bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Galba (Servius Sulpicius Galba Imp. Caesar Augustus)
Authors: Broadhead Will
Published: December 2012

Galba (3BCE–69CE), emperor from early June of 68 to January 15, 69, was born of a prominent and wealthy family and was from his youth close to the highest circles of the Julio‐Claudian court, where he enjoyed the particular favor of the empress Livia. Under Tiberius and Caligula, he was entrusted with a series of important positions: the praetorship, the governorship of Aquitania, the consulship (33), and the governorship of Upper Germany (40–2). Galba developed a reputation for strict but highly capable leadership; he was even considered by some as a legitimate potential successor to Caligula in the brief window preceding the accession of Claudius in 41 (Suet.Galb.7). claudius then entrusted him with a special appointment as proconsular governor of Africa (44/5), where he succeeded in quelling a revolt, for which he was rewarded with triumphal ornaments and membership of three prestigious priesthoods.
Gallienus (Publius Licinius Egnatius Gallienus Augustus)
Authors: Davis Raymond
Published: December 2012

Roman emperor, born ca. 218, Gallienus (PLRE1.383–4;PIR2L 197;RELicinius 84) was joint Augustus with his father Valerian (Publius Licinius Valerianus Augustus) from autumn 253 till the latter's capture by the Persians in 260; his own reign continued till his murder in 268. Probably the last Roman emperor who could claim genuine aristocratic antecedents, his actions would lead to the end of senatorial involvement with the army and pave the way for the Illyrian military emperors of the later years of the century and thus for the reforms of the empire under Diocletian and Constantine I.
Generalship, art of
Authors: Moore Rosemary
Published: December 2012

An important subject for much of the Greco‐Roman period, generalship was the art of being a good general, with its concerns encompassing multiple areas, ranging from strategy, tactics, military intelligence, and logistics to the commander's self‐presentation and his influence on army obedience and morale.
Kataphraktoi
Authors: Whately Conor
Published: December 2012

The
kataphraktoi
(Latin
cataphracti
; later, sometimes
catafractarii
) were fully armored cavalrymen and horses serving in the Roman armed forces, though they are also found among various Iranian armies, from the Seleucids to the Sasanians.
Legati legionis
Authors: Levithan Josh
Published: December 2012

Legati legioniswere senators appointed by the Roman emperor to the command of a legion.
Limitanei
Authors: Whately Conor
Published: December 2012

Thelimitaneiwere the border troops based on the frontiers of the Roman Empire.
Maiestas
Authors: Salvo Davide
Published: December 2012

The wordmaiestasdescribed a characteristic of figures (gods, Roman people, magistrates, the emperor, the Christian God) distinguished for their dignity and power.
Manipulus
Authors: Sage Michael
Published: December 2012

The
manipulus
(maniple), consisting of two centuries, was a tactical unit of the Roman legion introduced gradually in the late fourth century
BCE
.
Manubiae
Authors: Sage Michael
Published: December 2012

Manubiae
was technically the commander's share of booty (
see
Booty, Greece and Rome), but it could also be used to signify all of the booty taken from a defeated enemy, since legally all spoils belonged to the commander.
Numerian (Marcus Aurelius Numerius Numerianus Augustus)
Authors: Davis Raymond
Published: December 2012

Numerian (born ca. 255/260CE;PLREI: 634;PIR2A 1564;RE174), younger son of the emperor Carus (Marcus Aurelius Carus Augustus), was Roman emperor from 283 to 284 Assessment is complicated by his presentation in the sources as an excellent character (unlike his debauched elder brother Carinus (Marcus Aurelius Carinus Augustus)), with great skill in oratory, and able to compete in poetry with Nemesianus (SHA Car. 11.1–2).
Ostorius Scapula, Publius
Authors: Tomlin R. S. O.
Published: December 2012

As Publius Ostorius Scapula (date of birth unknown, but he died in 52
CE
, probably aged about fifty) was presumably the son of the like‐named Perfect of Egypt, he must have enjoyed high favor in pursuing a senatorial career, which would have included the command of a legion, but only his last post is known, as the second governor of Roman Britain (47–52).
Pescennius Niger, Gaius
Authors: Bingham Sandra J.
Published: December 2012

Gaius Pescennius Niger (ca. 135–194
CE
) was emperor for a brief period in the late second century, one of three men vying for control of the empire in the turbulent period after the death of Commodus (Marcus Aurelius Commodus Antoninus Augustus) during which time two emperors were killed within five months.
Philip (Marcus Julius Philippus Augustus)
Authors: Bonura Christopher
Published: December 2012

Marcus Julius Philippus Augustus, or more commonly Philip the Arab (ca. 204–249CE), was a Roman emperor who ruled during the period of military and political instability known as the “Crisis of the Third Century.” His reign was noteworthy for the celebration of the one thousandth anniversary of the founding of Rome, which he organized, as well as his general tolerance toward Christianity which, accurately or not, earned him a reputation as the first Christian emperor among later Christian writers.
Primus pilus
Authors: Dobson Brian
Published: December 2012

The
primus pilus
(
centurio primi pili)
was the officer commanding the right‐hand century of the first maniple of the
triarii
, the senior centurion of the legion.
Varus, Publius Quinctilius
Authors: Wells Colin
Published: December 2012

Publius Quinctilius Varus (ca. 47BCE–9CE), consul 13BCEwith Augustus's stepson Tiberius, came from an old patrician family which had, however, produced no consul since 453BCE.
Spolia opima
Authors: Rich J. W.
Published: December 2012

Spolia opima
were arms and armor taken from the body of an enemy commander killed in battle and dedicated by the man who had killed the commander, in the tiny, ancient temple of Jupiter Feretrius on the Capitol.
Trajan (Nerva Traianus Augustus)
Authors: Stern Gaius
Published: December 2012

