Tag: Rome

In the first year of his governorship of Gaul 58 BC, Caesar's presence was urgently required in Transalpine Gaul (Gallia Narbonensis) because of the movement among the Teutonic tribes which was displacing the Helvetic (Swiss) Celts and forcing them into Roman territory. the year 58 BC was therefore ...

However, to the south things were different. The princes of Judaea had been allies of Rome for half a century. But Judaea was suffering a civil war between the two brothers Hyrcanus and Aristobulus. Pompey was hence asked to help quell their quarrels and help decide the matter of rule over Judaea (...

Pompey, Museo della Civilta, Rome Pompey the Great Despite his family's connections to Cinna (an ally of Sulla's enemy Marius), Pompey raised an army and sided with Sulla, when the latter returned back from his campaigns in the east. His determination and mercilessness shown when destroying his and ...

In 133 BC king Attalus III of Pergamum died without heirs. The dynasty had been loyal to Rome through all the shifting policies of the last seventy years. And Attalus, dying, bequeathed his kingdom to the Roman people, if only to solve the problem of succession. His only demand was that Pergamum an...

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...

Crassus grew up as the son of a consul and distinguished general.His career to fame and phenomenal wealth began as he started purchasing the houses of Sulla's victims. Had Sulla confiscated all their belongings he sold them off cheap. And Crassus bought and made sensational profits when selling them...

The Battle of Zama in the summer of 202 BC marked the end of the power of the great Hannibal Barca.With its greatest son, also Carthage should be at a virtual end. True, it should limp on for some time, but with its defeat at the end of the Second Punic War it no longer was a significant power.Zama ...

The Coliseum - a comparison of pictures taken during the 1960s and in August 1996... A Timeless Icon: The Colosseum Then and Now The Colosseum, a symbol of ancient Rome's power and grandeur, continues to captivate visitors centuries after its construction. Comparing photographs from different eras o...

In 52 BC, just as Pompey's jealousies reached their height, a great rebellion was organized in the very heart of Gaul by the heroic Arvernian chief Vercingetorix. So stubborn and so able was the Gallic chief that all Caesar's energies were required for the campaign. On an attack on Gergovia Caesar e...

Gaius Marius Marius, Gaius (circa 157-86BC), Roman general and statesman, who led the Populares during the civil war of 88-86BC. Caius Marius (died 86 B.C.E.) By PlutarchWritten 75 A.C.E.Translated by John Dryden We are altogether ignorant of any third name of Caius Marius; as also of Quintus Sertor ...

On the Italian mainland the Syracusan ascendancy melted away on the death of Dionysius. The great tyrant had made use of the Lucanians and other Italians to bring the Greek colonies under his sway. When he died the Italians combined and formed the Bruttian League against the divided Greeks, pressing...

The patricians not only administered the law, the magistrates (consuls) themselves were the only authority who could declare what the law was. The next plebeian demand therefore was for a published written code. In 451 BC a commission of ten men, the Decemviri, was appointed as a temporary governme...