Notes
- ↑ Titus Livius, Ab urbe condita libri XXXVI 37.
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The Ieiunium Cereris (Latin: the fast of Ceres) was a Roman festival devoted to the goddess Ceres, observed on the 4th of October (on the 4th day prior to the Nones of October), during which its participants refrained from consuming food. Titus Livius remarked that it was instituted in the year 191 BC according to the Sibylline Books and used to occur every fifth year; [1] during the era of Augustus, it started to be commemorated on a yearly basis.
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Titus Livius, known in English as Livy, was a Roman historian. He wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people, titled Ab Urbe Condita, ''From the Founding of the City'', covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome before the traditional founding in 753 BC through the reign of Augustus in Livy's own lifetime. He was on good terms with members of the Julio-Claudian dynasty and was a friend of Augustus, whose young grandnephew, the future emperor Claudius, he encouraged to take up the writing of history.
Seleucus IV Philopator, ruler of the Hellenistic Seleucid Empire, reigned from 187 BC to 175 BC over a realm consisting of Syria, Mesopotamia, Babylonia and Nearer Iran.
Tullus Hostilius was the legendary third king of Rome. He succeeded Numa Pompilius and was succeeded by Ancus Marcius. Unlike his predecessor, Tullus was known as a warlike king who, according to the Roman historian Livy, believed the more peaceful nature of his predecessor had weakened Rome. It has been attested that he sought out war and was even more warlike than the first king of Rome, Romulus. Accounts of the death of Tullus Hostilius vary. In the mythological version of events Livy describes, he had angered Jupiter who then killed him with a bolt of lightning. Non-mythological sources on the other hand describe that he died of plague after a rule of 32 years.
Lucius Livius Andronicus was a Greco-Roman dramatist and epic poet of the Old Latin period during the Roman Republic. He began as an educator in the service of a noble family, producing Latin translations of Greek works, including Homer's Odyssey. The translations were meant, at first, as educational devices for the school which he founded. He also wrote works for the stage—both tragedies and comedies—which are regarded as the first dramatic works written in the Latin language. His comedies were based on Greek New Comedy and featured characters in Greek costume. Thus, the Romans referred to this new genre by the term comoedia palliata. The Roman biographer Suetonius later coined the term "half-Greek" of Livius and Ennius. The genre was imitated by later generations of playwrights, and Andronicus is accordingly regarded as the father of Roman drama and of Latin literature in general; that is, he was the first man of letters to write in Latin. Varro, Cicero, and Horace, all men of letters during the subsequent Classical Latin period, considered Livius Andronicus to have been the originator of Latin literature. He is the earliest Roman poet whose name is known.
The gens Mamilia was a plebeian family at ancient Rome during the period of the Republic. The gens was originally one of the most distinguished families of Tusculum, and indeed in the whole of Latium. It is first mentioned in the time of the Tarquins; and it was to a member of this family, Octavius Mamilius, that Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, the seventh and last King of Rome, betrothed his daughter. The gens obtained Roman citizenship in the 5th century BC, and some of its members must subsequently have settled at Rome, where Lucius Mamilius Vitulus became the first of the family to hold the consulship in 265 BC, the year before the First Punic War.
Ausona was a 4th-century BC city in the central Italian region of Latium. It was one of the three cities possessed by the tribe of the Ausones and its name seems to imply that it was their chief city or metropolis. It is only once mentioned in history: during the Second Samnite War, when—the Ausones having revolted against the Romans—all three of their cities were betrayed into the hands of the Roman consuls, and their inhabitants put to the sword without mercy. No subsequent notice is found of Ausona; but it is supposed to have been situated on the banks of the little river still called Ausente, which flows into the Liris near its mouth. The plain below the modern village of Le Fratte, near the sources of this little stream, is still known as the Piano dell'Ausente; and some remains of a Roman town have been discovered there.
Tribune of the plebs, tribune of the people or plebeian tribune was the first office of the Roman state that was open to the plebeians, and was, throughout the history of the Republic, the most important check on the power of the Roman Senate and magistrates. These tribunes had the power to convene and preside over the Concilium Plebis ; to summon the senate; to propose legislation; and to intervene on behalf of plebeians in legal matters; but the most significant power was to veto the actions of the consuls and other magistrates, thus protecting the interests of the plebeians as a class. The tribunes of the plebs were typically found seated on special benches set up for them in the Roman Forum. The tribunes were sacrosanct, meaning that any assault on their person was punishable by death. In imperial times, the powers of the tribunate were granted to the emperor as a matter of course, and the office itself lost its independence and most of its functions.
