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Second Catilinarian Conspiracy
The Catilinarian conspiracy (sometimes Second Catilinarian conspiracy) was an attempted coup d'état by Lucius Sergius Catilina (Catiline) to overthrow the Roman consuls of 63 BC – Marcus Tullius Cicero and Gaius Antonius Hybrida – and forcibly assume control of the state in their stead. The conspiracy was formed after Catiline's defeat in the consular elections for 62 (held in early autumn 63). He assembled a coalition of malcontents – aristocrats who had been denied political advancement by the voters, dispossessed farmers, and indebted veterans of Sulla – and planned to seize the consulship from Cicero and Antonius by force. In November 63, Cicero exposed the conspiracy, causing Catiline to flee from Rome and eventually to his army in Etruria. The next month, Cicero uncovered nine more conspirators organising for Catiline in the city and, on advice of the senate, had them executed without trial. In early January 62 BC, Antonius defeated Catiline in battle ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Coup D'état
A coup d'état (; French for 'stroke of state'), also known as a coup or overthrow, is a seizure and removal of a government and its powers. Typically, it is an illegal seizure of power by a political faction, politician, cult, rebel group, military, or a dictator. Many scholars consider a coup successful when the usurpers seize and hold power for at least seven days. Etymology The term comes from French ''coup d'État'', literally meaning a 'stroke of state' or 'blow of state'. In French, the word ''État'' () is capitalized when it denotes a sovereign political entity. Although the concept of a coup d'état has featured in politics since antiquity, the phrase is of relatively recent coinage.Julius Caesar's civil war, 5 January 49 BC. It did not appear within an English text before the 19th century except when used in the translation of a French source, there being no simple phrase in English to convey the contextualized idea of a 'knockout blow to the existing administrat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Patrician (ancient Rome)
The patricians (from la, patricius, Greek: πατρίκιος) 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. The relationship between the patricians and the plebeians eventually caused the Conflict of the Orders. This time period resulted in changing 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 the Holy Roman Empire and in many medieval Italian republics, medieval patrician classes were once again fo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
First Mithridatic War
The First Mithridatic War (89–85 BC) was a war challenging the Roman Republic's expanding empire and rule over the Greek world. In this conflict, the Kingdom of Pontus and many Greek cities rebelling against Roman rule were led by Mithridates VI of Pontus against Rome and the allied Kingdom of Bithynia. The war lasted five years and ended in a Roman victory which forced Mithridates to abandon all of his conquests and return to Pontus. The conflict with Mithridates VI later resumed in two further Mithridatic Wars. Prelude Following his ascension to the throne of Kingdom of Pontus, Mithridates VI of Pontus focused on expanding his kingdom. Mithridates' neighbors, however, were Roman client states, and expansion at their expense would inevitably lead him to conflict with Rome. After successfully incorporating most of the coast around the Black Sea into his kingdom, he turned his attention towards Asia Minor (in particular, the Kingdom of Cappadocia) where his sister Laodice w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Publius Servilius Rullus
Publius Servilius Rullus was plebeian tribune of the Roman Republic in 63 BC. He proposed an agrarian law aimed at redistributing land for the landless poor in Rome to farm. We know about this through the speeches delivered by Marcus Tullius Cicero against this bill. Cicero delivered four speeches. Three are extant. The beginning of the first speech is missing. The fourth speech is lost. We do not have any other sources except for passing references by Plutarch and Suetonius. Agrarian bill The bill provided for the election of a ten-man commission (decimviri) which would have authority for five years. Its task was to distribute land to 5,000 colonists in lots of ten jugera in the ager Campanus and in lots of twelve Jugerum, jugera in the nearby campus Stellaris (both areas were in Campania, north of Naples). Further plots of land were intended and land was to be bought for this. To raise funds for this, the decemviri were empowered to sell public land whose sale had been recommended ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Third Servile War
The Third Servile War, also called the Gladiator War and the War of Spartacus by Plutarch, was the last in a series of slave rebellions against the Roman Republic known as the Servile Wars. This third rebellion was the only one that directly threatened the Roman heartland of Italy. It was particularly alarming to Rome because its military seemed powerless to suppress it. The revolt began in 73 BC, with the escape of around 70 slave gladiators from a gladiator school in Capua. They easily defeated the small Roman force sent to recapture them, and within two years, they had been joined by some 120,000 men, women, and children. The able-bodied adults of this large group were a surprisingly effective armed force that repeatedly showed they could withstand or defeat the Roman military, from the local Campanian patrols to the Roman militia and even to trained Roman legions under consular command. This army of slaves roamed across Italia, raiding estates and towns with relative i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Proscription
Proscription ( la, proscriptio) is, in current usage, a 'decree of condemnation to death or banishment' (''Oxford English Dictionary'') and can be used in a political context to refer to state-approved murder or banishment. The term originated in Ancient Rome, where it included public identification and official condemnation of declared enemies of the state and it often involved confiscation of property. Its usage has been significantly widened to describe governmental and political sanctions of varying severity on individuals and classes of people who have fallen into disfavor, from the ''en masse'' suppression of adherents of unorthodox ideologies to the suppression of political rivals or personal enemies. In addition to its recurrences during the various phases of the Roman Republic, it has become a standard term to label: * The suppression of Royalists after Oliver Cromwell's decisive defeat of Charles II at the Battle of Worcester in 1651 (see image) * The curbing of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Erich Gruen
