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Pescennius Niger
Gaius Pescennius Niger (c. 135 – 194) was Roman Emperor from 193 to 194 during the Year of the Five Emperors. He claimed the imperial throne in response to the murder of Pertinax and the elevation of Didius Julianus, but was defeated by a rival claimant, Septimius Severus, and killed while attempting to flee from Antioch. Early career Although Niger was born into an old Italian equestrian family, around the year 135, he was the first member of his family to achieve the rank of Roman senator.Potter, p. 101 Not much is known of his early career; it is possible that he held an administrative position in Egypt, and that he served in a military campaign in Dacia early in Commodus’ reign.Meckler, ''Pescennius Niger'' During the late 180s, Niger was elected as a Suffect consul, after which Commodus made him imperial legate of Syria in 191. He was still serving in Syria when news came of the murder of Pertinax, followed by the auctioning off of the imperial title to Didius Julia ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Usurper
A usurper is an illegitimate or controversial claimant to power, often but not always in a monarchy. In other words, one who takes the power of a country, city, or established region for oneself, without any formal or legal right to claim it as one's own. Usurpers can rise to power in a region by often unexpected physical force, as well as through political influence and deceit. Etymology The word originally came from the Latin word ''usurpare'' (“to seize", "to take forcefully" or "to use”). Politics The Greeks had their own conception of what usurpers were, calling them tyrants. In the ancient Greek usage, a tyrant (''tyrannos''/''τύραννος'' in Greek) was an individual who rose to power via unconstitutional or illegitimate means, usually not being an heir to an existing throne. Such individuals were perceived negatively by political philosophers such as Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. Usurpers often try to legitimize their position by claiming to be a descendant ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Syria (Roman Province)
Roman Syria was an early Roman province annexed to the Roman Republic in 64 BC by Pompey in the Third Mithridatic War following the defeat of King of Armenia Tigranes the Great. Following the partition of the Herodian Kingdom of Judea into tetrarchies in 6 AD, it was gradually absorbed into Roman provinces, with Roman Syria annexing Iturea and Trachonitis. Provincia Syria Syria was annexed to the Roman Republic in 64 BC, when Pompey the Great had the Seleucid king Antiochus XIII Asiaticus executed and deposed his successor Philip II Philoromaeus. Pompey appointed Marcus Aemilius Scaurus to the post of Proconsul of Syria. Following the fall of the Roman Republic and its transformation into the Roman Empire, Syria became a Roman imperial province, governed by a Legate. During the early empire, the Roman army in Syria accounted for three legions with auxiliaries who defended the border with Parthia. In 6 AD Emperor Augustus deposed the ethnarch Herod Archelaus and united J ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lucius Fabius Cilo
Lucius Fabius Cilo, full name Lucius Fabius Cilo Septiminus Catinius Acilianus Lepidus Fulcinianus, was a Roman senator, who was a confidant of Septimius Severus. He held a number of appointments that have been dated to the reigns of Commodus and Severus. He was twice Roman consul: the first time in 193 as a ''suffect'', and the second time as ordinary consul in 204 with Marcus Annius Flavius Libo as his colleague. Cilo is known from numerous inscriptions and appears in the ''Historia Augusta'' and the history of Dio Cassius. He married Cilonia Fabia. Earlier career Fabius Cilo came from Hispania. Paul M. M. Leunissen writes it is possible he came from Baetica, while Anthony Birley suggests his home town was Iluro.Birley, ''Septimius Severus, the African Emperor'', revised edition (New Haven: Yale, 1989), p. 40 Because the last known member of the republican and Patrician family of the Fabii was Paullus Fabius Persicus who died in the reign of Claudius, it is likely that Cilo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thrace
Thrace (; el, Θράκη, Thráki; bg, Тракия, Trakiya; tr, Trakya) or Thrake is a geographical and historical region in Southeast Europe, now split among Bulgaria, Greece, and Turkey, which is bounded by the Balkan Mountains to the north, the Aegean Sea to the south, and the Black Sea to the east. It comprises southeastern Bulgaria (Northern Thrace), northeastern Greece (Western Thrace), and the European part of Turkey ( East Thrace). The region's boundaries are based on that of the Roman Province of Thrace; the lands inhabited by the ancient Thracians extended in the north to modern-day Northern Bulgaria and Romania and to the west into the region of Macedonia. Etymology The word ''Thrace'' was first used by the Greeks when referring to the Thracian tribes, from ancient Greek Thrake (Θρᾴκη), descending from ''Thrāix'' (Θρᾷξ). It referred originally to the Thracians, an ancient people inhabiting Southeast Europe. The name ''Europe'' first referred to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Malatya
Malatya ( hy, Մալաթիա, translit=Malat'ya; Syro-Aramaic ܡܠܝܛܝܢܐ Malīṭīná; ku, Meletî; Ancient Greek: Μελιτηνή) is a large city in the Eastern Anatolia region of Turkey and the capital of Malatya Province. The city has been a human settlement for thousands of years. In Hittite, ''melid'' or ''milit'' means "honey", offering a possible etymology for the name, which was mentioned in the contemporary sources of the time under several variations (e.g., Hittite: ''Malidiya'' and possibly also ''Midduwa''; Akkadian: Meliddu;Hawkins, John D. ''Corpus of Hieroglyphic Luwian Inscriptions. Vol. 1: Inscriptions of the Iron Age.'' Walter de Gruyter, 2000. Urar̩tian: Meliṭeia). Strabo says that the city was known "to the ancients"Strabo ''Geographica, Translated from the Greek text by W. Falconer (London, 1903); Book XII, Chapter I'' as Melitene (Ancient Greek ''Μελιτηνή''), a name adopted by the Romans following Roman expansion into the east. Accor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arabia Petraea
