Suetonius: The Twelve Caesars - Index QRSTUVXZ

Quinctilius Varus, Publius, (46BC – 9AD) was a politician and general under Augustus, remembered for having lost three Roman legions and his own life when attacked by Germanic leader Arminius in the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest. About 14BC he married Vipsania Marcella, the daughter of Agrippa and became a personal friend of both Agrippa and Augustus. In 13AD, he was elected consul as junior partner to Tiberius. Between 9BC and 8BC, following his consulship, Varus was governor of Africa. After this, he went to govern Syria, where he acted ruthlessly against the Jewish population in Judaea. In 7AD he was appointed to govern Germania. In the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest in September 9AD (east of modern Osnabrück), the Germans overwhelmed the Romans at Kalkriese Hill. Varus himself, upon seeing all hope was lost, committed suicide. The Romans later recovered the lost legions eagles, two of them in 15/16AD, the third in 42AD.

BookTwoXXIII BookTwoXLIX BookFourXXXI Augustus mourned the loss of his legions.

BookThreeXVII The disaster accentuated the value of Tiberius’s successful campaign in Illyricum.

BookThreeXVIII Tiberius learnt lessons from Varus’ rashness and carelessness.

BookFourIII Germanicus gathered the scattered remains of Varus’s’ legionaries.

Quinquatria or the Quinquatrus was a festival sacred to Minerva, celebrated on the 19 March. It was so called, according to Varro, because it was held on the fifth day after the Ides.

BookTwoLXXI Mentioned.

BookEightXL Celebrated every year by Domitian at his Alban villa.

Quirinius, Publius Sulpicius, (c. 51BC - 21AD) was Governor of Syria, and carried out the census of 6/7AD in Judea. He led a campaign in Galatia andCilicia, around c. 5BC - 3BC, probably as legate of Galatia and was awarded a triumph. He served as Governor of Syria until 12AD, when he returned to Rome as a close associate of Tiberius.

BookThreeXLIX His charges against his ex-wife Lepida.

Rabirius, Gaius was a senator involved in the death of Lucius Appuleius Saturninus. Titus Labienus (whose uncle had lost his life among the followers of Saturninus on that occasion) at Julius Caesar’s instigation, accused Rabirius of having been implicated in the murder. The obsolete accusation of perduellio was revived, and the case was heard before Caesar and his cousin Lucius Julius Caesar as commissioners specially appointed (duoviri perduellionis). Rabirius was condemned, and the people, to whom the accused had exercised the right of appeal, were on the point of ratifying the decision, when Quintus Caecilius Metellus Celer pulled down the military flag from the Janiculum, which was equivalent to the dissolution of the assembly. Caesar’s objective having been achieved the matter was allowed to drop. The defense was taken by Marcus Tullius Cicero, consul at the time; the speech is extant: Pro Rabirio reo perduellionis.

Rabirius Postumus, Gaius, was defended by Cicero (in 54BC, in the extant speech Pro Rabirio Postumo) when charged with extortion in Egypt and complicity with Aulus Gabinius. Rabirius was a member of the equites order who lent a large sum of money to Ptolemy Auletes (Ptolemy XII), king of Egypt, who refused to pay and had Rabirius imprisoned. When Auletes threatened Rabirius’ life, the latter escaped to Rome, where he was accused by the Senate. He was defended by Cicero and acquitted.

BookFiveXVI Claudius mentioned his case as an example, fallaciously since Rabirius was acquitted.

Raetians were the inhabitants of Raetia, the Alpine province of the Roman Empire bounded on the west by the country of the Helvetii, on the east byNoricum, on the north by Vindelicia, and on the south by Cisalpine Gaul. The northern border of Raetia during the times of Augustus and Tiberius was the Danube. Later the northern boundery was formed by the Limes Germanicus, stretching for 166 km north of the Danube. Raetia was linked to Italy across the Alpine Reschen Pass by the Via Claudia Augusta.

BookTwoXXI BookThreeIX BookFiveI They retained their independence until their subjugation in 15BC, under Augustus, by Tiberius and Drusus the Elder.

BookTwoLXXVII Augustus liked Raetian wine.

Ravenna is a city in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy. The city is inland, but connected to the Adriatic Sea by canal. Ravenna was the capital of the Western Roman Empire from 402AD till 476AD. The Romans had accepted it into the Roman Republic as a federated town in 89BC. In 49BC, it was the location where Julius Caesar gathered his forces before crossing the Rubicon. Under Augustus it became a major naval base (27BC, Classis, modern Classe) in the northern Adriatic.

BookOneXXX Caesar halted there, prior to the opening of the Civil War.

BookTwoXX Augustus there 12BC - 10BC.

BookTwoXLIX Location of one of the two Mediterranean fleets.

Reate, modern Rieti, is a town in Lazio. Originally a Sabine village, in the late 3rd century BC it became a strategic point on the Via Salaria linking Rome to the Adriatic Sea through the Apennines.

BookEightI BookEightII BookEightXII Vespasian’s paternal grandfather came from there.

BookEightXXIV Vespasian died at his summer retreat near there, possibly the recently-excavated villa at Falacrinae, in AD79.

Regillum, or Regilli, was a Sabine town, possibly on the site of modern Moricone in the Tiber valley, about 42km from Rome.

BookThreeI The Claudian family originated from there.

Rhascuporis or Rhescuporis II was king of half of the Odrysian kingdom of Thrace from 12AD to 18AD, and treacherously tried to seize the other half from Cotys VIII his nephew. Tiberius opened an investigation into Cotys’ death, putting Rhescuporis on trial in the Senate. Rhescuporis was found guilty, and Tiberius exiled him to Alexandria. En route, Rhescuporis tried to escape and was killed by Roman soldiers.

BookThreeXXXVII Detained by Tiberius.

Rhegium, modern Reggio di Calabria, Reggio Calabria, or simply Reggio, is a city in Calabria in southern Italy, located on the ‘toe’ of the Italian peninsula and separated by the Strait of Messina from Sicily. Founded in 720BC by the Greeks as Rhegion the settlement was part of Magna Graecia. Later it became a Roman ally and part of the Roman Republic.

BookTwoXVI Augustus (Octavian) there in c. 36BC.

BookTwoLXV BookThreeL Julia the Elder exiled there.

BookEightXXX Titus there 70/71AD.

Rhianus was a Greek poet and grammarian of the third century BC, a native of Crete, and a friend and contemporary of Eratosthenes. He was chiefly known as a writer of epics (mythological and ethnographical), the most celebrated of which was the Messeniaca.

BookThreeLXX One of Tiberius’s favourite poets.

Rhodes is a Greek island approximately 18 kilometres (11 miles) southwest of Turkey in the eastern Aegean. It is the largest of the Dodecanese islands. In 164BC, Rhodes signed a treaty with Rome. It became an educational centre for the Roman nobility, and was especially noted for its teachers of rhetoric.

BookOneIV Julius Caesar sailed there to study rhetoric.

BookThreeXI BookThreeXII BookThreeXIII BookThreeLIX Tiberius retired there in 6BC, and was not recalled to Rome until 2AD.

BookThreeXIV Various omens associated with Tiberius’ recall from Rhodes are mentioned. Bonelli’s eagle is native to Rhodes, so the eagle involved must have been of another species.

BookThreeXXXII BookThreeLVI BookSixXXXIV Mentioned.

BookFiveXXV Claudius reinstated Rhodian independence in 51AD.

BookSixVII Nero delivered a plea on behalf of the citizens before Claudius in AD51.

BookEightVIII Vespasian reduced Rhodes from free to provincial status.

Romulus and Remus are Rome’s twin mythical founders, descendants of the Trojan prince Aeneas, and fathered by the god Mars or the demi-god Hercules on a royal Vestal Virgin, Rhea Silvia, whose uncle exposes them to die in the wild. They are found by a she-wolf who suckles and cares for them. The twins are eventually restored to their birthright, acquire followers and decide to found a city. Romulus wishes to build the new city on the Palatine Hill; Remus prefers the Aventine. In the disputes that follow, Remus is killed. Romulus names the new city Rome, after himself, and goes on to create the Legions and Senate. He adds citizens by abducting the women of the Sabine tribes. Rome rapidly expands to become a dominant force, due to divine favour and the inspired administrative, military and political leadership of Romulus. In later life Romulus becomes increasingly autocratic, disappears in mysterious circumstances and is deified as the god Quirinus, the divine persona of the Roman people.

BookTwoVI It was suggested Octavian take the title ‘Romulus’, which was rejected in favour of ‘Augustus’.

BookThreeI Mentioned.

BookFourXXV A reference to the rape of the Sabine women.

Rubicon, the River Rubicone is a 29km long river in northern Italy, flowing from the Apennines to the Adriatic through the southern Emilia-Romagna region, between the towns of Rimini and Cesena. ‘Crossing the Rubicon’ is a popular idiom meaning to pass a point of no return, and references Caesar’s 49BC crossing of the river, which was considered an act of war. Because its course has frequently changed since then, it is impossible to confirm exactly where Caesar crossed.

BookOneXXXI Caesar’s crossing of the Rubicon.

BookOneLXXXI A herd of horses left to roam by Caesar, dedicated to the river-god of the Rubicon.

Rubria was a Vestal Virgin.

BookSixXXVIII She was raped by Nero.

Rufio was the son of a freedman of Julius Caesar.

BookOneLXXVI Sent as legate to Alexandria, by Caesar, to command three legions stationed there.

Rufrius Crispinus was the son of Poppaea Sabina by her first marriage to his father of the same name, who was the commander of the Praetorian Guard under Claudius, but banished and like his son executed on Nero’s orders.

BookSixXXXV Killed on Nero’s orders.

Rustius (or Ruscius) Caepio was a contemporary of Domitian. The name Rustius appears on coins and is therefore a valid Roman name.

BookEightXLV Mentioned.

Rutilius Rufus, Publius (158BC – after 78BC) was a statesman, orator and historian as well as great-uncle of Gaius Julius Caesar. In 105BC he was elected to the consulship. In 92BC he was convicted (probably wrongly) of extortion, and retired to Mytilene, and later Smyrna, where he wrote his autobiography and a history of Rome in Greek, part of which is known to have been devoted to the Numantine War. He wrote treatises on law, some fragments of which are quoted in the Digests.

BookTwoLXXXIX Augustus recommended his work On the Height of Buildings delivered between 116 and 11BC.

Sabrata, in the northwestern corner of modern Libya, was the westernmost of the three cities of Tripolis. It was part of the Roman province of Africa.

BookEightIII Statilius Capella derived from there.

