Giorgione and Titian, and after Moretto is the principal painter of the Brescian branch of the Venetian school of painting. The National gallery possesses a large altar-piece by him—one of his most important works.—(Brognoli, Guida di Brescia.)—R. N. W.
ROMANO, Eccelino or Ezzelino da, surnamed il Balbo, a celebrated Ghibeline chieftain, was born in 1194. Invested with the government of Bassano on the death of his father in 1215, he was chosen podesta of the senate of Verona in 1225, and in 1236 he was made governor of Vicenza by the emperor, Frederick II. In the following year he marched against Padua, and, having captured the city, inflicted great cruelties upon the inhabitants. In 1256 Alexander IV. took the extreme measure of preaching a crusade against him. Romano was able to make head against his enemies for some time, but he fell at last at Cassano on the 16th September, 1259.
ROMANO, Giulio. See Pippi.
ROMANOFF, Michael Feodorovitch, the founder of the present royal family of Russia, was elected czar of Russia in 1613, in his sixteenth year. He was descended from a Prussian family, which had settled in Muscovy in the fourteenth century, and his father was the metropolitan of Rostof. He was educated by his mother, a woman of rare excellence of character, who regarded the elevation of her son with great alarm, but was compelled to yield to the urgent representations of the Boyards and the prelates, to whose influence Michael's elevation was mainly owing. He was crowned in June, 1613, and immediately took vigorous measures to expel the Swedes and the Poles, who during the interregnum had taken possession of several portions of his territories. But his troops were few in number and badly disciplined, and an invasion of the Cossacks of the Don taking place at this juncture, aided by a party of the petty nobles of his country, his resources were so much crippled, that he was fain to make peace with Sweden, agreeing to give up Ingria and Karelia, and to evacuate Esthonia and Livonia. The Poles next invaded Russia to support the claims of Vladislaf, their king's son; but after a war, which lasted till 1619, Michael purchased peace by ceding Smolensk and several other towns to the invaders. Michael now applied himself to heal the internal dissensions of his kingdom, and to promote the improvement of its laws, the abrogation of many barbarous customs existing among his subjects, and the civilization of their manners. He formed treaties of alliance with the principal commercial states of Europe; raised a powerful force of infantry and cavalry, disciplined and trained on an improved system; and held out strong inducements to experienced officers to enter his service. This excellent prince died in 1645, in the forty-ninth year of his age, and was succeeded by his only son, Alexis.—J. T.
ROMANUS: the name of four Eastern emperors, as follows:—
Romanus I. (Lecapenus), born in Armenia, and distinguished as a soldier under Leo the Philosopher and his son Constantine Porphyrogenitus, the latter of whom made Romanus his colleague in the empire in 919. His two sons conspired against him, and in 945 confined him in a convent, where he died in 948.
Romanus II., son of Constantine Porphyrogenitus, whom he poisoned and succeeded in 959. He was an incapable and unworthy monarch, and, after a reign of little more than four years, died in 963.
Romanus III. (Argyrus), born of a patrician family, and a senator of Constantinople, obtained by his marriage with Zoe, daughter of Constantine IX., the imperial throne in 1028. He met with several disastrous reverses in his campaigns against the Saracens, and maladministration at home caused serious commotions. He was put to death by his wife in 1034.
Romanus IV. (Diogenes), succeeded in 1068 Constantino Ducas, whose widow, Eudocia, he married. He was a brave and successful soldier, and drove the Turks beyond the Euphrates. But being afterwards taken prisoner in Armenia, he could only regain his liberty by paying a heavy ransom. In the meantime Michael VII. had seized the throne, who deprived Romanus of his eyesight and sentenced him to exile, where he shortly after died in 1071.—J. J.
ROMANUS, Pope, a native of Gallesium, was elected to the papal throne on the expulsion from the city of Stephen VI. or VII., in 897. He died, however, in January, 898, before he had been quite four months in possession of the dignity.
