An annotated nodography of
E2 resources concerning Roman civilization.
There are substantial resources on
E2 for students of ancient Roman civilization, and several noders have ably
collected nodographies over the years. I am updating the collection and assembling
the entries on Rome topically as an aid to the researcher and noder. Because
many nodes straddle categories, I have copiously cross-listed them. Default
organization is alphabetic except under political biography, which follows "industry
standards" in being listed alphabetically by nomen gentilicium
(the middle, and most important of a Roman's three names). I have for the most
part deliberately sought to avoid empty nodeshells with collections of softlinks.
Lastly, I have annotated most entries
to give an idea of content. I did this with two overlapping criteria. First,
I thought of the newcomer to Roman studies wanting technical stuff glossed a
little to facilitate searching; and the more experienced reader wanting a more
specific idea of content. I hope I haven't fallen between two stools!
Other collections of E2 bibliography
• classical studies (a collection of nodes on both Greece and Rome)
• Italy (many nodes on ancient Italy and Rome)
• World History (a collection of hardlinks to historical periods and
areas)
Geography
• Alexandria (chief city of Roman Egypt, cultural capital of the empire)
• Ancient Greece
• Carthage (Rome's bellicose competitor for trade resources, ultimately
victim of Roman expansion)
• Etruscan (Rome's violent but fun-loving neighbors to the north)
• Italy (diachronic, through modern times)
• Nomen Latinum (on Rome's immediate neighbors)
• Leptis Magna (important North African city)
• Ravenna (extremely important site of paleochristian art and architecture
in northern Italy)
• Vindobona (Roman army base that became Vienna, Austria)
Roman topography (geography,
monuments, and related art of the city of Rome. But see also Roman archeology)
• Appian Way (i.e., via Appia)
• Ara Pacis (i.e., the Ara Pacis Augustae, the prominent Augustan monument
of 13 BC)
• Aurelian Wall (i.e., Muri Aureliani, the late antique walls of Rome)
• Circus Maximus
• Colosseum (the Flavian Amphitheater)
• Colossus of Nero (one man's humble attempt to make a mark on his home town)
• Domus Aurea ("Now at last I can begin to live like a human being": Nero, on taking up residence here)
• Flavian Amphitheater (needs content!)
• Forum Iulium
• Forum of Augustus (i.e., Forum Augusti)
• Forum of Nerva (i.e., Forum Nervae, Forum Transitorium)
• Forum of Trajan (i.e., Forum Traiani)
• Forum Romanum (commented list of monuments and some history)
• The Obelisk of Psammeticus II (i.e., the obelisk of Augustus' giant
sundial)
• pantheon (the great rotunda of Hadrianic age)
• pomerium (a.k.a. pomoerium, the sacred boundary
of the Roman community)
• Porta Carmentalis (gate in Rome's Servian Walls with inauspicious
associations)
• Rome (mostly topographical writeups with some history)
• San Clemente, Rome (basilica with important Mithraeum in basement)
• the seven hills of Rome (alternative lists circulated in antiquity)
• Stairs of mourning (i.e., Scalae Gemoniae, where executed criminals
were cast out)
• Temple of Jupiter Feretrius
• The Testaccio (titanic heap o' sherds giving its name to a district of the modern city)
• Trajan's column (i.e., Columna Traiani, the one with St. Peter on
top)
• tufa (common building material of the republic, its many varieties
the bane of students of Roman architecture)
Roman myth-history (early
period to ca. 400 B.C. Historians disagree strongly over how much of this is
"myth" and how much is "history")
• Ancus Marcius (fourth king of Rome)
• Carmenta (Evander's mother)
• The Early History of Rome (Livy's first five books)
• Etruscan (key figures in early Roman history, northern neighbors and
rivals)
• The Exile of Tarquin, and the First Consuls (drawn from Livy 1.55)
• Horatius at the Bridge (the plucky lad who covered the Roman retreat
in 509 BC)
• Numa Pompilius (second king of Rome)
• The Oath of the Horatii (art historical treatment of Jacques Louis
David's painting)
• Rape of Lucretia (trigger of expulsion of the kings)
• Roman virtues (overlaps with Mores Maiorum; lacks magnitudo
animi)
• Rome: Kings and Consuls (a list of the Roman kings without traditional
dates)
• Romulus and Remus (genesis and fate of the two heroes)
• Sabine Women (a novel way of increasing the population)
• Tarpeian Rock (Capitoline Hill site of capital punishment)
• Tarquin the Proud (the last king, driven into exile, 510 BC)
• Tullus Hostilius (the third king, seventh C. BC)
Roman (mostly political)
history (but see Roman political life, political biography, and Roman empire)
• 19 CE Expulsion from Rome (Tiberius' expulsion of Jews and Egyptians)
• ancient Greece and Rome timeline (55,000 BC - AD 410; Roman period
mostly a list of emperors)
• ancient history (when does "ancient" history end?)
