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Gaius Memmius (poet)
Gaius Memmius (c.99-c.49 BC, incorrectly called Gemellus, "The Twin") was a Roman politician, orator and poet. He is most famous as the dedicatee of Lucretius' '' De Rerum Natura'', and for his appearances in the poetry of Catullus. Life and career Memmius was born around 99 BC, a member of the prominent plebeian '' gens Memmia''. His father was Lucius Memmius, possibly the same Lucius Memmius who served as ''triumvir monetalis'' in 109 BC. Memmius first appears in the historical record as a Tribune of the Plebs for 66 BC, in which role he prosecuted Marcus Lucullus for his actions as quaestor under the rule of Sulla. More significantly, as Pompey the Great assumed command of the Roman armies in the Third Mithridatic War in the same year, Memmius led the opposition to Marcus Lucullus' brother, Lucius Licinus Lucullus, whom Pompey had replaced. Memmius, an ally of Pompey's both politically and through family connections, charged Lucullus with embezzlement and needlessly prot ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fausta Cornelia
Fausta Cornelia (also called Cornelia Fausta) was a daughter of the Roman Dictator Sulla. Biography Early life Fausta and her twin brother Faustus were the children of their father's fourth wife Caecilia Metella. They had one older half-sister, Cornelia, and a younger half-sister named Cornelia Postuma. She and her brother were both raised by their father's good friend Lucullus. Marriages Several men were interested in marrying Fausta, among them Quintus Pompeius Macula, a friend of Cicero who had an intense rivalry with a Fulvius for her hand, but she ultimately married the poet Gaius Memmius. They had one son together, also named Gaius Memmius. The marriage with Memmius went sour as he started to develop a disdain for her former guardian Lucullus and his family, in the end it was Fausta who paid the price as he divorced her soon after. After this she went on to marry Titus Annius Milo. She possibly cheated on Milo, as the historian Sallust was prosecuted for adultery with ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lex Curiata De Imperio
In the constitution of ancient Rome, the ''lex curiata de imperio'' (plural ''leges curiatae'') was the law confirming the rights of higher magistrates to hold power, or ''imperium''. In theory, it was passed by the ''comitia curiata'', which was also the source for ''leges curiatae'' pertaining to Roman adoption. In the late Republic, historians and political theorists thought that the necessity of such a law dated to the Regal period, when kings after Romulus had to submit to ratification by the Roman people. Like many other aspects of Roman religion and law, the ''lex curiata'' was attributed to Numa Pompilius, Rome's second king. This origin seems to have been reconstructed after the fact to explain why the law was required, at a time when the original intent of the ceremony conferring ''imperium'' was no longer understood. The last two kings, however, were said to have ruled without such ratification, which at any rate may have been more loosely acclamation. The law wa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Epicurus
Epicurus (; grc-gre, Ἐπίκουρος ; 341–270 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher and sage who founded Epicureanism, a highly influential school of philosophy. He was born on the Greek island of Samos to Athenian parents. Influenced by Democritus, Aristippus, Pyrrho, and possibly the Cynics, he turned against the Platonism of his day and established his own school, known as "the Garden", in Athens. Epicurus and his followers were known for eating simple meals and discussing a wide range of philosophical subjects. He openly allowed women and slaves to join the school as a matter of policy. Of the over 300 works said to have been written by Epicurus about various subjects, the vast majority have been destroyed. Only three letters written by him—the letters to ''Menoeceus'', ''Pythocles'', and ''Herodotus''—and two collections of quotes—the ''Principal Doctrines'' and the ''Vatican Sayings''—have survived intact, along with a few fragments of his other writing ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Athens
Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates and is the capital of the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, with its recorded history spanning over 3,400 years and its earliest human presence beginning somewhere between the 11th and 7th millennia BC. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state. It was a centre for the arts, learning and philosophy, and the home of Plato's Academy and Aristotle's Lyceum. It is widely referred to as the cradle of Western civilization and the birthplace of democracy, largely because of its cultural and political influence on the European continent—particularly Ancient Rome. In modern times, Athens is a large cosmopolitan metropolis and central to economic, financial, industrial, maritime, political and cultural life in Gre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius Scipio
Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius Scipio (c. 95 – 46 BC), often referred to as Metellus Scipio, was a Roman senator and military commander. During the civil war between Julius Caesar and the senatorial faction led by Pompey, he was a staunch supporter of the latter. He led troops against Caesar's forces, mainly in the battles of Pharsalus and Thapsus, where he was defeated. He later committed suicide. Ronald Syme called him "the last Scipio of any consequence in Roman history." Family connections and name The son of Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica, praetor about 95 BC, and Licinia, Scipio was the grandson of Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica, consul in 111, and Lucius Licinius Crassus, consul in 95. His great-grandfather was Scipio Nasica Serapio, the man who murdered Tiberius Gracchus in 133 BC. Through his mother Cornelia, Serapio was also the grandson of Scipio Africanus. Scipio's father died not long after his praetorship, and was survived by two sons and two daughters. The bro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lex Pompeia De Ambitu
The ''Lex Pompeia de ambitu'' was a law of the Roman Republic, passed in 52 BCE, aimed at prosecuting bribery and corruption in elections. It was proposed and enacted by Pompey the Great, who used it to prosecute and exile his political enemies. Background Roman politics in the 60s and 50s BCE were characterised by political gridlock, mob violence and the dominance of a series of military strongmen, as well as growing strain on the Republic's institutional and constitutional systems. Since approximately 59 BCE, the state had been dominated by the unsteady alliance of three dominant figures, Julius Caesar, Marcus Licinius Crassus and Pompey. During 53 BCE, the sense of crisis grew. The new consul for that year, Appius Claudius Pulcher, previously an ally of the triumvirs, launched a prosecution against Marcus Aemilius Scaurus, an ally of Pompey's and candidate for the consulship of 53 BCE. Further prosecutions of the triumvirs' allies follows, led by allies of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gnaeus Domitius Calvinus
