1.
King of Rome
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The King of Rome was the chief magistrate of the Roman Kingdom. According to legend, the first king of Rome was Romulus, seven legendary kings are said to have ruled Rome until 509 BC, when the last king was overthrown. These kings ruled for an average of 35 years, the kings after Romulus were not known to be dynasts and no reference is made to the hereditary principle until after the fifth king Tarquinius Priscus. Consequently, some have assumed that the Tarquins and their attempt to institute a hereditary monarchy over this conjectured earlier elective monarchy resulted in the formation of the republic, early Rome was not self-governing, and was ruled by the king. The king possessed absolute power over the people, the senate was a weak oligarchy, capable of exercising only minor administrative powers, so that Rome was ruled by its king who was in effect an absolute monarch. The senates main function was to out and administer the wishes of the king. Candidates for the throne could be chosen from any source, for example, one such candidate, Lucius Tarquinius Priscus was originally a citizen and migrant from a neighboring Etruscan city-state. The people of Rome, sitting as the Curiate Assembly, could either accept or reject the nominated candidate-king. The insignia of the king was twelve lictors wielding the fasces, a throne of a Curule chair, the purple Toga Picta, red shoes, only the king could wear a purple toga. The people knew the king as a mediator between them and the gods and thus viewed the king with religious awe and this made the king the head of the national religion and its chief executive. Having the power to control the Roman calendar, he conducted all religious ceremonies and appointed lower religious offices and it was Romulus who instituted the augurs and who was believed to have been the best augur of all. Likewise, King Numa Pompilius instituted the pontiffs and through them developed the foundations of the dogma of Rome. Beyond his religious authority, the king was invested with the military, executive. The imperium of the king was held for life and protected him from ever being brought to trial for his actions. As being the owner of imperium in Rome at the time. His executive power and his sole imperium allowed him to issue decrees with the force of law, also, the laws that kept citizens safe from the misuse of magistrates owning imperium did not exist during the times of the king. Another power of the king was the power to appoint or nominate all officials to offices. The king would appoint a tribunus celerum to serve as both the tribune of Ramnes tribe in Rome but also as the commander of the personal bodyguard
2.
Servius Tullius
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Servius Tullius was the legendary sixth king of Rome, and the second of its Etruscan dynasty. He reigned 575–535 BC. Roman and Greek sources describe his origins and later marriage to a daughter of Lucius Tarquinius Priscus, Romes first Etruscan king. Several traditions describe Servius father as divine, Livy depicts Servius mother as a captured Latin princess enslaved by the Romans, her child is chosen as Romes future king after a ring of fire is seen around his head. The Emperor Claudius discounted such origins and described him as an originally Etruscan mercenary, named Mastarna, Servius was a popular king, and one of Romes most significant benefactors. He had military successes against Veii and the Etruscans, and expanded the city to include the Quirinal, Viminal and Esquiline hills. He is traditionally credited with the institution of the Compitalia festivals, the building of temples to Fortuna and Diana and, less plausibly, despite the opposition of Romes patricians, he expanded the Roman franchise and improved the lot and fortune of Romes lowest classes of citizens and non-citizens. According to Livy, he reigned for 44 years, until murdered by his daughter Tullia, in consequence of this tragic crime and his hubristic arrogance as king, Tarquinius was eventually removed. This cleared the way for the abolition of Romes monarchy and the founding of the Roman Republic, before its establishment as a Republic, Rome was ruled by kings. In Roman tradition, Romes founder Romulus was the first, Servius Tullius was the sixth, and his successor Tarquinius Superbus was the last. The nature of Roman kingship is unclear, most Roman kings were elected by the senate, as to a lifetime magistracy, some were native Romans, others were foreign. Later Romans had a complex relationship with this distant past. In Republican mores and institutions kingship was abhorrent, and remained so, in name at least, Servius Tullius has been described as Romes second founder, the most complex and enigmatic of all its kings, and a kind of proto-Republican magistrate. The oldest surviving source for the political developments of the Roman kingdom and Republic is Ciceros De republica. Livys sources probably included at least some official state records, he excluded what seemed implausible or contradictory traditions, and arranged his material within an overarching chronology. Dionysius and Plutarch offer various alternatives not found in Livy, and Livys own pupil and she was given to Tanaquil, wife of king Tarquinius, and though slave, was treated with the respect due her former status. In one variant, she became wife to a client of Tarquinius. According to Tanaquil, this was a manifestation, either of the household Lar or Vulcan himself. Thus Servius was divinely fathered and already destined for greatness, despite his mothers status, for the time being, Tanaquil
3.
Tullia Minor
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Tullia Minor is a semi-legendary figure in Roman history. She was the last queen of Rome, the younger daughter of Romes sixth king, Servius Tullius, she married Lucius Tarquinius. Along with her husband, she arranged the overthrow and murder of her father and her actions made her an infamous figure in ancient Roman culture. Tullia was the younger of the two daughters of Romes sixth king, Servius Tullius, by Roman custom, both daughters were named Tullia, the feminine form of their fathers nomen. Servius Tullius arranged the marriage of his daughters to the two sons of his predecessor, Lucius Tarquinius Priscus, the sons were named Lucius and Arruns. According to Livy, the younger of the two daughters had the disposition, yet she was married to Arruns, who had the milder disposition of the two sons. Livy says that the similar temperaments of the younger Tullia and Lucius Tarquinius drew them to each other, together they arranged the murder of their respective siblings, in quick succession, and Tarquinius and Tullia were afterwards married. Tullia then encouraged her new husband to seek the throne, Tarquinius was convinced, and began to solicit the support of the patrician senators, especially those families who had been given senatorial rank by his father. He bestowed presents on them and vilified Servius Tullius in their company, having acquired the backing of a large number of senators, Tarquinius went to the senate house with an armed guard and seated himself on the throne. When Servius Tullius protested, Tarquinius hurled him bodily into the street, Tullia then drove in her carriage to the senate house, where she hailed her husband as king. He ordered her to home, away from the tumult. She drove along the Cyprian Street and turned towards the Orbian Hill, there at the top of the Cyprian Street she encountered her fathers mutilated remains and, in a frenzy of madness, drove the carriage over his body. Ever afterwards this street was called the Vicus Sceleratus in memory of her actions, Tullias act of desecration spattered her with blood that stained her clothes, and in this manner she returned to her husbands house. Livy states that Tarquinius household gods were angered by this crime, and determined that a reign begun so badly would also end badly
4.
Arruns Tarquinius (son of Tarquin the Proud)
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Arruns Tarquinius L. f. L. n. was the second son of Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, the seventh and last King of Rome. During his fathers reign, he accompanied his brother, Titus. While Titus and Arruns assumed that this meant their actual mother, Brutus correctly intuited that mother earth was intended, following the overthrow of the monarchy in 509 BC, Titus and Arruns went with their father to Caere, while Brutus was elected one of the first consuls. After the first unsuccessful attempt by the Tarquins to regain the throne in 509, having spied from afar the lictors, and thereby recognising the presence of a consul, Arruns soon saw that his cousin Brutus was in command of the Roman cavalry. The two men charged each other, and were each speared to death, the battle ended in a Roman victory, and the Tarquins remained in exile. In Inferno, the first part of the Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Arruns appears in the 4th Bolgia of the Eighth Circle of Hell, together with sorcerers, astrologers, and false prophets. Iii,46 William Smith, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, Vol.1 p.378, #1
5.
Lucius Tarquinius Priscus
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Lucius Tarquinius Priscus, or Tarquin the Elder, was the legendary fifth king of Rome from 616 to 579 BC. According to Livy, Tarquin came from Etruria, after inheriting his fathers entire fortune, Lucius attempted to gain a political office. Disgruntled with his opportunities in Etruria, he migrated to Rome with his wife Tanaquil, legend has it that on his arrival in Rome in a chariot, an eagle took his cap, flew away and then returned it back upon his head. Tanaquil, who was skilled in prophecy, interpreted this as an omen of his future greatness, in Rome, he attained respect through his courtesy. The king himself noticed Tarquinius and, by his will, appointed Tarquinius guardian of his own sons, upon the death of Marcius, Tarquin addressed the Comitia Curiata and convinced them that he should be elected king over Marcius natural sons, who were still only youths. In one tradition, the sons were away on an expedition at the time of their fathers death. According to Livy, Tarquin increased the number of the Senate by adding one hundred men from the leading minor families, among these was the family of the Octavii, from whom the first emperor, Augustus, was descended. Tarquins first war was waged against the Latins, Tarquinius took the Latin town of Apiolae by storm and took great booty from there back to Rome. According to the Fasti Triumphales, this war must have occurred prior to 588 BC and his military ability was then tested by an attack from the Sabines, who received auxiliaries from five Etruscan cities. Tarquin doubled the numbers of equites to help the war effort, the Sabines were defeated after difficult street fighting in the city of Rome. In the peace negotiations followed, Tarquin received the town of Collatia. Tarquin returned to Rome and celebrated a triumph on September 13,585 BC, subsequently, the Latin cities of Corniculum, old Ficulea, Cameria, Crustumerium, Ameriola, Medullia and Nomentum were subdued and became Roman. Since Tarquin had kept the captured Etruscan auxiliaries prisoners for meddling in the war with the Sabines, seven other Etruscan cities joined forces with them. The Etruscans soon captured the Roman colony at Fidenae, which became the focal point of the war. After several bloody battles, Tarquin was once again victorious, at the successful conclusion of each of his wars, Rome was enriched by Tarquins plunder. Tarquin is said to have built the Circus Maximus, the first and largest stadium at Rome, raised seating was erected privately by the senators and equites, and other areas were marked out for private citizens. There the king established a series of games, according to Livy. After a great flood, Tarquin drained the damp lowlands of Rome by constructing the Cloaca Maxima and he also constructed a stone wall around the city, and began the construction of a temple in honour of Jupiter Optimus Maximus on the Capitoline Hill
6.
