ROYTON (13), a busy cotton town in Lancashire, 2 m.  NW. of Oldham.

RUABON (18), a mining town in Denbighshire, 41/2 m.  SW. of Wrexham; has collieries and iron-works.

RUBENS, PETER PAUL, the greatest of the Flemish painters, born at Siegen, in Westphalia; came with his widowed mother in 1587 to Antwerp, where he sedulously cultivated the painter’s art, and early revealed his masterly gift of colouring; went to Italy, and for a number of years was in the service of the Duke of Mantua, who encouraged him in his art, and employed him on a diplomatic mission to Philip III. of Spain; executed at Madrid some of his finest portraits; returned to Antwerp in 1609; completed in 1614 his masterpiece, “The Descent from the Cross,” in Antwerp Cathedral; with the aid of assistants he painted the series of 21 pictures, now in the Louvre, illustrating the principal events in the life of Maria de’ Medici during 1628-1629; diplomatic missions engaged him at the Spanish and English Courts, where his superabundant energy enabled him to execute many paintings for Charles I.—­e. g.  “War and Peace,” in the National Gallery—­and Philip IV.; was knighted by both; in all that pertains to chiaroscuro, colouring, and general technical skill Rubens is unsurpassed, and in expressing particularly the “tumult and energy of human action,” but he falls below the great Italian artists in the presentation of the deeper and sublimer human emotions; was a scholarly, refined man, an excellent linguist, and a successful diplomatist; was twice married; died at Antwerp, and was buried in the Church of St. Jacques; his tercentenary was celebrated in 1877 (1577-1640).

RUBICON, a famous river of Italy, associated with Julius Caesar, now identified with the modern Fiumecino, a mountain torrent which springs out of the eastern flank of the Apennines and enters the Adriatic N. of Ariminum; marked the boundary line between Roman Italy and Cisalpine Gaul, a province administered by Caesar; when he crossed it in 49 B.C. it was tantamount to a declaration of war against the Republic, hence the expression “to cross the Rubicon” is applied to the decisive step in any adventurous undertaking.

RUBINSTEIN, ANTON, a famous Russian pianist and composer, born, of Jewish parents, near Jassy, in Moldavia; studied at Moscow, under Liszt in Paris, and afterwards at Berlin and Vienna; established himself at St. Petersburg in 1848 as a music-teacher; became director of the Conservatoire there; toured for many years through Europe and the United States, achieving phenomenal success; resumed his directorship at St. Petersburg in 1887; composed operas (e. g.  “The Maccabees,” “The Demon"), symphonies (e. g.  “Ocean"), sacred operas (e. g.  “Paradise Lost"), chamber music, and many exquisite songs; as a pianist he was a master of technique and expression; was ennobled by the Czar in 1869; published an autobiography; his works as well as his performances display both vigour and sensibility (1829-1894).