Trajan (Marcus Ulpius Traianus) was the first emperor born outside of Italy.
Arches, honorific and triumphal
Authors: McClister David
Published: December 2012

The arch (Latin
fornix
or
arcus
) was a monument decorated with statuary, relief sculpture, and inscriptions, and was normally built to honor a great achievement by a Roman public official.
Verginius Rufus, Lucius
Authors: Gallia Andrew B.
Published: December 2012

When rebellion against Nero broke out in Gaul and Spain in 68CE(seeIulius Vindex, Gaius; Galba), Verginius (15–97CE;PIR1V 284;RE 27) was governor of Upper Germany, with three legions at his disposal (seeGermania (Superior and Inferior)).
Vexillatio
Authors: Sage Michael
Published: December 2012

Thevexillatiowas a detachment of troops drawn from existing units.
Vigiles
Authors: Ng Michael
Published: December 2012

The
vigiles
(
cohortes vigilum
) were part of the important garrison of Rome during the imperial period.
Vitruvius (Pol(l)io)
Authors: Munro Beth
Published: December 2012

Vitruvius Pol(l)io, Marcus (b. 80/70BCE) was a Roman architect and engineer who worked under Julius Caesar and Augustus.
Wounds, nature and treatment of
Authors: Salazar Christine F.
Published: December 2012

Life in pre‐industrial societies provided endless opportunities for getting hurt, and the treatment of trauma must have been the earliest form of medical treatment performed by humans.
Archers, archery
Authors: Salazar Christine F
Published: December 2012

The bow–the weapon of choice of Apollo, Artemis, and Eros/Cupid–was used for sports (e.g., Plut. Alex. 23.4), hunting (e.g., Suet. Dom. 19), and warfare throughout antiquity. Although both theIliad(23.850–83) and theOdyssey(19.571–81; 21.73–185, 393–423) feature archery contests, in battle the archer, killing from a safe distance, is held in contempt (e.g.,Il. 11.385–7, where “archer” is used as a term of abuse).
Germanicus
Authors: Rowe Gregory
Published: December 2012

Germanicus (15
BCE
–19
CE
) was a Roman prince under the emperors Augustus and Tiberius. Born into the established Augustan monarchy, he received the name
Germanicus
as part of posthumous honors to his father, Livia's son, the elder Drusus (9
BCE
), and added the name
Caesar
when Tiberius adopted him and Augustus adopted Tiberius (4
CE
). Soon after, he married Agrippina the Elder, Augustus' granddaughter, and the couple eventually had nine children.
Agricola, Gnaeus Iulius
Authors: Barrett Anthony A.
Published: December 2012

Gnaeus Iulius Agricola (40–93
CE
) was born on June 13, 40 into a senatorial family of Forum Iulii (Fréjus) in Narbonese Gaul. About this time, his father, Iulius Graecinus, was executed by Caligula, and he was raised by his mother, Iulia Procilla.
Valens
Authors: Nakamura Byron J.
Published: December 2012

Despite the lack of any substantive military and administrative experience, Valens (emperor 364–378
CE
) was elevated to the emperorship of the Roman east by his elder brother Valentinian I.
Alexandrian War (Bellum Alexandrinum)
Authors: Zahariade Mihail
Published: December 2012

The content ofBellum Alexandrinum, as it is known from the manuscripts, does not appear to correspond with the title. In addition to the events in Alexandria it relates episodes unfolding in other regions. However, due to the episode which occurred at Alexandria, the title was extended to all the events of the year 47BCE.
Legion, Roman republican
Authors: Stern Gaius , Waterson Patrick
Published: December 2012

The Roman legion developed through five stages during the republic (509–27BCE).
Assidui
Authors: Rosenstein Nathan
Published: December 2012

Assidui
were Romans whose property, according to the Servian reforms was such that they were subject to taxation (
tributum
) and conscription into the army. According to Cicero (
Rep
. 2.40), their name comes from the fact that they rendered their taxes with the bronze
as
.
Caelius Rufus, Marcus
Authors: Tatum W. J.
Published: December 2012

Marcus Caelius Rufus (88 or 87–48
BCE
), born at Interamnia, was the son of a Roman knight (
eques
), and so entered politics as a new man.
Capitol
Authors: Thomas Edmund
Published: December 2012

This steep hill in Rome became central in Roman ideology after the construction in the sixth century
BCE
of an enormous temple to the Capitoline triad of Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva, from which it took its name. Temple and hill alike became associated with Rome's civic government and imperial mission and later the model for smaller Capitolia in towns outside Rome as a marker of Roman identity.
Cassius Hemina, Lucius
Authors: Forsythe Gary
Published: December 2012

Lucius Cassius Hemina was a Roman historian who flourished during the third quarter of the second century
BCE
.
Colonies, Roman and Latin (Republican)
Authors: Broadhead Will
Published: December 2012

The colonies of the republican period, known conventionally as “Roman” or “Latin,” depending on their constitutional status, played a role of the highest importance in the political, demographic, socio‐economic, and cultural history of Roman Italy. Between the foundation of the republic and the age of Augustus, the Romans and their allies founded over one hundred colonies, whose size, status, and purpose varied and evolved over time, as the institution of the colony was used to address a range of strategic and social concerns.
Comitium
Authors: Hopkins John North
Published: December 2012

The
Comitium
was the principal place of assembly for Roman voting groups (
comitia
) during the republic and for a time the judicial seat of the urban praetor. It is located off the north corner of the Forum Romanum, its boundaries the Forum Iulium, Argiletum, Sacra Via, and Arch of Septimius Severus. In addition to its being the original meeting place of the eponymous
comitia curiata
(Varro
Ling
. 5.155), Livy calls it the
vestibulum
of the Curia, which was initially situated on its north rim (45.24.12).
Decemvirate
Authors: Hogg Daniel
Published: December 2012

