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Lucius Minucius Esquilinus Augurinus
Lucius Minucius Esquilinus Augurinus ( 458 – 439 BC) was a Roman politician who was consul in 458 BC and decemvir in 450 BC. Family Brother of Quintus Minucius Esquilinus Augurinus, consul in 457 BC, he was a member of the ''Minucii Augurini'' branch of the ''gens Minucia''. Lucius was the son of a Publius Minucius and grandson of a Marcus Minucius. His complete name is ''Lucius Minucius P.f. M.n. Esquilinus Augurinus''. Career Consulship In 458 BC, he was consul with Gaius Nautius Rutilus. Livy, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, and Diodorus Siculus called him consul ''ordinarius'', but according to the ''Fasti Capitolini'', he was the consul suffect, replacing a certain Carvetus who died at the beginning of his term. This year, Rome had faced an assault by the Aequi whose treaty had expired the year before and Roman territory was pillaged by the Sabines, reaching as far as the city walls. The consuls levied two armies, Augurinus alongside the dictator Lucius Quinctius Cincinnat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roman Consul
The consuls were the highest elected public officials of the Roman Republic ( to 27 BC). Romans considered the consulship the second-highest level of the ''cursus honorum''an ascending sequence of public offices to which politicians aspiredafter that of the Roman censor, censor, which was reserved for former consuls. Each year, the Centuriate Assembly elected two consuls to serve jointly for a one-year term. The consuls alternated each month holding ''fasces'' (taking turns leading) when both were in Rome. A consul's ''imperium'' (military power) extended over Rome and all its Roman provinces, provinces. Having two consuls created a check on the power of any one individual, in accordance with the republican belief that the powers of the former King of Rome, kings of Rome should be spread out into multiple offices. To that end, each consul could veto the actions of the other consul. After the establishment of the Roman Empire, Empire (27 BC), the consuls became mere symboli ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roman Senate
The Roman Senate () was the highest and constituting assembly of ancient Rome and its aristocracy. With different powers throughout its existence it lasted from the first days of the city of Rome (traditionally founded in 753 BC) as the Senate of the Roman Kingdom, to the Senate of the Roman Republic and Senate of the Roman Empire and eventually the Byzantine Senate of the Eastern Roman Empire, existing well into the post-classical era and Middle Ages. During the days of the Roman Kingdom, the Senate was generally little more than an advisory council to the king. However, as Rome was an electoral monarchy, the Senate also elected new Roman kings. The last king of Rome, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, was overthrown following a coup d'état led by Lucius Junius Brutus, who founded the Roman Republic. During the early Republic, the Senate was politically weak, while the various executive Roman magistrates who appointed the senators for life (or until expulsion by Roma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Patricians
The patricians (from ) were originally a group of ruling class families in ancient Rome. The distinction was highly significant in the Roman Kingdom and the early Republic, but its relevance waned after the Conflict of the Orders (494 BC to 287 BC). By the time of the late Republic and Empire, membership in the patriciate was of only nominal significance. The social structure of ancient Rome revolved around the distinction between the patricians and the plebeians. The status of patricians gave them more political power than the plebeians, but the relationship between the groups eventually caused the Conflict of the Orders. This time period resulted in changing of the social structure of ancient Rome. After the Western Empire fell, the term "patrician" continued as a high honorary title in the Eastern Empire. In many medieval Italian republics, especially in Venice and Genoa, medieval patrician classes were once again formally defined groups of leading families. In the Holy Roman ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Etruria
Etruria ( ) was a region of Central Italy delimited by the rivers Arno and Tiber, an area that covered what is now most of Tuscany, northern Lazio, and north-western Umbria. It was inhabited by the Etruscans, an ancient civilization that flourished in the area from around the 8th century BC until they were assimilated into the Roman Republic in the 4th century BC. Etruscan Etruria The ancient people of Etruria are identified as Etruscans. Their complex culture centered on numerous city-states that arose during the Villanovan period in the ninth century BC, and they were very powerful during the Orientalizing Archaic periods. The Etruscans were a dominant culture in Italy by 650 BC,Rix, Helmut. "Etruscan." In ''The Ancient Languages of Europe,'' ed. Roger D. Woodard. Cambridge University Press, 2008, pp. 141–164. surpassing other ancient Italic peoples such as the Ligures. Their influence may be seen beyond Etruria's confines in the Po River Valley and Latium, as wel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Equestrian Order
The (; , though sometimes referred to as " knights" in English) constituted the second of the property/social-based classes of ancient Rome, ranking below the senatorial class. A member of the equestrian order was known as an (). Description During the Roman Kingdom and the first century of the Roman Republic, legionary cavalry was recruited exclusively from the ranks of the patricians, who were expected to provide six (hundreds) of cavalry (300 horses for each consular legion). Around 400BC, 12 more of cavalry were established and these included non-patricians (plebeians). Around 300 BC the Samnite Wars obliged Rome to double the normal annual military levy from two to four legions, doubling the cavalry levy from 600 to 1,200 horses. Legionary cavalry started to recruit wealthier citizens from outside the 18 . These new recruits came from the first class of commoners in the Centuriate Assembly organisation, and were not granted the same privileges. By the time of t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spurius Maelius
