bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Raetia
Authors: Franconi Tyler
Published: December 2012

The Roman province of Raetia encompassed eastern Switzerland, western Austria, and southern Germany, measuring in total approximately 80,000 km
2
.
Roads, Roman Empire
Authors: Bekker‐Nielsen Tønnes
Published: December 2012

Compared to other premodern empires, the road network of the Roman Empire is set apart not only by its extent (now estimated at more than 100,000 km) but by its structure.
Ships, shipping, Rome
Authors: Schäfer Christoph
Published: December 2012

Shipbuilding and ships gained increased importance in the Roman Republic after the fifth century
BCE
.
Sophists, Roman Empire
Authors: Hernández Juan Pablo Sánchez
Published: December 2012

The term “sophist” in Ancient Greek originally referred to a man with a particular skill and a claim to wisdom.
Treaties, Roman
Authors: Kantor Georgy
Published: December 2012

Classical Roman legal theory and historical tradition distinguished several types of formal agreement with other communities into which the Roman state or its representatives could enter.
Wall‐painting, Greek and Roman
Authors: Mols Stephan T. A. M.
Published: December 2012

Ancient texts allude to the existence of monumental figurative wall‐paintings in Classical Greece.
Tigellinus (Gaius Ofonius Tigellinus)
Authors: Gibson Alisdair
Published: December 2012

The father of Ofonius Tigellinus (10–69
CE
) was from Agrigentum in Sicily, but Tigellinus was brought up in Rome and became a close friend of Nero through chariot racing.
Antoninus Pius (Aelius Hadrianus Antoninus Augustus Pius)
Authors: Michels Christoph
Published: December 2012

Antoninus Pius was a Roman emperor who ruled from July 10, 138 to March, 7, 161, between Hadrian and Marcus Aurelius.
Antonius Saturninus, Lucius
Authors: Adams Colin E P.
Published: December 2012

Lucius Antonius Saturninus was governor of Upper Germany, and led a revolt at Moguntiacum in early 89
CE
(Suet.
Dom. 6
; Dio 67.11.).
Arruntius Camillus Scribonianus, Lucius
Authors: Gibson Alisdair
Published: December 2012

Lucius Arruntius Camillus Scribonianus (ca. 1
BCE
–42
CE
,
PIR
2
A1140) was the natural son of M. Furius Camillus (
PIR
F574, ca. 26
BCE
–37
CE
), the consul of 8
CE
, and descendant of Camillus who captured Veii ca. 393
BCE
(Plut.
Cam
; Livy 5); the brother of M.
Auxilia
Authors: Holder Paul
Published: December 2012

From as early as 216BCE, Rome usedauxiliato make up for its deficiency in cavalry and light‐armed specialist troops (Livy 22.37. 7–8).
Bucellarii
Authors: Whately Conor
Published: December 2012

The
bucellarii
were, strictly speaking, “biscuit‐men” or “dough‐boys,” a term derived from some of their rations –
bucellatum
, “bread”.
Caligula
Authors: Barrett Anthony A.
Published: December 2012

Gaius Iulius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, known more familiarly as Caligula (12–41CE), reigned briefly as the third Roman emperor, succeeding Tiberius in 37.
Calpurnius Piso, Gnaeus (
SC de Pisone patre
)
Authors: Rowe Gregory
Published: December 2012

Gnaeus Calpurnius Piso (ca. 43
BCE
–20
CE
;
PIR
2
C 287) was a Roman senator who took his own life when faced with a show trial before the Senate.
Camps, military
Authors: Dobson Michael
Published: December 2012

All ancient armies required camps, but the Roman army made them a speciality. It constructed a camp (
castra
) at the end of each day's march.
Cannae, battle of
Authors: Hoyos Dexter
Published: December 2012

The battle of Cannae was fought on August 2, 216
BCE
, in northern Apulia. Dissatisfied with the “delaying tactics” (harassing the enemy but avoiding battle) of Fabius Maximus in 217, the Roman Senate authorized the levying of armies twice the normal size under the command of both consuls in 216, Terentius Varro and Aemilius Paullus. The ensuing disaster was blamed by later generations on Varro, unfairly. On a broad plain beside the river Aufidus (Ofanto), Hannibal, with forty thousand African, Spanish, and north Italian Gallic infantry and ten thousand Numidian and Gallic cavalry, confronted the Roman super‐army of eight enlarged legions and allied units. This totaled at least seventy thousand infantry and six thousand cavalry on the field, while some ten thousand garrisoned their camp.
Catapults
Authors: Rihll T. E.
Published: December 2012

Ancient catapults were mechanical weapons that were powered by bows (tension catapults) or taut ropes (torsion catapults) and that projected sharps or shot at higher velocity and over greater distances than could be achieved by man‐powered delivery systems such as a hand bow or a staff sling.
Logistics (Roman)
Authors: Zahariade Mihail
Published: December 2012

The termlogistics, derived from the GreekLogistikê, was used only in modern times by military historians to express, in essence, the action of organized supply of an army.
Centurio
Authors: Sage Michael
Published: December 2012

Each of the legion's sixty centuries was commanded by a centurion who acted as a crucial link between the army's higher command and the common soldier. His primary functions were to command the legion's tactical units in battle and to oversee the administration of his century.
Civil war, Roman
Authors: Sage Michael
Published: December 2012

Until the mid second centuryBCE, the political life of the Roman Republic was dominated by a wealthy elite who fiercely competed among themselves for the prizes of high office and military command which brought both wealth and prestige. Despite the intensity of this competition, a mutually agreed upon set of rules limited the destructive effects of their rivalries.
Cohort
Authors: Sage Michael
Published: December 2012

The cohort was a tactical unit of Roman legionaries or allied infantry. Its nominal strength during the republican period was between four hundred and six hundred men.
Comitatenses
Authors: Whately Conor
Published: December 2012