TheDecemviri legibus scribundis(“Board of ten for the writing of the laws”; 451–c. 449BCE) were, according to the tradition, a quasi‐tyrannical body associated with the publication of the Twelve Tables. These Tables, set up in the Forum in Rome, were a set of laws which remain “the most significant potential indicator of the character of early republican society”. The story of the Decemvirate was considered a turning point in Roman history, and occupies crucial moments in the work of several ancient authors (e.g., Livy 3.9–64; Dion. Hal.Ant. Rom. 10.50–11.44 or 10.1–11.50; Cic.De Rep. 2.54, cf. 2.3; Polyb. 6.11.1; Tac.Ann. 1.1.1). While the Twelve Tables can be reconstructed in part and with caution, the story of the Decemvirate, especially in its second incarnation, is dubious.
FASTIof magistrates
Authors: Lushkov Ayelet Haimson
Published: December 2012

Thefastiof magistrates listed, by year, the names of the men who held the highest political office in Rome. Under the republic, these names typically belonged to the two annual consuls and designated the specific year of their magistracy.
Forum Romanum
Authors: Hopkins John North
Published: December 2012

Situated in the valley between the Capitoline and Palatine hills, the Forum Romanum was Rome's primary political and economic center and a home to major religious offices during the late Regal period, the republic, and the empire. Though originally its morass environment rendered it inhospitable, in the late seventh century Romans re‐engineered the geography of the valley and began monumentalizing it; by the Middle Republic, textual and archaeological evidence indicates that it was a formal plaza confined by the Regia on the east, a line of shops and bankers, stalls on the north, the Capitoline Hill on the west, and prominent houses on the south. Under Caesar and Augustus, it underwent another architectural transformation and became an austere center of imperial administration.
Fulvius Nobilior, Marcus
Authors: Nice Alex
Published: December 2012

M. Fulvius Nobilior (ca. 231–post–178
BCE
), a member of the plebeian
gens Fulvia
, was a Roman general and statesman. He is most notable for his patronage ofthe epic poet Ennius and for the dedication of the temple of Hercules Musarum in Rome's Circus Flaminius.
Gens
Authors: Farney Gary D.
Published: December 2012

The Romangenswas a grouping of agnatically related individuals who shared the same name (nomen gentilicium), what we might call a family or clan.
Hasdrubal
Authors: Miles Richard
Published: December 2012

Hasdrubal (ca. 270–221
BCE
) was a Carthaginian general and statesman who played a major role in restoration of Carthage's fortunes between the First and Second Punic wars.
Hortensius Hortalus, Quintus
Authors: Tempest Kathryn L.
Published: December 2012

Quintus Hortensius Hortalus (114–50BCE) was the greatest Roman orator before Cicero.
Italy, northern
Authors: Lomas Kathryn
Published: December 2012

Northern Italy (approximately modern Lombardy, Piedmont, Liguria, and the Veneto) was a culturally complex and ethnically diverse area in antiquity.
Brutus, Lucius Iunius
Authors: Hogg Daniel
Published: December 2012

Lucius Junius Brutus (fl. 509 ) supposedly founded the Roman Republic and expelled the Tarquins from Rome.
Mamertines
Authors: Serrati John
Published: December 2012

The Mamertines were a group of Campanian Mercenaries who are most famous for providing the spark that led to the First Punic War (264–241
BCE
) between Rome and Carthage.
Manlius Imperiosus Torquatus, Titus
Authors: Swithinbank Hannah J.
Published: December 2012

Titus Manlius Imperiosus Torquatus (fourth centuryBCE) was one of Rome's “Great Men.”
Nobiles, nobilitas
Authors: Beck Hans
Published: December 2012

The noun(g)nobilis(“noble,” literally: “known” man; plural:nobiles) refers to the members of the highest social rank at Rome, the so‐called nobility.
Ogulnius, Gnaeus and Quintus
Authors: Armstrong Jeremy
Published: December 2012

Gnaeus and Quintus Ogulnius represent the only politically significant members of the plebeiangensof the Ogulnii.
Optimates, populares
Authors: Robb M. A.
Published: December 2012

Cicero'sPro Sestio96 defines “optimates” and “populares” as two antithetical political types.
Oscan
Authors: Broadhead Will
Published: December 2012

Oscan is the name used by Latin authors for the language of the Samnites (Livy 10.20.8) and more generally of the non‐Greek and non‐Latin speaking inhabitants of southern Italy (Aul. Gell. 17.17.1).
Patricians
Authors: Forsythe Gary
Published: December 2012

Patricians and plebeians were the two groupings or orders (Latinordines) into which Roman citizens were divided during republican times.
Plebeians
Authors: Forsythe Gary
Published: December 2012

Plebeians and patricians were the two groupings or orders (Latinordines) into which Romans were divided during republican times.
Pompeius Magnus Pius, Sextus
Authors: Welch Kathryn
Published: December 2012

Sextus Pompeius (69?–35
BCE
), younger son of Cn. Pompeius Magnus and Mucia, the most successful republican leader in the civil wars of 49–31
BCE
, won victories over several Caesarian generals including G. Asinius Pollio in 44, Q. Salvidienus Rufus in 42 and Caesar Octavian (Augustus) on several occasions.
Cato, Marcus Porcius (Cato the Elder)
Authors: Stern Gaius
Published: December 2012

Great‐grandfather of Cato the Younger (Uticensis), Cato the Elder was anovus homowho rose to political prominence during the Second Punic War (218–202BCE) and famously hastened the Third Punic War with the constant refrain“Carthage must be destroyed”.
Praetor
Authors: Beck Hans
Published: December 2012