Spurius Maelius (died 439 BC) was a wealthy Roman plebeian who was slain because he was suspected of intending to make himself king. Biography During a severe famine, Spurius Maelius bought up a large amount of wheat and sold it at a low price to the people of Rome. According to Livy, this caused Lucius Minucius Augurinus, the patrician ''praefectus annonae'' (president of the market), to accuse Spurius Maelius of collecting arms in his house, and that he was holding secret meetings at which plans were being undoubtedly formed to establish a monarchy. The accusation was widely believed. Maelius was summoned before the aged Cincinnatus (specially appointed '' dictator''), but he refused to appear, and was slain by the Master of the Horse, Gaius Servilius Ahala. Afterward his house was razed to the ground, his wheat distributed amongst the people, and his property confiscated. The open space called the Equimaelium, on which his house had stood, preserved the memory of his death a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aedile
Aedile ( , , from , "temple edifice") was an elected office of the Roman Republic. Based in Rome, the aediles were responsible for maintenance of public buildings () and regulation of public festivals. They also had powers to enforce public order and duties to ensure the city of Rome was well supplied and its civil infrastructure well maintained, akin to modern local government. There were two pairs of aediles: the first were the "plebeian aediles" (Latin: ''aediles plebis'') and possession of this office was limited to plebeians; the other two were "curule aediles" (Latin: ''aediles curules''), open to both plebeians and patricians, in alternating years. An ''aedilis curulis'' was classified as a '' magister curulis''. The office of the aedilis was generally held by young men intending to follow the ''cursus honorum'' to high political office, traditionally after their quaestorship but before their praetorship. It was not a compulsory part of the cursus, and hence a former qua ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aventine Hill
The Aventine Hill (; ; ) is one of the Seven Hills on which ancient Rome was built. It belongs to Ripa, the modern twelfth ''rione'', or ward, of Rome. Location and boundaries The Aventine Hill is the southernmost of Rome's seven hills. It has two distinct heights, one greater to the northwest (''Aventinus Major'') and one lesser to the southeast (''Aventinus Minor''), divided by a steep cleft that provides the base for an ancient roadway between the heights. During the Republican era, the two hills may have been recognized as a single entity. The Augustan reforms of Rome's urban neighbourhoods ('' vici'') recognised the ancient road between the two heights (the modern Viale Aventino) as a common boundary between the new Regio XIII, which absorbed Aventinus Maior, and the part of Regio XII known as Aventinus Minor. Etymology and mythology Most Roman sources trace the name of the hill to a legendary king Aventinus. Servius identifies two kings of that name, one ancient ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Secessio Plebis
''Secessio plebis'' (''withdrawal of the commoners'', or ''secession of the plebs'') was an informal exercise of power by Rome's plebeian citizens between the 5th century BC and 3rd century BC., similar in concept to the general strike. During the ''secessio plebis'', the plebs would abandon the city ''en masse'' in a protest emigration and leave the patrician order to themselves. Therefore, a ''secessio'' meant that all shops and workshops would shut down and commercial transactions would largely cease. This was an effective strategy in the Conflict of the Orders due to strength in numbers; plebeian citizens made up the vast majority of Rome's populace and produced most of its food and resources, while a patrician citizen was a member of the minority upper class, the equivalent of the landed gentry of later times. Authors report different numbers for how many secessions there were. M. Cary and H. H. Scullard state there were five between 494 BC and 287 BC. Secess ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Plebeians
In ancient Rome, the plebeians or plebs were the general body of free Roman citizens who were not Patrician (ancient Rome), patricians, as determined by the Capite censi, census, or in other words "commoners". Both classes were hereditary. Etymology The precise origins of the group and the term are unclear, but may be related to the Greek, ''plēthos'', meaning masses. In Latin, the word is a grammatical number, singular collective noun, and its genitive is . Plebeians were not a monolithic social class. In ancient Rome In the annalistic tradition of Livy and Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Dionysius, the distinction between patricians and plebeians was as old as Rome itself, instituted by Romulus' appointment of the first hundred senators, whose descendants became the patriciate. Modern hypotheses date the distinction "anywhere from the regal period to the late fifth century" BC. The 19th-century historian Barthold Georg Niebuhr believed plebeians were possibly foreigners im ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Titus Antonius Merenda
Titus Antonius Merenda was a Roman politician, and decemvir from 450 to 449 BC. Family He was part of the ''gens Antonia''. It is possible that he was a plebeian, since the ''nomen'' ''Antonius'' is found among the plebeians more often than the patricians in this era. He was the father of Quintus Antonius Merenda, military tribune in 422 BC. Biography Titus Antonius Merenda was one of the ten members of the Second Decemvirate, presided over by Appius Claudius Crassus and elected to draft the Law of the Twelve Tables, the first body of Roman law ever written. The Second Decemvirate seemed to be constituted equally by patricians and by plebeians, like Merenda. At the instigation of Crassus, the decemvirs maintained their power illegally for another year, refusing to proceed in the election of consuls. In 449 BC, the Sabines occupied Eretum and the Aequi invaded and set up camp under Mount Algidus. The Roman troops were divided into two armies in order to fight on two fronts. Meren ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lucius Sergius Esquilinus
Lucius Sergius Esquilinus was a Roman politician, and member of the Second ''Decemvirate'' in 450 and 449 BC. Family He was a member of the ''Sergii Esquilini'', patrician branch of the ''gens Sergia''. His ''praenomen'' is not reported in the ''Fasti Capitolini'', and ancient authors disagree on what it is. Livy gives ''Marcus'' then ''Lucius'', Diodorus Siculus mentions a ''Caius'' and Dionysius of Halicarnassus, a ''Marcus''. Biography Lucius Sergius Esquilinus was one of the ten members of the second decemvirate, presided over by Appius Claudius Sabinus and elected for the writing of the Twelve Tables, first body of written law protecting Roman rights. At the instigation of Sabinus, the decemvirs had maintained their power illegally the following year, refusing to proceed in the election of consuls. That year, the Sabines' occupied Eretum, while the Aequi were camped on Mount Algidus. Roman troops were divided into two armies so they could fight on two fronts. Esquilin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
