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Oppia Gens
The gens Oppia was an ancient Roman family, known from the first century of the Republic down to imperial times. The gens may originally have been patrician, as they supplied priestesses to the College of Vestals at a very early date, but all of the Oppii known to history were plebeians. None of them obtained the consulship until imperial times.''Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology'', vol. III. p. 34 ("Oppia Gens"). Origin The Oppii were probably Sabines, one of the peoples who made up a significant portion of the early Roman populace. The nomen ''Oppius'' is classed by Chase among a number of gentilicia that were not Latin, but came from among the various neighboring regions, in this case that of the Sabines. Praenomina The earliest Oppii to appear in history used the praenomina '' Spurius, Marcus'', and ''Gaius''. To these, later generations added ''Lucius, Quintus'', and '' Publius''. All of these were quite common throughout Roman history, except ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ancient Rome
In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman civilisation from the founding of the city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom (753–509 BC), Roman Republic (509–27 BC) and Roman Empire (27 BC–476 AD) until the fall of the western empire. Ancient Rome began as an Italic settlement, traditionally dated to 753 BC, beside the River Tiber in the Italian Peninsula. The settlement grew into the city and polity of Rome, and came to control its neighbours through a combination of treaties and military strength. It eventually dominated the Italian Peninsula, assimilated the Greek culture of southern Italy ( Magna Grecia) and the Etruscan culture and acquired an Empire that took in much of Europe and the lands and peoples surrounding the Mediterranean Sea. It was among the largest empires in the ancient world, with an estimated 50 to 90 million inhabitants, roughly 20% of t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aedile
''Aedile'' ( ; la, aedīlis , from , "temple edifice") was an elected office of the Roman Republic. Based in Rome, the aediles were responsible for maintenance of public buildings () and regulation of public festivals. They also had powers to enforce public order and duties to ensure the city of Rome was well supplied and its civil infrastructure well maintained, akin to modern local government. There were two pairs of aediles: the first were the "plebeian aediles" (Latin ''aediles plebis'') and possession of this office was limited to plebeians; the other two were "curule aediles" (Latin ''aediles curules''), open to both plebeians and patricians, in alternating years. An ''aedilis curulis'' was classified as a '' magister curulis''. The office of the aedilis was generally held by young men intending to follow the ''cursus honorum'' to high political office, traditionally after their quaestorship but before their praetorship. It was not a compulsory part of the cursus, and henc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Boii
The Boii (Latin plural, singular ''Boius''; grc, Βόιοι) were a Celtic tribe of the later Iron Age, attested at various times in Cisalpine Gaul (Northern Italy), Pannonia (Hungary), parts of Bavaria, in and around Bohemia (after whom the region is named in most languages; comprising the bulk of today's Czech Republic), parts of Poland, and Gallia Narbonensis (located in modern Languedoc and Provence). In addition, the archaeological evidence indicates that in the 2nd century BC Celts expanded from Bohemia through the Kłodzko Valley into Silesia, now part of Poland and the Czech Republic. They first appear in history in connection with the Gallic invasion of northern Italy, 390 BC, when they made the Etruscan city of Felsina their new capital, Bononia (Bologna). After a series of wars they were decisively beaten by the Romans in the Battle of Mutina (193 BC) and their territory became part of the Roman province of Cisalpine Gaul. According to Strabo, writing two c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Prefect
Prefect (from the Latin ''praefectus'', substantive adjectival form of ''praeficere'': "put in front", meaning in charge) is a magisterial title of varying definition, but essentially refers to the leader of an administrative area. A prefect's office, department, or area of control is called a prefecture, but in various post-Roman empire cases there is a prefect without a prefecture or ''vice versa''. The words "prefect" and "prefecture" are also used, more or less conventionally, to render analogous words in other languages, especially Romance languages. Ancient Rome ''Praefectus'' was the formal title of many, fairly low to high-ranking officials in ancient Rome, whose authority was not embodied in their person (as it was with elected Magistrates) but conferred by delegation from a higher authority. They did have some authority in their prefecture such as controlling prisons and in civil administration. Feudal times Especially in Medieval Latin, ''præfectus'' was used to r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carthage
Carthage was the capital city of Ancient Carthage, on the eastern side of the Lake of Tunis in what is now Tunisia. Carthage was one of the most important trading hubs of the Ancient Mediterranean and one of the most affluent cities of the classical world. The city developed from a Canaanite Phoenician colony into the capital of a Punic empire which dominated large parts of the Southwest Mediterranean during the first millennium BC. The legendary Queen Alyssa or Dido, originally from Tyre, is regarded as the founder of the city, though her historicity has been questioned. According to accounts by Timaeus of Tauromenium, she purchased from a local tribe the amount of land that could be covered by an oxhide. As Carthage prospered at home, the polity sent colonists abroad as well as magistrates to rule the colonies. The ancient city was destroyed in the nearly-three year siege of Carthage by the Roman Republic during the Third Punic War in 146 BC and then re-developed as Roman Car ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Capua
