Cyrene: City originally founded by Greek settlers near modern Shahhat on the northeastern coast of Libya.
Dacia: Roman province north of the Danube, in the region around modern Romania.
Daemon: Supernatural being; could be applied to many different types: good/bad, individual/collective, internal/external, and ghosts.
Dalmatia: Roman province along the eastern shore of the Adriatic.
Damocles: In Greek mythology, punished in the afterlife by having a sword hung from a thread suspended over his head.
Darics: Ancient system of weighing precious metals based on a standard Persian gold coin, the Daric. Roughly 8.4g.
Decii: Members of the Decius family.
Decurion: A junior Roman cavalry officer in charge of a squadron of around 30 troopers.
Decus et Tutamen: Latin, literally ‘honour and safeguard’.
Delphix: From the tripod tables, originally designed in Delphi, that furnished imperial dining rooms.
Demavend: The highest mountain in Parthia, prominent in Persian culture and mythology; located in northern Iran.
Demiurge: In some Greek philosophical systems, the divine figure that fashioned (but did not necessarily create) the Cosmos.
Denarii (singular Denarius): A Roman silver coin; originally a day’s wage for a labourer, though by this period much debased.
Dignitas: Important Roman concept that covers our idea of dignity but goes much further; famously, Julius Caesar claimed that his dignitas meant more to him than life itself.
Dionysus: Greek god of wine.
Diplomata (singular Diploma): From the Greek term for a letter folded in two; in the Roman empire, an official pass given to persons travelling in the provinces.
Diptych: A writing tablet with two leaves; those from the Emperor were often made of costly materials such as ivory and intricately carved on the outside.
Domina: Latin, ‘lady’, ‘mistress, ‘ma’am’; a title of respect.
Domus Rostrata: Home of the Republican general Pompey in the fashionable Carinae quarter; decorated with the ramming beaks (Rostra) of the pirate ships he captured, and from which it took its name.
Drafsh-i-Kavyan: The royal standard of the Sassanid Kings, encrusted with jewels and showing a star on a purple field, claimed to have mythical origins.
Dravus river: The modern Drava, rising in the Alps and flowing eastwards to the Danube.
Dreinos river: The modern Drina, a tributary of the Danube, forming the northern border between Bosnia-Herzegovina and Serbia.
Druid: Priest of Celtic religion.
Eclogues: Title of a collection of poems by Virgil; from the Greek ekloge, ‘extracts’.
Edessa: Frontier city periodically administered by Rome, Parthia and Armenia in the course of the third century; modern Anhurfa in southern Turkey.
Edessenes: People from Edessa.
Elysian Fields: In Greek mythology, the heaven that awaits the souls of heroes and the virtuous.
Emesa: Modern Homs in Syria.
Emesenes: Inhabitants of the city of Emesa and surrounding area, modern Homs in Syria.
Emona: Modern Ljubljana in Slovenia.
Ephesus: Major city founded by Greek colonists on the western coast of modern Turkey.
Epicureanism: Greek philosophical system, whose followers either denied that the gods existed or held that they were far away and did not intervene in the affairs of mankind.
Epilogue: In ancient rhetoric, the conclusion of a speech; from Greek ‘to say in addition’.
Epiphany: The visual manifestation of a deity; in sun-worship, the dawn is thus an epiphany.
Equestrian: Second rank down in the Roman social pyramid; the elite order just below the senators.
Equirria: Roman chariot or horse racing festival sacred to Mars, celebrated on the day before the Ides of March.
Equites Indigenae Sagittarii: Regular unit of native horse archers, often recruited along the eastern frontiers of the Roman Empire.
Equites Singulares Augusti: Mounted unit protecting the Emperor.
Esquiline: One of the seven hills of Rome, rising east of the Roman Forum.
Esuba: Ancient village in North Africa, location uncertain.
Eternal City: Nickname given to the city of Rome.
Etruria: Region of Italy to the northwest of Rome; roughly modern Tuscany.
Eulogy: In ancient rhetoric, a speech in praise of someone; from the Greek ‘good language’.
Exedra: In ancient architecture, a semi-circular recess.
Exemplum: Latin, ‘example’.
Exordium: In ancient rhetoric, the introduction of a speech.
