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[German version] Gothic king who, together with other tribes, made forays over the Danube into Moesia and Thrace in AD 250, inflicted a severe defeat on the emperor Decius as he was advancing to relieve Philippopolis (Plovdiv) and, in breach of his agreement with the usurper Priscus, had the city pillaged. In their retreat Decius and his son Herennius took up position near Abrittus, but C. enticed the Roman army into a swamp, encircled and annihilated it. Both emperors fell. Their successor Trebon…

[German version] Elder sister of Theoderic the Great, mother of  Amalaberga and  Theodahad, married in her second marriage around AD 500 the Vandal king Thrasamund in Carthage in order to support the alliance politics of her brother, which until the death of Thrasamund in 523 also succeeded. His successor Hilderic turned away from Theoderic, however, and at the latest in 525 disposed of A. and her followers. Eder, Walter (Berlin) Bibliography H. Wolfram, Die Goten, 31990, 307 f.

[German version] [2] Assembly place of the municipal council in Rome C. (pl. curiae) was the name of the assembly place of the municipal council in Rome (  senatus ; Fest. p. 42) and also in many   coloniae and municipia (  municipium ) of Italy and the Roman provinces (cf.   curiales ). As opposed to the comitium (  comitia ), the assembly place of the people in the open air, the curia is always a building on a piece of land belonging to the community or a god and mostly it is at the   forum of the town or close to it. Council chambers of non-Roman towns can also be called curiae (Liv. 24,24,5 and 9: Syrac…

[German version] General Roman term for toll. Originally imposed probably only in ports ( portus; [1. s. v.], however, derives portorium from porta, 'gate, door'), extended with the spread of Roman rule in Italy and the provinces to all land and sea tolls. The collection of p. was leased to companies (Publicani), which used the additional services of an extensive staff of slaves and freed slaves, the portitores ('toll officials'). From the 2nd century AD onwards the state Gradually collected tolls with its own personnel (cf. Procurator). For tollable goods, ra…

[German version] In Graeco-Roman antiquity terms comparable to the modern term citizenship,   politeía (πολιτεία) and   civitas , originally not only designated individual rights but also the totality of citizens, the political organization of citizens in the sense of a constitution and an autonomous community. Citizenship was usually attained by being born to parents with citizenship (  conubium ) or granted by resolution of the community or an authorized person, in Rome also through private manumission from slavery (  manumissio ). Admission to citizensh…

[German version] Modern term for two series of Roman emperors in the 1st and 3rd/4th cents. AD, who were descended from the same family: one series of succession was founded in AD 69 by T. Flavius  Vespasianus (69-79) and was continued to AD 96 by his sons  Titus [3] (79-81) and  Domitianus [1] (81-96); the other series, which is occasionally called the ‘Second Flavian Dynasty’, was founded by the house of Flavius Valerius  Constantinus [1] I, which fictively began with (Flavius)  Claudius [III 2]…

[German version] (φιλάνθρωπα/ philánthrōpa, neuter? pl. 'philanthropic <decrees>'). Specific, publicly announced measures by the Ptolemaic kings on economic and/or political preferential treatment (e.g. tax reduction, amnesty) for the population of the kingdom or certain groups (see Ptolemaeus [9] VI. Philometor; Ptolemaeus [12] VIII. Euergetes II.). As a rule, the philanthropa's aim was to prevent unrest which was threatening or had already arisen, and of also increasing the favourable reception of the respective ruler. On inscriptions in Hell…

[German version] Alemannic duke in Frankish service. In AD 539, he accompanied king Theudebert I on a campaign to Italy. In 552, B. accepted a request for help by the Goths and, on his own initiative, crossed Italy together with his brother Leuthari and reportedly 75,000 men down to the straits of Messina. After great success ini- tially, the venture came to an end in 554 near Casilinum where B. lost a battle against Narses and his life as well. PLRE 3A, 253f. Eder, Walter (Berlin)

[German version] An inscription discovered in Troezen in 1959 ([1; 2]; translation in [3. 20 f.]) with the text of a decree of the Athenian People's Assembly proposed by Themistocles (the 'Decree of Themistocles'), which decreed the evacuation of the inhabitants of Attica to Salamis and the repatriation of exiles before the naval battle of Cape Artemisium (Persian Wars) in 480 BC; in its present form, it can be dated to the 3rd cent. BC [4. 2; 2. 48]. Its authenticity was soon doubted and the TI w…

[German version] (Greek ἄγγελοι/ ángeloi, πρέσβεις/ présbeis, ἀπόστολοι/ apóstoloi; Lat. missi, nuntii). Despite a lively inter-state exchange, antiquity had no fixed institution for maintaining contact with foreign states through envoys in the sense of constant representation. Envoys were mostly appointed for a certain period, for certain duties and with set competencies. The importance of the work is shown from the fact that they were never appointed by  lot but in Greece as a rule were selected by the p…

