Britannica Concise 2005

rip current or riptide Narrow, jetlike stream of water that flows spo¬ radically seaward for several minutes, in a direction perpendicular to a beach. The term riptide is a misnomer because the currents are in no way related to tides. Rip currents form at long coasts that are approached by wave trains that are nearly parallel to the shoreline. In shallow water, nor¬ mal wave motion displaces the water small distances shoreward with each passing wave. During periods of large waves, water builds up at the beach and cannot escape as longshore currents, which require oblique wave approach. The buildup continues until water can escape by surging for several minutes through a low point in a breaker, creating an undertow that can be dangerous for swimmers.

riparian right \ri-'par-e-on\ In law, the right of one who owns ripar¬ ian land (land abutting or including a stream or river) to have access to and use of the shore and water. These rights are a form of real property (see real and personal property) and are inherited with the land. A land- owner whose property abuts an ocean, sea, lake, or pond is said to pos¬ sess littoral rights. Specific water-use laws vary from state to state.

Ripken, Cal(vin Edwin), Jr, (b. Aug. 24, 1960, Havre de Grace, Md., U.S.) U.S. baseball player. Ripken was born into a baseball family; his father and brother both played professionally. He played for the Balti¬ more Orioles from 1981. In 1990 he set single-season records for highest fielding percentage by a shortstop (.996) and fewest errors by a shortstop (3), and in 1993 he broke the home-run record for a shortstop. On Sept. 6, 1995, he broke Lou Gehrig’s long-standing record of consecutive games played (2,130), eventually running his streak to 2,632 games before tak¬ ing a day off in 1998. Ripken retired at the end of the 2001 season.

Ripley, George (b. Oct. 3, 1802, Greenfield, Mass., U.S.—d. July 4, 1880, New York, N.Y.) U.S. journalist and reformer. He became a Uni¬ tarian minister after graduating from Harvard Divinity School. A mem¬ ber of the Transcendental Club and an editor of The Dial , its literary magazine, he founded the utopian community Brook Farm in 1841 and served as its director and leading promoter. When it closed in 1847, he took a job with the New York Tribune to pay off its debts. His own finan¬ cial position did not become secure until he published The Cyclopedia (1862), a popular reference book.

ripple mark One of a series of small marine, lake, or riverine features, consisting of repeating wavelike forms with symmetric slopes, sharp peaks, and rounded troughs. Ripple marks are formed in sandy bottoms by oscillation waves, in which only the wave form advances rapidly, the actual water-particle motion consisting of almost closed vertical orbits. The presence of the bottom restricts the lowermost orbits into nearly flat ellipses, and the bottom water moves back and forth rhythmically. If the maximum horizontal velocity of this motion is capable of moving the grains composing the bed, ripple marks develop. See also wave.

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RISC * Riyadh I 1625

RISC VriskA in full Reduced Instruction Set Computing Computer architecture that uses a limited number of instructions. RISC became popu¬ lar in microprocessors in the 1980s. The traditional CISC (Complex Instruction Set Computing) architecture uses many instructions that do long, complex operations. Each RISC instruction is executed much more quickly than a CISC instruction, and most computational tasks can be processed faster. Modern instruction sets combine attributes of CISC and RISC.

risk In economics and finance, an allowance for the hazard (risk) in an investment or loan. Default risk refers to the chance that a borrower will not repay a loan. If a banker believes that a borrower may not repay a loan, the banker will charge the true interest plus a premium for the default risk, the premium depending on the degree of presumed risk. All stock investment carries an implicit risk since there is no guarantee of return on investment. Trading or variability risk is the amount that the return may vary, up or down, from the expected return on investment.

Risorgimento Vre-.zor-ji-'men-toX Italian "Rising Again" Nineteenth-century movement for Italian unification. Reforms introduced by France into its Italian states in the Napoleonic period remained after the states were restored to their former rulers in 1815 and provided an impetus for the movement. Secret groups such as Young Italy advocated Italian unity, and leaders such as Camillo Cavour, who founded the jour¬ nal II Risorgimento (1847), Giuseppe Garibaldi, and Giuseppe Mazzini called for liberal reforms and a united Italy. After the failure of the Revolutions of 1848, leadership passed to Cavour and Piedmont, which formed an alliance with France against Austria (1859). The unification of most of Italy in 1861, followed by the annexation of Venetia (1866) and papal Rome (1870), marked the end of the Risorgimento.

Ritalin A mild form of amphetamine used in the treatment of attention- deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), generic name methylphenidate. Ritalin, taken as a pill, also has been effective for the treatment of other conditions such as narcolepsy. Although the drug acts as a stimulant in most people, Ritalin calms and focuses those with ADHD. Ritalin’s mode of action is unknown, but it is thought that the drug reduces symptoms by increasing the amount and activity of a neurotransmitter in the brain.

rite of passage See rite of passage

Ritsos Vret-s6s\, Yannis (b. May 1, 1909, Monemvasia, Greece—d. Nov. 11, 1990, Athens) Greek poet. He joined the Greek Communist Party in 1934, the year his first collection of poems, Tractors, appeared. It and a second collection mixed socialist philosophy with images of his per¬ sonal suffering. His third collection, Funeral Procession (1936), provided the words for the anthem of the Greek Left. He fought as a communist during the Nazi occupation and Greek civil war, and he spent four years in prison camps. Arrested and exiled in 1967, he was prohibited from publishing until 1972. Despite those obstacles, he wrote a total of 117 books, including plays and essays.

Rittenhouse, David (b. April 8, 1732, Germantown, Pa.—d. June 26, 1796, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S.) U.S. astronomer and inventor. He was a clockmaker by trade but also built mathematical instruments and, it is believed, the first telescope in the U.S. In 1769 he observed Venus mov¬ ing across the face of the Sun and noted that Venus has an atmosphere. Rittenhouse served as treasurer of Pennsylvania (1777-89), first director of the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia (1792-95), and president of the Ameri¬ can Philosophical Society (1791-96).

Rivadavia \ l re-va-tha-ve-o\ / Bernardino (b. May 20, 1780, Buenos Aires, Arg.—d. Sept. 2, 1845, Cadiz, Spain) First president of the Argen¬ tine republic (1826-27). Active in the 1810 movement for independence from Spain, he came to dominate the ruling revolutionary triumvirate in 1811. He disbanded the Spanish courts, abolished censorship, and ended the slave trade. Elected president of the United Provinces in 1826, he continued to advance reforms but was unable to extricate his country from a fruitless war with Brazil and was constantly embroiled with provincial caudillos. Unable to win acceptance for a centralist constitution, he resigned. His cultural initiatives, including the founding of the University of Buenos Aires, were among his greatest achievements. Most of his later years were spent in exile.

river Natural stream of water that flows in a channel with more or less defined banks. Rivers are a fundamental link in the hydrologic cycle, and they play a major role in shaping the surface features of the Earth. Even apparently arid desert regions are greatly influenced by river action when

periodic floodwaters surge down usually dry watercourses. River flow is sustained by the difference between water input and output. Rivers are fed by overland runoff, groundwater seepage, and meltwater released along the edges of snowfields and glaciers. Direct precipitation contrib¬ utes only very small amounts of water. Losses of river water result from percolation into porous and permeable rock, gravel, or sand; evaporation; and ultimately outflow into the ocean.

river blindness or onchocerciasis \ I aq-ko- 1 s3r-'kI-9-s9s\ Human disease caused by a filarial worm native to Africa but also found in parts of tropical America and transmitted by several blackflies. It is so called because the flies that transmit the disease breed on rivers and mostly affect riverine populations. Blindness is caused by dead microfilariae—the lar¬ vae that can be produced for some 15-18 years by adult worms—inside the eye. River blindness is common in savannah areas of Africa and in Guatemala and Mexico. In 1987 the World Health Organization began to distribute the drug ivermectin (originally developed for use against live¬ stock parasites), which eliminates the microfilariae, though it does not kill the adult parasite.

Rivera, Diego (b. Dec. 8, 1886, Guanajuato, Mex.—d. Nov. 25, 1957, Mexico City) Mexican muralist. After study in Mexico City and Spain, he settled in Paris from 1909 to 1919. He briefly espoused Cubism but abandoned it c. 1917 for a visual language of simplified forms and bold areas of colour. Returning to Mexico in 1921, he sought to create a new national art on revolutionary themes in the wake of the Mexican Revolu¬ tion. He painted many public murals, the most ambitious of which is in the National Palace (1929-57). From 1930 to 1934 he worked in the U.S. His mural for New York’s Rockefeller Center aroused a storm of contro¬ versy and was ultimately destroyed because it contained the figure of Vladimir Ilich Lenin; he later reproduced it at the Palace of Fine Arts in Mexico City. With Jose Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros, Riv¬ era created a revival of fresco painting that became Mexico’s most sig¬ nificant contribution to 20th-century art. His large-scale, didactic murals contain scenes of Mexican history, culture, and industry, with Indians, peasants, conquistadores, and factory workers drawn as simplified figures in crowded, shallow spaces. Rivera was married to Frida Kahlo almost uninterruptedly from 1929 to 1954.

Rivera, Jose Antonio Primo de See Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera Rivera, Luis Munoz See Luis Munoz Rivera

Rivers, Larry orig. Yitzroch Loiza Grossberg (b. Aug. 17, 1923, New York, N.Y., U.S.—d. Aug. 14, 2002, Southampton, N.Y.) U.S. painter associated with Abstract Expressionism and Pop art. He studied at the Juil- liard School in New York City and was a professional jazz saxophonist before turning to painting and studying with Hans Hofmann. His early works are characterized by frequent use of complex, fragmentary, and multiple views; perhaps the best-known is the harshly realistic Double Portrait of Berdie (1955). From the 1960s he introduced commercial images into his work, as well as elements of collage, construction, and sculpture; an elaborate example of his mixed-media works is The History of the Russian Revolution (1965).

Riverside City (pop., 2000: 255,166), southern California, U.S. It lies on the Santa Ana River. Along with San Bernardino and Ontario, Riverside forms a metropolitan complex east of Los Angeles. Settled in the 1870s, it was incorporated as a city in 1883 and became known for its citrus industry. Its economy now includes manufacturing and educational activities.

Riviera X.ri-ve-'er-sX Coastal region bordering the Mediterranean Sea in southeastern France, Monaco, and northwestern Italy. It extends from Cannes, France, to La Spezia, Italy. The Italian Riviera is divided into the Riviera di Ponente, west of Genoa, and the Riviera di Levante, east of Genoa. The French Riviera is also called the Cote d'Azur. Noted for its scenery and pleasant climate, it is one of the major tourist centres of Europe. Because of its mild winters, many delicate plants flourish there, and flowers are grown out of season for export to northern markets. See also Cannes; Nice; Monte Carlo.

Riyadh \re-‘yad\ City (pop., 2004: 4,087,152), capital of Saudi Arabia. Located in the east-central part of the country, it was chosen as the capi¬ tal of the Sa'ud dynasty in 1824. It remained the centre of Sa'udI rule until 1881, when the Rashid family took control of the region. In 1902 Ibn Sa'Gd regained control, and it became the centre for his conquest of the Ara¬ bian Peninsula. When the kingdom of Saudi Arabia was proclaimed in 1932, Riyadh became the capital. Discovery of immense petroleum depos-

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1626 I Rizal ► Roanoke Island

its in the kingdom in the 1930s transformed the old provincial town into a showplace of sophisticated technology, modern architecture, and high¬ ways. In addition to its administrative role, Riyadh is the kingdom’s com¬ mercial, education, and transportation centre.

Rizal (y Alonso) \re-'sal\, Jose in full Jose Protasio Rizal Mer¬ cado y Alonso Realonda (b. June 19,1861, Calamba, Phil.—d. Dec. 30, 1896, Manila) Filipino patriot, physician, and man of letters. Begin¬ ning in his youth, Rizal committed himself to the reform of Spanish rule in his home country. He lived in Europe (1882-92), where he published novels exposing the evils of Spanish rule and became the leader of the Propaganda movement, which produced reform-oriented articles, maga¬ zines, and poetry. He returned to the Philippines to found a nonviolent- reform society and was deported to Mindanao, where he spent four years. When the Katipunan nationalist secret society revolted in 1896, the Span¬ ish arrested and executed Rizal, though he had no connection with the group and had taken no part in the insurrection. His martyrdom convinced Filipinos that there was no alternative to independence from Spain.

RKO Radio Pictures, Inc. U.S. film studio. It was created in 1928 as Radio-Keith-Orpheum when the Radio Corp. of America (RCA Corp.) acquired the Keith-Albee-Orpheum theatre chain and a production firm. In the 1930s RKO was noted for producing a series of musicals starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers and Katharine Hepburn’s early movies, as well as films such as Cimarron (1931), The Informer (1935), and Citizen Kane (1941). It was bought by Howard R. Hughes in 1948; his inatten¬ tion doomed the company, and it ceased production in 1953 and was sold to Desilu Productions (1957). After numerous reorganizations, it contin¬ ued as RKO General, operating radio and television stations and theatres.

