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Magister Equitum
The , in English Master of the Horse or Master of the Cavalry, was a Roman magistrate appointed as lieutenant to a dictator. His nominal function was to serve as commander of the Roman cavalry in time of war, but just as a dictator could be nominated to respond to other crises, so the ''magister equitum'' could operate independently of the cavalry; like the dictator, the appointment of a ''magister equitum'' served both military and political purposes.''Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities'', pp. 404–408 ("Dictator"). Origin In the time of the Roman Kingdom, the king himself would lead the cavalry into battle, or else delegate this authority to his chief advisor, the Tribune of the Celeres, the cavalry unit that also served as the king's personal bodyguard. The last person to hold this position was Lucius Junius Brutus, nephew of Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, the seventh and final King of Rome. After the rape of Lucretia, it was Brutus who, in his capacity as Tribu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roman Magistrate
The Roman magistrates () were elected officials in ancient Rome. During the period of the Roman Kingdom, the King of Rome was the principal executive magistrate.Abbott, 8 His power, in practice, was absolute. He was the chief priest, lawgiver, judge, and the sole commander of the army.Abbott, 8Abbott, 15 When the king died, his power reverted to the Roman Senate, which then chose an Interrex to facilitate the election of a new king. During the transition from the Roman Kingdom to Roman Republic, the constitutional balance of power shifted from the executive (the Roman king) to the Roman Senate. When the Roman Republic was founded in 509 BC, the powers that had been held by the king were transferred to the Roman consuls, of which two were to be elected each year. Magistrates of the republic were elected by the people of Rome, and were each vested with a degree of power called "major powers" (''maior potestas'').Abbott, 151 Dictators had more "major powers" than any other ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spurius Cassius Vecellinus
Spurius Cassius Vecellinus or Vicellinus (died 485 BC) was one of the most distinguished men of the early Roman Republic. He was three times consul, and celebrated two triumphs. He was the first ''magister equitum'', and the author of the first agrarian law. The year following his last consulship, he was accused of aiming at regal power, and was put to death by the patricians. Background His surname variously appears as Vecellinus, Vicellinus, and Viscellinus. The latter has been shown to be incorrect, and Vecellinus is usually preferred. The otherwise unattested name may be a reference to a Mount Vecilius mentioned by Livy. According to one tradition, Cassius' father was still living and hale at the time of his death. If this were the case, it would be difficult to place Cassius' birth much earlier than 540 or 535 BC. Cassius also left behind him three sons, whose names have not been preserved. It is believed that the original Cassii were patricians, although the later members o ... [...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] |
Marcus Junius Pera
Marcus Junius Pera (fl. 230216 BC) was a Roman politician before and during the Second Punic War. Career Pera served as one of the Consul, consuls for the year 230 BC; during his consulship, he – along with his colleague Marcus Aemilius Barbula – campaigned against local tribes in Liguria. He also was elected Roman censor, censor for 225 BC with Gaius Claudius Centho as his colleague. They conducted a census of the Roman population: Livy reports the number of citizens as 270,213. Dictatorship During Hannibal's invasion of Italy during the 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 ..., the Carthage, Carthaginian general all but wiped out an 85,000-strong Roman army at the Battle of Cannae in 216 BC. In doing so, one consul, Lucius Aemilius Paullus (c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roman Citizenship
Citizenship in ancient Rome () was a privileged political and legal status afforded to free individuals with respect to laws, property, and governance. Citizenship in ancient Rome was complex and based upon many different laws, traditions, and cultural practices. There existed several different types of citizenship, determined by one's gender, class, and political affiliations, and the exact duties or expectations of a citizen varied throughout the history of the Roman Empire. History The oldest document currently available that details the rights of citizenship is the Twelve Tables, ratified 449 BC. Much of the text of the Tables only exists in fragments, but during the time of Ancient Rome the Tables would be displayed in full in the Roman Forum for all to see. The Tables detail the rights of citizens in dealing with court proceedings, property, inheritance, death, and (in the case of women) public behavior. Under the Roman Republic, the government conducted a census every fi ... [...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] |
Tribuni Militum Consulari Potestate
