|
Roman Gladiators
A gladiator ( , ) was an armed combatant who entertained audiences in the Roman Republic and Roman Empire in violent confrontations with other gladiators, wild animals, and condemned criminals. Some gladiators were volunteers who risked their lives and their legal and social standing by appearing in the arena. Most were despised as slaves, schooled under harsh conditions, socially marginalized, and segregated even in death. Irrespective of their origin, gladiators offered spectators an example of Rome's martial ethics and, in fighting or dying well, they could inspire admiration and popular acclaim. They were celebrated in high and low art, and their value as entertainers was commemorated in precious and commonplace objects throughout the Roman world. The origin of gladiatorial combat is open to debate. There is evidence of it in funeral rites during the Punic Wars of the 3rd century BC, and thereafter it rapidly became an essential feature of politics and social life in the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lanista
''Lanista'' is a genus of African bush-crickets ( Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae) in the subfamily Conocephalinae. Species * '' Lanista affinis'' Bolívar, 1906 * '' Lanista annulicornis'' (Walker, 1869) * '' Lanista crassicollis'' Bolívar, 1906 * '' Lanista varelai'' Bolívar, 1906 References Tettigoniidae Orthoptera genera {{Tettigoniidae-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Manes
In ancient Roman religion, the ''Manes'' (, , ) or ''Di Manes'' are chthonic deities sometimes thought to represent souls of deceased loved ones. They were associated with the '' Lares'', '' Lemures'', '' Genii'', and '' Di Penates'' as deities ('' di'') that pertained to domestic, local, and personal cult. They belonged broadly to the category of '' di inferi'', "those who dwell below", the undifferentiated collective of divine dead. The Manes were honored during the Parentalia and Feralia in February. The theologian St. Augustine, writing about the subject a few centuries after most of the Latin pagan references to such spirits, differentiated Manes from other types of Roman spirits: Latin spells of antiquity were often addressed to the Manes. Etymology and inscriptions Manes may be derived from "an archaic adjective manus—''good''—which was the opposite of immanis (monstrous)". Roman tombstones often included the letters ''D.M.'', which stood for ''Dis Manibus'', ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Munera (ancient Rome)
In ancient Rome, (Latin plural; singular ) were public works and entertainments provided for the benefit of the Roman people by individuals of high status and wealth. means "duty, obligation" (cf. English " munificence"), expressing the individual's responsibility to provide a service or contribution to his community. The word was often a synonym for gladiatorial combat, which was originally sponsored as a funeral tribute at the tomb of a deceased Roman magnate by his heir. depended on the private largesse of individuals, in contrast to , which were games, athletic contests or spectacles sponsored by the state. Types and evolution The most famous ''munera'' were the gladiatorial contests, which began as a service or gift rendered by the heirs of the deceased at funeral games. ''Munera'' could refer to the provision of such public services, or to the services themselves. In describing Rome's provision of water to the public, Frontinus describes certain lavishly decorated ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Forum Boarium
The Forum Boarium (, ) was the cattle market or '' forum venalium'' of ancient Rome. It was located on a level piece of land near the Tiber between the Capitoline, the Palatine and Aventine hills. As the site of the original docks of Rome () and adjacent to the Pons Aemilius, the earliest stone bridge across the Tiber, the Forum Boarium experienced intense commercial activity. History The site was a religious centre housing the Temple of Hercules Victor, the Temple of Portunus (Temple of Fortuna Virilis), and the massive 6th or 5th century BC Ara Maxima. According to legend, when Hercules arrived in this area with Geryon’s oxen, he was robbed of these by the giant Cacus, who lived in a cave at the foot of the Aventine hill. After slaying the giant, Hercules was honoured as a god by the ancient dwellers of the Palatine hill, who are said to have dedicated an altar to him. The tufa stone core of this altar is housed inside the church of Santa Maria in Cosmedin. The F ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Decimus Junius Brutus Scaeva (consul 292)
Decimus Junius Brutus Scaeva was a Roman politician and military man who served as a legate in 293 BC in the army of the consul Spurius Carvilius Maximus and as 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 aspire ... in 292 BC. Bibliography * {{DEFAULTSORT:Junius Brutus Scaeva, Decimus 3rd-century BC Roman consuls ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carthage
Carthage was an ancient city in Northern Africa, on the eastern side of the Lake of Tunis in what is now Tunisia. Carthage was one of the most important trading hubs of the Ancient Mediterranean and one of the most affluent cities of the classical world. It became the capital city of the civilization of Ancient Carthage and later Roman Carthage. The city developed from a Phoenician colony into the capital of a Punic people, Punic empire which dominated large parts of the Southwest Mediterranean during the first millennium BC. The legendary Queen Elissa, Alyssa or Dido, originally from Tyre, Lebanon, Tyre, is regarded as the founder of the city, though her historicity has been questioned. In the myth, Dido asked for land from a local tribe, which told her that she could get as much land as an oxhide could cover. She cut the oxhide into strips and laid out the perimeter of the new city. As Carthage prospered at home, the polity sent colonists abroad as well as magistrates to rule t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