• Augustan Reforms (military, political, social, religious, and other
reforms of Augustus)
• Augustus (on the first emperor)
• Catiline Orations (i.e., the Catilinarian orations, 1-3).
• Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam (Cato's boilerplate peroration calling for Carthage's
destruction)
• The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (the collapse of the empire)
• The Fall of the Roman Empire (the transformation of the empire into
its medieval descendants)
• first triumvirate (the unofficial coalition of Pompey, Crassus, and
Caesar)
• History (what is history, what does it mean?)
• The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (a vast project
offering the text of Gibbon)
• Nomen Latinum (relevant for earlier periods)
• Pax Romana (the relatively peaceful era during the empire's height,
c. 27 BC - AD 180)
• The Punic Wars and the Fall of the Roman Republic (better on the Punic
Wars)
• Res Gestae Divi Augusti (Augustus' autobiographical inscription.
Its role in his propaganda)
• Roman Emperors (a complete, extensively hardlinked list)
• Roman Empire (history and geography)
• Roman Republic (a nodeshell now capably filled)
• second triumvirate (Antony, Lepidus, and Octavian)
• Senator Robert Byrd and the Roman Republic (the second half is about
the republic and its fall)
• Spartacus (Thracian shepherd who led a massive slave revolt)
• Western Roman Empire (AD 395-480)
Roman political life (alphabetical)
• auctoritas (defines the political technical term)
• Caesar (the name as it became a technical term, leading to "Kaiser"
and "Czar")
• censor (the magistracy)
• centuriate assembly (the most important republican voting assembly)
• Consul (the highest regular magistracy)
• cursus honorum (the basic Roman republican career pattern)
• curule chair (an important token of the higher Roman magistrates)
• curule magistrate (a definition of the term)
• dignitas (defines the political technical term)
• Equestrian (the apolitical stratum of the upper class)
• Fasces (symbol of magisterial authority)
• Imperium (the quasi-religious power vested in the highest
Roman magistrates)
• Lex (technical information on the naming and storage of Roman
laws)
• lictor (minor functionary who shouldered people out of curule magistrates' way)
• Mores Maiorum (see Roman virtues under myth-history above)
• Novus Homo (Latin term for a political upstart)
• patres (et) conscripti (technical term for senators as a
group)
• Plebeian (the Roman "commoners")
• Political suicide (a way to avoid condemnation and save part of the
family fortune from confiscation)
• Praetor (the second-ranked regular republican magistracy)
• Praetorian Guard (the emperor's bodyguard)
• proconsul (Webster needs some help here)
• Public Offices in Ancient Rome (a good collection of most of the offices
of the republic)
• Senate (the politically active stratum of the upper class)
• Spolia Opima (awarded for killing an enemy leader in single
combat under your own auspices)
• SPQR (defines the term)
• Tribunus plebis (office instituted to protect the commons from aristocratic magistrates)
Roman political biography
(i.e., people mainly known for political reasons, alphabetical by family--'middle',
or gentilicium--name)
• Hadrian (i.e., Publius Aelius Hadrianus, Roman emperor)
• Lucius Aemilius Paulus (father who fell at Cannae, and son who defeated
Perseus at Pydna)
• Titus Annius Milo (optimate henchman in the 50s BC, Cicero's famous
client)
• Antonia the Younger (i.e., the daughter of M. Antonius, mother of Claudius)
• Antoninus Pius (i.e., Titus Aelius Hadrianus Antonius Pius Augustus
Caesar--deserves a longer writeup)
• Lucius Artorius Castus (Artorius, i.e., Arthur, king of the Britons? Early Aneurin)
