Tag: Rome

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...

When in 64 BC Pompey descended from Cappadocia into northern Syria he needed little more than assume sovereignty on behalf of Rome. Ever since the collapse of the kingdom of the Seleucids sixty years previously, Syria had been ruled by chaos. Roman order was hence welcomed. The acquisition of Syria ...

In 74 BC king Nicomedes of Bithynia died without heirs. Following the example of Attalus of Pergamum he left his kingdom to the Roman people. But with Sulla dead, king Mithridates of Pontus clearly felt his most fearsome enemy had vanished from the scene and revived his dreams of creating his own em...

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The Carthaginians had not lost everything, though they had been driven out of waters where they had collided with Greeks and increasingly with Italian traders also. There were two paths still open to them. their original exploitation of Africa, both the mountainous north and the oases and caravan r...

Tiberius GracchusGaius Gracchus The brief emergence and demise of each of the brothers Gracchus (Tiberius in 133 BC, Gaius in 120 BC) onto the scene of Roman politics should send shock waves through the entire structure of the Roman state of such magnitude that their effects would be felt for genera...

The Roman Empire, one of the most influential civilizations in human history, was shaped by the reigns of its emperors. From Augustus to Justinian, these rulers governed an empire that stretched across Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. They were not only political and military leaders but a...

Though in his absence Cinna revived the legislation and the methods of Sulpicius. When violence broke out in the city, he appealed to the troops in Italy and practically revived the Social War. Marius returned form exile and joined him, though he appeared more intent on revenge than on anything else...

When the Social War had broken out, Rome was fully occupied with its own affairs. Mithridates VI, king of Pontus, used Rome's preoccupation to invade the province of Asia. Half of the province of Achaea (Greece), Athens taking the lead, rose against its Roman rulers, supported by Mithridates.When Su...

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 ...

Marius, Vatican Museums, Vatican City Marius was of humble beginnings, having been born near the town of Arpinum in Latium. First serving in Spain, Marius was essentially a military man. He did not hold any public office until he was voted to the position of Tribune of the People in 119 BC.In 115 BC...

The eclipse of the Roman Empire in the West (c. 395-500) and the German migrations Invasions in the early 5th century The barbarian invasions. After the death of Theodosius the Western empire was governed by young Honorius. Stilicho, an experienced statesman and general, was charged with assisting...