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Chronological periodicity, typically 4-10 days, linked with particular public activities (religious, political, commercial), often in the form of market days ( nundinae ) [1]. [German version] I. Types Two different forms of 'week' were known in antiquity. (1) The type corresponding to the modern week, of fixed length and ignoring the monthly calendar, only took hold gradually, at first in the form of the seven-day week ( h ebdomas), based on the Sabbath and probably regular from the time of the Jewish exile (587-539 BC), and the eight-day week ( o gdoas) of the Romans ( nundinum), also d…

I. General [German version] A. Notions of measuring time Most cultures have some method of measuring time, frequently based on periodical changes within nature or the stars. The oldest of these is the pars-pro-toto method, in which it is not a certain period of time as a whole that is connected, but a regularly recurring phenomenon within that time [1. 9 f.] (e.g. lunar phases). Metaphors of time or the measuring thereof play no great role in antiquity, with the exception of the field of  metrics. Usually, the focus was not on …

Cognomen in the family of the Valerii ( Valerius). The best-known bearers are Manius Valerius Maximus M. ( cos. 263 BC), a commander in the Second Punic War, Marcus Valerius M. Rufus ( cos. 53), a follower of Caesar and antiquarian, and Marcus Valerius M. Corvinus ( cos. suff. 31), a supporter of emperor Augustus, who promoted Tibullus and other contemporaneous poets. Elvers, Karl-Ludwig (Bochum) [German version] [1] Valerius M. Avienus Legatus senatus in c. AD 396/98, praef. praet. for Italia and Africa As a member of an old consular family (Rut. Nam. 1,271f.; Macr. Sat. 1,6,26), he became l…

[German version] [1] V. Cerialis Amicus of Pliny the Younger (Plin. Ep. 4,21). Eck, Werner (Cologne) [German version] [2] D. V. Fidus Senatorial cos. suff. in November/December AD 148, together with M. Calpurnius [II 16] Longus (AE 1996, 1384 = [1]); governor of the province of Syria Palaestina in 150 (PSI IX 1026 = [2]). Member of the Pontifices in 155 (CIL VI 2120). IGLS VI 2777 is probably his burial inscription [3]. Eck, Werner (Cologne) Bibliography 1 J. D'Arms, Memory, Money, and Status at Misenum: Three New Inscriptions from the Collegium of the Augustales, in: JRS 90, 2000, 126-144 2…

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…

I. Historical [German version] A. Youth and early career C. Iulius Caesar was born in 100 BC on the 13th of Quintilis (from 44 BC: Iulius/July); his mother was Aurelia, a daughter of L. Aurelius Cotta ( cos. 119 BC; [1. 327]). His father became praetor in 92 BC, and died 85 BC. Nothing is known of C.'s childhood and early youth. As it was the custom for the Roman aristocracy, C., too, presumably spent his first years in the care of his mother, followed between the ages of 7 and 15 by elementary schooling and grammatical tuition (G…

[German version] [1] P., C. Roman teacher of rhetoric and orator, 2nd cent. BC A Roman distinguished by his education (Lucil. 592-596 Marx; Cic. Fin. 1,7; Plin. HN pr. 7), who was believed by some contemporaries to have written the speech De sociis et nomine latino (against C. Sempronius Gracchus' policies concerning the allies) for C. Fannius [I 1] in 122 BC, a speech which far outshone Fannius' other speeches in terms of rhetoric (Cic. Brut. 99: 'from the Elders'). More likely one of the first teachers of rhetoric at Rome than a senator.…

Roman family name, frequently attested in inscriptions, also in the form Cavius [1. 76f.]; in the Republican period its bearers are still politically insignificant; also a Faliscan praenomen [2. 103]. I. Republican period [German version] [I 1] G., P. Crucified as a spy of Spartacus 72 BC from Compsa (Lower Italy), was captured and crucified in Sicily in 72 BC by C.  Verres as an alleged spy of the slave leader  Spartacus (Cic. Verr. 2,5,158-170). Elvers, Karl-Ludwig (Bochum) [German version] [I 2] G. Bassus Roman grammarian and antiquarian of the late Republic Roman grammarian and…

[German version] I. Greek Gastronomical poetry (GP) may be considered a special stream of the parodistic poetry that  Hegemon of Thasos turned into a genuine literary genre in the late 5th cent. BC: light, jesting poetry (though resulting from artistic dedication) sings the delights of the stomach and the table. The lost Δεῖπνον ( Deîpnon, ‘Feast’) of Hegemon was the description of a banquet ( anagraphḗ, Ath. 1,5a; s. also  symposium literature), as are the works of the same name by Numenius of Heraclia (3rd cent. BC, cf. SH 596) and Timachidas of Rhodes (2nd…

[German version] Modern name for the chronologically organized collection of  Caesar's own commentarii or those reporting on his wars. Bks. 1-7 (58-52 BC) and 8 (52/51) of the Bellum Gallicum (BG), 3 bks. On the Bellum civile (49/48; BC), Bellum Alexandrinum (48/47; BAl), Afric(an)um (47/46; BAfr), Hispaniense (45; ending mutilated; BHisp). The almost fully preserved collection already existed in the present form at the time of Suetonius (Suet. Iul. 56,1); Caesar's commentarii were handed down to the Middle Ages in this form only. Elucidation on the history of thei…

