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43 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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Romulus and Remus
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Rhea Silvia was impregnated by Mars (god of War) and gave birth to twin sons, Romulus and Remus. Numitor’s usurper ordered the twins be killed but instead the executioner abandons them on the bank of the Tiber (flows thru Rome). A she-wolf rescues them and nurses them until, like the Greek King Oedipus, they are found and reared by a sheapered couple. When they grow up they overthrow the usurper and restore Numitor to the thrown. They founded Rome and decided one would be King, and the choice would depend on an omen read from the flight of birds. Romulus was the chosen one, and kills Remus and becomes King. This story reinforces a sense of destiny and divine lineage
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Etruscans
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Inhabited most of the Italian peninsula from 900 B.C. till 509 B.C. when Rome was founded. They belonged to the Villanovan iron-age culture. They had aristocratic taste, influenced by Greek culture. Women were in elevated position in comparison to Athenian women who were oppressed. Estruscans King Rule ended in 509 B.C. when Tarquin the Proud was expelled and a constitutional republic was established.
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Mos Maiorum
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“ways of the ancestors”; the ancestral traditions, an unwritten code of laws and conduct, of the ancient Romans.
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Romanitas
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It meant a great many things, but in short it meant what it was to be Roman (that is, Roman-ness).
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Pietas
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translated as "duty" or "devotion," and it simultaneously suggests duty to the gods and duty to family - particularly to the father. Central theme in the Aeneid. Same devotion that plebeians showed patricians.
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Aenid
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A poem written by Virgil Virgil to celebrate Rome’s origins and locate them within the Greek Heroic tradition. Tells adventures of Aeneas after the Trojan War.
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Aeneas
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Protagonist of Aeneid which emphasizes his long journey home after the Trojan War; Reinforced a sense of destiny and divine lineage.
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Ascanius/Iulus
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- the son of Aeneas; he assists his father in the struggle against the Latins; He is credited in Roman legend with being the founder and first King of Alba Longa.
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Queen Dido
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Phoenician Queen of the newly founded city of Carthage; Dido falls in love with Aeneas; she can be compared to the Princess Nausicca after Odysseus was shipwrecked on her father’s island. Like Nausicca Dido tries to keep the man she has fallen in love with on the island; Jupiter reminds Aeneas of his responsibilities and to move on from Dido; Dido kills herself.
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Carthage
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Ancient city in northern Africa, thrived around Roman time until destruction in 146 B.C.
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Pallas/Pallanteum
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the son of King Evander; Fought along side Aeneas against the Latins (citizens of Latium). Killed by Turnus in battle.
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Pallanteum
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was an ancient city on the Italian peninsula thought in Roman mythology to be founded by Evander. (founded by Greeks). Named in honor of son, Pallas.
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King Evander
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was a deific culture hero from Arcadia Greece, who brought the Greek pantheon, laws and alphabet to Italy, where he founded the city of Pallanteum on the future site of Rome, sixty years before the Trojan War
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King Latinus
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King of Latium; He hosted Aeneas's army of exiled Trojans and let them reorganize their life in Latium. His daughter Lavinia had been promised to Turnus, king of the Rutuli, but Latinus preferred to offer her to Aeneas; Turnus consequently declared war on Aeneas.
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Lavinia/Lavinium
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- the daughter of Latinus and wife of Aeneas; Lavinium was created by Aeneas after killing Turnus in battle over Lavinia and named in honor of Lavinia.
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Turnus
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King of the Rutuli, and the chief antagonist of the hero Aeneas;
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Alba Longa
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the city that preceded Rome; founded by Ascanius
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Marcus Claudius Marcellus
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a Roman general, one of the commanders of the Roman Army during the Second Punic War and the conqueror of Syracuse.
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Anchises
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Father of Aeneas; carried by Aeneas out of Troy at beginning of Aeneid; Cousin of King Priam of Troy, thus showing Aeneas divine origin. In the underworld, he introduces Aeneas to the future leaders of Roman history, and describes Rome’s destiny
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Sybil of Cumae
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One of the female oracles who foretold the fortune in antiquity; She reveals Aeneas’ destiny, which like that of Gilgamesh, is to found a city. She then escorts Aeneas to the underworld and meets up with his father.
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Descensus Ad Infernos
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Descent to the underworld; referring to Sybil of Cumae escorting Aeneas to the underworld where he meets his father.
