Ancient Rome

An annotated nodography of E2 resources concerning Roman civilization.

There are substantial resources on E2 for students of ancient Roman civilization, and several noders have ably collected nodographies over the years. I am updating the collection and assembling the entries on Rome topically as an aid to the researcher and noder. Because many nodes straddle categories, I have copiously cross-listed them. Default organization is alphabetic except under political biography, which follows "industry standards" in being listed alphabetically by nomen gentilicium (the middle, and most important of a Roman's three names). I have for the most part deliberately sought to avoid empty nodeshells with collections of softlinks.

Lastly, I have annotated most entries to give an idea of content. I did this with two overlapping criteria. First, I thought of the newcomer to Roman studies wanting technical stuff glossed a little to facilitate searching; and the more experienced reader wanting a more specific idea of content. I hope I haven't fallen between two stools!

Other collections of E2 bibliography
• classical studies (a collection of nodes on both Greece and Rome)
• Italy (many nodes on ancient Italy and Rome)
• World History (a collection of hardlinks to historical periods and areas)

Geography
• Alexandria (chief city of Roman Egypt, cultural capital of the empire)
• Ancient Greece
• Carthage (Rome's bellicose competitor for trade resources, ultimately victim of Roman expansion)
• Etruscan (Rome's violent but fun-loving neighbors to the north)
• Italy (diachronic, through modern times)
• Nomen Latinum (on Rome's immediate neighbors)
• Leptis Magna (important North African city)
• Ravenna (extremely important site of paleochristian art and architecture in northern Italy)
• Vindobona (Roman army base that became Vienna, Austria)

Roman topography (geography, monuments, and related art of the city of Rome. But see also Roman archeology)
• Appian Way (i.e., via Appia)
• Ara Pacis (i.e., the Ara Pacis Augustae, the prominent Augustan monument of 13 BC)
• Aurelian Wall (i.e., Muri Aureliani, the late antique walls of Rome)
• Circus Maximus
• Colosseum (the Flavian Amphitheater)
• Colossus of Nero (one man's humble attempt to make a mark on his home town)
• Domus Aurea ("Now at last I can begin to live like a human being": Nero, on taking up residence here)
• Flavian Amphitheater (needs content!)
• Forum Iulium
• Forum of Augustus (i.e., Forum Augusti)
• Forum of Nerva (i.e., Forum Nervae, Forum Transitorium)
• Forum of Trajan (i.e., Forum Traiani)
• Forum Romanum (commented list of monuments and some history)
• The Obelisk of Psammeticus II (i.e., the obelisk of Augustus' giant sundial)
• pantheon (the great rotunda of Hadrianic age)
• pomerium (a.k.a. pomoerium, the sacred boundary of the Roman community)
• Porta Carmentalis (gate in Rome's Servian Walls with inauspicious associations)
• Rome (mostly topographical writeups with some history)
• San Clemente, Rome (basilica with important Mithraeum in basement)
• the seven hills of Rome (alternative lists circulated in antiquity)
• Stairs of mourning (i.e., Scalae Gemoniae, where executed criminals were cast out)
• Temple of Jupiter Feretrius
• The Testaccio (titanic heap o' sherds giving its name to a district of the modern city)
• Trajan's column (i.e., Columna Traiani, the one with St. Peter on top)
• tufa (common building material of the republic, its many varieties the bane of students of Roman architecture)

Roman myth-history (early period to ca. 400 B.C. Historians disagree strongly over how much of this is "myth" and how much is "history")
• Carmenta (Evander's mother)
• The Early History of Rome (Livy's first five books)
• Etruscan (key figures in early Roman history, northern neighbors and rivals)
• The Exile of Tarquin, and the First Consuls (drawn from Livy 1.55)
• Horatius at the Bridge (the plucky lad who covered the Roman retreat in 509 BC)
• The Oath of the Horatii (art historical treatment of Jacques Louis David's painting)
• Rape of Lucretia (trigger of expulsion of the kings)
• Roman virtues (overlaps with Mores Maiorum; lacks magnitudo animi)
• Rome: Kings and Consuls (a list of the Roman kings without traditional dates)
• Romulus and Remus (genesis and fate of the two heroes)
• Sabine Women (a novel way of increasing the population)
• Tarpeian Rock (Capitoline Hill site of capital punishment)
• Tarquin the Proud (the last king, driven into exile, 510 BC)

