Caesar Augustus, also known as Octavian, was officially the first Roman emperor who reigned from 27 BC until his death in AD 14. He is known for being the founder of the Roman Principate, which is the first phase of the Roman Empire, and Augustus is considered one of the greatest leaders in human history. The reign of Augustus initiated an imperial cult as well as an era associated with imperial peace, the Pax Romana or Pax Augusta. The Roman world was largely free from large-scale conflict for more than two centuries despite continuous wars of imperial expansion on the Empire's frontiers and the year-long civil war known as the "Year of the Four Emperors" over the imperial succession.
The First Triumvirate was an informal political alliance among three prominent politicians in the late Roman Republic: Gaius Julius Caesar, Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus and Marcus Licinius Crassus. The constitution of the Roman republic had many veto points. In order to bypass constitutional obstacles and force through the political goals of the three men, they forged in secret an alliance where they promised to use their respective influence to support each other. The "triumvirate" was not a formal magistracy, nor did it achieve a lasting domination over state affairs.
Sir Ronald Syme, was a New Zealand-born historian and classicist. He was regarded as the greatest historian of ancient Rome since Theodor Mommsen and the most brilliant exponent of the history of the Roman Empire since Edward Gibbon. His great work was The Roman Revolution (1939), a masterly and controversial analysis of Roman political life in the period following the assassination of Julius Caesar.
Gaius Sallustius Crispus, usually anglicised as Sallust, was a Roman historian and politician from an Italian plebeian family. Sallust was born at Amiternum in the country of the Sabines and later a partisan of Julius Caesar. He is the earliest known Latin-language Roman historian with surviving works to his name, of which Conspiracy of Catiline, The Jugurthine War, and the Histories are still extant. Sallust was primarily influenced by the Greek historian Thucydides and amassed great and ill-gotten wealth from his governorship of Africa.
Optimates and populares are labels applied to politicians, political groups, traditions, strategies, or ideologies in the late Roman Republic. There is "heated academic discussion" as to whether Romans would have recognised an ideological content or political split in the label.
The mos maiorum is the unwritten code from which the ancient Romans derived their social norms. It is the core concept of Roman traditionalism, distinguished from but in dynamic complement to written law. The mos maiorum was collectively the time-honoured principles, behavioural models, and social practices that affected private, political, and military life in ancient Rome.
The Roman Revolution (1939) is a scholarly study of the final years of the ancient Roman Republic and the creation of the Roman Empire by Caesar Augustus. The book was the work of Sir Ronald Syme (1903–1989), a noted Tacitean scholar, and was published by the Oxford University Press. It was immediately controversial. Its main conclusion was that the structure of the Republic and its Senate were inadequate to the needs of Roman rule, and that Augustus was merely doing what was necessary to restore order in public life.
Erich Stephen Gruen is an American classicist and ancient historian. He was the Gladys Rehard Wood Professor of History and Classics at the University of California, Berkeley, where he taught full-time from 1966 until 2008. He served as president of the American Philological Association in 1992.
Marcus Aemilius Lepidus was a Roman statesman and general. After the death of Lucius Cornelius Sulla, he joined or instigated a rebellion against the government established by Lucius Cornelius Sulla, demanding a consecutive term as consul late in his year and – when refused – marching on Rome. Lepidus' forces were defeated in a battle near the Milvian Bridge and he fled to Sardinia. He was the father of the triumvir Marcus Aemilius Lepidus and of one of the consuls for 50 BC Lucius Aemilius Lepidus Paullus.
Lucius Marcius Philippus was a politician and senate in the late Roman republic. He was governor of Syria from 61 to 60 and later served in the consulship of 56 BC. He was also step-father of the emperor Augustus.
Publius Cornelius Cethegus was a politician of the Roman Republic. During the civil wars of the 80s BC, he was originally a partisan of Gaius Marius, but survived the purges of the political class by defecting to the eventual victor, Sulla, whose favor he endeavored to win by treacherously abetting in the massacre of several thousand prisoners of war. Although he was regarded as a moral reprobate with a dissolute lifestyle, Cethegus became in the 70s BC a leading figure in the Roman Senate as a master of intrigue and manipulation, to the extent that the most eminent men of the state vied for his favor. He played a key behind-the-scenes role in the allotment of important provincial governorships and military commands in the year 74 BC, and probably died not long afterwards.
Mamercus Aemilius Lepidus Livianus was a Roman politician and military commander who was consul in 77 BC.
Quintus Caecilius Metellus Nepos was an ancient Roman politician during the Late Republic. He was a son of Quintus Caecilius Metellus Nepos and served as tribune of the plebs in 62 BC, consul in 57 BC, and the governor of Hispania Citerior from 56–55 BC.
Attidius, possibly to be identified with Marcus Atilius Bulbus, was a senator of the Roman Republic. Sometime in the early 70s BC, he was convicted of a crime, probably maiestas, and exiled. Attidius found refuge in the court of Mithridates VI of Pontus, and the two men were friends for many years. The sole evidence for Attidius's life and career is a passage by the Greek historian Appian in his Mithridatic Wars.
Gaius Marcius Figulus was a consul of the Roman Republic in 64 BC.
Decimus Junius Brutus was a Roman politician who was elected consul in 77 BC.
The Catilinarian conspiracy was an attempted coup d'état by Lucius Sergius Catilina (Catiline) to overthrow the Roman consuls of 63 BC – Marcus Tullius Cicero and Gaius Antonius Hybrida – and forcibly assume control of the state in their stead.
The prosopography of ancient Rome is an approach to classical studies and ancient history that focuses on family connections, political alliances, and social networks in ancient Rome. The methodology of Roman prosopography involves defining a group for study—often the social ranking called ordo in Latin, as of senators and equestrians—then collecting and analyzing data. Literary sources provide evidence mainly for the ruling elite. Epigraphy and papyrology are sources that may also document ordinary people, who have been studied in groups such as imperial freedmen, lower-class families, and specific occupations such as wet nurses (nutrices).
Sempronia was an Ancient Roman woman of the late Republic who was the wife of Decimus Junius Brutus, the consul of 77 B.C. and step-mother of his son Decimus Junius Brutus Albinus who became one of Julius Caesar's assassins.
Gaius Antius Restio was a politician of the Roman Republic. He is principally known for the lex Antia sumptuaria, a law against luxury he passed as tribune of the plebs in 68 BC. This law forbade magistrates from attending banquets, in an attempt to contain political corruption. One of the few sources on Restio's life is a poem of his contemporary Catullus, telling that he was an enemy of Publius Sestius, a politician and good friend of Cicero.