RNA in full ribonucleic Vri-bo-nu-Tde-ik, .ri-bo-nu-'kla-ikV acid One of the two main types of nucleic acid (the other being DNA), which func¬ tions in cellular protein synthesis in all living cells and replaces DNA as the carrier of genetic information in some viruses. Like DNA, it consists of strands of repeating nucleotides joined in chainlike fashion, but the strands are single (except in certain viruses), and it has the nucleotide uracil (U) where DNA has thymine (T). Messenger RNA (mRNA), a single strand copied from a DNA strand that acts as its template, carries the message of the genetic code from DNA (in chromosomes) to the site of protein synthesis (on ribosomes). Ribosomal RNA (rRNA), part of the building blocks of ribosomes, participates in protein synthesis. Transfer RNA (tRNA), the smallest type, has fewer than 100 nucleotide units (mRNA and rRNA contain thousands). Each nucleotide triplet on mRNA specifies which amino acid comes next on the protein being synthesized, and a tRNA molecule with that triplet’s complement on its protruding end brings the specified amino acid to the site of synthesis to be linked into the protein. Various minor types of RNA also exist; at least some act as catalysts (ribozymes), a function long ascribed only to proteins.

roach See cockroach

roach Common European sport fish (Rutilus rutilus) of the carp family (Cyprinidae), found in lakes and slow rivers. A high-backed, yellowish green fish with red eyes and reddish fins, the roach is 6-16 in. (15—40 cm) long and weighs up to 4.5 lbs (2 kg). It lives in small schools and eats plants, insects, and small animals. It is sometimes eaten or used as bait. In North America, other fishes are called roach, including the rudd, the golden shiner (both cyprinids), and several members of the sunfish family (Centrarchidae).

Roach, Hal orig. Harold Eugene Roach (b. Jan. 14, 1892, Elmira, N.Y., U.S.—d. Nov. 2, 1992, Bel Air, Calif.) U.S. film producer. He tried gold prospecting before becoming a bit player in Hollywood (1912). He befriended Harold Lloyd and directed and produced Just Nuts (1915), in which Lloyd starred, then formed the Hal Roach Studio (1919) and went on to produce other Lloyd comedies such as Safety Last (1923). In the 1920s and ’30s he produced thousands of comedy shorts, winning Academy Awards for The Music Box{ 1932) and Bored of Education (1936). In addi¬ tion to producing the Will Rogers films and the “Our Gang” shorts, he teamed Laurel and Hardy (see Stan Laurel; and Oliver Hardy) in their first film together in 1927 and produced a series of their films, including Leave ’em Laughing (1928) and Way Out West (1937), as well as other successes such as Topper (1937) and Of Mice and Men (1939). He ranks with Mack Sennett as a creator of inspired chaos in the early Hollywood comic style.

Roach, Max(well) (b. Jan. 10, 1924, New Land, N.C., U.S.) U.S. jazz bandleader, composer, and drummer. Roach performed with many of the

key bebop players of the mid-1940s, including Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker. He developed a light, flexible manner of keeping time with the ride cymbal rather than the bass drum, updating the role of the drum set for the new music and exploring the melodic possibilities of the drums in his solos. He formed a quintet with trumpeter Clifford Brown in 1954 and continued as leader of his own group following Brown’s death in 1956.

road Traveled way on which people, animals, or wheeled vehicles move. The earliest roads developed from paths and trails and appeared with the invention of wheeled vehicles, around 3000 bc. Road systems developed to facilitate trade in early civilizations; the first major road extended 1,775 mi (2,857 km) from the Persian Gulf to the Aegean Sea and was used c. 3500-300 bc. The Romans used roads to maintain control of their empire, with over 53,000 mi (85,000 km) of roadways extending across its lands; Roman construction techniques and design remained the most advanced until the late 1700s. In the early 19th century invention of macadam road construction provided a quick and durable method for building roads, and asphalt and concrete also began to be used. Motorized traffic in the 20th century led to the limited-access highway, the first of which was a park¬ way in New York City (1925). Superhighways also appeared in Italy and Germany in the 1930s. In the 1950s the U.S. interstate highway system was inaugurated to link the country’s major cities.

light bituminous

1 MERRIAM-WEBSTER INC.

roadrunner or chaparral cock

of terrestrial cuckoo, especially Geo¬ coccyx californianus (family Cucul- idae), of Mexican and southwestern U.S. deserts. About 22 in. (56 cm) long, they have streaked brown-and- white plumage, a short shaggy crest, bare blue and red skin behind the eyes, stout bluish legs, and a long tail carried at an angle. Clumsy, weak fli¬ ers, they prefer to run. Using their stout bill, they pound insects, lizards, and snakes to death, then swallow the victim head first. The lesser roa¬ drunner (G. velox ), of Mexico and Central America, is smaller, buffier, and less streaked.

Roanoke Vro-o-.nokV City (pop.,

2000: 94,911), western Virginia,

U.S. It is located on the Roanoke River at the southern end of the Shenan¬ doah Valley. Settled in 1740, it developed after 1882 when it became a rail junction and outlet for Virginia and West Virginia coal. Chartered in 1874 as the town of Big Lick, it was renamed Roanoke (1882) after either the Indian term for shell money or a nearby salt marsh. Manufactures now include metal and steel products, clothing, chemicals, and furniture.

Roanoke Island Island, off the North Carolina coast, U.S. Situated near the southern entrance to Albemarle Sound, the island is about 12 mi (19 km) long and 3 mi (5 km) wide. It was the site of the first English settlement in North America; its original colonists, sent by Walter Raleigh, arrived in mid-1585 but stayed only until 1586. A second group arrived in 1587; Virginia Dare, the first English child born in the Americas, was born on the island. When a supply ship arrived in 1590, all the colonists, including Virginia, had vanished; their fate is unknown. During the Ameri-

\,sha-p9- ral\ Either of two species

Roadrunner (Geococcyx californianus )

RUSS KINNE-PHOTO RESEARCHERS/EB INC.

© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.

Roanoke River ► Roberts I 1627

can Civil War the island was captured in 1862 by Union forces under Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside. It is now a resort and residential area.

Roanoke River River, southern Virginia and northeastern North Caro¬ lina, U.S. Formed by the confluence of forks in West Virginia, it flows southeast for 380 mi (612 km) into Albemarle Sound on the Atlantic coast of North Carolina. Just north of the Virginia-North Carolina boundary, it joins the Dan River, its principal tributary. It is navigable by small craft from its mouth to Weldon, N.C.

roasting In metallurgy, usually the first step in smelting ore to extract metal. The ore is heated in the presence of an abundant flow of air to drive off moisture and, if the metal-bearing mineral is a sulfide, convert it to an oxide. Sulfur fumes from ore roasting have been a major source of environmental pollution in the past.

Rob Roy orig. Robert MacGregor (baptized March 7, 1671, Bucha¬ nan, Stirlingshire, Scot.—d. Dec. 28, 1734, Balquhidder, Perthshire) Scot¬ tish Highland outlaw. Nephew of the chief of the MacGregor clan, he became a freebooter and apparently engaged in the time-honoured Bor¬ der practices of cattle stealing and blackmail. After the penal laws against the MacGregors were reintroduced (1693), he took the surname Camp¬ bell and frequently signed himself Rob Roy (“Red Rob”), in reference to his red hair. He became a brigand after his financial ruin in 1712 and exacted tribute for protection against thieves. Arrested in 1722, he was pardoned in 1727. He was glamorously portrayed as a Scottish Robin Hood in Walter Scott’s novel Rob Roy.

Robbe-Grillet \rob-gre-'ya\, Alain (b. Aug. 18, 1922, Brest, France) French writer. Trained as a statistician and agronomist, he became a writer and leading theoretician of the nouveau roman (“new novel”), the French antinovel that emerged in the 1950s. His narratives lack conventional ele¬ ments such as chronological plot and are composed largely of recurring images and repeated fragments of dialogue. Among his works are fiction, including The Erasers (1953), Jealousy (1957), and Djinn (1981); the essay “Towards a New Novel” (1963); and the memoir Ghosts in the Mir¬ ror (1984). He is also a screenwriter and film director; his best-known screenplay is that for Last Year at Marienbad (1961).

robber fly or assassin fly Any of about 4,000 species of predatory dipterans in the family Asilidae, found worldwide. Robber flies are the largest of all dipterans; some spe¬ cies are 3 in. (8 cm) long. Most have a dull-coloured, stout body resem¬ bling that of a bumblebee and a moustache of bristles between the large-faceted eyes. They use their long legs to capture insects in flight and hold them while eating; a fluid injected into the victim breaks down muscle tissue. A few species are seri¬ ous pests of apiaries.

robbery See theft

Robbia family, Della See Delia Robbia family

Robbins, Jerome orig. Jerome Rabinowitz (b. Oct. 11, 1918, New York, N.Y., U.S.—d. July 29, 1998, New York City) U.S. dancer, choreographer, and director. He joined Ballet Theatre (later American Bal¬ let Theatre) as a dancer in 1940. His first choreographic success was Fancy Free (set to a musical score by Leonard Bernstein), which was expanded into the musical On the Town (1944). He joined the New York City Ballet in 1948 and soon became associate director (1950-59), creating many works for the company. For the Broadway stage he choreographed suc¬ cessful musicals such as The King and I (1951; film, 1956), West Side Story (1957; film, 1961), Gypsy (1959; television, 1993), and Fiddler on the Roof( 1964). Returning to the New York City Ballet, he was resident choreographer and ballet master (1969-83) and then codirector with Peter Martins until retiring in 1990. His choreography is marked by a blend of modern, academic, and popular dance styles in a variety of American idi¬ oms. See photograph above.

Robert Guiscard \ges-'kar\ (b. c. 1015, Normandy—d. July 17, 1085, near Cephalonia, Greece, Byzantine Empire) Norman adventurer and duke of Apulia (1059-85). Born into a family of Norman knights, he

joined his brothers and half brothers in southern Italy, defeating the Byz¬ antines, Lombards, and papacy (1053) and taking over Apulia. He allied with the papacy (1059), agree¬ ing to oppose the Byzantines and expel the Arabs from Sicily. His brother Roger (later Roger I) helped him to conquer Sicily and Calabria, and he gained control of Salerno in 1076, making it the capital of his duchy. Robert made an abortive attempt to gain the Byzantine throne (1083) but returned to Italy to defend Pope Gregory VII from his enemies.

Robert I known as Robert the Bruce (b. July 11, 1274—d. June 7, 1329, Cardross, Dumbartonshire, Scot.) King of Scotland (1306-29). Though Robert was of Anglo- Jerome Robbins in Fancy Free, 1944. Norman ancestry and held lands in FR E D FEHL both England and Scotland, he sided

with the Scots against England and supported the rebel William Wallace. He gained the Scottish throne in 1306 after stabbing a rival to death in a quarrel. Twice defeated by Edward I (1306), he became a fugitive, hiding on a remote island off the Irish coast. Within a year, Robert returned to Scotland and began gathering supporters, and in 1314 he defeated Edward II at the Battle of Bannockburn. Edward III finally recognized him and confirmed Scottish independence in 1328.

Robert II known as Robert Curthose \'kur-toz\ (b. c. 1054—d. Feb¬ ruary 1134, Cardiff, Wales) Duke of Normandy (1087-1106). The eldest son of William I, he was named heir to Normandy but rebelled twice (c. 1077, c. 1082). Robert was exiled to Italy but returned as duke on his father’s death. He pawned Normandy to his brother William II and joined the First Crusade, in which he fought bravely and helped capture Jerus¬ alem (1099). He led an unsuccessful invasion of England after Henry I became king (1100); Henry then invaded Normandy (1105-06) and cap¬ tured Robert, who spent the rest of his life as a prisoner.

Robert II (b. March 2, 1316 —d. April 19, 1390, Dundonald, Ayrshire, Scot.) King of Scotland (1371-90). Grandson of Robert I, he served as regent during the periods of exile and of imprisonment by the English of his uncle, David II, and took the throne on David’s death in 1371 as the first Stuart king and thus was the founder of the house of Stuart. His reign proved anticlimactic; he had little effect on political and military affairs, taking no active part in the renewed war with England (1378-88). Suc¬ cession after his death was disputed by his numerous children (legitimate and illegitimate) and their descendants.

Robert III orig. John Stewart, earl of Carrick (b. c. 1337—d. April 4, 1406, Rothesay, Bute, Scot.) King of Scotland (1390-1406). After having ruled in the name of his father, Robert II, from 1384 to 1388, he assumed the throne in his own right on his father’s death. Physically dis¬ abled by a kick from a horse in 1388, he was never the real ruler of Scot¬ land. His brother Robert, earl of Fife, later duke of Albany, governed during Robert II’s last years and continued to govern throughout Robert Ill’s reign, except for three years when Robert Ill’s eldest son, David, duke of Rothesay, took his place. Robert Ill’s other son became James I.

Robert-Houdin \r6-ber-u-'da n \, Jean-Eugene orig. Jean- Eugene Robert (b. Dec. 6, 1805, Blois, France—d. June 13, 1871, St. Gervais, near Blois) French magician, considered the father of modern conjuring. Trained as a watchmaker, he became a magician at the Palais- Royal (1845-55), performing on a bare stage in evening dress rather than the usual wizardlike costume. He used familiar objects to create his illu¬ sions, then gave a plausible explanation of the technical procedures involved. Robert-Houdin was the first magician to use electricity, and he exposed magicians who relied on supernatural explanations for their feats. In 1856 he was sent to Algeria by the French government to counter the influence of the dervishes, who were encouraging rebellion against French forces, by duplicating their feats.