Salassians, or the Salassi, were an Alpine tribe whose lands lay on the Italian side of the Little St Bernard Pass across the Graian Alps to Lyons, and the Great St Bernard Pass over the Pennine Alps. They were finally defeated and many enslaved in 25BC by the Romans, who founded the city of Augusta Praetoria Salassorum, modern Aosta, in their territory.

BookTwoXXI They were finally subjugated in 25BC, under Augustus, by Terentius Varro Murena.

Salii were the ‘leaping priests’ of Mars introduced by King Numa Pompilius. Twelve youths, selected from the Patrician families, dressed in outfits worn by archaic warriors, and each year in March the Salii processed round the city, dancing, and singing the Carmen Saliare.

BookFiveXXXIII Mentioned.

Sallustius Crispus, Gaius known as Sallust, (86BC - 34BC), won election as Quaestor in 55BC and as one of the tribunes of the people in 52BC. In 46BC he served as a praetor and accompanied Caesar on his African campaign. As a reward Sallust became governor of the province of Africa Nova. On his return to Rome he purchased and began laying out the famous gardens on the Quirinal known as the Horti Sallustiani which later belonged to the emperors. He subsequently retired from public life and devoted himself to historical literature, and his Gardens of Sallust, upon which he spent much of his accumulated wealth. His history of the Cataline Conspiracy is extant.

BookTwoLXXXVI Mentioned for his interest in ancient and rare words as used in Cato the Elder’s work.

Sallustius Lucullus was a governor of Roman Britain, holding office sometime after Gnaeus Julius Agricola.

BookEightXLVI Executed by order of Domitian.

Salus was the Roman Goddess of Safety.

BookTwoXXXI In peacetime, the augury could be taken to see whether prayers might be offered for the safety of the State.

Salvidienus Orfitus, Servius Cornelius Scipio, was consul in 51AD, and a victim of Nero’s random persecutions.

BookSixXXXVII Charged by Nero.

Salvidienus Orfitus, Servius Cornelius Scipio was the son of the consul of 51AD, and himself a suffect consul before 82AD. He was exiled and executed by Domitian for conspiracy.

BookEightXLVI Executed for plotting rebellion.

Salvidienus Rufus, Quintus was a Roman general and one of the closest advisors to Octavian during the early years of his political activity. After the end of the Perusian War, Octavian sent Salvidienus to Gaul as governor, with eleven legions. He was designated as consul for 39BC, though he had not reached senatorial rank. Despite this, Salvidienus offered to desert to Antony with his legions. Antony revealed the treachery and Salvidienus was accused of high treason in the senate and condemned to death in the autumn of 40BC.

BookTwoLXVI A treacherous friend.

Salvito, Cornelius, see Cornelius

Salvius Cocceianus was the son of Salvius Titianus, Otho’s brother.

BookEightXLVI He was executed by Domitian for celebrating Otho’s birthday.

Salvius Liberalis was a lawyer, mentioned by Pliny the Younger, who was tried under Domitian, and who pleaded opposite Pliny during Trajan’s reign.

BookEightXIII Commended by Vespasian.

Salvius Otho, Lucius was father of the Roman emperor Otho. His close friendship with Tiberius, and physical similarity to him, led to rumours that he was the emperor’s son. He was renowned for severity in his positions at Rome, as proconsul of Africa, and in his military commands. He was consul in 34AD. He built his reputation at Claudius’s court by forcing the slaves of an unnamed knight to betray their master’s plot to kill the emperor. As a result, the senate set up his statue in the palace, and Claudius enrolled him among the patricians, He married Albia Terentia.

BookSevenVI Consul in 34AD, the year after Galba was consul.

BookSevenXXIV Suetonius gives a brief life of Lucius.

Salvius Otho, Marcus was Otho’s grandfather. He became a Senator through Livia’s influence but did not advance beyond the rank of praetor.

BookSevenXXIV Mentioned.

Salvius Titianus, Lucius was Otho’s elder brother. He was consul in 52AD. He married Cocceia, sister of the future Roman Emperor Marcus Cocceius Nerva (r. 96AD – 98AD). His son, Otho’s nephew, was Lucius Salvius Otho Cocceianus, who was later executed by Domitian, for having observed his uncle Otho’s birthday

BookSevenXXIV BookSevenXXXIII Mentioned.

Samos is the Greek island in the North Aegean Sea, south of Chios, north of Patmos and the Dodecanese, and off the coast of Asia Minor, from which it is separated by the Mycale Strait. Augustus granted the islanders the right to become Roman citizens.

BookTwoXVII BookTwoXXVI Augustus went into winter quarters there after Actium in 30BC.

BookThreeXII Gaius Caesar was cool towards Tiberius, when meeting him there c. 1BC when Gaius was Governor of the East.

BookFourXXI Caligula planned to rebuild the palace of Polycrates there.

BookEightVIII Vespasian reduced Samos from free to provincial status.

Sardinians are inhabitants of the island of Sardinia in the western Mediterranean.

BookOneLV Titus Albucius the propraetorian Governor of Sardinia in 104BC was condemned in 103BC for extortion (repetundae) during his command there, and Julius Caesar Strabo conducted the prosecution.

BookTwoXLVII A province not visited by Augustus.

Sarmatians were an Iranian people, whose territory, Sarmatia, corresponded to the western part of greater Scythia (Southern Russia, Ukraine, and the eastern Balkans). At their greatest extent, around 100BC, these tribes ranged from the Vistula River to the mouth of the Danube and eastward to theVolga, bordering the shores of the Black and Caspian seas as well as the Caucasus to the south.

BookThreeXLI The Dacians and Sarmatians allowed to overrun Moesia c. 34AD.

BookEightXLII Domitian campaigned against the Sarmatians, possibly in 86AD after a defeat incurred under Cornelius Nigirinus, the commander inMoesia.

Satur was a head chamberlain involved in the assassination of Domitian in 96AD.

BookEightLIII Mentioned.

Saturn, or Saturnus, was an ancient Roman god of agriculture and the harvest, equated to the Greek Cronos.

BookTwoXXIX Munatius Plancus restored the the Temple of Saturn at the west end of the Forum at the foot of the Capitoline Hill between 43BC and 30BC.

BookTwoLXXI BookFourVI BookFourXVII BookFiveV BookFiveXVI BookSixXXVIII BookEightXIX Saturnus was honored with a festival, the Saturnalia celebrated on December 17, (XVI Kal. Jan.), which lasted seven days in Augustus’ time: from December 17-23. Augustus attempted, unsuccessfully, to limit the holiday to three days. Caligula added a day called the Iuvenalis. The Sigillaria was the day or days when it was customary to give presents of little images, sigilla. The Sigillaria quarter in Rome was where sigilla were made and sold. Its location is unknown.

BookThreeLIX The Greeks regarded the age of Kronos (Saturn) as a golden age of plenty and liberty.

BookFiveXXIV The Treasury was housed in the Temple of Saturn in the Forum. The temple was originally built by Tarquinius Superbus in 501BC and was sited on the south side, west of the Basilica Julia.

BookSevenXXIX The gilded pillar by the Temple, in the Forum, was erected by Augustus in 20BC, and showed the distances of the principal cities of the empire from Rome. In principle, the roads converged on the point, though distances were actually measured from the gates of Rome.

Saturninus, Julius, an unknown source referred to by Suetonius.

BookTwoXXVII Mentioned.

Saturninus, Lucius Appuleius (d. December, 100BC) was a popularist and tribune; he was a political ally of Gaius Marius, and his downfall caused great political embarrassment to Marius, who absented himself from public life until he returned to take up a command in the Social War of 91BC to 88BC.

BookOneXII Prosecuted for high treason, in 63BC, with Julius Caesar as presiding judge.

Scantinian, or Scatinian law, refers to an obscure law, probably enacted after 227BC and mentioned by Cicero, and Juvenal among others, as well as here. The details of the law are unknown. Based on a possible reference in Quintilian the law may have allowed civil proceedings against men who seduced freeborn boys. Juvenal indicates that the law was dormant, while homosexuality between consenting males was openly tolerated in Rome.

BookEightXLIV Domitian revived the law as regards the Senatorial and Equestrian orders.

Scipio Nasica, Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius (born Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica, b. c. 100/98BC, d. 46BC), a consul and military commander in the late Republic. During the civil war between Julius Caesar and Pompey, he remained a staunch optimate. He led troops against Caesar’s forces, mainly in the battles of Pharsalus (48BC) and Thapsus (46BC), where he was defeated. He subsequently committed suicide.

BookOneXXXV BookOneXXXVI Defeated by Caesar at Thapsus. The reference may equally be to Publius Cornelius Scipio Salvito, consul in 35BC, who also fought against Caesar at Thapsus and was later pardoned. The relationship between the two Scipios is unclear.

BookOneLIX BookThreeIV Mentioned.

Scribonia (68BC - c. 16AD) was the second wife of Augustus and the mother of his only natural child, Julia the Elder. She was the mother-in-law of the Emperor Tiberius, great-grandmother of the Emperor Caligula and Empress Agrippina the Younger, grandmother-in-law of the Emperor Claudius, and great-great grandmother of the Emperor Nero. In 40BC Scribonia was forced to divorce her husband and marry Octavian (Augustus), who was younger than her by several years. Octavian in turn divorced his wife Clodia Pulchra, marrying Scribonia to cement a political alliance with Sextus Pompey. Their daughter Julia the Elder was born in 39BC, probably in October, and on the very same day Octavian divorced her. She never remarried.

BookTwoLXII Marriage to Octavian in 40BC.

BookTwoLXIII Her daughter Julia.

BookTwoLXIX Divorce from Octavian in 39BC.

Scribonianus, see Furius

Scribonius, the astrologer, may have been a freedman or connection of the Scribonii.

BookThreeXIV He predicted an illustrious future for Tiberius.

Scribonius Libo Drusus, Lucius (d. 16AD) was consul in 16AD. He planned a rebellion against Tiberius and was tried in the Senatorial Court, later committing suicide.

BookThreeXXV Mentioned.

Scutarius, a former officer of Augustus, and defended by him on a charge of slander.

BookTwoLVI Mentioned.

Scythians, were an Ancient people of horse-riding nomadic pastoralists who dominated the Pontic-Caspian steppe, known at the time as Scythia. By Late Antiquity the closely-related Sarmatians came to dominate the Scythians in this area. Much of the surviving information about the Scythians comes from the Greek historian Herodotus (c. 440BC) in his Histories and Ovid in his poems of exile.

BookTwoXXI The Scythians sent envoys to Augustus.