Tanaquil
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Tanaquil was the wife of Tarquinius Priscus, fifth king of Rome. She had four children, two daughters and two sons, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, seventh and last king of Rome, and Arruns Tarquinius, one of the daughters became the wife to Servius Tullius, when he became the successor of Tarquinius Priscus. Knowing this, Tanaquil encouraged him to move to Rome, which was not at the time dominated by a local aristocracy. Her strong prophetic abilities helped her to install Tarquin as king, while on the road to Rome, an eagle flew off with Tarquins hat and then returned it to his head. Tanaquil interpreted this as a sign that the gods wanted him to become a king, tanaquils prophecy was eventually realized for Tarquin - he eventually became friends with King Ancus Marcius, who made Tarquin guardian of his children. When the king died before his children were old enough to become successors to the throne and he ruled from 616 to 579 BCE. Tanaquil also played a role in the rise of Servius Tullius, raising him as her own child, Tanaquil believed Servius would be the next successor to the throne. Her dreams would be realized when, one day Servius was sleeping, the fires danced around his head without hurting him and when Servius awoke, the fire disappeared. Taking this as an omen, Tanaquil knew Servius would one day be king, when Tarquin was murdered, Tanaquil hid his death from her subjects, instead telling them that Tarquin appointed Servius as a temporary king until he got better. After gaining the respect and commanding the kingship, Servius. Tanaquil had a daughter, who married Servius Tullius, and two sons, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus and Arruns Tarquinius, who would marry Tullia, the daughter of Servius Tullius. According to Festus, she changed her name to Gaia Cirillo when she arrived at Rome, under this name she is the mythical source of various Roman wedding customs. She was remembered as an artisan in the art of working with wool. Queen Gaia was so admired by the Romans of her day that it was a public decree that any new bride entering their royal palace would announce their name as Gaia when asked. This was said to be an omen of future frugality for these women, Pliny says that a statue was dedicated to her as Gaia Caecilia in the temple of Semo Sancus. Stemma Tarquiniorum Pliny the Elder, Natural Histories VIII.74.194 Livy, Ab urbe condita I.34,39,41 Cassius Dio, Roman History, retrieved May 9,2007, from Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Raia, Ann R. and Sebesta, Judith Lynn, Roman History, vol.1 Loeb Classical Library edition,1914. Who was who in the Roman World, biographical dictionary of ancient Greek and Roman women, notable women from Sappho to Helena
7.
Roman Republic
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It was during this period that Romes control expanded from the citys immediate surroundings to hegemony over the entire Mediterranean world. During the first two centuries of its existence, the Roman Republic expanded through a combination of conquest and alliance, by the following century, it included North Africa, most of the Iberian Peninsula, and what is now southern France. Two centuries after that, towards the end of the 1st century BC, it included the rest of modern France, Greece, and much of the eastern Mediterranean. By this time, internal tensions led to a series of wars, culminating with the assassination of Julius Caesar. The exact date of transition can be a matter of interpretation, Roman government was headed by two consuls, elected annually by the citizens and advised by a senate composed of appointed magistrates. Over time, the laws that gave exclusive rights to Romes highest offices were repealed or weakened. The leaders of the Republic developed a tradition and morality requiring public service and patronage in peace and war, making military. Many of Romes legal and legislative structures can still be observed throughout Europe and much of the world in modern nation states, the exact causes and motivations for Romes military conflicts and expansions during the republic are subject to wide debate. While they can be seen as motivated by outright aggression and imperialism and they argue that Romes expansion was driven by short-term defensive and inter-state factors, and the new contingencies that these decisions created. In its early history, as Rome successfully defended itself against foreign threats in central and then northern Italy, with some important exceptions, successful wars in early republican Rome generally led not to annexation or military occupation, but to the restoration of the way things were. But the defeated city would be weakened and thus able to resist Romanizing influences. It was also able to defend itself against its non-Roman enemies. It was, therefore, more likely to seek an alliance of protection with Rome and this growing coalition expanded the potential enemies that Rome might face, and moved Rome closer to confrontation with major powers. The result was more alliance-seeking, on the part of both the Roman confederacy and city-states seeking membership within that confederacy. While there were exceptions to this, it was not until after the Second Punic War that these alliances started to harden into something more like an empire and this shift mainly took place in parts of the west, such as the southern Italian towns that sided with Hannibal. In contrast, Roman expansion into Spain and Gaul occurred as a mix of alliance-seeking, in the 2nd century BC, Roman involvement in the Greek east remained a matter of alliance-seeking, but this time in the face of major powers that could rival Rome. This had some important similarities to the events in Italy centuries earlier, with some major exceptions of outright military rule, the Roman Republic remained an alliance of independent city-states and kingdoms until it transitioned into the Roman Empire. It was not until the time of the Roman Empire that the entire Roman world was organized into provinces under explicit Roman control
8.
Latin
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Latin is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. The Latin alphabet is derived from the Etruscan and Greek alphabets, Latin was originally spoken in Latium, in the Italian Peninsula. Through the power of the Roman Republic, it became the dominant language, Vulgar Latin developed into the Romance languages, such as Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, French, and Romanian. Latin, Italian and French have contributed many words to the English language, Latin and Ancient Greek roots are used in theology, biology, and medicine. By the late Roman Republic, Old Latin had been standardised into Classical Latin, Vulgar Latin was the colloquial form spoken during the same time and attested in inscriptions and the works of comic playwrights like Plautus and Terence. Late Latin is the language from the 3rd century. Later, Early Modern Latin and Modern Latin evolved, Latin was used as the language of international communication, scholarship, and science until well into the 18th century, when it began to be supplanted by vernaculars. Ecclesiastical Latin remains the language of the Holy See and the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church. Today, many students, scholars and members of the Catholic clergy speak Latin fluently and it is taught in primary, secondary and postsecondary educational institutions around the world. The language has been passed down through various forms, some inscriptions have been published in an internationally agreed, monumental, multivolume series, the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum. Authors and publishers vary, but the format is about the same, volumes detailing inscriptions with a critical apparatus stating the provenance, the reading and interpretation of these inscriptions is the subject matter of the field of epigraphy. The works of several hundred ancient authors who wrote in Latin have survived in whole or in part and they are in part the subject matter of the field of classics. The Cat in the Hat, and a book of fairy tales, additional resources include phrasebooks and resources for rendering everyday phrases and concepts into Latin, such as Meissners Latin Phrasebook. The Latin influence in English has been significant at all stages of its insular development. From the 16th to the 18th centuries, English writers cobbled together huge numbers of new words from Latin and Greek words, dubbed inkhorn terms, as if they had spilled from a pot of ink. Many of these words were used once by the author and then forgotten, many of the most common polysyllabic English words are of Latin origin through the medium of Old French. Romance words make respectively 59%, 20% and 14% of English, German and those figures can rise dramatically when only non-compound and non-derived words are included. Accordingly, Romance words make roughly 35% of the vocabulary of Dutch, Roman engineering had the same effect on scientific terminology as a whole
9.
Roman Kingdom
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The Roman Kingdom was the period of the ancient Roman civilization characterized by a monarchical form of government of the city of Rome and its territories. The site of the founding of the Roman Kingdom and eventual Republic, the Palatine Hill and hills surrounding it presented easily defensible positions in the wide fertile plain surrounding them. All of these contributed to the success of the city. The Gauls destroyed much of Romes historical records when they sacked the city after the Battle of the Allia in 390 BC, with no contemporary records of the kingdom existing, all accounts of the kings must be carefully questioned. The insignia of the kings of Rome were twelve lictors wielding the fasces bearing axes, the right to sit upon a Curule chair, the purple Toga Picta, red shoes, of all these insignia, the most important was the purple toga. The imperium of the king was held for life and protected him from ever being brought to trial for his actions. As being the owner of imperium in Rome at the time. Also, the laws that kept citizens safe from magistrates misuse of imperium did not exist during the monarchical period, another power of the king was the power to either appoint or nominate all officials to offices. The king would appoint a tribunus celerum to serve as both the tribune of Ramnes tribe in Rome and as the commander of the personal bodyguard. The king was required to appoint the tribune upon entering office, the tribune was second in rank to the king and also possessed the power to convene the Curiate Assembly and lay legislation before it. Another officer appointed by the king was the praefectus urbi, who acted as the warden of the city. When the king was absent from the city, the prefect held all of the powers and abilities. The king even received the right to be the person to appoint patricians to the Senate. The people knew the king as a mediator between them and the gods and thus viewed the king with religious awe and this made the king the head of the national religion and its chief executive. Having the power to control the Roman calendar, he conducted all religious ceremonies and appointed lower religious offices and it is said that Romulus himself instituted the augurs and was believed to have been the best augur of all. Likewise, King Numa Pompilius instituted the pontiffs and through them developed the foundations of the dogma of Rome. They could only be called together by the king and could discuss the matters the king laid before them. While the Curiate Assembly did have the power to pass laws that had submitted by the king
10.