Erich Stephen Gruen ( , ; born May 7, 1935) is an American classicist and ancient historian. He was the Gladys Rehard Wood Professor of History and Classics at the University of California, Berkeley, where he taught full-time from 1966 until 2008. He served as president of the American Philological Association in 1992. Biography Born in Vienna, he received BAs from Columbia University and Oxford University, and the PhD from Harvard University in 1964. Gruen was a varsity lightweight rower at Columbia and valedictorian of his 550-man graduating class. From 1957 to 1960, he was a Rhodes Scholar at Merton College, Oxford. His earlier work focussed on the later Roman Republic, and culminated in ''The Last Generation of the Roman Republic'', a work often cited as a response to Ronald Syme's ''The Roman Revolution''. Gruen's argument is that the Republic was not in decay, and so not necessarily in need of "rescue" by Caesar Augustus and the institutions of the Empire. He later work ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lucius Calpurnius Bestia (tribune 62 BC)
Lucius Calpurnius Bestia was a Roman politician, and one of the Catilinarian conspirators. He was possibly a grandson of Lucius Calpurnius Bestia (consul). He was tribune elect in 63 BC, and it had been arranged that, after entering upon his office, he should publicly accuse Cicero of responsibility for the impending war. This was to be the signal for the outbreak of revolution. The conspiracy, however, was put down and Bestia had to content himself with delivering a violent attack upon the consul on the expiration of his office. In modern literature, he is used as a secondary character in two of the SPQR series of mysteries by John Maddox Roberts; ''The Catiline Conspiracy'' and '' Saturnalia''. This Bestia is probably not the Lucius Calpurnius Bestia, aedile, and a candidate for the praetor Praetor ( , ), also pretor, was the title granted by the government of Ancient Rome to a man acting in one of two official capacities: (i) the commander of an army, and (ii) as an elected ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lucius Cassius Longinus (praetor 66 BC)
Lucius Cassius Longinus (c. 106 – after 63 BC) was a Roman politician and a participant in the conspiracy of Catilina. He is probably identical with the moneyer Lucius Cassius, son of Quintus, who minted coins in 78 BC. He was probably already a senator in 74 BC, when he is found as a juror in the trial of Oppianicus. In 70 BC, he was a juror in the trial of Gaius Verres, and was elected military tribune for the following year. As praetor in 66 BC, Longinus prevented the trial of an unruly tribune of the previous year, Gaius Cornelius, from taking place. Longinus unsuccessfully ran for the consulship of 63 BC, the same year as Cicero. He then joined the conspiracy of Lucius Sergius Catilina, another failed candidate, to overthrow the government. Longinus conducted secret negotiations with the Allobroges The Allobroges (Gaulish: *''Allobrogis'', 'foreigner, exiled'; grc, Ἀλλοβρίγων, Ἀλλόβριγες) were a Gallic people dwelling in a large territory betwe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Publius Autronius Paetus
Publius Autronius Paetus was a politician of the late Roman Republic who was involved in the conspiracy of Catiline. He was elected consul in 66 BC (to serve in 65 BC), alongside Publius Cornelius Sulla, but before they could take office both were accused of electoral corruption by Lucius Aurelius Cotta and Lucius Manlius Torquatus. Dio 36.44.3-5 says they were found guilty, their election was declared void, and their accusers were elected consuls in their place. Some sources claim that Autronius conspired with Catiline to murder Cotta and Torquatus on the day of their installation, January 1, 65 BC, but the plot collapsed when Catiline gave the signal before all the conspirators were assembled. However, this conspiracy is not described consistently in contemporary sources. Modern historians doubt this account, and question whether this conspiracy actually existed. Later, Autronius was implicated in Catiline's failed conspiracy of 63 BC,Sallust, ''The War Against Catilina'', XVII ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sertorian War
The Sertorian War was a civil war fought from 80 to 72 BC between a faction of Roman rebels ( Sertorians) and the government in Rome (Sullans). The war was fought on the Iberian Peninsula (called ''Hispania'' by the Romans) and was one of the Roman civil wars of the first century BC. The Sertorians, a coalition of Celts, Aquitanians, Iberians and Roman and Italic rebels, fought against the representatives of the regime established by Sulla. The war takes its name from Quintus Sertorius, the leader of the opposition. It was notable for Sertorius' successful use of guerrilla warfare. The war ended after Sertorius was assassinated by Marcus Perperna, who was then promptly defeated by Pompey. Origin of the war During Sulla's civil war, Quintus Sertorius fought for the Marian- Cinna faction against Sulla. In 83 BC, Sertorius, after falling out with his faction's leadership, was sent to the Iberian Peninsula as its governor. Unfortunately for Sertorius his faction lost the war ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gaius Cornelius Cethegus (conspirator)
Gaius Cornelius Cethegus (died 63 BC) was a Roman senator and politician. Life Like many other youthful profligates, he joined the conspiracy in the hope of getting his debts cancelled. When Catiline left Rome in 63 BC, Cethegus remained behind as leader of the conspirators with Publius Cornelius Lentulus Sura. He himself undertook to murder Cicero and other prominent men, but was hampered by the dilatoriness of Sura, whose age and rank entitled him to the chief consideration. On 3 December 63 BC, the consul Cicero made public several letters from the conspirators inciting the Gallic Allobroges to revolt. One of these had been written and signed by Cethegus, implicating him beyond doubt. He was arrested and moved to the Temple of Concord, then put under house arrest in the home of a trusted senator, Qunitus Cornificius. Cicero's allies discovered a cache of swords and daggers in Cethegus' house meant for the conspirators' use. A debate in the Senate on the topic of whether or no ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