Secular Games were a religious celebration, involving sacrifices and theatrical performances, held in ancient Rome for three days and nights to mark the end of a saeculum and the beginning of the next. A saeculum, originally the longest possible length of a human life, was considered in the time of Augustus as 100 to 110 years in length.

BookTwoXXXI Revived by Augustus in 17BC, to celebrate the fifth saeculum of Rome.

BookFiveXXI BookSevenXXXVII Celebrated by Claudius again, prematurely, in 47AD. Lucius Vitellius, father of the future emperor, jestingly congratulated Claudius with the words¨’May you do this often.’

BookEightXL Celebrated by Domitian in 88AD.

Sejanus, see Aelius

Selene, see Cleopatra Selene

Seleucus I, Nicator (c. 358BC – 281BC) was a Macedonian officer of Alexander the Great and one of the Diadochi. In the Wars of the Diadochi, after Alexander’s death, Seleucus established the Seleucid dynasty and the Seleucid Empire.

BookFiveXXV Claudius quoted a historical letter from the Romans to him.

Seleucus was an astrologer who prophesied Otho’s accession. Tacitus and Plutarch call the astrologer Ptolemaeus.

BookSevenXXVII BookSevenXXIX Mentioned.

Seleucus, probably Seleucus of Alexandria, was a grammarian, and commentator on Homer, and a companion of Tiberius.

BookThreeLVI Banished from his company, and driven to suicide by Tiberius.

Semiramis, Queen. For the Greeks and Romans a legendary Assyrian queen, sometimes identified with the Shammuramat (in Greek, Semiramis), the Assyrian wife of Shamshi-Adad V (ruled 811BC – 808BC), King of Assyria

BookOneXXII Mentioned by Julius Caesar, as an example of female rule.

Seneca, Lucius Annaeus, known simply as Seneca, or Seneca the Younger (c. 3BC – 65AD) was a Stoic philosopher, statesman, dramatist, and in one work humorist, of the Silver Age of Latin literature. He was tutor and later advisor to Nero. He was forced to commit suicide for alleged complicity in the Pisonian conspiracy to assassinate Nero. His father was Seneca the Elder.

BookThreeLXXIII Possibly this refers to his father Seneca the Elder.

BookFourLIII Caligula disliked his fashionable oratorical style.

BookSixVII BookSixLII Claudius appointed him as tutor to the young Nero.

BookSixXXXV Driven to suicide by Nero.

Senonians, the Senones, were a people of Gallia Celtica, of whom a branch in about 400BC made their way over the Alps and, having driven out the Umbrians settled on the east coast of Italy from Forlì to Ancona, in the so-called ager Gallicus, and founded the town of Sena Gallica (Sinigaglia), which became their capital. In 391BC they invaded Etruria and besieged Clusium. The Clusines appealed to Rome, whose intervention led to the defeat of the Romans at the Allia (c 390BC) and the capture of Rome. They were finally subdued (283BC) by Publius Cornelius Dolabella.

BookThreeIII The value of the ransom paid for them to leave Rome was levied on the tribe in Gaul by Livius Drusus (c. 283BC).

BookFourLI Their taking of Rome.

Serapis was a syncretic Hellenistic-Egyptian god (a fusion of Osiris and Apis). His most renowned temple was the Serapeum of Alexandria. In Rome, Serapis was worshiped in the Iseum Campense, the sanctuary of the goddess Isis located on the Campus Martius and built during the Second Triumvirate. The Roman cults of Isis and Serapis gained in popularity late in the first century thanks to the miracles Vespasian experienced in Alexandria, prior to his return to Rome as emperor in 70AD.

BookEightVII Vespasian took the auspices at the Serapeum.

Sertorius, Quintus (b. c. 126BC, Nursia, Sabini — died 73BC) statesman and military commander, he commanded an army in the Social War (90BC - 89BC), and helped Marius take Rome (87BC – 86BC) in his struggle against Sulla. As praetor in 83BC he was sent to Spain; he fled to Mauretania when Sulla pursued him but later overthrew Sulla’s governor in Farther Spain and by 77BC was ruler of most of Spain. When Pompey the Great and Metellus Pius finally arrived to put down the rebellion, he skillfully kept them at bay until the tide turned in his favour. When troop morale sank, he was murdered by a conspiracy of officers.

BookOneV Lucius Cornelius Cinna and others had joined him in Spain.

Servilia (c. 107BC - d. after 42BC) was the mistress of Julius Caesar, mother of one of Caesar’s assassins, Brutus, mother-in-law of another Cassius, and half-sister of Cato the Younger. She was the eldest child of Livia Drusa and Quintus Servilius Caepio the Younger. Prior to 85BC, she was married to Marcus Junius Brutus the Elder, who became tribune of the plebs in 83BC, and was founder of the colony in Capua. He was killed by Pompey after the surrender of Mutina. Servilia’s second marriage was with Decimus Junius Silanus. Before 64BC she became the mistress of Julius Caesar, and remained so until his death in 44BC.

BookOneL Caesar’s mistress.

Servilia, the daughter of Publius Servilius Vatia Isauricus was betrothed to the young Augustus, at a tender age, but the betrothal was broken off.

BookTwoLXII Mentioned.

Servilia Nais was the mistress of Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus, consul of 32BC.

BookSixIII Mentioned.

Servilius Caepio, see Brutus

BookOneXXI Caesar’s daughter Julia was engaged to him prior to her marriage to Pompey. The engagement may have been to Marcus Junius Brutus the Younger, who was adopted as Quintus Servilius Caepio Brutus, and used that name for a time.

Servilius Vatia Isauricus, Publius was elected consul in 48BC with Gaius Julius Caesar. He is generally regarded as a puppet of Caesar. He was the son of Publius Servilius Vatia Isauricus, consul in 79BC. Along with Gaius Trebonius, Vatia Isauricus was responsible for weakening the Roman economy and was an opponent of the populist leader and magistrate Marcus Caelius Rufus who led a mob against the regime in 48BC. After Octavian ended his betrothal to Vatia’s daughter, Servilia, Vatia was made consul in 41BC with Lucius Antonius as his colleague.

BookTwoLXII The betrothal mentioned.

BookThreeV His consulship in 41BC.

Servilius Vatia, Isauricus, Publius (b. c. 134BC - 44BC), son of Gaius Servilius Vatia, was a Praetor in 84BC and a Consul, appointed by Sulla, for 79BC. He was the father of the consul of 48BC and 41BC, also Publius Servilius Vatia Isauricus. After his consulship he was sent as proconsular governor to Cilicia, where he fought a campaign against pirates and the Isauri. On his return to Rome he celebrated a triumph in 74BC and was given the agnomen Isauricus from one of his victories. Vatia served as one of the judges in the trial of Gaius Verres and he supported the effort to give Pompey command of the war against the pirates. In 63BC he was a candidate for pontifex maximus, but was defeated by Julius Caesar. In 55BC he was elected censor. He took no part in the civil wars.

BookOneIII Julius Caesar served under him in Cilicia.

Servius Tullius was the sixth king of Rome, and the second king of the Etruscan dynasty, reigned 578BC - 535BC. Roman and Greek sources describe his lowly origins and later marriage to a daughter of Lucius Tarquinius Priscus, Rome's first Etruscan King, assassinated in 579BC. He was said to be the first Roman king to accede without being elected by the Senate, having gained the throne by the contrivance of his mother-in-law.

BookTwoII He enrolled the Octavii among the patrician order.

Sestilia, or Sextilia, (c. 5AD - 69AD) was the mother of Aulus Vitellius, the future emperor, and his younger brother, Lucius Vitellius the Younger, by the successful politician and friend of the emperor Claudius, Lucius Vitellius. Sestilia died shortly before both her sons were killed in December 69AD.

BookSevenXXXVIII BookSevenXLIX Mentioned.

Sibyl, the word sibyl probably comes (via Latin) from the Greek word sibylla, meaning prophetess. The earliest oracular seeresses known as the sibyls of antiquity prophesied at certain holy sites, under the divine influence of a deity, originally, at Delphi and Pessinos, one of the chthonic earth-goddesses.

BookOneLXXIX BookTwoXXXI The Sibylline Books or Libri Sibyllini were a collection of oracular utterances, set out in Greek hexameters, purchased from a sibyl by the last king of Rome, Tarquinius Superbus. The Roman Senate later entrusted their care to two patricians; after 367BC ten custodians were appointed, five patricians and five plebeians, who were called the decemviri sacris faciundis; subsequently (probably in the time of Sulla) their number was increased to fifteen, the quindecimviri sacris faciundis. These officials consulted the Sibylline Books in order to ascertain rites of expiation. The books were kept in the Temple of Jupiter on the Capitol, and were thus lost when the temple burned in 83BC. A new Greek Sibylline collection was deposited in the restored temple, together with similar sayings of native origin, e.g. those of the Sibyl at Tibur. From the Capitol, they were transferred by Augustus as pontifex maximus in 12BC, to the temple of Apollo Patrous on the Palatine, after they had been examined and copied; there they remained until c. 405AD.

BookSevenVIII Galba elected to the Board of Fifteen.

Sicily is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea and was a highly regarded part of Magna Graecia, Cicero describing Siracusa (Syracuse) as the greatest and most beautiful city of Ancient Greece. In July 36BC the fleets of Octavian (with Marcus Agrippa as his admiral), and Mark Antony, sailed from Italy, while a third fleet, under Lepidus, sailed from Africa, to attack Sextus’ Pompeius stronghold in Sicily. Agrippa was finally able to defeat Sextus in a naval battle near Mylae (modern Milazzo); though Octavian was defeated and seriously wounded in a battle near Taormina. At Naulochus, Agrippa met Sextus’ fleet, and succeeded in defeating his enemy. Agrippa lost three ships, while 28 ships of Sextus were sunk, 17 fled, and the others were burnt or captured.

BookTwoIX BookTwoXVI BookTwoXXV Augustus (Octavian) involved in civil war there.

BookTwoXXII Augustus received an ovation or minor triumph after his campaign in 36BC.

BookTwoLXX Augustus experienced two naval defeats off Sicily in 36BC.

BookTwoXCVI An omen of Augustus’ final naval victory there.

BookThreeII Claudius Caudex defeated the Carthaginians there in 264BC.

BookThreeIV BookThreeVI Tiberius’ father, Tiberius Nero, sought to join Sextus Pompey there.

BookFourXXIII Caligula refused to allow the annual victory celebration.

Sigambrians, or the Sicambri, were a western Germanic people living in what is now the Netherlands at the turn of the first millennium.