Roman (mostly political) history (but see Roman political life, political biography, and Roman empire)
• 19 CE Expulsion from Rome (Tiberius' expulsion of Jews and Egyptians)
• ancient Greece and Rome timeline (55,000 BC - AD 410; Roman period mostly a list of emperors)
• ancient history (when does "ancient" history end?)
• Augustan Reforms (military, political, social, religious, and other reforms of Augustus)
• Augustus (on the first emperor)
• Catiline Orations (i.e., the Catilinarian orations, 1-3).
• Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam (Cato's boilerplate peroration calling for Carthage's destruction)
• The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (the collapse of the empire)
• The Fall of the Roman Empire (the transformation of the empire into its medieval descendants)
• first triumvirate (the unofficial coalition of Pompey, Crassus, and Caesar)
• History (what is history, what does it mean?)
• The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (a vast project offering the text of Gibbon)
• Nomen Latinum (relevant for earlier periods)
• Pax Romana (the relatively peaceful era during the empire's height, c. 27 BC - AD 180)
• The Punic Wars and the Fall of the Roman Republic (better on the Punic Wars)
• Res Gestae Divi Augusti (Augustus' autobiographical inscription. Its role in his propaganda)
• Roman Emperors (a complete, extensively hardlinked list)
• Roman Empire (history and geography)
• Roman Republic (a collection of softlinks only. Someone should fill this)
• second triumvirate (Antony, Lepidus, and Octavian)
• Senator Robert Byrd and the Roman Republic (the second half is about the republic and its fall)
• Spartacus (Thracian shepherd who led a massive slave revolt)
• Western Roman Empire (AD 395-480)

Roman political life (alphabetical)
• auctoritas (defines the political technical term)
• Caesar (the name as it became a technical term, leading to "Kaiser" and "Czar")
• censor (the magistracy)
• centuriate assembly (the most important republican voting assembly)
• Consul (the highest regular magistracy)
• cursus honorum (the basic Roman republican career pattern)
• curule chair (an important token of the higher Roman magistrates)
• curule magistrate (a definition of the term)
• dignitas (defines the political technical term)
• Equestrian (the apolitical stratum of the upper class)
• Fasces (symbol of magisterial authority)
• Imperium (the quasi-religious power vested in the highest Roman magistrates)
• Lex (technical information on the naming and storage of Roman laws)
• lictor (minor functionary who shouldered people out of curule magistrates' way)
• Mores Maiorum (see Roman virtues under myth-history above)
• Novus Homo (Latin term for a political upstart)
• patres (et) conscripti (technical term for senators as a group)
• Plebeian (the Roman "commoners")
• Political suicide (a way to avoid condemnation and save part of the family fortune from confiscation)
• Praetor (the second-ranked regular republican magistracy)
• Praetorian Guard (the emperor's bodyguard)
• proconsul (Webster needs some help here)
• Public Offices in Ancient Rome (a good collection of most of the offices of the republic)
• Senate (the politically active stratum of the upper class)
• Spolia Opima (awarded for killing an enemy leader in single combat under your own auspices)
• SPQR (defines the term)
• Tribunus plebis (office instituted to protect the commons from aristocratic magistrates)

