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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 Eder, Walter (Berlin)

(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 simila…

[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 during her lifetime (as noted in the Acts o…

[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 establis…

(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 external possessions (Syria, Palestine, southern Asia Minor); also as an administrative unit under the Seleucids and Attalids (Attalus, with stemma), probably with a similar structure but not understood in detail [1. 440]. In Egypt a topos comprised several villages or kômai (Kome B), and therefore formed a unit of intermediate size, which had no pharaonic antecedent, unlike the nome and kome, but was newly form…

[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. Maximinus [2] Thrax and his son Maximus bore the title Sarmaticus maximus from AD 236. Although Sarmatian tribes continued to threaten the Danube border, Diocletianus was the first to accept the title Sarmaticus maximus again in AD 285 (three more times from then on). After Diocletian, all the Augusti of the…

[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). Eder, Walter (Berlin) [German version] [2] Egyptian king (404-398 BC) probably the grandson of no. 1, listed by Manetho as the only king of…

[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…

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 The war by Athens against seceded allies of the Second Athenian League from 357-355 BC, which put Athens into serious military and financial difficulties (Symmoria). Du…

[German version] (θεσμοφύλακες /thesmophýlakes, from thesmós = 'law, ordinance' and phyláttein = 'to guard'). 'Guardians of ordinances', a rarely recorded collegium in Classical Greece (for Elis: Thuc. 47,9) with scarcely identifiable powers. Recorded in the Hellenistic period in Boeotia (IG VII 3172,178; cf. Plut. Mor. 292d thesmophylákios nómos) and on Ceos (IG XII 5,595B) as an authority which saw to the enforcement of judicial punishments and (on Ceos) brought law suits against officials. In Ptolemaic Egypt (recorded for Alexandria [1], thesmophylakes were the leaders …

[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 …

(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. I…

[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 settled by Justinian and probably entrusted with the task of securing the Danube border against the Franks. In the battles against the neighbouring Gepids he was insufficiently supported by Justinian, although A. sent a large army to  Narses in Italy in 552. Nevertheless, he achieved vic…

[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 …

[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/ dḗmos [1] and populus ) were not clearly defined. But dḗmos and populus never meant 'population' since both referred only to citizens with political rights (Citizenship; Census). Dḗmos could mean all of the citizens of a country, but also only the lower classes, the 'masses', who were also called οἱ πολλοί/ hoi polloí ('the many'), πλῆθος/ plḗthos ('mass') and ὄχλος/ óchlos ('rabble', 'mo…

[German version] Abbreviation of the common Roman name Aulus. A. is of Etruscan origin (Aules?) and was also used as a cognomen in the imperial period. Eder, Walter (Berlin) Bibliography Salomies, 11, 24, 165.

[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, Walter (Berlin) Bibliography 1 A. Calderini, Epigrafia, 1974 2 H.Cohen, J.C. Egbert, R. Cagnat, Coin-Inscriptions and Epigraphical Abbreviations of Imperial Rome, 1978.

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 Arvales fratres [8. 38-55; 7. 223]. The supposed origin …