NLE Random Last Minute Review for POETRY and ADVANCED Reading Comprehension

Manumission

The freeing of a slave

tantum... quantum

as much... as

potius... quam

rather than

nē... quidem

not even

Cumae

A city near the Bay of Naples in the Campania region of Italy south of Rome. It is famous for being the location of the oracle of the Sibyl, a female prophet who guided Aeneas into the Underworld to speak with his father Anchises in order to learn about the future greatness of Rome.

deus, deī, m.

god

dea, deae, f.

goddess

dīvus, -a, -um

divine (adjective); god or goddess (noun)

superus, -a, -um

upper, above (adjective); god or goddess (noun)

caelicola, -ae, m./f.

heaven/sky dweller, god or goddess

numen, numinis, n.

divine power, divine authority; god or goddess

Golden Age

Literature written during the time of Augustus' reign (late first century BCE). Examples: Vergil, Horace, Ovid, Livy

Silver Age

Literature written after the reign of Augustus (first century CE). Examples: Martial, Pliny the Younger, Tacitus, Suetonius, Seneca

Cursus Honorum

Course of political offices during the Roman Republic

Quaestor

Treasury Official. Once elected to this low position one automatically became a member of the senate.

Aedile

In charge of public works and games and entertainment. This was an optional position because the office-holder spent his own money to fund public works, games, and entertainment. Many Roman leaders, Julius Caesar most famously, used this position to launch a greater political career. Voters remember good games and entertainment!

Praetor

Judges (second highest elected position on the Cursus Honorum)

Consul

The highest political position on the cursus honorum. Two were elected each year. Each had veto power over the other. They were also Rome's commanders in chief of the army.

Tribune of the Plebs

This political position (not on the Cursus Honorum) represented the interests of the common people. They had veto power over senatorial legislation. Some famous ones included the Gracchi Brothers, Tiberius and Gaius, and the notorious Publius Clodius Pulcher (the guy who snuck into the rites of the Bona Dea dress as a woman to "meet" with Caesar's wife.)

Censor

This political position (not on the Cursus Honorum) was elected every five years in order to maintain order in the ranks of the senate. It was considered one of the most distinguished offices in the Roman Republic. They were also in charge of maintaining public morality.

Dictator

This political position (not on the Cursus Honorum) was only appointed during a national emergency when both consuls were not able to govern. The term of the position was only six months. Famous one include Cincinnatus, Sulla, and Julius Caesar.

Lictors

Consuls, Praetors, and Dictators were accompanied in their day-to-day activities by these thuggish body-guards who served to protect them from angry mobs.

Fasces

Lictors carried these bundles of rods when they accompanied their boss around. If a situation ever got dangerous for their boss, they would distribute the rods to all lictors and beat the heck out of anyone that got too close to their boss. These rods came to symbolize Roman governmental authority. In the 20th Century, Italian leader Benito Mussolini styled himself after ancient Roman leaders and called his movement fascism after the name for these rods.

Plebs

The common people. In the early Roman Republic all they could supply to the Roman army were their bodies to fight, hence they were the infantry.

Equites

The middle class, usually made up of wealthy businessmen. In the early Roman Republic they had enough money to equip a horse, hence they were the cavalry. Occasionally this term is translated as knights.

Nobiles

Also called Patricians. These were the families that could trace their lineage back to the founding of Rome. In the early Roman Republic they served as generals.

imperator

The general of the entire army. During the Roman Republic this word only connoted military leadership, that is, the person who has imperium, the right to lead a Roman army. After Augustus, it took on the meaning of absolute ruler of Rome, hence our meaning of emperor. However, it never completely lost its military connotation.

legio

A legion. The largest unit of the Roman army. It consisted of anywhere from three to six thousand men.

legatus

A commander of an entire legion.

castra

A Roman military camp. This word is always plural in Latin, but almost always just refers to one military camp.

impedimenta

All the baggage, equipment, food supplies, spoils of war, and other soldiers' possessions that were transported with the army.

milia passuum

A measurement of distance roughly equivalent to one mile. Literally translated as thousands of steps.

Pietas

Loyalty, devotion, piety to gods, family and country. The Trojan hero Aeneas is the most famous embodiment of this value. He is frequently called Pius Aeneas. The adjective "pius, -a, -um" means l"oyal, devoted, pious."

Gravitas

Literally heaviness, seriousness, deep respect. This referred to a Roman's seriousness of purpose and the respect that he earned from demonstrating it.

The Oracle of Delphi

Apollo established this oracle on top of Mount Parnassus in Greece. His priestess Pythia delivered oracles to those who sought them. Often the oracles contained riddles or enigmas. There is a famous story of the Lydian King Croesus who asked the oracle if he should wage war against Persia. He was told that if he did, a major empire would be destroyed. He assumed that meant his enemy Persia. He was wrong.

The Sibyl of Cumae

She famously led the Trojan hero Aeneas through the underworld so that he could meet his father Anchises. Her oracle was located in a cave in the town of Cumae just north of the Bay of Naples in the Italian region of Campania south of Rome.

Delos

The island birthplace of Apollo. He is the god of prophecy. Not surprisingly there is a famous oracle located here. The island is located in the Aegean Sea. In ancient Roman times it was also the center of the Mediterranean slave trade.

Stoicism (and Stoic as adjective)

A philosophy that promotes virtue as the highest good. People should never give in to excessive emotion in any circumstance. Famous proponents of this philosophy were Nero's tutor Seneca the Younger, and the emperors Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius, author of the "Meditations".

Epicureanism (and Epicurean as adjective)

A philosophy that promotes happiness and pleasure as the highest goods. They did not believe in life after death. Therefore they encouraged people to live life to the fullest. CARPE DIEM! Famous proponents of this philosophy were the poets Lucretius, author of "De Rerum Natura" ("On the Nature of the Universe") and Horace, author of "The Odes", one of which coined the phrase CARPE DIEM!

Homer

8th century BCE author of the Greek epic poems "The Iliad" and "The Odyssey" (both written in dactylic hexameter). Both of these poems were VERY important models for Vergil in the composition of his Roman epic, "The Aeneid".

Aeschylus

5th century BCE Athenian author of tragic plays like "The Oresteia" (Three tragic plays about the family of Agamemnon)

Sophocles

5th century BCE Athenian author of tragic plays like The Oedipus Trilogy ("Oedipus Rex", "Oedipus at Colonus", and "Antigone")

Euripides

5th century BCE Athenian author of tragic plays like "The Bacchae", "Medea", and "The Trojan Women"

Aristophanes

5th century BCE Athenian author of comic plays like "Lysistrata", "The Clouds", and "The Frogs"

Plato

5th century BCE Athenian philosopher and author of dialogs like "The Republic", "The Symposium", and "The Apology", all of which feature the famous philosopher Socrates as the main character.

Aristotle

4th century BCE Athenian philosopher and author of works on ethics, poetics, and the nature of the soul. He was also Alexander the Great's tutor.

Sappho

7th century BCE author of lyrical love poetry. She was a VERY important model for Catullus who named his main love interest in his poems Lesbia after Sappho's native island of Lesbos.

Callimachus

3rd century BCE author of elegiac poetry on numerous topics. He was from Alexandria, Egypt, which was the center of learning for the Mediterranean world during his lifetime. He popularized the use of "aetia" or origins/explanations as a major poetic theme (see Ovid's "Metamorphoses" for an example of this legacy). He popularized many ideas that Roman Neoteric poets like Catullus adopted later in the 1st century BCE. For example, quality vs. quantity.