The praetorship was one of the two annual magistracies at Rome that were vested withimperium(“command power”).
Provincial administration, Roman Republic
Authors: Smith Christopher J.
Published: December 2012

The roots of Roman provincial administration necessarily lie in the way in which Rome developed her control over Italy, and are characterized by innovation, adaptation, and a complex mixture of domination and acculturation, a phenomenon often described by the word “Romanization.”
Cincinnatus, Lucius Quinctius
Authors: Elliott Jackie
Published: December 2012

Cincinnatus is a figure of the fifth centuryBCE, one of the oldest known patrician representatives of his family, thegens Quinctia.He became an emblem of the antique austerity and steadfastness associated with early Rome and its leaders. The stories about him, which made him the antithesis of modern corruption and lust for power, circulated for generations as moral exempla.
Rex
Authors: Glinister Fay
Published: December 2012

Rex
is the Latin word for “king”; also an epithet of deities (Jupiter, Mars).
Roman Republic, constitution
Authors: Lintott Andrew
Published: December 2012

Tacitus begins the first chapter of hisAnnals, “Rome was once ruled by kings; liberty and the consulship was introduced by L. Brutus.”
Romulus and Remus
Authors: Smith Christopher J.
Published: December 2012

The famous founding story of Rome involves considerable folkloric and mythological elements, and is as disputed today as it was famous in antiquity.
Rostra
Authors: Serrati John
Published: December 2012

Therostrawas the speakers' platform in Rome. Its origins are unknown, likely dating back to the Monarchical period.
Rutilius Rufus, Publius
Authors: Thein Alexander
Published: December 2012

Publius Rutilius Rufus (ca. 155–post 75BCE) is most well‐known for opposing the rapacity of the Roman tax farmers in the province of Asia, and for the stoicism with which he faced trial on a false charge of extortion on his return to Rome.
Sertorius, Quintus
Authors: Gómez‐Pantoja Joaquín L.
Published: December 2012

Quintus Sertorius (ca. 123–73
BCE
) was a Roman statesman born in Nursia.
Viriatus
Authors: Luik Martin
Published: December 2012

Viriatus lived about 190(?)–139BCE. He became renowned as leader of the Iberian opposition to Rome in 147–139. The ancient sources are fragmentary and in part conflicting (see especially App.Hist. 60.254–70, 74.311–75.321).
Alexander of Tralles
Authors: Langslow David
Published: December 2012

Doctor and medical writer, flourished early to mid‐sixth centuryCE, praised by doctors and historians alike for his originality and high quality clinical observations; brother of Anthemius, architect of the second Hagia Sophia (532–7).
Approximation
Authors: Evans James
Published: December 2012

When one uses a round value for a number, one might be ignoring a better value for convenience, or one might be unaware that a better value exists.
Aristarchus of Samos
Authors: Bowen Alan C.
Published: December 2012

Aristarchus was a mathematician‐astronomer (early third centuryBCE), author ofOn the Sizes and Distances of the Sun and Moonand of a heliocentric theory.
Astronomy, ancient Near East
Authors: Steele John M.
Published: December 2012

A large number of sources attest to the astronomical interests of Assyrian and Babylonian scribes during the second and first millenniumBCE.
Astronomy, Ptolemaic
Authors: Evans James
Published: December 2012

Named for Ptolemy (Klaudios Ptolemaios, Greek astronomer of Alexandria, second centuryce), “Ptolemaic astronomy”; refers to the sophisticated, highly mathematical, and very successful astronomical science of Later Antiquity. Ptolemy's work dominated astronomical and cosmological thought in Late Greek Antiquity and the Arabic and Latin Middle Ages. It was not superseded until the astronomical revolution of the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries.
Athenaeus of Attaleia
Authors: Cilliers Louise
Published: December 2012

Athenaeus of Attaleia was the founder of the school of physicians called the Pneumatists.
Cleopatra, alchemist
Authors: Fabrizi Virginia
Published: December 2012

Cleopatra was an alchemist, probably operating in the Greek‐Egyptian alchemical school, which had been founded by Bolos of Mendes; her activity seems to have taken place in a time between the second and third centuries
CE
, in an environment deeply affected by Gnosticism.
Diocles, mathematician
Authors: Jones Alexander
Published: December 2012

Diocles was the author of a brief geometrical monograph that was known, at least as early as the sixth centuryCE, asOn Burning Mirrors(peri pyrion), though the title may not have been original since it suits only the first part of the work.
Diophantus
Authors: Montelle Clemency
Published: December 2012

Diophantus of Alexandria was a prominent mathematician of Late Antiquity.
Disease, conceptions of
Authors: Touwaide Alain
Published: December 2012

People, priests, healers, physicians, and others explored the whole spectrum of approaches to conceptualize the phenomenon of illness, from a holistic perception of animistic character to corpuscular divisionism of materialistic inspiration. Although these many interpretations unfolded over time, they did not necessarily supersede one another in a linear evolutionary perspective, but may have coexisted in some form at all or some points in time.
Ephemerides, astronomical
Authors: Steele John M.
Published: December 2012

Babylonian astronomical ephemerides are tables of astronomical phenomena computed using arithmetical schemes. Ephemerides are known for the Moon and for each of the five planets known to ancient astronomers. Typically, an ephemeris will be devoted to a single heavenly body, but there are a small number of tablets which have ephemerides for different planets on the obverse and reverse of the tablet.
Equant
Authors: Evans James
Published: December 2012

The equant is a mathematical device for producing non‐uniform motion in planetary models.
Eratosthenes
Authors: Geus Klaus
Published: December 2012