Roberts, Sir Charles G(eorge) D(ouglas) (b. Jan. 10, 1860, Dou¬ glas, N.B.—d. Nov. 26, 1943, Toronto, Ont., Can.) Canadian poet. At first a teacher and editor, he became a journalist in New York City and lived

Robber fly (Asilidae)

WILLIAM E. FERGUSON

Jerome Robbins in Fancy Free, 1944.

FRED FEHL

© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.

1628 I Roberts ► Robinson

in London before settling in Toronto. His best-known poems are simple descriptive lyrics about the scenery and rural life of Nova Scotia and his native New Brunswick. He published some 12 verse volumes, including In Divers Tones (1887) and The Vagrant of Time (1927). His prose includes short stories that display his intimate knowledge of the Canadian woods, including Earth’s Enigmas (1896) and Red Fox (1905). He is remembered as the first writer to express national feeling after the con¬ federation of 1867.

Roberts, John G(lover), Jr, (b. Jan. 27, 1955, Buffalo, N.Y., U.S.) 17th chief justice of the United States (2005- ). He earned a law degree (1979) from Harvard University, where he was the managing editor of the Harvard Law Review, and served as a law clerk (1980-81) to Supreme Court Justice William H. Rehnquist, who later became chief justice. He held several positions in the administrations of Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, during which time he became noted for his apparent advocacy of strongly conservative legal viewpoints. In 2003 Pres. George W. Bush nominated Roberts to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit; he was confirmed later that year. He held that post until 2005, when Bush nominated him to fill the vacancy left by the retir¬ ing justice Sandra Day O'Connor. Shortly before Roberts’s confirmation hearings began, Rehnquist died, prompting Bush to appoint Roberts chief justice. Quickly confirmed by the Senate (78-22), he was sworn in on Sept. 29, 2005.

Roberts, Oral (b. Jan. 24, 1918, near Ada, Okla., U.S.) U.S. evange¬ list. The son of a Pentecostal preacher, he underwent a conversion expe¬ rience in 1935. He spent 12 years as a pastor in several towns in the South and built up his own organization, the Pentecostal Holiness Church. He studied at Oklahoma Baptist College (1943-45), emerging as a Method¬ ist. Claiming direct communications from God, he began an itinerant ministry of faith healing in the late 1940s. The Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association, based in Tulsa, Okla., became the parent organization for other endeavors, including a publishing firm, and Roberts became known for his luxurious way of life. From the 1950s he reached wide audiences through radio and television. In 1963 he founded Oral Roberts Univer¬ sity in Tulsa, and in the early 21st century he continued his association with the university, holding the office of chancellor.

Roberts, Richard (b. April 22, 1789, Carreghova, Montgomeryshire, Wales—d. March 16, 1864, Manchester, Eng.) British inventor. He was an uneducated Welsh quarry man before he took a position with Henry Maudslay and then established his own machine-tool factory. He was one of the inventors of the metal planer, and he made important improvements to the lathe. His automatic spinning mule marked an important advance in spinning technology. He developed a screw-cutting lathe and built gear¬ cutting and slotting machines, railway locomotives with interchangeable parts, automatic machinery for punching holes in plate, and the first suc¬ cessful gas meter. Though he was said to have improved everything he touched, he was not a shrewd businessman, and he died in poverty.

Robertson, Oscar (Palmer) (b. Nov. 24, 1938, Charlotte, Tenn., U.S.) U.S. basketball player. He was the first African American to play for the University of Cincinnati. Drafted by the Cincinnati Royals of the NBA in 1960, he averaged double figures in points (30.8), rebounds (12.5), and assists (11.4) per game in 1961-62, a feat unmatched by any other player. He played for the Milwaukee Bucks (1970-74) and helped the team win a championship in 1970. He ended his career with 26,710 points, 7,804 rebounds, and 9,887 assists.

Robertson, Pat orig. Marion Gordon Robertson (b. March 23, 1930, Lexington, Va., U.S.) U.S. evangelist. He attended Washington and Lee University, served in the Marine Corps, and earned a law degree from Yale University. After undergoing a religious conversion, he studied at New York Theological Seminary and was ordained a Southern Baptist minister in 1959. In 1960 he started the nation’s first Christian television station, at Portsmouth, Va., and he built it into the Christian Broadcast¬ ing Network. Its mainstay was his talk show, The 700 Club. In 1988 he campaigned for the Republican presidential nomination. In 1989 he founded the Christian Coalition, a conservative political organization that went on to exercise wide influence.

Roberval \r6-ber-'val\, Jean-Francois de la Rocque, lord de

(b. c. 1500, Carcassonne, France—d. 1560/61, Paris) French colonizer in Canada. He was a member of the court of Francis I. Appointed lieutenant general of the North American territory discovered earlier by Jacques Cartier, he was sent to colonize the region. In 1542 he reached Cartier’s

former headquarters at Cap Rouge, near present-day Quebec. Cartier was to have served as his guide, but he had left in 1541. The settlement was short-lived, breaking up in 1543 after a harsh winter. Mineral wealth that Roberval brought back turned out to be fool’s gold and mica.

Robeson \'rob-s9n\, Paul (Bustill) (b. April 9, 1898, Princeton, N.J., U.S.—d. Jan. 23, 1976, Philadelphia, Pa.) U.S. singer, actor, and activist. Born to a former slave turned preacher and a Quaker mother, Robeson attended Rutgers University, where he was an All-America football player. Graduating at the head of his class, he went on to earn a law degree at Columbia University. Because of a lack of opportunity for African Ameri¬ cans in law, he turned to theatre, joining a group that included Eugene O'Neill and appearing in his All God’s Chillun Got Wings (1924) and The Emperor Jones (1924), a huge success in New York City and London. He also starred in the film version of The Emperor Jones (1933). Robeson’s superb bass-baritone brought him worldwide renown with his perfor¬ mance of “OF Man River” in Show Boat (1928). His lead role in Othello won high praise in London (1930) and on Broadway (1943). He visited the Soviet Union in 1934 and became identified with leftist politics. In 1950 his passport was withdrawn because he refused to disclaim mem¬ bership in the Communist Party. Viciously harassed and ostracized, Robe¬ son left the U.S. to live in Europe and travel in Soviet-bloc countries, but he returned in 1963 because of ill health.

Robeson Vrob-S3n\ Channel Northernmost part of the sea passage connecting Baffin Bay with the Arctic Ocean. Located between Ellesmere Island, Can., and northwestern Greenland, it extends north for 50 mi (80 km) from the Hall Basin to the Lincoln Sea. For brief periods during the summer, the channel is open to navigation.

Robespierre \,ro-bes- , pyer\ / Maximilien (Francois-Marie- Isidore) de (b. May 6, 1758, Arras, France—d. July 28, 1794, Paris) French revolutionary. A successful lawyer in Arras (1781-89), he was elected to the National Assembly (1789), where he became notorious as an outspoken radical in favour of individual rights. He became a leading member of the Montagnards in the National Convention. After calling for the death of Louis XVI, he led the Jacobins (see Jacobin Club) and the Committee of Public Safety (1793) in establishing the Reign of Terror, dur¬ ing which, as virtual dictator of France, he had former friends such as Georges Danton executed. Despite earlier support from the people of Paris, who called him “the Incorruptible,” he lost his dominating author¬ ity and was overthrown and guillotined in the Thermidorian Reaction. Often regarded as a bloodthirsty dictator, he was later valued for his social ide¬ als of reducing inequality and ensuring work for all.

robin Either of two thrush species (family Turdidae). The American robin {Turdus migratorius), 10 in. (25 cm) long, with gray-brown upper parts and a rusty breast, lives in deciduous forests and sometimes towns. It eats earthworms, insects, and berries. The European robin, or robin red¬ breast (Erithacus rubecula ), breeds throughout Europe, western Asia, and part of North Africa. It is 5.5 in. (14 cm) long, with olive-brown upper parts, white belly, and rusty-orange face and breast.

Robin Hood Legendary English outlaw. The hero of ballads dating from as early as the 14th century, Robin Hood was a rebel who robbed and killed landowners and government officials and gave his gains to the poor. He treated women and common people with courtesy, and he ignored the laws of the forest that restricted hunting rights. His greatest enemy was the sheriff of Nottingham. The ballads emerged during a time of agrarian unrest that culminated in the Peasants' Revolt of 1381. There is no evidence of Robin Hood’s historical existence, though later tradi¬ tion places him in the reign of King John. In postmedieval ballads and stories he was a nobleman who took refuge in Sherwood Forest after los¬ ing his lands. His men included Little John and Friar Tuck; his beloved was Maid Marion.

Robinson, Bill orig. Luther Robinson known as Bojangles (b.

May 25, 1878, Richmond, Va., U.S.—d. Nov. 25, 1949, New York, N.Y.) U.S. tap dancer. He developed extraordinary tap-dancing skills as a child, became the first black performer to appear in white vaudeville shows, and was later the first black in Florenz Ziegfeld’s Follies. He is best known for his starring roles in films, notably the four he made with Shirley Temple and the all-black musical Stormy Weather (1943). His soft-shoe and tap rou¬ tines were widely copied by other dancers, but he was unmatched for ingenuity in creating new steps, especially his famous “stair dance.” He also was famed for a unique ability to run backward. See also tap dance.

© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.

Robinson ► Roca I 1629

Robinson, Edward G. orig. Emmanuel Goldenberg (b. Dec. 12, 1893, Bucharest, Rom.—d. Jan. 26, 1973, Hollywood, Calif., U.S.) Romanian-born U.S. film actor. He was raised in New York City’s Lower East Side and won a scholarship to the American Academy of Dramatic Art. He was largely a stage actor until the advent of sound movies. He won fame playing a gangster boss in Little Caesar (1931). Short and chubby, with heavy features and a gruff voice, Robinson was content that his career would consist of rough-and-tumble roles and character parts. His later films include Barbary Coast (1935), Double Indemnity (1944), The Woman in the Window (1944), Scarlet Street (1945), All My Sons (1948), Key Largo (1948), and The Cincinnati Kid (1965). In 1973 he was posthumously awarded an honorary Academy Award.

Robinson, Edwin Arlington (b. Dec. 22, 1869, Head Tide, Maine, U.S.—d. April 6, 1935, New York, N.Y.) U.S. poet. He attended Harvard briefly, then he endured years of poverty and obscurity before his poetry began to attract attention. He is best known for short dramatic lyrics about the lives (mostly tragic) of the people in a small New England village; these include “Richard Cory” and “Miniver Cheevy.” Among his collec¬ tions are The Children of the Night (1897), The Man Against the Sky (1916), and Collected Poems (1921, Pulitzer Prize). He also wrote long narrative poems, including Merlin (1917), Lancelot (1920), The Man Who Died Twice (1924, Pulitzer Prize), Tristram (1927, Pulitzer Prize), and Amaranth (1934).

Robinson, Frank (b. Aug. 31, 1935, Beaumont, Tex., U.S.) U.S. base¬ ball player and the first black manager in major league baseball. Robin¬ son played principally for the Cincinnati Reds (1956-65) and Baltimore Orioles (1966-71). In 1966 he won the triple crown, leading the league in home runs (49), runs batted in (122), and batting average (.316). He later managed the Cleveland Indians (1975-77), San Francisco Giants (1981-84), Baltimore Orioles (1988—91), and Montreal Expos (since 2002; the franchise moved to Washington, D.C. in 2005 and was renamed the Nationals).

Robinson, Henry Peach (b. July 9, 1830, Ludlow, Shropshire, Eng.—d. Feb. 21, 1901, Tunbridge Wells) British photographer. Tiring of doing portraits, he turned to “high art” photographs, which imitated the anecdotal genre paintings popular at the time, creating them by pasting together parts of several negatives (“combination printing”). His photo¬ graph Fading Away (1858), depicting the peaceful death of a young girl surrounded by her grieving family, skillfully combines five different nega¬ tives. He used costumed models to shoot bucolic scenes in his studio. His Pictorial Effect in Photography (1869) was for decades the most influen¬ tial book in English on photographic practice.

Robinson, Jackie in full Jack Roosevelt Robinson (b. Jan. 31, 1919, Cairo, Ga., U.S.—d. Oct. 24,

1972, Stamford, Conn.) U.S. baseball player, the first black player in the major leagues. Robinson became an outstanding performer in several sports at Pasadena Junior College and UCLA before leaving college to help his mother care for the family.

He served as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army in World War II. He played baseball with the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro leagues before being signed by Branch Rickey to a Brooklyn Dodgers farm team (1945—46). On being advanced to the majors in 1947, he endured with notable dignity the early opposition to his presence, opposition quickly silenced by Robinson’s immediate success as he led the league in stolen bases and was chosen Rookie of the Year. In 1949 he won the batting championship with a .342 average and was voted the league’s most valuable player. He retired from the Dodg¬ ers team in 1956 with a career batting average of .311. In his later years he strongly supported the cause of civil rights for African Americans.

Robinson, James Harvey (b. June 29, 1863, Bloomington, Ill., U.S.—d. Feb. 16, 1936, New York, N.Y.) U.S. historian. Robinson

received his doctorate from the University of Freiburg and returned to the U.S. to teach European history, principally at Columbia University (1895— 1919). In The New History (1912), he called for the use of the social sci¬ ences in historical scholarship and put forth his controversial contention that the study of the past should serve primarily to improve the present. Among his other works are The Mind in the Making (1921) and several influential textbooks, including The Development of Modern Europe (1907-08; with Charles Beard).