Factio: Latin, ‘political faction’.
Falernian: Very expensive white wine from northern Campania, particularly prized by the Romans.
Familia: A Roman household; for the well-off, this included slaves and other dependents; that of the Emperor comprised both servants and the imperial bureaucracy; largely staffed by slaves and freedmen.
Fanum Fortunae: Modern Fano, on the northeastern shore of the Italian peninsula.
Fasces: Bundles of rods for beating malefactors tied around an executioner’s axe; symbol of a Roman magistrate’s or Emperor’s authority.
Father of the Country: Honorific title bestowed very rarely in the Roman Republic on outstanding individuals for saving the state; in the imperial period, increasingly became a standard title claimed by Roman Emperors at accession.
Father of the House: The most senior Senator.
Fiscus: Originally the Emperor’s privy purse; took over the functions of the state treasury.
Flaminia: Ancient region of Italy to the northeast of Rome on the Adriatic side of the Apennines.
Flavian Amphitheatre: Giant arena for gladiatorial fights seating 60,000 spectators; now known as the Coliseum, in antiquity known after the Flavian dynasty of Emperors who built and dedicated the structure.
Forum of Augustus: Monumental complex built by the Emperor Augustus to the north of the Forum Romanum, including colonnades decorated with statues of Rome’s heroes and founders, and a temple of Mars.
Forum Romanum: The Roman Forum; oldest and most important public square in Rome, littered with honorific statues and monuments going back to the early Republic. Surrounded by temples, court buildings, arches, and the Curia.
Forum: Central square of a Roman city, site of the market-place, and government, judicial and religious buildings.
Frumentarii (singular Frumentarius): Military unit based on the Caelian Hill in Rome; the Emperor’s secret police; messengers, spies, and assassins.
Gallia Narbonensis: Roman province of southern Gaul, roughly the French region of Provence.
Ganymede: In Greek mythology, the hero Ganymede, the most beautiful man amongst mortals, attracted the erotic desires of Zeus, was abducted by the god and made immortal.
Garamantes: Berber tribe living in southwestern Libya.
Gemellae: Roman garrison town; modern M’lili in northeastern Algeria.
Gemonian Steps: Stairs leading down to the Forum Romanum; in the imperial period, became notorious as a site of execution: prisoners (including disgraced Emperors and Senators) were strangled at the top and their bodies thrown down into the forum.
Genius: The divine part of a man; philosophically, there was ambiguity as to whether the genius was external (like a guardian angel) or internal (like a divine spark).
Germania Superior: More southerly of Rome’s two German provinces.
Germania: The Roman provinces of Germany, but also used of the lands where the German tribes lived, ‘free’ Germany beyond direct Roman control.
Gordian Knot: In the ancient kingdom of Phrygia in western Turkey, a supposedly untieable knot, which, if solved, granted the loosener the throne; Alexander the Great simply cut it apart with his sword.
Gordiani: The Gordianus family; in English, Gordian.
Goth: From the confederation of Germanic tribes.
Gothia: The la
nds of the Goths, northeast of the Black Sea.
Gracchi: Members of the Gracchus family; famously produced two brothers who were assassinated for attempting to reform the Republic in the late second century BC.
Graeculus: Latin, ‘Little Greek’; Greeks called themselves Hellenes, Romans tended not to extend that courtesy but called them Graeci; with casual contempt, Romans often went further, to Graculi.
Groma: The centre of a Roman army camp, named from the surveyor’s pole by which it was laid out.
Gulf of Utica: Named from the ancient city of Utica, now abandoned; the modern Gulf of Tunis, northern Tunisia.
Hades: Greek underworld.
Hadrumetum: City on the eastern coast of Africa Proconsularis, modern Sousse in Tunisia.
Hatra: Independent city state in northern Iraq, fought over by the Romans, Parthians, and Sassanid Persians in the early third century.
Hatrene: Inhabitant of Hatra.
Hecatomb: In Greco-Roman religion, a sacrifice to the gods of 100 cattle; from the Greek for one hundred.
Hellene: The Greeks’ name for themselves; often used with connotations of cultural superiority.
Hellespont: Ancient name for the Dardanelles strait, linking the Mediterranean and the Sea of Marmara.