Roman political biography (i.e., people mainly known for political reasons, alphabetical by family--'middle', or gentilicium--name)
• Hadrian (i.e., Publius Aelius Hadrianus, Roman emperor)
• Lucius Aemilius Paulus (father who fell at Cannae, and son who defeated Perseus at Pydna)
• Titus Annius Milo (optimate henchman in the 50s BC, Cicero's famous client)
• Antonia the Younger (i.e., the daughter of M. Antonius, mother of Claudius)
• Antoninus Pius (i.e., Titus Aelius Hadrianus Antonius Pius Augustus Caesar--deserves a longer writeup)
• Lucius Artorius Castus (Artorius, i.e., Arthur, king of the Britons? Early Aneurin)
• Marcus Aurelius (i.e., Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, philosopher-emperor)
• Commodus (i.e., Lucius Aurelius Commodus, emperor and son of Marcus Aurelius)
• Piso (covers several Calpurnii Pisones of the republic and empire)
• Appius Claudius Caecus (an empty node with soft links relevant to his life and career)
• Claudius (i.e., Tiberius Claudius Nero Germanicus the emperor)
• Nero Claudius Drusus Germanicus (brother of Tiberius, father of Claudius and Germanicus)
• Publius Clodius Pulcher (prominent late republican politician given to "unsound" methods. But he loved his sister, at least)
• Cornelius Cossus (early winner of spolia opima)
• Scipio Africanus (i.e., Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus, defeater of Hannibal, and his adoptive son)
• Sulla (i.e., Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix, champion of senatorial conservatism and ruthless dictator)
• Didius Julianus (i.e., Marcus Didius Severus Iulianus, emperor for about 8 minutes, AD 193)
• Nero (i.e., Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, the emperor)
• Gaius Fabricius Luscinus (general in the Pyrrhic wars)
• Vespasian (i.e., Titus Flavius Vespasianus, emperor)
• Domitian (i.e., Titus Flavius Domitianus, "dominus et deus" to his friends)
• Flavian Dynasty (Vespasian-Titus-Domitian)
• Flavius Aetius (5th century AD statesman and onetime Hun hostage)
• Marcus Furius Camillus (hero of the war against Veii and against the Gauls, c. 400 BC)
• Pertinax (i.e., Publius Helvius Pertinax, the school teacher who became emperor, AD 193)
• Julius Caesar (a good long discussion of Caesar the dictator)
• Julio-Claudian Dynasty (Augustus-Tiberius-Caligula-Claudius-Nero)
• The Death Of Julius Caesar (CSI--Ancient Rome)
• Augustus (i.e., Imperator Caesar Augustus)
• Res Gestae Divi Augusti (inscribed autobiography of Augustus)
• Acta est fabula and Plaudite, amici, comedia finita est (two versions of Augustus' last words)
• Tiberius (i.e., Tiberius Iulius Caesar Augustus, second emperor)
• Germanicus (i.e., Germanicus Julius Caesar Claudianus, adopted son of Tiberius)
• Cnaeus Julius Agricola (i.e., Gnaeus Iulius Agricola, Flavian general, father-in-law to Tacitus)
• Marcus Licinius Crassus Dives ("associate" of Pompey and Caesar, killed in Syria, 53 BC)
• Livia (i.e., Livia Drusilla, wife of the emperor Augustus)
• Marius (i.e., Gaius Marius, greatest republican iterator of consulships (7) and army reformer)
• Lucius Mummius (sacker of Corinth)
• Octavia (1 Augustus' sister; 2 Nero's luckless first wife)
• Pliny the Younger (i.e., Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus, litterateur and prominent politician of the early empire)
• Pompey (i.e., Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, late republican dynast)
• Sextus Pompeius (the son of Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus)
• Cato the Elder (i.e., Marcius Porcius Cato, consul, censor, would-be Carthage destroyer)
• Otho (i.e., Marcus Salvius Otho, would-be successor to Nero)
• Tiberius Gracchus (i.e., Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus, luckless tribune and reformer of 133 BC)
• Septimius Severus (i.e., Lucius Septimius Severus, emperor)
• L. Sergius Catilina, i.e., Catiline (the would-be revolutionary of 63 BC)
• Galba (i.e., Servius Sulpicius Galba, successor to Nero)
• Tigellinus (Neronian baddy who egged the emperor on)
• Marcus Tullius Cicero i.e., Cicero (the great orator and statesman)
• Constantius Chlorus (i.e., Flavius Valerius Iulius Constantius, father of the following)
• Constantine (i.e., Flavius Valerius Constantinus, recognizer of Christianity, founder of Constantinople, etc.)
• Marcus Valerius Corvinus Mesalla (read: Messala. Cautius collaborator with the Augustan regime)
• Agrippa (i.e., Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, Augustus' number two man)
• Vitellius (i.e., Aulus Vitellius, noted feaster and would-be successor to Nero)