BookTwoXXI The Sigambri were attacked beyond the Rhine and defeated by the consul Nero Claudius Drusus (Drusus the Elder) in 10BC. In 9BC Drusus again crossed the Rhine and proceeded against the Germans, starting with the Chatti in the west. He traversed country ‘as far as that of the Suebi’ in the east and then attacked the Cherusci to the north of the Suebi. He reached the Elbe.

Silanus, see Junius

Silius, Gaius the Elder was consul in 13AD. Under Germanicus, Silius was an army commander in Germania Inferior in 14AD, and won an honorary triumph in 15AD. Tiberius appointed him as a taxation auditor in Gaul in 16AD, and he later became governor of Germania Inferior in 21AD. Tacitus described him then as ‘aged and infirm’. Silius married Sosia Galla. The couple became friends with Tiberius’ daughter-in-law Agrippina the Elder. Due to their friendship with Agrippina they became victims of Sejanus’ treason trials. Silius committed suicide in 24AD, while Galla was exiled and later died.

BookTwoLXXI He dines with Augustus.

BookTwoCI He was consul in 13AD when Augustus made his last will.

Silius, Gaius the Younger (d. 48AD), son of Gaius Silius the Elder, was senator in 47AD and consul in 48AD. Valeria Messalina committed bigamy with him, and when their plotting was discovered, was executed by Claudius.

BookFiveXXVI Executed on the orders of Claudius.

BookFiveXXIX BookFiveXXXVI His affair with Messalina.

Silvanus, Marcus Plautius, see Plautius

Sinuessa was a town in Latium, situated on the Tyrrhenian Sea, about 10 kilometres north of the mouth of the Volturno River (the ancient Vulturnus). It was on the route of the Via Appia.

BookSevenXLII Vitellius embezzled the town’s public revenues.

Sirens were bird-women, seductresses who lured sailors with their enchanting music and voices to shipwreck on the rocky coast of their island. Roman poets placed them on an island called Sirenum scopuli. In some later, rationalized traditions the geography of their ‘flowery’ island of Anthemoessa, or Anthemusa, is fixed sometimes on Cape Pelorum and at others among the islands known as the Sirenuse, near Paestum, or on Capreae. Ovid makes their song a lament for Persephone. Homer hints that they sing the knowledge of all things that come to pass on Earth. (Odyssey 12:189-191)

BookThreeLXX The nature of their song was the subject of one of Tiberius’s questions to the grammarians.

Sosius, Gaius, was quaestor in 66BC and praetor in 49BC. In the civil war he joined the optimates but on the flight of Pompey to Greece, Sosius returned to Rome and submitted to Julius Caesar. After the assassination of Caesar, Sosius joined Mark Antony, and in 38BC was governor of Syria and Cilicia. As governor, Sosius was commanded by Antony to support Herod I, the Great, against Antigonus the Hasmonean, who held Jerusalem. In 37BC Sosius took Jerusalem and placed Herod on the throne. He was awarded a triumph in 34BC, and was consul with Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus in 32BC. Sosius then sided with Antony. In 31BC, at Actium, Sosius commanded the left wing of the fleet. After the battle, he was captured but pardoned. He returned toRome and completed his building project on the temple of Apollo Medicus (begun in 34BC), dedicating it in Octavian’s name. He seems to have still been alive in 17BC.

BookTwoXVII Allowed by Augustus to join Mark Antony.

Spartacus (c. 109BC – 71BC) was the most notable leader of the slaves in the Third Slave War, a major uprising against the Roman Republic.

BookTwoIII Mentioned.

Spiculus was a famous gladiator under Nero.

BookSixXXX Nero lavished money on him.

BookSixXLVII Nero called for him to help end his life.

Spoletium, modern Spoleto, is an ancient city in east central Umbria in a foothill of the Apennines. Spoleto was situated on the eastern branch of the Via Flaminia, which forked into two roads at Narni and rejoined at Forum Flaminii, near Foligno. An ancient road also ran east to Nursia (Norcia), 42 kilometres distant.

BookEightI Vespia, a hilltop placename near the hamlet of Piandoli, south-west of Nursia may be the site of the Vespasii monuments mentioned.

Sporus was a Greek catamite of Nero’s.

BookSixXXVIII BookSixXXIX Nero’s debaucheries with him.

BookSixXLVI The implication is that Sporus was represented by Persephone (Proserpine) and Nero by Pluto (Orcus), King of the Underworld, implying an inauspicious connection with the realm of the dead.

BookSixXLVIII BookSixXLIX He accompanied Nero during his final days.

Spurinna, Titus Vestricius, was an Etruscan haruspex (a diviner or prophet) famous for warning Julius Caesar to beware the Ides of March (March 15th) some time before his assassination.

BookOneLXXXI His repeated warning.

Statilia Messalina (c. 35AD - after 68AD) was third wife to Nero (from 66AD - 68AD). She may have been the daughter of Titus Statilius Taurus who was consul in 44AD and who was forced to commit suicide in 53AD.

BookSixXXXV Her marriage to Nero.

BookSevenXXXIII Otho intended to marry her and wrote his last letter to her.

Statilius Capella, was an equestrian from Sabrata in North Africa. Flavia Domitilla, wife to Vespasian, had previously been his mistress.

BookEightIII Mentioned.

Statilius Taurus Corvinus, Titus was consul in 45AD, and a grandson of Messala Corvinus. In 45AD, he was involved in a conspiracy against Claudius.

BookFiveXIII His conspiracy against Claudius.

Statilius Taurus, Titus, was a self-made man, a general under Augustus, fighting in many of his major campaigns. He was made consul ordinarius in 26BC alongside Augustus. In 16BC, when Augustus left Italy for Gaul, he left Taurus in Rome as praefectus urbi. Until the second consulship of Tiberius in 7BC, Statilius Taurus was the last man to hold multiple consulships.

BookTwoXXIX His amphitheatre, the first stone amphitheatre in Rome, on the Campus Martius, was built in 29BC.

BookFourXVIII Caligula presented gladiatorial contests in his amphitheatre.

BookSixXXXV His great-great-grandaughter’s marriage to Nero.

Stephanio was an actor who exceeded the licence allowed his profession and was punished by Augustus.

BookTwoXLV Mentioned.

Stephanus was the steward to Flavia Domitilla, and was the first to stab Domitian during the assassination in 96AD.

BookEightLIII Mentioned.

Stoechades Islands, The modern Hyéres Islands, or Golden Isles (Iles d'Or), are three islands off the coast of the Var department of France, east of Toulon. Porquerolles is the largest of the three the others being Port-Cros and Levant.

BookFiveXVII Claudius nearly shipwrecked there in 43AD.

Strabo Vopiscus, Gaius Julius Caesar (c. 130BC – 87BC) was younger son to Lucius Julius Caesar II and his wife Poppilia and younger brother to Lucius Julius Caesar III. Strabo became a pontifex in 99BC; a quaestor in 96BC and an aedile in 90BC. With his brother he was killed, fighting in the streets at the beginning of the Civil War, by partisans of Marius. He wrote at least three tragedies with Greek themes, Adrastus, Tecmesa and Teutras. Only fragments survive. According to Cicero, he was an orator known for his wit and humour.

BookOneLV Julius Caesar imitated his oratorical style.

Subura was a lower class area of Rome also notorious as a red-light district. It lay in the dip between the southern end of the Viminal Hill and the western end of the Esquiline.

BookOneXLVI Caesar’s family had a house there in which he grew up.

Suebians, or Suebi, were a group of eastern Germanic peoples who were first mentioned by Julius Caesar in connection with his defeat of their leader Ariovistus c. 58BC.

BookTwoXXI In 9BC, the consul Nero Claudius Drusus (Drusus the Elder) crossed the Rhine and proceeded against the Germans, starting with the Chatti in the west. He traversed country ‘as far as that of the Suebi’ in the east and then attacked the Cherusci to the north of the Suebi. He reached the Elbe.

Suetonius Laetus, the father of Suetonius Tranquillus, the author, probably came from Hippo Regius (Annaba, Algeria). He was an equestrian who served and took part in the first Battle of Bedriacum for the Emperor Otho against the future Emperor Vitellius in 69AD.

BookSevenXXXIII His view of Otho’s character.

Suetonius Tranquillus, Gaius (c. 69/75AD – after 130AD), was a historian, the son of Suetonius Laetus, whose most important surviving work is this set of biographies of twelve successive Roman rulers, from Julius Caesar to Domitian, entitled De Vita Caesarum. Other works by Suetonius concern the daily life of Rome, politics, oratory, and the lives of famous writers, including poets, historians, and grammarians. Suetonius was born the son of Suetonius Laetus, who probably came from Hippo Regius (Annaba, Algeria). Laetus was an equestrian who served and took part in the first Battle of Bedriacum fighting for the Emperor Otho against the future Emperor Vitellius in 69AD. Suetonius was a close friend of Pliny the Younger. Pliny describes him as ‘quiet and studious, a man dedicated to writing.’ Pliny helped him buy a property in Italy and interceded with Trajan to grant Suetonius immunities usually granted to a father of three, the ius trium liberorum, though his marriage was childless. Through Pliny, Suetonius gained favour with Trajan and Hadrian. Suetonius may have served on Pliny’s staff when Pliny was Proconsul of Bithynia Pontus (northern Asia Minor) between 110AD and 112AD. Under Trajan he served as secretary of and director of Imperial archives. Under Hadrian, he became the Emperor’s secretary. But, In 119AD, Hadrian dismissed Suetonius for an affair with Empress Vibia Sabina. Suetonius may have later regained imperial favor under Hadrian and returned to his position. This hypothesis is based on the suggestion that Offices of State was one of his last works, and that the subject was chosen to reflect Hadrian’s administrative reforms; however, there is no certain evidence for a public career after 120AD.

BookTwoVI Suetonius gifted the Emperor Hadrian a statuette of Augustus.

BookFourXIX Suetonius’ grandfather is unknown.

Sulla was a soothsayer at the time of Caligula.

BookFourLVII He predicted Caligula’s imminent death.

Sulla Felix, Faustus Cornelius (22AD – 62AD) was the son of Faustus Cornelius Sulla the suffect consul of 31AD. He was also the half brother of the empress Valeria Messalina. In 47AD Claudius arranged for Faustus to marry his daughter, Claudia Antonia. Faustus was exiled in 59AD, subsequently being executed in 62AD on Nero’s orders.

BookFiveXXVII Claudia Antonia’s second husband.