Gnaeus Domitius Calvinus was a Roman general, senator and consul (both in 53 BC and 40 BC) who was a loyal partisan of Caesar and Octavianus. Biography Domitius Calvinus came from a noble family and was elected consul for 53 BC, despite a notorious electoral scandal. He was on Caesar's side during the Civil War with Pompey. During the campaign in Greece, Caesar sent Domitius with two legions to intercept Metellus Scipio who was bringing the Syrian legions to Pompey. At the decisive Battle of Pharsalus he commanded the centre of Caesar's army. After the battle he became governor of Asia. He tried to oppose the invasion of Pharnaces, the king of Bosphorus, who had taken the occasion of the Roman civil war to invade the province of Pontus; however, he suffered a crushing defeat at the Battle of Nicopolis in Armenia (December of 48 BC). Direct intervention by Caesar brought a quick end to the conflict, and Pharnaces' army was annihilated at Zela in 47 BC. Despite this failure, h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Appius Claudius Pulcher (consul 54 BC)
Appius Claudius Pulcher (97 – 49 BC) was a Roman patrician, politician and general in the first century BC. He was consul of the Roman Republic in 54 BC. He was an expert in Roman law and antiquities, especially the esoteric lore of the augural college of which he was a controversial member. He was head of the senior line of the most powerful family of the patrician Claudii. The Claudii were one of the five leading families (''gentes maiores'' or "Greater Clans") which had dominated Roman social and political life from the earliest years of the republic. He is best known as the recipient of 13 of the extant letters in Cicero's ''ad Familiares'' corpus (the whole of book III), which date from winter 53–52 to summer 50 BC. Regrettably they do not include any of Appius' replies to Cicero as extant texts of any sort by members of Rome's ruling aristocracy are quite rare, apart from those of Julius Caesar. He is also well known for being the older brother of the infamous Clodius and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pompey
Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (; 29 September 106 BC – 28 September 48 BC), known in English as Pompey or Pompey the Great, was a leading Roman general and statesman. He played a significant role in the transformation of Rome from republic to empire. He was (for a time) a student of Roman general Sulla as well as the political ally, and later enemy, of Julius Caesar. A member of the senatorial nobility, Pompey entered into a military career while still young. He rose to prominence serving the dictator Sulla as a commander in the civil war of 83–82 BC. Pompey's success as a general while young enabled him to advance directly to his first Roman consulship without following the traditional '' cursus honorum'' (the required steps to advance in a political career). He was elected as Roman consul on three occasions. He celebrated three Roman triumphs, served as a commander in the Sertorian War, the Third Servile War, the Third Mithridatic War, and in va ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Imperator
The Latin word ''imperator'' derives from the stem of the verb la, imperare, label=none, meaning 'to order, to command'. It was originally employed as a title roughly equivalent to ''commander'' under the Roman Republic. Later it became a part of the titulature of the Roman Emperors as part of their cognomen. The English word ''emperor'' derives from ''imperator'' via fro, Empereür. The Roman emperors themselves generally based their authority on multiple titles and positions, rather than preferring any single title. Nevertheless, ''imperator'' was used relatively consistently as an element of a Roman ruler's title throughout the Principate and the Dominate. ''Imperatores'' in the ancient Roman Kingdom When Rome was ruled by kings, to be able to rule, the king had to be invested with the full regal authority and power. So, after the comitia curiata, held to elect the king, the king also had to be conferred the imperium. ''Imperatores'' in the Roman Republic In Roman Repub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Helvius Cinna
Gaius Helvius Cinna (died 20 March 44 BC) was an influential neoteric poet of the late Roman Republic, a little older than the generation of Catullus and Calvus. He was lynched at the funeral of Julius Caesar after being mistaken for an unrelated Cornelius Cinna who had spoken out in support of the dictator's assassins. Overview Cinna's literary fame was established by his magnum opus "Zmyrna", a mythological epic poem focused on the incestuous love of Smyrna (or Myrrha) for her father Cinyras, treated after the erudite and allusive manner of the Alexandrian poets. He was a friend of Catullus (poem 10, 29–30: ''meus sodalis / Cinna est Gaius''). When "Zmyrna" was completed in about 55 BC, Catullus hailed it as a great achievement, nine harvests and nine winters in the making. The poem has not survived. This is the key information to survive about his life, together with a passage in the ''Suda'' about the Augustan period poet Parthenius of Nicaea: Son of Heracleides and Eud ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bithynia And Pontus
Bithynia and Pontus ( la, Provincia Bithynia et Pontus, Ancient Greek ) was the name of a province of the Roman Empire on the Black Sea coast of Anatolia (modern-day Turkey). It was formed during the late Roman Republic by the amalgamation of the former kingdoms of Bithynia (made a province by Rome 74 BC) and Pontus (annexed to Bithynia 63 BC). The amalgamation was part of a wider conquest of Anatolia and its reduction to Roman provinces. In 74 BC, Bithynia was willed to Rome by Nicomedes IV of Bithynia in the hope that Rome would defend it against its old enemy, Pontus. Due to the influence of a guest-friend of Nicomedes, Julius Caesar, then a young man, and an impassioned speech by the deceased king's sister, Nysa before the Senate, the gift was accepted. Rome was divided into two parties, the Populares, party of the "people," and the Optimates, party of the "best." The guest-friendship had been offered to Caesar, a popular, to save his life by keeping him from Rome during a p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