Roman social history
• Equestrian (the apolitical stratum of the upper class)
• How to wear a toga (instructions. Not quite social history, but . . . )
• Lead Poisoning and the Fall of the Roman Empire (improbable, but here are some arguments)
• Marriage in ancient Rome (marriage customs)
• Mores Maiorum (see Roman virtues under myth-history above)
• Mortality in the Ancient World (a general discussion)
• The namelessness of Roman women (male and female onomastics)
• Novus Homo (Roman republican political upstarts)
• Patronage in Ancient Rome (the mechanism of interpersonal relations)
• Plebeian (the "commoners")
• princeps (development of the word into something like a title for the early emperors)
• Roman names and Roman Naming Method (onomastics)
• Roman Sense of Humor (focuses on sex and violence)
• Roman sexuality (good discussions, should reference Williams' Roman Homosexuality)
• Roman virtues (see under myth-history above)
• toga (terms and definitions concerning the distinctive Roman garb)
• The world's first contraceptive (the recipe. No word on effectiveness!)
• Titus and Berenice (the emperor and his concubine, on Roman antisemitism)

Roman law
• corpus iuris civilis (the title of Justinian's code)
• falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus (legal principle)
• Justinian (caused the codification of Roman law in c. AD 529)
• Latin law expressions (metanode)
• Lex (technical description)
• Praetor (responsibilities included oversight of Roman civil and criminal law)
• res gestae (the law term, not the Augustan inscription)
• Roman law (a good general discussion)
• The Twelve Tables (i.e., lex XII tabularum, the first Roman law code, c. 450 BC)

Roman religion
• Ancient Roman Sacrificing (a discursive discussion)
• Apollonius of Tyana (a first-century wonder worker paralleling Jesus)
• Carmenta (mythical mother of Evander, primeval Roman)
• epulones (feast-giving priests)
• The Feast of Cybele
• Fordicidia (festival of Tellus)
• Greek and Roman Mythology (part of a vast series of nodes on different myth systems)
• interpretatio romana (Roman practice of identifying foreign gods by the nearest Roman equivalent)
• lar, lares (Webster shells needing filling)
• Lemuria (festival of the dead)
• Lupercalia (fertility festival)
• manes (spirits of the departed)
• Mithraism and Roman Mithraism (popular cult among veterans, brought back from the East)
• Natalis Solis Invicti (why Christmas is December 25)
• Olympians (this metanode links to nodes on the 12 gods. See also Titans and Olympians)
• Pax Deorum (an uneasy truce with the gods. Just don't screw that ritual up . . . .)
• Quirinus (deity associated with Romulus)
• Roman Origins of the Universe (a brief discussion)
• The Roman Pantheon of Gods and Goddesses (specifically Roman/Latin discussion)
• Roman persecution of Christians (Roman tolerance and lack thereof)
• Roman temple architecture
• Saint Cecilia (traditional 3rd century Roman martyr with important cult sites)
• Saturnalia (festival of Saturn, noted for relaxing of social boundaries)
• The Secular Games (i.e., ludi saeculares, periodic games with a religious significance)
• Carmen Saeculare (Horace's showstopper hymn from the Secular Games of 17 BC)
• Silvanus (a rustic god)
• Spolia Opima (awarded for killing an enemy leader in single combat under your own auspices)
• Tauroctony (slaughter of a bull in Mithraic rites)
• Temple of Jupiter Feretrius (connected with spolia opima)
• vestal virgin (attandant of Rome's sacred symbolic hearth)

Roman army/wars/battles (but see Roman political history, Roman Empire)
• Actium (decisive triumviral sea battle, 31 BC)
• Battle of Adrianople (a maraudin' horde o' Visigoths whacks emperor Valens & co., AD 478)
• Battle of Cannae (second Punic War)
• Battle of Lake Trasimene (second Punic War)
• Battle of the Medway (important battle, AD 43, Rome vs. Caratacus)
• Battle of the Teutoburg Forest (great defeat under Augustus, AD 9)
• Battle of Trebia (second Punic War)
• Battle of Zama (second Punic War)
• Caesar's Commentaries on the Gallic War as military history (his strengths and weaknesses as a modern military historian)
• Carthage (Rome's great mid-republican opponent)
• Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam (Cato's boilerplate peroration calling for Carthage's destruction)
• De Bello Gallico (Caesar's version of his conquest of Gaul, roughly modern France)
• The Gallic Wars Appendix A (metanode: Caesar on the legion, cavalry, formations, officers, special units, camps, materiel, and food and pay)
• Decimate (extreme military punishment-kill every tenth man)
• First Punic War (Bellum poenicum primum)
• foederati (late antique auxiliaries serving under their own commanders--not immensely loyal)
• gladius (the typical Roman short sword)
• The Imperial Roman Army (a detailed discussion)
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