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Rennia Gens
The gens Rennia, occasionally written Renia, was an obscure plebeian family at ancient Rome. No members of this gens obtained any of the higher offices of the Roman state, but the family is known from inscriptions, and coins issued by a certain Gaius Renius, depicting the head of Roma on the obverse, and on the reverse Juno Caprotina in a chariot pulled by two goats.''Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology'', vol. III, p. 645 ("Renia Gens").Eckhel, vol. v, pp. 291, 292.''PW'', ''s. v. Renius''.Crawford, ''Roman Republican Coinage'', pp. 264, 265. Origin The appearance of Juno Caprotina suggests that the Rennii may have originated at Lanuvium, where Juno was particularly revered. The etymology of the nomen ''Rennius'' is uncertain; Chase suggests a possible connection with the Latin ''renes'', kidneys. Praenomina Like other families known chiefly from imperial times, the Rennii seem to have confined themselves to the most common praenomina, and particularly '' ... [...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] |
Freedman
A freedman or freedwoman is a formerly enslaved person who has been released from slavery, usually by legal means. Historically, enslaved people were freed by manumission (granted freedom by their captor-owners), emancipation (granted freedom as part of a larger group), or self-purchase. A fugitive slave is a person who escaped enslavement by fleeing. Ancient Rome Rome differed from Greek city-states in allowing freed slaves to become plebeian citizens. The act of freeing a slave was called ''manumissio'', from ''manus'', "hand" (in the sense of holding or possessing something), and ''missio'', the act of releasing. After manumission, a slave who had belonged to a Roman citizen enjoyed not only passive freedom from ownership, but active political freedom ''(libertas)'', including the right to vote. A slave who had acquired ''libertas'' was known as a ''libertus'' ("freed person", feminine ''liberta'') in relation to his former master, who was called his or her patron ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Szőny
Szőny was a town in Hungary. Since 1977, it has been part of the city of Komárom. History The Roman legion Legio I Adiutrix was based here from 86 AD to the mid-5th century and took part in several Parthian wars. The town was known as Brigetio to the Romans, and was the site of the death of Roman Emperor Valentinian I An important Roman military diploma was found in the town in the early twentieth century - it is now in the British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docume ...'s collection. Later during the Middle Ages the town was called ''Camarum''. The town has one of the earliest records of conjoined twins - Helen and Judith. During the Oil Campaign of World War II, the Szőny oil refinery was a strategic bombing target. References Oil campaign of World ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cybele
Cybele ( ; Phrygian: ''Matar Kubileya/Kubeleya'' "Kubileya/Kubeleya Mother", perhaps "Mountain Mother"; Lydian ''Kuvava''; el, Κυβέλη ''Kybele'', ''Kybebe'', ''Kybelis'') is an Anatolian mother goddess; she may have a possible forerunner in the earliest neolithic at Çatalhöyük, where statues of plump women, sometimes sitting, accompanied by lionesses, have been found in excavations. Phrygia's only known goddess, she was probably its national deity. Greek colonists in Asia Minor adopted and adapted her Phrygian cult and spread it to mainland Greece and to the more distant western Greek colonies around the 6th century BC. In Greece, Cybele met with a mixed reception. She became partially assimilated to aspects of the Earth-goddess Gaia, of her possibly Minoan equivalent Rhea, and of the harvest–mother goddess Demeter. Some city-states, notably Athens, evoked her as a protector, but her most celebrated Greek rites and processions show her as an essentially ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Legio I Adiutrix
Legio I Adiutrix ( First Legion "Rescuer"), was a legion of the Imperial Roman army founded in AD 68, possibly by Galba when he rebelled against emperor Nero (r. 54–68). The last record mentioning the ''Adiutrix'' is in 344, when it was stationed at Brigetio (modern Szőny), in the Roman province of Pannonia. The emblem of the legion was a capricorn,, The Origins and Early History of the Second Augustan Legion, in , ''Legions and Veterans: Roman Army Papers 1971-2000'', Stuttgart, 2000, p128 used along with the winged horse Pegasus, on the helmets the symbol used by I ''Adiutrix'' legionaries was a dolphin. Origins The legion probably was founded by Nero, although some sources provide that it was Galba. Some theories propose the idea that Nero began to recruit marines from the Misenum navy, and Galba likely was responsible for the last stages of the organization, when sacrifices were made, and the legion received its aquila standard. Some children may have been among the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Etruria
Etruria () was a region of Central Italy, located in an area that covered part of what are now most of Tuscany, northern Lazio, and northern and western Umbria. Etruscan Etruria The ancient people of Etruria are identified as Etruscans. Their complex culture centered on numerous city-states that arose during the Villanovan period in the ninth century BCE, and they were very powerful during the Orientalizing Archaic periods. The Etruscans were a dominant culture in Italy by 650 BCE,Rix, Helmut. "Etruscan." In ''The Ancient Languages of Europe,'' ed. Roger D. Woodard. Cambridge University Press, 2008, pp. 141–164. surpassing other ancient Italic peoples such as the Ligures. Their influence may be seen beyond Etruria's confines in the Po River Valley and Latium, as well as in Campania and through their contact with the Greek colonies in Southern Italy (including Sicily). Indeed, at some Etruscan tombs, such as those of the Tumulus di Montefortini at Comeana (see Carm ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Volsinii