A consular tribune was putatively a type of magistrate in the early Roman Republic. According to Roman tradition, colleges of consular tribunes held office throughout the fifth and fourth centuries BC during the so-called "Conflict of the Orders". The ancient historian Livy offered two explanations: the Roman state could have needed more magistrates to support its military endeavours; alternatively, the consular tribunate was offered in lieu of the ordinary consulship to plebeians so to maintain a patrician lock on the consulship. Modern views have challenged this account for various reasons. No consular tribune ever celebrated a triumph and appointment of military dictators was unabated through this period. Furthermore, the vast majority of consular tribunes elected were patrician. Some modern scholars believe the consular tribunes were elected to support Rome's expanded military presence in Italy or otherwise to command detachments and armies. More critical views believe t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pomerium
The ''pomerium'' or ''pomoerium'' was a religious boundary around the city of Rome and cities controlled by Rome. In legal terms, Rome existed only within its ''pomerium''; everything beyond it was simply territory ('' ager'') belonging to Rome. Etymology The term ''pōmērium'' is a classical contraction of the Latin phrase ' (). The Roman historian Livy writes in his ''Ab Urbe Condita'' that, although the etymology implies a meaning referring to a single side of the wall, the ''pomerium'' was originally an area of ground on both sides of city walls. He states that it was an Etruscan tradition to consecrate this area by augury and that it was technically unlawful to inhabit or to farm the area of the ''pomerium'', which in part had the purpose of preventing buildings from being erected close to the wall (although he writes that, in his time, houses were in fact built against the wall on the line). Other writers suggest a derivation from , "against the wall". Location and ex ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fasces
A fasces ( ; ; a , from the Latin word , meaning 'bundle'; ) is a bound bundle of wooden rods, often but not always including an axe (occasionally two axes) with its blade emerging. The fasces is an Italian symbol that had its origin in the Etruscan civilization and was passed on to ancient Rome, where it symbolized a King of Rome, Roman king's power to punish his subjects, and later, a magistrate's Power (social and political), power and jurisdiction. The axe has its own separate and older origin. Initially associated with the labrys (; ), the double-Axe#Parts of the axe, bitted axe originally from Crete, is one of the oldest symbols of Greek civilization. The image of fasces has survived in the modern world as a representation of magisterial power, law, and governance. The fasces frequently occurs as a Charge (heraldry), charge in heraldry: it is present on the reverse of the U.S. Mercury dime coin and behind the podium in the United States House of Representatives and in the Se ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 ''magistratus'' (magistrate), assigned to discharge various duties. The functions of the magistracy, the ''praetura'' (praetorship), are described by the adjective itself: the ''praetoria potestas'' (praetorian power), the ''praetorium imperium'' (praetorian authority), and the ''praetorium ius'' (praetorian law), the legal precedents established by the ''praetores'' (praetors). ''Praetorium'', as a substantive, denoted the location from which the praetor exercised his authority, either the headquarters of his ''castra'', the courthouse (tribunal) of his judiciary, or the city hall of his provincial governorship. The minimum age for holding the praetorship was 39 during the Roman Republic, but it was later changed to 30 in the early Empire. History of the title The status of the ''pra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lictor
A lictor (possibly from Latin language, Latin ''ligare'', meaning 'to bind') was a Ancient Rome, Roman civil servant who was an attendant and bodyguard to a Roman magistrate, magistrate who held ''imperium''. Roman records describe lictors as having existed since the Roman Kingdom, and may have originated with the Etruscan civilization, Etruscans. Origin The lictors are said in the ancient antiquarian sources to go back to the regal period. There are two main traditions. The first is from Dionysius of Halicarnassus. He claimed that Etruscan envoys numbering twelve (one for each Etruscan city) gifted the king Lucius Tarquinius Priscus fasces – symbolising military leadership of the twelve Etruscan communities – on his accession. With the approval of the Roman Senate, Senate, Tarquin then appointed twelve lictors to attend to him when exercising military and civil authority. The second is in Livy, which attributes the first lictors to the king Romulus. Livy also sides with an Et ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Curule Seat
A curule seat is a design of a (usually) foldable and transportable chair noted for its uses in Ancient Rome and Europe through to the 20th century. Its status in early Rome as a symbol of political or military power carried over to other civilizations, as it was also used in this capacity by kings in Europe, Napoleon, and others. History Ancient Rome In the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire, the curule chair (''sella curulis'', supposedly from ''currus'', "chariot") was the seat upon which magistrates holding ''imperium'' were entitled to sit. This includes Roman Dictator, dictators, ''Magister equitum, magistri equitum'', Roman consul, consuls, praetors, ''curule aediles'', and the promagistrates, temporary or ''de facto'' holders of such offices. Additionally, the Roman censor, censors and the flamen of Jupiter (god), Jupiter (Flamen Dialis) were also allowed to sit on a curule seat, though these positions did not hold ''imperium''. Titus Livius, Livy writes that the thr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