Comitatenses
, originally from
comitatus
, the companions of the emperor, were the soldiers who accompanied the emperor; it later meant the regional mobile field armies of the Late Empire, usually based in the interior and under senior generals, consisting of both cavalry and infantry. Although there is a tendency to see the
comitatenses
as a creation of Constantine I on the evidence of Zosimus (Zos. 2.34.1; cf. Aur. Vict.
Caes
. 41.12; John Lydus
Mag
. 2.10, 3.31; Jones 1964: 97), it should be understood as the end product of a long process which began in the second century
CE
.
Commilito
Authors: Ng Michael
Published: December 2012

The term
commilito
(literally, “fellow soldier”) was used by several different groups of Romans during both the republican and imperial periods. The term was used among soldiers to refer to their comrades, and also by Republican generals to build a closer bond with their soldiers.
Constantius II
Authors: Davis Raymond
Published: December 2012

The third son of Constantine I (the elder of two sons born to his second wife Fausta, sister of Maxentius and daughter of Maximian), born in Illyricum August 7, 317
CE
, reigned as Augustus in the East from September 9, 337 to 353, and over the whole empire from 353 till his death, November 3, 361.
Diadumenianus (Marcus Opellius Antoninus Diadumenianus Augustus)
Authors: Lusnia Susann S.
Published: December 2012

Diadumenianus (208–18
CE
;
PIR
2
O 107) was the son of Macrinus (Marcus Opellius Macrinus Augustus), the Praetorian Prefect who became emperor after orchestrating the murder of the emperor Caracalla (Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus) in 217. Only nine years old, Diadumenianus was nevertheless named Caesar by his father, and, according to Dio (78.17.1), the Senate gave him patrician rank and the title
Princeps iuventutis
. In 218, when Julia Maesa and Julia Soaemias spurred the Roman troops in Syria to revolt by presenting Soaemias' son Elagabalus (Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus) as the son of Caracalla, Macrinus declared his son co‐Augustus (Cass. Dio 78.31; Lovenjak 2004). As the conflict in Syria intensified, Macrinus sent Diadumenianus to Artabanus, the king of Parthia. Claudius Pollio, however, captured the boy at Zeugma; he was slain at Antioch and his body kept unburied so that Elagabalus could view it (Cass. Dio 78.39–40.1). Both Diadumenianus and his father were subjected to
Damnatio Memoriae
.
Florian (Marcus Annius Florianus Augustus)
Authors: Davis Raymond
Published: December 2012

Born perhaps ca. 220 in a Danubian province, Florian (
PLRE
I.367 Florianus 6;

PIR
2

A 649;
RE
Annius 46) was Roman emperor from about June 276 for between eighty and eighty‐eight days; his reign exemplifies the lack of political stability in the empire at this time.
Galerius (Gaius Galerius Valerius Maximianus Augustus)
Authors: Davis Raymond
Published: December 2012

Galerius (Caesar 293–305, Augustus 305–311
RE
2;
PLRE
1.574–5), originally named Maximums, of agrarian stock (his nickname was Armentarius, “herdsman”), was born in the 250s in what would become the province of Dacia Ripensis at a place forty miles west of the Danube city of Bononia; he later renamed his native town Romuliana (it is now Gamzigrad) after his mother Romula, a barbarian who had fled across the Danube into the empire (his father, name unknown, was Roman).
Gordian I (Marcus Antonius Gordianus Sempronianus Romanus Africanus Senior Augustus)
Authors: Harl Kenneth W.
Published: December 2012

Gordian I (Marcus Antonius Gordianus Sempronianus Romanus Africanus Senior Augustus), Roman emperor for twenty‐two days in 238CE, was born in ca. 157, advanced to be one of the most distinguished senior senators, boasting lineage from the Gracchi and the family of the emperor Antoninus Pius.
Iulius Vindex, Gaius
Authors: Gallia Anderw B.
Published: December 2012

Gaius Iulius Vindex (ca. 35–68CE;PIR2I 628;RE534) was a Roman senator of praetorian rank who, as governor of Gallia Lugdunensis in 68, instigated the rebellion that led to the downfall of the emperor Nero.
Legions, history and location of
Authors: Wesch‐Klein Gabriele
Published: December 2012

In case of war, Roman citizens of military age were mobilized in early spring and discharged at the end of the summer.
Metaurus, battle of
Authors: Hoyos Dexter
Published: December 2012

On June 22, 207
BCE
, the retreating army of Hasdrubal, Hannibal's brother, was intercepted in northeastern Italy by the consuls Livius Salinator and Claudius Nero at the Metaurus River (near Fano).
Mutiny, military
Authors: Stern Gaius
Published: December 2012

Military mutinies in the Greco‐Roman world ranged from a complete strike by the army, refusing to attack the enemy (but willing to defend against their attack), to a small conspiracy that led to the assassination of the commander/emperor.
Numerus
Authors: Zahariade Mihail
Published: December 2012

The
numerus
(ἀριθμóς in Greek) was a tactical unit in the Roman and early Byzantine army.
Octavius Tidius Tossianus Lucius Iavolenus Priscus, Gaius
Authors: Thornton Daniel James
Published: December 2012

Iavolenus was a Roman dignitary and jurist (
iuridicus
) of the first and second centuries
CE
, whose remarkable career and scholarly efforts are copiously attested in epigraphical (
CIL
III 2864; III 9960; VIII 23165; XVI 36) and jurisprudential evidence.
Pertinax (Publius Helvius Pertinax Augustus)
Authors: Bingham Sandra J.
Published: December 2012

Publius Helvius Pertinax (126–193
CE
) was emperor in the early months of 193, having been put into power after the assassination of Commodus (Marcus Aurelius Commodus Antoninus Augustus).
Punic Wars
Authors: Hoyos Dexter
Published: December 2012

