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Spolia Opima
The ''spolia opima'' ("rich spoils") were the armour, arms, and other effects that an ancient Roman general stripped from the body of an opposing commander slain in single combat. The ''spolia opima'' were regarded as the most honourable of the several kinds of war trophies a commander could obtain, including enemy military standards and the peaks of warships. For the majority of the city's existence, the Romans recognized only three instances when ''spolia opima'' were taken. The precedent was imagined in Rome's mythical history, which tells that in 752 BC Romulus defeated and stripped Acron, king of the Caeninenses, following the Rape of the Sabine Women. In the second instance, Aulus Cornelius Cossus obtained the ''spolia opima'' from Lars Tolumnius, king of the Veientes, during Rome's semi-legendary fifth century BC. The third and most historically grounded occurred before the Second Punic War when Marcus Claudius Marcellus (consul 222 BC) galloped forward beyond his ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ancient Rome
In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman civilisation from the founding of the city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom (753–509 BC), Roman Republic (509–27 BC) and Roman Empire (27 BC–476 AD) until the fall of the western empire. Ancient Rome began as an Italic settlement, traditionally dated to 753 BC, beside the River Tiber in the Italian Peninsula. The settlement grew into the city and polity of Rome, and came to control its neighbours through a combination of treaties and military strength. It eventually dominated the Italian Peninsula, assimilated the Greek culture of southern Italy (Magna Grecia) and the Etruscan culture and acquired an Empire that took in much of Europe and the lands and peoples surrounding the Mediterranean Sea. It was among the largest empires in the ancient world, with an estimated 50 to 90 million inhabitants, roughly 20% of t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Capitoline
The Capitolium or Capitoline Hill ( ; it, Campidoglio ; la, Mons Capitolinus ), between the Forum and the Campus Martius, is one of the Seven Hills of Rome. The hill was earlier known as ''Mons Saturnius'', dedicated to the god Saturn. The word ''Capitolium'' first meant the temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus later built here, and afterwards it was used for the whole hill (and even other temples of Jupiter on other hills), thus ''Mons Capitolinus'' (the adjective noun of ''Capitolium''). In an etymological myth, ancient sources connect the name to ''caput'' ("head", "summit") and the tale was that, when laying the foundations for the temple, the head of a man was found, some sources even saying it was the head of some ''Tolus'' or ''Olus''. The ''Capitolium'' was regarded by the Romans as indestructible, and was adopted as a symbol of eternity. By the 16th century, ''Capitolinus'' had become ''Capitolino'' in Italian, and ''Capitolium'' ''Campidoglio''. The Capitoline Hill ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Military Awards And Decorations Of Ancient Rome
As with most other military forces the Roman military adopted an extensive list of decorations for military gallantry and likewise a range of punishments for military transgressions. Decorations, awards and victory titles Crowns *Grass crown – (Latin: ''corona obsidionalis'' or ''corona graminea''), was the highest and rarest of all military decorations. It was presented only to a general, commander, or officer whose actions saved the legion or the entire army. *Civic crown – (Latin: ''corona civica''), was a chaplet of common oak leaves woven to form a crown. During the Roman Republic, and the subsequent Principate, it was regarded as the second highest military decoration a citizen could aspire to (the Grass Crown being held in higher regard) and was rewarded for saving the lives of fellow Roman citizens (cives) or for standing one's ground in war. Since Augustus, only the princeps was eligible for this decoration. It may have been identical to the Crown of the Preserver m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roman Triumph
The Roman triumph (') was a civil ceremony and religious rite of ancient Rome, held to publicly celebrate and sanctify the success of a military commander who had led Roman forces to victory in the service of the state or in some historical traditions, one who had successfully completed a foreign war. On the day of his triumph, the general wore a crown of laurel and an all-purple, gold-embroidered triumphal '' toga picta'' ("painted" toga), regalia that identified him as near-divine or near-kingly. In some accounts, his face was painted red, perhaps in imitation of Rome's highest and most powerful god, Jupiter. The general rode in a four-horse chariot through the streets of Rome in unarmed procession with his army, captives, and the spoils of his war. At Jupiter's temple on the Capitoline Hill, he offered sacrifice and the tokens of his victory to the god Jupiter. In Republican tradition, only the Senate could grant a triumph. The origins and development of this honour were ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tropaion
A tropaion ( el, τρόπαιον, la, tropaeum), from which the English word, "trophy", is derived, was a monument erected to commemorate a victory over one's foes by the ancient Greeks and later, by the Romans. The armour of the defeated foe would be hung upon the monument. Originally, the location of the monument was the battlefield where the commemorated victory took place. Initially, the typical monument was constructed out of a living tree with lateral branches, or it was constructed in the shape of one. After construction, the ''tropaion'' was dedicated to a deity in thanksgiving for the victory. Some images of tropaion show many weapons and shields heaped below the armor hoisted upon the monument. In later times, pairs of lances, banners, or stakes set crosswise might be used instead of the tree format. Greece In the Greek city-states of the Archaic period, a ''tropaion'' would be set up on the battlefield itself, usually at the site of the "turning point" (Gk. ''trop ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nero Claudius Drusus
Nero Claudius Drusus Germanicus (38–9 BC), also called Drusus the Elder, was a Roman politician and military commander. He was a patrician Claudian on his birth father's side but his maternal grandmother was from a plebeian family. He was the son of Livia Drusilla and the legal stepson of her second husband, the Emperor Augustus. He was also brother of the Emperor Tiberius, father to both the Emperor Claudius and general Germanicus, paternal grandfather of the Emperor Caligula, and maternal great-grandfather of the Emperor Nero. He launched the first major Roman campaigns across the Rhine and began the conquest of Germania, becoming the first Roman general to reach the Weser and Elbe rivers. In 12 BC, Drusus led a successful campaign into Germania, subjugating the Sicambri. Later that year he led a naval expedition against Germanic tribes along the North Sea coast, conquering the Batavi and the Frisii, and defeating the Chauci near the mouth of the Weser. In 11 BC, he conqu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Roman Revolution
