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Titus Quinctius Flamininus
Titus Quinctius Flamininus (229 – 174 BC) was a Roman politician and general instrumental in the Roman conquest of Greece. Family background Flamininus belonged to the minor patrician ''gens'' Quinctia. The family had a glorious place in the early history of Rome, especially the famous hero Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus, but it had somewhat lost its political influence by the middle of the fourth century BC. Flamininus' great grandfather Caeso Quinctius Claudus was still consul in 271, the last time a Quinctius is recorded as holding a curule office before 209. Lucius Quinctius, his grandfather, was '' flamen Dialis'' — the great priest of Jupiter — during the third quarter of the third century. The cognomen Flamininus borne by his descendants derives from this prestigious priesthood. Flamininus' great grandson later put an '' apex'', the head covering of the Flamen, as a symbol of his family on a denarius he minted. Flamininus' father — also named Titus — is n ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stater
The stater (; ) was an ancient coin used in various regions of Greece. The term is also used for similar coins, imitating Greek staters, minted elsewhere in ancient Europe. History The stater, as a Greek silver currency, first as ingots, and later as coins, circulated from the 8th century BC to AD 50. The earliest known stamped stater (having the mark of some authority in the form of a picture or words) is an electrum turtle coin, struck at Aegina that dates to about 650 BC. It is on display at the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. According to Robin Lane Fox, the stater as a weight unit was borrowed by the Euboean stater weighing from the Phoenician shekel, which had about the same weight as a stater () and was also one fiftieth of a mina.Lane Fox, Robin. ''Travelling Heroes: Greeks and Their Myths in the Epic Age of Homer''. P. 94. London: Allen Lane, 2008. The silver stater minted at CorinthSmith, William. ''A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquitie ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Apex (headdress)
The apex (plural: ''apices'') was a cap worn by certain priests (the flamines and Salii) in ancient Rome. The essential part of the apex, to which alone the name properly belonged, was a pointed piece of olive-wood called diminutively an ''apicula'', the base of which was surrounded with a lock of wool. This was worn on the top of the head, and was held there either by fillets only, or, as was more commonly the case, was also fastened by means of two strings or bands, or ''offendices'', though the latter word is also interpreted to mean a kind of button, by which the strings were fastened under the chin. The flamines were forbidden by law to go into public - or even into the open air - without the apex, and hence we find the expression of ''alicui apicem dialem imponere'' used as equivalent to the appointment of a ''Flamen Dialis''. Sulpicius was deprived of the priesthood, only because the apex fell from his head whilst he was sacrificing. Dionysius of Halicarnassus desc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Second Punic War
The Second Punic War (218 to 201 BC) was the second of Punic Wars, three wars fought between Ancient Carthage, Carthage and Roman Republic, Rome, the two main powers of the western Mediterranean Basin, Mediterranean in the 3rd century BC. For 17 years the two states struggled for supremacy, primarily in Roman Italy, Italy and Iberia, but also on the islands of Sicily and Sardinia and, towards the end of the war, in North Africa. After immense materiel and human losses on both sides, the Carthaginians were once again defeated. Macedonia (ancient kingdom), Macedonia, Kingdom of Syracuse, Syracuse and several Numidians, Numidian kingdoms were drawn into the fighting, and Celtiberians, Iberian and Gauls, Gallic forces fought on both sides. There were three main Theater (military), military theatres during the war: Italy, where Hannibal defeated the Roman legions repeatedly, with occasional subsidiary campaigns in Sicily, Sardinia and Greece; Iberia, where Hasdrubal (Barcid), Hasdru ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cursus Honorum
The , or more colloquially 'ladder of offices'; ) was the sequential order of public offices held by aspiring politicians in the Roman Republic and the early Roman Empire. It was designed for men of senatorial rank. The comprised a mixture of military and political administration posts; the ultimate prize for winning election to each "rung" in the sequence was to become one of the two consuls in a given year. These rules were altered and flagrantly ignored in the course of the last century of the Republic. For example, Gaius Marius held consulships for five years in a row between 104 and 100 BC. He was consul seven times in all, also serving in 107 and 86. Officially presented as opportunities for public service, the offices often became mere opportunities for self-aggrandizement. The constitutional reforms of Sulla between 82 and 79 BC required a ten-year interval before holding the same office again for another term. To have held each office at the youngest pos ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus
Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus (), surnamed Cunctator ( 280 – 203 BC), was a Roman statesman and general of the third century BC. He was Roman consul, consul five times (233, 228, 215, 214, and 209 BC) and was appointed Roman dictator, dictator in 221 and 217 BC. He was Roman censor, censor in 230 BC. His agnomen, ''Cunctator'', usually translated as "the delayer", refers to Fabian strategy, the strategy that he employed against Hannibal's forces during the Second Punic War. Facing an outstanding commander with superior numbers, he pursued a then-novel strategy of targeting the enemy's supply lines, and accepting only smaller engagements on favourable ground, rather than risking his entire army on direct confrontation with Hannibal himself. As a result, he is regarded as the originator of many tactics used in guerrilla warfare. Beginnings Born at Rome c. 280 BC, Fabius was a descendant of the ancient Patrician (ancient Rome), patrician Fabia gens. He was the son or grands ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Princeps Senatus
