Actium  the site of the battle where Octavian's forces destroyed the army and navy of Antony and Cleopatra. 

Adrianople  the site of the battle in 378 where the Visigoths defeated the Romans.  

aedile - Roman magistrate who oversaw public games, public places, and the grain supply in the city of Rome

Augustus - Octavius, born 63 BC;  adopted by Caesar, formed the Second Triumvirate in 38 BC with Mark Antony and Lepidus; reigned as Roman Emperor from 27 to 14 BC

barracks emperors the name for the period of time in the middle of the 3rd century when many military commanders ruled. After the murder of Severus Alexander in 235, the empire went through a period of almost continuous civil war and campaigns against barbarian attacks. Some emperors held the throne for a few years, some only for a few days. Often, the Praetorian Guard put one of its favorites on the throne only to become dissatisfied with him later and choose another candidate. The most common method of death for an emperor of this period was to be stripped of his purple robes and stabbed to death by a group of mutinous soldiers wielding short swords and daggers. When any new emperor ascended the throne he made sure to pay the soldiers a large bonus. This pattern of murder and military rule by the Guard was to remain until the reign of Diocletian. Diocletian was put on the throne by the Praetorians. Diocletian realized that the empire had grown too large to be ruled by one man. He divided the empire into eastern and western parts and appointed Maximianus as co-emperor with him to rule in the West.

Caligula- Gaius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, lived from 12 to 41; reigned as Roman Emperor from 37 to 41; most of what is known about Caligula comes from accounts provided by Suetonius Paulinus and Cornelius Tacitus ; as a child, Caligula traveled with his father and lived amongst his soldiers who gave him the nickname Caligula, meaning "little boots" from the Latin word for boots worn by soldiers, caligae; though loved as a child, he was hated as emperor caused by his madness that resulted in acts of hostility and lunacy; Caligula was murdered by soldiers in 41.

Cleopatra- queen of Egypt, last of the Ptolemys, who was defeated at the battle of Actium by Octavian

Constantine - born in 272, Constantine assumed his father's position as one of four Roman emperors in Diocletian's tetrarchy in 306; after a series of battles with rivals, he became sole emperor of the Empire in 323; perhaps his most famous battle was against his rival Maxentius at the Milvian bridge near Rome in 312; there, legend has it he saw the sign of the cross in the sky and had it painted on his soldiers' shields; after he won the battle, he converted to Christianity; it was under him that Christianity became the principle religion of the Empire

Constantinople  a new capital city built by Constantine (he called it his New Rome) for defensive reasons due to its excellent strategic location.  

Crassus - Marcus Licinius Crassus, wealthy Roman general and politician; in 71 BC Crassus put down the slave revolt led by Spartacus; in 60 BC Crassus became a member of the First Triumvirate with Caesar and Pompey; following his final consulship, Crassus wentto Syria as its proconsul in 55 BC and was killed at the Battle of Carrhae 53 BC.

dictator  In the Roman republic, leader who would, in time of national crisis, serve as supreme commander for a maximum term of six months. 

Diocletian - born in 245, Diocletian assumed power as Roman emperor in 284; an astute administrator, he decided that the key to governing the vast Roman empire was to divide it; he ruled with Maximian in 285, and then added two more "junior emperors" in 293, one of whom was Constantius, the father of Constantine; in 305 he abdicated and retired; Diocletian is probably best known for his ten-year persecution of the Christians

Fabius  a Roman general known as the Delayer because of his tactics of following and delaying Hannibal's army without risking a pitched battle.  

fasces  an ax surrounded by a bundle of rods used as a symbol for the power to scourge and execute, hence to rule. The Roman magistrates borrowed this symbol from the Etruscan kings. 

First Triumvirate  a coalition between Pompey, Caesar, and Crassus in the Roman senate. The combined power and wealth of the three men enabled them to dominate the political scene. 

Gauls the Celts, people who swept aside a Roman army and sacked Rome around 390 B.C. 

Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus
Tiberius Gracchus had been elected Tribune in 133. He proposed a land bill that would give land to the Roman citizenry. The bill limited the amount of land to an individual to about 330 acres. The Senate would not pass his land bill and so Tiberius went directly to the concilium plebis. As a result, Tiberius and 300 of his followers were killed.

The program of Tiberius was taken up by his brother, Gaius Gracchus, elected tribune in 123. He won the support of the Assembly by legislating to keep the price of grain sold to citizens permanently low. Gaius built new storehouses. The Senate would have nothing of this and so they declared martial law. Riots broke out and 3000 of the Populares, along with Gaius, were killed.

Hadrian  the third of the five good emperors, he recognized that the empire was overextended and pursued a policy of retrenchment; also reinforced fortifications and built a defensive wall 80 miles long across northern Britain; built the Pantheon. 

Hannibal  a Carthaginian general who marched over the Alps with an army of 30,000 to 40,000 men in an attempt to defeat the Romans in their own backyard. / son of Hamilcar Barca; Hannibal marched to Rome, allying himself with various tribes and Italian cities along the way

latifundia  large landed estates, usually worked by slaves, in the late Roman Republic and Empire (singular: latifundium).  / created by buying up several small farms

Land was the only long-term investment in the Roman world, and the upper class used its wealth to put together large estates called latifundia. These were large-scale agricultural estates worked by slaves. The wealthy would try to buy out the small holdings of their neighbors. The heads of the households of small farms would often be away on military duty for years, which made it difficult for the farms to be managed efficiently. It would seem that intimidation was also used to force sales.

The dispossessed smallholders flocked in increasing numbers to Rome to seek some form of subsistance. This would lead to various disruptive influences.

Costly efforts had to be undertaken in the Late Republic to feed the urban poor.
These people caused disruption in the political assemblies in Rome.
Since land was the only form of permanent subsistance and since these poor were only recently removed from the countryside, there were a constant motivation for redistributing landholding in the countryside.
Since these people were those who had previously served as soldiers but now no longer qualified for service through their loss of property, it was clear that something had to be done to save the small holders.
(adapted from http://www.ualberta.ca/~csmackay/CLASS_365/Trends.html)

Livy  one of the chief ancient sources for the history of the early Roman Republic. Though detailed, his stories often had little basis in fact but reinforced Roman patriotism by teaching moral values such as duty, courage, and discipline. 

Marius raised a professional army to fight the Germans on Rome's northern borders. He eventually defeated the Germanic tribes and thus earned the support of the Roman army, which he then began to reform. He abolished the requirement that a solider must own property. he also accepted volunteers. As a result, the army was composed of poor men who looked to Marius as their patron. He was elected consul seven times.

Nero  the fourth Julio-Claudian emperor. Nero was adopted by Claudius and changed his name to Nero Claudius Caesar; he reigned as Roman Emperor from 54 to 68; since he was young when his reign began, his actions were controlled by his mother, Agrippina and Seneca, his tutor. His interest in the arts caused him to neglect affairs of the state, and his actions eventually led to a conspiracy by the Roman legions that removed him from power and ended the dynasty. 

paterfamilias  the dominant male in a Roman family whose powers over his wife and children were theoretically unlimited, though they were sometimes circumvented in practice. The father of the Roman family had the power over everyone and everything in the home. he could even sell his wife or children into slavery and order their deaths if he so chose. This power extended to the man's slaves and tenant farmers as well.

patricians the aristocracy, wealthy landowners who held political power. / a kind of self-perpetuating aristocracy based on a closed group of families who intermarried among themselves. 

