Tag: Rome

Antonius versus Octavian No heavy engagement took place before the two battles on the plain of Philippi in Macedonia, fought with an interval of three weeks in the late autumn of 42 BC. The first battle actually went to Marcus Brutus, although Cassius mistakenly believing the day lost, ordered his s...

The Latin words res publica which mean 'commonwealth' or 'state' is the source of today's term 'republic'.Rome was never a democracy as we would understand it today, nor as the Greeks understood it. For Roman society and the power within it was firmly divided by class.Most obviously, there was a div...

Caesar used his year as consul (59 BC) to further establish his position. A popular agrarian law, As his first act in office Caesar brought proposed a new agrarian law which gave lands to the veteran soldiers of Pompey and poor citizens in Campania.. Though opposed by the senate, but supported by Po...

Five years after the conclusion of the treaty with Carthage, Rome was at war with the Samnites. For centuries the Sabellian highlanders of the Apennines had struggled to force their way into the plains between the hills and the Mediterranean. But Tuscans and Latins had held them in check, and for th...

In 91 BC the moderate members of the senate allied themselves with Livius Drusus (the son of that Drusus who had been used to undermine Gaius Gracchus' popularity in 122 BC) and aided him in his election campaign. If the honesty of the father is open to doubt, that of the son is not. As tribune he p...

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...

The Provinces 1) Baetica (Hispania)19) Noricum37) Cappadocia2) Lusitania (Hispania)20) Pannonia38) Pontus3) Tarraconesis (Hispania)21) Dalmatia39) Armenia Inferior4) Narbonensis (Gallia)22) Dacia40) Sophene5) Aquitania (Gallia)23) Moesia41) Osroene6) Lugdunensis (Gallia)24) Thracia42) Commagene7) B...

In 88 BC the activities of king Mithridates of Pontus called for urgent action. The king had invaded the province of Asia and massacred 80'000 Roman and Italian citizens. Sulla, as elected consul and as the man who had won the Social War, expected the command, but Marius wanted it, too. The senate a...

Two years had not elapsed after the battle of Zama when war was for the second time declared between Rome and Macedon. The peace of 205 BC had never been more than a hostile truce. Philip V's strategy of consolidating and extending his despotic rule over the free cities cities in Greece the Aegean a...

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 ...

In the summer of 47 BC Caesar began his way home. While passing through Judaea he rewarded the intervention of Antipater at Alexandria with a reduction of the tribute the Jewish people had to pay to Rome. But more serious matters were still to be taken care of. Pharnaces, the son of Mithridates, ha...

b. 63 BC?d. , March, 12 BC, Campania [Italy] powerful deputy of Augustus, the first Roman emperor. He was chiefly responsible for the victory over Mark Antony at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC, and during Augustus' reign he suppressed rebellions, founded colonies, and administered various parts of th...