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Matrinia Gens
The gens Matrinia was a plebeian family at Rome. Members of this gens are first mentioned toward the end of the second century BC. They belonged to the equestrian class. Several of them are known through the writings of Cicero, while others are mentioned in inscriptions from Umbria and Etruria.''Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology'', vol. II, p. 973 ("Matrinius"). Origin According to Cicero, Titus Matrinius received Roman citizenship from Gaius Marius, one of the legendary figures in Roman history, placing him toward the end of the second century BC, or the beginning of the first.Cicero, ''Pro Balbo'', 21. Praenomina The chief praenomina of the Matrinii seem to have been ''Lucius, Manius'', and '' Gnaeus''. ''Lucius'' and ''Gnaeus'' were very common names, but ''Manius'' was much more distinctive. There are two examples of the common praenomen ''Gaius'', and a father and son named '' Publius'', also a very common name. ''Titus'' and '' Decimus'', found among ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Plebs
In ancient Rome, the plebeians (also called 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. Those who resided in the city and were part of the four urban tribes are sometimes called the , while those who lived in the country and were part of the 31 smaller rural tribes are sometimes differentiated by using the label . ( List of Roman tribes) 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 hypothese ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Equites
The ''equites'' (; literally "horse-" or "cavalrymen", though sometimes referred to as "knights" in English) constituted the second of the property-based classes of ancient Rome, ranking below the senatorial class. A member of the equestrian order was known as an ''eques'' (). Description During the Roman kingdom and the first century of the Roman Republic, legionary cavalry was recruited exclusively from the ranks of the patricians, who were expected to provide six '' centuriae'' of cavalry (300 horses for each consular legion). Around 400BC, 12 more ''centuriae'' of cavalry were established and these included non-patricians (plebeians). Around 300 BC the Samnite Wars obliged Rome to double the normal annual military levy from two to four legions, doubling the cavalry levy from 600 to 1,200 horses. Legionary cavalry started to recruit wealthier citizens from outside the 18 ''centuriae''. These new recruits came from the first class of commoners in the Centuriate Assembly or ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pro Cluentio
''Pro Cluentio'' is a speech by the Roman orator Cicero given in defense of a man named Aulus Cluentius Habitus Minor. Cluentius, from Larinum in Samnium, was accused in 69 BC by his mother Sassia of having poisoned his stepfather, Statius Abbius Oppianicus. Cluentius had prosecuted Oppianicus successfully in 74 BC for attempting to poison him, securing Oppianicus' exile. Both sides in the lawsuit were accused of bribing the jurors during the trial to secure conviction of one another, but only Oppianicus' bribe was revealed at the time. Oppianicus died in disgrace three years later, leaving his widow Sassia to plot revenge against her son. Cicero divides his action in two parts: in the first one, he defends Cluentius' reputation. He shows that Oppianicus' crimes were so enormous, that Cluentius had no need of corrupting the judges; actually, he ridicules Oppianicus because he was cheated by a mediator in bribes. The second part deals with the alleged poisoning, and is very brief ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
In Verrem
"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 was al ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
List Of Roman Gentes
The gens (plural gentes) was a Roman family, of Italic or Etruscan origins, consisting of all those individuals who shared the same '' nomen'' and claimed descent from a common ancestor. It was an important social and legal structure in early Roman history.'' Harper's Dictionary of Classical Literature and Antiquities'', Second Edition, Harry Thurston Peck, Editor (1897)''Oxford Classical Dictionary'', 2nd Ed. (1970) The distinguishing characteristic of a gens was the , or ''gentile name''. Every member of a gens, whether by birth or adoption, bore this name. All nomina were based on other nouns, such as personal names, occupations, physical characteristics or behaviors, or locations. Consequently, most of them ended with the adjectival termination ''-ius'' (''-ia'' in the feminine form). Nomina ending in , , , and are typical of Latin families. Faliscan gentes frequently had nomina ending in ''-ios'', while Samnite and other Oscan-speaking peoples of southern Italy ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Germania Inferior
Germania Inferior ("Lower Germania") was a Roman province from AD 85 until the province was renamed Germania Secunda in the fourth century, on the west bank of the Rhine bordering the North Sea. The capital of the province was Colonia Agrippinensis (modern-day Cologne). Geography According to Ptolemy (2.9), Germania Inferior included the Rhine from its mouth up to the mouth of the ''Obringa'', a river identified with either the Aar or the Moselle. The territory included modern-day Luxembourg, the southern Netherlands, part of Belgium, and part of North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany, west of the Rhine. The principal settlements of the province were Castra Vetera and Colonia Ulpia Traiana (both near Xanten), Coriovallum ( Heerlen), Albaniana ( Alphen aan den Rijn), Lugdunum Batavorum ( Katwijk), Forum Hadriani ( Voorburg), Ulpia Noviomagus Batavorum ( Nijmegen), Traiectum (Utrecht), Atuatuca Tungrorum ( Tongeren), Bona (Bonn), and Colonia Agrippinensis (Cologne), the capital o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nideggen
