Italy

Italy (Latin and Italian: Italia) is a country located in southern Europe that shares borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, and Slovenia to the north.

History

Isu era

During the Isu era, the First Civilization built at least three vaults in the area that would one day become the city of Rome. Certain of the Isu were later considered as gods by the Romans and ancient Greeks, with Jupiter, Minerva, and Juno comprising what would be remembered as the Capitoline Triad, a group of gods worshipped on the Capitoline Hill.

Roman era

Between the 8th century BCE and the 7th century BCE, the Greeks founded many colonies in the South of Italy. The cities of Naples, Sybaris and Croton formed a part of the Magna Graecia. During the 6th century BCE, the mathematician Pythagoras visited Italy and discovered one of the Isu vaults. His followers built a Temple on the site of the vault to hide it.

According to legends, the city of Rome was founded in 753 BCE by Romulus after he killed his twin brother Remus. In 510 BCE, the monarchy of Rome fell and the Roman Republic was created. The Republic conquered all of Italy before turning its attention to other lands around the Mediterranean, including Hispanica, Cyrenaica, and Greece. Circa 60 BCE, the Roman Republic became became an influencial power in Egypt and the Middle East with the military campaigns of the consul Pompey. Another consul, Gaius Julius Caesar, conquered Gaul in 52 BCE.

In 49 BCE, war erupted between Pompey and Caesar and, after becoming dictator, Caesar tracked Pompey to Egypt. In 46 BCE, after triumphing from Pompey's and Ptolemy XIII's army, Caesar returned in Rome with Cleopatra VII, the pharaoh of Egypt, and their son Caesarion. In Egypt, Caesar became involved with the Order of the Ancients, a secret society which had controlled Egypt for over a millenia and would eventually find himself in control of the Order. In 44 BCE, following Caesar's assassination by Amunet of the Hidden Ones, control of the both the Order and the Republic passed to his adopted son Octavianus. With the Order's support, Octavianus later founded the Roman Empire in 27 BCE, becoming its first emperor.

The emperor Caligula, one of Augustus' successor, was manipulated by the Order of the Ancients. In 41 CE, the Hidden Ones Leonius with other members of his Brotherhood stabbed Caligula to death.

Around 60 CE, Simon Peter–one of Jesus Christ's disciples–who wielded a Staff of Eden, arrived in Rome to spread the Christianity in Italy. In 67 CE, the emperor Nero ordered Peter's execution and the persecution of the Christians. The Staff of Eden was down among the leaders of the Christian community. During the 4th century, the Christianity became the official religion of the empire.

Middle Ages

In 476 CE, the Western Roman Empire collapsed. During the 5th century, the Ostrogoths, who had sacked Rome previously, controlled the city of Florence. During the 6th century, it fell under the control of the Lombards. Italy soon found itself divided into countless city-states. In 697 CE, a Republic was formed in the city of Venice, and n 751 CE, the bishop of Rome founded his own state, becomming the Pope and the spiritual leader of Catholic World. During the 11th century, the Normans invaded the south of Italy and founded the Kingdom of Naples. During the 12th Century, Florence became a Republic.

During the times of the Crusades, Italian-states as Venice and Genoa had economical connection with Middle East, having Italian districts in the cities of Acre and Constantinople. In 1269, the explorers brothers Niccolò and Maffeo Polo returned in Venice from a long journey in Levant. During their travel, they met Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad, the Mentor of the Levantine Brotherhood of Assassins, the medieval iteration of the Hidden Ones. He inducted them in the Brotherhood and entrusted to them his Codex.The Polos lost the book from the Mongols during their return. In Venice, the brothers founded a Assassins guild and Niccolò trained his son Marco to became an Assassin. Between 1271 and 1295, the three Polos traveled to Kublai Khan's court and recovered the Codex before returning in Venice.

Later, Marco entered in contact with the Florentine writer Dante Alighieri, who was also an Assassin. One of Marco's sailor and his son Domenico also joined the Brotherhood. In 1321, Alighieri was assassinated by the Templar Order, the successor of the Order of the Ancients. The Italian Assassins decided to hide the Codex in Spain and sent Domenico with his wife and his son to accomplish the mission. Around 1324, the Templars killed Marco Polo and Domenico's father in Venice. Domenico returned in Italy after successfully dispatched the Codex pages but having lost his wife by the hands of pirates. With the fortune of Marco, Domenico built a new identity, posing as a Florentine noble from the House of Auditore. In 1327, he acquired a Villa in the city of Monteriggioni in Tuscany which became the headquarters of the Italian Assassins. Domenico also installed a crypt for his family under the city and locked the Armor of Altaïr in the Sanctuary. The Seals were hidden in six Assassin Tombs in Florence, Venice, San Gimignano and Forlì. In 1356, Renato, Domenico's son, was in possession of a Shroud of Eden and hid it under the Villa.

Renaissance

Italy served as the birthplace of the Renaissance, a cultural movement which soon spread throughout all of Europe, during the 15th century. Florence was one of the major cultural center of the Italian Renaissance. The Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore of Brunelleschi was a manifest of the Renaissance and the artistic patronage of the House of Medici, the rulers of Florence, greatly impact the influence of the city around Italy.

When Rodrigo Borgia became Grand Master of the Italian Templars in 1476, the Templars executed plans to take over the major city-states of northern Italy. They first organized the Assassination of Galeazzo Maria Sforza, the Duke of Milan. As the Assassin Giovanni Auditore da Firenze tried to stop their plans, they executed him and two of his sons. Giovanni's last remaining son, Ezio, with the support of the Assassins, thwarted many Templar plots, as the Pazzi conspiracy in 1478 and the attempt to take control of the Venetian Republic during the 1480's. In 1492, the Templars nonetheless managed to seize control of Rome and the rest of the Papal States when Rodrigo Borgia was crowned Pope Alexander VI.

Rodrigo's son, Cesare Borgia, further conquered several other regions of Italy in his role as Captain General of the Papal Armies. However, due to the subsequent actions of the Assassins, coupled with Rodrigo's death at the hands of his son, the Templars' influence in Rome and Italy waned. The succeeding Popes, Pius III and Julius II, did not favor Cesare, and the Templars' influence in Italy collapsed, while the Assassins maintained a strong presence in the country.

World War I

In the century after its unification occurred, Italy joined with the British Empire in First World War, supporting it against the German Empire. ^{[citation needed]}

World War II

During the inter-war period, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, joined forces with the Templar puppet and dictator of Germany, Adolf Hitler. Together with Japan, they formed the Axis powers and a Second World War started against the Allies, perpetrated by the United Kingdom, the United States and the Soviet Union, led by Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin, both three, sympathizers of the Templar Order. ^{[citation needed]}

Modern times

By the early 21st Century the Templars had returned to prominence in the country, thanks mainly to the establishment of an Abstergo Industries laboratory in Rome. In 2012, a team of Assassins consisting of Desmond Miles, Lucy Stillman, Shaun Hastings, and Rebecca Crane traveled through the country in the weeks after Desmond escaped from the Roman facility.

Appearances

• Assassin's Creed (first appearance)
• Assassin's Creed II
• Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood
• Assassin's Creed: Revelations
• Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag (mentioned only)
• Assassin's Creed: Origins

References

de:Italien es:Italia fr:Italie hu:Olaszország (Itália) it:Italia ja:イタリア nl:Italië pl:Włochy pt-br:Itália ru:Италия zh:意大利