• Marcus Aurelius (i.e., Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, philosopher-emperor)
• Commodus (i.e., Lucius Aurelius Commodus, emperor and son of Marcus
Aurelius)
• Piso (covers several Calpurnii Pisones of the republic and empire)
• Appius Claudius Caecus (an empty node with soft links relevant to
his life and career)
• Claudius (i.e., Tiberius Claudius Nero Germanicus the emperor)
• Nero Claudius Drusus Germanicus (brother of Tiberius, father of Claudius and Germanicus)
• Publius Clodius Pulcher (prominent late republican politician given
to "unsound" methods. But he loved his sister, at least)
• Cornelius Cossus (early winner of spolia opima)
• Scipio Africanus (i.e., Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus, defeater
of Hannibal, and his adoptive son)
• Sulla (i.e., Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix, champion of senatorial
conservatism and ruthless dictator)
• Didius Julianus (i.e., Marcus Didius Severus Iulianus, emperor for
about 8 minutes, AD 193)
• Nero (i.e., Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, the emperor)
• Gaius Fabricius Luscinus (general in the Pyrrhic wars)
• Vespasian (i.e., Titus Flavius Vespasianus, emperor)
• Domitian (i.e., Titus Flavius Domitianus, "dominus et deus"
to his friends)
• Flavian Dynasty (Vespasian-Titus-Domitian)
• Flavius Aetius (5th century AD statesman and onetime Hun hostage)
• Marcus Furius Camillus (hero of the war against Veii and against the
Gauls, c. 400 BC)
• Pertinax (i.e., Publius Helvius Pertinax, the school teacher who became
emperor, AD 193)
• Julius Caesar (a good long discussion of Caesar the dictator)
• Julio-Claudian Dynasty (Augustus-Tiberius-Caligula-Claudius-Nero)
• The Death Of Julius Caesar (CSI--Ancient Rome)
• Augustus (i.e., Imperator Caesar Augustus)
• Res Gestae Divi Augusti (inscribed autobiography of Augustus)
• Acta est fabula and Plaudite, amici, comedia finita est
(two versions of Augustus' last words)
• Tiberius (i.e., Tiberius Iulius Caesar Augustus, second emperor)
• Germanicus (i.e., Germanicus Julius Caesar Claudianus, adopted son
of Tiberius)
• Cnaeus Julius Agricola (i.e., Gnaeus Iulius Agricola, Flavian general,
father-in-law to Tacitus)
• Marcus Licinius Crassus Dives ("associate" of Pompey and
Caesar, killed in Syria, 53 BC)
• Livia (i.e., Livia Drusilla, wife of the emperor Augustus)
• Marius (i.e., Gaius Marius, greatest republican iterator of consulships
(7) and army reformer)
• Lucius Mummius (sacker of Corinth)
• Octavia (1 Augustus' sister; 2 Nero's luckless first wife)
• Pliny the Younger (i.e., Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus, litterateur
and prominent politician of the early empire)
• Pompey (i.e., Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, late republican dynast)
• Sextus Pompeius (the son of Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus)
• Cato the Elder (i.e., Marcius Porcius Cato, consul, censor, would-be Carthage destroyer)
• Otho (i.e., Marcus Salvius Otho, would-be successor to Nero)
• Tiberius Gracchus (i.e., Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus, luckless tribune
and reformer of 133 BC)
• Septimius Severus (i.e., Lucius Septimius Severus, emperor)
• L. Sergius Catilina, i.e., Catiline (the would-be revolutionary
of 63 BC)
• Galba (i.e., Servius Sulpicius Galba, successor to Nero)
• Tigellinus (Neronian baddy who egged the emperor on)
• Marcus Tullius Cicero i.e., Cicero (the great orator and statesman)
• Constantius Chlorus (i.e., Flavius Valerius Iulius Constantius, father of the following)
• Constantine (i.e., Flavius Valerius Constantinus, recognizer of Christianity, founder of Constantinople, etc.)
