Tag: Roman Empire

A notable situation occurred when, at the festival of the Lupercalia in February 44 BC, Mark Antony offered Caesar the crown as king of Rome. He rejected the offer dramatically, but with obvious reluctance. The idea of a king still remained intolerable to the Romans. Many senators though suspected ...

Lucius Aurelius Commodus on 31 August AD 161 at Lanuvium, roughly 14 miles south-east of Rome.Of the fourteen children of Marcus Aurelius and Faustina the Younger, Commodus was the tenth. He was born one of twins, though his twin brother died when he was only four years old. He was given the Commodu...

Two important events marked the reign of Constantine the Great, the first Christian emperor of Rome. He made Christianity a lawful religion in Roman society, and he founded the city of Constantinople, the brilliant capital of the Eastern Roman Empire. Flavius Valerius Constantinus was born in the Ro...

b. Sept. 15?, AD 53, Italica, Baetica [now in Spain]d. Aug. 8/9, 117, Selinus, Cilicia [now in Turkey] Latin IN FULL CAESAR DIVI NERVAE FILIUS NERVA TRAIANUS OPTIMUS AUGUSTUS, also called ( 9798) CAESAR NERVA TRAIANUS GERMANICUS, ORIGINAL NAME MARCUS ULPIUS TRAIANUS, Roman emperor (AD 98-117), the f...

Caesar went on, after the the conference of Luca to reduce the whole of Gaul to submission in the course of three campaigns - justified by initial aggression from the barbarians. The two following years were occupied with expeditions and campaigns of an experimental kind. In 55 BC a fresh invasion ...

The images and busts of Augustus Caesar stand as iconic representations of one of history's most influential figures. The first Emperor of Rome, Augustus left an indelible mark on the ancient world, not only through his political achievements but also through the artistic expressions that sought to ...

Ancient History Sourcebook:Suetonius: De Vita Caesarum--Domitianus, c. 110 C.E. I. DOMITIAN was born on the ninth day before the Kalends of November of the year when his father was Consul-elect and was about to enter on the office in the following month [October 24, 51 C.E.], in a street of the sixt...

Note: Though this map states that the Roman Empire was at its greatest extent in the third century A.D., Mesopotamia, shown here as part of the empire, was only briefly part of the Roman world during the last years of the reign of Trajan (emperor A.D. 98-117) and was abandoned immediately after his ...

A great task faced Marcus Aurelius when he became the Roman emperor in AD 161, as successor to his uncle, Emperor Antonius Pius. Generations of luxury had made the patricians, or nobles, weak and selfish. The middle class was disappearing, and the working class was being reduced to a state of slaver...

The twenty years following Sulla's death saw the rise of three men who, if Rome's founders were truly suckled by a she-wolf, surely had within them the stuff of wolves.The three were Marcus Licinius Crassus (d. 53 BC), one of Rome's richest men ever. Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (106-48 BC), known as Pom...

The Roman legionary soldier, an iconic figure in the annals of military history, stands as a symbol of discipline, courage, and the formidable might of the Roman Empire. In this post, we delve into the visual realm, exploring captivating pictures that bring to life the essence of the legionary soldi...

Sulla should arrive back in Italy in the spring of 83 BC and marched on Rome determined to restore his will upon the city. But the Roman government controlled greater troops than his own, more so the Samnites wholeheartedly flung themselves into the struggle against Sulla, who to them represented se...