Category: Roman Republic
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Verism: Portraying Power and Ancestry
Heavily wrinkled, with sagging jowls and a thrusting jaw, the face of a Roman aristocrat stares back at us from the time of the late Republic, his countenance meaning to convey his seriousness of mind (gravitas) and the battle scars earned through a life of public and military service. The Veristic style (from the Latin verus meaning true)…
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Castor and Pollux: The Legendary Twin Horsemen of Rome
Black-figure amphora depicting the Dioscuri on horseback. Dating to circa 500 BC, held in the British Museum In the southern sky during wintertime, near the constellations of Orion and Taurus there are two bright stars. Known in Greek mythology as the Dioscuri, (Dioscuri from the Greek Dioskouroi, meaning “Sons of Zeus”), they were twin supernatural beings who helped save shipwrecked sailors, usually by appearing…
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Hannibal Barca: Enemy of Rome
Snow Storm: Hannibal and his Army Crossing the Alps exhibited 1812 Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775-1851. Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856 The Roman Republic, and subsequently Empire, dominated almost all of the known world from 753 BC to 1453 AD. Throughout that period Rome’s power was always present and…
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Teach Me how to Live
The reason why we have two ears and only one mouth is that we may listen the more and talk the less – Zeno of Citium, founder of the Stoic school of philosophy, in which he taught in Athens from circa 300 BC. It was the year 155 BC that philosophy arrived in Rome, when…
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Romulus and Remus: Myth and Reality of the Lupercalia Festival
In the Capitoline Museum in Rome, there is a room known as the Chamber of the She – Wolf, a small but elaborately designed room of marble walls and mosaic floors. In the centre is a bronze statue of a wolf suckling two human infants, an image that the Romans, ancient and modern revere as…
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Ultimate Power: History and Influence of the Roman Senate
If you must break the law, do it to seize power: in all other cases observe it. Gaius Iulius Caesar 100BC – 44BC The Roman Senate was one of the most incredible and enduring institutions of antiquity. According to the Roman historian Livy (59 BC – 17 AD), it was created not long after the founding…
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Cicero – A New Man
‘If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need‘ – Cicero Marcus Tullius Cicero, 106 – 43 BC After building a career as a skillful barrister in the law courts, and putting down the Cataline insurrection, Cicero had not only become a shrewd politican, but one of the best orators and…
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Who was Julius Caesar?
In his The Life of Julius Caesar, par. 45-53 (translated by J.C. Rolfe), the ancient Roman historian Suetonius describes the appearance of Gaius Julius Caesar as follows: “They say he was tall, fair-skinned, well-built, with a full face, black and lively eyes. He was distinguished by excellent health: only towards the end of his life…
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