• Marcus Valerius Corvinus Mesalla (read: Messala. Cautius collaborator with the Augustan
regime)
• Agrippa (i.e., Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, Augustus' number two man)
• Vitellius (i.e., Aulus Vitellius, noted feaster and would-be successor
to Nero)
Roman social history
• Equestrian (the apolitical stratum of the upper class)
• How to wear a toga (instructions. Not quite social history, but .
. . )
• Lead Poisoning and the Fall of the Roman Empire (improbable, but here
are some arguments)
• Marriage in ancient Rome (marriage customs)
• Mores Maiorum (see Roman virtues under myth-history above)
• Mortality in the Ancient World (a general discussion)
• The namelessness of Roman women (male and female onomastics)
• Novus Homo (Roman republican political upstarts)
• Patronage in Ancient Rome (the mechanism of interpersonal relations)
• Plebeian (the "commoners")
• princeps (development of the word into something like a title
for the early emperors)
• Roman names and Roman Naming Method (onomastics)
• Roman Sense of Humor (focuses on sex and violence)
• Roman sexuality (good discussions, should reference Williams' Roman
Homosexuality)
• Roman virtues (see under myth-history above)
• toga (terms and definitions concerning the distinctive Roman
garb)
• The world's first contraceptive (the recipe. No word on effectiveness!)
• Titus and Berenice (the emperor and his concubine, on Roman antisemitism)
Roman law
• corpus iuris civilis (the title of Justinian's code)
• falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus (legal principle)
• Justinian (caused the codification of Roman law in c. AD 529)
• Latin law expressions (metanode)
• Lex (technical description)
• Praetor (responsibilities included oversight of Roman civil and criminal
law)
• res gestae (the law term, not the Augustan inscription)
• Roman law (a good general discussion)
• Roman law of intestate succession (very good, detailed discussion)
• Roman personhood (on a fundamental part of Roman civil law)
• The Twelve Tables (i.e., lex XII tabularum, the first Roman
law code, c. 450 BC)
Roman religion
• Ancient Roman Sacrificing (a discursive discussion)
• Apollonius of Tyana (a first-century wonder worker paralleling Jesus)
• Carmenta (mythical mother of Evander, primeval Roman)
• epulones (feast-giving priests)
• The Feast of Cybele
• Fordicidia (festival of Tellus)
• Greek and Roman Mythology (part of a vast series of nodes on different
myth systems)
• interpretatio romana (Roman practice of identifying foreign
gods by the nearest Roman equivalent)
• lar, lares (Webster shells needing filling)
• Lemuria (festival of the dead)
• Lupercalia (fertility festival)
• manes (spirits of the departed)
• Mithraism and Roman Mithraism (popular cult among veterans, brought
back from the East)
• Natalis Solis Invicti (why Christmas is December 25)
• Olympians (this metanode links to nodes on the 12 gods. See also Titans
and Olympians)
• Pax Deorum (an uneasy truce with the gods. Just don't screw
that ritual up . . . .)