Sulla, Faustus Cornelius, (81BC - 46BC) was the eldest surviving son of the dictator Lucius Cornelius Sulla and Cecilia Metella. He accompanied Pompey into Asia, and became the first to climb over the walls of the Temple of Jerusalem in 63BC. He was quaestor in 54BC. The senate commissioned him to rebuild the Curia Hostilia in 52BC which had been burned down after the riots which followed the murder of Clodius. After that the Curia was known as the Curia Cornelia. Faustus was at the Battle of Pharsalus in 48BC, joining the leaders of his party in Africa subsequently. His career as an advocate was cut short, however, by the civil war between Pompey and Caesar. As Lucullus’ ward and Pompey’s son-in-law, he sided with Pompey. After the Battle of Thapsus, he was captured and subsequently killed in a minor skirmish with Caesar’s troops.

BookOneXXVII He married Pompeia Magna, Pompey’s daughter.

BookOneLXXV Killed against Caesar’s wishes.

Sulla Felix, Lucius Cornelius (the dictator) (c. 138BC – 78BC), known simply as Sulla, was general and politician, having the rare distinction of holding the office of consul twice as well as the dictatorship. Sulla used his armies to march on Rome twice, and after the second event revived the office of dictator. He used his power to enact a series of reforms to the Roman constitution. He ultimately resigned the dictatorship, restoring normal constitutional government, and after his second Consulship, retired to private life.

BookOneI BookOneLXXIV His persecution of the young Julius Caesar.

BookOneIII His death in 78BC encouraged Julius Caesar’s return to Rome.

BookOneV He had curtailed the powers of the popular tribunes.

BookOneXI BookTwoXXXIII He had destroyed Marius’ monuments. The Cornelian Laws were various edicts passed during Sulla’s dictatorship many of which remained on the statute book.

BookOneXLV His warning regarding the young Caesar.

BookOneLXXV His statue re-instated by Caesar.

BookOneLXXVII Caesar’s reputedly low opinion of him for renouncing the dictatorship.

BookThreeLIX Mentioned as Sulla Felix, Sulla the Fortunate.

Sulla, Publius Cornelius (d. 45BC) was the nephew (there is dispute over the degree of relatedness) of Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix. He was elected consul in 66BC (to assume office in 65BC) together with Publius Autronius, but both were discovered to have committed bribery and were disqualified from office. He was soon after implicated in the Catiline conspiracy, but was not convicted. He is remembered most notably for having commanded the right wing of Julius Caesar’s army at the battle of Pharsalus.

BookOneIX Conspires with Julius Caesar in 65BC.

Sulpicius, was an unknown companion of the young Claudius.

BookFiveIV Mentioned.

Sulpicius Rufus, Servius (c. 106BC - 43BC), surnamed Lemonia from the tribe to which he belonged, was a Roman orator and jurist. In 63BC he was a candidate for the consulship, but was defeated by Lucius Licinius Murena, whom he subsequently accused of bribery. In 52BC he was elected consul for 51BC. In the Civil War, after considerable hesitation, he threw in his lot with Caesar, who made him proconsul of Achaea in 46BC. He died while on a mission from the senate to Mark Antony at Mutina. He was accorded a public funeral, and a statue was erected to his memory in front of the Rostra.

BookOneXXIX Caesar elicited his support in 51BC.

BookOneL Caesar was reputed to have had an affair with his wife, Postumia.

Sulpicius Camerinus, Quintus was consul in 9AD.

BookEightII Vespasian was born in his consulship.

Sulpicius Flavus was an otherwise unknown companion of the Emperor Claudius.

BookFiveXLI He assisted the young Claudius in writing a history.

Sulpicius Galba was the grandfather of the Emperor Galba. He was devoted to literary interests, and wrote a multi-voulme history. He only achieved the rank of praetor.

BookSevenIII Mentioned.

BookSevenIV Associated with an omen of Galba’s accession to power.

Sulpicius Galba, Gaius, was the father of the Emperor Galba. He was consul in 22AD with Decimus Haterius Agrippa. He was hump-backed and a minor orator. He married Mummia Achaica, mother of Galba and his brother Gaius, and after her death married Livia Ocellina.

BookSevenIII Mentioned.

Sulpicius Galba, Gaius was Galba’s elder brother. Suetonius suggests he committed suicide when Tiberius refused to allow him a province after consulship, but as his name is not registered as a consul, he may have been confused with their father, also Gaius.

BookSevenIII Mentioned.

Sulpicius Galba, Servius, served as tribune of the soldiers in the second legion in Macedonia, was praetor in 151BC, and received Hispania as his province. In the spring of 150BC, he ravaged Lusitania leading to a prolonged war between the Roman troops and those of the Lusitanian leader Viriathus (d. 139BC). Servius was afterwards made consul for 144BC, with Lucius Aurelius Cotta.

BookSevenIII Mentioned.

Sulpicius Galba, Servius, was the grandson of Servius Sulpicius Galba, the Governor of Spain in 151BC. He fought under Caesar in Gaul in 58BC, was praetor in 54BC and a candidate for the consulship in 59BC. He was a friend of Decimus Brutus and Cicero, and fought at Mutina. According to Suetonius he was one of the conspirators against Caesar.

BookSevenIII Mentioned.

Sulpicius Galba, Servius (the Emperor Galba)

Surrentum, modern Sorrento, is a small town in Campania overlooking the Bay of Naples on the Sorrentine Peninsula.

BookTwoLXV Agrippa Postumus sent there c. 6AD.

Syracuse is a city in the south-east angle of the island of Sicily, on the Gulf of Syracuse. The city was founded c. 733BC by Greek Corinthians and was allied with Sparta and Corinth, exerting influence over the entire Magna Graecia area of which it was the leading city. The ancient Greek theatre was modified by the Romans to suit the nature of their entertainments. There was also a Roman amphitheatre.

BookFourXX Caligula gave entertainments there.

BookFourXXI Caligula repaired the city walls and temples.

BookFourXXIV Caligula fled there distraught at the death of Drusilla in 38AD.

Talarius was a slave or freedman of Augustus.

BookFourVIII Mentioned.

Tanusius Geminus. Little is known of this historian, who may possibly be identified with the Volusius ridiculed by Catullus. He was considered long-winded and boring by Seneca.

BookOneIX Author of the Annales or History.

Tarichaeae was possibly Magdala, modern Migdal, near Tiberias, known as Magdala Nunayya or Magdala of the Fishes, located on the Sea of Galilee.

BookEightXXIX Subjugated by Titus in 67AD.

Tarpeian Rock, (rupes Tarpeia) was a steep cliff on the southern summit of the Capitoline Hill, overlooking the Roman Forum. It was used during theRoman Republic as an execution site. Murderers, traitors, perjurers, and larcenous slaves, if convicted by the quaestores parricidii, were flung from the cliff to their deaths.

BookOneXLIV Mentioned.

Tarquinius Priscus, Lucius, also called Tarquin the Elder or Tarquin I, was the fifth King of Rome from 616BC to 579BC. His wife was Tanaquil.

BookTwoII He admitted the Octavii to the Senate.

Tarraco, modern Tarragon, is a city located in southern Catalonia in the north-east of Spain, on the Mediterranean. In Roman times, the city was the capital of the province of Hispania Tarraconensis (after being capital of Hispania Citerior in the Republican era). Augustus wintered at Tarraco after his Cantabrian campaign, and bestowed many marks of honor on the city, among which were its honorary titles of Colonia Victrix Togata and Colonia Julia Victrix Tarraconensis.

BookTwoXXVI Augustus there in 26BC - 25BC.

BookSevenXII Galba melted down a gold crown belonging to its Temple of Jupiter.

Tatius, Titus (d. 748BC) was the Sabine king of Cures, who, after the rape of the Sabine women, attacked Rome. Tatius and the Roman king, Romulus, were reconciled and ruled jointly over the Romans and Sabines. Rome retained its name and each citizen was a Roman, but as a community they were called Quirites. Five years later Tatius was killed by the inhabitants of Lavinium, leaving Romulus to rule alone, and Tatius is thus not counted as one of the traditional ‘Seven Kings of Rome’. He had one daughter Tatia, who married Numa Pompilius (Romulus’s successor), and one son, who was the ancestor of the noble family of Tatii.

BookThreeI Mentioned.

BookSevenVIII Galba was elected to the Titii sodales, a college of priests supposed to have been established either by Titus Tatius himself, to superintend and preserve the Titienses one of the three original ‘tribes’; or by Romulus to honour the deified Titus. Under the Empire, their functions were changed to conduct the worship of an emperor, like those of the Sodales Augustales.

Tedius Afer, was a consul-elect driven by Augustus to commit suicide after being suspected of planning to attack him.

BookTwoXXVII Mentioned.

Tegea an ancient city in Arcadia was an important religious center of ancient Greece, containing the Temple of Athena Alea. The statue of the goddess from Scopas’s Doric temple there, made by Endoeus, of ivory, was subsequently carried to Rome by Augustus to adorn the Forum of Augustus.

BookEightVII Vases bearing likenesses of Vespasian unearthed there.

Telegenius. The reference is unknown. Possibly it is to a well-known fool.

BookFiveXL A saying of Claudius’s refers.

Telephus, was a deluded slave who conspired against Augustus.

BookTwoXIX Mentioned.

Terentia, also known as Terentilla, was the wife of Maecenas. Varro Murena was her brother by adoption.

BookTwoLXVI Maecenas supposedly leaked news to her that the Murena conspiracy had been exposed.

Terentia, see also Albia

Terentius Varro, Marcus (116BC – 27BC) also known as Varro Reatinus to distinguish him from his younger contemporary Varro Atacinus, was a scholar and writer. Politically, he supported Pompey, reaching the office of praetor, after having been tribune of the people, quaestor and curule aedile. He was a member of the commission of twenty who carried out the great agrarian scheme of Caesar for the resettlement of Capua and Campania (59BC). During the civil war he commanded one of Pompey’s armies in the Ilerda campaign. He received two pardons granted by Julius Caesar, before and after the Battle of Pharsalus. Caesar later appointed him to oversee the public library of Rome in 47BC, but following Caesar's death Mark Antony proscribed him, resulting in the loss of much of his property, including his library. Varro later gained the favour of Augustus.

BookOneXXXIV Defeated by Caesar in Spain.

BookOneXLIV Appointed by Caesar to execute his plans for a public library, he was also the author of a treatise on libraries, De bibliothecis (which has not survived). Caesar was assassinated before the plans were completed.

Terentius Varro Murena, Aulus was elected consul, with Augustus, for the year 23BC, but fell out of favour and a suffect consul, Gnaeus Calpurnius Piso, was appointed to replace him. In 22BC, Murena defended Marcus Primus, governor of Macedonia, against charges of waging an unprovoked war on the Odrysian kingdom of Thrace, whose king was a Roman ally. During this case, Murena reportedly offended Augustus, who testified at the trial. Subsequently, Murena was suspected of participating in a conspiracy (23BC) against Augustus led by Fannius Caepio and was put to death without trial.

