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[German version] Abbreviation of the Roman praenomen Lucius. In the Roman numbering system, L denotes the value 50 and probably developed from the bisection of the Greek aspirate Θ (via the form , which found no use as a letter in the early Latin alphabet). Italy, alphabetical scripts; Numerical systems …

(Ζηνόβιος/ Zēnóbios). [German version] [1] General of Mithridates [6] VI, 1st cent. BC General of Mithridates [6] VI in the first of the Mithridatic Wars (89-85 BC). He captured Chios in 86 BC and organized, despite the payment of the imposed fine of 2,000 talents, deportation of the entire population to the Black Sea (App. Mithr. 180-187; Colchis: Ath. 6,266), in order to warn other cities against secession (cf. Syll.3 785, lines 13-15). During a subsequent stay in Ephesus (still in 86: [1. 172 f.]), however, he was killed by the citizens, who feared a similar fate; as a consequence Ephesus and…

[German version] The A. form the royal dynasty of the East Goths and, with regard to reputation, stand above the royal dynasty of the West Goths, the  Balthi. The family tree of the A., which was developed by Iordanes (died 79) in AD 551 and began with Gaut, indicates godly origin; the eponym of the tribe, Amal, stands only in the fourth place. Iordanes relies upon Cassiodorus, who outlined shortly after the death of the Amal Theoderic the Gr. (526) in his (lost) history of the Goths an origo Gothica, which, in turn, took up an already-existing gentile tradition that had been cultiv…

[German version] [1] Statilia M. Third wife of Nero Born between AD 30 and 40, daughter of T. Statilius Taurus ( cos. 44), married her fourth husband M. Atticus Vestinus (= M. Iulius [II 147] Vestinus Atticus, cos. 65) in 63/4. In 65, emperor Nero forced Vestinus to commit suicide so that he could take M. as his (third) wife in 66 (Tac. Ann. 15,68,3; Suet. Nero 35,1; IG IV 1402 and IV2 604: M. as Nero's wife). In the same year, she was installed as Augusta. As a widow, she was courted by Otho in 69 (Suet. Otho 10,2). M., who was deified …

[German version] As distinct from the ager peregrinus, the 'foreign territory', ager Romanus (AR) was the area of the state of Rome inhabited by Romans (including the city). It consisted of privately owned real estate ( ager privatus) and public lands ( ager publicus ). Parts of the ager publicus could be transformed into ager privatus through the settlement of Roman citizens ( assignatio viritim, 'man by man'; or in closed citizens' colonies, cf. coloniae C) or could be completely divided from the AR to become ag er peregrinus when colonies with their own state areas were establ…

(τόπος/ tópos). [German version] [1] Administrative unit Territorial subdivision of a nome ( nomós [2]), attested from the Hellenistic period onwards in Egypt and in its ex…

[German version] A victory title assumed by Roman emperors to indicate a military success over the Sarmatians (Sarmatae). After AD 175, Marcus [2] Aurelius and his son Commodus were the first to bear the epithet Sarmaticus following the peace treaty with the Iazyges. Ma…

[German version] Neither Greek nor Roman law is familiar with prison sentences as punitive detention in the modern sense (otherwise [1]). As a rule, until the trial the accused remains free (in Rome a kind of pre-trial confinement is permissible for political crimes), a convicted criminal only stays in prison until the execution of the sentence. Also, private detention of a debtor for a creditor, precisely regulated in Rome from the time of the Law of the Twelve Tables onwards, is not to punish but rather to force payment. Addictus; Carcer; Desmoterion Eder, Walter (Berlin) Bibliography 1 …

(Ἀμυρταῖος; Amyrtaîos). [German version] [1] Ruler of Sais, 1st half of the 5th cent. BC of Sais, joined the Aegean rebellion begun by the Libyan  Inarus and supported by Athens (Thuc. 1,109) against the Persian king  Artaxerxes I and held the Nile delta after the victory of the Persians (again supported by Athens; Thuc. 1,110,4; Plut. Cimon 18) for several years. His son Pausiris was reinstated by the Persians in the rulership (Hdt. 3,15).…