• Quirinus (deity associated with Romulus)
• Roman Origins of the Universe (a brief discussion)
• The Roman Pantheon of Gods and Goddesses (specifically Roman/Latin
discussion)
• Roman persecution of Christians (Roman tolerance and lack thereof)
• Roman temple architecture
• Saint Cecilia (traditional 3rd century Roman martyr with important cult sites)
• Saturnalia (festival of Saturn, noted for relaxing of social boundaries)
• The Secular Games (i.e., ludi saeculares, periodic games
with a religious significance)
• Carmen Saeculare (Horace's showstopper hymn from the Secular
Games of 17 BC)
• Silvanus (a rustic god)
• Spolia Opima (awarded for killing an enemy leader in single
combat under your own auspices)
• Tauroctony (slaughter of a bull in Mithraic rites)
• Temple of Jupiter Feretrius (connected with spolia opima)
• vestal virgin (attandant of Rome's sacred symbolic hearth)
Roman army/wars/battles (but
see Roman political history, Roman Empire)
• Actium (decisive triumviral sea battle, 31 BC)
• Battle of Adrianople (a maraudin' horde o' Visigoths whacks emperor
Valens & co., AD 478)
• Battle of Cannae (second Punic War)
• Battle of Lake Trasimene (second Punic War)
• Battle of the Medway (important battle, AD 43, Rome vs. Caratacus)
• Battle of the Teutoburg Forest (great defeat under Augustus, AD 9)
• Battle of Trebia (second Punic War)
• Battle of Zama (second Punic War)
• Caesar's Commentaries on the Gallic War as military history (his strengths
and weaknesses as a modern military historian)
• Carthage (Rome's great mid-republican opponent)
• Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam (Cato's boilerplate peroration calling for Carthage's
destruction)
• De Bello Gallico (Caesar's version of his conquest of Gaul,
roughly modern France)
• The Gallic Wars Appendix A (metanode: Caesar
on the legion, cavalry,
formations, officers,
special units, camps,
materiel, and
food and pay)
• Decimate (extreme military punishment-kill every tenth man)
• First Punic War (Bellum poenicum primum)
• foederati (late antique auxiliaries serving under their own commanders--not
immensely loyal)
• gladius (the typical Roman short sword)
• The Imperial Roman Army (a detailed discussion)
• Imperial Roman Legion (excellent detailed discussions)
• Jugurtha (enemy of Rome in the late second century BC made famous by Sallust)
• Legions of Varus (i.e., legions XVII, XVIII, and XIX, destroyed by
Germans, AD 9)
• magister militum (late imperial "master general of the Roman
field army")
• Misenum (an important naval base)
• Mons Badonicus (late antique battle between Romano-British and Anglo-Saxons)
• Mons Graupius (battle between Agricola and Caledonians, AD 84)
• Organizational Structure of the Roman Army (the structure of a legion)
• Pharsalus (Pompey the Great vs. Caesar, 48 BC)
• Punic Wars (see especially chromaticblue's chronology)
• The Punic Wars and the Fall of the Roman Republic (see under political
history above)
• Republican Roman Legion (complements Organizational Structure, above)
• Romans in northern Britain (Agricola, Hadrian's Wall, etc.)
• The Romans Take Over (Roman expansion into Palestine through the time of Augustus)
• Roman Weapons (a long list with definitions. Roman pointed weapons
were of iron, however)
• Scipio Africanus: Greater Than Napoleon (review of Liddel Hart's kooky bio of Scipio Africanus)
• Second Punic War (the second war against the Punics--er, Carthaginians)
• Spartacus and The Third Servile War (fallout of Rome's servile economy)
• Spolia Opima (awarded for killing an enemy leader in single
combat under your own auspices)
• Third Punic War (third war against the Carthaginians)
• Vindobona (Roman army base that became Vienna, Austria)
• Visigoth (wanderin' horde o' late antique troublemakers)
Roman economy/economic history
• Ancient Roman Food (of the extravagent rich)
• Economic problems in the Roman Empire (a good basic discussion)
• Falernian (the famous export wine)
• Maximum Prices Edict (price fixing in ancient Rome under Diocletian)
• Mortality in the Ancient World (see under social history above)
• Roman road (construction method of this vital part of the trade network)
• Salt (mentions Roman derivation of term "salary" from military
salt allowance)
• tax farming (relevant to Rome, but focuses mainly on early modern
examples)
Roman entertainment
• Ancient Roman Food (in upper-class feasting)
• Circus Maximus (chariot races!)
• Falernian (booze!)
• Gladiator (taxonomy and movie)
• Public entertainment in ancient Rome (bread and circuses)
• Roman Cookery (vile sauces thinly disguised by being in Latin)
• Roman persecution of Christians (Nero's torches, etc.)