BookTwoXIX BookThreeVIII He was executed in 22BC by Augustus for conspiring against him.

BookTwoLVI Augustus learnt of the conspiracy through a dependent of his, Castricius.

BookTwoLXVI Maecenas accused of leaking news that the conspiracy had been detected to his wife Terentia, Murena being her brother by adoption.

Terpnus was a famous lyre-player.

BookSixXX He was employed by Nero to improve that Emperor’s singing.

BookEightXIX Vespasian rewarded him.

Terracina, the Volscian Anxur, lies on the coast 76km south-east of Rome, near the Circeo peninsula. Rome finally secured the town by the establishment of a colony of Roman citizens in 329BC. The construction of the Via Appia in 312BC added to its importance. Its climate and scenery made it an attractive spot later for seaside villas.

BookThreeXXXIX Tiberius was nearly killed by a rock-fall there.

BookSevenIV Galba was born near Terracina, on the left of the road to Fundi, i.e. north of the Via Appia.

Tertia, Junia (c. 60BC - 22AD) was the third daughter of Servilia Caepionis and her second husband Decimus Junius Silanus. She was the half-sister of Marcus Junius Brutus, and wife of Gaius Cassius Longinus.

BookOneL Reputed to have had an affair with Caesar, her mother being his mistress.

Tertulla, Axia, the wife (89BC) of Marcus Crassus, and widow of his elder brother.

BookOneL Caesar was reputed to have had an affair with her.

Tertulla (c. 40BC – after 9AD) was the paternal grandmother of Vespasian and the wife of Titus Flavius Petro.

BookEightII Vespasian was raised by her at her estate at Cosa.

Tetrinius was a brigand, at the time of Caligula, whom the crowd in the Circus wished to see fight, or be punished.

BookFourXXX Mentioned.

Teutones. During the late second century BC, the Teutones and Cimbri are recorded as passing west through Gaul and attacking Roman Italy. After several victories for the invading armies, the Teutones and Cimbri divided forces and were then defeated separately by Gaius Marius in 102BC, and 101BC respectively. The Teutones were annihilated at the Battle of Aquae Sextiae (in present-day Aix-en-Provence). Their king, Teutobod, was captured.

BookOneXI Defeated by Marius.

Thallus was a secretary to Augustus punished for taking bribes to reveal the contents of a letter.

BookTwoLXVII Mentioned.

Thapsus was a city in what is modern day Tunisia. Its ruins exist at Ras Dimas near Bekalta, approximately 200 km southeast of Carthage. Originally founded by Phoenicians, it served as a marketplace on the coast of the province Byzacena in Africa Propria. In 46BC, Julius Caesar defeated Metellus Scipio and the Numidian King Juba I near Thapsus. Their defeat marked the end of opposition to Caesar in Africa and Thapsus then became a Roman colony.

BookOneXXXV Caesar’s victory there.

Thasos is the Greek island in the northern Aegean Sea, close to the coast of Thrace and the plain of the river Nestos but geographically part ofMacedonia. It is the northernmost Greek island. White Thassos is a pure white marble with the brilliant crystalline color of refined sugar, quarried on the island since ancient times.

BookSixL Nero’s tomb adorned with a balustrade of stone from Thasos.

Theodorus of Gadara was a Greek rhetorician, one of the two most famous rhetoric teachers of the time, the other being Apollodorus of Pergamon. Theodorus taught Tiberius rhetoric, his other well-known pupil being the Greek rhetorician Hermagoras of Temnos who later taught oratory in Rome. The town of Umm Qais in north-west Jordan is located on the site of the Hellenistic-Roman city of Gadara. The town was also called Antiochia, Antiochia Semiramis, or Seleucia, and was a semi-autonomous city of the Roman Decapolis.

BookThreeLVII He perceived Tiberius’ innate temperament.

Theogenes, was a Greek mathematician and astrologer, whom Augustus and Agrippa visited in Apollonia, in 45/44BC.

BookTwoXCIV Augustus’ sun sign was Libra (23rd September, 63BC), but Manilius and Suetonius, and surviving coins, suggest that Augustus’ key birth sign, according to the relevant system of astrology, that is the sign in which the Moon was situated, was Capricorn, while that of Tiberius was Libra. (Manilius 2.507, 4.548, 4.763 which clearly refers to Tiberius, 4.773, and 3.574 which may refer to Augustus’s life-span) Both Moon signs are astronomically correct, subject to various issues regarding the calendar.

Thessalians were the inhabitants of Thessaly (the ancient Aeolia) in north-eastern Greece. It officially became part of the Roman Empire in 148BC, as part of the province of Macedonia.

BookThreeVIII Tiberius acted as advocate in Rome for them.

BookFiveXXI Thessalian bull-fighters performed in the Circus arena under Claudius.

Thrace was the ancient region bounded by the Balkan Mountains on the north, Rhodope Mountains and the Aegean Sea on the south, and by the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara on the east.

BookTwoXCIV Associated with the worship of Liber-Dionysus.

BookEightII Vespasian served there as a military tribune.

BookEightXLVI Domitian was being accused of favouring the Thracian’s opponent, the murmillo.

Thrasea Paetus, Publius Clodius, see Clodius

Thrasyllus, Tiberius Claudius (d. 36AD) was an Egyptian Greek from Mendes (Djedet, modern Tell El-Ruba), though he is often mentioned in secondary sources as coming from Alexandria. Although Thrasyllus was a grammarian and editor of Plato and Democritus, he is best known as the astrologer of the Roman Emperor Tiberius.

BookTwoXCVIII Mentioned as being with Tiberius on Capri.

BookThreeXIV He was with Tiberius on Rhodes in 2AD.

BookThreeLXII He deterred Tiberius from certain destructive actions.

BookFourXIX His comment on Caligula.

Thurii, called by some Latin writers and by Ptolemy, Thurium, also Copia and Copiae, and sometimes written as Turios, Italian: Thurio, was a city of Magna Graecia, situated on the Tarentine gulf, within a short distance of the site of Sybaris, which it may be considered to have replaced.

BookTwoII A possible native place of Augustus’ great-grandfather.

BookTwoIII Augustus’ father dispersed a group of outlawed slaves there.

BookTwoVI Augustus’ childhood name Thurinus derived from Thurii.

Thyatira, or Thyateira, is the modern Turkish city of Akhisar. It lies in the west of Turkey, south of Istanbul and almost due east of Athens. It is about 50 miles from the Mediterranean. In classical times, Thyatira stood on the border between Lydia and Mysia. It was famous for its dyeing and was a center of the indigo trade.

BookThreeVIII Tiberius acted as advocate in Rome for the citizens after a devastating earthquake.

Tiberius, Julius Caesar Augustus, born Tiberius Claudius Nero (42BC – 37AD), was the second Roman Emperor, from the death of Augustus in 14AD until his own death in 37AD. Tiberius was by birth a Claudian, son of Tiberius Claudius Nero and Livia Drusilla. His mother divorced and married Augustus in 39BC, making him Tiberius’ step-father. Tiberius would later marry Augustus’ daughter Julia the Elder (from his marriage to Scribonia) and later be adopted by Augustus, by which act he officially became a Julian, bearing the name Tiberius Julius Caesar. Tiberius was the stepson of the Emperor Augustus, great-uncle of the Emperor Caligula, paternal uncle of the Emperor Claudius, and great-great uncle of the Emperor Nero.

BookTwoXL Mentioned regarding a minor request to Augustus.

BookTwoLI BookTwoLXXI BookTwoLXXVI BookTwoXCII BookFiveIV Mentioned regarding letters to and from Augustus.

BookTwoLXIII Married Julia in 11BC, after divorcing Vipsania Agrippina, daughter of Agrippa.

BookTwoLXV Adopted by Augustus in 4AD.

BookTwoLXXXV Completes a reading on Augustus’ behalf.

BookTwoXCVII Performs the lustrum rites in May 14AD, with Augustus. Sets off later that summer for Illyricum, Augustus accompanying him part of the way, but his journey is ultimately aborted due to Augustus’ last illness.

BookTwoXCVIII Recalled by Augustus, and with him at his death, Augustus effectively handing all State business to him before dying.

BookTwoC He delivered one of the two eulogies for Augustus at the funeral.

BookTwoCI Augustus appointed him as his main heir, receiving two thirds of the estate.

BookThreeI Suetonius’ life of Tiberius follows.

BookFourI BookFourIV He adopted Germanicus in 4AD.

BookFourII He was suspected of contriving Germanicus’s death.

BookFourVI He was held in check by respect for and awe of Germanicus.

BookFourVII BookFourXXX His persecution of Nero and Drusus, the sons of Germanicus.

BookFourX He summoned Caligula to Capri in AD31.

BookFourXI He recognised Caligula’s vicious propensities.

BookFourXII It was claimed Caligula poisoned him and then had him strangled.

BookFourXIII Caligula escorted his body back to Rome.

BookFourXIV The terms of Tiberius’s will were disregarded by the Senate.

BookFourXV Caligula gave his funeral eulogy.

BookFourXVI Caligula re-adopted the practice Tiberius had suppressed, of publishing the Imperial Accounts.

BookFourXIX His consideration of Caligula for the succession.

BookFourXXI Caligula completed Tiberius’ work on the Temple of Augustus and the Theatre of Pompey.

BookFourXXXI The collapse of the amphitheatre at Fidenae was a notable event during his reign.

BookFourXXXVII BookSixXXX Caligula spent Tiberius’s legacy of twenty-seven million gold pieces in a single year.

BookFourXXXVIII Caligula exploited estates where legacies had not been willed to Tiberius or himself.

BookFiveV BookFiveVI His neglect of Claudius.

BookFiveXI Claudius completed an arch dedicated to him, near Pompey’s Theatre.

BookFiveXXIII His amendment to Augustus’ laws on celibacy.

BookFiveXXV Claudius reversed his decision to take control of the provinces of Achaia and Macedonia from the Senate in AD15.

BookSixV BookSixVI BookSevenIII Mentioned.

BookSevenIV Associated with an omen of Galba’s accession to power.

BookSevenV He appropriated the legacy left to Galba in Livia’s will.

BookSevenXXIV Otho’s father Lucius was a favourite of his.

BookSevenXXXVII His purge of the Senate in 17AD.

BookSevenXXXVIII Vitellius was one of his spintriae on Capreae.