Volsinii or Vulsinii ( Etruscan: Velzna or Velusna; Greek: Ouolsinioi, ; ), is the name of two ancient cities of Etruria, one situated on the shore of Lacus Volsiniensis (modern Lago di Bolsena), and the other on the Via Clodia, between Clusium (Chiusi) and Forum Cassii ( Vetralla). The latter was Etruscan and was destroyed by the Romans in 264 BC following an attempted revolt by its slaves, while the former was founded by the Romans using the remainder of the Etruscan population rescued from the razed city. Modern Bolsena, Italy, in the region of Lazio, descends from the Roman city. The location of the Etruscan city is debated. Umbrian Orvieto, about from Bolsena, is a strong candidate. Situation The Byzantine historian Joannes Zonaras states that the Etruscan Volsinii (Velzna or Velusna) lay on a steep height;Zonaras, ''Annals'' (or ''Chronicle'' or ''Epitome'' - he does not state a name of his own) viii. 7; ''cf.'' Aristotle ''De Mirabilibus Auscultationibus'' 96. whi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Germania Superior
Germania Superior ("Upper Germania") was an imperial province of the Roman Empire. It comprised an area of today's western Switzerland, the French Jura and Alsace regions, and southwestern Germany. Important cities were Besançon ('' Vesontio''), Strasbourg ('' Argentoratum''), Wiesbaden (''Aquae Mattiacae''), and Germania Superior's capital, Mainz (''Mogontiacum''). It comprised the Middle Rhine, bordering on the ''Limes Germanicus'', and on the Alpine province of Raetia to the south-east. Although it had been occupied militarily since the reign of Augustus, Germania Superior (along with Germania Inferior) was not made into an official province until c. 85 AD. Origin Initial Roman involvement The terms, "Upper Germania" and "Lower Germania" do not appear in the ''Commentarii de Bello Gallico'' of Julius Caesar, yet he writes about reports that the people who lived in those regions were referred to as "Germani" locally, a term used for a tribe that the Romans called the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vindonissa
Vindonissa (from a Gaulish toponym in *''windo-'' "white") was a Roman legion camp, vicus and later a bishop's seat at modern Windisch, Switzerland. The remains of the camp are listed as a heritage site of national significance. The city of Brugg hosts a small Roman museum, displaying finds from the legion camp. History Excavations along the western edge of the Roman camp have discovered a few funeral pyre graves dating to the late Bronze Age ( 1000–800 BC). The first settlement of Vindonissa was a 1st century BC Helvetii fortified village on the peninsula between the Aare and Reuss rivers. The settlement was protected by an approximately long wood and earth wall, with an up to deep trench which stretched across the narrow neck of the peninsula. The settlement came under Roman control either after the 58 BC conquest of the Helvetii by Julius Caesar or the 15 BC conquest of the Alps. A small guard post was established on the site around 15 BC. The Roman settlement and l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hispania Citerior
Hispania Citerior (English: "Hither Iberia", or "Nearer Iberia") was a Roman province in Hispania during the Roman Republic. It was on the eastern coast of Iberia down to the town of Cartago Nova, today's Cartagena in the autonomous community of Murcia, Spain. It roughly covered today's Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia and Valencia. Further south was the Roman province of Hispania Ulterior ("Further Iberia"), named as such because it was further away from Rome. The two provinces were established in 197 BC, four years after the end of the Second Punic War (218–201 BC). During this war Scipio Africanus defeated the Carthaginians at the Battle of Ilipa (near Seville) in 206 BC. This led to the Romans taking over the Carthaginian possessions in southern Spain and on the east coast up to the River Ebro. Several governors of Hispania Citerior commanded wars against the Celtiberians who lived to the west of this province. In the late first century BC Augustus reorganised t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Praetorian Guard
The Praetorian Guard (Latin: ''cohortēs praetōriae'') was a unit of the Imperial Roman army that served as personal bodyguards and intelligence agents for the Roman emperors. During the Roman Republic, the Praetorian Guard were an escort for high-rank political officials ( senators and procurators) and were bodyguards for the senior officers of the Roman legions. In 27 BC, after Rome's transition from republic to empire, the first emperor of Rome, Augustus, designated the Praetorians as his personal security escort. For three centuries, the guards of the Roman emperor were also known for their palace intrigues, by which influence upon imperial politics the Praetorians could overthrow an emperor and then proclaim his successor as the new '' caesar'' of Rome. In AD 312, Constantine the Great disbanded the and destroyed their barracks at the Castra Praetoria. In the Roman Republic In the period of the Roman Republic (509–27 BC) the Praetorian Guard originated as bodygua ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Centurion
A centurion (; la, centurio , . la, centuriones, label=none; grc-gre, κεντυρίων, kentyríōn, or ) was a position in the Roman army during classical antiquity, nominally the commander of a century (), a military unit of around 80 legionaries. In a Roman legion, centuries were grouped into cohorts and commanded by their senior-most centurion. The prestigious first cohort was led by the '' primus pilus'', the most senior centurion in the legion and its fourth-in-command who was next in line for promotion to Praefectus Castrorum, and the primi ordines who were the centurions of the first cohort. A centurion's symbol of office was the vine staff, with which they disciplined even Roman citizens, who were otherwise legally protected from corporal punishment by the Porcian Laws. Centurions also served in the Roman navy. After the 107 BC Marian reforms of Gaius Marius, centurions were professional officers. In Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, the Byzantine army's cent ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