• The Secular Games (periodic games with a religious significance)
• The world's first contraceptive (entertainment related)
Roman archeology/art/architecture
(but see also Roman topography)
• Ancient Italian Aqueducts (Etruscan roots of the Roman technology)
• Appian Way (now an archeological park)
• Herculaneum (one of the buried cities of Vesuvius)
• insula ((the Roman 'apartment' building)
• La Turbie (Augustan monument in the French alps)
• Tibur (Latin town near Rome)
• Misenum (naval base near Pompeii)
• Mortality in the Ancient World (see above under social history)
• Museo Nazionale Romano (one of the chief museums of Roman antiquities)
• The Orders of Roman Architecture (Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, Tuscan,
and Composite)
• Pliny on Vesuvius (the famous description of the eruption from Pliny's
letters)
• Pompeian wall paintings (the four famous styles isolated by August
Mau)
• Pompeii (the most famous buried city of Vesuvius)
• Pont du Gard (Agrippa's great aqueduct bridge of 19 BC in the Provence)
• Prima Porta Augustus (ecphrasis of the most famous statue of the first
emperor)
• Ravenna (extremely important site of paleochristian art and architecture)
• Reticulated work (i.e., opus reticulatum and variants)
• Roman road (construction techniques)
• Roman temple architecture
• triglyph and metope (part of the Doric package used by the Romans)
Latin language/linguistics
• Classical Latin (the Latin of the most prestigious literary epoch)
• Classical Latin Pronunciation (a guide)
• Ecce Romani (review of a basic Latin text)
• English may be a "living language," but Latin is not -- so
get it right. (exhortation to correct usage)
• How to translate a Latin sentence (a good basic guide to working through
a sentence)
• Kennedy's Latin Primer (a review of a basic grammar book)
• Latin (discussion of the language and its grammar)
• Latin Numbers (spelled out)
• musty dustiest rome (elegiac reminiscence of Mr. Ernest's Latin class)
• Roman names (spelled out)
• Vulgar Latin (non-U Latin; later development of the language)
Roman literature (but look
for information on authors' works under literary biography, too)
• ab urbe condita (mostly about dating and chronology, but
a little on Livy's history with this title)
• Aeneas (the primordial Roman, Trojan hero)
• Aeneid (Vergil's epic--see below)
• The Agricola (see Tacitus, below)
• the ancient novel (definition of the term)
• Annals of Tacitus (i.e., Ab excessu divi Augusti,
Tacitus' Julio-Claudian history)
• Catiline Orations (i.e., Catilinarian orations)
• Catullus poems 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6--a shell, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 16, 27,
46, 48, 53, 58, 70, 72, 73, 75, 79, 80, 84, 95--a shell, 99, 101.
• Caesar De Bello Gallico (Caesar's commentaries
on his war to subdue Gaul. See Asterix, below)
• Chronology of Library Development in Antiquity (15000 BC to AD 529)
• Cicero Cicero pro domo sua, Pro Archia, Somnium Scipionis
• The Early History of Rome (on Livy's first five books)
• fabula crepidata (definition of the term with examples)
• fabula palliata (definition of the term with examples)
• fabula praetexta (definition of the term with examples)
• fabula togata (definition of the term with examples)
• Falernian (quotes Catullus 27, minister vetuli puer falerni)
• Golden Age (great classical (Augustan) age of Latin literature)
• The Golden Ass (Lucius Apuleius' Latin novel)
• Greek and Roman Mythology (part of a vast series of nodes on different
myth systems)
• Horace Ars Poetica, Carmen Saeculare, Odes
1.4, 1.9, 1.11, 2.6.
• Lavinia (character in the Aeneid)
• Menippean Satire (grab-bag poetry made famous by Varro)
• Metamorphoses (Ovid's famous epic)
• Mythos : Roman to Greek - A table of Gods (divinity equivalence table)
• Pervigilium Veneris (anonymous Latin poem portraying Venus as bringer
of spring)
• Pliny on Vesuvius (Pliny's letter on Vesuvius' eruption)
• Plautus' Amphitruo, Asinaria, Miles Gloriosus.