The Punic wars were three great conflicts between the republics of Rome and Carthage from 264 to 146 (the ancient “Hundred Years’ War”).
Septimius Severus Pertinax Augustus, Lucius
Authors: Lusnia Susann S.
Published: December 2012

Born in Lepcis Magna on April 11, 145CE, and educated in Lepcis, Athens, and Rome, Lucius Septimius Severus was proclaimed emperor by his troops on April 9, 193 at Carnuntum on the Danube frontier in Pannonia a few weeks after the murder of Pertinax.
Severus Alexander (Marcus Aurelius Severus Alexander Augustus)
Authors: Bingham Sandra J.
Published: December 2012

Marcus Aurelius Severus Alexander Augustus (208–235CE) was the last of the Severan emperors, ruling from 222 to 235.
Titus (Titus Caesar Vespasianus Augustus)
Authors: Curran John
Published: December 2012

Imperator Titus Caesar Vespasianus was emperor of Rome 79–81CE.
Trajan Decius (Gaius Messius Quintus Traianus Decius Augustus)
Authors: Davis Raymond
Published: December 2012

Roman emperor from 249 to 251CE, Trajan Decius (PIR2M 0520; cf.PIR2D 28;RE Messius9), born ca. 190 at Budalia near Sirmium in Lower Pannonia, was from an old senatorial family.
Tres militiae
Authors: Sage Michael
Published: December 2012

Thetres militiaewere a series of military posts held by equestrians.
Velites
Authors: Sage Michael
Published: December 2012

The term denotes Roman light‐armed infantry. It may be derived from the fact that they did not wear the metal armor of the heavy infantry but were protected by a cloak (
velum
). Another possibility is that the name is derived from the Latin word
velox
, meaning swift or quick.
Vexillum
Authors: Sage Michael
Published: December 2012

The
vexillum
was one of a number of Roman military standards used by various units.
Vinius, Titus
Authors: Thornton Daniel James
Published: December 2012

Titus Vinius was a prominent Spanish Roman bureaucrat during the short reign of the emperor Galba, with whom he shared an abortive consulship for the year 69
CE
.
Vitellius (Aulus Vitellius Augustus Germanicus)
Authors: Broadhead Will
Published: December 2012

Vitellius (15–69CE), emperor from April 19 to December 20, 69, was born of a family that first rose to prominence under the reigns of Augustus and Tiberius and enjoyed much political success under their successors.
Maxentius (Marcus Aurelius Valerius Maxentius Augustus)
Authors: Davis Raymond
Published: December 2012

Maxentius (
RE
1;
PLRE
1.571), Roman emperor from October 28, 306 to October 28, 312, and best known as Constantine I's opponent at the Milvian Bridge, was born ca. 285, son of Maximian and Eutropia.
Octavia
Authors: Hopwood Bronwyn
Published: December 2012

Octavia (ca. 69–11BCE;RE96), daughter of Gaius Octavius and Atia, was the great‐niece of Julius Caesar and sister of Augustus.
Honorius
Authors: Nakamura Byron J.
Published: December 2012

Flavius Honorius (Western Roman emperor 395–423
CE
), the son of Theodosius I and Aelia Flavia Flaccilla, was born in 385. His reign was ineffectual and symptomatic of the weakening and ultimate collapse of the Roman west. After Theodosius' death in 395, the ten‐year old Honorius had been given the emperorship of Rome's western provinces, while his brother Arcadius ruled the east. Stilicho, a Romanized Vandal and Honorius' chief general (
magister militum
), all but ruled as regent during the young emperor's early years.
Aediles
Authors: Kondratieff Eric J.
Published: December 2012

Two plebeian aediles were established, according to tradition, during the first secession of the plebs (494
BCE
). Their title may derive from their function as supervisors of the temples (
aedes
) of Ceres and Diana.
Carmina
Authors: Stroup Sarah Culpepper
Published: December 2012

Carmina–the plural form of the Latin nouncarmen–are rooted in some of Rome's earliest religious, ritualistic, legal, and magical texts. As the wordcarmenevolved in its usage, however, it also evolved in its social and literary importance. A term that first designated primarily ritual utterances, chants, and spells came to be used of virtually every sort of poetic production that would mark the social, intellectual, and literary life of Rome in the Late Republican and early imperial periods.
Castor and Pollux
Authors: Poulsen Birte
Published: December 2012

Castor and Pollux, or
Castores
, is the Latin designation for the Greek Dioscuri (Kastor and Polydeukes). The heroes Castor and Pollux were the tutelary gods of the Roman
equites
, and they were considered a symbol of successful Roman military campaigns (CP I, 49–51). As the symbol of victorious Rome, Castor and Pollux were used in the imperial propaganda to promote the heirs of the Principate, the
principes iuventutis
, first and foremost by Augustus (CP I, 51–2). Their importance is also reflected by the fact that their images were placed on the reverse of the first issues of the Roman denarius in 211
BCE
. Castor and Pollux were represented as two young men shown either on horseback or standing beside their horses. They are usually naked except for a cloak, and they usually carry spears as well as a
pileus
on their heads. Above their foreheads a star is often placed.
Catilinarian conspiracy
Authors: Stroup Sarah Culpepper
Published: December 2012

The Catilinarian conspiracy — one aristocrat's plot to overthrow the Roman state, kill key political figures, seize power for himself, and erase debts—stands out as one of the most vibrantly documented historical events to have contributed to the fall of the Roman Republic.
Cicero, Quintus Tullius
Authors: Tempest Kathryn L.
Published: December 2012