Robinson, Joan (Violet) orig. Joan (Violet) Maurice (b. Oct. 31, 1903, Camberley, Surrey, Eng.—d. Aug. 5, 1983, Cambridge, Cam¬ bridgeshire) British economist. A professor at the University of Cam¬ bridge (1931-71), she helped develop Keynesian theory, establishing her reputation in 1933 with The Economics of Imperfect Competition , in which she analyzed distribution and allocation, dealing particularly with the concept of exploitation (see monopolistic competition). In the 1940s she began to incorporate aspects of Marxism into her work. Her unorthodox views and sympathy with noncapitalist systems—including China’s, on which she wrote three books—involved her in controversy throughout her career.

Robinson, Mary orig. Mary Bourke (b. May 21, 1944, Ballina, County Mayo, Ire.) Irish politician, first woman president of Ireland (1990-97). She earned a law degree at the University of Dublin, where she became a professor of law (1969-75). She served in the Irish senate (1969-89) as a Labour Party member. Nominated by the Labour Party and supported by the Green Party and the Workers’ Party, she became Ireland’s first woman president in 1990 by mobilizing a liberal constitu¬ ency and merging it with a more conservative constituency opposed to the Fianna Fail party. In 1997 she left office a few months before her term expired to take up the post of UN high commissioner for human rights.

Robinson, Smokey orig. William Robinson (b. Feb. 19, 1940, Detroit, Mich., U.S.) U.S. singer and songwriter. Robinson formed a group while still in high school. As the Miracles, they released their first single, produced by Berry Gordy, Jr., who shortly thereafter founded the Motown label. Their first Motown hit, “Shop Around” (1961), was fol¬ lowed by “You Really Got a Hold on Me,” “I Second That Emotion,” and “The Tracks of My Tears”; Robinson also wrote other Motown hits such as the Temptations’ “My Girl” and Mary Wells’s “My Guy.” He became president of Motown in 1972, by which time he was performing as a solo artist. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987.

Robinson, Sugar Ray orig. Walker Smith, Jr. (b. May 3, 1921, Detroit, Mich., U.S.—d. April 12, 1989, Culver City, Calif.) U.S. boxer. Robinson began boxing in high school in New York City and won all of his 89 amateur fights. He was six times a world champion, once (1946- 51) as a welterweight (147 lbs) and five times (1951-60) as a middle¬ weight (160 lbs). In 201 professional bouts, he made 109 knockouts. He suffered only 19 defeats, most when he was past 40. His outstanding abil¬ ity and flamboyant personality made him a hero of boxing fans through¬ out the world, and he is sometimes considered the best fighter in history.

robot Any automatically operated machine that replaces human effort, though it may not look much like a human being or function v in a human¬ like manner. The term comes from the play R.U.R. by Karel Capek (1920). Major developments in microelectronics and computer technology since the 1960s have led to significant advances in robotics. Advanced, high- performance robots are used today in automobile manufacturing and air¬ craft assembly, and electronics firms use robotic devices together with other computerized instruments to sort or test finished products.

robotics Design, construction, and use of machines (robots) to perform tasks done traditionally by human beings. Robots are widely used in such industries as automobile manufacture to perform simple repetitive tasks, and in industries where work must be performed in environments haz¬ ardous to humans. Many aspects of robotics involve artificial intelligence; robots may be equipped with the equivalent of human senses such as vision, touch, and the ability to sense temperature. Some are even capable of simple decision making, and current robotics research is geared toward devising robots with a degree of self-sufficiency that will permit mobility and decision-making in an unstructured environment. Today’s industrial robots do not resemble human beings; a robot in human form is called an android.

Roca Vro-koV, Cape Promontory in Portugal. The westernmost point of continental Europe, Cape Roca lies on the Atlantic coast northwest of Lis-

© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.

1630 I rocaille ► rock music

BON. Known to the Romans as Promontorium Magnum, the cape is a nar¬ row granite cliff, 472 ft (144 m) high, forming the western end of the Sintra Mountains.

rocaille \ro-'kI\ French rock work In Western architecture and deco¬ rative arts, an 18th-century style featuring elaborately stylized shell-like, rocklike, flower, fern, and scroll motifs. Originally designating the fan¬ ciful shellwork of artificial grottoes, rocaille came to be synonymous with Louis XV style. It is most often found in small pieces of furniture and such personal articles as snuffboxes. The term “Rococo” combines “rocaille” and “barocco” (Baroque).

Rochambeau X.ro-.sham-'boV, Jean-Baptiste-Donatien de Vimeur, count de (b. July 1, 1725, Vendome, France—d. May 10, 1807, Thore) French army officer. He served in the War of the Austrian Succession and became a brigadier general in 1761. He was put in com¬ mand of a French army of 6,000 sent to join the Continental Army in the American Revolution (1780). After waiting in vain for French naval sup¬ port, he joined forces with George Washington at White Plains, N.Y., in 1781. They marched to Yorktown, where they besieged British troops and forced their surrender. He returned to France (1783), where he com¬ manded the Army of the North in the French Revolution and was made a marshal of France.

Roche \'rosh\, (Eamonn) Kevin (b. June 14, 1922, Dublin, Ire.) Irish- born U.S. architect. After studying under Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, he became Eero Saarinen’s principal design associate. After Saarinen’s death in 1961, Roche and John Dinkeloo (1918-81) completed Saarinen’s unfinished projects, including the Dulles International Airport Terminal Building, near Washington, D.C. (1962), and St. Louis’s Gateway Arch (1965). The two launched their own firm in 1966; their approach, though similar to Saarinen’s, resulted in simpler geometric forms. Well-known works by Roche and Dinkeloo include the Ford Foundation headquarters in New York City (1968), General Foods headquarters in Rye, N.Y. (1977), and the Bouygues world headquarters outside Paris (1983). Roche received the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1982.

Roche, Mazo de la See Mazo de la Roche

Roche \'rosh\ limit Minimum distance at which a large natural satellite can orbit its primary body without being torn apart by tidal forces. If sat¬ ellite and primary are of similar composition, the theoretical limit is about 2.5 times the radius of the larger body. The rings of Saturn, for example, lie inside Saturn’s Roche limit and may be the debris of a demolished moon. The limit was first calculated by the French astronomer Edouard Roche (1820-53) in 1850.

Rochefoucauld, duke de La See Frangois VI, duke de La Roche¬ foucauld

Rochester City (pop., 2000: 219,773) and port, northwestern New York, U.S. Founded in 1811 and incorporated as a city in 1834, it became a boomtown with construction of the Erie Canal and rail connections. It was the home of Margaret and Kate Fox, spiritualists who attracted world attention in the 1840s with their seances known as the “Rochester rap- pings.” Frederick Douglass published his antislavery newspaper there in 1847, and the city was a terminus of the Underground Railroad. Susan B. Anthony lived there (1866-1906). In the 1890s George Eastman devel¬ oped photographic equipment there; the city’s manufacturing still includes cameras and photographic equipment. It is a cultural and educational cen¬ tre and the home of the University of Rochester, the Eastman School of Music, and the Rochester Institute of Technology.

Rochester, John Wilmot, 2nd earl of (b. April 10, 1647, Ditch- ley Manor House, Oxfordshire, Eng.—d. July 26, 1680, Woodstock, Oxfordshire) English poet and wit. The most notorious debauchee of the Restoration court, Rochester was also its best poet and one of the most original and powerful English satirists. A Satyr Against Mankind (1675) is a scathing denunciation of rationalism and optimism that contrasts human perfidy with animal wisdom, and “History of Insipids” (1676) is a devastating attack on the government of Charles II. In 1680 he became ill, experienced a religious conversion, and recanted his past, ordering “all his profane and lewd writings” burned. His single dramatic work is Val- entinian (1685).

rock In geology, a naturally occurring and coherent aggregate of miner¬ als. The three major classes of rock— igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic —are based on the processes that formed them. These three

classes are further subdivided on the basis of various factors, especially chemical, mineralogical, and textural attributes (see e.g., acid and basic rocks; crystalline rock; extrusive rock). See also felsic rock; intrusive rock;

MAFIC ROCK.

rock See rock music

rock art Ancient or prehistoric drawing, painting, or similar work on or of stone. Rock art includes pictographs (drawings or paintings), petro- glyphs (carvings or inscriptions), engravings (incised motifs), petroforms (rocks laid out in patterns), and geoglyphs (ground drawings). The ancient animals, tools, and human activities depicted often help shed light on daily life in the distant past, though the images are frequently symbolic. Some¬ times a single site may have art that dates from several centuries. Rock art may have played a role in prehistoric religion, possibly in connection with ancient myths or the activities of shamans. Important sites occur in southern Africa, Europe, North America, and Australia.

rock crystal Transparent variety of the silica mineral quartz that is val¬ ued for its clarity and total lack of colour or flaws. Rock crystal for¬ merly was used extensively as a gemstone, but it has been replaced by glass and plastic; rhinestones originally were quartz pebbles found in the Rhine River. The optical prop¬ erties of rock crystal led to its use in lenses and prisms; its piezoelectric properties (see piezoelectricity) are used to control the oscillation of electrical circuits.

rock glacier Tonguelike body of coarse rock fragments, found above the timberline on mountains, that moves slowly down a valley. The rock material usually has fallen from the valley walls and may contain large boulders; it resembles the material left at the end (terminus) of a true gla¬ cier. A rock glacier may be 100 ft (30 m) deep and nearly a mile (1.5 km) long.

rock music or rock and roll Musical style that arose in the U.S. in the mid-1950s and became the dominant form of popular music in the world. Though rock has used a wide variety of instruments, its basic elements are one or several vocalists, heavily amplified electric guitars (including bass, rhythm, and lead), and drums. It began as a simple style, relying on heavy, dance-oriented rhythms, uncomplicated melodies and harmonies, and lyr¬ ics sympathetic to its teenage audience’s concerns—young love, the stresses of adolescence, and automobiles. Its roots lay principally in rhythm and blues (R&B) and country music. Both R&B and country existed outside the mainstream of popular music in the early 1950s, when the Cleveland disc jockey Alan Freed (1921-65) and others began programming R&B, which until then had been played only to black audiences. Freed’s success gave currency to the term rock and roll. The highly rhythmic, sensual music of Chuck Berry, Bill Haley and the Comets, and particularly Elvis Presley in 1955-56 struck a responsive chord in the newly affluent postwar teenagers. In the 1960s several influences combined to lift rock out of what had already declined into a bland and mechanical format. In England, where rock’s development had been slow, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones were found to have retained the freshness of its very early years and achieved enormous success in the U.S., where a new generation had grown up unaware of the musical influences of the new stars. At the same time, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, the Byrds, and others were blending the traditional bal¬ lads and verse forms of folk music with rock, and musicians began to explore social and political themes. Performers such as the Grateful Dead, Jim Mor¬ rison of the Doors, and Frank Zappa of the Mothers of Invention combined imaginative lyrics with instrumental virtuosity, typically featuring lengthy solo improvisation. Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix won large followings with their exotic elaborations on R&B. The 1970s saw the rise of singer- songwriters such as Paul Simon, Neil Young, Elton John, David Bowie, and Bruce Springsteen, and rock assimilated other forms to produce JAZZ-rock, heavy metal, and punk rock. In the 1980s the Disco-influenced rock of Madonna, Michael Jackson, and Prince was balanced by the post-punk “new wave” music of performers such as Laurie Anderson, Talking Heads (led by David Byrne), and the Eurythmics—all of whom illustrated their songs with music videos. By the 1990s rock music had incorporated grunge, rap, techno, and other forms.

Rock crystal from the Dauphine region of France.

EMIL JAVORSKY-EB INC.

© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.

Rock River ► Rocky Mountains I 1631

Rock River River, north-central U.S. It rises in southeastern Wisconsin and flows across the northwestern comer of Illinois, emptying into the Mississippi River at Rock Island, Ill.; it is 300 mi (480 km) long. The bottomlands along the lower course are subject to spring floods and require levee protection.

Rockefeller, David (b. June 12, 1915, New York, N.Y., U.S.) U.S. banker and philanthropist. He was the grandson of John D. Rockefeller and brother of Nelson Rockefeller. After earning a Ph.D. in economics at the University of Chicago (1940) and serving in World War II (1942-45), he joined the staff of the Chase National Bank of New York in 1946. He became senior vice president in 1952 and effected the merger with the Bank of Manhattan Co. that resulted in the Chase Manhattan Bank (1955); he served as the bank’s chairman of the board from 1969 to 1981. His speciality was international banking, and he was a familiar figure to min¬ isters and heads of state of various countries around the world.

Rockefeller, John D(avison) (b. July 8, 1839, Richford, N.Y., U.S.—d. May 23, 1937, Ormond Beach, Fla.) U.S. industrialist and phi¬ lanthropist. He moved with his family to Cleveland, Ohio, in 1853, and in 1859 he established a commission business dealing in hay, grain, meats, and other goods. In 1863 he built an oil refinery that soon was the largest in the area. With a few associates he incorporated Standard Oil Co. (Ohio) in 1870. He bought out competitors to control the oil-refinery business in Cleveland (1872) and in the U.S. (1882). He placed the stock of the com¬ pany and its affiliates in other states under control of a board of trustees, establishing the first major U.S. business trust company. As a result of antitrust proceedings, he later converted the trust into a holding company. In the 1890s he turned his attention to philanthropy. He founded the Uni¬ versity of Chicago in 1892, the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research (later Rockefeller University) in 1901, and the Rockefeller Foundation in 1913. He donated over $500 million in his lifetime, and his philanthropy continued through donations by his son, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. (1874- 1960), and other descendants.