Ancus Marcius
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Ancus Marcius was the legendary fourth king of Rome. He was the son of Marcius, who may be identified with Numa Marcius, according to Festus, Marcius had the surname of Ancus from his crooked arm. Upon the death of the king, Tullus Hostilius, the Roman Senate appointed an interrex. Ancus Marcius was believed by the Romans to have been the namesake of the Marcii and he waged war successfully against the Latins, and a number of them were settled on the Aventine Hill. According to Livy the war was commenced by the Latins who anticipated Ancus would follow the pious pursuit of peace adopted by his grandfather, the Latins initially made an incursion on Roman lands. When a Roman embassy sought restitution for the damage, the Latins gave a contemptuous reply, Ancus accordingly declared war on the Latins. The declaration is notable since, according to Livy, it was the first time that the Romans had declared war by means of the rites of the fetials, Ancus Marcius marched from Rome with a newly levied army and took the Latin town of Politorium by storm. Its residents were removed to settle on the Aventine Hill in Rome as new citizens, following the Roman traditions from wars with the Sabines, when the other Latins subsequently occupied the empty town of Politorium, Ancus took the town again and demolished it. The Latin villages of Tellenae and Ficana were also sacked and demolished, the war then focused on the Latin town of Medullia. The town had a garrison and was well fortified. Several engagements took place outside the town and the Romans were eventually victorious, Ancus returned to Rome with much booty. More Latins were brought to Rome as citizens and were settled at the foot of the Aventine near the Palatine Hill, by the temple of Murcia. Ancus Marcius incorporated the Janiculum into the city, fortifying it with a wall and connecting it with the city by a bridge across the Tiber. On the land side of the city he constructed the Fossa Quiritium and he also built Romes first prison, the Mamertine prison. He expanded the temple of Jupiter Feretrius to reflect these territorial successes, according to a reconstruction of the Fasti Triumphales, Ancus Marcius celebrated at least one triumph, over the Sabines and Veientes. Ancus Marcius was succeeded by Lucius Tarquinius Priscus who would later be executed by the sons of Ancus Marcius, patrician Marcius Rex -family is descended from Ancus Marcius and remained prominent during the republic and empire. Attribution Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Ancus Marcius
11.
Caelius Vibenna
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Caelius Vibenna, (Etruscan Caile Vipina, was a noble Etruscan who lived c.750 BCE and brother of Aulus Vibenna. Upon arriving at Rome, Vibenna aided Romulus in his wars against Titus Tatius and he and his brother Aulus are also recorded as having aided King Tarquinius Superbus, although Tarquinius Superbus lived some five generations after Romulus. Tacitus relates that a hill in Rome, previously named Querquetulanus was renamed the Caelian Hill after Caelius Vibenna. A burial urn inscribed Arnth Caule Vipina can be found at Deposito de Dei at Chiusi and it is likely that the ashes within belong to a different Etruscan of the same name. Caelius and Aulus Vibenna seem to have been well-known figures in Etruscan legend, Claudius, in a speech to the Senate referred to the adventures of Caelius Vibenna and his companion Mastarna, whom Claudius equates with Servius Tullius. Claudius claimed that Mastarna left Etruria with the remnants of Caelius army and occupied the Caelian Hill, the François Tomb at Vulci contains a scene showing Caelius and Aulus Vibenna taking part in one of these adventures. The scene appears to show Caelius and Aulus Vibenna and Mastarna with companions named Larth Ulthes and these figures are shown slaughtering foes named as Laris Papathnas Velznach, Pesna Aremsnas Sveamach, Venthicalplsachs and Cneve Tarchunies Rumach. The erstwhile prisoners are shown killing their former captors, Mastarna is shown freeing Caelius Vibenna
12.
Lucius Junius Brutus
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Lucius Junius Brutus was the founder of the Roman Republic and traditionally one of the first consuls in 509 BC. He was claimed as an ancestor of the Roman gens Junia, including Decimus Junius Brutus and Marcus Junius Brutus, prior to the establishment of the Roman Republic, Rome had been ruled by kings. Brutus led the revolt that overthrew the last king, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, the account is from Livys Ab urbe condita and deals with a point in the history of Rome prior to reliable historical records. Brutus was the son of Tarquinia, daughter of Romes fifth king Lucius Tarquinius Priscus, according to Livy, Brutus had a number of grievances against his uncle the king. Amongst them was the fact that Tarquin had put to death a number of the men of Rome. Brutus avoided the distrust of Tarquins family by feigning slow-wittedness and he accompanied Tarquins sons on a trip to the Oracle of Delphi. The sons asked the oracle who would be the ruler of Rome. The Oracle responded the next person to kiss his mother would become king, Brutus interpreted mother to mean the Earth, so he pretended to trip and kissed the ground. Lucretia, believing that the rape dishonored her and her family, according to legend, Brutus grabbed the dagger from Lucretias breast after her death and immediately shouted for the overthrow of the Tarquins. The four men gathered the youth of Collatia, then went to Rome where Brutus, being at that time Tribunus Celerum, summoned the people to the forum, the people voted for the deposition of the king, and the banishment of the royal family. Brutus, leaving Lucretius in command of the city, proceeded with armed men to the Roman army then camped at Ardea, the king, who had been with the army, heard of developments at Rome, and left the camp for the city before Brutus arrival. The army received Brutus as a hero, and the sons were expelled from the camp. Tarquinius Superbus, meanwhile, was refused entry at Rome, according to Livy, Brutus first act after the expulsion of Lucius Tarquinius Superbus was to bring the people to swear an oath never to allow any man again to be king in Rome. Omnium primum avidum novae libertatis populum, ne postmodum flecti precibus aut donis regiis posset, There is no scholarly agreement that the oath took place, it is reported, although differently, by Plutarch and Appian. Nevertheless, the spirit of the oath inspired later Romans including his descendant Marcus Junius Brutus, Brutus and Lucretias bereaved husband, Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus, were elected as the first consuls of Rome. However, Tarquinius was soon replaced by Publius Valerius Publicola, the new consuls also created a new office of rex sacrorum to carry out the religious duties that had previously been performed by the kings. During his consulship the royal family made an attempt to regain the throne, amongst the conspirators were two brothers of Brutus wife Vitellia, and Brutus two sons, Titus Junius Brutus and Tiberius Junius Brutus. The conspiracy was discovered and the determined to punish the conspirators with death
13.
Arruns (son of Tarquin the Proud)
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Arruns Tarquinius L. f. L. n. was the second son of Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, the seventh and last King of Rome. During his fathers reign, he accompanied his brother, Titus. While Titus and Arruns assumed that this meant their actual mother, Brutus correctly intuited that mother earth was intended, following the overthrow of the monarchy in 509 BC, Titus and Arruns went with their father to Caere, while Brutus was elected one of the first consuls. After the first unsuccessful attempt by the Tarquins to regain the throne in 509, having spied from afar the lictors, and thereby recognising the presence of a consul, Arruns soon saw that his cousin Brutus was in command of the Roman cavalry. The two men charged each other, and were each speared to death, the battle ended in a Roman victory, and the Tarquins remained in exile. In Inferno, the first part of the Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Arruns appears in the 4th Bolgia of the Eighth Circle of Hell, together with sorcerers, astrologers, and false prophets. Iii,46 William Smith, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, Vol.1 p.378, #1
14.
Tusculum
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Tusculum is a ruined Roman city in the Alban Hills, in the Latium region of Italy. Tusculum was one of the largest Roman cities in the Alban Hills, the Tusculum is located on Tuscolo hill on the northern edge of the outer crater rim of the Alban volcano. The volcano itself is located in the Alban Hills 6 kilometres south of the town of Frascati. Tuscolo Hills summit is 670 metres above sea level and affords a view of the Roman Campagna, Rome was reached by the Via Latina, or by the Via Labicana to the north. Tusculum was most famous in Roman times for the great and luxurious patrician country villas sited close to the city. Strabo wrote about Tusculum in Geography, V3 §12, but still closer to Rome than the mountainous country where these cities lie, there is another ridge, which leaves a valley between them and is high as far as Mount Albanus. The geographer Filippo Cluverio discounts these legends, asserting that the city was founded by Latins about three hundred years before the Trojan War, funerary urns datable to the 8th–7th centuries B. C. demonstrate a human presence in the late phases of Latin culture in this area. Tusculum is first mentioned in history as an independent city-state with a king, a constitution and gods of its own. When Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, the last King of Rome, was expelled from the city in 509 B. C. he sought help from his son-in-law Octavius Mamilius. After the war between Clusium and Rome failed to win back the throne for Tarquinius, he sought refuge with Mamilius in Tusculum, the Mamilii claimed to be descended from Telegonus, the founder of the city. Mamilius commanded the army of the Latins against the Romans at the Battle of Lake Regillus and this is the point at which Rome gained predominance among the Latin cities. According to some accounts Tusculum subsequently became an ally of Rome, in 460 B. C. the Sabines occupied the Capitol. Of the Latin cities, only Tusculum quickly sent troops, commanded by the dictator Lucius Mamilius, together with the forces of the consul Publius Valerius Poplicola they were able to quash the revolt. Poplicola was thankful to the Tusculans for their help, and conferred on Lucius Mamilius the honour of Roman citizenship, in 459 B. C. the Aequi attacked Tusculum and captured its citadel. In 381 BC, after an expression of submission to Rome. Tusculum became the first municipium cum suffragio, or self-governing city, the Tusculum citizens were therefore recorded in the Tribus Papiria. Other accounts, however, speak of Tusculum as often allied with Romes enemies, several of the chief Roman families were of Tusculan origin, e. g. In 54 BC, in his Orationes Pro Cn, varro wrote about the laws of Tusculum in De Lingua Latina, Volume 5, New wine shall not be taken into the town before the Vinalia are proclaimed
15.