ROMANTZOFF, Nicolas, Count, minister for foreign affairs in Russia under Alexander I., was born in 1753, being the son of Field-marshal Romantzoff. Educated for the civil service, he passed through the various grades of promotion until he became minister of commerce. His policy was to treat England as a rival, and make France an ally. In September, 1807, he succeeded Kotzebue as chancellor of the empire, uniting in his own person the offices of war minister and foreign minister. When English influence prevailed at length in Russia, Romantzoff retired into private life, carrying with him the grand eagle of the legion of honour which had been sent him by Napoleon. His fine library and collection of antiquities he liberally opened to the learned. He set on foot the expeditions of Krusenstern and Kotzebue for the circumnavigation of the globe. Many valuable books on history, Russian and otherwise, were printed at his expense, including some of the Byzantine historians. In his diplomatic capacity he arranged the treaty by which the grand duchy of Warsaw was recognized as the kingdom of Poland. He died at St. Petersburg on the 26th of January, 1826.—R. H.
ROMANTZOFF, Peter Alexandrovitch, Field-marshal of Russia, was born about 1730 and early distinguished himself in the field. In 1761 he took Colberg. In 1769 he succeeded Galitzin in the command of the Russian forces engaged in war with Turkey. He gained a victory at Kartal on the Pruth, in 1770, and a more decisive triumph at Kagoul shortly afterwards. The capture of Giurgevo signalized the campaign of the following year. His progress towards Constantinople was arrested at Silistria, one of the bulwarks of Turkey. He exacted the drumhead treaty of Kaïnardji in 1744. He was rewarded with wealth and honour by his own sovereign and the flattering attentions of foreign monarchs. Jealousy of Potemkin made him throw up his command in 1789. He died in 1796.—R. H.
ROMBERG, Andreas, a musician, was the son of Henry Romberg, music director to the bishop of Munster. He was born in 1767, and died at Gotha, 10th November, 1821. He was educated under his father, and early in life held a situation in the court chapel of the elector of Cologne. When the French armies entered Bonn at the commencement of the revolutionary war, the elector's musical establishment was broken up, and Romberg proceeded to Hamburg, where he was engaged in the orchestra of one of the German theatres. Here he obtained celebrity for his excellent performance on the violin. At this time he paid much attention to the subject of composition, in which he had distinguished himself while at Bonn. In 1800 the university of Kiel, in Holstein, conferred on him the degree of doctor of philosophy. A list of his numerous works is given by Fetis.—E. F. R.
ROMBERG, Bernhard, a musician, cousin of the preceding, was born at Bonn in 1770, and died at Paris in 1840. He was a celebrated performer on the violoncello, and for some time retained in the service of the elector of Cologne. In 1799 he visited England, and afterwards Spain; and subsequently obtained a situation in the royal chapel at Berlin. Both the cousins were known as voluminous, and at one time highly popular composers for their own particular instruments; and as the authors of two or three symphonies, and as many overtures, which will always be heard with pleasure, although without the excitement which attends Beethoven, or the deep admiration which waits upon Mozart.—E. F. R.
ROMEGAS, Mathuron d'Aux-Lescout, one of the most distinguished knights of St. John, was descended from the illustrious house of D'Aux in Guienne. He entered the order of St. John in 1547, when he assumed the title of the Chevalier de Romegas. He took a prominent part in the expeditions fitted out against the pirates who then infested the Mediterranean, and on one occasion sought out, and after a desperate struggle defeated with an inferior force, Issouf Concini, a Calabrian renegade, one of the most dreaded of these sea-robbers. The exploits of Romegas at length created the utmost terror among the Mahometans, and so much inflamed the indignation of the Sultan Solyman, that he determined to attack Malta, in order to wreak his vengeance on the knights. Romegas was one of the most conspicuous of the heroic defenders of that island, and was wounded at the side of the grand master. After the Turks raised the siege, Romegas repaired to his native province to assist the Romanists in their contest with the Huguenots. On his return to Malta he was appointed commander of the galleys, and subsequently grand prior of Toulouse. The affairs of the order having fallen into confusion, through the negligence or weakness of the grand-master. La Carrière, the council elected Romegas lieutenant-general, in the hope that his firmness and zeal would