Born in the African city of Cyrene in 276
BCE
, Eratosthenes studied philosophy with Lysanias of Cyrene, Arcesilaus of Pitane, and Ariston of Chios in Athens (although probably not with the poet Callimachus as later sources claim).
Hephaistion of Thebes
Authors: Hegedus Tim
Published: December 2012

Hephaistion of Thebes was the author of an astrological work (Apotelesmatika) in three books.
Herakleides of Tarentum
Authors: Langslow David
Published: December 2012

Herakleides of Tarentum (fl. ca. 75BCE) was among the most influential of the “Empiricist” physicians, “the most extensive and durable of [the] Hellenistic medical sects”.
Heron
Authors: Fiorucci Francesco
Published: December 2012

Heron (called the “mechanician”) was a Greek mathematician and engineer who lived and worked in Alexandria, probably in the first century
CE
.
Horus‐eye Fractions
Authors: Ritter Jim
Published: December 2012

Horus‐eye fractions is the name often given to a series of six Egyptian signs representing subdivisions of the
heqat
grain volume measure, since it was first proposed in 1911 that they represent different parts of the Eye of the god Horus.
Kleostratos of Tenedos
Authors: Evans James
Published: December 2012

Kleostratos is a rather shadowy astronomer who flourished around 520
BCE
.
Macrobius, Ambrosius Theodosius
Authors: Zahariade Mihail
Published: December 2012

The life of Macrobius is little known.
Manetho, astrologer
Authors: Hegedus Tim
Published: December 2012

Manetho is the name given to the author of a Late Antique didactic poem in hexameters on astrology extant in six books.
Manilius, Marcus
Authors: Volk Katharina
Published: December 2012

Manilius was a Roman poet, author ofAstronomica, a didactic poem on astrology in five books. Nothing is known about his life. A reference to the Roman defeat at the Teutoburg Forest in 9CE(1.898–903) provides aterminus post quemfor the work, though the exact date of the composition remains controversial.
Marinus of Tyre
Authors: Jones Alexander
Published: December 2012

Marinus of Tyre, a cartographer and geographical theoretician, wrote a series of texts on the subject of drawing a map of the
oikoumene
, the known part of the world. Ptolemy, who is our only source of knowledge concerning Marinus, calls him “the latest in our time to have undertaken this subject;” his career seems to have extended to about 110
CE
.
Mathematics, Mesopotamian
Authors: Hoyrup Jens
Published: December 2012

Mesopotamian mathematics and writing coevolved as book‐keeping tools in protoliterate Uruk (ca. 3300BCE), apparently as key constituents in the legitimization of the transformation of a redistributive into a statal social system. At least until 2000BCE, accounting and mathematically determined allocation of rations and land seem to have carried connotations of social justice. In the second and first millennia, mathematics still served accounting and planning purposes, and in the later first millennium it served a sophisticated mathematical astronomy connected to astrology, but no textual evidence suggests a continued socio‐ideological role.
Mechanics
Authors: Jones Alexander
Published: December 2012

Mechanics (
mechanikē
) was the Greco‐Roman science dealing with static and moving bodies, especially in connection with machines. It had a broad scope, overlapping at its more theoretical end with mathematics and natural philosophy, and at its more practical, with various specialized technologies.
Nicomachus of Gerasa
Authors: Guillaumin Jean‐Yves
Published: December 2012

Nicomachus was born in the town of Gerasa in the Roman province of Syria, and lived around the middle of the second century after Christ.
Numbers, Greek
Authors: Montelle Clemency
Published: December 2012

Among various localized practices in the first millennium
BCE
, there were two main systems of numeration in ancient Greece. These were the Ionian or alphabetic numeration and the Attic or acrophonic numeration. Both were based on symbols from the Greek alphabet but derived in different ways.
Pappus of Alexandria
Authors: Bernard Alain G.
Published: December 2012

This Late Antique polymath (ca. 285–320
CE
) wrote on an impressively large number of subjects, including theoretical and computational astronomy, classical geometry, mechanics and “mechanical” geometry, practical arithmetic, geography, and perhaps astrology. His historical importance and influence does not lie in any substantial innovation to ancient science but in the way he used, organized, and compared an impressive mass of scientific (mainly mathematical) texts he had at his disposal.
Parapegma
Authors: Lehoux Daryn
Published: December 2012

Historians of astronomy generally use the term parapegma to describe an astronomical weather calendar such as that found in Pliny, book 18 or Columella, book 12. These literaryastrometeorologicalparapegmata typically (but not always) list dates in a civil calendar and for each significant date described, relevant stellar phases (annual appearances and disappearances of fixed stars), as well as the weather signaled or caused by those phases.
Paul of Aigina
Authors: Oberhelman Steven M.
Published: December 2012

Paul of Aigina (fl. seventh centuryCE) was an important physician of the Byzantine period, who wrote an encyclopedic work dealing with illness, surgery, and pharmacology.
Pharmacology,
E
gyptian
Authors: David Rosalie
Published: December 2012

The origins of modern medicine are generally traced back to ancient Greece:
GALEN
, ca. 150
CE
, advocated treatments that included herbal remedies, and
DIOSCORIDES
, ca. 150
CE
, is credited with authorship of the earliest extant pharmacopeia. However, medical papyri demonstrate that the Egyptians were practicing effective medical treatment at least one thousand years earlier.
Pharmacology,Greece andRome
Authors: Scarborough John
Published: December 2012

Humans understood early on the properties of plants and animal products served as foods, in contrast to others that change physiology in ways we term analgesic, narcotic, diuretic, sudorific, emetic, laxative, styptic, and toxic, actions distinct from simple nutrition.
Pharmacology,Mesopotamian
Authors: Heeßel Nils P.
Published: December 2012