Quintus Tullius Cicero (102–43
BCE
) was the younger brother of the famous orator Marcus Tullius Cicero, whose letters are our best source of information. They studied together in Greece and Asia Minor (79–77), and were thus similarly educated.
Comitiaandconcilia
Authors: Sandberg Kaj
Published: December 2012

It is clear that popular sovereignty was the ideological foundation of the “constitution” of republican Rome (Cic.Har.resp. 11). Exactly to what extent the ordinary citizenry was a true actor in the political system, usually seen as dominated by the senatorial aristocracy, is a matter for debate. Yet, whatever stance one takes, it is an unarguable fact that formal popular participation was indispensable for the operation of the republican system. None but the people were entitled to bestow magistracies, make law, and pass judgment on capital crimes.
Cornelia, mother of the Gracchi
Authors: Hersch Karen K.
Published: December 2012

Cornelia (ca. 190–102BCE), the second daughter of the famed general P. Cornelius Scipio Africanus and his wife Aemilia, married T. Sempronius Gracchus ca. 175 and was said to have borne him twelve children.
Scipio Africanus (Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus)
Authors: Lushkov Ayelet Haimson
Published: December 2012

Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus (236/5–ca. 183/4BCE) was the most famous member of the patrician family of the Cornelii Scipiones.
Latins, Latium
Authors: Farney Gary D.
Published: December 2012

Latium was a territory in central Italy containing the city of Rome.
Licinius Crassus, Lucius
Authors: Beneker Jeffrey
Published: December 2012

Lucius Lincinius Crassus (140–91BCE) was a Roman statesman and, as idealized in two dialogues of Cicero (De Oratore,Brutus), one of the leading orators of his generation and a model for those that followed.
Manlius Capitolinus, Marcus
Authors: Samotta Iris
Published: December 2012

M. Manlius T. f. A. n. Capitolinus (the
cognomen
refers to the Capitol of Rome (
see
Capitol) as his place of residence), Roman patrician (
see
Patricians) and consul in 392
BCE
, won the battle at the Algidus mountain (today
Artemisio
) against the Oscan Samnite tribe of the Aequians (
Aequi
).
Marius, Gaius
Authors: Keaveney Arthur P.
Published: December 2012

C. Marius (ca. 157–87BCE) had the distinction of holding seven consulships and being hailed as the savior of Rome in the Germanic wars, but at the end of his life became embroiled in bloody domestic disputes which damaged his reputation.
Names, personal, Roman
Authors: Salway Benet
Published: December 2012

Romans are famous for possessing three names (
tria nomina
).
Patria potestas
Authors: Stevenson Tom
Published: December 2012

Patria potestas(lit. “paternal power” or “the power of a father”) was an extensive legal authority, proudly emphasized by late jurists as a distinctive feature of Roman culture (GaiusInstitutes1.55).
Pompey (Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus)
Authors: Santangelo Federico
Published: December 2012

Gnaeus Pompeius (106–48BCE, usually known in English as Pompey) served during the Social War under his father Cn. Pompeius Strabo (cos. 89BCE) in Picenum and, after Strabo's sudden death in 87, he inherited his estates and connections there.
Pottery, Archaic and republican Rome
Authors: Giuseppe Helga Di
Published: December 2012

The locally produced ceramic types that were used in the area of central Italy between the Archaic and republican periods (sixth to first centuriesBCE) remain an important tool for our understanding of production and of settlement patterns, because of their ubiquity in field survey.
Flamininus, Lucius Quinctius
Authors: Fronda Michael P.
Published: December 2012

Lucius Quinctius Flamininus (ca. 228–170BCE) was a Roman general who achieved both fame and infamy in the decades after the Second Punic War. He was born to a prominent patrician family; his brother was the famous general and statesman Titus Quinctius Flamininus (ca. 228–174). Lucius was probably Titus' younger brother, though this is difficult to reconcile with a notice that a L. Quinctius was made augur in 213 (Livy 25.2.2). Either L. Quinctius Flamininus obtained this priesthood at a young age or the notice refers to another individual. He was elected curule aedile (201) and praetor (199), and then served (198–4) as his brother's legate, commanding the Roman fleet, during the campaigns against Philip Vand Nabis.
Verres, Gaius
Authors: Covino Ralph
Published: December 2012

Gaius Verres (ca. 115–43
BCE
) was one of the Late Roman Republic's most notorious magistrates. He is known chiefly through the corpus of speeches published by the orator Cicero, stemming from a legal action against him brought on behalf of the cities and people of Sicily before the standing extortion court. The impact of the published speeches has so polluted the tradition against Verres that the true extent of his crimes may never be known (see, e.g., Juv.
Sat
. 3 on his later reputation).
Hamilcar Barca
Authors: Hoyos Dexter
Published: December 2012

Carthage's most famous leader, except for his son Hannibal, Hamilcar (ca. 285–229/8
BCE
) commanded what was left of Carthaginian forces in Sicily during the last years of the First Punic War, from 247 to 241, where his guerrilla‐like attacks on the Romans earned him the nickname Barca (“lightning”), although he could not prevent ultimate defeat at sea.
Marcellus, Marcus Claudius, nephew of Augustus
Authors: Smith Christopher J.
Published: December 2012

Born in 42BCEto C. Claudius Marcellus, consul of 50BCE, who played a part in the outbreak of civil war but obtained Caesar's pardon, and Octavia, the sister of Augustus, Marcellus was from his birth part of the dynastic games of the new regime.
Birth control
Authors: Riddle John M.
Published: December 2012

Ancient Egyptian and Mesopotamian records have recipes for both contraceptives (Assyrian: “for a woman who does not get pregnant”; Scurlock and Andersen 2005: 261) and abortifacients (Egyptian: “to stop pregnancy in the first, second or third period”; Riddle 1992: 69).
Accounting, Egyptian
Authors: Imhausen Annette
Published: December 2012