Nideggen () is a town in the district of Düren in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located on the river Rur, in the Eifel hills, approx. 15 km south of Düren. Nideggen is known for its ruined, but partly restored castle (''Burg Nideggen'') and the sandstone rocks along the Rur. It is twinned with Thatcham in Berkshire, England. The first mention in history was in 1184. The town was created in 1972 by amalgamation of eight until then independent communities: Abenden (782 inhabitants), Berg-Thuir (709), Brück (301), Embken (734), Muldenau (161), Nideggen (2,983), Rath (757), Schmidt (2,974), Wollersheim (637) (December 2014). It is situated between 250 and 450 metres above sea level. Geographical position Nideggen lies on the river Rur and at the banks of the Rurtalsperre, the second largest dam in Germany. The region is famous for its precipitous Early Triassic rocks of Buntsandstein in the valley of Rur and is situated between 250 and 450 metres ov ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spoleto
Spoleto (, also , , ; la, Spoletum) is an ancient city in the Italian province of Perugia in east-central Umbria on a foothill of the Apennines. It is S. of Trevi, N. of Terni, SE of Perugia; SE of Florence; and N of Rome. History Spoleto was situated on the eastern branch of the Via Flaminia, which forked into two roads at Narni and rejoined at ''Forum Flaminii'', near Foligno. An ancient road also ran hence to Nursia. The ''Ponte Sanguinario'' of the 1st century BC still exists. The Forum lies under today's marketplace. Located at the head of a large, broad valley, surrounded by mountains, Spoleto has long occupied a strategic geographical position. It appears to have been an important town to the original Umbri tribes, who built walls around their settlement in the 5th century BC, some of which are visible today. The first historical mention of ''Spoletium'' is the notice of the foundation of a colony there in 241 BC; and it was still, according to Cicero ''c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Forum Cassii
Forum Cassii was an ancient town of Etruria, in central Italy, situated on the Via Cassia, with the formation of which, from its name, it was certainly connected. It is known to us from the Itineraries, which place it 11 Roman miles beyond Sutrium (modern Sutri), between that place and Volsinii, and 44 miles from Rome The distinct traces of the Via Cassia enable us to place it with certainty about 2 km northeast of Vetralla (in the modern-day Province of Viterbo, Lazio it, Laziale , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...) where an ancient church still retains the name of Santa Maria in Forcassi, and some portions of Roman buildings are still extant. The inhabitants migrated during the Middle Ages to the neighbouring village of VetrallaDennis, ''Etruria'', vol. i. p. 245. Refe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Second Triumvirate
The Second Triumvirate was an extraordinary commission and magistracy created for Mark Antony, Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, and Octavian to give them practically absolute power. It was formally constituted by law on 27 November 43 BC with a term of five years; it was renewed in 37 BC for another five years before expiring in 32 BC. Constituted by the '' lex Titia'', the triumvirs were given broad powers to make or repeal legislation, issue judicial punishments without due process or right of appeal, and appoint all other magistrates. The triumvirs also split the Roman world into three sets of provinces. The triumvirate, formed in the aftermath of a conflict between Antony and the senate, emerged as a force to reassert Caesarian control over the western provinces and wage war on the ''liberatores'' led by the men who assassinated Julius Caesar. After proscriptions, purging the senatorial and equestrian orders, and a brutal civil war, the ''liberatores'' were def ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sutri
Sutri (Latin ''Sutrium'') is an Ancient town, modern ''comune'' and former bishopric (now a Latin titular see) in the province of Viterbo, about from Rome and about south of Viterbo. It is picturesquely situated on a narrow tuff hill, surrounded by ravines, a narrow neck on the west alone connecting it with the surrounding country. The modern ''comune'' of Sutri has a few more than 5,000 inhabitants. Its ancient remains are a major draw for tourism: a Roman amphitheatre excavated in the tuff rock, an Etruscan necropolis with dozens of rock-cut tombs, a Mithraeum incorporated in the crypt of its church of the Madonna del Parto, a Romanesque Duomo. History Ancient Sutrium occupied an important position, commanding as it did the road into Etruria, the later Via Cassia: Livy describes it as one of the keys of Etruria, nearby Nepi being the other. It came into the hands of Rome after the fall of Veii, and a Latin colony was founded there; it was lost again in 386 BC, but wa ... [...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 hence ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
