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Quaestiones Perpetuae
A quaestio perpetua (also judicia publica) was a permanent jury court in the Roman Republic and early Roman Empire. The first was established by the ''lex Calpurnia de repetundis'' in 149 BC to try cases on corruption and extortion. More were established in following years to hear cases on various crimes, such as ''maiestas'' (treason), ''ambitus'' (electoral corruption), ''peculatus'' (theft of public funds), and ''vis'' (public violence). Unlike the older trials before a popular assembly, which had to be convoked for that purpose by a sitting magistrate, the courts were always open and any citizen could bring charges. From the formation of the ''quaestiones'' through to the ''lex Aurelia'' in 70 BC, the composition of the juries was a topic of constant political struggle. Initially, the juries were made up of senators; after the reforms of Gaius Sempronius Gracchus in 122 BC they were made up of equestrians; after the Constitutional reforms of Sulla, Sullan reform ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roman Republic
The Roman Republic ( ) was the era of Ancient Rome, classical Roman civilisation beginning with Overthrow of the Roman monarchy, the overthrow of the Roman Kingdom (traditionally dated to 509 BC) and ending in 27 BC with the establishment of the Roman Empire following the War of Actium. During this period, Rome's control expanded from the city's immediate surroundings to hegemony over the entire Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean world. Roman society at the time was primarily a cultural mix of Latins (Italic tribe), Latin and Etruscan civilization, Etruscan societies, as well as of Sabine, Oscan, and Greek cultural elements, which is especially visible in the Ancient Roman religion and List of Roman deities, its pantheon. Its political organisation developed at around the same time as direct democracy in Ancient Greece, with collective and annual magistracies, overseen by Roman Senate, a senate. There were annual elections, but the republican system was an elective olig ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Augustus
Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian (), was the founder of the Roman Empire, who reigned as the first Roman emperor from 27 BC until his death in AD 14. The reign of Augustus initiated an Roman imperial cult, imperial cult and an era of regional hegemony, imperial peace (the or ) in which the Roman world was largely free of armed conflict. The Principate system of government was established during his reign and lasted until the Crisis of the Third Century. Octavian was born into an equites, equestrian branch of the plebeian Octavia gens, Octavia. Following his maternal great-uncle Julius Caesar's assassination of Julius Caesar, assassination in 44 BC, Octavian was named in Caesar's will as his Adoption in ancient Rome, adopted son and heir, and inherited Caesar's name, estate, and the loyalty of his legions. He, Mark Antony, and Marcus Lepidus formed the Second Triumvirat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Equites Equo Publico
The ''equites equo publico'' ("equestrians with the public horse") was an ''ordo'', or status group, of elite citizens in the Roman Republic, and later the Roman Empire, who were provided money from the state treasury (12,000 ''asses'') to purchase and maintain a horse. During the republic there were only 1,800 of ''equites equo publico''; by the late republic, only men with property worth some 400,000 sesterces were enrolled. They differed in status from the ''equites equo suo'' ("equestrians with their own horse") who in the middle republic served in the cavalry and had a similar wealth qualification but were not enrolled in the prestigious equestrian centuries of the '' comitia centuriata'' and did not receive public subsidies. Prior to 129 BC, senators were also ''equites equo publico''; after legislation that came into effect that year, all senators were required to give up their public horses. Details ''Equites equo publico'' were men who met a proper qualification o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lucius Aurelius Cotta (consul 65 BC)
Lucius Aurelius Cotta was a Roman politician from an old noble family who held the offices of praetor (70 BC), consul (65 BC) and censor (64 BC). Both his father and grandfather of the same name had been consuls, and his two brothers, Gaius Aurelius Cotta and Marcus Aurelius Cotta, preceded him as consul in 75 and 74 BC respectively. His sister, Aurelia, was the mother of dictator, Julius Caesar. While praetor in 70 BC, he brought in a law for the reform of the jury lists, by which the judices were to be selected, not from the senators exclusively as limited by Sulla, but from senators, equites and ''tribuni aerarii''. One-third were to be senators, and two-thirds men of equestrian census, one-half of whom must have been tribuni aerarii, a body as to whose functions there is no certain evidence, although in Cicero's time they were reckoned by courtesy amongst the equites. In 66 BC, Cotta and Lucius Manlius Torquatus accused the consuls-elect, Publius Cornelius Sulla and P ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Verrines
"''In Verrem''" ("Against Verres") is a series of speeches made by Cicero in 70 BC, during the corruption and extortion trial of Gaius Verres, the former governor of Sicily. The speeches, which were concurrent with Cicero's election to the aedileship, paved the way for Cicero's public career. Background to the case During the civil war between the government and the outlaw Sulla (83–82 BC), Verres had been a junior officer in a Marian legion under Gaius Papirius Carbo. He saw the tides of the war shifting to Sulla, and so, Cicero alleged, went over to Sulla's lines bearing his legion's paychest. Afterwards, he was protected to a degree by Sulla, and allowed to indulge a skill for gubernatorial extortion in Cilicia under the province's governor, Gnaeus Cornelius Dolabella in 81 BC. By 73 BC he had been placed as governor of Sicily, one of the key grain-producing provinces of the Republic (Egypt at this time was still an independent Hellenistic kingdom). In Sicily, Verres wa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marcus Plautius Silvanus