Written evidence for Egyptian accounting (most notably the Abusir and Gebelein papyri) dates back as far as the Old Kingdom (about 2686–2181bce).
Accounting, Greece and Rome
Authors: Cuomo Serafina
Published: December 2012

Accounting has two main aspects: ascertaining through calculation either quantities of money, goods, or people, and making that information available. For instance, accounting in ancient Athens consisted not only in calculating how many ships the allies of Athens provided in the common war effort against the Persians, but also in carving that information on stone slabs and displaying them in the Athenian Agora.
Aesculapius
Authors: Oberhelman Steven M.
Published: December 2012

Aesculapius is the Roman name for the Greek healing god Asklepios. Like his father Apollo, who was introduced as Apollo Medicus into Rome after a plague in 433
BCE
, Aesculapius arrived in Rome during a time of extended pestilence. After three years of plague, in 293
BCE
the Sibylline Books were consulted; it was determined that the plague would cease only when Asklepios was brought from Epidauros.
Almanacs, Babylonian
Authors: Steele John M.
Published: December 2012

Babylonian almanacs contain collections of predicted astronomical phenomena for a given year.
Apollonios of Perge
Authors: Fried Michael N.
Published: December 2012

As with so many mathematicians of the Hellenistic period, little about the life of Apollonios of Perge is known and, with the exception of his great work on conics, theConica(Konikon), only hints of the true breadth of his mathematical activities survive.
Aristotle, mathematics
Authors: Mendell Henry
Published: December 2012

Mathematics plays a rich role in Aristotle's works in three different ways. He often uses mathematical examples to illustrate logical form and to illustrate deductive sciences.
Balbus, surveyor
Authors: Guillaumin Jean‐yves
Published: December 2012

Although his
Expositio et ratio omnium formarum
has come down to us in a mutilated form, evidently deprived of a great part of its original matter, Balbus, because of his originality, occupies an important place among the Latin
agrimensores
.
Cassius Felix
Authors: Langslow David
Published: December 2012

Cassius Felix was a doctor, probably from Cirta (capital of Numidia), who wrote or compiled under the Vandals (in 447CE, according to one manuscript) from Greek sources, a Latin handbookOn Medicine, dedicated to his son.
Optics and catoptrics
Authors: Smith A. Mark
Published: December 2012

From its inception in Greek Antiquity until around 1600CE, the science of optics was primarily concerned with the analysis of sight rather than light. By at least the time of Aristotle, that analysis had found mathematical footing in the visual‐ray theory. As articulated in Euclid'sOptics(ca. 300BCE), this theory assumes that the eye radiates individual rays out through the pupil to form a cone with its base outside the eye and its vertex at a point inside it.
Celsus, Aulus Cornelius, physician
Authors: Langslow David
Published: December 2012

Author (fl.probably under Tiberius, r. 14–37CE) of an encyclopedia (Artes, in the tradition of VARRO'sDisciplinae), covering at least four subjects in twenty‐six books (agriculture, five books; medicine, eight; rhetoric, seven; philosophy, six; plus probably warfare, and possibly jurisprudence), of which, apart from a few fragments/testimonia, only the eight books on medicine survive.
Chalcidius
Authors: Hegedus Tim
Published: December 2012

Chalcidius was the author of an early Latin translation and commentary on Plato'sTimaeus17a–53c.
Chaldaeans, astrologers
Authors: Greenbaum Dorian Gieseler
Published: December 2012

It was conventional practice in the Greco‐Roman world for astrologers to be called by the generic term “Chaldaeans,” since Mesopotamia was renowned for astral omens and astrology (Chaldaea was in southern Mesopotamia).
Constellations and named stars
Authors: Evans James
Published: December 2012

Several constellations are mentioned by Homer and Hesiod, including Orion, Boötes, and the Bear (Ursa Major), which is also called the Wagon. A few conspicuous stars are mentioned: Arcturus, Sirius, and the Pleiades. These names therefore go back to the beginning of Greek literature. The constellations of the Babylonian zodiac were borrowed, probably in the fifth century
BCE
, with minor modifications. For example, where the Babylonians had the Bull of Heaven and the Great Twins, the Greeks placed our Taurus and Gemini. However, our Aries (the ram) corresponds to the Babylonians' “Hired Laborer.” The Babylonians originally called Libra the “Claws” of the scorpion and counted it as a distinct part of a double constellation. In the Hellenistic period, Greek astronomers first called this constellation “Claws” and later “Balance,” a name that also had Babylonian roots.
Decans
Authors: Greenbaum Dorian Gieseler
Published: December 2012

Decans, which originated in Egypt, are stars or star groups which rose on the horizon at ten‐day intervals (thus the name
dekanos
supplied by the Greeks) and were used to mark the hours of the night.
Diagnosis, Egyptian
Authors: Sallares Robert
Published: December 2012

In general, ancient Egyptian medicine took a rational approach to diagnosis in relation to trauma (e.g., a dislocated shoulder) which could be corrected by surgical methods.
Exploration
Authors: Romm James
Published: December 2012

Led by the Ionians dwelling in Asia Minor, the Greeks, beginning in the seventh century
BCE
, undertook a systematic investigation of the lands and peoples around them. Their researches and theories gradually filled out a picture of the
oikoumene
, the “inhabited earth” made up of Africa, Asia and Europe, that was handed down to the Romans and through them to the Middle Ages and Renaissance.
Geometry, Mesopotamian
Authors: Hoyrup Jens
Published: December 2012

By late pre‐literate times the ground plans of high‐prestige buildings were laid out with string.
Gynecology
Authors: Schubert Charlotte
Published: December 2012