Roman Senate
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The Roman Senate was a political institution in ancient Rome. It was one of the most enduring institutions in Roman history, during the days of the kingdom, it was little more than an advisory council to the king. The last king of Rome, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, was following a coup détat led by Lucius Junius Brutus. During the early Republic, the Senate was politically weak, while the executive magistrates were quite powerful, since the transition from monarchy to constitutional rule was most likely gradual, it took several generations before the Senate was able to assert itself over the executive magistrates. By the middle Republic, the Senate had reached the apex of its republican power, the late Republic saw a decline in the Senates power, which began following the reforms of the tribunes Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus. After the transition of the Republic into the Principate, the Senate lost much of its power as well as its prestige. Following the constitutional reforms of the Emperor Diocletian, the Senate became politically irrelevant, when the seat of government was transferred out of Rome, the Senate was reduced to a municipal body. This decline in status was reinforced when the emperor Constantine the Great created an additional senate in Constantinople, the Senate in Rome ultimately disappeared at some point after AD603, although the title senator was still used well into the Middle Ages as a largely meaningless honorific. However, the Eastern Senate survived in Constantinople, until the ancient institution finally vanished there c. 14th century, the senate was a political institution in the ancient Roman kingdom. The word senate derives from the Latin word senex, which means old man, the early Roman family was called a gens or clan, and each clan was an aggregation of families under a common living male patriarch, called a pater. When the early Roman gentes were aggregating to form a common community, over time, the patres came to recognize the need for a single leader, and so they elected a king, and vested in him their sovereign power. When the king died, that power naturally reverted to the patres. The senate is said to have created by Romes first king, Romulus. The descendants of those 100 men subsequently became the patrician class, Romes fifth king, Lucius Tarquinius Priscus, chose a further 100 senators. They were chosen from the leading families, and were accordingly called the patres minorum gentium. Romes seventh and final king, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, executed many of the men in the senate. During the years of the monarchy, the senates most important function was to new kings. While the king was elected by the people, it was actually the senate who chose each new king
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Curia Hostilia
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The Curia Hostilia was one of the original senate houses or curia of the Roman Republic. It is believed to have begun as a temple where the warring tribes laid down their arms during the reign of Romulus, during the early monarchy, the temple was used by senators acting as council to the king. Tullus Hostilius is believed to have replaced the structure after fire destroyed the converted temple. It may have historic significance as the location of an Etruscan mundus. The Lapis Niger, a series of black marble slabs, was placed over the altar where a series of monuments was found opposite the Rostra. This curia was enlarged in 80 BC by Lucius Cornelius Sulla during his renovations of the comitium, the building burned down in 53 BC when the supporters of the murdered Publius Clodius Pulcher used it as a pyre to cremate his body. There has been a house for the people of Rome through most of Romes history. This one likely began as a temple, there may have been a small shrine to the god Vulcan from the earliest period, a stone altar with a marble stele inscribed with a dedication from a Latin King. An Honorary column was also among the tightly packed items and this spot was separated from the rest of the comitium with a low rising concrete fence to keep pedestrians from walking atop it. The Curia Hostilia architecture had changed a number of times, the structure was where all of Romes early political life centered. It is said that the public was allowed to stroll into the Curia Hostilia to listen to the senators debate. Relatively little is known about the Curia Hostilia, one feature of the Curia that is mentioned in almost all sources is the Tabula Valeria, a painting on the exterior of the Curia’s western wall. It depicted the victory of Manius Valerius Maximus Corvinus Messalla over Hiero, pliny says that the painting was the first such picture in Rome. Another detail that most sources agree on is that the Curia Hostilia was located on the side of the comitium. It is believed that the set of stairs of the Comitium. With regard to the Curia’s location, Stambaugh writes, he Curia Hostilia was built on rising ground so as to dominate the space of the Forum Romanum. Given its prominent place in the Forum, it seems that the Curia Hostilia was a symbol of the strength of the Roman Republic, the original Etruscan Temple was probably used as the meeting place of the separate tribes of the seven hills. It may have had two columns and an open portico
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Latin League
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The Latin League was an ancient confederation of about 30 villages and tribes in the region of Latium near the ancient city of Rome, organized for mutual defense. The term Latin League is one coined by modern historians with no precise Latin equivalent and it was originally created for protection against enemies from surrounding areas under the leadership of the city of Alba Longa. An incomplete fragment of a recorded by Cato the Elder tells us that at one time the league included Tusculum, Aricia, Lanuvium, Lavinium, Cora, Tibur, Pometia. During the reign of Tarquinius Superbus, the Latins were persuaded to acknowledge the leadership of Rome. The treaty with Rome was renewed, and it was agreed that the troops of the Latins would attend on a day to form a united military force with the troops of Rome. That was done, and Tarquin formed combined units of Roman, the early Roman Republic formed an alliance with the Latin League in 493 BC. According to Roman tradition, the treaty, the foedus Cassianum and it provided that both Rome and the Latin League would share loot from military conquests and that any military campaigns between the two would be led by Roman generals. The alliance helped repel attacks from such peoples as the Aequi and the Volsci, tribes of the Apennine Mountains and it is still unclear if the Latins had accepted Rome as one into the League, or if the treaty had been signed as between Rome and the Latin League. The increasing power of Rome gradually led to its domination of the league, the renewal of the original treaty in 358 BC formally established Roman leadership and eventually triggered the outbreak of the Latin War. Following the Roman victory, the league was dissolved, after 338 BC, the end of the Latin league, Rome renamed the cities municipia and established coloniae inside them. This meant that the towns were now ruled by Rome and that the living there were considered Roman colonists. Alba Longa, Ardea, Aricia, Cora, Lanuvium, Lavinium, Pometia, Tibur, and Tusculum
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Volsci
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The Volsci were an Italic tribe, well known in the history of the first century of the Roman Republic. Rivals of Rome for several hundred years, their territories were taken over by, strabo says that the Volsci formed a sovereign state near the site of Rome. It was placed in the Pomentine plain, between the Latins and the Pontine marshes, which took their name from the plain, the Volsci spoke Volscian, a Sabellic Italic language, which was closely related to Oscan and Umbrian, and more distantly to Latin. In the Volscian territory lay the town of Velitrae, home of the ancestors of Caesar Augustus. The Volsci were among the most dangerous enemies of ancient Rome, also, the legendary Roman warrior Gaius Marcius Coriolanus earned his cognomen after taking the Volscian town of Corioli in 493 BC. The supposed rise and fall of this hero is chronicled in Shakespeares Coriolanus, however, if Livys account of the war between Rome and Clusium is accurate, it can be seen that the relationship between Rome and the Volsci was not always hostile. Livy writes that, at the approach of the Clusian army in 508 BC, with the prospect of a siege, cicero, orator and writer, was a native of Arpinum in former Volscian territory. Camilla featured as one of the fighters in Virgils Aeneid, a Volscian Warrior Maiden, virgil says that she can outrun the wind and run over crops so lightly she never even bent them. She could run over the waves of the sea without getting her feet wet and she fights on the side of the Latins and kills many of the Trojan refugees before being killed herself by the Etruscan hero Arruns. Gaius Marius, reforming consul and general, was a native of Arpinum in former Volscian territory, Augustus Caesar spent his early life in Velitrae, where he may have been born. This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh
19.
Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus
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The Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus, also known as the Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus was the most important temple in Ancient Rome, located on the Capitoline Hill. The first building was the oldest large temple in Rome, and it was traditionally dedicated in 509 BC, but in 83 BC it was destroyed by fire, and a replacement in Greek style completed in 69 BC. But for the building they were summoned from Greece. The two further buildings were evidently of contemporary Roman style, although of exceptional size, the first version is the largest Etruscan temple recorded, and much larger than other Roman temples for centuries after. However, its size remains heavily disputed by specialists, based on an ancient visitor it has claimed to have been almost 60 m ×60 m. Whatever its size, its influence on other early Roman temples was significant, reconstructions usually show very wide eaves, and a wide colonnade stretching down the sides, though not round the back wall as it would have done in a Greek temple. A crude image on a coin of 78 BC shows only four columns, with two further fires, the third temple only lasted five years, to 80 AD, but the fourth survived until the fall of the empire. Much about the buildings remains uncertain. Much of what is known of the first Temple of Jupiter is from later Roman tradition, Lucius Tarquinius Priscus vowed this temple while battling with the Sabines and, according to Dionysius of Halicarnassus, began the terracing necessary to support the foundations of the temple. Modern coring on the Capitoline has confirmed the extensive work needed just to create a building site. According to Dionysius of Halicarnassus and Livy, the foundations and most of the superstructure of the temple were completed by Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, Livy also records that before the temples construction shrines to other gods occupied the site. When the augurs carried out the rites seeking permission to them, only Terminus. Their shrines were incorporated into the new structure. Because he was the god of boundaries, Terminuss refusal to be moved was interpreted as an omen for the future of the Roman state. A second portent was the appearance of the head of a man to workmen digging the foundations of the temple and this was said by the augurs to mean that Rome was to be the head of a great empire. Traditionally the Temple was dedicated on September 13, the year of the Roman Republic,509 BCE. It was sacred to the Capitoline Triad consisting of Jupiter and his companion deities, Juno, the man to perform the dedication of the temple was chosen by lot. The duty fell to Marcus Horatius Pulvillus, one of the consuls in that year, Livy records that in 495 BCE the Latins, as a mark of gratitude to the Romans for the release of 6,000 Latin prisoners, delivered a crown of gold to the temple
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Gabii
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Gabii was an ancient city of Latium, located 18 km due east of Rome along the Via Praenestina, which was in early times known as the Via Gabina. A necropolis is adjacent on that side of the lake, at present, the former lake is entirely agricultural land. The ruins of the ancient city project from the next to the cliffs overlooking it. A municipium in Roman times, Gabii is currently located in the frazione of Osteria dellOsa 10 km from the comune of Montecompatri, of which it is a part, in the Province of Rome, the site is under new seasonal archaeological excavation. To what degree the lake was sedimented in ancient times remains unknown, some of the earliest huts are down in the crater. Two streams flowing north to south flanked the lake on the west, the Fosso delOsa, and these originated in another body of water, believed to be Lacus Regillus, on the south side of the road. The streams cut the road on either side of Gabii and were crossed by bridges, in other words, the isthmus was isolated by streams on either side. The quadrangle so formed contained its own supply and straddled a major route on the east flank of Rome. It could not, as demonstrated, be ignored by Rome. The two streams flow north to the Anio river, which flows west into the Tiber river on the side of Rome. In 1846 Gell reported that the Osa came from a marshy plain. The draining of the lake was a project of the Borghese family, near the river a small inn had been placed, the Osteria dellOsa, north of which was the main necropolis of Gabii. The habitation today has expanded into the center of a frazione, to modern topographers the deep lake basin, now kept dry, and the aqueducts that drew water, and still draw water, from its sources leave no doubt that the lake was located in the basin. The two roads joined on the outskirts of Rome, the Pantana was the low point, from springs on its hillside exuded the water that filled the lake. During the thousand years of the period a much smaller Rome had lived on a greatly reduced water supply due to the broken. Gabii had kept its lake until the completion of the Acqua Alexandrina in 226 AD, the Romans captured springs or mountain streams for drinking water, they never fed the waters of the marsh into the aqueduct. The Acqua Felice had more altitude at this point, by 226 the lake must have receded enough to have left a corridor along the road, as the Romans would not have been able to sink a conduit under the swamp. Having its source water drained away, the lake receded drastically, the aqueduct is still in use