Hephaistos: Greek god of the forge.
Hercules: In Greek mythology, mortal famed for his strength who subsequently became a god.
Hermes: Greek messenger god.
Himation: A Greek item of clothing, similar to a toga but less voluminous.
Hippodrome: Greek, literally ‘horse race’; stadium for chariot racing.
Hipposandals: Metal plates secured under the hooves of horses by leather straps; used before the introduction of horse shoes in the fifth century AD.
Hispania Tarraconensis: One of the three provinces into which the Romans divided the Spanish peninsula, the northeast corner.
Hispania: Roman name for the Iberian peninsula, modern Spain and Portugal.
Horrea Caelia: Modern Hergla on the northeastern shore of Tunisia.
Hostes: Latin, ‘enemies’.
House of the Vestals: Home of the Vestal Virgins, priestesses who tended the sacred fire of the goddess Vesta; situated east of the Roman Forum and on the south side of the Sacred Way, opposite the Temple of Venus and Rome.
Hubris: From the Greek hybris, ‘pride’, which expresses itself in the demeaning of others, and taken to excess results in divine punishment.
Iatrosophist: Ancient title for a professor of medicine.
Iazyges: Nomadic Sarmatian tribe living on the steppes of the Great Hungarian plain beyond the Danube.
Iberus: Ancient name for the river Ebro in Spain, which flows along the southern flank of the Pyrenees and into the Mediterranean.
Ides: Thirteenth day of the month in short months, the fifteenth in long months.
Ilerda: Roman town in Hispania Tarraconensis; modern Lerida in northeastern Spain.
Imperator: Originally an epithet bestowed by troops on victorious generals, became a standard title of the Princeps, and thus origin of the English word emperor.
Imperium: Power of the Romans, i.e. the Roman empire, often referred to in full as the imperium Romanorum.
In Absentia: Latin, ‘while absent’.
Infamia: Latin, ‘shame, disgrace’. Prostitutes suffered infamia, and lacked most basic rights and protections in Roman law.
Intempesta: ‘unwholesome, unhealthy’; name given to the dead of night by the Romans.
Iobacchi: Members of secretive drinking clubs dedicated to the worship of Bacchus.
Ionic: From the area of western Turkey bordering the Aegean, settled by Greeks.
Isles of the Blessed: In Greek mythology, the paradise reserved for the shades of heroes.
Iuvenes: Latin, ‘young men’; also voluntary youth associations of Roman cities dedicated to combat sports and socializing.
Ixion: In Greek mythology, murdered his father-in-law and, though pitied by Zeus, king of the gods, tried to seduce his wife Hera; in punishment, he was bound to a fiery wheel for eternity.
Jupiter Optimus Maximus: Roman king of the gods, ‘Jupiter, Greatest and Best’.
Juvenalia: Public games, by this period including chariot races and beast hunts; an elaborate show exhibited by the Emperors on 1st January every year.
Kassiope: Modern Kassiopi on the northeastern coast of Corfu.
Kerman: Town founded by Ardashir I in the southeast of central Iran.
Kottabos: A game played at ancient drinking parties; wine dregs were flung from a cup at a target, with the object of knocking it down.
Labitulosa: Roman town, located close to the modern village of La Puebla de Castro in the southern foothills of the Pyrenees.
Laconia: Ancient territory of Sparta in the southern Peloponnese.
Lake of Curtius: Archaic monument in the middle of the Roman Forum taking the form of a sunken pool with statuary; the Romans themselves told different stories about its history.
Lake Trasimene: Site of a Roman military disaster engineered by Hannibal, modern Lake Trasimeno in the Umbrian region of Italy.
Lambaesis: Fortress of the 3rd Augustan Legion and capital of the Roman province of Numidia; modern Tazoult in northeastern Algeria.
Lararium: Roman household shrine.
Latrunculi: ‘Robbers’, a Roman board game similar to draughts or chess; its exact rules are lost.
Legate: From Latin legatus, a deputy of a high-ranking magistrate or an Emperor, from the latter sense a commander of a legion; drawn from the senatorial classes.
Legio III Augusta Pia Fidelis: The 3rd Augustan Legion, Pious, Faithful; stationed at Lambaesis in the province of Numidia with detachments serving in the neighbouring province of Africa Proconsularis.