Rockefeller, Nelson (Aldrich) (b. July 8, 1908, Bar Harbor, Maine, U.S.—d. Jan. 26, 1979, New York, N.Y.) U.S. politician. A grandson of John D. Rockefeller, he worked for several family enterprises, including Creole Petroleum in Venezuela (1935-40). He became coordinator of inter-American affairs at the U.S. State Department (1940-44), assistant secretary of state (1944-45), and undersecretary of health, education, and welfare (1953-55). As governor of New York (1959-73), he oversaw expansion of the state’s fiscal, cultural, and educational systems. He sought the Republican Party presidential nomination in 1964 and 1968. He served as U.S. vice president (1974-77) under Gerald Ford. A major art patron, he founded the Museum of Primitive Art (later incorporated into the Metropolitan Museum of Art).

Rockefeller Center Complex of 14 limestone skyscrapers set amid a series of outdoor spaces on a 12-acre (5-hectare) site, built between 1929 and 1940 in midtown Manhattan. It was designed by a team of architects headed by Henry Hofmeister, H. W. Corbett, Raymond Hood, and Wallace K. Harrison. Wood veneering, mural painting, mosaics, sculpture, metal¬ work, and other allied arts were integrated with the architecture. Radio City Music Hall (1932) is noted for its Art Deco interior.

Rockefeller Foundation U.S. philanthropic organization. It was endowed by John D. Rockefeller and chartered in 1913 to alleviate human suffering worldwide. Rockefeller was assisted in its management by his son John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Among its many activities, the foundation sup¬ ports medical research and education. It also provides grant and fellowship programs in the social sciences, agricultural sciences, and global environ¬ mental studies, and in building democracy and international philanthropy.

rocket Type of jet-propulsion device that uses either solid or liquid pro¬ pellants to provide the fuel and oxidizer needed for combustion. The hot gases provided by combustion are ejected in a jet through a nozzle at the rear of the rocket. The term is also commonly applied to any of various vehicles, including fireworks, skyrockets, guided missiles, and launch vehicles for spacecraft, that are driven by such a propulsive device. Typi¬ cally, thrust (force causing forward motion) is produced by reaction to a rearward expulsion of hot gases at extremely high speed (see Newton's LAWS OF MOTION).

rocket See arugula

rockfish or stonefish Name applied to species in the scorpion-fish family (Scorpaenidae), including the lionfish, redfish, and zebra fish. In

North America the name is also applied to the eastern mudminnow {Umbra pygmaea, family Umbridae), one of several hardy fishes of cool, mud-bottomed ponds, lakes, and streams. Eastern mudminnows fre¬ quently bury themselves, tail first, in the mud. They are often used as bait.

Rockford City (pop., 2000: 150,111), northern Illinois, U.S. Located on the Rock River, it is the state’s second largest city and was founded by New Englanders in 1834. Originally called Midway, it was renamed for the ford across the river and incorporated as a city in 1852. Waterpower supplied by a dam built in 1844 led to its development as a manufactur¬ ing centre in the middle of an agricultural area. Principal products include machine tools and hardware, farm implements, furniture, and seeds.

Rockingham, Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd marquess

of (b. May 13, 1730—d. July 1, 1782, London, Eng.) British politician. From 1751 to 1762 he served as gentleman of the bedchamber for George II and then George III, who appointed him prime minister in 1765. He obtained repeal of the unpopular Stamp Act but agreed to the passage of the Declaratory Act. His ministry collapsed through internal dissension in 1766. He and Edmund Burke led the parliamentary opposition to the min¬ istries in power and spoke in favour of independence for the American colonies. In his brief second ministry (1782), he began peace negotiations with the U.S. and obtained legislative independence for the Irish parlia¬ ment.

Rockne Vrak-ne\, Knute (Kenneth) (b. March 4, 1888, Voss, Nor.—d. March 31, 1931, Chase county, Kan., U.S.) U.S. football coach. He immigrated with his family to Chicago in 1893. He ran track and played end on the University of Notre Dame football team, combining with quarterback Gus Dorias to popularize the forward pass as a major offensive tactic. In 1919 he was named head coach at Notre Dame. In Rockne’s 13 seasons, his “Fighting Irish” posted an impressive record (105-12-5) that included 5 undefeated seasons and 3 national champion¬ ships. He coached players such as George “The Gipper” Gipp and the members of the Four Horsemen, and his colourful personality captured the public’s imagination.

Rockwell, Norman (b. Feb. 3, 1894, New York, N.Y., U.S.—d. Nov. 8, 1978, Stockbridge, Mass.) U.S. illustrator. He studied at the Art Stu¬ dents League and received his first freelance assignment at 17. From 1916 to 1963 he produced 317 covers for The Saturday Evening Post. Most of his works are humorous treatments of idealized small-town and family life. During World War II, posters of his Four Freedoms were distributed by the Office of War Information. Though loved by the public, Rockwell’s work was often dismissed by critics. Late in his career, he turned to more serious subjects (e.g., a series on racism for Look magazine) and began to receive more serious attention, and in the 1990s his critical reputation enjoyed a positive reassessment.

Rocky Mountain goat See mountain goat

Rocky Mountain National Park National park, north-central Colorado, U.S. Established in 1915 and enclosing part of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains, the park has an area of 262,191 acres (106,105 hectares). It contains many peaks exceeding 10,000 ft (3,000 m), includ¬ ing Longs Peak (14,255 ft [4,345 m]), as well as broad valleys and alpine lakes. The tundra in the park’s high country is an island of Arctic veg¬ etation surrounded by plants of lower latitudes. Animal life includes big¬ horn sheep, deer, mountain lions, and a variety of birds.

Rocky Mountain spotted fever TYPHUS-like disease first seen in the Rocky Mountain region, caused by the bacterium Rickettsia rickettsii (see Rickettsia) and transmitted by various ticks. In severe cases the rash bleeds more and is especially prominent on the wrists and ankles. Central ner¬ vous system involvement causes restlessness, insomnia, and delirium. Prostration may progress to coma, with death possible in a week or more. Mortality increases with age. Recovery is slow but usually complete as visual disturbances, deafness, and mental confusion pass. Prompt antibi¬ otic treatment hastens it and reduces mortality. Prevention depends on avoiding tick bites, by wearing long, light-coloured clothing and insect repellent and inspecting for ticks. A vaccine reduces the risk of infection somewhat and of death greatly.

Rocky Mountains or Rockies Mountain system, western North America. It extends some 3,000 mi (4,800 km) from the Mexican fron¬ tier to the Arctic Ocean, through the western U.S. and Canada. The high¬ est peak in the U.S. Rockies is Mount Elbert in Colorado, at 14,433 ft (4,399 m); in the Canadian Rockies it is Mount Robson in British Colum-

© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.

1632 I Rococo style ► roedeer

bia, at 12,972 ft (3,954 m). The Continental Divide, located in the moun¬ tains, separates rivers flowing to the east and to the west. Wildlife includes grizzly bear, brown bear, elk, bighorn sheep, and cougar. The area is rich in deposits of copper, iron ore, silver, gold, lead, zinc, phosphate, potash, and gypsum. Rocky Mountain, Yellowstone, and Grand Teton national parks in the U.S. are major recreational facilities.

Rococo Vro-'ko-.ko, ro-ko-'koV style or Late Baroque Style in inte¬ rior design, the decorative arts, painting, architecture, and sculpture that originated in Paris in the early 18th century. The word Rococo is derived from French rocaille, denoting the shell-covered rockwork used to deco¬ rate artificial grottoes. Reacting against the ponderous Baroque that had become the official style of Louis XIV’s reign, the Rococo was light, elegant, and elaborately ornamented. Several interior designers, painters, and engravers—among them Pierre Le Pautre, Juste-Aurele Meissonier, Jean Berain, and Nicolas Pineau—developed a lighter and more intimate style of decoration for the new residences of nobles in Paris, and the style was disseminated throughout France by means of engravings. In these designers’ work, walls, ceilings, and moldings feature interlacings of curves and countercurves based on S and C shapes as well as on shell forms and other natural shapes. Chinese motifs were also employed (see chinoiserie). Rococo painting was characterized by easygoing treatments of mythological and courtship themes, delicate brushwork, and sensuous colouring; notable practitioners included Antoine Watteau, Francois Boucher, and Jean-Honore Fragonard. The Rococo style spread through¬ out France and other countries, principally Germany and Austria. Among the finest German examples of Rococo architecture is the church designed by Balthasar Neumann at Vierzehnheiligen, near Lichtenfels, in Bavaria. In Italy the Rococo style was concentrated primarily in Venice, where it was epitomized by the large-scale decorative paintings of Giovanni Bat¬ tista Tiepolo.

Rodchenko Vrad-'cheq-koV Aleksandr (Mikhailovich) (b. Dec. 5, 1891, St. Petersburg, Russia—d. Dec. 3, 1956, Moscow, Russia, U.S.S.R.) Russian painter, sculptor, designer, and photographer. He ini¬ tially embraced a completely abstract, highly geometric style, using a ruler and compass. His series of black-on-black geometric paintings (1918) was a direct response to Kazimir Malevich’s painting White on White. In 1919, influenced by Vladimir Tatlin, he began to make hanging three-dimensional constructions that were, in effect, mobiles. As leader of a wing of Con¬ structivism that sought to produce works appropriate to workers’ daily lives, he renounced easel painting and took up photography and book, furniture, and set design. His innovations in lighting in his photography influenced Sergei Eisenstein. He returned to easel painting in the 1930s.

Roddenberry, Gene in full Eugene Wesley Roddenberry (b.

Aug. 19, 1921, El Paso, Texas, U.S.—d. Oct. 24, 1991, Santa Monica, Calif.) U.S. television and film producer. He worked as a pilot (1945-49) and police officer (1949-53) before becoming a writer for television series such as Dragnet and Dr Kildare. He created the idea for the Star Trek series and produced the show from 1966 until it ended in 1969; later rerun in syndication, it developed a durable cult following among fans known as “Trekkies.” He produced six Star Trek movies, and from 1987 to 1991 he produced the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation.

rodent Any member of the order Rodentia, which contains 50% of all living mammal species. Rodents are gnawing, mostly herbivorous, placen¬ tal mammals. They have one pair of upper and one pair of lower, con¬ tinuously growing, incisors. When the lower jaw is pulled back, the cheek teeth connect for grinding; when it is pulled forward and down, the inci¬ sors meet at the tips for gnawing. Rodent families include squirrels (Sci- uridae); Old World mice (see mouse) and rats (Muridae); deer mice (see DEER MOUSE), GERBILS, HAMSTERS, LEMMINGS, MUSKRATS, WOOD RATS, and VOLES

(Cricetidae); beaver (Castoridae); gophers (Geomyidae); guinea pigs (Cavi- idae); pocket mice (see pocket mouse) and kangaroo rats and mice (Het- eromyidae); New and Old World porcupines (Erethizontidae and Hystricidae); and hutia (Capromyidae).

rodeo Sport involving a series of contests derived from North Ameri¬ can cowboy skills. Rodeos typically feature competitive or exhibition bronco riding, calf roping, steer wrestling, and Brahma bull riding. The sport developed from informal competitions among cowboys held from the mid-19th century. Denver is traditionally accepted as the birthplace of paid spectator rodeo, in 1887. The oldest surviving annual show is the Frontier Days celebration in Cheyenne, Wyo. (established 1897). The Calgary Stampede has been held annually in Alberta, Can., since 1923.

In calf roping and steer wrestling, the contestant seeks to bring down the animal in the shortest possible time. In riding events, contestants seek to stay on their mounts as long as possible and are awarded points for style, control, and other factors.

Rodgers, Jimmie orig. James Charles Rodgers (b. Sept. 8, 1897, Meridian, Miss., U.S.—d. May 26, 1933, New York, N.Y.) U.S. country music singer and guitarist. He left school at age 14 to work on the railroad, and he would be known throughout his career as the “Singing Brakeman.” While working on the trains he learned guitar and banjo, absorbed blues techniques from African American railroad workers, and eventually created his characteristic sound—a blend of traditional work, blues, hobo, and cowboy songs and his trademark “blue yodel.” By c. 1924 tuberculosis had made his railroad work impossible; he began instead to perform and soon became a best-selling recording artist, the first solo star of country music. His more than 110 recordings include “Blue Yodel No. 1” and “Mississippi River Blues.” He died at age 35. He was one of the first three inductees into the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Rodgers, Richard (b. June 28, 1902, New York, N.Y., U.S.—d. Dec. 30, 1979, New York City) U.S. composer. Rodgers studied at Columbia University, where he met his future collaborator Lorenz Hart, and he later studied composition at the Institute of Musical Art. His first success with Hart (who wrote lyrics) was a revue, The Garrick Gaieties (1925). Their comedy On Your Toes (1936), with the jazz ballet Slaughter on Tenth Avenue, established serious dance as a permanent part of musical com¬ edy. Among their other collaborations were Babes in Arms (1937), The Boys from Syracuse (1938), and Pal Joey (1940), which was revived in 1952 with great success. After Hart’s death, Rodgers worked with libret¬ tist Oscar Hammerstein. Their Oklahoma! (1943, Pulitzer Prize) enjoyed a then-unprecedented Broadway run of 2,248 performances; their 17-year partnership produced successes such as South Pacific (1949), The King and I (1951), and The Sound of Music (1959) and made them the fore¬ most team in the history of the American musical.

