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Hereditary cognomen in the younger line of the Claudii family (Claudius; from the 2nd half of the 3rd cent. BC); according to ancient etymology of Sabine origin, meaning ‘brave’ (Suet. Tib. 1.2; Gell. NA 13.23.7f., etc.). With Livia's children [2] from her first marriage with Ti. Claudius [I 19] Nero - the later princeps Tiberius and N. Claudius [II 24] Drusus (the Elder) - the name passed into the Julio-Claudian imperial house (stemma: Augustus). Whereas Tiberius retained N. as an epithet, his brother bore it as praenomen, as did their sons Drusus [II 1] (the Younger) and…

This item can be found on the following maps: Socii (Roman confederation) | Theatre | Tribus | Caesar | Umbri, Umbria | Christianity | Villanova Culture | Wine | | Coloniae | Etrusci, Etruria | Commerce | Italy, languages | Celts | Latini, Latium | Limes | Natural catastrophes | Pertinax | Phoenicians, Poeni | Pilgrimage | Punic Wars | Punic Wars | Regio, regiones | Rome | Rome | Athletes | Batavian Revolt (Ῥώμη/ Rhṓmē; Lat. imperium Romanum). I. History [German version] A. General remarks The history of Rome, which according to Roman tradition began with its foundation in 753 BC…

This item can be found on the following maps: Theatre | Caesar | Christianity | Xenophon | | Commerce | Hellenistic states | Oracles | Pergamum | Persian Wars | Athletes | Education / Culture (Πέργαμον, ἡ Πέργαμος; Pérgamon, hē Pérgamos). [German version] I. Location City in Mysia, modern Bergama (at the foot of the ancient acropolis, partially on the remains of P.), in western Turkey, 110 km north of İzmir, c. 30 km from the coast at the edge of the plain of the Caïcus [1], modern Bakır Cayı. The ancient settlement was located on a 300-m high mountain ridge, surro…

(Πολύβιος; Polýbios). [German version] [1] (Physician) see Polybus [6] Physician, see Polybus [6] Dreyer, Boris (Göttingen) [German version] [2] Greek historian, 3rd/2nd. cent. BC Greek historian. Dreyer, Boris (Göttingen) [German version] A. Life Son of Lycortas, the leading statesman of the Achaean League (Achaea with map), from Megalopolis. He was born before 199 BC (as hípparchos, i.e. holder of the second highest office within the Achaean League in 169 BC, he must have been at least 30 years old), died in around 120 BC (according to Ps.-Lucian.…

(Ξέρξης/ Xérxēs; Old Persian Xšayāršā, 'ruling over heroes'). [German version] [1] X. I Achaemenid great king (486-465 BC), son of Darius [1] I and Atossa [1]. 'Born in the purple', X. was designated by his father as his successor (XPf 31 ff. = [6. 81-85]; Hdt. 7,2 f.; Porphyrogénnētos ). At the beginning of his reign he defeated an uprising in Egypt (Hdt. 7,3), and later the rebellions of Šamaš-Erība and Bēl-Šimmanni in Babylonia [3. 361 ff.]. A campaign to Greece (in 480/79 BC) - about which only accounts from the…

[German version] I. General The states of antiquity had no executive PA independent of government and legislature in the sense of the modern separation of powers. The triple division of constitutions, indicated in Aristot. Pol. 1297b 35-1301a 15 ( tría mória, 1297b 37), into a decision-making, legislating organ ( tò bouleuómenon), an executive element ('on the offices': tò perì tàs archás) and judicature ( tò dikázon) owes more to the schematically working mind of the author than to a political concept as such, especially since the fields defined show conside…

(Τίμαιος; Tímaios). [German version] [1] Main speaker in Plato's [1] Timaeus T. of Locri [2] Epizephyrii in southern Italy (Τίμαιος Λοκρός/ Tímaios Lokrós), the main speaker in Plato's [1] Timaeus, was in Antiquity regarded as a Pythagorean [1.83-85]. The Suda s.v. T. (IV p. 553,26f. Adler) and the scholia to Pl. Tim. 20 A Greene report that he wrote on mathematical problems, on nature and on the life of Pythagoras [2] (μαθηματικά, περὶ φύσεως, περὶ τοῦ Πυθαγόρου βίου/ M athēmatiká, Perì phýseōs, Perì toû Pythagórou bíou) [1.85]. One treatise, in the Doric dialect [2.11-19], ent…

I. General information [German version] A. Definition The term colonization is used to refer to several waves of settlement movements in the area around the Mediterranean in the period from the 11th cent. BC up to the Roman imperial era, which significantly alter the settlement geography of the Mediterranean world and have a decisive and lasting effect on the course of ancient history. In general the term colonization is not used to refer to the immigration in the 3rd and 2nd millenia of Indo-European …

[German version] I. General Rulership is here understood as political rulership, i.e. a reciprocal social relationship serving to create and permanently preserve the social order through political organization. Rulership is based on fixed rules applying both to the ruler(s) and the ruled; thus those ruled generally assent blindly to the authority of the ruler(s), or are at least so minded as to tolerate it. As a system of order, rulership appears in different forms: in the ancient Near East and Egyp…

I. Ancient Orient [German version] A. Terminology Designations for rulers include: (1) descriptive terms like the Sumerian LUGAL (literally 'big man'), equated in vocabularies with the Akkadian šarru ('shining one(?)'), malku ('adviser', Hebrew melek), Hittite ḥaššu- ('well-born one'); furthermore, Sumerian NUN and Akkadian rubāum ('most excellent one'), and Sumerian EN, Akkadian bēlu, Hittite išḫa- ('lord'); these apply regardless of the size and structure of the area of rule. Feminine forms are recorded. (2) Culture and epoch specific titles (a…

