Latin terminology- Ancient Rome

• Tax farmer-> a private company that collects taxes on behalf of the state; for profit (politically loaded decision for the consul to make, the tax farmer can make money and keep it) tax farmer and consul have a client-patron relationship

 -> Crassus shows the importance of money and the impacts

• Mos maiorum-> "custom of the ancestors"; traditional roman values

• Censor-> magistrate who conducted census, controlled Senate membership, public morals

• Praetor-> magistrate below consul; judicial duties, could govern provinces

• Queastor-> financial magistrate

• Aedile-> magistrate in charge of public buildings, markets, festibals

• Tribunus Plebis (Tribune of the Plebs)-> officials who represented plebians; had power of veto

• Censor-> magistrate who conducted census, controlled Senate membership, public morals

• Dictator-> extraordinary magistrate, absolute power for 6 months in crisis

• Imperium-> legal authority to command (especially military command)

• Cursus honorum-> the "ladder of offices'' (career path of Roman magistrates)

• Veto-> power of tribunes or magistrates to block laws/actions

• Novus homo-> "new man"; first in family to reach Senate/consulship (e.g. Cicero, Marius)

• Lex-> law passed by assemblies

• Patricians-> aristocratic elite families of Rome

• Plebians-> common Roman citizens

• Optimates-> conservative

• Populares-> politicians appealing to the people via assemblies/tribunes (e.g. Gracchi, Ceasar)

• Proscriptiones (proscriptions)-> lists of enemies declared outlaw (Sulla and later Triumvirs used these)

• Auctoritas-> authority/influence based on reputation and respect

• Forum-> central public square for politics, law, commerce