|
Tarpeia Gens
The gens Tarpeia was a minor patrician family at ancient Rome. Only a few members of this gens are known, and the Tarpeii vanish from history after the early Republic. The Tarpeian Rock, a promontory on the Capitoline Hill, from which those condemned for treason were thrown to their deaths, is said to have been named after Tarpeia, the archetype of all Roman traitors. There seems to have been a senatorial family of this name in imperial times. Origin The nomen ''Tarpeius'' belongs to a common class of gentilicia formed using the suffix ''-eius''. Such names are typical of Sabine gentes, perhaps explaining the association of the Tarpeii with the war of Romulus against the Sabines at the beginning of Roman history. Branches and cognomina The only cognomina associated with the Tarpeii of the Republic are ''Montanus'' and ''Capitolinus'', both of which belong to a class of surnames derived from the names of places, in this case both probably referring to the original residence o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Patrician (ancient Rome)
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 Roman Republic, Republic, but its relevance waned after the Conflict of the Orders (494 BC to 287 BC). By the time of the late Republic and Roman Empire, 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 Roman Empire, Western Empire fell, the term "patrician" continued as a high Byzantine aristocracy and bureaucracy, honorary title in the Eastern Empire. In many Italian city-states, medieval Italian republics, especially in Republic of V ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arm Ring
An arm ring, also known as an armlet or an armband, is a band of metal, usually a precious metal, worn as jewelry or an ornament around the biceps of the upper arm. The arm ring is similar to a bracelet or bangle, though it must be shaped and sized to fit snugly to the upper arm. Often, when the word ''"ring"'' occurs in Bronze-Age heroic literature it refers to an arm ring, rather than a finger ring. Within the context of the Scandinavian Bronze Age, archeological digs of graves suggest that arm rings were most commonly worn by men. Arm rings have also been found in Britain and Ireland, with artifacts dating from the Bronze Age till the Viking Age. Archeological discoveries of Bronze Age arm rings in Denmark suggest they were common Votive offerings during that period, found purposefully deposited in bodies of water or buried near large stones, hills, or barrows. It is believed that arm rings may have been bestowed as gifts by powerful lords to secure or maintain bonds ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lex Trebonia (448 BC)
The ''Lex Trebonia'' was a law passed in 448 BC to forbid the tribunes of the plebs from co-opting colleagues to fill vacant positions. Its purpose was to prevent the patricians from pressuring the tribunes to appoint colleagues sympathetic to or chosen from the aristocracy. In 451 BC, Rome's traditional consular government was replaced by a committee of ten senior statesmen, known as the decemvirs, who were tasked with drawing up the complete body of Roman law, based on existing law and tradition, as well as on Greek models reported by a group of Roman envoys who had been sent to study Greek law. Their efforts resulted in the first ten tables of Roman law, but the work was incomplete, and so a second college of decemvirs was appointed for the following year. Appius Claudius Crassus, who had been consul-elect before the decemvirate, was the only member of the first college to participate in the second, and he ensured that his colleagues for the second year were like-minded a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tribune Of The Plebs
Tribune of the plebs, tribune of the people or plebeian tribune () was the first office of the Roman Republic, Roman state that was open to the plebs, plebeians, and was, throughout the history of the Republic, the most important check on the power of the Roman Senate and Roman magistrate, magistrates. These tribunes had the power to convene and preside over the ''Plebeian Council, Concilium Plebis'' (people's assembly); to summon the senate; to propose legislation; and to intervene on behalf of plebeians in legal matters; but the most significant power was to veto the actions of the Roman consul, consuls and other magistrates, thus protecting the interests of the plebeians as a class. The tribunes of the plebs were typically found seated on Tribune bench, special benches set up for them in the Roman Forum. The tribunes were sacrosanct, meaning that any assault on their person was punishable by death. In Roman Empire, imperial times, the powers of the tribunate were granted to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Decemviri
The decemviri or decemvirs (Latin for "ten men") refer to official ten-man commissions established by the Roman Republic. The most important were those of the two decemvirates, formally the decemvirate with consular power for writing laws () who reformed and codified Roman law during the Conflict of the Orders between ancient Rome's patrician aristocracy and plebeian commoners. Other decemviri include the decemviri for adjudging litigation ('), the decemviri for making sacrifices ('), and the decemviri for the assignment and giving of arable lands ('). ''Decemviri consulari imperio legibus scribundis'' Background Gaius Terentilius Harsa, a plebeian tribune, wished to protect the plebeian population by curtailing the power of the Roman consuls. To do this, he proposed a law in 462 BC which provided for a five-man commission to define their power. The patricians were opposed to this curtailment and managed to postpone the debate on this law for eight years. In 454 BC ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Plebs
In ancient Rome, the plebeians or plebs were the general body of free Roman citizens who were not patricians, as determined by the 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 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, 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 immigrating from other parts of Italy. This hypothesis, that plebeians were raci ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lex Aternia Tarpeia