[German version] I. General Neither the states of the ancient Near East nor those of classical antiquity had a word corresponding to the modern, impersonal concept of the state. There was no abstract idea of state separate from the ruler or distinguished by law. In particular, the state did not appear as a perpetrator of action. The use of the term 'state' for these pre-modern societies is none the less justified, because, on the one hand, they did fulfil the minimum formal criteria: permanent state population, defined territorium, organized administration and government and capacity for conducting foreign relations including by international treaties; on the other hand, the purpose of the state is to create domestic order by means of legal security. The development of statehood is always a response to altered living conditions (e.g. increasing population, environmental factors) and the thereby increasing complexity of society. Hen…

Wars within or between ancient alliance systems (Socii; Symmachia; Symmachoi). The term does not include punitive expeditions by the leading power against individual alliance members. The following wars were already called SW (πόλεμος συμμαχικός/ pólemos symmachikós, bellum sociale) in Antiquity: [German version] [1] War by Athens against allies of the 2nd Athenian League, 357-355 BC …

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[German version] Propraetor. Legate of Cornelius [I 71] Scipio in Locri [2] after it was regained in the war with Hannibal in 205 BC (second of the Punic Wars). In 204 the Locrians' complaint in the Roman Senate about P.' despotism, which was tolerated by Scipio, and about the pillage of the sanctuary of Persephone was used by Q. Fabius [I 30] in his motion to relieve Scipio of his command (Liv. 29,19,6). A senatorial commission, friendly to Scipio, established his innocence in Locri, however, and brought P. to Rome, to be put on trial by the people's tribunes for perduellio . He probably died while still in custody. MRR 1, 304. Eder, Walter (Berlin)

(lit. 'standing', 'condition', 'position'). [German version] [1] In rhetoric (Rhetoric). The Latin rhetorical term status (Quint. Inst. 3,6,1; Cic. Top. 25,93) or constitutio (Quint. Inst. 3,6,2: 'ascertainment' i.e. of the point in dispute) equates to the Greek στάσις/ stásis (Quint. Inst. 3,6,3; Cic. Top. 25,93; Isid. Orig. 2,5,1). Walde, Christine (Basle) [German version] A. Definition In the rhetorical system (Rhetoric), status ('standing of the matter of dispute') was the determination, arrived at by a series of questions ( summa quaestio, 'crucial question': Quint. Inst. 3,11,2; 27), both of the…

[German version] From AD 540/41 held the regency for Walthari (the minor son of King Wacho) and after Walthari's death (in 547/48) became king of the  Langobards. He led the Langobards to Pannonia, where they were sett…

[German version] The modern term 'governor' merges numerous designations of regular officials and functionaries in the ancient Near East and Graeco-Roman antiquity into one. The common factor of all these positions was the fulfilment of military and administrative duties (i.e. 'governing') far from the centre of rule, in clearly geographically defined areas (Eparchia; Provincia; satrapy, s. Satrap) and by order of and in the place of the actual political ruler. Representatives and deputies of the ruler who worked in the political centre (court, capital: e.g. viziers; Praefectus urbi), and the heads of central offices (Dioiketes; Magister officiorum; Praefectus praetorio), were thus not considered governors. The governor's tasks included primarily commanding troops, who were sometimes also recruited in the region of his rule, also often civil …

[German version] Like the modern term 'people' (in the sense of population, broad masses, lower social class, ethnic group, nation among others) the ancient terms which were used for 'people' (δῆμος/ …

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[German version] is used as an abbreviation of the Roman name Publius and very often appears on coins and in inscriptions to stand for functions and titles (e.g. PM = pontifex maximus; PP = pater patriae). For the numerous meanings of P in numismatics and epigraphics see [1. 310-319] and [2. XLIV-XLIX]. Eder…

Ritual marking the end of a campaign of warfare. At the same time it constituted the army's rite of entry into the city and the highest attainable honour for the general. [German version] I. Name and origins The Latin triumphus is derived from the interjection io triump(h)e, which had formed from the Greek cry θριάμβε/ thriámbe in the cult of Dionysus (Varro, Ling. 6,68; Serv. Aen. 10,775) and was originally a plea for the manifestation of the god, comparable to the fivefold triumpe in the cult song of the …