Arabia Petraea or Petrea, also known as Rome's Arabian Province ( la, Provincia Arabia; ar, العربية البترائية; grc, Ἐπαρχία Πετραίας Ἀραβίας) or simply Arabia, was a frontier province of the Roman Empire beginning in the 2nd century. It consisted of the former Nabataean Kingdom in Jordan, southern Levant, the Sinai Peninsula and northwestern Arabian Peninsula. Its capital was Petra. It was bordered on the north by Syria, on the west by Judaea (merged with Syria from AD 135) and Egypt, and on the south and east by the rest of Arabia, known as Arabia Deserta and Arabia Felix. The territory was annexed by Emperor Trajan, like many other eastern frontier provinces of the Roman Empire, but held onto, unlike Armenia, Mesopotamia and Assyria, well after Trajan's rule, its desert frontier being called the Limes Arabicus. It produced the Emperor Philippus, who was born around 204. As a frontier province, it included a desert populated by Arabic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Legio II Traiana Fortis
Legio II Traiana, ( Second Legion "Trajan") was a legion of the Imperial Roman army raised by emperor Trajan, along with XXX ''Ulpia Victrix'', for the campaigns in Dacia. Records of the II ''Traiana Fortis'' have been recovered from Egypt dating to the middle of the 5th century. The legion's emblem was the demi-god Hercules. Origins According to Cassius Dio, it was Trajan who raised both the II ''Traiana'' and the XXX ''Ulpia Victrix'', but the details and order is not clear. H.M.D. Parker has argued that the XXX ''Ulpia'' was raised first, at the time there were 29 legions, then after Legio XXI ''Rapax'' vanished—either destroyed in battle against barbarian invaders or in a civil disturbance—the II Traiana came into existence. The date of the legion's creation is also not certain, although Graham Webster assigns it to the year 101. The earliest dated inscription referring to the legion, which lists the posts Lucius Cossonius Gallus held during his career, again ent ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Byzantium
Byzantium () or Byzantion ( grc, Βυζάντιον) was an ancient Greek city in classical antiquity that became known as Constantinople in late antiquity and Istanbul today. The Greek name ''Byzantion'' and its Latinization ''Byzantium'' continued to be used as a name of Constantinople sporadically and to varying degrees during the thousand year existence of the Byzantine Empire. Byzantium was colonized by Greeks from Megara in the 7th century BC and remained primarily Greek-speaking until its conquest by the Ottoman Empire in AD 1453. Etymology The etymology of ''Byzantium'' is unknown. It has been suggested that the name is of Thracian origin. It may be derived from the Thracian personal name Byzas which means "he-goat". Ancient Greek legend refers to the Greek king Byzas, the leader of the Megarian colonists and founder of the city. The name ''Lygos'' for the city, which likely corresponds to an earlier Thracian settlement, is mentioned by Pliny the Elder in his '' Natu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Proconsul
A proconsul was an official of ancient Rome who acted on behalf of a consul. A proconsul was typically a former consul. The term is also used in recent history for officials with delegated authority. In the Roman Republic, military command, or ''imperium'', could be exercised constitutionally only by a consul. There were two consuls at a time, each elected to a one-year term. They could not normally serve two terms in a row. If a military campaign was in progress at the end of a consul's term, the consul in command might have his command prorogued, allowing him to continue in command. This custom allowed for continuity of command despite the high turnover of consuls. In the Roman Empire, proconsul was a title held by a civil governor and did not imply military command. In modern times, various officials with notable delegated authority have been referred to as proconsuls. Studies of leadership typically divide leaders into policymakers and subordinate administrators. The proconsu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Asia (Roman Province)
The Asia ( grc, Ἀσία) was a Roman province covering most of western Anatolia, which was created following the Roman Republic's annexation of the Attalid Kingdom in 133 BC. After the establishment of the Roman Empire by Augustus, it was the most prestigious of the Senatorial province, governed by a proconsul. This arrangement endured until the province was subdivided in the fourth century AD. The province was one of the richest of the Empire and was at peace for most of the Imperial period. It contained hundreds of largely self-governing Greek city-states, who competed fiercely with one another for status, through appeals to the Imperial authorities and the cultivation of prestigious cultural institutions such as festival games, religious cults, and oratory. Geography The province of Asia originally consisted of the territories of Mysia, the Troad, Aeolis, Lydia, Ionia, Caria, and the land corridor through Pisidia to Pamphylia. The Aegean islands, with the exception of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gaius Fulvius Plautianus
Gaius or Lucius Fulvius Plautianus (c. 150 – 22 January 205) was a member of the Roman ''gens'' Fulvia. Like Sejanus, Perennis and Cleander, as head of the Praetorian Guard, he was formally extraordinarily powerful and influential in the administration of state affairs, and was involved with Julia Domna, the powerful wife of Septimius Severus, who played a prominent public and political role, in influencing the emperor's decisions. Plautianus was originally from Leptis Magna, southeast of Carthage (modern Libya, North Africa). He was a maternal cousin and long-time friend of the Emperor Septimius Severus. Plautianus' father was another Gaius Fulvius Plautianus, born c. 130, whose sister, Fulvia Pia (c. 125 - after 198), was married to Severus' father Publius Septimius Geta. Plautianus was ''Praefectus vigilum'' (commander of the ''Vigiles'' in Rome) from 193 to 197. Plautianus was appointed prefect of the Praetorian Guard in 197. Due to their friendship, Severus rewarded Pl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