Legion: Unit of heavy infantry, usually about 5,000 men-strong; from mythical times, the backbone of the Roman army; the numbers in a legion and the legions’ dominance in the army declined during the third century AD as more and more detachments served away from the parent unit and became more or less independent units.
Legionary: Roman regular soldier serving in a legion.
Leno: Latin, ‘pimp’.
Lethe: In Greek mythology, river flowing through the underworld; drinking its waters made the dead forget their past life.
Libation: Offering of drink to the gods.
Liberators: Name given to the assassins of Julius Caesar.
Libertas: Latin term for freedom or liberty; a political slogan throughout much of Roman history, though its meaning changed according to an author’s philosophical principles or the system of government that happened to be in power. Also worshipped in personified form as a deity.
Liburnian: Under the Roman empire, name given to a small warship, possibly rowed on two levels.
Lictor: Attendants assigned to senior Roman magistrates as bodyguards and ushers; often ex-Centurions.
Lucullan: Red-flecked black marble named after Licinus Lucullus, famously wealthy Senator who first imported the stone to Rome in 74BC.
Ludus Magnus: Gladiatorial school located to the east of the Flavian Amphitheatre.
Lupanar: Latin, ‘brothel’; literally, ‘den of she-wolves’.
Lusitanians: From Lusitania, Roman province of the eastern Iberian peninsula, covering much of modern Portugal.
Mamuralia: Festival held on the Ides of March or the day before; possibly an archaic celebration of the new year, which in the old Roman calendar began in March. Ancient authorities were unsure of its significance; commemorated by ritually beating an old man tied in an animal skin.
Mappalian Way: Road leading out of Carthage.
Marcomannic War: War waged c. AD166–180 along the whole of the northeastern frontier of the Roman empire to prevent incursions by Germanic and Sarmatian tribes.
Marius: Poem on the statesman Marius alleged to have been written by Gordian the Elder; only the title survives.
Mars: Roman god of war.
Ma
uretania Caesariensis: Roman province of eastern Mauretania, roughly corresponding to northern Algeria.
Mazda: See Ahuramazda.
Media: Ancient region of the Sassanid empire, northwestern Iran.
Mediolanum: Modern Milan in northern Italy.
Mercury: Roman god of travellers.
Mesopotamia: The land between the rivers Euphrates and Tigris; the name of a Roman province (sometimes called Osrhoene).
Metubarbis marsh: Wetlands north of the Savus river in Pannonia.
Milites: Latin, ‘soldiers’.
Milvian Bridge: Major bridge over the Tiber to the north of Rome; an original wooden crossing was replaced by stone in 115BC, which still survives.
Misenene: From Misenum.
Misenum: Base of the Roman fleet on the western shore of the Italian peninsular, modern Miseno.
Mithridatium: Prophylactic against poison claimed to have been invented by Mithridates VI of Pontus in the first century BC, who dosed himself with small quantities of harmful substances. Subsequently forced to commit suicide, he tried to poison himself but had to resort to a sword.
Mobad: Persian priests of the Zoroastrian religion.
Modus vivendi: Latin, ‘way of living’.
Moesia Inferior: Roman province south of the Danube, running from Upper Moesia in the west to the Black Sea in the east.
Moesia: Ancient geographical region following the south bank of the Danube river in the Balkans.
Mogontiacum: Roman legionary fortress and capital of Germania Superior; modern Mainz.
Memento mori: From Latin, literally ‘remember to die’.
Moorish: See Moors.
Moors: Belonging to the Mauri tribe that gave its name to Mauretania, western North Africa.
Mos maiorum: ‘The way of the ancestors’; fundamental Roman concept that theoretically governed most aspects of public and private life.
Mount Ida: In Greek mythology, name of two mountains sacred to the mother goddess; this one was located in Phrygia, central Turkey.
Mount Istone: Ancient name for the Pantokrator mountains on the island of Corfu.
Mount Ocra: Ancient name for Triglav, the highest mountain of the Julian Alps, located in modern Slovenia.
Mount Prion: Partly covered by the ancient city of Ephesus; famed in antiquity for its marble quarries.
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