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Name of a Roman plebeian family, probably from Caudium (CIL I2 1744 f.) and attested from the time of the 2nd Punic War. The branch of the Libones (S. [I 5-7; II 4-7]) attained the consulship with S. [I 7] and was part of the Roman high nobility in the early Imperial period. The Curiones (S. [I 1-4]), prominent in the 2nd and 1st cents. BC, disappeared with the Republic. I. Republican period [German version] [I 1] S. Curio, C. As aedile in 196 BC, he built the Temple of Faunus on the Tiber Island. Praetor urbanus in 183 and the second plebeian to be elected curio [2] maximus …

[German version] [1] Pacuvius and Sthenius N. Celer from a distinguished Campanian family seem to have offered Hannibal accomodation in Capua in 216 BC Pacuvius and Sthenius N. Celer belonged to a distinguished Campanian family. They seem to have offered Hannibal sumptuous accommodation in Capua in 216 BC (Liv. 23,8). Punic Wars Schmitt, Tassilo (Bielefeld) Bibliography J. von Ungern-Sternberg, Capua im 2. Punischen Krieg, 1975, 30-31. [German version] [2] N. Crassus Republican writer, translator of the Iliad in Latin Republican writer, who translated the ‘Iliad into Latin…

Oscan praenomen, later a widespread nomen gentile; literary refs. at Rome from as early as the 5th cent. BC (O. [I 5]), but historical evidence only from the 2nd cent. The Tusculan Opiter O., who is said to have given his name to the Mons O. at Rome, is an invention (Varro in Fest. 476 L.). Elvers, Karl-Ludwig (Bochum) I. Republican period [German version] [I 1] O., C. Author of a law of 215 BC to limit displays of wealth Restricted the opportunities for women to display wealth by his law of 215 BC (Liv. 34,1,1-3 et alibi; MRR 1, 255). In 195, this legislation was repealed despite the res…

Name of a Roman plebeian family, historically attested at Rome from the 3rd cent. BC. The name was a common one, but its bearers were politically insignificant. Elvers, Karl-Ludwig (Bochum) I. Republican period [German version] [I 1] Legate of L. Licinius [I 26] Lucullus in 69 BC. Distinguished himself in the Armenian war (Plut. Lucullus 25,4-6; App. Mithr. 381-385), but fell into Parthian hands in 68 (Cass. Dio 36,3,2 f.). Fündling, Jörg (Bonn) [German version] [I 2] Praetor before 67 BC, together with his colleague Bellinus, he was kidnapped by pirates (Plut. Pompeius 24,6). Fündling,…

[German version] In 182 BC, O. proposed the first attested Roman lex sumptuaria (“law against luxury”). It limited the number of people who could attend a banquet (Macrob. Sat. 3,17,2). Like other laws of this period, this one too was meant to regulate the competition between political opponents. M. Porcius Cato [1] had to fight against mitigation of the law. (Fest. 280-82 L.). It was superseded in 161 BC by the tougher lex Fannia (see Fannius [I 6]; luxus ). Schmitt, Tassilo (Bielefeld) Bibliography E. Baltrusch, Regimen morum, 1989, 77-81.

Name of a Roman patrician family, derived from the praenomen Quintus; in inscriptions and MSS also Quintilius. In the annalistic tradition the family was one of Rome's oldest, supposed to have arrived in Rome under the king Tullus Hostilius (Dion. Hal. Ant. Rom. 3,29,7; cf. Liv. 1,30,2, though he has Quinctii); of a consul recorded in 453 BC and a consular tribune in 403 nothing further is known. In the historical period, members of the family are known from the end of the 3rd cent. on (bearing the inherited cognomen Varus), but they achieved no lasting noble status. The most promin…

[German version] The designations 'Orient (Or.)' and 'Occident (Oc.)', as regions of the world, are based on the compass directions in which they are located. These in turn were named after sunrise (ἀνατολή/ anatolḗ, 'sunrise', cf. 'Anatolia'; Lat. sol oriens) and, by analogy with this, sunset (δύσις/ dýsis, Lat. sol occidens). Homer had already used these phenomena to determine a primary east-west axis for recording and describing the world (Od. 10,190-192), which differed from that used in Egypt that was based on the direction of the flow of …

Oscan/Italian praenomen (usual abbreviation in Lat. inscriptions Tr.), later also a Roman gens name, recorded from the 1st cent. BC onwards. Elvers, Karl-Ludwig (Bochum) [German version] [1] T., Statius Supposed to have handed his home city of Compsa over to Hannibal [4] in 216 BC (Liv. 23,1,1-3; Zon. 9,2,7). Punic Wars (II) Schmitt, Tassilo (Bielefeld) Bibliography J. von Ungern-Sternberg, Capua im Zweiten Punischen Krieg, 1975, 69. [German version] [2] T. Gallus, M. Roman equestrian, Caesar's prefect or tribune in Gaul, who demanded grain from the Coriosolites (…