BookSevenL Vitellius banqueted in Tiberius’s mansion on the Palatine while watching the battle on the Capitol in 69AD.

BookEightXXXIII Titus broke with Tiberius’s practice of not ratifying his predecessors favours and grants, unless by personal concession.

BookEightLVI His writings were Domitian’s sole reading matter.

Tiberius Gemellus, Julius Caesar Nero Gemellus (19AD – 37/38AD) was the son of Drusus the Younger and Livilla, and was the grandson of Tiberius, and cousin of Caligula. His twin brother Germanicus Gemellus died young. After Tiberius died in 37AD, Caligula adopted him as his son, but ordered him killed in late 37AD or early 38AD for allegedly plotting against him.

BookThreeLIV BookThreeLV Mentioned.

BookThreeLXII Tiberius detested him, suspecting him of being a product of adultery.

BookThreeLXXVI BookFourXIV Gemellus was named as co-heir in Tiberius’ will, but disinherited by Caligula.

BookFourXV Caligula formally adopted Gemellus in 37AD.

BookFourXXIII BookFourXXIX Caligula had him executed.

Tiberius Julius Alexander was born into a wealthy Jewish family of Alexandria, but abandoning or neglecting the Jewish religion, he rose to become procurator of Judaea (c. 46AD – 48AD) under Claudius. While Prefect of Egypt (66AD – 69AD), he employed his legions against the Alexandrians, and was instrumental in Vespasian’s rise to power. In 70AD, he participated in the Siege of Jerusalem as Titus’s second-in-command. Marcus Julius Alexander his brother was the first husband of the Herodian Princess Berenice.

BookEightVI He swore allegiance to Vespasian in 69AD.

Tiberius Claudius Nero(c. 85BC - 33BC) was a descendant of Appius Claudius Caecus the censor. His father Drusus Claudius Nero served under Pompey in 67BC, He was the father of the Emperor Tiberius and Drusus the Elder, father-in-law to Antonia the Elder and Antonia the Younger, grandfather to the Emperor Claudius, Germanicus, and Livilla, great-grandfather to the Emperor Caligula and Empress Agrippina the Younger, and great-great-grandfather to the Emperor Nero. He served as quaestor to Julius Caesar in 48BC, commanding his fleet in the Alexandrian War. He was elected praetor in 42BC. Around this time, he married his relative Livia Drusilla. Tiberius Nero joined Mark Antony but in 40BC when Octavian (Augustus) and Mark Antony reconciled, returned to Rome. When Livia was six months pregnant, Tiberius Nero was persuaded or forced by Octavian to divorce her. Tiberius Nero raised and educated his sons. When he died in 33BC, the young Tiberius delivered his funeral eulogy.

BookTwoLXII Divorced Livia to allow her to marry Augustus.

BookThreeIV Suetonius gives a brief life.

BookThreeVI Fled to join Antony in 40BC, with the infant Tiberius. Tiberius later delivered his funeral eulogy.

BookThreeVII Tiberius honoured him with a gladiatorial contest.

Tibur, modern Tivoli, is a town 30km from Rome, at the falls of the Aniene River, where it exits the Sabine hills. There are spectacular views out over the Roman Campagna. From Etruscan times Tibur, a Sabine city, was the seat of the Tiburtine Sibyl. The city acquired Roman citizenship in 90BC and became a resort famed for its beauty and excellent waters, and was enriched by many villas, the most famous of which is the ruined Villa Adriana (Hadrian’s Villa). Maecenas and Augustus had villas there, as did the poet Horace.

BookTwoLXXII BookTwoLXXXII Augustus spent time there. The immense structure of the Temple of Hercules Victor at Tibur was built between the second half of the 2nd century BC and the Empire, with extensive colonnades on three sides of its rectangular enclosed layout.

BookFourVIII Claimed as a birthplace of Caligula. Associated with Hercules.

BookFourXXI The Aqua Claudia and the Aqua Anio Novus aqueducts, were begun by Caligula in 38AD and completed by Claudius in 52AD. The main sources were near Subiaco (25 miles from Tibur).

BookFiveXXXIV Claudius attended an execution there.

Tigellinus, Gaius Ofonius, also known as Ophonius Tigellinus and Sophonius Tigellinus, (c. 10AD – 69AD) was prefect of the Praetorian Guard, from 62AD until 68AD, under Nero. Tigellinus gained favour through his acquaintance with Nero’s mother Agrippina the Younger, and was appointed prefect on the death of his predecessor Sextus Afranius Burrus, a position Tigellinus held first with Faenius Rufus and then Nymphidius Sabinus. He gained a reputation for cruelty and licentiousness. Tigellinus shifted his allegiance to Galba, but Otho later ordered his execution and he committed suicide.

BookSevenXV Honoured by Galba.

Tigranes III was king of Armenia from 20BC until 8BC. He was the son of Artavasdes II. In 20BC, the Armenians informed Augustus that they no longer wanted Artaxias II as their king, and asked that his brother Tigranes (then in Roman custody in Alexandria) be installed in his place. Augustus sent a large army under Tiberius to depose Artaxias, who was assassinated, and the Romans put Tigranes on the throne unopposed.

BookThreeIX Installed as king by Tiberius.

Tillius Cimber, Lucius (d. 42BC) was a senator, one of the assassins of Julius Caesar who gave the signal for the attack on him. He was initially one of Caesar’s strongest supporters. Caesar granted Cimber governorship of the provinces of Bithynia and Pontus in 44BC. He may also have been Praetor in the same year. His role was to initiate the attack, by petitioning Caesar to recall his exiled brother. After Caesar’s death Cimber went to Bithynia to raise a fleet in support of the leaders of the assassins, Marcus Brutus and Gaius Cassius. He is supposed to have defeated Publius Cornelius Dolabella, and provided naval support to Brutus and Cassius’s invasion of Macedonia. He is last heard of shortly before the Battle of Philippi and is assumed to have been killed during the campaign.

BookOneLXXXII Attacks Caesar.

Tiridates I was King of Armenia from 53AD and the founder of the Arshakuni Dynasty. By agreement with the Parthians, he was confirmed as king of Armenia by Nero in 66AD; the king was to be a Parthian prince in future, with Roman approval of the candidate required. Though Armenia was thus a client kingdom, various contemporary Roman sources considered that Nero had effectively ceded Armenia to the Parthian Empire.

BookSixXIII His visit to Rome in AD66.

BookSixXXX Nero lavished money on him.

Titurius Sabinus, Quintus, one of Caesar’s legates during the Gallic Wars. In 54BC he and Lucius Aurunculeius Cotta were stationed for the winter in the territory of the Eburones with a legion and five cohorts. They had not been more than fifteen days in the country before they were attacked by Ambiorix and Cativolcus. Sabinus, showing less resolve than Cotta and trusting himself under Ambiorix’s flag of truce, was massacred along with Cotta and all their troops.

BookOneXXV Mentioned as an example of a setback for Caesar.

BookOneLXVII Caesar’s refusal to cut his hair till they were avenged.

Titus, Flavius Vespasianus (39AD – 81AD), was Emperor from 79AD to 81AD. A member of the Flavian dynasty, Titus succeeded his father Vespasian having served under him in Judaea during the First Jewish-Roman War. In 70AD, with his father as Emperor, he had laid siege to and destroyed the city and Temple of Jerusalem. For this he was awarded a triumph; the Arch of Titus commemorating his victory. As emperor, he is best known for completing the Colosseum and for relieving the suffering caused by the Mount Vesuvius eruption of 79AD and a fire in Rome in 80AD. Titus died of a fever and was deified by the Roman Senate and succeeded by his younger brother Domitian.

BookEightIII His birth mentioned.

BookEightIV He accompanied his father Vespasian to Judaea in 66AD.

BookEightXXIII BookEightXXXVIII BookEightXLVI BookEightXLIX BookEightXLVIII Mentioned.

BookEightXXVI Suetonius’s life of Titus follows.

BookEightXLIX Domitian boasted of having conferred power on his brother.

Tolosa, modern Toulouse, is a city in southwest France on the River Garonne, 366 miles from Paris, half-way between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. A new Roman city was founded on the eastern bank of the river around 10AD – 30AD, and the previous settlement abandoned. A native of Tolosa, Marcus Antonius Primus led the army of Vespasian into Italy and entered Rome in 69AD, establishing the Flavian dynasty. Domitian, son of Vespasian and personal friend of Antonius Primus, granted Tolosa the honorific status of Roman colony.

BookSevenLIII Antonius Primus was born there.

Toranius, called Flaccus by Macrobius, was a slave-dealer at the time of Augustus.

BookTwoLXIX Mentioned.

Toranius, Gaius was guardian to Octavian (Augustus) and a colleague, as aedile, of his father Octavius.

BookTwoXXVII Proscribed by Augustus.

Tralles, modern Aydin, also called Güzelhisar in the Middle Ages, is a city in Turkey’s Aegean Region, located in the lower valley of Büyük Menderes River (the ancient Meander River) Tralles suffered greatly from an earthquake in 26BC and Augustus provided funds for its reconstruction after which the city thanked him by renaming itself Caesarea.

BookThreeVIII Tiberius acted as advocate in Rome for the citizens.

Trebatius Testa, Gaius was a jurist who originated from Elea. He was a protege of Cicero who dedicated his Topica to him, and recommended Trebatius as a legal advisor to Julius Caesar. Trebatius enjoyed Caesar's favor, and later that of Augustus as well. Trebatius’ writings included a de religionibus and de iure civili, but nothing of these survives. He was, however, frequently cited by later jurists, and also had a high reputation as the teacher of the famous jurist Marcus Antistius Labeo.

BookOneLXXVIII Mentioned.

Trebia, or Trebiae, modern Trevi, is an ancient town in Umbria, on the lower flank of Monte Serano overlooking the plain of the Clitunno River.

BookThreeXXXI Mentioned.

Treveri, or Treviri were a tribe of Gauls who inhabited the lower valley of the Moselle from c. 150BC, until their eventual absorption into the Frankish tribes. The Romans subdued the Treveri in the 1st century BC and established Augusta Treverorum, the modern Trier, in 30BC. The city later became the capital of the Roman province of Gallia Belgica, as well as of the Roman prefecture of Gaul.

BookFourVIII It was claimed that Caligula was born in their region.

Triton was a mythological Greek god, the messenger of the sea. He was the son of Poseidon (Neptune), god of the sea, and Amphitrite. He is usually represented as a merman, carrying a trident. However, Triton’s special attribute is a twisted conch shell, on which he blows like a trumpet to calm or raise the waves.