''The Roman Revolution'' (1939) is a scholarly study of the final years of the ancient Roman Republic and the creation of the Roman Empire by Caesar Augustus. The book was the work of Sir Ronald Syme (1903–1989), a noted Tacitean scholar, and was published by the Oxford University Press. It was immediately controversial. Its main conclusion was that the structure of the Republic and its Senate were inadequate to the needs of Roman rule, and that Augustus was merely doing what was necessary to restore order in public life. Syme relies on prosopography, especially the work of German scholars Friedrich Münzer and Matthias Gelzer, to show the extent to which Augustus achieved his unofficial but undisputed power by the development of personal relationships into a "Caesarian" party and used it to defeat and diminish the opposition one by one. The process was slow, with the young Octavian initially just using his position as a relative of Julius Caesar to pursue Caesar's assassins, t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ronald Syme
Sir Ronald Syme, (11 March 1903 – 4 September 1989) was a New Zealand-born historian and classicist. He was regarded as the greatest historian of ancient Rome since Theodor Mommsen and the most brilliant exponent of the history of the Roman Empire since Edward Gibbon. His great work was '' The Roman Revolution'' (1939), a masterly and controversial analysis of Roman political life in the period following the assassination of Julius Caesar. Life Syme was born to David and Florence Syme in Eltham, New Zealand in 1903, where he attended primary and secondary school; a bad case of measles seriously damaged his vision during this period. He moved to New Plymouth Boys' High School (a house of which bears his name today) at the age of 15, and was head of his class for both of his two years. He continued to the University of Auckland and Victoria University of Wellington, where he studied French language and literature while working on his degree in Classics. He was then educated a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marcus Licinius Crassus
Marcus Licinius Crassus (; 115 – 53 BC) was a Roman general and statesman who played a key role in the transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire. He is often called "the richest man in Rome." Wallechinsky, David & Wallace, Irving.Richest People in History Ancient Roman Crassus. Trivia-Library. '' The People's Almanac''. 1975–1981. Web. 23 December 2009."Often named as the richest man ever, a more accurate conversion of sesterce would put his modern figure between $200 million and $20 billion." Peter L. BernsteinThe 20 Richest People Of All Time/ref> Crassus began his public career as a military commander under Lucius Cornelius Sulla during his civil war. Following Sulla's assumption of the dictatorship, Crassus amassed an enormous fortune through real estate speculation. Crassus rose to political prominence following his victory over the slave revolt led by Spartacus, sharing the consulship with his rival Pompey the Great. A political and fina ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marcus Licinius Crassus (consul 30 BC)
Marcus Licinius Crassus ( 1st century BC), grandson of the triumvir Marcus Licinius Crassus, was a Roman consul in the year 30 BC as the colleague of Octavian (the future Roman Emperor Augustus). He was best known for his successful campaigns in Macedonia and Thrace in 29–27 BC, for which he was denied customary military honors by Octavian. Family The younger Crassus was the son of another Marcus Licinius Crassus, possibly by his wife Caecilia Metella Cretica, daughter of the consul Quintus Caecilius Metellus Creticus (see Caecilius Metellus); his mother's tomb is visible on the Appian Way. The father was a quaestor to Julius Caesar, and a son, possibly the eldest son, of the triumvir Marcus Licinius Crassus possibly by his first wife (widow of an elder brother killed in December 87 BC). Crassus the Younger apparently had no surviving sons by his wife. It is believed that Crassus adopted the future consul Marcus Licinius Crassus Frugi from the Calpurnius Piso family. Milita ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hispania
Hispania ( la, Hispānia , ; nearly identically pronounced in Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan, and Italian) was the Roman name for the Iberian Peninsula and its provinces. Under the Roman Republic, Hispania was divided into two provinces: Hispania Citerior and Hispania Ulterior. During the Principate, Hispania Ulterior was divided into two new provinces, Baetica and Lusitania, while Hispania Citerior was renamed Hispania Tarraconensis. Subsequently, the western part of Tarraconensis was split off, first as Hispania Nova, later renamed "Callaecia" (or Gallaecia, whence modern Galicia). From Diocletian's Tetrarchy (AD 284) onwards, the south of the remainder of Tarraconensis was again split off as Carthaginensis, and all of the mainland Hispanic provinces, along with the Balearic Islands and the North African province of Mauretania Tingitana, were later grouped into a civil diocese headed by a ''vicarius''. The name Hispania was also used in the period of Visigothic rule. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scipio Aemilianus
Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus Aemilianus (185–129 BC), known as Scipio Aemilianus or Scipio Africanus the Younger, was a Roman general and statesman noted for his military exploits in the Third Punic War against Carthage and during the Numantine War in Spain. He oversaw the final defeat and destruction of the city of Carthage. He was a prominent patron of writers and philosophers, the most famous of whom was the Greek historian Polybius. In politics, he opposed the populist reform program of his murdered brother-in-law, Tiberius Gracchus. Family Scipio Aemilianus was the second son of Lucius Aemilius Paullus Macedonicus, the commander of the Romans' victorious campaign in the Third Macedonian War, and his first wife, Papiria Masonis. Scipio was adopted by his first cousin, Publius Cornelius Scipio, the eldest son of his aunt Aemilia Tertia and her husband Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus, the acclaimed commander who won the decisive battle of the Second Punic W ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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