Stevens Honors Final Exam Vocab (Rome)
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Created by:
mbrewtonjohnson on May 15, 2011
Description:
Some of the definitions are weak, if anyone wants to add to them...!
Classes:
(Stevens) Ancient World Civilizations Honors, Freshman EXAMS
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99 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 Alps | Major mountain range in Italy |
| Magna Graecia | "Greater Greece", the Greek colonies |
| Mos Maiorum | "Ways of our ancestors" Ideal social/lifestyle characteristics that every Roman strove for. |
| Paterfamilias | Male head of the Roman family |
| Clan | Large group of people united under a common ancestor/family name. |
| Patrons | Protectors of clients, or newcomers to rome without a family to attach themselves to, influential sponsors. |
| Clients | Lower-class people or Newcomers to Rome without a family who attached themselves to a family (or patron) in order to gain legal protection or other sponsorship. |
| Patricians | Noble Romans of high social status and political power. |
| Plebeians | Low class Romans, commoners. |
| Tribunes | Representatives of the people. Plebeians or Patricians elected to government in order to represent the general population of the plebs, giving them representation in government. This office also had the power singly veto any legislation. |
| Veto | The power of the tribunes to say "no" or reject any act passed by the Senate. |
| The Twelve Tables | Laws created by the Plebs to protect themselves from selfish Patricians who would morph unwritten laws to their advantage. |
| Lex Hortensia (287 BCE) | Stated that any law passed by the plebeian assembly held just as much weight as Patrician senate laws and bound the entire population, Patricians included. Represents the Plebeians finally attaining social equity. |
| Plebiscites | Laws passed by the Plebeian assembly. |
| Proscription | A political, organized murder list created by a politician in order to purge themselves of their opposition. |
| Mosaic | Artwork created by the gluing together of multicolored tiles. |
| Atrium | Entrance hall to a domus with a skylight and basin to catch water that comes in the skyligt. Highly decorated, where the paterfamilias greeted guests. |
| Tabernae | Rooms rented out as shops in the fronts of Roman domi. |
| Triclinium | Roman dining rooms |
| Peristyle | Giant garden borrowed from the Greeks in the back of Roman domi. |
| Pompeii | City burned by volcanic ash from whence we get most of our evidence of Roman houses |
| Domus | Townhomes in the city for the rich Romans. Guarded by a statue of Hermes, supposedly to prevent evil from entering the home, domi consisted of an ornately decorated and furnished with a large sky-light in the roof, corridors leading to multiple bedrooms, servants' quarters, a study, the kitchen, the dining room, bathrooms, and a garden. |
| Villa | Fancy country estate, elaborately decorated, surrounded by gardens and farms |
| Insulae | Awfully built, crowded, dangerous apartments that the typical Roman lived in (in the cities). The ground floor was small shops and the upper floors (up to 5 stories) contained usually one or two room apartments. These often collapsed upon themselves, crushing residents. There was no running water, so residents had to go to public fountains and carry water up to their apartments. There was also no plumbing or bathrooms, resulting in public bathrooms on the bottom floors of the insulae. These were apparently open, public, and a great place for meetings. |
| Hypocausts | Central heating systems of the ancient Romans. |
| Thermae | Public baths. Designed instricately and lavishly to prevent the commoners from becoming too putout or noticing too deeply the great gap between the high and low classes. Rooms were either codl baths or successively warmer ones, with dressing rooms and a final massage room. |
| The Forum | In the center of the city, a marketplace and public-meeting area. There were "colonnades," or covered walkways lined with columns to offer shade or shelter from the weather. |
| Circus Maximus | Arena at which there were chariot races, games, public fights, military shows, etc. |
| Aqueduct | Roman water-piping systems carrying water across the countryside or to the city generally from mountain springs |
| Carthage | Prosperous North African trading city which would eventually engage Rome in the Punic wars. |
| Battle of Cannae | Battle at which the entire Roman army was annhialated by the Carthaginians and hannibal. |
| Battle of Zama | Battle where Scipio challenged and defeated Hannibal and the Carthiginians |
| Consul | Highest Roman authorities (2) with control over all public business, most political administration, and military matters. |
| Censor | Roman political office which took the census, controlled all public building projects, and "watched over the morals of the people" and could therefore kick anyone out of the senate if guilty of unscrupulous behavior. |