The gynecological texts of the Corpus Hippocraticum (De muliebribus, De mulierum affectibus, De natura muliebri, De natura pueri, De sterilibus[=De muliebribus III], andDe superfetatione) partially belong to the first half of the fifth century and thus are to be counted among the oldest prose texts of Greek antiquity in general.
Hippocrates of Kos
Authors: Schubert Charlotte
Published: December 2012

Hippocrates (born ca. 460BCEin Kos, died ca. 370 Larissa, Thessaly) is considered by many today (and especially by modern physicians) to be the founder of occidental medical science, a rank he was already assigned in antiquity. However, this standard portrayal of this most famous physician is the product of a tradition that only began many years after Hippocrates' death.
Library of Ashurbanipal
Authors: Parpola Simo
Published: December 2012

The largest Cuneiform library known was created in the seventh century
BCE
in Nineveh, capital of the Assyrian Empire (
see
Assyria).
Martianus Capella
Authors: Ramelli Ilaria L. E.
Published: December 2012

Martianus Capella was a poet, influenced by Neoplatonism, who probably came from Roman Africa (CARTHAGE) and wrote his masterpiece,De Nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii(Willis 1983) in the early fifth centuryCE, likely before 439, although the dating of Martianus is difficult.
Meteorology
Authors: Taub Liba
Published: December 2012

For ancient Greeks and Romans, meteorology – the study ofmeteora(“things high up”) – treated phenomena including wind, rain, thunder, and lightning (classified today as atmospheric), as well as and (now regarded as astronomical or seismological).
Numbers, Mesopotamian
Authors: Seal Theodora
Published: December 2012

One must distinguish the abstract concept of number from the use of a symbol representing the counted item. In Mesopotamia, the use of counting symbols, in the form of stone tokens, is attested in the seventh millennium
BCE
, well before the use of writing. By the time writing appears in Uruk at the end of the fourth millennium, approximately a dozen different numerical systems were in use.
Oenopides ofChios
Authors: Bodnár István M.
Published: December 2012

Oenopides was an astronomer and mathematician (plus some testimony about physical theories), active in the second half of the fifth centuryBCE.
P
hilinos of
K
os
Authors: Kurzyniec Jeremy
Published: December 2012

Philinos of Kos (fl. 250
BCE
) is usually credited with being the founder of the Empiricist school of medicine.
Plague
Authors: Sallares Robert
Published: December 2012

Plague is a term used in everyday language to describe a sudden outbreak of infectious disease, an epidemic in medical terminology.
Pliny theElder (GaiusPliniusSecundus)
Authors: Isager Jacob
Published: December 2012

Pliny the Elder (23 or 24–79CE) is known for his monumentalNatural History(Naturalis Historia), the earliest encyclopedia surviving from antiquity. His nephew, Pliny the Younger, set him a lasting memorial in a letter vividly describing the Elder Pliny's heroic death during the eruption of Vesuvius (Ep. 6.16).
Precession
Authors: Van Brummelen Glen
Published: December 2012

The precession of the equinoxes is a gradual shift in the positions of the stars caused by the circular wobbling motion of the Earth's rotational axis.
Public health, Egypt
Authors: David Rosalie
Published: December 2012

Although no specific account has survived of the organization of a public health service in Pharaonic Egypt, inscriptional evidence indicates that some system of community medicine was probably in operation.
Rufus of Ephesos
Authors: Langslow David
Published: December 2012

Rufus of Ephesos was a physician and medical author, fl. under Trajan (r. 98–117CE); one of the few of his predecessors admired by Galen, and perhaps second only to Galen among the doyens of medicine in the Roman Empire; influential in the east to the end of antiquity and throughout the Middle Ages, especially among the Arabs.
Science, Egyptian
Authors: Imhausen Annette
Published: December 2012

Traditional historiographical approaches have included mathematics and medicine within the domain of Egyptian science, whereas astronomy has often been left out of the picture or has been judged insignificant.
Scipio, Dream of
Authors: Labarrière Jean‐Louis
Published: December 2012

The
Dream of Scipio
of Cicero (106–43
BCE
) is a well‐known text that has had an important influence from antiquity, especially Late Antiquity, until the Renaissance and the Enlightenment (
see
Cicero, Marcus Tullius).
Scribes, Egypt
Authors: Imhausen Annette
Published: December 2012

The title “scribe” is attested since the Old Kingdom, ca. 2686–2160
BCE
(for the earliest attestation of the scribal profession in the Pyramid texts, cf. Williams 1972: 214).
Seismology
Authors: Taub Liba
Published: December 2012

The modern term “seismology” is based on the Greekseismos, meaning “earthquake,” andlogos, meaning “discourse;” however, there was no distinct field of inquiry in antiquity devoted to the study of earthquakes.
Šumma izbu
Authors: Heeßel Nils P.
Published: December 2012

Šumma izbu
“If an Anomaly” is the title of a Mesopotamian text series on unusual births, containing twenty‐four tablets with more than two thousand omens.
Technology, domestic
Authors: Fabrizi Virginia
Published: December 2012

Ancient sources and archeological finds provide a certain amount of information about the devices and techniques employed in antiquity to answer the basic requirements of domestic life.
Technology, Greek
Authors: Rihll T. E.
Published: December 2012

Technology can be divided broadly into two domains, physical objects and mental systems, commonly labeled “tools” and “techniques.”
Adultery
Authors: Harders Ann‐Cathrin
Published: December 2012

Greco‐Roman societies regarded adultery as a crime next to Rape and the seduction of unmarried women such as virgins and widows.
Archives
Authors: Ellart Carlos Sánchez‐Moreno
Published: December 2012

An archive could be understood as an assemblage of documents retained with some order and regularly updated to retrieve information (Brosius 2003a: 10), but this general definition does not sufficiently stress the deep differences among the diverse civilizations.
Athletes
Authors: Poliakoff Michael B.
Published: December 2012