As Mesopotamian medicine mainly relied on plants and herbs to counteract diseases, the knowledge of drugs and their interactions with the human body was essential for healers.
John Philoponos (science)
Authors: Bay Stephen M.
Published: December 2012

John (Johannes, Iohannes) Philoponos, a natural philosopher and theologian from Alexandria, called into question many Aristotelian principles with his Christian world‐view (
see
John Philoponos (Philosophy and Theology)).
PomponiusMela
Authors: Winkle Christian
Published: December 2012

Little is known about Pomponius Mela. He writes that he comes from Tingentera, near Gibraltar, in the Roman province ofBAETICA(Mela 2.96).
Prognosis
Authors: Hulskamp M.A.A.
Published: December 2012

(Gr.prognosis, progi(g)nôskein; Lat.praecognitio, praecognoscere“to know beforehand.”)
Proportion
Authors: Roby Courtney
Published: December 2012

Proportion (
analogia
,
symmetria
), the relationship of magnitudes to one another or to a whole, was an important part of both Greek music and mathematics.
Rhetoric and science
Authors: Bernard Alain G.
Published: December 2012

Rhetoric and science are supposed to stand in opposition to each other, according to an old tradition going back to ancient philosophy which has become common wisdom.
Science, Greek
Authors: Keyser Paul
Published: December 2012

Science, medicine, and technology seek knowledge to understand or control the natural world.
Signs and sign inference
Authors: Reynolds Joshua J.
Published: December 2012

The Greek terms closest in meaning to “sign,”semalsemeionandtekmarl tekmerion, refer to an evident item or event that a subject takes as the basis of an inference about a state of affairs that is non‐evident, hidden, or otherwise not noticed directly.
S
osigenes, Astronomer
Authors: Hannah Robert
Published: December 2012

While the Roman republican calendar had maintained reasonable synchronisms with the seasons between ca. 150 and the 60s
BCE
, nonetheless, through inadequate intercalation, a significant misalignment occurred through the 50s, to the point that by 46
BCE
the calendar was ninety days out of sync with the Sun (Censorinus
DN
20, Macrob.
Sat.
1.14.6–12; Hannah 2005: 111–12).
Surgery, Mesopotamian
Authors: Heeßel Nils P.
Published: December 2012

While it has been generally assumed that surgery was practiced as a last resort for injuries in military conflicts or accidents, Mesopotamian texts rarely mention surgical interventions.
Theodorus Priscianus
Authors: Langslow David
Published: December 2012

Senior doctor (archiater) and medical writer/compiler,fl. probably in Roman Africa ca. 400CE. We have no independent information about Theodorus' life.
Theon of Alexandria
Authors: Tihon Anne
Published: December 2012

Theon of Alexandria was a Greek geometer and astronomer who lived in Alexandria in the fourth century
CE
. His work was devoted to Euclid and Ptolemy. Of Euclid's work Theon edited the
Elements
, the
Data
and possibly the
Optics
.
Vindicianus
Authors: Cilliers Louise
Published: December 2012

Helvius Vindicianus (ca. 340–ca. 400
CE
) was a prominent Roman physician who held important government offices, such as count in charge of the Roman College of Physicians (
CT
10.19.9; 13.3.12). He was held in high regard at the court of the emperor Valentinian I (364–75), where he was the court physician.
Tower of the Winds, Athens
Authors: Hannah Robert
Published: December 2012

In the course of discussions about wind compasses, both Varro (
On Farming
3.5.17), briefly, and Vitruvius (
On Architecture
1.6.4–7), more extensively, mention the
horologium
of Andronikos from Cyrrhus.
Zoology
Authors: Siede Mechthild
Published: December 2012

As a partial branch of biology, zoology in modern understanding deals with the systematic classification of animals as well as with their physiology, their reproduction, and the behavior of individual species.
Adulthood
Authors: Golden Mark
Published: December 2012

Only a free male (Greekaner, Latinvir)ever became fully adult. A slave could always be called a boy (Greekpais, Latinpuer). Free boys themselves might put on thetoga virilisin their mid‐teens (in Rome) or be enrolled in their father's deme at seventeen or eighteen (in Athens) or enter the army at the end of their teens and marry in their twenties (in Sparta).
Agnates
Authors: Harders Ann‐Cathrin
Published: December 2012

Agnates are related to each other exclusively by patrilineal descent, that is, only through male ancestors. Agnatic kinship is unilateral as opposed to bilateral cognatic kinship. In Greek and Roman societies, agnates were at the center of kinship relations.
Bilingualism
Authors: Mairs Rachel
Published: December 2012

Bilingualism, the use of two or more languages by the same individual or within the same community, has historically always been more widespread than monolingualism (Romaine 1995; Hamers and Blanc 2000).
Banditry, brigandage
Authors: Brüggemann Thomas
Published: December 2012

The Greek term and concept oflesteia, as well as the Latinlatrocinium(both: banditry or brigandage), cover a range of behaviors and acts performed by specific groups that challenged the legitimacy of the state's monopoly of power.
Citizenship
Authors: Sehlmeyer Markus
Published: December 2012

The concept of citizenship, which is unknown to the states and empires of the Ancient Near East, constitutes one of the most salient features of the Greek and Roman World.
Concubinage
Authors: Phang Sara Elise
Published: December 2012

Concubinage in Greek and Roman society was a form of sexual relationship between a man and a woman that was more durable and socially respected than prostitution, but lacked the legal effects and social status of marriage.
Cousin (consobrinus, frater patruelis)
Authors: Harders Ann‐Cathrin
Published: December 2012