Rodin \ro-'da n \, (Francois-) Auguste (Rene) (b. Nov. 12, 1840, Paris, France—d. Nov. 17, 1917, Meudon) French sculptor. Insolvent and repeatedly rejected by the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, he earned his living by doing decorative stonework. Not until his late 30s, after a trip to Italy, did he develop a personal style free of academic restraints and establish his reputation as a sculptor with The Age of Bronze (exhibited 1878), whose realism was so great that he was accused of forming its mold on a living person. His Gates of Hell, a bronze door commissioned in 1880 for a pro¬ posed Musee des Arts Decoratifs, remained unfinished at his death, but two of its many figures were the bases of his most famous images, The Thinker (1880) and The Kiss (1886). His portraits include monumental figures of Victor Hugo and Honore de Balzac. Though these and many other works caused controversy for their unconventionality, he was successful enough that he could establish a workshop where he executed only molds, leaving the casting of bronze and the carving of marble to assistants. To his sculp¬ ture he added book illustrations, etchings, and numerous drawings, mostly of female nudes. He revitalized sculpture as an art of personal expression and has been considered one of its greatest portraitists.

Rodney, Caesar (b. Oct. 7, 1728, Dover, Del.—d. June 26, 1784, Dover, Del., U.S.) American Revolutionary leader. He was a delegate to the Stamp Act Congress (1765) and the Continental Congress (1774-76, 1777-78). He cast the tie-breaking vote in the Delaware delegation that decided the Congress’s resolution for independence. A signer of the Dec¬ laration of Independence, he became commander of the Delaware militia (1777) and served as “president” of Delaware (1778-81).

Rodrigo, Joaquin (b. Nov. 22,

1901, Sagunto, Spain—d. July 6,

1999, Madrid) Spanish composer.

Rodrigo, who was blind from age three, studied music from an early age. Best known for his music for the guitar, especially his highly success¬ ful Concierto de Aranjuez for guitar and orchestra (1939), Rodrigo also wrote concertos for other instru¬ ments, a ballet, an opera, and some 60 songs.

roe deer Almost tailless Eurasian DEER ( Capreolus capreolus), found in

Roe deer buck (Capreolus capreolus).

PHILIP WAYRE/EB INC.

© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.

Roe v. Wade ► Rogers I 1633

small family groups in lightly forested regions. It stands 26-34 in. (66-86 cm) at the shoulder. Its coat is reddish brown in summer and grayish brown, with a conspicuous white rump patch, in winter. The male has short, usually three-tined antlers roughened at the base. When alarmed, the deer barks like a dog.

Roe v. Wade (1973) Decision of the Supreme Court of the United States that established a woman’s right to have an abortion without undue inter¬ ference from the government. A Texas law prohibiting abortions was chal¬ lenged by an unmarried pregnant woman (pseudonymously named Jane Roe), and the court ruled in her favour, finding that the state had violated her right to privacy (see rights of privacy). Harry Blackmun, writing for the seven-member majority, argued that the state’s legitimate concern for the protection of prenatal life increased as a pregnancy advanced. While allow¬ ing that the state might forbid abortions during a pregnancy’s third trimes¬ ter, he held that a woman was entitled to obtain an abortion freely, after medical consultation, during the first trimester and in an authorized clinic during the second trimester. The Roe decision, perhaps the most contro¬ versial in the Supreme Court’s history, remains at the centre of the issue of abortion rights. Repeated challenges since 1973, such as Planned Parent¬ hood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey, have narrowed the scope of Roe but have not overturned it.

Roebling \'roeb-liq,\ English Vro-bliqV, John Augustus (b. June 12, 1806, Miihlhausen, Prussia—d. July 22, 1869, Brooklyn Heights, N.Y., U.S.) German-U.S. civil engineer, a pioneer in the design of suspension bridges. He immigrated to the U.S. in 1831. His best-known work is New York’s Brooklyn Bridge. In the 1850s and ’60s Roebling and his son Wash¬ ington (1837-1926) built four suspension bridges: two at Pittsburgh, one at Niagara Falls (1855), and one at Cincinnati (1866). When his design for a bridge connecting Brooklyn and Manhattan was accepted, he was appointed chief engineer. He died from an injury he received as construc¬ tion began. Washington completed the project in 1883; himself incapaci¬ tated from 1872 by decompression sickness, his completion of the work depended heavily on his wife, Emily Warren Roebling.

Roentgen Vroent-gonV Abraham (b. 1711, Miihlheim, Cologne—d. 1793, Neuwied?, Trier) German furniture designer and cabinetmaker. In 1750 he established a shop in Neuwied, near Cologne. The Rococo-style furniture he produced there was of outstanding quality and was often decorated with inlay work of ivory and other semiprecious materials. Much of his work was created for various German courts. His son David Roentgen (1743-1807), who succeeded him as head of the firm in 1772, was appointed cabinetmaker to Marie-Antoinette of France. The Roent¬ gens’ shop was perhaps the most successful firm of furniture production in the 18th century.

Roentgen, Wilhelm Conrad See Wilhelm Conrad Rontgen

Roethke \'ret-ke\, Theodore (b. May 25, 1908, Saginaw, Mich., U.S.—d. Aug. 1, 1963, Bainbridge Island, Wash.) U.S. poet. He was edu¬ cated at the University of Michigan and Harvard University. He later taught at several colleges and universities, notably the University of Wash¬ ington (1947-63). His verse, characterized by introspection and intense lyricism, is collected in volumes such as Open House (1941), The Wak¬ ing (1953, Pulitzer Prize), Words for the Wind (1957, Bollingen Prize, National Book Award), and The Far Field (1964, National Book Award). His later career was interrupted by hospitalizations for manic depression.

Roger I known as Roger Guiscard \ges-'kar\ (b. 1031, Normandy, France—d. June 22, 1101, Mileto, Calabria) Count of Sicily (1072-1101). A Norman knight, he went to Italy (1057) to help his brother Robert Guis¬ card take Calabria from the Byzantines (1060). They launched a campaign to conquer Sicily from the Muslims (1061). When they captured Palermo (1072), Roger was granted a limited right to govern Sicily and Calabria. After Robert’s death, he gained full right to govern and created an effi¬ cient centralized government.

Roger II (b. Dec. 22, 1095—d. Feb. 26, 1154, Palermo) Grand count of Sicily (1105-30) and king of Sicily (1130-54). The son of Roger I, he was a capable and energetic ruler who incorporated the mainland territories of Calabria (1122) and Apulia (1127). He was crowned king by the antipope Anacletus II, and he forced Innocent II to confirm him in 1139. He built a powerful navy but refused to join the Second Crusade, preferring as the ruler of a largely Arab population to show tolerance toward Muslims. He promulgated a law code (1140), and his court was an intellectual center for both Arab and Western scholars.

Rogers, Carl R(ansom) (b. Jan. 8, 1902, Oak Park, Ill., U.S.—d. Feb. 4, 1987, La Jolla, Calif.) U.S. psychologist. He trained at Teachers Col¬ lege, Columbia University (Ph.D., 1931), and directed a children’s agency in New York before taking teaching positions at various universities. In 1963 he helped found an institute for the study of the person in La Jolla, Calif. He is known as the originator of client-centred, or nondirective, psy¬ chotherapy, and he helped establish humanistic psychology. His writings include Counseling and Psychotherapy (1942), Client-Centered Therapy (1951), Psychotherapy and Personality Change (1954), and On Becom¬ ing a Person (1961).

Rogers, Fred (McFeely) known as Mr. Rogers (b. March 20, 1928, La Trobe, Pa., U.S.—d. Feb. 27, 2003, Pittsburgh, Pa.) U.S. television host and producer. He produced the local public-television show The Children’s Corner (1954-61) and later created a similar program. Mister Rogers, for Canadian television (1963-64). In 1968 he developed it into Mister Rogers ’ Neighborhood. Known for his gentleness and his desire to educate, Rogers, who was ordained a Presbyterian minister in 1962, used puppets, music, and guests to teach his viewers about various sub¬ jects and emotions. His show, the longest-running U.S. children’s televi¬ sion program, garnered many honours. In 2002 he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest U.S. civilian honour.

Rogers, Ginger orig. Virginia Katherine McMath (b. July 16, 1911, Independence, Mo., U.S.—d. April 25, 1995, Rancho Mirage, Calif.) U.S. film actress. She began her career as a dancer in vaudeville and made her Broadway debut in 1929. After starring in Girl Crazy ( 1930- 31), she moved to Hollywood. Her first performance with Fred Astaire, in Flying Down to Rio (1933), was so popular that they continued the part¬ nership in nine more movies, including The Gay Divorcee (1934), Top Hat (1935), and Swing Time (1936). She also acted in the drama Kitty Foyle (1940, Academy Award) and in light comedies such as Tom, Dick, and Harry (1941) and The Major and the Minor (1942). Rogers returned to the Broadway stage in 1965, taking the lead in Hello Dolly!, and she followed that in 1969 with a star performance as Marne in London.

Rogers, Robert (b. Nov. 7, 1731, Methuen, Mass.—d. May 18, 1795, London, Eng.) American frontier soldier. He raised and commanded a militia called Rogers’s Rangers, which earned fame in the French and Indian War and in Pontiac’s War. He led the first English exploration of the upper Mississippi River and Great Lakes region (1766) but failed to reach the Pacific Ocean, his intended goal. In the American Revolution he was regarded as a loyalist spy; imprisoned by George Washington, he escaped to organize the Queen’s Rangers, which he led in operations around New York. Defeated in 1780, he fled to England.

Rogers, Roy orig. Leonard Franklin Slye Rogers (b. Nov.

5, 1911/12, Cincinnati, Ohio,

U.S.—d. July 6, 1998, Apple Valley,

Calif.) U.S. actor and singer. During his childhood Rogers took up sing¬ ing, guitar playing, and square-dance calling. He made radio and personal appearances with a succession of groups before helping form the sing¬ ing group Sons of the Pioneers. He acted in westerns with Gene Autry, whom he replaced as “King of the Cowboys” when Autry went to war.

His films include Tumbling Tum¬ bleweeds (1935), Red River Valley (1941), and Yellow Rose of Texas (1944). He acted in several with his wife, Dale Evans, usually riding his famous horse, Trigger. He also starred on radio in The Roy Rogers Show (1944-55) as well as on tele¬ vision in a series of the same name

(1951-57).

Rogers, Will(iam Penn Adair) (b. Nov. 4, 1879, Indian Ter¬ ritory, U.S. [near present-day Clare- more, Okla.]—d. Aug. 15, 1935,

Will Rogers.

CULVER PICTURES

© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.

1634 I Roget ► Rolle

near Point Barrow, Alaska) U.S. humorist and actor. Raised in Indian Ter¬ ritory, he demonstrated his rope-twirling skills in Wild West shows and vaudeville and gradually wove bits of homespun wit into his act. He was popular in New York City from 1905 and starred in Florenz Ziegfeld’s Midnight Frolic (1915). Noted for his good-natured but sharp criticism of current affairs, he wrote a newspaper column in the New York Times (from 1922) as well as several books. He performed on radio and in movies such as State Fair (1933) and Steamboat Round the Bend (1935). His death in a plane crash in Alaska with the aviator Wiley Post (1899-1935) was widely mourned.

Roget \ro-'zha\ A Peter Mark (b. Jan. 18,1779, London, Eng.—d. Sept. 12, 1869, West Malvern, Worcestershire) English physician and philolo¬ gist. In 1814 he invented a slide rule for calculating the roots and powers of numbers. He was instrumental in founding the University of London (1828). He is best known for his Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases (1852), a comprehensive classification of synonyms or verbal equivalents which he assembled during his retirement. He was a fellow (from 1815) and secretary (from 1827) of the Royal Society.

Roh Moo Hyun (b. Aug. 6, 1946, Gimhae, near Pusan, Korea [now in South Korea]) South Korean president (from 2003). Born into a poor fam¬ ily, Roh did not attend college but was able to pass the bar exam in 1975 and later became a highly respected human rights lawyer. He was a member of the National Assembly (1988-92) and served in the cabinet (1998-2002) of Pres. Kim Dae Jung. Roh, who favoured negotiations with North Korea and criticized U.S. policy toward the Korean peninsula, won the 2002 presi¬ dential elections. In March 2004 Roh was impeached over charges of elec¬ toral law violations, economic mismanagement, and illegal campaign donations. Forced to temporarily step down, he was reinstated as president in May after the Constitutional Court overturned the impeachment.

Rohan \ro-'a n \, Henri, duke de (b. 1579, Chateau of Blain, Brittany, France—d. April 13, 1638, Konigsfeld, Switz.) French Huguenot leader. At age 16 he entered the army of Henry IV, who made him a peer of France in 1603. After Henry’s death (1610), Rohan led the Huguenots in revolt against the government of Marie de Medicis (1615-16) and became the Huguenots’ foremost general in the civil wars of the 1620s. He recounted the events of the War of La Rochelle (1627-29) in his celebrated Mem- oires. He then went to Venice. After his return to France (1635), he suc¬ cessfully commanded a French expedition against the Habsburgs in Lombardy. In 1637 he went to Switzerland, where he died in the Thirty Years' War battle at Rheinfelden.