I. Geography and history [German version] A. The name and its development The name I. acquired its modern meaning during the Augustan period; it originally described the kingdom of the Oenotrian ruler Italus, comprising the Bruttian peninsula from Sila to Scylletium (Antiochus FGrH 555 F 5; according to Hecat. FGrH 1 F 41,51-53, Medma, Locris, Caulonia, and Krotalla were in I.). Hellanicus links I. with the term vitulus (‘calf’) and the legend of the calf of  Geryoneus which had run away from Hercules (Dion. Hal. Ant. Rom. 1,35); Timaeus associates the name wit…

I. Terminology and philosophy [German version] A. Modern concept The general modern meaning of the word 'tolerance' is the readiness of individuals, groups or states to permit the opinions, ways of life and philosophical and religious convictions of others to 'have validity' alongside their own. Today, the meaning of the word ranges from 'sufferance' (e.g. in the sense of constitutional law: the sufferance of immigrants, diverse confessions, religions) to the emphatic affirmation of the 'different' pheno…

(Ἀθῆναι; Athênai; Lat. Athenae). [German version] [1] Capital of Attica This item can be found on the following maps: Writing | Theatre | Caesar | Christianity | Dark Ages | Grain Trade, Grain Import | Hellenistic states | Celts | Limes | Macedonia, Macedones | Marble | Mycenaean culture and archaeology | Natural catastrophes | Persian Wars | Punic Wars | Rome | Athletes | Attica | Attica | Delian League | Athenian League (Second) | Aegean Koine | Aegean Koine | Education / Culture | Mineral Resources Goette, Hans Rupprecht (Athens) [German version] I. Geography A. is the primary location …

[German version] I. Definition 'Town' and 'city' in modern parlance have become general terms to describe settlements of a particular size, with a particular complement of buildings and administrative and legal structure. Owing, however, to the manifold forms assumed by towns and cities, we lack a specific, all-embracing definition: criteria such as a closed built environment, a highly evolved division of labour, and central administrative and economic functions for the surrounding territory, have p…

[German version] I. Names and concept, sources The name and concept of the Phoínikes (Φοίνικες)/Phoenicians (= P.) were formed in the Greek world [1]. Those designated by it understood themselves primarily as citizens or members of a union of cities, e.g. as Tyrians, Sidonians or - after the shared cultural region - as Canaanites [2]. In this they were referring to a political or ethnic identity derived from the Ancient Near Eastern Bronze Age. The various designations can only be reconciled from case to cas…

Name of one of the oldest and most celebrated Roman patrician families; during the Roman Republic the largest and most extensive gens, giving its name to the tribus Cornelia. Its patrician branches probably stem from the Maluginenses, frequently attested in the 5th cent. BC (C. [I 57-58]); the sequence was probably as follows: in the 5th cent. the Cossi [I 20-22]; in the 4th cent. the Scipiones [I 65-85], Rufini [I 62] and Lentuli [I 31-56]; from the 3rd cent. the Dolabellae [I 23-29], Sullae [I 87-90], Blasiones [I 8-10],…

[German version] [1] Roads and bridges, construction of see Roads and bridges, construction of Eder, Walter (Berlin) [German version] [2] Voting bridge The term pons (generally in the plural form of pontes) was also used for the narrow 'voting bridges' in Rome which members of the comitia had to cross on the way to cast their votes. It is argued that the saying Sexagenarios de ponte (deicere) with its incitement to throw sixty-year olds from the bridge (Cic. Rosc. Am. 100; Fest. 452; Macrob. Sat. 1,5,10) stemmed from the demand by younger voters to bar older o…

(Ζηνόδοτος/ Zēnódotos). [German version] [1] Of Ephesus, Alexandrian philologist Alexandrian philologist from Ephesus ( c. 325-260 BC; Suda s. v. Ζ. Ἐφέσιος). Baumbach, Manuel (Zürich) [German version] I. Life Alexandrian philologist from Ephesus Z. was employed as tutor to the royal princes at the Ptolemaic court before his appointment in 285/4 BC as the first director [1. 147-148] of the library (II B 2.a) in Alexandria [1]. In addition to a classification of Greek poetry (most notably epic and lyric works), Z. developed in …

Name of an ancient Roman patrician lineage (on inscriptions also Fourios), derived from the praenomen Fusus and also occurring occasionally in the original form Fusius in the literary tradition; the family perhaps came from Tusculum (cf. the family grave of the Furii ILLRP 895-903). The numerous members of the gens from the early Republic in the 5th/4th cents. BC are scarcely tangible as historical persons, and their history is in part later annalistic invention. Most well known is the ‘Saviour of Rome’ after the catas…

Name of a Roman plebeian family probably deriving from the Italic praenomen Pompo, tracing back, like the Aemilii, Calpurnii and Pinarii, to one of the sons of Numa Pompilius (Plut. Numa 21,2; cf. Nep. Att. 1,1). In the 3rd century BC the Mathones (cf. P. [I 7-9]) achieved consulship, but later the family was insignificant. The most prominent member was a friend of Cicero, T. P. [I 5] Atticus. I. Republican Period [German version] [I 1] P., Cn. People's tribune in 90 BC People's tribune in 90 BC, killed in the Civil War in 82; Cicero quite often heard him in his youth; his j…