| Praetor | Administrator of the judicial system. Rung of the Cursus Honorum above Aedile/Quaestor, below Consul |
| Aedile | Administrator in charge of maintenance of public buildings and the putting on of games. |
| Dictator | Absolute ruler. |
| Senate | Group of senators from old Roman families that voted on legislation like our senate and house today. |
| Triumvirate | 1st: The parrtnership of Caesar (the influential politican), Pompey (the able military general), and Crassus (the wealthy financier) that together planned to manipulate the Roman government to gain power for themselves. 2nd: Three-way dictatorship created by Mark Anthony, Octavian, and Lepidus that killed Cicero. |
| Battle of Actium (31 BCE) | Battle at which Octavian defeated Anthony and Cleopatra, thereby gaining control of the entire roman empire. |
| Princeps | Another term for "First Citizen" - Augustus/Octavian. |
| Triumph | A title, civil ceremony, and religious rite of ancient Rome, held to publicly celebrate and sanctify the military achievement of an army commander who had won great military successes. |
| Imperator | A title given to a victorious Roman general. The title had to be dropped before that general was able to enter the city again in deference to the emperor. |
| Principate | First period of the Roman empire, characterized by a concerted effort on the part of the Emperors to preserve the illusion of the formal continuance of the Roman Republic (Augustus-Commodus). |
| Dominate | Period during which Roman Emperors no longer tried to continue the illusion of the Republic, but outrightly claimed absolute power. (Comodus-Augustulus) |
| Province | Regions into which the Roman Empire was divided to make it more manageable. Each province was ruled by a Provincial Governor. |
| Provincial Governor | Ruler of a Province. |
| Tax Collectors | Collectors of Tax. |
| Denarius | Coins made during Augustus' rein with his image. |
| Equestrians | New social class created by Gaius made of middle-class Roman businessmen. Were the merchants contracted by the senate to carry out new legislature, and therefore emerged as a new, wealthy class that gained its name from the fact that they were those in the military that could afford to buy horses. |
| Equestrians | New social class created by Gaius made of middle-class Roman businessmen. Were the merchants contracted by the senate to carry out new legislature, and therefore emerged as a new, wealthy class that gained its name from the fact that they were those in the military that could afford to buy horses. |
| Novus Homo | "New Man", first of a family to hold an elected office. |
| Jugurthine War | War started when Rome stepped in to prevent the slaughter of Italians by the king Jugurtha |
| The Italian War (or The Social War) | Civil war in which Rome's Italian allies and controlled-nations rebelled against Rome in protest of the fact that they had assisted Rome in gaining all it's territory, and yet they weren't granted the same rights as legitimate Roman citizens. These people created their own capital and currency, and eventually gained citizenship to all free male Italians. |
| Populares | Political group made up of the common people of Rome. The united force with skilled politicians that would grow to counter the senate, or Optimates (patrician/wealthy Roman) party. |
| Optimates | The patrician or higher class political party who believed that the senate should hold most of the power. |
| Legion | A group consisting of 3-5,000 soldiers. |
| Legionaries | Soldiers of a legion. |
| Testudo | The turtle like formation soldier fought in to deflect arrows. Soldiers were close together and used their curved shields as cover. |
| Decimation | The turtle like formation soldier fought in to deflect arrows. Soldiers were close together and used their curved shields as cover. |
| Auxilia | Soldiers from Rome's provinces who were less valuable than Roman Citizens, but gained citizenship after 24 years of service. |
| Praetorian Guard | Elite guard of 9 cohorts of 5 men each established by Augustus for the protection of the emperor and his family. |
| Consilium | The group of 15 senators that sets the agenda for the senate. |
| Census | The count of citizens in Rome done by the censor. |
| Domus Aurea | Nero's amazing palace built after a giant fire that burned prime real estate for his palace. This aroused suspicion that Nero himself had it set in order to gain the space in the otherwise crowded Rome. |
| Year of the Four Emperors | (69 CE) Year of four-way civil war among Galba, governor of a Spanish province, Otho, commander of another Spanish province, Vitellus, commander of Rhine, and Vespasian, commander of Eastern troops. :::Galba was lynched by the Romans and replaced by Otho, who committed suicide after being defeated by Vitellus, and Vitellus committed himself to "unrestrained gluttony" until dying before Vespasian, after seizing control of Egypt and therefore Italy's grain supply, marched on Rome and took control. |
