Roman History Midterm
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45 Terms
Tribunate of the Plebs
DEF: Republican office protecting plebeians; tribunes could veto and were sacrosanct. IMPORTANCE: Sulla curbed it, restored 70 BC; Augustus took tribunicia potestas without the office, a pillar of imperial power.
War booty (Potter p. 76)
DEF: Plunder (money, goods, captives) taken in conquest. IMPORTANCE: Enriched generals, soldiers, and the state; funded careers and building; fueled competition among Republican generals.
Triumph
DEF: Victory parade of a general through Rome to the Capitol displaying booty and captives. IMPORTANCE: Highest military honor; under emperors largely reserved for the imperial family, so rivals lost a path to glory.
Lucius Cornelius Sulla
DEF: General who marched on Rome, became dictator (82-79 BC), strengthened the Senate, weakened the tribunate. IMPORTANCE: Set precedents for armies deciding politics and for violent purges.
Proscriptions (Potter 131-132)
DEF: Published lists of enemies who could be killed, property confiscated, rewards for killers. IMPORTANCE: Used by Sulla and the Second Triumvirate (Cicero was a victim); showed the state could legalize political murder.
Second Triumvirate
DEF: Legal board of Octavian, Antony, and Lepidus (43 BC) with sweeping powers. IMPORTANCE: Carried out proscriptions; collapsed into rivalry and ended at Actium, leaving Octavian in sole power.
First Settlement (27 BC)
DEF: Octavian "restored the Republic" and received the name Augustus and a large provincial command. IMPORTANCE: Looked like a restored Republic while he kept control of the armies.
Princeps
DEF: "First citizen," an informal title for Augustus's position. IMPORTANCE: Masked monarchy behind republican forms and avoided the word "king."
Second Settlement (23 BC)
DEF: Augustus gave up continuous consulships and received tribunician power and maius imperium. IMPORTANCE: Gave him a more stable, civilian-looking basis for authority.
Julian law on repression of adulteries
DEF: Augustan moral legislation making adultery a public offense. IMPORTANCE: Shows the regime reaching into family life and presenting Augustus as restorer of traditional morals.
Ara Pacis (Potter 180, 185)
DEF: Altar of Augustan Peace with reliefs of the imperial family, Aeneas, and fertility imagery. IMPORTANCE: Propaganda linking Augustus to peace, piety, family, and prosperity.
Do ut des
DEF: "I give so that you may give," the reciprocal logic of vows and sacrifice. IMPORTANCE: Shows Roman religion as an exchange based on practice, not creed (Rives).
Augures / auspicium
DEF: Priests who interpreted the gods' will through signs such as birds (auspicium). IMPORTANCE: Divination was a main cult practice and tied religion to political decision-making.
Imperial cult
DEF: Worship of the emperor (genius/numen) and deified emperors (divi). IMPORTANCE: Integrated the ruler into people's religious worldview; emperors were gods "of a particular sort" (divus, not deus) per Rives.
Augustales
DEF: Boards, mostly of wealthy freedmen, honoring the emperor in Italian and western towns. IMPORTANCE: Gave freedmen public status they could not get through magistracies.
Praetorian Guard
DEF: The emperor's elite guard stationed in and near Rome under a prefect. IMPORTANCE: Kingmaker (proclaimed Claudius); prefects like Sejanus wielded great power.
Maiestas trials
DEF: Treason trials for "diminishing" the majesty of Rome or the emperor. IMPORTANCE: Vague charges and informers made them a tool of repression, notably under Tiberius.
Freedmen (liberti)
DEF: Freed slaves who became citizens, with some limits. IMPORTANCE: Some grew rich and powerful, including imperial freedmen in administration, provoking elite resentment; show social mobility.
Fire of Rome, AD 64
DEF: Great fire that destroyed much of Rome under Nero. IMPORTANCE: Nero was suspected, blamed Christians, and later built the Domus Aurea, damaging his reputation.
Domus Aurea (Potter 201-202)
DEF: Nero's huge Golden House, built on land cleared by the fire. IMPORTANCE: Symbol of imperial extravagance that fueled resentment.
Revolts (Boudica)
DEF: Revolt in Britain (c. AD 60/61) led by Boudica, queen of the Iceni. IMPORTANCE: Triggered by Roman exploitation; rebels destroyed Roman towns before being crushed, showing the cost of oppressive provincial rule.
Persecutions of Christians
DEF: Punishment of Christians, usually for the "name" and for refusing to sacrifice. IMPORTANCE: In this period mostly sporadic and local, driven by accusations; Hadrian's letter to Fundanus requires formal accusations.
Pliny the Younger
DEF: Governor of Bithynia who wrote to Trajan about handling Christians. IMPORTANCE: Trajan's reply (do not seek them out, reject anonymous accusations, pardon those who recant) shaped Roman policy.
Di Manes (Potter glossary p. 360)
DEF: The deified dead, invoked as "dis manibus" on tombstones and honored at festivals like the Parentalia. IMPORTANCE: King argues this cult was the dominant Roman view of the afterlife, with Elysium and Tartarus an optional Greek add-on.
Columbaria
DEF: Communal tombs with niches for urns. IMPORTANCE: Often used by freedmen, slaves, and the poor, showing broad access to commemoration.