The History of Rome, perhaps originally titled Annales, and frequently referred to as Ab Urbe Condita, is a monumental history of ancient Rome, written in Latin between 27 and 9 BC by the Roman historian Titus Livius, better known in English as "Livy". The work covers the period from the legends concerning the arrival of Aeneas and the refugees from the fall of Troy, to the city's founding in 753 BC, the expulsion of the Kings in 509 BC, and down to Livy's own time, during the reign of the emperor Augustus. The last event covered by Livy is the death of Drusus in 9 BC. 35 of 142 books, about a quarter of the work, are still extant. The surviving books deal with the events down to 293 BC, and from 219 to 166 BC.
The Battle of Numistro was fought in 210 BC between Hannibal's army and one of the Roman consular armies led by consul Marcus Claudius Marcellus. It was the fourth time they met in a battle. Previous encounters were located around the walls of Nola (Campania) in 216, 215, and 214 and had been favourable for the Roman side.
Tiberius Sempronius Longus was a Roman consul during the Second Punic War and a contemporary of Publius Cornelius Scipio. In 219 BC, Sempronius and the elder Scipio were elected as consuls for 218 BC. At the outbreak of the war in 218 BC, he was ordered to conduct the war effort in Sicily and Africa, while Scipio was sent to the Iberian Peninsula to attack Hannibal himself. Sempronius was allocated two Roman legions, 16,000 allied infantry, 1,800 allied cavalry, 160 quinqueremes and 20 lighter vessels. As soon as his army was assembled he moved his forces to Sicily. Striking from Lilybaeum Sempronius captured Malta from the Carthaginians.
Marcus Annius Verus Caesar was a son of Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius and Empress Faustina the Younger. Annius was made caesar on 12 October 166 AD, alongside his brother Commodus, designating them co-heirs of the Roman Empire. Annius died on 10 September 169, at age seven, due to complications from a surgery to remove a tumor from under his ear. His death left Commodus as the sole heir.
Quintus Caecilius Metellus was a pontiff in 216 BC, aedile of the plebeians in 209 BC, curule aedile in 208 BC, magister equitum in 207 BC, consul in 206 BC, dictator in 205 BC, proconsul of Bruttium in 204 BC, and an ambassador at the court of Philip V of Macedon in 185 BC.
Gaia was a Berber king of the Massylii, an eastern Numidian tribe in North Africa.
The gens Curiatia was a distinguished family at Rome, with both patrician and plebeian branches. Members of this gens are mentioned in connection with the reign of Tullus Hostilius, the third King of Rome, during the seventh century BC. The first of the Curiatii to attain any significant office was Publius Curiatius Fistus, surnamed Trigeminus, who held the consulship in 453 BC. The gens continued to exist throughout the Republic, and perhaps into imperial times, but seldom did its members achieve any prominence.
Octavius Mamilius was princeps of Tusculum, an ancient city of Latium. He was the son-in-law of Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, the seventh and last king of Rome. According to tradition, the gens Mamilia was descended from Mamilia, reputedly a granddaughter of Ulysses (Odysseus) and Circe. Titus Livius described Octavius as head of one of the most distinguished families of Latium, and thus an important ally of Tarquinius.
The gens Arennia was a plebeian family at Rome during the period of the Punic Wars. It is known chiefly from two individuals, probably brothers, who held the office of tribune of the plebs in 210 BC, during the War with Hannibal.
Pacuvius Calavius was the chief magistrate of Capua during the Second Punic War. In the aftermath of the Battle of Lake Trasimene, he prevented the people of Capua from surrendering the city to Hannibal. When the Capuans finally capitulated, he dissuaded his son from a rash attempt on the life of the Carthaginian general.
The gens Verginia or Virginia was a prominent family at ancient Rome, which from an early period was divided into patrician and plebeian branches. The gens was of great antiquity. It frequently filled the highest honors of the state during the early years of the Republic. The first of the family who obtained the consulship was Opiter Verginius Tricostus in 502 BC, the seventh year of the Republic. The plebeian members of the family were also numbered amongst the early tribunes of the people.
The gens Duilia or Duillia was a plebeian family at ancient Rome. The first of the gens to achieve prominence was Marcus Duilius, tribune of the plebs in BC 470. The family produced several important statesmen over the first three centuries of the Republic, before fading into obscurity.
Gaius Marcius Figulus was a politician of the Roman Republic who served as praetor in 169 BC, Roman consul in 162 BC, and again as consul in 156 BC. Upon being elected to the praetorship in 169 BC, Figulus received command of the Roman fleets by lot. Later that year, he transported the consul, Quintus Marcius Philippus, to Ambracia so that he could assume command of Roman forces fighting the Third Macedonian War. Figulus himself sailed on to Creusa, then crossed Boeotia by land in a single day to join the rest of the fleet at Chalcis. The only other mention Livy makes of Figulus is a reference to his having assigned part of the fleet to winter quarters at Sciathus, and the remainder at Oreum, in Euboea, which he judged the best location to maintain supply lines to the army in Macedon.