| 1st Jewish Revolt | The revolt of the Jews during Nervo's reign and that was put down by Titus and Vespasian. |
| Colosseum | Roman Amphitheatre begun by Vespasian and completed by Titus. Three levels structured primarily of arches, with technical lifts to raise animals to the main level, the ability to flood and drain the arena for naval battles, and a giant awning that was retractable to provide shade for spectators. |
| Great Fire | (64 BC) Giant fire that began at the Circus Maximus and burned for 9 days. It destroyed 10 of Rome's 14 districts, conveniently creating prime land for Nero's Golden House. After the fire, Nero organized homeless shelters, launced rebuilding projects, and introduced a new building code to reduce the risk of future fires. He also took the best land and instead of rebuilding for the public, turned it into his own personal palace, or Domus Aureus. |
| Arch | Made of semi-circular wooden frames, which were then covered with blocks of stone. The last block that fit the middle and was a slightly different shape than the others was called the "key stone". The frame was then removed. From these came "vaults, domes, and cross-vaults" |
| Keystone | The stone in the middle of an arch. It's pressure was essential to the holding together of the arch. |
| Concrete | A solution of volcanic dust and lime mortar which made up the stones for arches. |
| Trajan's Market | When the original forum became too small, and was expanded upon by successive emperors, eventually Trajan orchestrated the creation of a forum larger than the original and all of the other additions put together. It was 400 sq. ft. with shops up to three stories high. Contains "Trajan's Column", a column made to recout Trajan's campaign in Dacia. |
| Pantheon | The temple to all of the Roman gods that was a giant dome. |
| Imago | A lifelike mask of a family's most important ancestor that was placed on the lararium and worshiped. |
| Pontifex Maximus | The chief prince of a province. |
| Augurs | Priest who read the augury (the flight pattern of birds) |
| Sybilline Books | Book of oracles and prophecies. |
| Stoicism | Greek philosophy in which emotions were disregarded for logic, and virtue was the equivalent of happiness. |
| Five Good Emperors | The emperors after Nerva who issued in a period of peace and prosperity for Rome. Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antonius Pius, and Marcus Aurellius. |
| Trajan's Column | Column commemorating his campaigns in Dacia, Armenia, Mesopotamia, Assyria, and the Parthia. |
| Hadrian's Wall | Wall built in Britain by Hadrian in order to create a definitive boundary. |
| Huns | Asian civilization that pushed the Gauls into Rome. |
| Germanic tribes | Tribes that attempted to breach Rome's borders in the later Empire (Caracalla-ish) |
| Diocletian persecution | (303 AD) Persecution of the Christians. Diocletian took away all legal rights of any Christians, and demanded that they adhere to traditional religious practices, including sacrifices to the gods. |
| Martyr | One who dies for a political cause. |
| Pax Deorum | "Peace of the Gods", a time of peace. |
| Tetrarchy | System in which Diocletian splits the empire into East and West, each controlled by an Augustus. Those regions were then split again, one of each sub-region being controlled by a Caesar. On a map, the pattern of control follows the term "CACA" (Caesar-Augustus-Caesar-Augustus). This system made micro-management of each province easier, in order to prevent rebellions and hold together the now fragmented Empire. |
| Tetrarch | Each half of the Tetrarchy. |
| Augusti | Rulers over each Tetrarch. |
| Caesares | Sub-rulers to Augusti, with their own region in the Tetrarch. |
| Edict of Milan | Edict signed by Constantine and Licinius declaring the religious freedom and tolerance of all Christians. |
| Coloni | Share-croppers, or poor Romans that worked on Latifundae (Latifundia) and were afforded a small percentage of the harvest and land to live on. |
| Constantinople | Contsantine's new capital of Rome. Moved to the East because the East had more resources. |
| Nicene Creed | Creed created at the Council of Nicea (Constantine) which outlined all faiths of Christianity and was a "profession of faith" by which Christianity became defined. |
| Visigoths | Germanic tribe from Spain that became angry with Rome for constantly renegging on promises, and attacked the city of Rome and occupied it in 410 CE before leaving the city. |
| Vandals | Germanic tribe from the south that also became angry with Rome and attacked it in 455 AD, "Vandalizing" the entire city. |
| Depose | When an emperor is taken out of power or "set aside" (Romulus Augustulus) |
| Byzantine Empire | The name for the surviving, Eastern Roman Empire after the fall of the West. |
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