The ancient world has left illuminating, albeit incomplete, records of its athletes. Inscriptions, monuments, and texts document who participated and sometimes their career records and socioeconomic backgrounds. Not unlike modern societies, ancient cultures differ widely, even within themselves, regarding the appropriateness of the athletes' regimen and the rewards and emoluments they receive.
Autochthony
Authors: Walter Uwe
Published: December 2012

In Greek myths of origin,

(etymologically probably “to possess the land since time immemorial,” only secondarily: “sprang from the land itself”) in the narrow sense of the word signified a person neither begotten nor born by parents, but “earthborn” (

), such as Erichthonios in Athens or the Spartoi (“sown‐men”), who, as completed warriors, sprung from the dragon's teeth sown by Kadmos (Kühr 2006: 109–12).
Birth, registrations of
Authors: Rowlandson Jane
Published: December 2012

Greek cities found the need to record children of various ages from infancy onwards as future citizens, but the earliest known official register of births, strictly speaking, was instituted under Augustus for Roman citizens. Documents from Egypt provide our clearest evidence for Roman registration procedure as well as for Antinoopolis and elsewhere in the province.
Black people
Authors: Isaac Benjamin
Published: December 2012

It is hard to deal satisfactorily with the significance of skin color through various periods and cultures, because the contents of the terms and their emotional impact vary strongly and are often difficult to grasp.
Courtyard
Authors: Kleibl Kathrin
Published: December 2012

A court or courtyard is an area enclosed by walls, rooms, or buildings that is open to the sky. These areas in sepulchral, sacral, domestic, and public architecture were often the primary meeting places for various purposes.
Cura, curator
Authors: Behrwald Ralf
Published: December 2012

Cura
or
curatio/procuratio
denote either a specific competence of a magistrate or a public task assigned independently of a magistracy, not subject to the rules of magistracies, such as annuity and collegiality.
Ephebe,
ephebeia
Authors: Hin Saskia
Published: December 2012

Ephebes were boys or young men in Athens and other cities of the Greek east who participated in the ephebeia. The features of this institution changed over time and varied by region.
Epigraphic habit
Authors: Hahn Johannes
Published: December 2012

The concept of the epigraphic habit claims to contextualize epigraphic evidence, to reconstruct distinct epigraphic cultures, and to interpret their meaning along historical, social, and cultural lines.
Eroticism
Authors: Norton Elizabeth A.
Published: December 2012

The human preoccupation with the erotic has been well documented over the centuries and comes to us as myth, literature, art, and history.
Exposure of children
Authors: Schmitz Winfried
Published: December 2012

In Greek and Roman antiquity, the exposure of newborn children was socially accepted means of family planning.
Freedmen and freedwomen
Authors: Liu Jinyu
Published: December 2012

Upon manumission, a slave became a freedman or freedwoman.
Furniture, Greece and Rome
Authors: Mols Stephan T. A. M.
Published: December 2012

Traditionally handbooks on Greek and Roman interiors state that ancient houses were sparsely furnished, with only the most necessary items. This assumption is highly influenced by the nineteenth century, as in that age most ideas about ancient domestic culture, including interior decoration, were formed. Aristocratic houses in nineteenth century Europe were anything but sparsely furnished, especially compared to what was known about Classical antiquity. After posing this assumption, the handbooks list the items of furniture used in antiquity, based on sources of very diverse origin, mostly departing from depictions of furniture in Greek and Roman art. These are labeled with names used for furniture in ancient literature and sometimes epigraphical material.
Gems, Greek and Roman
Authors: Dasen Véronique
Published: December 2012

Decorated gems are classed as “glyptic” (from the Greekglyphein, to carve). Engraved hard and soft stones, more rarely ivories or glass pastes, are known from the Bronze Age onward.
Gentilicium
Authors: Smith Christopher J.
Published: December 2012

Roman citizens of the historical period had three names, and the middle name, thenomen gentilicium, was inherited from one's father.
Grandparents, grandchildren
Authors: Vuolanto Ville
Published: December 2012

In Greco‐Roman Antiquity, as a pre‐modern society with high mortality, the presence of grandparents in the lives of their grandchildren was never self‐evident.
Guest‐friendship (hospitium)
Authors: Wilker Julia
Published: December 2012

Guest‐friendship forms a prominent and consistent feature of all periods of Classical antiquity and is reflected in all genres of ancient literature. The Greekxenia(xeinie), or Latinhospitium, provided the basis of relations between individuals from different places and/or states. As a form of ritualized friendship, it also constituted an element fundamental for trade connections and the formation of interstate relations.
Headache
Authors: Touwaide Alain
Published: December 2012

According to the first‐century ce anonymous author of the treatiseOn acute and chronic diseases(30.20 Garofalo), headache is not designed in theCorpus Hippocraticumby the termkephalalgia(as was the case later), but by more generic expressions of pathology.
Homosexuality (female)
Authors: Brooten Bernadette J.
Published: December 2012

Most surviving sources from the ancient Mediterranean world condemn sexual relations between women. In these cultures, the distinction between the active, insertive role and the passive, receptive role was foundational. Adult free males were to play the active role, whereas all women were supposed to be passive. This view made sexual contact between women hard to fathom.
Humiliores
Authors: Rohmann Dirk
Published: December 2012

Humiliores(“the more humble persons”) is the Latin term referring to a less privileged order of society, and is employed as a legal category inlaw compilations of the Roman high and Late Antique Empire.
Infant diseases and mortality
Authors: Schmitz Winfried
Published: December 2012

Caring for sick children was the responsibility of the family, usually borne by the mother or the nurse. Information about common children's diseases was probably passed on by word of mouth, but our sources do not provide any evidence for this.
Inn
Authors: Claytor W. Graham
Published: December 2012