Rohan, Louis-Rene-Edouard, prince de (b. Sept. 25, 1734, Paris, France—d. Feb. 17, 1803, Ettenheim, Baden) French clergyman. A car¬ dinal and bishop of Strasbourg (1779-1801), he spent much of his time at the French court. He was involved in the Affair of the Diamond Neck¬ lace (1785) when he was duped into purchasing a necklace for Marie- Antoinette without her authority. Tried for fraud, he was acquitted but was exiled from the court in disgrace, and he became a martyr to the queen’s enemies and the critics of royal absolutism.

Rohe, Ludwig Mies van der

See Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

Rohm \'rcem\, Ernst (b. Nov. 28,

1887, Munich, Ger.—d. July 1,

1934, Munich-Stadelheim) German leader of the SA. He rose to the rank of major in World War I. Soon there¬ after, he helped found the Nazi Party.

A supporter of Adolf Hitler, he offered Hitler the use of his private strong-arm force (later the SA). After brief imprisonment for his part in the Beer Hall Putsch (1923), Rohm went to Bolivia as a military instructor (1925-30), but he was recalled by Hitler to reorganize and command the SA. Rohm’s ambition that the SA supplant or absorb the regular army came to be opposed by Hitler and his advisers. On the pretext that he and the SA were preparing to overthrow Hitler, Rohm was murdered during the Night of the Long Knives.

Rohmer Vro-morX, Eric orig. Jean-Marie-Maurice Scherer (b.

April 4, 1920, Nancy, France) French film director. After working as a schoolteacher, he became a founding editor of La Gazette du Cinema in 1950 and later editor of the influential New Wave periodical Cahiers du Cinema (1957-63). After directing several short films, he made a series of contes moraux (“moral tales”) that included the successful films My Night at Maud’s (1968), Claire’s Knee (1970), and Chloe in the After¬ noon (1972), sensitively observed studies of romantic love. His later films include The Marquise of O (1976), Full Moon in Paris (1984), and Autumn Tale (1999).

Rojas Pinilla Vro-has-pe-'ne-yaV Gustavo (b. March 12, 1900, Tunja, Colom.—d. Jan. 17, 1975, Bogota) Soldier and dictator of Colom¬ bia (1953-57). He rose through the ranks of the army to seize power from the brutal regime of Laureano Gomez (b. 1889—d. 1965). Though he promised peace, justice, and liberty, he instead ruled by decree, silencing the opposition press, stirring up violence against Protestants, and embez¬ zling government money. He was exiled and impeached but returned to form an opposition party and run for president. In 1970 he was narrowly defeated in elections he claimed were fraudulent; his supporters rioted and martial law was declared. His daughter sought the presidency in 1974 but was soundly defeated.

Rokitansky \,ro-ke-'tan-ske\, Karl, baron von (b. Feb. 19, 1804, Koniggratz, Austria—d. July 23, 1878, Vienna) Austrian pathologist. He inspired Ignaz Semmelweis to study medicine and supported his use of anti¬ septic procedures to eliminate puerperal fever. Rokitansky was the first to detect bacteria in malignant endocarditis and to describe spondylolis¬ thesis (forward displacement of one vertebra over another). He differen¬ tiated pneumonias originating in lobes of the lung and in bronchioles, made a fundamental study of acute yellow atrophy of the liver, and estab¬ lished the micropathology of emphysema. His Treatise of Pathological Anatomy (3 vol., 1842-46) elevated pathology to an established science. During his career he performed more than 30,000 autopsies.

Rokossovsky Vo-ko-'sof-skeV Konstantin (Konstantinovich)

(b. Dec. 21, 1896, Velikiye Luki, Russia—d. Aug. 3, 1968, Moscow, Rus¬ sia, U.S.S.R.) Russian army officer. He joined the Red Army in 1917 and rose through the ranks. Imprisoned in 1938 during the Stalinist purges, he was released when Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941. He became a noted commander in World War II, especially at the Battle of Stalingrad. After the war he was minister of defense in Soviet-dominated Poland (1949-56) and deputy minister of defense in the Soviet Union

(1956-62).

Roland, Chanson de See Chanson de Roland

Rolfe \'ralf\, John (baptized May 6,1585, Norfolk, Eng.—d. 1622?, Vir¬ ginia) English colonial official. He arrived in Virginia (1610), where his experiments with tobacco cultivation produced the first export crop and built the colony’s economy. In 1614 he married Pocahontas, which helped assure peaceful relations with local tribes. In 1617 the couple and their infant son traveled to England; they were enthusiastically received, but Pocahontas became ill and died. Rolfe returned to Virginia and was appointed to the colony’s council. He was apparently killed in a massacre.

Rolland \ro-Ta n \, Romain (b. Jan. 29, 1866, Clamecy, France—d. Dec. 30, 1944, Vezelay) French novelist, dramatist, and essayist. At age 14 he went to Paris to study and found a society in spiritual disarray, and his life and writings came to reflect his concern with major social, politi¬ cal, and spiritual events. From 1910 he taught music history at the Sor- bonne. His best-known novel is Jean-Christophe (1904-12), a 10-volume epic whose protagonist is modeled half on Ludwig van Beethoven and half on himself. His pamphlet Above the Battle (1915) calls on France and Germany to respect truth and humanity during World War I. In the 1920s he turned to interpreting the mystical philosophy of Asia, especially India, in works such as Mahatma Gandhi (1924). He wrote several other major biographies, including Beethoven (1910). He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1915.

Rolle \'rol\, Richard (de Hampole) (b. c. 1300, Thornton, York¬ shire, Eng.—d. Sept. 29, 1394, Hampole, Yorkshire) English mystic. He left the University of Oxford without a degree, dissatisfied with the sub¬ jects of study, and became a hermit. Writing in the vernacular for the sake of women readers, he exalted the contemplative life and emphasized a rapturous mystical union with God. He may have been spiritual adviser to the nuns of Hampole in his late years.

Rohm, 1933.

HEINRICH HOFFMANN, MUNICH

© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.

roller bearing ► roman I 1635

roller bearing One of the two types of rolling, or antifriction, bearings, the other being the ball bearing. Like a ball bearing, a roller bearing has two grooved tracks, but the balls are replaced by rollers. The rollers may be cylinders or shortened cones. If the rollers are cylindrical, only radial loads (perpendicular to the axis of rotation) can be carried, but with coni¬ cal rollers both radial and thrust, or axial, loads (parallel to the axis of rotation) can be carried. In a given space, a roller bearing can carry a greater radial load than a ball bearing can.

roller-skating Recreation and sport in which the participants use roller skates (shoes with sets of wheels attached) to move about on special rinks or paved surfaces. The invention of roller skates is traditionally credited to the Belgian Joseph Merlin in the 1760s, but the first practical four- wheel skate was designed in 1863 by James Plimpton of Medford, Mass. Roller-skating speed events became popular in the early 20th century. Later, team competitions in “roller derbies” on banked tracks became a spectator sport. Other roller-skate contests, such as acrobatics and hockey, followed. In the late 20th century, roller skates gave way to in-line (Roll- erblade) skates, in which a single row of wheels is used in place of the standard rectangular configuration.

Rolle's theorem \Tolz\ Special case of the mean-value theorem of dif¬ ferential calculus. It states that if a continuous curve passes through the x-axis twice within a given interval and has a unique tangent line at every point of that interval, then somewhere between the two points of inter¬ ception it has a tangent parallel to the x-axis.

rolling In technology, the main method of forming molten metals, glass, or other substances into shapes that are small in cross-section in com¬ parison with their length, such as bars, sheets, rods, rails, and girders. Rolling is the most widely used method of shaping metals and is particu¬ larly important in the manufacture of steel. The process consists of pass¬ ing the metal between pairs of rollers revolving at the same speed but in opposite directions and spaced so that the distance between them is slightly less than the thickness of the metal.

Rolling Stones British musical group. Its original members were Mick Jagger (b. 1943), Keith Richards (b. 1943), Brian Jones (1944-69), Bill Wyman (b. 1936), and Charlie Watts (b. 1941). The band was formed in 1962 when Jagger, Richards, and Jones, who had been performing spo¬ radically in a blues band, recruited Wyman and formed their own group. Watts joined the band in 1963. Jagger was the lead vocalist, while Jones and Richards played guitars, Wyman played bass, and Watts played drums. The band’s name was adopted from a Muddy Waters song. By 1966 a series of outstanding songs had made the band second in popularity only to the Beatles. Jagger and Richards wrote most of its songs, which are marked by a driving backbeat, biting and satirical lyrics, and simple but expressive instrumental accompaniments. The group reached the height of its popularity with albums such as Beggar’s Banquet (1968) and Exile on Main Street (1972). Jones was succeeded by Mick Taylor (b. 1948) in 1969, who was replaced in turn by Ron Wood (b. 1947) in 1976. They continued to perform long after the other classic rock bands of the 1960s disbanded.

Rollins, Sonny orig. Theodore Walter Rollins (b. Sept. 7, 1930, New York, N.Y., U.S.) U.S. jazz saxophonist and composer. Rollins was inspired by Coleman Hawkins and Charlie Parker and performed with many musicians in the late 1940s, including Miles Davis. A member of the Clifford Brown-Max Roach quintet in 1955-57, he later formed his own groups. Rollins’s robust tone and technical dexterity are matched with athletic endurance in the service of the logical evolution of ideas in his solos.

Rollo (b. c. 860—d. c. 932) Scandinavian rover who founded the duchy of Normandy. After raiding Scotland, England, Flanders, and France on pirating expeditions, he took lands along the Seine River as his base (c. 911). He battled Charles III of France, who gave him, in return for Rol¬ lo’s promise to stop pillaging, the part of Neustria that came to be called Normandy.

Rolls-Royce PLC British manufacturer of aircraft engines and propul¬ sion and power systems and, for much of the 20th century, a maker of luxury automobiles. Charles S. Rolls, a pioneer motorist and aviator, and Henry Royce, an engineer and carmaker, incorporated Rolls-Royce Ltd. in 1906. The firm’s handsome, immaculately engineered cars included the Silver Ghost (introduced 1906 as “40/50 hp” model), a series of Phan¬ toms (1925), the Silver Dawn (1949), Silver Cloud (1955), Silver Shadow (1965), and Silver Seraph (1998). In 1931 Rolls-Royce acquired Bentley

Motors Ltd., another maker of fine cars. Rolls-Royce also developed a series of notable piston and jet aircraft engines, beginning with the Eagle (1914); eventually its turbine-engine operations accounted for the largest part of its sales. A fixed-price contract with Lockheed Aircraft (see Lock¬ heed Martin Corp.) to produce an engine for its L-1011 TriStar jetliner drove Rolls-Royce into bankruptcy in 1971. It was split into two compa¬ nies; its jet-engine division was taken over by the British government and later privatized as Rolls-Royce PLC, while its automobile operations were restructured into Rolls-Royce Motor Holdings Ltd. and privatized. The latter was acquired in 1980 by Vickers Ltd., which sold it to Volkswagen AG in 1998 as part of a novel agreement in which BMW AG would take over the manufacture of cars with the Rolls-Royce name in 2003, while Volkswagen retained the Bentley line.

Rolvaag Vrol-.vagV Ole (Edvart) (b. April 22, 1876, Donna Island, Helgeland, Nor.—d. Nov. 5, 1931, Northfield, Minn., U.S.) Norwegian- born U.S. novelist and educator. He immigrated to the U.S. in 1896 and spent most of his life at St. Olaf College (Northfield, Minn.), teaching Norwegian language and literature and the history of Norwegian immi¬ gration. His works, written in Norwegian, are noted for their realistic por¬ trayals of Norwegian settlers on the Dakota prairies and of the clash between transplanted and native cultures in the U.S. His best-known work is Giants in the Earth (1927), a translation of two of his novels.

ROM \'ram\ in full read-only memory Form of computer memory that does not lose its contents when the power supply is cut off and that is not rewritable once it is manufactured or written. It is generally employed for programs designed for repeated use without modification, such as the start-up procedures of a personal computer; the ROM is used for storing the program used in the control unit of the computer. See also CD-ROM, COMPACT DISC.

Rom or Gypsy plural Roma Any member of a people originating in northern India but now living worldwide, principally in Europe. Most speak Romany in addition to the local language. It is thought that Roma groups left India in successive migrations, reaching western Europe by the 15th century. In the 20th century they spread to North and South America and Australia. Because of their often nomadic and marginalized lives, population figures are largely guesswork; estimates in the early 21st century range from two to three million. They have often been persecuted and harassed; the Nazis killed about 400,000 Roma in extermination camps. How many Roma retain a nomadic lifestyle is unclear, but those that migrate do so at least seasonally along patterned routes that ignore national boundaries. They pursue occupations compatible with a nomadic life. In the past they were often livestock traders, tinkers, fortune-tellers, and entertainers; today they are often car mechanics, auto-body repair¬ men, and workers in traveling circuses and amusement parks. Confed¬ erations of 10-100 families elect chieftains for life, but their title is not heritable. Women are organized as a group within the confederation and represented by a senior woman. Modem Roma culture faces erosion from urban influences; integrated housing, economic independence, and inter¬ marriage with non-Roma have weakened Roma law.