In Greco‐Roman societies, cousins belonged to the close kinship group. The Greek Anchisteia extended on both the father's and the mother's side to first cousins once removed; cousins were therefore entitled to inherit. They were obliged to pursue a kinsman's murder or permitted to grant forgiveness (IGI3104.13–25). Although agnates legally ranked before cognates, Greek kinship terminology did not differentiate between agnatic or cognatic cousins. Both were termed asanepsios; a first cousin once removed was termedanepsiadous.
Diet, elite
Authors: Touwaide Alain , Brown Madeline
Published: December 2012

Diet in Antiquity was part of an elite lifestyle complex aiming at health and including mainly physical exercise, bathing, and dietetics. The physician Herodicus of Selymbria (ca. 500–430/420BCE) has been credited since Antiquity with the development of diet, particularly for athletes. Theories of diet probably go further back, as they may result from a long history of observation of the effect of food on human health. Nevertheless, no corpus of doctrine is known before the late fifth or early fourth centuryBCEand the Regimen in theHippocratic Corpus. Literature in the field was further developed by Mnesitheos (fl. ca. 350BCE), Dieuches (fourth–third century), Galen (e.g.,Properties of Foodstuffs), and later on Anthimus (fifth–sixth centuryCE). Discussion on nutritional properties of food may have been a topic of conversation in elite groups, as Athenaeus (ca. 190CE),Deipnosophists, suggests.
Disease and health, Greece and Rome
Authors: Touwaide Alain
Published: December 2012

The human experience of health did not develop into an explicit and articulated discourse until relatively late in Antiquity, contrary to what happened with disease.
Fasting
Authors: Schwartz Daniel L.
Published: December 2012

Fasting is the ritual act of abstaining from food. Fasting could include either the complete rejection of food for a prescribed period of time, or the habit of severely restricting one's consumption of food and drink.
Friendship
Authors: Rohmann Dirk
Published: December 2012

Friendship (Latin:Amicitia, Greek:philia), in the world of Greece and Rome, is a social and political category of mutual relations between individuals, rulers, and territories, based on converging interests, mutual benefits, and shared cultural, moral, and personal sympathies.
Fumigations
Authors: Touwaide Alain
Published: December 2012

Fumigations (thumiama, thumiêsis; apothumiaô) were a method for administering medicines particularly attested in the gynecological treatises of theCorpus Hippocraticum, especially for affections of the womb (medicinal products were introduced through the vagina): medicinal substances were burned on charcoal so as to provoke smoke (apokapnizô). The patient squatted above the source of smoke, wrapped the body with a piece of fabric covering both the body and the source of therapeutic smoke, and let the smoke penetrate the body. Medicinal substances were constantly renewed.
Funus publicum
Authors: Kyle Donald G.
Published: December 2012

Most Roman funerals were conducted by the family of the deceased (funera privata), but among various funerary rites (Toynbee 1971: 43–61; Hopkins 1983: 201–26), afunus publicum(Toynbee 1971: 55–6) was an especially honorific funeral approved by the Senate (see Cic.Phil. 9.16–17; Wesch‐Klein 1993: 83–4), paid for by the quaestors from the state treasury, and conducted by the consuls, as a mark of honor or respect for distinguished service to the state.Funera publicarecall the ceremonial pattern of aristocratic Roman funerals (see Polyb. 6.53) as well as spectacular aspects of Roman triumphs (Bodel 1999: 259–64). Although known earlier, public funerals increased in number in the later decades of the republic (Wesch‐Klein 1993: 11–15). Such funerals were public also in the sense that all citizens were invited, and the sons or family of deceased notables might supplement the activities with entertainments or distributions of food.
Greek language and dialects (Classical times)
Authors: Wiater Nicolas
Published: December 2012

The term “classical Greek” is usually applied to a literary variety of Attic, the dialect of Athens and Attica, as used in the fifth and fourth centuries bce.
Hellenization
Authors: Mairs Rachel
Published: December 2012

Hellenization refers to the spread of Greek culture and its adoption by non‐Greek peoples.
Heterosexuality
Authors: Naerebout Frederick G.
Published: December 2012

Because of the prurient interest of past centuries, and of present‐day activist programs, we have been left with a skewed image of the sexual life of the ancient world, in which particular emphasis is laid on homosexuality and prostitution.
Infanticide
Authors: Schmitz Winfried
Published: December 2012

In Greek and Roman antiquity, contraception, abortion, and exposure were very common methods of family planning, and were not subject to any legal restrictions.
Libraries, private, public, Greece and Rome
Authors: Dix T. Keith
Published: December 2012

The Greek word corresponding to English “library” is βιβλιoθήκη, literally, “book‐chest” or “bookcase.”
Life expectancy
Authors: Hin Saskia
Published: December 2012

Life expectancy is the average number of years an individual might expect to live at a given age (e
x
). In the ancient world, life expectancy at birth (e
0
) hovered between the ages of twenty and thirty. This range has been derived from Egyptian papyri, literary sources, and inferential models.
Love
Authors: Vout Caroline
Published: December 2012

Ancient historians have a problem with love. First, there is the semantic confusion to contend with: the modern term covers a multitude of sins, from the visceral to the euphemistic. What are we are talking about here? Love of God, or love of ice‐cream? The Greeks and Romans had a range of words for “love” and would have found this overlap peculiar. But the existence of a bigger menu does not render each of them less tantalizing, and it can make separating their delights more difficult.
Masculinity
Authors: Boozer Anna Lucille
Published: December 2012

Feminist and masculinist theoretical approaches to social life emphasize the centrality of male–female relationships and the ways in which individuals and groups express gender. To date, the published literature has reflected a close connection between theoretical perspectives on gender and women – the unwritten assumption being that gender ought to be equated with women.
Matrona
Authors: Harders Ann‐Cathrin
Published: December 2012

