th century, usually consists of 13 lines, eight of which have one rhyme and five another; is divided into three stanzas, the first line of the rondeau forming the concluding line of the last two stanzas; Swinburne has popularised it in modern times.

RONDO, a form of musical composition which corresponds to the RONDEAU (q. v.) in poetry; consists of two or more (usually three) strains, the first being repeated at the end of each of the other two, but it admits of considerable variation.

RONSARD, PIERRE, celebrated French poet, born near Vendome; was for a time attached to the Court; was for three years of the household of James V. of Scotland in connection with it, and afterwards in the service of the Duke of Orleans, but having lost his hearing gave himself up to literature, writing odes and sonnets; he was of the PLeIADE SCHOOL OF POETS (q. v.), and contributed to introduce important changes in the idiom of the French language, as well as in the rhythm of French poetry (1521-1585).

RoNTGEN, WILHELM KONRAD VON, discoverer of the Rontgen rays, born at Lennep, in Rhenish Prussia; since 1885 has been professor of Physics at Wurzburg; his discovery of the X-rays was made in 1898, and has won him a wide celebrity; _b_. 1845.

RoNTGEN RAYS, described by Dr. Knott as "rays of light that pa.s.s with ease through many substances that are optically opaque, but are absorbed by others." "For example," he says, "the bony structures of the body are much less transparent than the fleshy parts; hence by placing the hand between a fluorescent screen and the source of these rays we see the shadow of the skeleton of the hand with a much fainter shadow of the flesh and skin bordering it." See Dr. Knott's "Physics."

ROOKE, SIR GEORGE, British admiral, born at Canterbury; distinguished himself at the battle of Cape La Hogue in 1692; in an expedition against Cadiz destroyed the Plate-fleet in the harbour of Vigo in 1702; a.s.sisted in the capture of Gibraltar from the Spaniards in 1704, and fought a battle which lasted a whole day with a superior French force off Malaga the same year (1650-1709).

ROON, COUNT VON, Prussian general, born in Pomerania; was Minister of War in 1859 and of Marine in 1861; was distinguished for the important reforms he effected in the organisation of the Prussian army, conspicuous in the campaigns of 1866 and 1871-72 (1803-1879).

ROOT, GEORGE FREDERICK, a popular American song-writer, born at Sheffield, Ma.s.sachusetts; was for some time a music teacher in Boston and New York; took to song writing, and during the Civil War leaped into fame as the composer of "Tramp, tramp, tramp the Boys are Marching," "Just before the Battle, Mother," "The Battle Cry of Freedom," and other songs; was made a Musical Doctor by Chicago University in 1872 (1820-1895).