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Aequi
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The Aequi were an Italic tribe on a stretch of the Apennine Mountains to the east Latium in central of Italy who appear in the early history of ancient Rome. After a long struggle for independence from Rome they were defeated, only two inscriptions believed to be in the Aequian language remain. No more can be deduced than that the language was Italic, otherwise the inscriptions from the region are those of the Latin-speaking colonists in Latin. The colonial exonym documented in inscriptions is Aequi and also Aequicoli. The manuscript variants of the authors present Equic-, Aequic-, Aequac-. If the form without the -coli is taken as an original, it may also be the endonym. The historians made many entries concerning the wars between the Aequi and Rome, the geographers scarcely mention them, pliny the Elder and Ptolemy both make the same brief statement, the towns of the Aequiculi were Cliternia or Cliternum and Carsoli or Carsioli respectively. Pliny places them in Augustus Regio IV, Ptolemy adds that they were to the east of the Sabini, by the time of the early Roman Empire, all vestige of the Italic Aequi was gone. The two cities mentioned had been Roman colonies, the forms mentioned in inscriptions from there are Carsioli and Cliternia. They occupied the upper reaches of the valleys of the Aniene, Tolenus and Himella, according to Strabo, the Aequi were in existence when the city of Rome was founded. They are first mentioned by Livy as an ancient nation from which the Romans borrowed the rites of declaring war, Livy also mentions that the last king of Rome, Tarquinius Superbus, made peace with the Aequi. They fought several wars against the Romans, among which was the battle of Mons Algidus and their chief center is said to have been taken by the Romans about 484 BC. and again about ninety years later. Records of fighting between Romans and Aequi become much sparser in the half of the 5th century BC. Likely the Aequi had gradually become a settled people and their raiding petered out as a result. In 390 BC a Gaulish war band defeated the Roman army at the Battle of Allia, the ancient writers report that in 389 BC the Etruscans, the Volsci, and the Aequi all raised armies in hope of exploiting this blow to Roman power. According to Livy and Plutarch, the Aequi gathered their army at Bolae, however, the Roman dictator, Marcus Furius Camillus, had just inflicted a severe defeat on the Volsci. He surprised the Aequian army and captured both their camp and the town, according to Diodorus Siculus, the Aequi were actually besieging Bolae when they were attacked by Camillus. According to Livy, a Roman army ravaged Aequian territory again in 388, oakley considers these notices of Roman victories against the Aequi in 389 and 388 to be historical, confirmed by the disappearance of the Aequi from the sources until 304
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Etruscan civilization
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The Etruscan civilization is the modern name given to a powerful and wealthy civilization of ancient Italy in the area corresponding roughly to Tuscany, western Umbria, and northern Lazio. Culture that is identifiably Etruscan developed in Italy after about 800 BC, the latter gave way in the 7th century BC to a culture that was influenced by ancient Greece, Magna Graecia, and Phoenicia. The decline was gradual, but by 500 BC the political destiny of Italy had passed out of Etruscan hands, the last Etruscan cities were formally absorbed by Rome around 100 BC. Politics were based on the city, and probably the family unit. In their heyday, the Etruscan elite grew very rich through trade with the Celtic world to the north and the Greeks to the south, archaic Greece had a huge influence on their art and architecture, and Greek mythology was evidently very familiar to them. The study also excluded recent Anatolian connection, the ancient Romans referred to the Etruscans as the Tuscī or Etruscī. Their Roman name is the origin of the terms Tuscany, which refers to their heartland, and Etruria, which can refer to their wider region. In Attic Greek, the Etruscans were known as Tyrrhenians, from which the Romans derived the names Tyrrhēnī, Tyrrhēnia, the word may also be related to the Hittite Taruisa. The Etruscans called themselves Rasenna, which was syncopated to Rasna or Raśna, the origins of the Etruscans are mostly lost in prehistory, although Greek historians as early as the 5th century BC, repeatedly associated the Tyrrhenians with Pelasgians. Strabo as well as the Homeric Hymn to Dionysus make mention of the Tyrrhenians as pirates, pliny the Elder put the Etruscans in the context of the Rhaetian people to the north and wrote in his Natural History, Adjoining these the Noricans are the Raeti and Vindelici. All are divided into a number of states, the Raeti are believed to be people of Tuscan race driven out by the Gauls, their leader was named Raetus. Historians have no literature and no original Etruscan texts of religion or philosophy, therefore, much of what is known about this civilization is derived from grave goods, another source of genetic data on Etruscan origins is from four ancient breeds of cattle. Analyzing the mitochondrial DNA of these and seven other breeds of Italian cattle, the other Italian breeds were linked to northern Europe. Etruscan expansion was focused both to the north beyond the Apennine Mountains and into Campania, some small towns in the sixth century BC disappeared during this time, ostensibly consumed by greater, more powerful neighbours. However, it is certain that the structure of the Etruscan culture was similar to, albeit more aristocratic than. The mining and commerce of metal, especially copper and iron, led to an enrichment of the Etruscans and to the expansion of their influence in the Italian peninsula and the western Mediterranean Sea. Here, their interests collided with those of the Greeks, especially in the sixth century BC and this led the Etruscans to ally themselves with Carthage, whose interests also collided with the Greeks. Around 540 BC, the Battle of Alalia led to a new distribution of power in the western Mediterranean, from the first half of the 5th century BC, the new political situation meant the beginning of the Etruscan decline after losing their southern provinces
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Fasti
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For the poem by Ovid, see Fasti, for the inscribed versions of the calendar, see Roman calendar. In ancient Rome, the fasti were chronological or calendar-based lists, or other records or plans of official. After Romes decline, the word continued to be used for similar records in Christian Europe. Public business, including the business of the Roman state, had to be transacted on dies fasti. The fasti were the records of this business, in addition to the words general sense, there were fasti that recorded specific kinds of events, such as the fasti triumphales, lists of triumphs celebrated by Roman generals. The divisions of time used in the fasti were based on the Roman calendar, the yearly records of the fasti encouraged the writing of history in the form of chronological annales, annals, which in turn influenced the development of Roman historiography. Fasti is the plural of the Latin adjective fastus, most commonly used as a substantive, the word derives from fas, meaning that which is permitted, that is, that which is legitimate in the eyes of the gods. Fasti dies were the days on which business might be transacted without impiety, in contrast to dies nefasti, days on which assemblies, the word fasti itself came to denote lists organized by time. The temporal structure distinguished fasti from regesta, which were simple lists of property, or assets, such as land or documents and they came to be denominated magni, great, by way of distinction from the bare calendar, or fasti diurni. The word fasti thus came to be used in the sense of annals or historical records. Michelangelo, who designed the complex of three palaces on the hill, also restored the tables of the fasti, the Palazzo today is one of the Capitoline Museums, which serve a double duty as museums and city government buildings. The fasti are located in the Sala della Lupa, the room as the bronze wolf. More pieces discovered after the Renaissance were placed with it, the fasti consulares were discovered as 30 marble fragments in the forum. With them were 26 fragments of Acta Triumpharum, since called the fasti triumphales, both lists were restored as distinct records. Pope Paul III had authorized the mining of stone for St. Peters in 1540, the pope was following the widespread convention that prevailed in the Renaissance of ripping up the structures of the past to reuse in building structures they considered even more magnificent. The scholars were collaborating to save what they could, a resident colony of quarrymen did not pause in the slightest but went on dismantling buildings. All trace of structures in that part of the forum vanished between August 15 and September 14,1546, the stone was sold to cutters for reuse or to lime burners for the creation of cement. None of these proceedings were in any way archaeological, cardinal Farnese assigned the scholars to watch the diggings
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Sabines
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The Sabines were an Italic tribe which lived in the central Apennines of ancient Italy, also inhabiting Latium north of the Anio before the founding of Rome. The above names, English, Latin, and Greek, are all exonyms, the Sabines divided into two populations just after the founding of Rome, which is described by Roman legend. The division, however it came about, is not legendary, the population closer to Rome transplanted itself to the new city and united with the pre-existing citizenry, beginning a new heritage that descended from the Sabines but was also Latinized. The second population remained a mountain tribal state, coming finally to war against Rome for its independence along with all the other Italic tribes, after losing, it became assimilated into the Roman Republic. There is little record of the Sabine language, however, there are some glosses by ancient commentators, there are also personal names in use on Latin inscriptions from Sabine country, but these are given in Latin form. Robert Seymour Conway, in his Italic Dialects, gives approximately 100 words which vary from being well attested as Sabine to being possibly of Sabine origin, in addition to these he cites place names derived from the Sabine, sometimes giving attempts at reconstructions of the Sabine form. Based on all the evidence, the Linguist List tentatively classifies Sabine as a member of the Umbrian Group of Italic languages of Indo-European family, latin-speakers called the Sabines original territory, straddling the modern regions of Lazio, Umbria, and Abruzzo, Sabinium. To this day, it bears the ancient tribes name in the Italian form of Sabina, within the modern region of Lazio, Sabina constitutes a sub-region, situated north-east of Rome, around Rieti. According to Dionysius of Halicarnassus, many Roman historians regarded the origins of indigenous Romans to be Greek, the Sabines, specifically, were first mentioned in Dionysiuss account for having captured by surprise the city of Lista, which was regarded as the mother-city of the Aborigines. Ancient historians were still debating the specific origins of the Sabines, zenodotus of Troezen claimed that the Sabines were originally Umbrians that changed their name after being driven from the Reatine territory by the Pelasgians. However, Porcius Cato argued that the Sabines were a populace named after Sabus, in another account mentioned in Dionysiuss work, a group of Lacedaemonians fled Sparta since they regarded the laws of Lycurgus as too severe. In Italy, they founded the Spartan colony of Foronia and some from that colony settled among the Sabines, according to the account, the Sabine habits of belligerence and frugality were known to have derived from the Spartans. Plutarch also states in the Life of Numa Pompilius, Sabines, legend says that the Romans abducted Sabine women to populate the newly built Rome. The resultant war ended only by the women throwing themselves and their children between the armies of their fathers and their husbands, the Rape of the Sabine Women became a common motif in art, the women ending the war is a less frequent but still reappearing motif. According to Livy, after the conflict, the Sabine and Roman states merged, three new centuries of Equites were introduced at Rome, including one named Tatienses, after the Sabine king. A variation of the story is recounted in the book of Jasher. Tradition suggests that the population of the early Roman kingdom was the result of a union of Sabines, some of the gentes of the Roman republic were proud of their Sabine heritage, such as the Claudia gens, assuming Sabinus as a cognomen or agnomen. Ancient peoples of Italy Hostus Hostilius Ovid, Fasti Ovid, Ars Amatoria Livy, Ab urbe condita Cicero, De Republica Plutarch, Parallel Lives Juvenal, Satires Donaldson, John William
25.