A free‐born Roman woman who had contracted a
iustum matrimonium
was, according to Roman law, called a
matrona
. Under the Roman Republic, the term
matrona
was distinguished from
materfamilias
. According to Gellius (18.6.4), only a woman who had contracted a
manus
marriage was properly a
materfamilias
.
Menstruation
Authors: Touwaide Alain
Published: December 2012

Besides notions scattered in the so‐called gynecological treatises in theCorpus Hippocraticum(Nat. wom.,Wom. dis.1–3,Gener.,Nat. child,Superfet.,Eighth‐ and Seventh‐mo.child,Excis. fet.) and in Galen's immense oeuvre, our principal source on menstruation in ancient medicine is Soranus,Women's diseases (gunaikeiôn pathê)(1.6–8 (1.16.1–;25.108; Burguière and Gourevitch 1988)), who provides a survey of available literature on the topic in his time (second half of the first centuryCE), including theories by Diocles of Carystus for example.
Milk
Authors: Touwaide Alain
Published: December 2012

Milk (particularly of cow) was not an essential component of the ancient diet, in spite of its importance as a source of calcium (for teeth and bones), especially for women of reproductive age, animal fat and vitamin D.
Mosmaiorum
Authors: Walter Uwe
Published: December 2012

When Augustus, in his record of achievements, pointed out that he did not accept any office which was contrary to ancestral custom (contra morem maiorem,Res Gestae6.1), and that he also preferred to follow the “example of our ancestors” (maiorum nostrorum exemplo,Res Gestae27.2) in matters of foreign affairs, the idea of the “custom of the ancestors” had already undergone a history of its own.
Nomads
Authors: Schubert Charlotte
Published: December 2012

Nomadism is a historical phenomenon and one of perception and construction. There have been accounts of nomads in literature of the Greco‐Roman world since Homer. They have been influenced by contacts, exchanges, and wars with nomads in the Danube‐Black Sea area, Northern Africa and the Syrian Arabic area. Constructions of auto‐ and hetero‐images of the nomad also merge with the image of the barbarian, and depending on the regional and historical context they either idealize or conjure negative critical representations of nomads.
Nurse, nursing
Authors: Masséglia Jane E. A.
Published: December 2012

A nurse was a woman charged with the care of someone else's child or infant slave.
Orphanages
Authors: Nathan Geoffrey
Published: December 2012

Mortality rates, and the demography of marriage and childbirth in the ancient world, made it likely that a child might lack one or both parents while still in his or her minority. An orphan (orphanos) in ancient and modern Greek can mean someone who has either lost both parents or a father.
Paint and painting, Greece and Rome
Authors: Jones Nathaniel B.
Published: December 2012

Painting, the application of pigment or color to a material support, was practiced continuously throughout Greco‐Roman Antiquity.
Patron, patronage, Roman
Authors: Liu Jinyu
Published: December 2012

The Latin wordpatronusmay denote a legal advocate, a former master of a freedman, or a protector or defender of individuals or collectivities ranging from voluntary associations, neighborhoods (vici), or cities, to entire provinces.
Perfumes and unguents, Rome
Authors: Touwaide Alain
Published: December 2012

Etruscans seem to have abundantly used perfumes, particularly in religious rituals, but possibly also in their daily life, for aesthetic purposes as well as in the practice of sport activities, from the eighth centuryBCEonward (even though such use was originally limited to the wealthy milieu of the political elite).
Plumbing
Authors: Hodge A. Trevor
Published: December 2012

Plumbing proper, that is, the network of internal pipes distributing water inside a building for domestic use, as opposed to a city's aqueducts, was extremely rare both in the eastern civilizations and in ancient Greece.
Privacy
Authors: Panzram Sabine
Published: December 2012

The term “privacy” (“private”) – the name given to that realm of life that denotes the concepts of individualism, intimacy, and discretion, and is contrasted with “public,” its opposite – goes back to the Latinprivatim/privatus.
Prostitution
Authors: McGinn Thomas A. J.
Published: December 2012

Prostitution in ancient Rome was widespread. The sale of sex constituted an important aspect of the economy in terms of upper‐class investment, state revenue, and female employment. Highly exploitative in nature, it also enjoyed great symbolic importance. The vast bulk of the legal, literary, documentary, and archaeological evidence derives approximately from the period 200BCE–250CE, and most of this concerns the prostitution of women, our focus here. The literary and legal evidence is by and large Rome‐centered, while some of the most important documentary sources, such as inscriptions, hail from the periphery of the empire. The highest concentration of material remains is found in Pompeii.
Sleep
Authors: Sihvola Juha
Published: December 2012

The importance of sleep as a mythological theme in ancient Egypt and the Near East is reflected in lively stories with references to the delights and horrors of sleeping, including one about pacifying an angry Egyptian goddess, Sekhmet, with a special beer, “Sleep‐maker”.
Sponsalia
Authors: Müller Sabine
Published: December 2012

Sponsaliais a term for the Roman engagement that could precede marriage. It is suggested that in earlier times, thesponsaliaincluded a transaction in which money changed hands. Especially in rich Roman families,sponsaliawere common. Etymologically, the term derives fromsponsio,the reciprocal vow, made by the fathers of both the bride and groom, promising that the marriage would take place at some time in the future.
Suicide
Authors: Kyle Donald G.
Published: December 2012

Modern societies stigmatize suicide as a sign of psychiatric problems (e.g., severe depression), and Christian and Muslim traditions forbid it; but suicides by the elderly and infirm are probably as old as mankind, and ancient attitudes to suicide were diverse and ambiguous.
Torture
Authors: Naerebout Frederick G.
Published: December 2012

Torture is a concept commonly used in a loose way in order to describe a wide range of instances in which one human being inflicts intentional systematic harm on another.