Inns in the ancient world offered lodging and often food and entertainment to the traveler without local connections.
Kinship
Authors: Wilgaux Jérôme
Published: December 2012

A traditional and commonplace definition is given by theNotes and Queries on Anthropology(1951: 75): “Kinship is a relationship actually or putatively traced through parent–child or sibling relations, and recognized for social purposes.” Beginning in the late 1950s, however, the so‐called “nature of kinship” debate (with contributions by Gellner, Needham, Barnes, Beattie, and others) shows that the relation between the biological facts themselves and their recognition for social purposes is not as straightforward as it might seem.
Madness and mental health
Authors: Francis Sarah
Published: December 2012

In the Ancient World madness was often defined in two different ways: madness caused by a god or divine force and madness which results from an unstable physical state of the body. Throughout this period there is a growing rationalization of madness led by the medical profession and philosophy; however, despite this, the idea of another “supernatural” madness continued to exist.
Marriage, Greece and Rome
Authors: Sánchez‐Moreno Ellart Carlos
Published: December 2012

In Archaic Greece, marriage was mainly an institution to relate a father‐in‐law (or whoever had thekyrieiaover the woman) and a son‐in‐law around political and social alliances (Hom.Il. 9.144;Od. 1.228; 2.196; 4.5), and this feature endured throughout the history of Greek law.
Neighborhood, neighbors
Authors: Isaac Benjamin
Published: December 2012

Neighbors and neighborhood is a topic to be considered at three levels: collective, urban, and rural. The first concerns neighboring cities and villages; the second, neighborhoods in cities; and the third, individual neighbors, in cities or in a rural setting.
Orphans
Authors: Bobou Olympia
Published: December 2012

In the Greco‐Roman world, an orphan was any child who had lost a parent, especially his or her father.
Paterfamilias
Authors: Harders Ann‐Cathrin
Published: December 2012

The termpaterfamiliasdescribes the head of a Roman family and the proprietor of an estate. Its meaning differs widely in legal and non‐legal usage; therefore one has to be aware of the contexts in which the term is mentioned in order to not confound legal possibilities with everyday life.
Phratry
Authors: Smith Christopher
Published: December 2012

Phratries first appear in Homer (e.g.,Il.9.63; 2.362). The obvious etymology withphrater(“brother”) encouraged a belief that the phratries were originally genuine brotherhoods, and given the connection in Homer with organizing the army, this led to reconstructions which dwelt on familial bands. In fact, they seem more likely to have represented fictional kinship groups, and subsequently maintained an involvement in, and relationship to, issues of citizenship and inheritance.
Porticoes
Authors: Emme Burkhard
Published: December 2012

Roofed colonnades with back walls, porticoes are among the most characteristic features of the ancient Mediterranean architectural style, referred to asporticus(Latin) orstoa(Greek).
Retirement
Authors: Parkin Tim
Published: December 2012

In his final years, before dying at the age of 81 or thereabouts, Plato envisaged that in his ideal state the guardians of the law, thenomophylakes, would have to retire at 70 years of age (Laws6.755a). Such a compulsory retirement was imaginary; in reality, enforced compulsion was practically unheard of in antiquity. Men in high office tended to serve until they died. In classical Athens, citizen males in their sixtieth year served as public arbitrators (diaitetai): this might be seen as a rite of passage but certainly did not mark the end of citizen rights and duties. Indeed, the age of sixty years was in Sparta theminimumage to serve on thegerousia, and that office lasted until death (Aristotle for one noted the potential negative aspects of such protracted service,Politics2.1270b). In Rome, senators also served for life, though avoluntaryretirement age of sixty or sixty‐five was apparently introduced in the first centuryCE. Outside of the political arena too, compulsory retirement, or indeed almost any concept of retirement, was all but nonexistent.
Rites of passage
Authors: Kleibl Kathrin
Published: December 2012

“Rites of passage” are rituals which mark the passing of one stage of life and entry into another.
Social Structure and Mobility, Greece and Rome
Authors: Fagan Garrett G.
Published: December 2012

As a rule, the socioeconomic profile of ancient states resembled that of modern Third World countries: a thin veneer of privilege at the top, virtually no middle class, and a vast underclass toiling away at the bottom.
Spinster
Authors: Panzram Sabine
Published: December 2012

In premodern Mediterranean populations early marriage for women was the norm. Thus they were able to bear legitimate children during all or almost all of their peak reproductive period.
Threptoi
Authors: Dry David D.
Published: December 2012

Threptoiwas a term used in the Greek and Roman East to refer to individuals whose upbringing was undertaken by persons other than their natural parents.
Vernae
Authors: Rawson Beryl
Published: December 2012

The Latin termvernausually meant “home‐born slave” in Roman literature, law and inscriptions. It also had an earlier meaning of “native‐born.” Children born to a slave mother were themselves slaves and belonged to the mother's owner. They had no father in the eyes of the law.
Vestibule
Authors: Kleibl Kathrin
Published: December 2012

Vestibule (Lat.vestibulum) is the architectural term for a passage between an outer door and the interior rooms.
Anatomical votives
Authors: Dasen Véronique
Published: December 2012

Votive offerings include depictions of body parts placed under the protection of a deity. Most extant anatomical votives are made in stone, terracotta, wood, bronze, and ivory (painting, relief, sculpture); temple inventories reveal that some were also made in materials that did not survive – such as wax, gold, and silver – that were melted down.
Xenophobia
Authors: Isaac Benjamin
Published: December 2012

There are various terms indicating hatred and fear of foreigners or strangers.
Megakles of Athens
Authors: Tully John
Published: December 2012

Mεγακλς was a family name of the Alkmaionidai of Athens from the seventh to the fifth centuries
BCE
(Davies 1971: no. 9688).