• Rome and Greek ideas (discussion of Greek influence on the Romans)
• Sabine Women (a standard feature of tales of the city's beginnings)
• Satyricon (Petronius' novelistic effort and Fellini's movie)
• Tacitus Agricola, Germania sections
1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3; Annales (see above)
• The Twelve Caesars (Suetonius' famous biographical work on
the first emperors)
• Thyestes (the play by Seneca the Younger. Seneca needs noding, btw)
• Vergil Eclogues 1, Aeneid, book 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7,
8, 9, 10, 11, 12.
• O fortunati, quorum iam moenia surgunt (commentary on Aeneid 1.437-38)
• quadriga (i.e., a way of referring to the 'workhorses' of Latin education, Vergil, Cicero, Terence and Sallust)
Roman literary biography
(individual authors, often with sections on their works)
• Ammianus Marcellinus (late imperial historian)
• Appian of Alexandria (Antonine Greek historian)
• Apuleius (i.e., Lucius Apuleius of Madaurus, Latin novel writer)
• Catullus (i.e., Gaius Valerius Catullus, lover of Lesbia, neoteric
poet.
• Dio Cassius (i.e., Cassius Dio Cocceianus, Severan historian)
• Gaius Valerius Maximus (the Tiberian collector of memorable sayings
and deeds)
• Naevius (i.e., Gnaeus Naevius, early Latin playwright)
• Horace (i.e., Quintus Horatius Flaccus, the great Augustan poet)
• Juvenal (i.e., Decimus Iunius Iuvenalis, the great satirist)
• Livy (Titus Livius, the great Augustan historian)
• Lucius Accius (Latin playwright)
• Lucius Livius Andronicus (first mediator of Greek literature to a
Roman audience, 240s BC)
• Lucan (Marcus Annaeus Lucanus, Neronian epicist and would-be betrayer
of his own mother)
• Marcus Fabius Quintilian (i.e., M. Fabius Quintilianus, rhetorician)
• Marcus Pacuvius (early Latin playwright)
• Martial (i.e., Marcus Valerius Martialis, supreme Latin epigrammatist)
• Ovid (i.e., Publius Ovidius Naso, Augustan poet. Rome's greatest (and
funniest) elegist)
• Petronius (i.e., Gaius Petronius Arbiter, Neronian novelist and elencator
of Neronian trysts)
• Plautus (i.e., Titus Maccius Plautus, the great Latin comic playwright)
• Pliny the Elder (i.e., Gaius Plinius Secundus, encyclopedist, victim
of Vesuvius)
• Pliny the Younger (see above under political biography)
• Polybius (important pragmatic historian of Roman imperialism)
• Sallust (i.e., Gaius Sallustius Crispus, historian of the late republic)
• Sextus Pompeius Festus (grammarian author of De verborum significatu)
• Sextus Propertius (Umbrian elegist of the Augustan period)
• Strabo (Augustan geographer extraordinaire)
• Suetonius (i.e., Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus, imperial functionary.
See The Twelve Caesars above)
• Tacitus (i.e., Publius Cornelius Tacitus, great early imperial historian)
• Tibullus (i.e., Albius Tibullus, Roman elegist of the Augustan age)
• T. Lucretius Carus (i.e., Titus Lucretius Carus, epicurean
dispeller of irrational worries)
• Vergil (i.e., Publius Vergilius Maro, the Augustan epicist)
Roman-era science/scientists/medicine
• Ancient Roman Doctors ("DON'T GET SICK!")
