Historical Terms – VII

Rome and the World
Etruscans: culture that ruled Rome prior to the republic; ruled through powerful kings and well-organized armies; Romans won independence circa 510 B.C.E.
Plebians: ordinary citizens; originally Roman families that could not trace relationships to one of the major Roman clans.
Consuls: two chief executives of the Roman republic; elected annually by the assembly
dominated by the aristocracy.
Clientage: the social relationship whereby wealthy Roman landholders offered protection and financial aid to lesser citizens in return for political and labor support.
Legions: the basic infantry unit of the Roman military; developed during the republic.
Carthage: founded by the Phoenicians in Tunisia; became a major empire in the western
Mediterranean; fought the Punic wars with Rome for Mediterranean dominance; defeated and destroyed by the Romans.
Punic Wars: three wars (264-146 B.C.E.) between Rome and the Carthaginians; saw the
transformation of Rome from a land to a sea power.
Hannibal: Carthaginian general during the second Punic War; invaded Italy but failed to
conquer Rome.
Republic: the balanced political system of Rome from circa 510 to 47 B.C.E.; featured an
aristocratic senate, a panel of magistrates, and popular assemblies.
Tribunes: plebeian officials elected annually during the Roman republic.
Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus: tribunes who attempted to introduce land and citizenship
reform under the late Roman republic; both killed by order of the Senate.
Marius: Roman general during the last century B.C.E.; introduced the use of paid volunteers in the army rather than citizen conscripts; became a military force with personal loyalty to its commander.
Sulla: conservative military commander during the last century B.C.E., attempted to reinforce the powers of the Senate and counter the influence of Marius.
Julius Caesar: general responsible for the conquest of Gaul; brought the army back to Rome and overthrew the republic; assassinated in B.C.E. by conservative senators.
Octavian: later took name of Augustus; Julius Caesar’s grandnephew and adopted son;
defeated conservative senators after Caesar’s assassination and became the first Roman emperor.
Cicero: conservative senator and Stoic philosopher; one of the great orators of his day.
Vergil: a great Roman epic poet during the Golden Age of Latin literature; author of the
Aeneid.
Horace: poet who adapted Greek poetic meters to Latin; author of lyrical poetry laudatory of the empire.
Ovid: poet exiled by Augustus for sensual poetry considered out of touch with imperial policies stressing family virtues.
Livy: historian who linked the Roman empire to the traditions of the republican past; stressed the virtues thought to be popular during the early empire.
Trajan: emperor (101–106 B.C.E.); instituted a more aggressive imperial foreign policy
resulting in the expansion of the empire to its greatest limits.
Jesus of Nazareth: Jewish teacher and prophet; believed by his followers to be the Messiah; executed by the Romans circa 30 C.E.
Bishops: heads of regional Christian churches.
Paul: early Christian leader; moved away from the insistence that adherents of the new religion follow Jewish law; used Greek as the language of the church.
Augustine: (354–430); bishop of Hippo, north Africa; early Christian philosopher; author of Confessions, City of God.