The ''princeps senatus'' ( ''principes senatus''), in English the leader of the senate, was the first member by precedence on the membership rolls of the Roman Senate. Although officially out of the ''cursus honorum'' and possessing no ''imperium'', this office conferred prestige on the senator holding it. The position was created in the first half of the third century BC and retained its prominence for two centuries. The ''principes'' were often the most famous Roman politicians of the period, such Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, Scipio Africanus, and Marcus Aemilius Scaurus. It lost its importance after the reforms of the dictator Sulla in 82–80 BC, but might have been temporarily restored for Cicero, its possible last incumbent during the struggle between Mark Antony and the Senate in 43 BC. The Roman emperors merged the ''princeps senatus''' prerogatives with their own, although there are occasional mentions of distinctive principes during the later Empire. History The ''p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marcus Fabius Buteo
Marcus Fabius Buteo (died around 210-209 BC) was a Roman politician during the 3rd century BC. He served as consul in 245 BC, and as censor, and in 216 BC, being the oldest living ex-censor, he was appointed dictator, ''legendo senatui'', for the purpose of filling vacancies in the senate after the Battle of Cannae. He was appointed by the consul Varro, and, with M. Junius Pera, he was the only dictator to serve a simultaneous term with another. He resigned from the post immediately after he revised the censors' lists and enrolled the new Senate members. By 210 BC to 209 BC, the censor Tuditanus among possible candidates for Princeps Senatus chose instead his kinsman Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus. It is thought that Buteo would have earned this honor if he had been alive to accept it. References * 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 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Polybius
Polybius (; , ; ) was a Greek historian of the middle Hellenistic period. He is noted for his work , a universal history documenting the rise of Rome in the Mediterranean in the third and second centuries BC. It covered the period of 264–146 BC, recording in detail events in Italy, Iberia, Greece, Macedonia, Syria, Egypt and Africa, and documented the Punic Wars and Macedonian Wars among many others. Polybius' ''Histories'' is important not only for being the only Hellenistic historical work to survive in any substantial form, but also for its analysis of constitutional change and the mixed constitution. Polybius' discussion of the separation of powers in government, of checks and balances to limit power, and his introduction of "the people", all influenced Montesquieu's '' The Spirit of the Laws'', John Locke's '' Two Treatises of Government'', and the framers of the United States Constitution. The leading expert on Polybius for nearly a century was F. W. Walbank (1909 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Caeso (praenomen)
Caeso (), feminine Caesula (also spelled Cesula, Caesulla, Caesilla or Caesillia) is a Latin ''praenomen'', or given name, personal name. Although never a common name, Caeso was regularly used by a number of prominent families, both patrician and plebeian, during the period of the Roman Republic. The name also gave rise to the patronymic Caesonia gens, gens Caesonia. The common abbreviation K. arose from an older spelling, Kaeso, dating from the period when the letter K was still frequently used before the vowel A in Latin, and before the letters C and G were differentiated.''Dictionary of Greek & Roman Biography & Mythology'' The praenomen Caeso was regularly used by the patrician gentes Fabia gens, Fabia and Quinctia gens, Quinctia during the 1st centuries of the Republic, and also by the plebeian gentes Atilia gens, Atilia and Duilia gens, Duilia (both of which may originally have been patrician). It is also found in the gentes Acilia gens, Acilia, Fabricia gens, Fabricia, and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Praenomen
The praenomen (; plural: praenomina) was a first name chosen by the parents of a Ancient Rome, Roman child. It was first bestowed on the ''dies lustricus'' (day of lustration), the eighth day after the birth of a girl, or the ninth day after the birth of a boy. The praenomen would then be formally conferred a second time when girls married, or when boys assumed the ''toga virilis'' upon reaching manhood. Although it was the oldest of the ''tria nomina'' commonly used in Roman naming conventions, by the late republic, most praenomina were so common that most people were called by their praenomina only by family or close friends. For this reason, although they continued to be used, praenomina gradually disappeared from public records during imperial times. Although both men and women received praenomina, women's praenomina were frequently ignored, and they were gradually abandoned by many Roman families, though they continued to be used in some families and in the countryside. Backg ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fabia Gens
The gens Fabia was one of the most ancient patrician families at ancient Rome. The gens played a prominent part in history soon after the establishment of the Republic, and three brothers were invested with seven successive consulships, from 485 to 479 BC, thereby cementing the high repute of the family. Overall, the Fabii received 45 consulships during the Republic. The house derived its greatest lustre from the patriotic courage and tragic fate of the 306 Fabii in the Battle of the Cremera, 477 BC. But the Fabii were not distinguished as warriors alone; several members of the gens were also important in the history of Roman literature and the arts.''Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology'', vol. II, p. 131 (" Fabia Gens").Homo, pp. 7 ''ff''.Smith, ''The Roman Clan'', pp. 290 ''ff''. Background The family is generally thought to have been counted amongst the , the most prominent of the patrician houses at Rome, together with the Aemilii, Claudii, Corne ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Augur
An augur was a priest and official in the ancient Rome, classical Roman world. His main role was the practice of augury, the interpretation of the will of the List of Roman deities, gods by studying events he observed within a predetermined sacred space (''templum''). The ''templum'' corresponded to the heavenly space above. The augur's decisions were based on what he personally saw or heard from within the ''templum''; they included thunder, lightning and any accidental signs such as falling objects, but in particular, birdsigns; whether the birds he saw flew in groups or alone, what noises they made as they flew, the direction of flight, what kind of birds they were, how many there were, or how they fed. This practice was known as "''taking the auspices''". As circumstance did not always favour the convenient appearance of wild birds or weather phenomena, domesticated chickens kept for the purpose were sometimes released into the templum, where their behaviour, particularly h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
