Mare Nostrum

Mare Nostrum (Latin for "Our Sea") was a Roman name for the Mediterranean Sea. In the years following the unification of Italy in 1861, the term was revived by Italian nationalists who believed that Italy was the successor state to the Roman Empire.

Roman usage

The term mare nostrum originally was used by Romans to refer to the Tyrrhenian Sea, following their conquest of Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica during the Punic Wars with Carthage. By 30 BC, Roman domination extended from the Iberian Peninsula to Egypt, and mare nostrum began to be used in the context of the whole Mediterranean Sea. Other names were also employed, including Mare Internum ("The Internal Sea"); however, they did not include Mediterraneum Mare, which was a late Latin creation only attested to well after the Fall of Rome.

Italian nationalist usage

The rise of Italian nationalism during the "Scramble for Africa" of the 1880s led to calls for the establishment of an Italian colonial empire. The phrase was first revived by the Italian poet Gabriele d'Annunzio.

Mare

A mare is an adult female horse or other equine.

In most cases, a mare is a female horse over the age of three, and a filly is a female horse age three and younger. In Thoroughbred horse racing a mare is defined as a female horse more than four years old, but the word can also be used for other female equine animals, particularly mules and zebras, though a female donkey is usually called a "jenny." A broodmare is a mare used for breeding. A horse's female parent is known as its dam.

An uncastrated adult male horse is called a stallion and a castrated male is a gelding. Occasionally the term "horse" is used in a restrictive sense to designate only a male horse.

Reproductive cycle

Mares carry their young (called foals) for approximately 11 months from conception to birth. (Average range 320–370 days.) Usually just one young is born; twins are rare. When a domesticated mare foals, she nurses the foal for at least four to six months before it is weaned, though mares in the wild may allow a foal to nurse for up to a year.