[German version] is the term for the military conflicts between Rome and the Latin League ( Latini D.) - of which Rome was not a member - and between Rome and individual Latin towns that sporadically occurred from the beginning of the Republic (about 510 BC) to the dissolution of the League by Rome in 338 BC. The first Latin War can be considered as an attempt of the Latins to end Rome's dominant position. Rome had become the dominant power among the Latins under its kings Servius Tullius [I 4] and Tarquinius [12] Superbus (cf. Liv. 1,52) and made it …

[German version] Votive gift of the Greek states that were taking part in the Persian Wars against Xerxes to Apollo of Delphi in the form of a bronze column of three snake bodies intertwined like a rope, with their heads bearing a gold tripod-type cauldron. On their coils are inscribed in the Doric dialect the names of 31 Greek states, beginning with the Spartans ( Laked[ aimónioi]). The gold cauldron was stolen in the third of the Sacred Wars (356-346 BC) by the Phocians (Paus. 10,13-19), the column was taken by the emperor Constantinus [1] to Constantinople,…

[German version] A. Historical development Hellenistic states (HS) evolved from the collapse of  Alexander [4] the Great's empire in the eastern Mediterranean and Near Asia, and from the imitation by individual rulers in Sicily and southern Italy ( Agathocles [2],  Hieron [2] II) of Hellenistic government and administrative institutions. After the death of the 32-year old Alexander, who left behind no heirs competent to govern nor any solid imperial administration, the empire's unity was at risk: its…

[German version] Modern term for the confrontation between the patricians ( patricii ) and plebeians ( plebs ) at Rome, which began in 494 BC with the foundation of the people's tribunate and ended in 287 BC with the recognition of the decisions of the plebs ( plebiscitum ) as generally binding laws ( lex, leges ) (but s. [1], who puts the end only as late as 217/6). Only the relatively homogenous patriciate should here be understood as an 'order'. The plebs was highly fragmented both socially and economically, and moreover the plebeian clientes of the patricians were …

[German version] Prophetic oracle, fragments transmitted in three Greek papyri of the 2nd and 3rd cents. AD (texts in [1. 195-209]; partly translated in [4. 412-415]; on Imperial Period interest in the PO see [3. 194-199]). On the 'Island of the Sun' a potter sent by Thot unfolds, in the presence of a (fictional) king Amenophis (as spokesman of Chmun the god of pottery? [1. 184 f.]), a terrible portrayal of the physical and moral decline of Egypt and its inhabitants [2. 168-170] in a period of foreign ru…

[German version] Ramnes, Titi(ens)es and Luceres (as in Liv. 1,36,2, but in 1,13,8 and Cic. Rep. 2,20,36: R(h)amnenses) are the  Etruscan (Varro Ling. 5,55; see also [1. 218, 581]) names of the three tribus established by Romulus [1] (according to Dion. Hal. Ant. Rom. 4,14,2 and Gell. NA 15,27: organised by families) which were each divided into 10 curiae and thus formed the primary structuring of the Roman people and army (30×10 equestrians, 30×100 infantry: Varro Ling. 5,89; Liv. 1,13,8). Ennius's derivation of the term R. from Rom…

[German version] (μερισμός; merismós from μερίζειν; merízein = ‘to divide, distribute’) in Athens the name for the ‘distribution’ of funds from tax incomes by the apodéktai to the appropriate officials ( archaí ). The sums allocated were determined by the council of the polis ( boulḗ ) and had to be struck off immediately after distribution ([Aristot.] Ath. pol. 48,1-2). Merismos is not attested before the 4th century BC ( Taxes III. B.). Eder, Walter (Berlin) Bibliography Rhodes, 557-560.

[German version] Goth of Thracian origin (born around AD 480), whose family did not accompany Theoderic to Italy in AD 488. He served as an officer in Justinian's army against the Persians, under  Belisarius in the reconquest of Italy, as also against the Goths and in his old age in Syrian territory. He achieved high rank ( dux Mesopotamiae 531; mag. mil. vacans in Italy 535-546; mag. mil. per Armeniam 550-554), was even patricius, but was finally banished for having a too nonchalant attitude towards his duty as a consequence of excessive financial dealings. PLRE 2, 226-229. Eder, Walter (B…

[German version] Ruling dynasty in the Regnum Bosporanum, named after its founder Spartocus [1] I, who took over the power from the Archaeanactids of Panticapaeum in 438/7 BC. The dynasty, which distinguished itself in the Classical and early Hellenistic periods with a brisk trade in corn in the Aegaean (primarily with Athens), came to an end in 109 BC with the handing over of power by its last ruler, Paerisades [6] V, to Mithridates [6] VI of Pontus. Eder, Walter (Berlin)

[German version] (Προθύτης; Prothýtēs). Theban, leading anti-Macedonian politician who, relying on Athenian help, in 335 BC advocated the secession of Thebes from Macedonia. Swiftly advancing on Thebes, Alexander [4]  the Great (Diod. 17,8,2) demanded in vain his surrender (Plut. Alexandros 11,7). He was probably killed in the defence of the city, which involved heavy losses (Arr. Anab. 1,8,1-8; Diod.  Sic. 17,14,1; Plut. Alexandros 11,12). Eder, Walter (Berlin)