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Rh favour in 1810, and was shortly afterwards appointed military governor of Moscow. He was therefore charged with its defence against Napoleon, and took every means to rouse the population of the town and district against the invader. He has been generally charged with instigating the burning of Moscow the day after the French had made their entry; it is certain that the prisons were opened by his order, and that he took no means to stop the outbreak. He defended himself against the charge of incendiarism in a pamphlet printed in Paris in 1823, La Vérité sur l’incendie de Moscou, but he subsequently made grave admissions. Shortly after the congress of Vienna, to which he had accompanied the Tsar Alexander, he was disgraced. He only returned to Russia in 1825, and died at Moscow on the 12th of February of the next year.

His Mémoires écrits en dix minutes were posthumously published at St Petersburg in 1853, his Œuvres inédites in Paris in 1894. A partial account of his life was written by his grandson A. de Ségur (Paris, 1872). See also Varnhagen von Ense, Denkwürdigkeiten, vol. ix.; G. Tzenoff, Wer hat Moskau im Jahre 1812 in Brand gesteckt (Berlin, 1900).

ROSTOV-ON-THE-DON, a seaport of Russia, in the territory of the Don Cossacks, well situated on the high right bank of the Don, 13 m. from its mouth in the Sea of Azov. In 1731 a small fort was erected on an island in the Don, near its mouth. Thirty years later the fortifications were transferred to the site now occupied by Rostov, 5 m. above the head of the first branch of the delta of the Don. The Don, which has here a breadth of 230 to 250 yds., with a hardly perceptible current, offers an excellent road stead. The navigation, however, is considerably impeded by the shallowness of the river. Dredging operations have but partially remedied this. Moreover, the river is frost bound for more than one hundred days in the year. The population has grown rapidly: while in 1881 it was 70,700, in 1807 it numbered 119,889, and in 1905 126,375, exclusive of the suburbs; if these, which comprise Nakhichevan (32,582 in 1905) be included, the population is well over 160,000, a figure which is still further swollen in the summer by the influx of about 60,000 men, who find work in connexion with the shipment of grain for export. The permanent population includes 15,000 Jews, 5000 Armenians, with Tatars, Poles, Germans and others. In Nakhichevan there are 20,500 Armenians. Owing to its situation on the navigable river Don and at the junction of three railways, radiating to north-western Russia, Caucasia and the Volga respectively, Rostov has become the chief seaport of south-eastern Russia, being second in importance on the Black Sea to Odessa only. It is the chief centre for the supply of agricultural machinery to the steppe governments of south-eastern Russia. On an average, £3,000,000 to £4,000,000 worth of wheat, about £1,000,000 worth of rye, and over £1,500,000 worth of barley are exported annually, besides oats, flax, linseed, rape seed, oilcake, bran, flour, vegetable oils, raw wool and caviare. The imports average between four and five millions sterling annually, and consist largely of agricultural machinery. There are a shipbuilding yard, flour-mills, tobacco factories, iron works, machinery works, distilleries, soap works, timber mills, bell foundries, paper mills and rope works. Rostov is the chief centre of steam flour-mills for south-eastern Russia and Caucasia. Two fairs, one of which has considerable importance for the whole of south-eastern Russia, are held here yearly. Rostov has excellent fisheries. The town has a cathedral, a fine town hall (1897–99), navigation schools, technical schools, and a good municipal library.

ROSTOV VELIKIY, a town of Russia, in the government of Yaroslavl, 35 m. by rail S.W. of the town of Yaroslavl, near Lake Rostov or Nero. Pop. (1897) 14,342. It has numerous cotton and linen mills. The great fair for which it was formerly famous has lost its importance, but the town remains the centre of a variety of domestic trades-tailoring, the manufacture of leather, and the making of boots and small enamelled ikons (sacred images); it is also famous for its kitchen gardening and the export of pickled and dried vegetables and medical herbs. Fishing is carried on. The restoration of the buildings (royal palace, archiepiscopal palace, and five churches) of the kreml or citadel was begun in 1901. The other public buildings include six 17th-century churches, a museum and a cathedral, consecrated in 1231 and having its interior walls covered with paintings.

Rostov was founded by Slavs in or before 862, and played so prominent a role in the history of that part of Russia that it used to be known as Rostov the Great. From the beginning of the 11th century to the 13th it was the chief town of a territory which included large parts of the present governments of Yaroslavl, Vladimir and Novgorod. After the Mongol invasion of 1239–42 it rapidly declined, and in 1474 it was purchased by Ivan III. and annexed to Moscow. It was repeatedly plundered by Tatars, Lithuanians and Poles in the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries.

ROSTRA (“beaks”), in Roman antiquities, the orators platform, which originally stood between the comitium and the forum proper, opposite the curia. It is not known when it was erected, but in 338 it was decorated by Gaius Maenius with the prows of ships captured from the people of Antium (Livy viii. 14). From that time it was called Rostra, having previously been known as templum (literally “ consecrated place ”), since it had been consecrated by the augurs (Cicero, In Vatinium, x. 24). Some, however, deny the identity of the templum and rostra. On the platform or hard by were exhibited the statues of famous Romans (Camillus, Caesar), and state documents and memorials (the laws of the Twelve Tables, the treaty with the Latins, the columna rostrata of Duilius) Caesar had it pulled down, intending that it should be rebuilt on the west side of the forum, but it was left for Augustus (or Mark Antony) to carry out his plan. The term Rostra Vetera, often used by classical authors in connexion with funeral orations, makes it doubtful whether the old platform was entirely demolished, unless the name was simply transferred to the new rostra of Augustus. This consisted of a rectangular platform, 78 ft. long, 33 ft. broad and 11 ft. above the level of the forum pavement. It was reached by steps from the back; in front there was a marble balustrade with an opening in the centre where the speaker stood, possibly also intended for a staircase leading down into the forum. In the existing remains the holes in which the beaks of the ships were fastened, arranged in pairs, are visible. Behind' these remains, close to the Clivus Capitolinus, a row of light low arched cells has been found, which, owing to a certain resemblance to the earlier rostra as shown on the well-known coin of Lollius Palicanus, has been identified by Boni with the rostra removed by Julius Caesar, the other remains being attributed to the time of Domitian (for objections to this theory, see Hülsen and Richter). In the time of Hadrian the side balustrades were decorated with marble slabs, on which were represented in relief the burning of the lists of the citizens who were in arrears to the fisc and the distribution of necessaries to the poorer citizens. Thédenat explains the first as Domitian reassuring a deputation of citizens by burning the denunciatory reports of the delatores, and the second (the scene of which he places at the Rostra Julia) as the promulgation of the law forbidding the mutilation of children. The erection of the arch of Severus necessitated considerable alterations, the most important of which was a triangular courtyard cut out of the north half of the rostra, to allow direct access to it from the side that faced the arch, its breadth being thereby reduced by a third. A later extension of the facade northwards is explained by a long inscription, recording that about the year 470, Ulpius Junius Valentinus, a city prefect, restored the structure (hence called Rostra Vandalica) after a naval victory over the Vandals. A relief on the arch of Constantine represents the emperor speaking from the rostra.

The Rostra Julia was a platform with a semicircular niche