Segni
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Segni is an Italian town and comune located in Lazio. The city is situated on a hilltop in the Lepini Mountains, according to ancient Roman sources, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, the seventh king of Rome, established a Roman colony at the town, then known as Signia. Additional colonists were sent there in 495 BC. The ancient architectural remains at the site date mostly from the Republican period and these include a circuit of fortification walls built using polygonal masonry. The walls incorporated a system of gates, including the Porta Saracena which is covered by a large monolithic architrave, atop the ancient acropolis of Segni sits the podium of the temple of Juno Moneta, which now supports a Medieval church of Saint Peter. Segni was a refuge for various popes with Pope Eugene III erecting a palace in the middle of the twelfth century, the Counts of Marsi, hereditary enemies of the Orsini, obtained Segni in the twelfth century. The family called de Conti produced several popes and many cardinals, in 1558 Segni was sacked by the forces of the Duke of Alba in the war against Pope Paul IV, immense booty was captured, as the inhabitants of the other towns of the Campagna had fled thither. Politician Giulio Andreotti was born in Segni in 1919, co-cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta, built in the early 17th century on the former temple of St. Bruno. The bell tower is from the 11th century, the interior has a painting by Francesco Cozza. The polygonal masonry fortification walls of the settlement are well preserved, the ancient acropolis of Segni is marked by the former site of the temple of Juno Moneta. The acropolis has recently been the site of renewed fieldwork undertaken by the British School at Rome, mykines, Greece This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Herbermann, Charles, ed. Segni
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Mount Circeo
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Monte Circeo or Cape Circeo is a mountain remaining as a promontory that marks the southwestern limit of the former Pontine Marshes. Although a headland, it was not formed by coastal erosion – as headlands are usually formed – but is a remnant of the processes that created the Apennines. At the northern end of the Gulf of Gaeta, it is about 5 kilometres long by 1.5 kilometres wide at the base, running from east to west and surrounded by the sea on all sides except the north. The land to the north of it is 15 metres above sea level, while the headland is quite steep and hilly, the land immediately to the east of it is low-lying and very swampy. Most of the ancient swamp has been reclaimed for agriculture and urban areas, the mountain is composed mostly of marl and sandstone from the Paleogene and of limestone from the lower Early Jurassic. In 1939, the skull of a Neanderthal man was found in the Guattari Cave by a led by Alberto Carlo Blanc. Several other findings also prove that the mountain was inhabited in prehistorical times, upon the east end of the promontory ridge are the remains of an enceinte, a polygonal structure that roughly forms a rectangle and that measures about 200 by 100 metres. The blocks are carefully cut and jointed, right angles were intentionally avoided. The wall stands almost entirely free, as at Arpinum – polygonal walls in Italy typically form embanking walls –, the blocks of the inner face are much less carefully worked both here and at Arpinum. It seems to have been an acropolis, and contains no traces of buildings, except for a cistern, circular. Circeii, as it was known, was founded as a Roman colony at an early date – according to some authorities in the time of Tarquinius Superbus, –. The Roman colonists were expelled by the Volsci in around 490 BC during a war between two states.5 kilometres north of the west end of the promontory. An inscription speaks of an amphitheatre, of which no remains are visible, the transference of the city did not, however, mean the abandonment of the east end of the promontory, on which stand the remains of several very large villas. An inscription, indeed, cut in the rock near San Felice, speaks about this part of the Latin, on the south and north sides of the promontory, there are comparatively few buildings while at the west end there is a sheer precipice to the sea. The town only acquired municipal rights after the Social War and was unimportant except as a seaside resort, cicero compares its villas with those at Antium, and probably both Tiberius and Domitian resided there. Presumably, Domitians villa contained important artistic works, such as the Apollo and the Faun With the Transverse Flute, the view from the highest summit of the promontory is remarkably beautiful, the whole mountain is covered with fragrant shrubs. From any point in the Pontine Marshes or on the coast-line of Latium, mount Circeo is today included in the National Park of Circeo, established in 1934 on 5,616 ha over the territories of Latina, Sabaudia, San Felice Circeo and Zannone Island
27.
Tarpeian Rock
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The Tarpeian Rock is a steep cliff of the southern summit of the Capitoline Hill, overlooking the Roman Forum in Ancient Rome. It was used during the Roman Republic as an execution site, murderers, traitors, perjurors, and larcenous slaves, if convicted by the quaestores parricidii, were flung from the cliff to their deaths. The cliff was about 25 meters high, there seems to be a belief that the disabled and mentally ill were similarly executed, but there are no reliable sources for that. In Book 1 of Livy’s Ab Urbe Condita, the Sabines having been accepted into the citadel, killed her, having been overwhelmed by weapons, the Sabines crushed her to death with their shields, and her body was buried in the rock that now bears her name. Regardless of whether or not Tarpeia was buried in the rock itself, the rock itself survived this remodelling, being used for executions well into Sullas time. However the execution of Simon bar Giora was as late as the time of Vespasian, there is a Latin phrase Arx tarpeia Capitoli proxima which some have interpreted to mean that ones fall from grace can come swiftly. To be hurled off the Tarpeian Rock was, from a certain perspective, the standard method of execution in ancient Rome was by strangulation in the Tullianum. Gemonian stairs Grant, Michael, Roman Myths, New York, Scribners, pg 123
28.
Roman Forum
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The Roman Forum is a rectangular forum surrounded by the ruins of several important ancient government buildings at the center of the city of Rome. Citizens of the ancient city referred to this space, originally a marketplace, as the Forum Magnum, here statues and monuments commemorated the citys great men. The teeming heart of ancient Rome, it has called the most celebrated meeting place in the world. Many of the oldest and most important structures of the ancient city were located on or near the Forum, the Roman kingdoms earliest shrines and temples were located on the southeastern edge. Other archaic shrines to the northwest, such as the Umbilicus Urbis and this is where the Senate—as well as Republican government itself—began. The Senate House, government offices, tribunals, temples, memorials, over time the archaic Comitium was replaced by the larger adjacent Forum and the focus of judicial activity moved to the new Basilica Aemilia. Some 130 years later, Julius Caesar built the Basilica Julia, along with the new Curia Julia, eventually much economic and judicial business would transfer away from the Forum Romanum to the larger and more extravagant structures to the north. The reign of Constantine the Great saw the construction of the last major expansion of the Forum complex—the Basilica of Maxentius and this returned the political center to the Forum until the fall of the Western Roman Empire almost two centuries later. This is the case despite attempts, with success, to impose some order there, by Sulla, Julius Caesar, Augustus. By the Imperial period, the public buildings that crowded around the central square had reduced the open area to a rectangle of about 130 by 50 metres. Its long dimension was oriented northwest to southeast and extended from the foot of the Capitoline Hill to that of the Velian Hill, the Forums basilicas during the Imperial period—the Basilica Aemilia on the north and the Basilica Julia on the south—defined its long sides and its final form. The Forum proper included this square, the buildings facing it and, sometimes, originally, the site of the Forum had been a marshy lake where waters from the surrounding hills drained. This was drained by the Tarquins with the Cloaca Maxima, because of its location, sediments from both the flooding of the Tiber and the erosion of the surrounding hills have been raising the level of the Forum floor for centuries. Excavated sequences of remains of paving show that sediment eroded from the hills was already raising the level in early Republican times. As the ground around buildings rose, residents simply paved over the debris that was too much to remove and its final travertine paving, still visible, dates from the reign of Augustus. Excavations in the 19th century revealed one layer on top of another, the deepest level excavated was 3.60 metres above sea level. Archaeological finds show human activity at that level with the discovery of carbonised wood, an important function of the Forum, during both Republican and Imperial times, was to serve as the culminating venue for the celebratory military processions known as Triumphs. Victorious generals entered the city by the western Triumphal Gate and circumnavigated the Palatine Hill before proceeding from the Velian Hill down the Via Sacra, from here they would mount the Capitoline Rise up to the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus on the summit of the Capitol
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Capitoline Hill
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The Capitoline Hill, between the Forum and the Campus Martius, is one of the Seven Hills of Rome. The hill was known as Mons Saturnius, dedicated to the god Saturn. The word Capitolium first meant the temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus later built here, Ancient sources refer the name to caput and the tale was that, when laying the foundations for the temple, the head of a man was found. Some sources even saying it was the head of some Tolus or Olus, the Capitolium was regarded by the Romans as indestructible, and was adopted as a symbol of eternity. By the 16th century, Capitolinus had become Capitolino in Italian, influenced by Roman architecture and Roman republican times, the word Capitolium still lives in the English word capitol. The Capitol Hill in Washington, D. C. is widely assumed to be named after the Capitoline Hill, at this hill, the Sabines, creeping to the Citadel, were let in by the Roman maiden Tarpeia. For this treachery, Tarpeia was the first to be punished by being flung from a cliff overlooking the Roman Forum. This cliff was named the Tarpeian Rock after the Vestal Virgin. The Sabines, who immigrated to Rome following the Rape of the Sabine Women, the Vulcanal, an 8th-century BC sacred precinct, occupied much of the eastern lower slopes of the Capitoline, at the head of what would later become the Roman Forum. The summit was the site of a temple for the Capitoline Triad, started by Romes fifth king, Tarquinius Priscus and it was considered one of the largest and the most beautiful temples in the city. The city legend starts with the recovery of a human skull when foundation trenches were being dug for the Temple of Jupiter at Tarquins order, recent excavations on the Capitoline uncovered an early cemetery under the Temple of Jupiter. There are several important temples built on Capitoline hill, the temple of Juno Moneta, the temple of Virtus, the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus Capitolinus is the most important of the temples. It was built in 509 BC and was nearly as large as the Parthenon, the hill and the temple of Jupiter became the symbols of Rome, the capital of the world. The Temple of Saturn was built at the foot of Capitoline Hill in the end of the Forum Romanum. According to legend Marcus Manlius Capitolinus was alerted to the Gallic attack by the geese of Juno. Vespasians brother and nephew were also besieged in the temple during the Year of Four Emperors, the Tabularium, located underground beneath the piazza and hilltop, occupies a building of the same name built in the 1st century BC to hold Roman records of state. The Tabularium looks out from the rear onto the Roman Forum, the main attraction of the Tabularium, besides the structure itself, is the Temple of Veiovis. During the lengthy period of ancient Rome, the Capitoline Hill was the geographical and ceremonial center, however, by the Renaissance, the former center was an untidy conglomeration of dilapidated buildings and the site of executions of criminals