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Twelve Tables Law
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Around 450 B.C. Rome issued the law of the twelve tables which granted all citizens equal right before the law although prohibited marriage between patricians and plebeians; formed the centerpiece of the constitution of the Roman Republic and the core of the mos maiorum.
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Punic Wars
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During the 2nd and 3rd centuries B.C. Rome fought three wars against Carthage, which was a big naval power and controlled trade throughout the western Mediterranean. The first war was a struggle for control of Sicily. In the second war, the Carthaginian general Hannibal invaded the Italian peninsula from Spain through the Alps. Rome defeated Carthage at the end of the 3rd war.
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Patrician
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the higher echelon of society; conceived as father’s of “Roman Family”; expected to oversee welfare of the state, and plebian’s which show respect in return. Paternalist relationship mirrors the view of the ‘Roman Family’ (Patricians were fathers who protected plebeians, the women and children, and as result owed them loyalty.)
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Roman Republic
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509-27 B.C. Rome’s central location was in a great position regarding trade. Rome began as a small village and grew to a vast empire with a population of about 1 million. International Trade thrived; the phase of the ancient Roman civilization characterized by a republican form of government.
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Senate
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Governing council made up of Patrician Magistrates; Had most of the power of government and Senators indicated their rank by wearing a white toga. Met in the forum
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Magistracies
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created to indicate the highest offices of state
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Plebian
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made up the popular assembly of citizens
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Dictatorship
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Roman dictator was a political office of the Roman Republic. Roman dictators were allocated absolute power during times of emergency. Their power was originally neither arbitrary nor unaccountable, being subject to law and requiring retrospective justification. There were no such dictatorships after the beginning of the 2nd century BCE, and later dictators such as Sulla and the Roman Emperors exercised power much more personally and arbitrarily.
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Julius Caesar
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Roman patrician general and dictator who launched a series of conquests in Western Europe against the Gauls and Goths that took Roman culture and the Latin language as far North as Britain. One of best military strategist in history; He was proclaimed dictator for life, and his power grew so large the Senate plotted his assignation, done by Brutus; “I came. I saw. I conquered.”
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Cleopatra
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Queen of Egypt; shrewd politician; fell in love with Julius Caesar, later met Marc Antony. After being defeated in battle by the Romans she committed suicide.
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Cicero
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the greatest and most influential Roman orator of the first century; a patrician; Elected consul and became famous for political speeches;
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1st Triumvirate
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refer to the unofficial Roman political alliance of Gaius Julius Caesar, Marcus Licinius Crassus, and Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus.
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Stoicism
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Roman Stoics focused on promoting a life in harmony within the universe, over which one has no direct control
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Octavian/Augustus
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Octavian was Caesar’s grandnephew and had been adopted by his son so that he can inherit Caesar’s fortune and power. In 27 B.C. Octavian took the title of Augusts, which connotations of dignity, reverence, divinity, and prosperity. He proclaimed Caesar a god, (deified) and himself a son of a god. The Republic drew to a close when Augustus assumed the power of veto over all laws passed by the Senate. In 12 B.C. Augusts was declared Pontifex Maximus; the end of the Republic and beginning of Roman Empire.
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Actium
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The battle of Actium; Rome declared war on Cleopatra and defeated her forces in 31 B.C. Cleopatra managed to escape with 60 Egyptian boats;
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Principate
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- the first period of the Roman Empire, extending from the beginning of the reign of Caesar Augustus to the crisis of the third century; Principate is characterized by a concerted effort on the part of the Emperors to preserve the illusion of the formal continuance of the Roman Republic.
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Roman Empire
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phase when Rome became the head of the world (caput mundi) and survived the worst of its Emperors; Even the distant provinces of the empire recognized the benefits of Roman rule, which included economic prosperity, and the increasing ease of obtaining Roman citizenship.
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Imperium
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could be used as a term indicating a characteristic of people, the measure of formal power they had.
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Tetrarchy
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a form of government by four co-rulers; Diocletian established a Tetrarchy in an effort to quell civil unrest and restore imperial control; usually marks the resolution of the Crisis of the Third Century and the recovery of the Roman Empire.
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Province
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a state governed by Rome, subject to taxes
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Pax Romana
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Roman Peace; restored by Augustus, lasting for 200 years
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Barbarian Invasions
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Attacks beyond boundaries of Roman EMpire by Gauls, Vandals, and Goths
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