Capua ( , ) is a city and ''comune'' in the province of Caserta, in the region of Campania, southern Italy, situated north of Naples, on the northeastern edge of the Campanian plain. History Ancient era The name of Capua comes from the Etruscan ''Capeva''. The meaning is 'City of Marshes'. Its foundation is attributed by Cato the Elder to the Etruscans, and the date given as about 260 years before it was "taken" by Rome. If this is true it refers not to its capture in the Second Punic War (211 BC) but to its submission to Rome in 338 BC, placing the date of foundation at about 600 BC, while Etruscan power was at its highest. In the area several settlements of the Villanovian civilization were present in prehistoric times, and these were probably enlarged by the Oscans and subsequently by the Etruscans. Etruscan supremacy in Campania came to an end with the Samnite invasion in the latter half of the 5th century BC. About 424 BC it was captured by the Samnites and in 343 BC be ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Atella
Atella was an ancient Oscan city of Campania, located 20km directly north of Naples. Remains The ruins of the city walls, private houses, the so-called ''garden of Virgil'' and many tombs remain, on sites in the ''comuni'' of Frattaminore, Orta di Atella, Sant'Arpino and Succivo, the last three of which formed the ''comune'' of Atella di Napoli in the mid‑20th century. The territory of ancient Atella is now in the ''comuni'' of Caivano, Cardito, Cesa, Frattamaggiore, Grumo Nevano and Sant'Antimo. The archaeological museum of Atella is at Succivo. The Atellan farce was one of the forms of entertainment of local origin that influenced the Latin theatre. History Atella was a city of Oscan origin, one of the oldest in Campania and one of the first to have obtained the Roman ''civitas''. It was crossed by the '' Via Atellana'', which led southwest to Cumae and northeast to Capua. Part of the route of Via Atellana is preserved today, with the same name, in the stretch that cr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cato The Elder
Marcus Porcius Cato (; 234–149 BC), also known as Cato the Censor ( la, Censorius), the Elder and the Wise, was a Roman soldier, senator, and historian known for his conservatism and opposition to Hellenization. He was the first to write history in Latin with his ''Origines'', a now fragmentary work on the history of Rome. His work '' De agri cultura'', a rambling work on agriculture, farming, rituals, and recipes, is the oldest extant prose written in the Latin language. His epithet "Elder" distinguishes him from his great-grandson Cato the Younger, who opposed Julius Caesar. He came from an ancient Plebeian family who were noted for their military service. Like his forefathers, Cato was devoted to agriculture when not serving in the army. Having attracted the attention of Lucius Valerius Flaccus, he was brought to Rome and began to follow the ''cursus honorum'': he was successively military tribune (214 BC), quaestor (204), aedile (199), praetor (198), consul (195) together ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lex Oppia
The ''Lex Oppia'' was a law established in ancient Rome in 215 BC, at the height of the Second Punic War during the days of national catastrophe after the Battle of Cannae,Lewis, Naphtali, and Meyer Reinhold, eds. Roman Civilization: Selected Readings. 3rd ed. Vol. 1. New York: Columbia UP, 1990. 489-496. and repealed in 195 BC. Instituted by Marcus Oppius, a tribune of the plebs during the consulship of Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus and Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus (consul 215 BC), Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus, the ''Lex Oppia'' was the first of a series of sumptuary laws, and it restricted not only a woman's wealth, but also her display of wealth. Specifically, it forbade any woman to possess more than half an ounce of gold, to wear a multi-colored garment (particularly those trimmed in purple), or to ride in an animal-drawn vehicle in the city or any town or within a mile thereof, except in the case of public religious festivals.Johnston, Patricia A. "Poenulus 1, 2 and Roma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Second Punic War
The Second Punic War (218 to 201 BC) was the second of three wars fought between Carthage and Rome, the two main powers of the western Mediterranean in the 3rd century BC. For 17 years the two states struggled for supremacy, primarily in 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 defeated. Macedonia, Syracuse and several Numidian kingdoms were drawn into the fighting, and Iberian and Gallic forces fought on both sides. There were three main 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, a younger brother of Hannibal, defended the Carthaginian colonial cities with mixed success before moving into Italy; and Africa, where Rome finally won the war. The First Punic War had ended in a Roman ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tribune Of The Plebs
Tribune of the plebs, tribune of the people or plebeian tribune ( la, tribunus plebis) 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 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 the Roman emperor, emperor as a matter of course, and the office itself lost its independence a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