• Claudius Ptolemaeus (the great geographer, astronomer, and mathematician)
• Galen (i.e., Claudius Galenus, 2nd century AD physician and medical
theorist)
• Hypatia (late antique Alexandrian luminary, daughter of Theon)
Manuscripts, palaeography,
editions, great philologist-editors
• Codex Sinaiticus (the oldest nearly complete MS of the Bible,
c. AD 300-350)
• Codex Vaticanus (an extremely old MS of the Bible c. AD 350)
• codicology (the study of old manuscripts)
• How the capital letters turned into the small letters
• lectio difficilior preferenda est (principle of textual criticism)
• Loeb Classical Library (Harvard U Press's extensive classics collection
with facing translations)
• P. Vergili Maronis Codex Antiquissimus (an early (1741) printed facsimile
of an early Vergil MS)
• Richard Bentley (someone please rescue this empty shell--Bentley deserves
it)
• The Vatican Library (storehouse of thousands of (mostly) medieval
manuscripts of ancient works)
Latin epigraphy
• Ancient Roman Graffiti (on vulgar inscriptions)
• Museo Nazionale Romano (one of the chief museums of Roman antiquities, with a stunning epigraphical collection)
• Res Gestae Divi Augusti (the "queen of Latin inscriptions"
--Mommsen)
Roman empire (the physical
entity, "Weltreich")/Rome and the outside world
• 19 CE Expulsion from Rome (early imperial relations with Jews and
Egyptians)
• Alexandria (the cultural capital of the empire)
• Ancient Egypt (from Dynasty I to the Ptolemies)
• The Boudiccan Revolt (against the Romans, AD 60)
• Gallic Empire (splinter during the dark years, brought back by Aurelian)
• The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Gibbon's
far-flung history)
• Leptis Magna (important North African city with impressive ruins)
• The Punic Wars and the Fall of the Roman Republic (acquisition of
the first elements of an overseas empire)
• Roman Britain (history of the province and its acquisition)
• Roman Empire (history and geography)
• Roman Governors of Britannia (the office and a comprehensive list
of known holders)
• Roman influence in Ancient Bulgaria (some history and geography)
• Roman Legionaries in China (did a remnant of Crassus'
army escape to China?)
• Romans in northern Britain (Agricola, Hadrian's Wall, governors, Constantine,
etc.)
• Vindobona (Roman army base that became Vienna, Austria)
Afterlife (Nachleben)
of things Roman (influences on later times--a necessarily abbreviated list)
• Asterix (despite Caesar's seeming success, one village held out .
. . .)
• Benito Mussolini (would-be successor to ancient Rome's imperial greatness)
• The downfall of Rome and its possible implications for free market
capitalism
• Fascism (a supposed revival of Ancient Roman glory in Mussolini's
Italy)
• A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (modern Plautine
revival, play and film)
• Gladiator (the Ridley Scott movie)
• The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Gibbon)
• Horatius (inspiration for Macaulay's Lays of Ancient Rome)
• I, Claudius (Robert Graves' intelligent retelling of Julio-Claudian
family intrigue)
• Museum Drug Store (It's a museum! No, it's a drugstore! No, it's a museum! No, it's a drugstore . . . .)
• The Oath of the Horatii (Jacques Louis David's famous canvas)
• Romani Ite Domum (Romans, Go Home) (Monty Python's sendup of Latin
instruction)
• The Romans (Dr. Who. Say no more)
• Satyricon (includes Fellini's landmark film)
• Senator Robert Byrd and the Roman Republic (use of classical models
in rhetoric)
• sieg heil (Nazi salute harking back to Roman practices)
History of scholarship on
Rome. Historiography.
• A.E. Housman (English classicist, editor of Lucan, etc.)
• American Academy in Rome (important center for scholarly research
on Roman antiquity)
• The Funeral Oration of the Roman Empire (1453: Constantine XI speaks on the last night the final vestige of the Roman Empire could be said to have existed)
• Theodor Mommsen (19th century German liberal historian and epigrapher)
• Max Müller (prominent classicist and Indologist)
• Friedrich Münzer (early 20th century German prosopographer
and historian)
• Friedrich Nietzsche (prominent classisict-philosopher)
• Martha Nussbaum (prominent classical philosopher who occasionally
adverts to Rome)
• Quellenforschung (method of seeking an ancient historian's
sources)
• Rome's Protestant Cemetery (final resting place of many great historians and classicists)
• Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology
(description and contents of the work)
• Irina Sventsitskaya (important Russian classicist and archaeologist)
• Why Ancient Historians wrote history (aids to interpreting ancient
historians' works)