A patronus (patron) was a powerful man from whom a lower person could seek assistance. The man seeking assistance then became the cliens (client) of the patron. This system whereby citizens of lower social status received assistance from their "betters" was a very strong bond in Roman society. In Rome the poor had someone to turn to for assistance, and whom they would then have an interest in supporting. This institution was one reason why the poorer plebeians never entirely turned against the ruling class (whether patricians or the later patrician-plebeian nobility). It was always better for most people to seek support from "their" powerful patron rather than try to abolish such power altogether. Though there was some looseness in this institution (it was based on tradition rather than law), the relationship tended to become hereditary (i.e., a man would become the client of the family to which his father had been a client), and a high-status Roman (patron) would naturally inherit the clients of his father. (adapted from http://www.ualberta.ca/~csmackay/CLASS_365/12.Tables.html)

plebeians  the class of Roman citizens who included nonpatrician landowners, craftspeople, merchants, and small farmers in the Roman Republic. Their struggle for equal rights with the patricians (nobility) dominated much of the Republic's history. 

plebiscita  it is the opinion of the plebs; measures adopted the council of the plebs that were binding only on the plebeians, not on the patricians, until 287 B.C. when they became binding on the entire community. 

Pompey -  Roman general and champion of the Senate; shared the consulship with Crassus in 70 BC; member of the First Triumvirate with Caesar and Crassus in 60 BC; defeated by Caesar in 48 BC at Pharsalus, Pompey fled to Egypt where he was murdered.

Populares ("Favoring the people"). leaders in the late Roman Republic who tended to use the peoples' assemblies in an effort to break the stranglehold of nobiles Nobiles "Nobles." The small groups of families from both patrician and plebeian origins who produced most of the men who were elected to office in the Roman Republic.

Optimates were the aristocratic faction of the later Roman Republic. They wished to limit the power of the popular assemblies and extend the power to the Senate, which was viewed as more dedicated to the well-being of Rome. The optimates favored the nobiles (noble families) and opposed the ascension of 'new men' (plebeians, usually provincials, whose family had no former political experience) into Roman politics.

Populare plans included redistribution of land to peasants and former soldiers; redistribution of Roman citizens to provincial colonies; expansion of citizenship to communities outside of Rome

The most notable members were:
Tiberius Gracchus, tribune in 133 BC
Gaius Gracchus, tribune in 123 BC.
Marius a Roman general and politician.

princeps  a title meaning chief citizen or first among equals. It was preferred by Octavian over Augustus -- the revered one -- which was the title awarded to him by the senate. 

Punic Wars - First Punic War between Rome and Carthage that lasted 23 years. Second Punic War a war fought between Carthage, led by the young Hannibal, and Rome. By the end of the war in 202 B.C., Rome was victorious, ensuring that Roman heritage would pass on to the Western world.

Romulus and Remus  the twin brothers who, according to Roman legend, founded Rome in 753 B.C. 

Second Triumvirate  an alliance between Caesar's grandnephew Octavian, Caesar's ally and assistant Mark Antony and the commander of Caesar's cavalry Marcus Ledipus.  

Struggle of the Orders a great social conflict that developed between patricians and plebeians, the plebeians wanted real political representation and safeguards against patrician domination. 

Sulla - In 81 B.C., Marius and his army were overthrown by Sulla. In the 80s civil war broke out in Rome among the factions of the Senate. One group rallied behind Sulla and in 88 B.C. he invaded Rome. The following year Sulla departed for a campaign against Mithridates. While he was away, rival factions seized Rome. Returning in 82 B.C., Sulla once again occupied Rome. Hundreds of his opponents were killed and he had himself named dictator for life.Sulla used his power as dictator to refashion the Roman state.

Tetrarchy - Diocletian wisely decided that the empire was too large for one man to rule effectively. He would choose a co-emperor to help him to share the responsibilities of administering the empire. Also, if the two emperors made their capitals in different parts of the empire, they would be able to respond much more quickly to troubles that arose in their area. In A. D. 286, he chose Maximinus to govern the West as augustus while Diocletian would rule in the East. To ensure that the government would be passed along smoothly in case of the death of one of the augusti, each augustus appointed a caesar to be his replacement. In the meantime, the caesar would gain experience in governing.  Another part of Diocletian’s plan was for the senior augusti to abdicate, or step down after twenty years of rule and allow the caesars to become the augusti in their place. The new augusti would then each choose caesars and thus keep the Tetrarchy complete.

tribunes officials whom plebeians were able to elect; tribunes would in turn protect the plebeians from the arbitrary conduct of patrician magistrates. 

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