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Cloaca Maxima
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The Cloaca Maxima is one of the worlds earliest sewage systems. Constructed in Ancient Rome in order to drain marshes and remove the waste of one of the worlds most populous cities, it carried effluent to the River Tiber. The name literally means Greatest Sewer, according to tradition it may have been initially constructed around 600 BC under the orders of the king of Rome, Tarquinius Priscus. The Cloaca Maxima originally was built by the Etruscans as an open-air canal, over time, the Romans covered over the canal and turned it into a sewer system for the city. This public work was achieved through the use of Etruscan engineers. Underground work is said to have carried out on the sewer by Tarquinius Superbus, Romes seventh. Although Livy describes it as being tunnelled out beneath Rome, he was writing centuries after the event and this open drain would then have been gradually built over, as building space within the city became more valuable. The continuous supply of running water helped to remove wastes and keep the sewers clear of obstructions, the aqueduct system was investigated by the general Frontinus at the end of the 1st century AD, who published his report on its state directly to the emperor Nerva. There were many branches off of the sewer, but all seem to be official drains that would have served public toilets, bath-houses. Private residences in Rome, even of the rich, would have relied on some sort of arrangement for sewage. The Cloaca Maxima was well maintained throughout the life of the Roman Empire and even today drains rainwater and debris from the center of town, below the ancient Forum, Velabro and Foro Boario. In more recent times, the passages have been connected to the modern-day sewage system. The Cloaca Maxima was thought to be presided over by the goddess Cloacina, the outfall of the Cloaca Maxima into the River Tiber is still visible today near the bridge Ponte Rotto, and near Ponte Palatino. There is a going down to it visible next to the Basilica Julia at the Forum. Some of it is visible from the surface opposite the church of San Giorgio al Velabro. The system of Roman sewers was much imitated throughout the Roman Empire, the sewer system in Eboracum—the modern-day English city of York—was especially impressive and part of it still survives. Rinne The Waters of Rome, The Cloaca Maxima and the Monumental Manipulation of Water in Archaic Rome by John N. N. Hopkins Rome, Cloaca Maxima
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Lawrence Alma-Tadema
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Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, OM, RA was a Dutch painter of special British denizenship. Born in Dronrijp, the Netherlands, and trained at the Royal Academy of Antwerp, Belgium, he settled in England in 1870, Lourens Alma Tadema was born on 8 January 1836 in the village of Dronrijp in the province of Friesland in the north of the Netherlands. The surname Tadema is an old Frisian patronymic, meaning son of Tade, while the names Lourens and he was the sixth child of Pieter Jiltes Tadema, the village notary, and the third child of Hinke Dirks Brouwer. His father had three sons from a previous marriage and his parents first child died young, and the second was Atje, Lourens sister, for whom he had great affection. The Tadema family moved in 1838 to the city of Leeuwarden. His father died when Lourens was four, leaving his mother with five children, Lourens, his sister and his mother had artistic leanings, and decided that drawing lessons should be incorporated into the childrens education. He received his first art training with a drawing master hired to teach his older half-brothers. It was intended that the boy would become a lawyer, diagnosed as consumptive and given only a short time to live, he was allowed to spend his remaining days at his leisure, drawing and painting. Left to his own devices he regained his health and decided to pursue a career as an artist, in 1852 he entered the Royal Academy of Antwerp in Belgium where he studied early Dutch and Flemish art, under Gustaf Wappers. During Alma-Tademas four years as a student at the Academy. Although de Taeye was not a painter, Alma-Tadema respected him and became his studio assistant. De Taeye introduced him to books that influenced his desire to portray Merovingian subjects early in his career and he was encouraged to depict historical accuracy in his paintings, a trait for which the artist became known. Under his guidance Alma-Tadema painted his first major work, The Education of the children of Clovis and this painting created a sensation among critics and artists when it was exhibited that year at the Artistic Congress in Antwerp. It is said to have laid the foundation of his fame, Alma-Tadema related that although Leys thought the completed painting better than he had expected, he was critical of the treatment of marble, which he compared to cheese. Alma-Tadema took this very seriously, and it led him to improve his technique and to become the worlds foremost painter of marble. Merovingian themes were the favourite subject up to the mid-1860s. It is perhaps in this series that we find the artist moved by the deepest feeling, however Merovingian subjects did not have a wide international appeal, so he switched to themes of life in ancient Egypt that were more popular. On these scenes of Frankish and Egyptian life Alma-Tadema spent great energy, in 1862 Alma-Tadema left Leyss studio and started his own career, establishing himself as a significant classical-subject European artist
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Cumaean Sibyl
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The Cumaean Sibyl was the priestess presiding over the Apollonian oracle at Cumae, a Greek colony located near Naples, Italy. The word sibyl comes from the ancient Greek word sibylla, meaning prophetess, there were many sibyls in different locations throughout the ancient world. Centuries ago, concurrent with the 50th Olympiad not long before the expulsion of Romes kings, tarquin then relented and purchased the last three at the full original price, whereupon she disappeared from among men. The books were kept in the Temple of Jupiter on the Capitoline Hill, Rome. The temple burned down in the 80s BC, and the books with it and these were carefully sorted and those determined to be legitimate were saved in the rebuilt temple. The Emperor Augustus had them moved to the Temple of Apollo on the Palatine Hill, the Cumaean Sibyl is featured in the works of, among others, Virgil, Ovid and Petronius. The Cumaean Sibyl prophesied by “singing the fates” and writing on oak leaves and these would be arranged inside the entrance of her cave but, if the wind blew and scattered them, she would not help to reassemble the leaves to form the original prophecy again. The Sibyl was a guide to the underworld, its entry being at the crater of Avernus. All night long, all day, the doors of Hades stand open, but to retrace the path, to come up to the sweet air of heaven, That is labour indeed. The Sibyl acts like a bridge between the world and the deads sphere. She shows the way to Aeneas, and she teaches him what he has to know facing the dangers of their journey in the underworld, although she was a mortal, the Sibyl lived about a thousand years. This came about when Apollo offered to grant her a wish in exchange for her virginity, she took a handful of sand, later, after she refused the gods love, he allowed her body to wither away because she failed to ask for eternal youth. Her body grew smaller with age and eventually was kept in a jar, eventually only her voice was left. In the Middle Ages, both the Cumaean Sibyl and Virgil were considered prophets of the birth of Christ, because the fourth of Virgils Eclogues appears to contain a Messianic prophecy by the Sibyl. In it, she foretells the coming of a saviour, whom Christians identified as Jesus and this was seized on by early Christians as such—one reason why Dante Alighieri later chose Virgil as his guide through the underworld in The Divine Comedy. Virgil may have influenced by Hebrew texts, according to Tacitus. The title of Sylvia Plaths semi-autobiographical novel The Bell Jar has been said to be a reference to the ampulla in which the Sibyl lived, robert Graves fashioned a poetic prophesy by the Sibyl to bind the story together in his work of historical fiction, I, Claudius. Geoffrey Hills poem After Cumae in For the Unfallen also refers to the Sibyls mouthy cave and she edited these writings into the current first-person narrative of a man living at the end of the 21st century, which proves to be the end of humanity
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Sibylline Books
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Only fragments have survived, the rest being lost or deliberately destroyed. The Sibylline Books should not be confused with the so-called Sibylline Oracles, from Gergis the collection passed to Erythrae, where it became famous as the oracles of the Erythraean Sibyl. It would appear to have been this very collection that found its way to Cumae, the story of the acquisition of the Sibylline Books by Tarquinius is one of the famous legendary elements of Roman history. Tarquinius then relented and purchased the last three at the original price and had them preserved in a vault beneath the Capitoline temple of Jupiter. The story is alluded to in Varros lost books quoted in Lactantius Institutiones Divinae and they were usually ex-consuls or ex-praetors. They held office for life, and were exempt from all public duties. They had the responsibility of keeping the books in safety and secrecy, since they were written in hexameter verse and in Greek, the college of curators was always assisted by two Greek interpreters. The books were kept in the Temple of Jupiter on the Capitol, and, the Roman Senate sent envoys in 76 BC to replace them with a collection of similar oracular sayings, in particular collected from Ilium, Erythrae, Samos, Sicily, and Africa. This new Sibylline collection was deposited in the temple, together with similar sayings of native origin. According to the poet Rutilius Claudius Namatianus, the general Flavius Stilicho burned them, some genuine Sibylline verses are preserved in the Book of Marvels or Memorabilia of Phlegon of Tralles. These represent an oracle, or a combination of two oracles, of seventy hexameters in all and they report the birth of an androgyne, and prescribe a long list of rituals and offerings to the gods. Copies of the actual Sibylline Books were still in the Roman Temple at this time, the Oracles are nevertheless thought by modern scholars to be anonymous compilations that assumed their final form in the fifth century, after the Sibylline Books perished. They are a collection of Jewish and Christian portents of future disasters. An incomplete list of consultations of the Sibylline Books recorded by historians,399 BC, The books were consulted following a pestilence,348 BC, A plague struck Rome after a brief skirmish with the Gauls and Greeks. 345 BC, The books were consulted when a shower of stones rained down, Publius Valerius Publicola was appointed dictator to arrange a public holiday for religious observances. 295 BC, They were consulted following a pestilence. A Temple was built to Venus near the Circus Maximus, 240/238 BC, The Ludi Florales, or Flower Games, were instituted after consulting the books. 216 BC, When Hannibal annihilated the Roman Legions at Cannae, the books were consulted, 205-204 BC, During the Second Punic War, upon consultation of the Sibylline Books, an image of Cybele was transferred from Pessinos to Rome