Romains Vro-'maA, Jules orig. Louis-Henri-Jean Farigoule (b.

Aug. 26, 1885, Saint-Julien-Chapteuil, France—d. Aug. 14, 1972, Paris) French novelist, dramatist, and poet. A teacher of philosophy, Romains first became known as a poet and as founder (c. 1908-11), with Georges Chenneviere, of the literary movement Unanimisme, which combined belief in universal brotherhood with the psychological concept of group consciousness. His most popular work was the comedy Knock (1923), a satire on doctors. His masterpiece, Men of Good Will, 27 vol. (1932-46), is a vast novel cycle attempting to recreate the spirit of French society from 1908 to 1933 and exemplifying the Unanimiste interest in collec¬ tive life.

roman Typeface used most widely in Western typography, the general term for the type of this book’s text. Characterized by simple, unembel¬ lished shapes, roman was developed by 15th-century printers as an alter¬ native to the heavy-bodied, spiky black letter script. Models for a new type that was easier to cut and read were found in the scriptoria, where scribes, probably at the urging of humanist scholars, were experimenting with a letter face they believed had been used in ancient Rome. Historians now trace its ancestry instead to the letter forms developed for Charlemagne’s decrees by Alcuin in the 9th century. Within a century, roman had super¬ seded all other typefaces throughout Europe; the sole exception was Ger¬ many, where black letter continued to hold sway into the 20th century.

© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.

1636 I roman a clef ► Roman religion

roman a clef \ro-man-a-'kla\ French "novel with a key" Novel that has the extraliterary interest of portraying identifiable people more or less thinly disguised as fictional characters. The tradition dates to 17th- century France, when members of aristocratic literary coteries included in their historical romances representations of well-known figures in the court of Louis XIV. A more recent example is W. Somerset Maugham’s Cakes and Ale (1930), widely held to portray Thomas Hardy and Hugh Walpole. A more common type of roman a clef is one in which the dis¬ guised characters are easily recognized only by a few insiders, as in Simone de Beauvoir’s The Mandarins (1954).

Roman Africa See Roman Africa Roman alphabet See Latin alphabet

Roman Catholicism Largest denomination of Christianity, with more than one billion members. The Roman Catholic Church has had a pro¬ found effect on the development of Western civilization and has been responsible for introducing Christianity in many parts of the world. It regards itself as the only legitimate inheritor of the ministry of Jesus, by virtue of an unbroken succession of leaders beginning with St. Peter the Apostle and continuing to the present day. It holds that the pope is the infallible interpreter of divine revelation. Church organization is strictly hierarchical. The pope appoints and presides over the cardinals, whose numbers grew dramatically in the late 20th century, reaching 182 under John Paul II (1978-2005). Each of the church’s 500 archbishops is the head of an archdiocese. These in turn are divided into about 1,800 dioceses, each headed by a bishop. Within dioceses are parishes, each served by a church and a priest. Only men can enter the priesthood, but women who wish to enter holy orders can become nuns, who are organized into orders and convents. The basic form of worship is the mass, which celebrates the sacrament of the Eucharist. Theologically, Roman Catholicism differs from Protestantism with regard to its understanding of the sources of revelation and the channels of grace. With Eastern Orthodoxy it asserts that both scripture and church tradition are revelatory of the basis of Christian belief and church polity. It sets the number of sacraments at seven (baptism, rec¬ onciliation [formerly known as penance], the Eucharist, matrimony, ordi¬ nation, confirmation, and anointing of the sick); its rich sacramental life is supplemented by other devotions, chiefly eucharistic services and devo¬ tions to the saints. The Second Vatican Council (1962-65) promoted the role of the laity in the church, approved the use of the vernacular in the mass, and strove to improve relations with other religions. Pope John Paul II actively pursued better relations with other faiths, especially Judaism, and remained popular despite various controversies. Although faced with many challenges, the church remained one of the largest and most sig¬ nificant religious bodies in the world at the start of its third millennium.

Roman Curia Group of Vatican bureaus that assist the pope in exer¬ cising his jurisdiction over the Roman Catholic Church. The work of the Curia is traditionally associated with the College of Cardinals. A cardinal named as secretary of state coordinates the activities of the Curia, and various sacred congregations handle administrative matters—for example, the Sacred Congregation for the Causes of Saints is concerned with beatification and canonization and with the preservation of relics. The judicial branch of the Curia consists of three tribunals, of which the highest is the Apostolic Signatura.

Roman de la Rose \r6- , ma n -d3-la- , ros\ French "Romance of the

Rose" One of the most popular French poems of the late medieval period. Modeled on Ovid’s Art of Love, it survives in more than 300 manuscripts. Its first 4,058 lines were written c. 1225-30 by Guillaume de Lorris; they form a charming dream allegory drawing on traditions of courtly love. About 1280 Jean de Meun wrote the rest of the more than 21,000 lines, incorporating a vast mass of encyclopaedic information and opinions on many contemporary topics, which secured the poem’s fame. The Roman was translated by Geoffrey Chaucer and was one of the most important literary influences on his writings.

Roman law Law of the Roman Republic and Empire. Roman law has influenced the development of law in most of Western civilization. It dealt with matters of succession (or inheritance), obligations (including con¬ tracts), property (including slaves), and persons. Most laws were passed by assemblies dominated by the patrician families, though the rulings of magistrates were also important. Later emperors bypassed these forms and issued their own decrees. The interpretations of jurists also came to have the weight of law. Though various attempts were made to gather and sim¬ plify existing laws (beginning with the Law of the Twelve Tables), by far

the most successful effort was that of Justinian I, whose code superseded all previous laws and formed the Roman Empire’s legal legacy (see Code of Justinian). Roman legal procedure is the basis for modern procedure in civil - law countries. In the early Republic, the plaintiff was required to call the defendant to court or to bring him by force. A magistrate then decided whether the case should go before a judex, or prominent layman. The judex heard arguments from advocates and questioned witnesses; he made a decision but had no power to execute it. In the later Republic, much greater power was placed in the hands of the magistrates and courts: the summons was issued by the court, the trial was held only before a mag¬ istrate, and the court became responsible for the execution of the sentence.

Roman mythology Oral and literary traditions of the ancient Romans concerning their gods and heroes and the nature and history of the cos¬ mos. Much of what became Roman mythology was borrowed from Greek mythology at a later date, as Greek gods were associated with their Roman counterparts. As in Greek mythology, legendary Roman heroes (such as Romulus and Remus and Aeneas) were given semidivine status. See also Roman religion.

Roman numerals System of representing numbers devised by the ancient Romans. The numbers are formed by combinations of the sym¬ bols I, V, X, L, C, D, and M, standing, respectively, for 1,5, 10, 50, 100, 500, and 1,000 in the Hindu-Arabic numeral system. A symbol placed after another of equal or greater value adds its value; for example, II = 2 and LX = 60. A symbol placed before one of greater value subtracts its value; for example, IV = 4 and XL = 40. A bar over a symbol indicates that its value should be multiplied by 1,000.

1

1

8

VIII

40

XL

900

CM

2

11

9

IX

50

L

1,000

M

3

III

10

X

60

LX

5,000

V

4

IV

11

XI

90

XC

10,000

X

5

V

19

XIX

100

C

50,000

L

6

VI

20

XX

200

CC

100,000

C

7

VII

30

XXX

500

D

500,000

D

Roman question Dispute between church and state in Italy. With the completed unification of Italy in 1870, the papacy objected to the Italian seizure of Rome and the Papal States. The conflict was ended in 1929 by the Lateran Treaty, which created Vatican City and resolved the dispute.

Roman religion Religious beliefs of the Romans from ancient times until official acceptance of Christianity in the 4th century ad. The Romans believed that everything was subordinate to the rule of the gods, and the object of their religion was to secure divine cooperation and benevolence. Prayer and sacrifice were used to propitiate the gods and were often car¬ ried out at temples dedicated to particular divinities and presided over by priests (see flamen). The chief Roman priest, head of the state religion, was known as the pontifex maximus\ notable among the other groups of priests were the augurs, who practiced divination to determine whether the

Roman Gods and Goddesses

Apollo

god of sunlight, music,

Mars

god of war

poetry, and, prophecy

Mercury

messenger god and god

Aurora

goddess of the dawn

of commerce

Bacchus

god of wine

Minerva

goddess of wisdom, the

Bellona

goddess of war

arts, and trades

Ceres

goddess of agriculture

Mithra

god of light

Cupid

god of love

Neptune

god of the sea

Diana

goddess of fertility, hunt-

Ops

goddess of abundance

ing, and the moon

Pales

goddess of flocks and

Dis or Orcus

god of the underworld

shepherds

Faunus

god of pastures, forests,

Pomona

goddess of fruit trees and

and herds

fruit

Flora

goddess of flowers

Proserpine

goddess of the under-

Janus

god of gates and doors

world

Juno

goddess of marriage and

Saturn

god of seed time and

women

harvest

Jupiter

supreme god and god of

Venus

goddess of beauty and

the sky and weather

love

Libitina

goddess of funerals

Vertumnus

god of the seasons

Maia

goddess of growth and

Vesta

goddess of the hearth

increase

Vulcan

god of fire

© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.

Roman Republic and Empire ► Romania I 1637

gods approved of an action. The earliest Roman gods were the sky god Jupiter, the war god Mars, and Quirinus; other important early gods were Janus and Vesta. Many other deities were borrowed from Greek religion or associated with Greek gods, and the stories woven into Roman mythol¬ ogy were often taken directly from Greek mythology. Domestic shrines were devoted to divine ancestors or protectors, the Lares and Penates. Dead Roman emperors were also raised to the status of divinities and were regarded with veneration and gratitude.

Roman Republic and Empire Ancient state that once ruled the Western world. It centred on the city of Rome from the founding of the republic (509 bc) through the establishment of the empire (27 bc) to the final eclipse of the empire in the west (5th century ad). The republic’s government consisted of two consuls, the Senate, and magistrates, origi¬ nally all patricians, and two popular plebeian assemblies: the military cen- turiate assembly and the civilian tribal assembly. A written code, the Law of the Twelve Tables (451 bc), became the basis of Roman private law. By the end of the 3rd century bc, Roman territory included all of Italy; by the late republican period it encompassed most of western Europe, north¬ ern Africa, and the Near East, organized into provinces. After a period of civil war, Julius Caesar took power as dictator. Following his assassina¬ tion (44 bc), conflict among the triumvirs—Mark Antony, Lepidus, and Octavian—ultimately resulted in Octavian’s victory (31) and his acces¬ sion as Emperor Augustus (r. 27 bc-ad 14). The imperial government, a principate, combined aspects of the republic and a monarchy. In ad 395 the empire split into eastern and western halves, with the west under severe pressure from the barbarians. Rome was sacked in 410 by the Visigoths, and the western empire fell to German invaders in 476; the east continued as the Byzantine Empire until 1453. See table opposite.

romance Literary form that developed in the aristocratic courts of mid- 12th-century France and had its heyday in France and Germany between the mid-12th and mid-13th century in the works of such masters as Chre¬ tien de Troyes and Gottfried von Strassburg. The staple subject matter is chivalric adventure (see chivalry), though love stories and religious alle¬ gories are sometimes interwoven. Most romances draw their plots from classical history and legend, Arthurian legend, and the adventures of Char¬ lemagne and his knights. Written in the vernacular, they share a taste for the exotic, the remote, and the miraculous. Lingering echoes of the form can be found in later centuries, as in the Romanticism of the 18th-19th century and today’s popular romantic novels.

Romance languages Group of related languages derived from Latin, with nearly 920 million native speakers. The major Romance languages— French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and Romanian —are national lan¬ guages. French is probably the most internationally significant, but Spanish, the official language of 19 American countries and Spain and Equatorial Guinea, has the most speakers. Languages spoken in smaller areas include Catalan, Occitan, Sardinian, and Rhaeto-Romance. The Romance languages began as dialects of Vulgar Latin, which spread dur¬ ing the Roman occupation of Italy, the Iberian Peninsula, Gaul, and the Balkans and developed into separate languages in the 5th-9th centuries. Later, European colonial and commercial contacts spread them to the Americas, Africa, and Asia.

Romanesque architecture Architecture current in Europe from about the mid-11th century to the advent of Gothic architecture. A fusion of Roman, Carolingian and Ottonian, Byzantine, and local Germanic tra¬ ditions, it was a product of the great expansion of monasticism in the 10th— 11th century. Larger churches were needed to accommodate the numerous monks and priests, as well as the pilgrims who came to view saints’ rel¬ ics. For the sake of fire resistance, masonry vaulting began to replace tim¬ ber construction. Romanesque churches characteristically incorporated semicircular arches for windows, doors, and arcades; barrel or groin vaults to support the roof of the nave; massive piers and walls, with few win¬ dows, to contain the outward thrust of the vaults; side aisles with galler¬ ies above them; a large tower over the crossing of nave and transept; and smaller towers at the church’s western end. French churches commonly expanded on the early Christian basilica plan, incorporating radiating chap¬ els to accommodate more priests, ambulatories around the sanctuary apse for visiting pilgrims, and large transepts between the sanctuary and nave.

Romanesque art Sculpture and painting that reached its height in western Europe c. 1075-1125, a fusion of Roman, Carolingian and Otton¬ ian, and Byzantine art with local Germanic traditions. The expansion of monasticism in the 10th—11th centuries revived the art of monumental

Roman Emperors*

Augustus