[German version] I. Old Testament A religious law in the sense of a legal system existing alongside profane law or even preceding it, cannot be reconstructed for the old Israel. At the centre of recent discussions is the question of the ‘theologizing’ or the ‘Jahvism’ of the law. This refers especially to the concept occurring in Exodus (Ex 20,1 ff.: Decalogue and book of the covenant) of a God  Jehova as a lawgiver who thus functionally occupies a domain which in the Old Orient was reserved for roya…

[German version] (etymology ‘nine days’), Roman name for the market days or markets taking place every eight days (i.e. every ninth day), and thus also forming a kind of public and private measure of time. Market (II.B.); Week Rüpke, Jörg (Erfurt)

[German version] A. The term Formed as an adjective from the Latin fās (‘divine right’; no etymological link with *fēs or *făs and their derivative terms fēriae, fēstus and fānum can be demonstrated [11. 134]), fastus in technical language is found only in association with dies, and in Rome then signifies those days on which certain public acts were held to be permitted. This concept gave a calendrical digest of such days ─ among which the dies fasti predominate ─ the name fasti. As regards both name and graphic form, the word displaced all other competing terms for  calenda…

Italian surname (Schulze, 355); according to Roman legend, Rome's war against Alba Longa under King Tullus Hostilius was decided through the fight between the triplet Curiatii brothers of Alba and the triplet Horatii brothers ( Horatius) of Rome, with the former being killed (Liv. 1,24f.; Dion. Hal. Ant. Rom. 3,16-20). After the destruction of Alba, the family is said to have moved to Rome and to have been included among the Patricians (Liv. 1,30,2; Dion. Hal. Ant. Rom. 3,29,7). The consul recorded in the fasti for 453 BC, member of the 1st collegium of the decemvirs for the d…

Roman family name, probably derived from Varus. Name-bearers first attested in the 1st cent. BC, but only in the Imperial period did they attain any prominence. Elvers, Karl-Ludwig (Bochum) I. Republican period [German version] [I 1] V. Cotyla, L. Aedile in 48, 47 or 44 BC (Cic. Phil. 13,26), emissary at Rome for M. Antonius [I 9] in 43, and his legate in Gallia transalpina (Cic. Phil. 5,5-7; 8,24-32; Plut. Antonius 18,8). Bartels, Jens (Bonn) [German version] [I 2] V. Rufus, L. Roman poet, c. 70-15 BC Renowned Roman poet (Hor. Ars P. 55) of the Augustan period (c. 70-15 BC). Wi…

Name of an old patrician family, probably connected with the name of the god  Jupiter [1. 281; 2. 729]. The gens was one of the so-called ‘Trojan families’, who were said to have moved from Alba Longa to Rome under king Tullus Hostilius [I 4] (see below). The Iulii were prominent in the 5th and 4th cents. BC. Their connection to the family branch of the Caesares, which rose to prominence from the 3rd cent. and whose outstanding member was the dictator  Caesar (with family tree), is unclear. Caesar's adoptive son,…

A. Basic Principles [German version] 1. Term Calendar developed its modern meaning in post-antiquity from the Latin word for ‘debt register’ (  Calendarium ). In the following, the term is taken as an element of  chronography within a culture which attempts to describe or regulate annual periodicities. Typically, a day represents the smallest unit of a calendar ( Clocks). Rüpke, Jörg (Erfurt) [German version] 2. Social Construction of Time Hunting and farming both demand a harmonization with seasonal variations ( Seasons), thus leading to annually repeated patte…

[German version] Continuous records (  acta ) in the nature of minutes, documenting the activities of official bodies and their agents (magistrates, collegia, city councils), but also perhaps commercial enterprises, i.e. large private households (Cic. Att. 7,3,7); but the term is not attested for actual balance sheets. The interests involved, and therefore the content (down to the private ‘notebook’, Cic. De or. 1,208), level of standardization and publication of records can vary greatly. Characteristic of the commentarius, as an individual record is that it is almost a…

Name of a plebeian family [1], perhaps from Cales, politically active from the 3rd cent. BC. I. Republican period [German version] [I 1] People's tribune in the mid-2nd cent. BC People's tribune (?) in the mid-2nd cent. BC, otherwise unknown author of a lex Fufia on the fixing of permissible days for public assemblies (usually mentioned together with the lex Aelia,  Aelius [I 1]). MRR 1,452f.; 3,3f. Elvers, Karl-Ludwig (Bochum) [German version] [I 2] F., L. Rom. orator in the 1st cent. BC Known as an orator in the 90s of the 1st cent. BC. Around 97 his speech in the prosecu…

[German version] A Latin textual genre attested by numerous mediaeval MSS. Lunaria provide compilations of prescriptions and prognoses for all the days of a lunar month. In content they follow ancient astrological rules (Cato Agr.; Verg. G.; Plin. HN), but the tradition can not be reconstructed without a discontinuity [2. 18]. They correspond to the selenodromia of Greek literature, which certainly do trace back to the ancient prognostica [3; 4]. In this form the lunaria can be classified into the (mostly astrologically based) hemerological calendars, which range from…