Roman Republic Articles

The basilica was a fundamental element of a Roman forum. It was used as a public building, much like the Greek stoa. It served as a meeting place for administration, as a law court, and as a marketplace. It also provided cover and shade for hot or stormy afternoons. After Christianity became the main religion of the Roman Empire, the basilica came to be... [continue reading]

Cyrus the Great (558-530 BC) built the first universal empire, stretching from Greece to the Indus River. This was the famous Achaemenid Dynasty of Persia. An inscription at Naqsh-i-Rustam, the tomb of his able successor Darius I (521-486 BC), near Persepolis, records Gadara (Gandhara) along with Hindush (Hindus, Sindh) in the long list of satrapies... [continue reading]

The Forum Romanum was the main and central forum of the city of Rome. It became the economic, political, and religious center of the city in early Republican times, around the seventh century B.C. It continued to be an important functional and symbolic area of Rome through the city – and the Empire’s – evolution, and changed along with... [continue reading]

Slavery was an institution established very early on in Rome’s history, and it was extremely common in virtually all ancient civilizations. Slaves were a vast, unlimited source of labor, and even the poorest Romans could usually afford at least one slave.   Slaves could be born into the system or brought into it in a variety ways. Prisoners... [continue reading]

Though the Battle of Cynocephalae in 197 BCE is often cited as the birth of the Roman Empire, the equally famous Battle of Actium is a better candidate. With the overthrow of the last Roman king, the Roman Republic was ruled by a senate and assembly from 509 BCE until Julius Caesar's appointment as Dictator in 44 BCE. The battle of Cynocephalae in 197... [continue reading]

Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus were a pair of tribunes of the plebs from the 2nd Century BC, who sought to introduce land reform and other populist legislation in ancient Rome. They were both members of the Populares, a group of politicians who appealed to the average citizens and that opposed the conservative Optimates in the Roman Senate. They have been deemed... [continue reading]

The Roman domus was much more than a place of dwelling for a Roman familia. It also served as a place of business and a religious center for worship. The size of a domus could range from a very small house to a luxurious mansion. In some cases, one domus took up an entire city-block, while more commonly, there were up to 8 domi per insula (city-block... [continue reading]

A Forum was the main center of a Roman city. Usually located near the physical center of a Roman town, it served as a public area in which commercial, religious, economic, political, legal, and social activities occurred. Fora were common in all Roman cities, but none were as grand as the fora of Rome itself. A forum is not unlike a Greek Agora in concept... [continue reading]

In times of violence, people tend to hide their valuables, which are later recovered unless the owners had been killed or driven away. Thus, the temporal distribution of unrecovered coin hoards is an excellent proxy for the intensity of internal warfare. We use this relationship to resolve a long-standing controversy in Roman history. Depending on who... [continue reading]

This article is concerned with the shaping of the annual narrative in historical writers working in the Roman annalistic tradition and contests the view that Livy and his predecessors conformed to a standard pattern from which Tacitus departed. It is true that Livy in Books 21-45 employs a regular internal–external–internal pattern based... [continue reading]