The gens Plautia, sometimes written Plotia, was a plebeian family at ancient Rome. Members of this gens first appear in history in the middle of the fourth century BC, when Gaius Plautius Proculus obtained the consulship soon after that magistracy was opened to the plebeian order by the ''Licinio-Sextian rogations''. Little is heard of the Plautii from the period of the Samnite Wars down to the late second century BC, but from then to imperial times they regularly held the consulship and other offices of importance.''Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology'', vol. III, p. 405 ("Plautia Gens"). In the first century AD, the emperor Claudius, whose first wife was a member of this family, granted patrician status to one branch of the Plautii. Origin The Plautii of the later Republic claimed descent from Leucon, the son of Neptune and Themisto, the daughter of Hypseus, King of the Lapiths. The coins minted by Publius Plautius Hypsaeus depict Neptune and Leucon. Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Social War (91–87 BC)
The Social War (from Latin , "war of the allies"), also called the Italian War or the Marsic War, was fought largely from 91 to 88 BC between the Roman Republic and several of its autonomous allies () in Roman Italy, Italy. Some of the allies held out until 87 BC. The war started in late 91 BC, with the rebellion of Ascoli Piceno, Asculum. Other Italian towns quickly declared for the rebels and the Roman response was initially confused. By the new year, the Romans had levied huge armies to crush the rebels but found initial headway difficult; by the end of the year, however, they were able to cut the Italian rebels into two, isolating them into northern and southern sectors. The Italian rebels attempted to invade Etruria and Umbria at the start of 89 BC but were defeated. In the south, they were defeated by Lucius Cornelius Sulla, who for his victories would win a consulship the next year. The Romans retained the initiative and by 88 BC, the conflict ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marcus Livius Drusus (reformer)
Marcus Livius Drusus (before 122 BC – 91 BC) was a Roman politician and reformer. He is most famous for his legislative programme during his term as tribune of the plebs in 91 BC. During his year in office, Drusus proposed wide-ranging legislative reforms, including offering citizenship to Rome's Italian allies. The failure of these reforms, and Drusus' subsequent murder at the hands of an unknown assassin in late 91 BC, are often seen as an immediate cause of the Social War. Early life Marcus Livius Drusus was born before 122 or 124 BC. He was the son of Cornelia (precise identity unknown) and the Marcus Livius Drusus who had served as tribune in 122 BC, consul in 112 BC, and censor in 109 BC. His father died in office during his censorship in 109. If the younger Marcus was the eldest son, he would now have become the ''pater familias'' of the Drusi and the provider for his two siblings, Mamercus and Livia. However, certain scholars belie ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gaius Servilius Glaucia
Gaius Servilius Glaucia (died late 100 BC) was a Roman politician who served as praetor in 100 BC. He is most well known for being an illegal candidate for the consulship of 99 BC. He was killed during riots and political violence in the year 100 BC while pursuing consular candidacy. Career Glaucia was descended from consular ancestors, making him one of the ''nobiles''. His public career started with his holding the quaestorship some time before 109 BC. In the year 104 or 101 BC ( T. R. S. Broughton, in ''Magistrates of the Roman Republic'', expresses both years as possibilities but prefers 101 BC; Ernst Badian asserts 101 BC), Glaucia served as plebeian tribune. His tribunate regardless, was held one year before that of Lucius Appuleius Saturninus, though the specifics cannot be easily pinned down due to a lack of clarity in Appian's account. During his tribunate, he passed legislation transferring the jury pool in the permanent court o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Quintus Servilius Caepio (consul 106 BC)
Quintus Servilius Caepio was a Roman statesman and general, consul in 106 BC, and proconsul of Cisalpine Gaul in 105 BC. He was the father of Quintus Servilius Caepio and the grandfather of Servilia. Consulship and Arausio During his consulship in 106 BC, he passed a controversial law, with the help of the famous orator Lucius Licinius Crassus, by which the jurymen were again to be chosen from the senators instead of the equites. However, it appears this law was overturned by a law of Gaius Servilius Glaucia in either 104 or 101 BC. After his consulship, he was assigned to Gaul, where he captured the town of Tolosa, ancient Toulouse. There, he found some 50 thousand bars of gold and 10 thousand bars of silver which were legendarily stolen from the temple of Delphi by the Scordisci in the Gallic invasion of the Balkans in 279 BC. The riches of Tolosa were shipped back to Rome, but only the silver arrived; the gold was stolen by a band of marauders, rumoured to have been hired ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Caesar's Civil War
Caesar's civil war (49–45 BC) was a civil war during the late Roman Republic between two factions led by Julius Caesar and Pompey. The main cause of the war was political tensions relating to Caesar's place in the Republic on his expected return to Rome on the expiration of his Lex Vatinia, governorship in Roman Gaul, Gaul. Before the war, Caesar had led an Gallic Wars, invasion of Gaul for almost ten years. A build-up of tensions starting in late 50 BC, with both Caesar and Pompey refusing to back down, led to the outbreak of civil war. Pompey and his allies induced the Roman Senate, Senate to demand Caesar give up his provinces and armies in the opening days of 49 BC. Caesar refused and instead Crossing the Rubicon, marched on Rome. The war was fought in Italy, Illyria, Greece in the Roman era, Greece, Ptolemaic Egypt, Egypt, Africa (Roman province), Africa, and Hispania. The decisive events occurred in Greece in 48 BC: Pompey defeated Caesar at the Battle of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Patronage In Ancient Rome
Patronage (''clientela'') was the distinctive relationship in Social class in ancient Rome, ancient Roman society between the ''patronus'' ('patron') and their ''cliens'' ('client'). Apart from the patron-client relationship between individuals, there were also client kingdoms and tribes, whose rulers were in a subordinate relationship to the Roman state. The relationship was hierarchical, but obligations were mutual. The patron was the protector, sponsor, and benefactor of the client; the technical term for this protection was ''patrocinium''. Although typically the client was of inferior social class, a patron and client might even hold the same social rank, but the former would possess greater wealth, power, or prestige that enabled him to help or do favors for the client. From the emperor at the top to the commoner at the bottom, the bonds between these groups found formal expression in legal definition of patrons' responsibilities to clients. Patronage relationships were n ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