First Punic War
The First Punic War (264–241 BC) was the first of three wars fought between Rome and Carthage, the two main powers of the western Mediterranean in the early 3rd century BC. For 23 years, in the longest continuous conflict and greatest naval war of antiquity, the two powers struggled for supremacy. The war was fought primarily on the Mediterranean island of Sicily and its surrounding waters, and also in North Africa. After immense losses on both sides, the Carthaginians were defeated and Rome gained territory from Carthage. The war began in 264 BC with the Romans gaining a foothold on Sicily at Messana (modern Messina). The Romans then pressed Syracuse, the only significant independent power on the island, into allying with them and laid siege to Carthage's main base at Akragas. A large Carthaginian army attempted to lift the siege in 262 BC but was heavily defeated at the Battle of Akragas. The Romans then built a navy to challenge the Carthaginians ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paestum
Paestum ( , , ) was a major Ancient Greece, ancient Greek city on the coast of the Tyrrhenian Sea, in Magna Graecia. The ruins of Paestum are famous for their three ancient Greek temples in the Doric order dating from about 550 to 450 BCE that are in an excellent state of preservation. The city walls and amphitheatre are largely intact, and the bottom of the walls of many other structures remain, as well as paved roads. The site is open to the public, and there is a modern National Archaeological Museum of Paestum, national museum within it, which also contains the finds from the associated Greek site of Foce del Sele. Paestum was established around 600 BCE by settlers from Sybaris, a Greek colony in southern Italy, under the name of Poseidonia (). The city thrived as a Greek settlement for about two centuries, witnessing the development of democracy. In 400 BCE, the Lucani (ancient people), Lucanians seized the city. Ancient Rome, Romans took over in 273 BCE, renaming it Paestu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fresco
Fresco ( or frescoes) is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaster, the painting becomes an integral part of the wall. The word ''fresco'' () is derived from the Italian adjective ''fresco'' meaning "fresh", and may thus be contrasted with fresco-secco or secco mural painting techniques, which are applied to dried plaster, to supplement painting in fresco. The fresco technique has been employed since antiquity and is closely associated with Italian Renaissance painting. The word ''fresco'' is commonly and inaccurately used in English to refer to any wall painting regardless of the plaster technology or binding medium. This, in part, contributes to a misconception that the most geographically and temporally common wall painting technology was the painting into wet lime plaster. Even in apparently '' buon fresco'' technology ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ludus (ancient Rome)
''Ludus'' (plural ''ludi'') in ancient Rome could refer to a primary school, a board game, or a gladiator training school. The various meanings of the Latin word are all within the semantic field of "play, game, sport, training" (see also ludic). An elementary or primary school or the school of the "litterator" attended by boys and girls up to the age of 11 was a ''ludus''. ''Ludi'' were to be found throughout the city, and were run by a '' ludi magister'' (schoolmaster) who was often an educated slave or freedman. School started around six o'clock each morning and finished just after midday. Students were taught math, reading, writing, poetry, geometry and sometimes rhetoric. The word ''ludus'' also referred to a training school for gladiators; see Gladiator: Schools and training. Examples include the Ludus Magnus and Ludus Dacicus. ''Ludus'' was also the word for a board game, examples of which include ''ludus latrunculorum'' and ''ludus duodecim scriptorum'', or a game ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ancient Campania
Ancient Campania (often also identified as Campania Felix or ager Campanus) originally indicated the territory of the ancient city of Capua in the Roman period, and later also the plains of the various neighbouring municipalities. It was a very large territory when compared with the other Italic cities of the Roman and pre-Roman period. Etymology According to the Roman philologist Sextus Pompeius Festus ( II century BC), the pre-Roman name of Campania was ''Oscor'', the name from which the Osci peoples who lived there (''Osci enim a Regione Campaniæ, quae est Oscor, vocati sunt.''). The toponym Campania, dating back to the fifth century BC, is of classical origin. The most accredited hypothesis is that it derives from the name of the ancient inhabitants of Capua. From Capuani, in fact, we would have Campani and, therefore, Campania; furthermore, both Livio and Polybius say of an ''Ager Campanus'' with a clear reference to Capua and the surrounding area. Geography Campania ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