The ''lex Aternia Tarpeia'' was a Roman law, introduced by the consuls Aulus Aternius Varus and Spurius Tarpeius Montanus Capitolinus in 454 BC, and passed during their year of office. The law concerned the regulation of payments for fines and penalties.''Cambridge Ancient History'', vol. VII, part 2, p. 123. Background The law was promulgated against a background of tensions between the plebeian and patrician orders. The year after their successful campaign against the Aequi, the consuls Titus Romilius Rocus Vaticanus and Gaius Veturius Cicurinus were prosecuted by Gaius Calvius Cicero, one of the tribunes of the plebs, on the grounds that the soldiers had been deprived of their spoils. Romilius was fined 10,000 ''asses'', and Veturius 15,000. The ''lex Aternia Tarpeia'' was introduced in order to regulate such fines. Provisions The law drew upon Athenian precedent, as Solon's laws allowed fines levied in livestock to be transmuted into coinage. After the prosecution of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aulus Aternius Varus
} Aulus Aternius Varus Fontinalis ( 454–449 BC, sometimes called Aterius) was consul in 454 BC, with Spurius Tarpeius Montanus Capitolinus. The consuls of the previous year, Titus Romilius and Gaius Veturius Cicurinus had defeated the Aequi at Mount Algidus, but were now prosecuted for having sold the captured material and equipment in order to replenish the treasury, without having received the approval of the troops, who would otherwise have been entitled to a share of the proceeds. The former consuls were tried and fined for their misappropriation. This occurrence appears to have led to the passage of the ''lex Aternia Tarpeia'', regulating the payment of fines, and fixing the maximum fine which magistrates could impose. Aternius and Tarpeius also maintained the opposition of the Senate and the patricians to a law passed two years earlier by the tribunes of the plebs, opening the Aventine Hill to settlement. With the two orders deadlocked, an agreement was forged to appo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
King Of Rome
The king of Rome () was the ruler of the Roman Kingdom, a legendary period of Roman history that functioned as an elective monarchy. According to legend, the first king of Rome was Romulus, who founded the city in 753 BC upon the Palatine Hill. Seven legendary kings are said to have ruled Rome until 509 BC, when the last king was overthrown. These kings ruled for an average of 35 years. The kings after Romulus were not known to be dynasts and no reference is made to the hereditary principle until after the fifth king Tarquinius Priscus. Consequently, some have assumed that the Tarquins' attempt to institute a hereditary monarchy over this conjectured earlier elective monarchy resulted in the formation of the Republic. Overview Early Rome was ruled by the king (''rex''). The king possessed absolute power over the people; no one could rule over him. The Senate was a weak oligarchy, capable of exercising only minor administrative powers, so that Rome was ruled by its king w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Numa Pompilius
Numa Pompilius (; 753–672 BC; reigned 715–672 BC) was the Roman mythology, legendary second king of Rome, succeeding Romulus after a one-year interregnum. He was of Sabine origin, and many of Rome's most important religious and political institutions are attributed to him, such as the Roman calendar, Vestal Virgins, the cult of Mars, the cult of Jupiter, the cult of Romulus, and the office of ''pontifex maximus''. Genealogy According to Plutarch, Numa was the youngest of Pomponius's four sons, born on the day of Rome's founding (traditionally, 21 April 753 BC). He lived a severe life of discipline and banished all luxury from his home. Titus Tatius, king of the Sabines and a colleague of Romulus, gave in marriage his only daughter, Tatia (wife of Numa Pompilius), Tatia, to Numa. After 13 years of marriage, Tatia died, precipitating Numa's retirement to the countryside. According to Livy, Numa resided at Cures, Sabinum, Cures immediately before being elected king.Livy, ''Ab u ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vestal Virgins
In Religion in ancient Rome, ancient Rome, the Vestal Virgins or Vestals (, singular ) were Glossary of ancient Roman religion#sacerdos, priestesses of Vesta (mythology), Vesta, virgin goddess of Rome's sacred hearth and its flame. The Vestals were unlike any other public priesthood. They were chosen before puberty from several suitable candidates, freed from any legal ties and obligations to their birth family, and enrolled in Vesta's priestly Collegium (ancient Rome), college of six priestesses. They were supervised by a senior vestal but chosen and governed by Rome's leading male priest, the -- in the Imperial era, this meant the emperor. Vesta's acolytes vowed to serve her for at least thirty years, study and practise her rites in service of the Roman State, and maintain their chastity throughout. In addition to their obligations on behalf of Rome, Vestals had extraordinary rights and privileges, some of which were granted to no others, male or female. The Vestals took tu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Livy
Titus Livius (; 59 BC – AD 17), known in English as Livy ( ), was a Roman historian. He wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people, titled , covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome before the traditional founding in 753 BC through the reign of Augustus in Livy's own lifetime. He was on good terms with members of the Julio-Claudian dynasty and was a friend of Augustus. Livy encouraged Augustus’s young grandnephew, the future emperor Claudius, to take up the writing of history. Life Livy was born in Patavium in northern Italy, now modern Padua, probably in 59 BC. At the time of his birth, his home city of Patavium was the second wealthiest on the Italian peninsula, and the largest in the province of Cisalpine Gaul (northern Italy). Cisalpine Gaul was merged into Italy proper during his lifetime and its inhabitants were given Roman citizenship by Julius Caesar. In his works, Livy often expressed his deep affection and pride for Patavium, and the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