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Overthrow of the Roman monarchy
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The Roman histories tell that while the king was away on campaign, his son Sextus Tarquinius raped a noblewoman Lucretia. Afterwards, she revealed the offence to various Roman noblemen, the Roman noblemen, led by Lucius Junius Brutus, obtained the support of the Roman aristocracy and the people to expel the king and his family and to institute a republic. The Roman army supported Brutus, and the king went into exile, despite a number of attempts by Lucius Tarquinius Superbus to reinstate the monarchy, the republic was established and two consuls were elected annually to rule the city. Roman history held that seven kings of Rome reigned from the establishment of the city in 753 BC by Romulus up to the reign of Tarquinius, Tarquinius was the son of the fifth king, Lucius Tarquinius Priscus. In around 535 BC Tarquinius, together with his wife Tullia Minor arranged the murder of Servius, despite various military victories, Tarquinius became an unpopular king. He refused to bury his predecessor, then put to death a number of the senators whom he suspected of remaining loyal to Servius. By not replacing the slain senators, and not consulting the Senate on all matters of government, in another break with tradition, he judged capital criminal cases without advice of counsellors, thereby creating fear among those who might think to oppose him. He also engaged in treachery with the Latin allies, in about 510 BC, Tarquinius went to war with the Rutuli. Tarquinius unsuccessfully sought to take the Rutulian capital Ardea by storm, Sextus Tarquinius, the kings son, was sent on a military errand to Collatia. Lucius wife, Lucretia, daughter of Spurius Lucretius, prefect of Rome and she was weaving with her maids. The party awarded her the palm of victory and Lucius invited them to visit, at night Sextus entered her bedroom by stealth, quietly going around the slaves who were sleeping at her door. In the alternative story, he returned from camp a few later with one companion to take Collatinus up on his invitation to visit and was lodged in a guest bedroom. He entered Lucretias room while she lay naked in her bed and started to wash her belly with water, the next day Lucretia dressed in black and went to her fathers house in Rome and cast herself down in the suppliants position, weeping. While they were debating she drew a dagger and stabbed herself in the heart. She died in her fathers arms, with the women present keening and lamenting, Lucretia, believing that the rape dishonored her and her family, committed suicide by stabbing herself with a dagger after telling of what had befallen her. According to legend, Brutus grabbed the dagger from Lucretias breast after her death and immediately shouted for the overthrow of the Tarquins. The four men gathered the youth of Collatia, then went to Rome where Brutus, being at that time Tribunus Celerum, summoned the people to the forum, the people voted for the deposition of the king, and the banishment of the royal family. He began by revealing that his pose as fool was a designed to protect him against an evil king
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Ardea, Lazio
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Ardea is an ancient town and comune in the Metropolitan City of Rome,35 kilometres south of Rome and about 4 kilometres from todays Mediterranean coast. The economy is based on agriculture, although, starting from the 1970s. Ardea is one of the most ancient towns in western Europe, founded about in the 8th century BC was the capital of the Rutuli, mentioned in the Aeneid. After the Roman conquest, Ardea was most often mentioned in connection with the Via Ardeatina, one of the consular roads, in 509 BC Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, the king of Rome sought unsuccessfully to take the town by storm, and then commenced a siege of the town. However the siege was interrupted by the revolution resulted in the overthrow of the king. One of the leaders of the revolution, Lucius Junius Brutus, came to the camp of the Roman army at Ardea, in 443 BC the Volscians laid siege to Ardea. The siege was broken by Roman troops under the leadership of Marcus Geganius Macerinus. During the Second Punic War, it was one of the few cities that refused military support to Rome, in the 3rd-2nd centuries BC it decayed until, in the Imperial Age, it was scarcely populated at all. The 1st century agricultural writer Columella possessed estates there, after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, Ardea was abandoned. It returned to only after the 9th century AD. Its castle in 1118 housed Pope Gelasius II and was later contended among various feudal barons of the area, in 1419 Pope Martin V assigned it to his kinsmen, the Colonna family, who sold it in 1564 to the Cesarini. In 1816 it became a frazione of Genzano, remains of the ancient city include the old defensive agger, dating to the 7th century BC and later updated to larger walls. Archaeological excavations have brought to four temples, of unknown dedication. Part of the pavement of a basilica have also found in the area of the ancient Forum. Other sights include, The Church of Santa Marina, erected in 1191 by Cencio Savelli, the interior, on a single nave, was originally entirely frescoed. Romanesque Church of San Pietro Apostolo, which was a possession of the monks of San Paolo Fuori le Mura of Rome and it incorporates a former watchtower used to counter Saracen attacks, now turned into a bell tower. It has 15th-century frescoes and a 16th-century wooden crucifix, the Giardini della Landriana, designed by Russell Page. Giacomo Manzù Museum, housing some 400 works of the artist, tor San Lorenzo, a tower in the eponymous seaside frazione
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Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus
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Collatinus was one of the first consuls of the Roman Republic in 509 BC, together with Lucius Junius Brutus. Collatinus was the son of Arruns Tarquinius, better known as Egerius, a nephew of Lucius Tarquinius Priscus, the fifth King of Rome. Through an accident, Arruns had been born into poverty, but when his uncle subdued the Latin town of Collatia, the surname Collatinus was derived from this town. Collatinus married Lucretia, daughter of Spurius Lucretius Tricipitinus, according to legend, while Collatinus was away from home, his cousin, Sextus Tarquinius, son of the king, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, came to his house by night. After his departure, Lucretia sent for her husband and father, despite their entreaties and protests of her innocence, Lucretia then plunged a dagger into her breast in expiation of her shame. Enraged by his cousins deed, Collatinus and his father-in-law brought news of the crime before the people and they were supported by Brutus, the kings nephew, and others who had suffered various cruelties at the hands of the king and his sons. While the king was away on a campaign, the conspirators barred the gates of Rome and established a republican government, Brutus and Collatinus were the first consuls, and set about the defense of the city. Collatinus was dumbstruck when Brutus, his colleague and cousin, called him to resign. Fearing what might become of him should he refuse the popular demand, Collatinus laid down the consulship and went into exile at Lanuvium. Brutus, who as the nephew was even closer to the royal house, was spared the same indignity, as a part of the Junia gens
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Lucretia
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Lucretia or Lucrece was an ancient Roman woman whose fate played a vital role in the transition of Roman government from the Roman Kingdom to the Roman Republic. The incident kindled the flames of dissatisfaction over the methods of the last king of Rome. As a result of its impact, the rape itself became a major theme in European art. One of the first two consuls of the Roman Republic, Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus was Lucretias husband, all the numerous sources on the establishment of the republic reiterate the basic events of Lucretias story, though accounts vary slightly. Lucretias story is not considered a myth by most historians, the evidence points to the historical existence of a woman named Lucretia and an historical incident that played a critical part in the real downfall of a real monarchy. Many of the details, though, are debatable. Post-Roman uses of the legend typically became mythical in portrayal, being of artistic rather than historical merit, as the events of the story move rapidly, the date of the incident is probably the same year as the first of the fasti. Dionysius of Halicarnassus, a source, sets this year at the beginning of the sixty-eighth Olympiad. Isagoras being the annual archon at Athens, that is, 508/507 BC, Lucretia therefore died in 508 BC. The other historical sources tend to support this date, but the year is debatable within a range of five years. Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, last king of Rome, being engaged in the siege of Ardea, sent his son, Sextus Tarquinius and she was weaving with her maids. The party awarded her the palm of victory and Collatinus invited them to visit, at night Sextus entered her bedroom by stealth, quietly going around the slaves who were sleeping at her door. In the alternative story, he returned from camp a few later with one companion to take Collatinus up on his invitation to visit and was lodged in a guest bedroom. He entered Lucretias room while she lay naked in her bed and started to wash her belly with water, the next day Lucretia dressed in black and went to her fathers house in Rome and cast herself down in the supplicants position, weeping. While they were debating, she drew a dagger and stabbed herself in the heart. She died in her fathers arms, with the women present keening and lamenting, in the alternative version, she did not go to Rome, but sent for her father and her husband asking them to bring one friend each. Those selected were Publius Valerius Publicola from Rome and Lucius Junius Brutus from the camp at Ardea and they found Lucretia in her room. In another version Collatinus and Brutus were encountered returning to Rome unaware, were briefed, Brutus happened to be a politically motivated participant
Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Tarquinius Superbus, Lucius". Encyclopædia Britannica. 26 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "
