Tag: Roman Empire

For the moment Caesar's fall produced sheer paralysis. The conspirators imagined that they were going to restore the senatorial republic mid general acclamation. The enemy they had most to fear was Marcus Antonius (Mark Antony, ca. 83-30 BC), consul designate and a favourite lieutenant of the murder...

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In the west the recuperation of Carthage since the Second Punic War had given amazing proof of her vitality. With Hannibal in exile, his political opponents were in power, seeking to gain good relations with Rome, rather than displaying Hannibal's open hostility. But roman friendship was hard to gai...

Roman Law One of the greatest legacies of Rome is their legal system. The development of Roman law began with the Twelve Tables in the mid-fifth century B.C. During a period of over 1000 years, the Roman jurists created a rich literature about all aspects of law: property, marriage, guardianship and...

Lucius Domitius Aurelianus was born of poor parents on 9 September AD 214 in Lower Moesia.His father was a tenant farmer of a wealthy senator Aurelius, after whom the family were named. Aurelian rose through the ranks of the army, serving with distinction on the Danube frontier.By AD 268, when Aureo...

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Since the passing of the Licinian Law in 367 BC, the old contest between the orders had dwindled into nothing more than a patrician faction either to evade the law or to recover some fraction of exclusive privilege by indirect methods. In effect the old charmed circle had become extended so as to in...

Publius Aelius Hadrianus, called Hadrian, was Roman emperor from AD 117 until 138. He regarded his 20-year reign as a golden age of peace and prosperity, comparable to that of his great predecessor Augustus more than 100 years earlier (see Augustus). Monuments to Hadrian's reign are the Tivoli villa...

After the violent death of Tiberius Gracchus, the Gracchus family wasn't finished yet.Gaius Gracchus, a flamboyant and powerful public speaker, was to be a far more formidable political force than his brother. The legacy of Tiberius Gracchus, the agrarian law, was being applied in a manner which cre...

Archaeologists in Luxembourg have discovered a remarkable hoard of Roman gold coins dating back around 1,600 years. The collection, featuring the portraits of nine Roman emperors from the fourth and fifth centuries C.E., includes three particularly rare coins depicting Eugenius, a short-lived and il...

With Julius Caesar campaigning in Gaul, Clodius exercised his powers as the virtual king of Rome with neither Pompey nor Crassus interfering. Among his measures was a law which distributed corn no longer at half price but for free to the citizens of Rome. But his conduct was generally reckless and ...