BookFiveXXI A mechanical silver Triton used as a starting signal for Claudius’s mock naval battle on the Fucine Lake.

Trojans were the inhabitants of the ancient city of Troy in northern Asia Minor, around whose site the Trojan War was fought.

BookOneLXXIX It was rumoured that Caesar might remove from Rome to Troy.

BookFiveXXV Claudius exempted the Trojans from tribute.

BookSixVII Nero delivered a plea on behalf of the citizens before Claudius in AD51.

Tubero, Quintus Aelius (b. c. 74BC), was a jurist, and author of law books and a history. He married a daughter of Servius Sulpicius. He may have been the Tubero who was a consul under Augustus in 11BC.

BookOneLXXXIII Claimed Caesar had named Pompey as his heir until the Civil war.

Tullius Cicero, Marcus (106BC, Arpinum, Latium — Dec. 7, 43BC, Formiae) Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, and writer. Born to a wealthy family, he quickly established a brilliant career in law and plunged into politics. Cicero was elected consul in 63BC. Of his speeches, perhaps the best known are those he made against Catiline, whose uprising he foiled. He vainly tried to uphold republican principles in the civil wars that destroyed the RomanRepublic. After the death of Julius Caesar, he delivered his 14 Philippic orations against Mark Antony. When the triumvirate of Antony, Octavian (later Augustus), and Marcus Lepidus was formed, he was executed.

BookOneIX Refers to Caesar’s ambitions in a letter to Axius.

BookOneXX Caesar treated him as an enemy.

BookOneXXX Quoted regarding Caesar.

BookOneXLII Mentioned regarding the penalties for crimes.

BookOneXLIX On Caesar’s relationship with Nicomedes.

BookOneLV Praises Caesar’s oratorical skills. Cicero’s Brutus, or a History of Famous Orators is mentioned.

BookOneLVI Praises Caesar’s style in the memoirs.

BookTwoIII Admonishes his brother in Ad Quint. Frat 1.1.21.

BookTwoV He was consul in the year of Augustus’ birth, 63BC.

BookTwoXCIV A dream of his relating to Augustus.

BookThreeII He was driven into exile in 59/58BC.

BookThreeVII His close friend Atticus.

BookFiveXLI Claudius wrote a defecnce of Cicero against the writings of Asinius Gallus.

Tullius Cicero, Quintus (102BC – 43BC) was the younger brother of the orator Marcus Tullius Cicero. He was aedile in 66BC, praetor in 62BC, and propraetor of the Province of Asia for three years 61BC - 59BC. Legatus under Caesar during the Gallic Wars from 54BC to 52BC (accompanying Caesar on his second expedition to Britain in 54BC and surviving a Nervian siege of his camp during Ambiorix’s revolt), and under his brother in Cilicia in 51BC. During the civil wars he supported the Pompeian faction, obtaining the pardon of Caesar later. During the period, when the Second Triumvirate made the Roman Republic again a scene of Civil War, he, his brother, and his son, were all proscribed, and were killed in 43BC.

BookOneXIV His denunciation of the Catiline conspirators.

BookTwoIII Admonished by his brother in Ad Quint. Frat 1.1.21.

Turnus, in Virgil’s Aeneid is the King of the Rutuli, and the chief antagonist of the hero Aeneas.

BookSixLIV Nero proposed to dance the part of Turnus in a performance of scenes from the Aeneid.

Tusculum. The town’s ruins are located on Tuscolo hill, more specifically on the northern edge of the outer crater ring of the Alban volcano. The volcano is located in the Alban Hills, 4 miles north-east of the modern town of Frascati. It was connectd to Rome by the Via Latina, and Cicero had a villa there.

BookSevenIV Galba’s summer retreat was there.

BookSevenXVIII The Temple of Fortune there.

Tyre is located about 50 miles south of modern Beirut, in the Lebanon. The name of the city means ‘rock’ after the rocky formation on which the town was originally built. An ancient Phoenician city, it is the legendary birthplace of Europa and Elissa (Dido). Tyre was particularly known for the production of a rare and extraordinarily expensive purple dye, produced from the murex shellfish, known as Tyrian purple. This color was, in many cultures, reserved for the use of royalty, or nobility.

BookSixXXXI Dido fled to North Africa from there, according to legend.

BookSixXXXII The use of Tyrian purple dyes.

Ulysses, or Odysseus, was the Greek hero of Homer’s Odyssey and a Greek leader in the Iliad.

BookFourXXIII Caligula described Livia as ‘Ulysses in a petticoat’.

Umbria, is a region of central Italy. Its capital is now Perugia. The Umbria of Roman times however extended through most of what is now the northern Marche, to Ravenna, but excluded the west bank of the Tiber. And Perugia was thus in Etruria at that time.

BookOneXXXIV Overrun by Caesar.

Valeria Messalina (c. 17/20AD – 48AD) was the third wife of the Emperor Claudius (from 37/38AD). She was the first daughter and second child of Domitia Lepida the Younger and her first cousin Marcus Valerius Messalla Barbatus. Messalina bore Claudius two children: a daughter Claudia Octavia (b. 39AD or 40AD), who was first wife to the emperor Nero; and a son, Britannicus (born 41AD). Messalina had an affair with the Senator Gaius Silius in 47AD, and conspired with him to overthrow Claudius, who ordered their deaths in 48AD.

BookFiveXVII She participated in Claudius’s British triumph of 43AD.

BookFiveXXVI Third wife of Claudius.

BookFiveXXVII Her children Claudia and Britannicus.

BookFiveXXIX BookFiveXXXVI Her affair with Gaius Silius.

BookFiveXXXVII Her part in the downfall of Appius Silanus.

BookFiveXXXIX Executed on Claudius’s orders.

BookSixVI She attempted to have Nero strangled.

BookSevenXXXVII Lucius Vitellius, father of the emperor, sought to curry favour with her.

Valerius Catullus, Gaius (c. 84BC – c. 54BC) was a poet of the Republican period. His poetry was influenced by the innovative poetry of the Hellenistic Age, and especially by Callimachus and the Alexandrian school, who deliberately turned away from the classical epic. Hispoems were widely appreciated by other poets, but Cicero despised them for their supposed amorality. Catullus was never considered one of the canonical school authors. Nevertheless, he greatly influenced poets such as Ovid, Horace, and Virgil.

BookOneLXXIII His libels concerning Mamurra (Catullus 29 and 57)

Valerius Catullus, was an unknown young man of consular family who boasted of his relationship with Caligula.

BookFourXXXVI Caligula was rumoured to have had sexual intercourse with Caligula.

Valerius Messala Messalinus, Marcus was the son of Messala Corvinus, and consul in 3BC and 3AD. He was governor of Illyricum during the Pannonian uprising. He married Augustus’s niece Claudia Marcella Minor, as her second husband. Their son was Marcus Valerius Messala Barbatus.

BookSevenIV Galba was born during his consulship.

Valerius Messala Barbatus, Marcus (11BC - c. 21AD) was consul in 20AD. He was the father of Valeria Messalina. His son was the Marcus Valerius Messala Corvinus who became consul in 58AD.

BookFiveXXVI Cousin of Claudius.

Valerius Messala Corvinus, Marcus (64BC - 8AD) was a general, author and patron of literature and art. He was the son of politician Marcus Valerius Messalla Niger (consul 61BC). In 43BC, he was proscribed but managed to escape to the camp of Brutus and Cassius. After Philippi he went over to Antony, but subsequently transferred his support to Octavian. In 31BC Messalla was appointed consul in place of Antony, and took part in the battle of Actium. He subsequently held commands in the East, and suppressed a revolt of the Aquitanians; for this he celebrated a triumph in 27BC. He resigned the appointment of Prefect of the City after a six-day term of office in 25BC, as contrary to his ideas of constitutionalism. He was a patron of Horace and Tibullus, and Ovid expressed his gratitude to him as the first to notice and encourage his work

BookTwoLVIII He addresses Augustus on behalf of the Senate as Pater patriae (Father of the Country).

BookTwoLXXIV Quoted regarding Augustus’ dinner parties.

BookThreeLXX Tiberius was a follower of his oratorical style.

BookFiveXIII He was the maternal grandfather of Statilius Corvinus.

Varro, Marcus Terentius, see Terentius

Varro Murena, Aulus Terentius, see Terentius

Varronilla was a Vestal Virgin who broke her vows under Domitian and whom he had executed.

BookEightXLIV Mentioned.

Vatinius, Publius, was quaestor in 63BC, and tribune of the plebs in 59BC. He was Consul in 47BC, and fought in the Civil Wars, surrendering his defecting army to Brutus, but celebrating a triumph in 43BC.

BookOneXXII BookOneXXVIII A strong partisan of Julius Caesar, he brought forward a bill proposing Caesar for the Governorship of Cisalpine Gaul withIllyria, for five years, in 59BC.

Veii was an important Etrurian city ten miles north-west of Rome. Its site lies in modern Isola Farnese, a village in the Rome commune.

BookSixXXXIX Mentioned as a not-too-near neighbour of Rome.

BookSevenI Livia’s villa there, built during the 1st century BC near Prima Porta

Velabrum: the low valley in the city of Rome that connects the Forum with the Forum Boarium, and the Capitoline Hill with the western slope of the Palatine Hill. Before the construction of the Cloaca Maxima the area was a swamp. Legend claimed that the roots of a fig tree growing in this swamp caught and held the basket carrying Romulus and Remus as it floated along the Tiber. Even after the Cloaca was built, the area was still prone to flooding from the Tiber, until the ground level was raised after the Neronian fire.

BookOneXXXVII Mentioned.

BookSixXXV Nero’s triumphal procession passed through it on his return from Greece in 67AD.

Velitrae, modern Velletri, on the Alban hills in Lazio, was an ancient city of the Volsci tribe, and its status was influential enough, in the time of King Ancus Marcius, to place it on a par with Rome. It lay on the Appian Way.

BookTwoI Octavian (Augustus)’s family, the Octavii originated there.

BookTwoVI Augustus’ grandfather’s villa there.

BookTwoXCIV An omen associated with Augustus recorded there.

Venus was the Roman goddess of Love (equivalent to the Greek Aphrodite).

BookOneVI The Julians claimed descent from her, through Iulus her grandson, the son of Aeneas, who was in turn her son by the mortal Anchises.

BookOneLXI BookOneLXXVIII BookOneLXXXIV Caesar originally planned to build a temple to Venus Victrix, but the Battle of Pharsalus in 48BC postponed the construction. He decided instead to dedicate a temple to Venus Genetrix as the mother of Aeneas, considered the ancestor of the gens Julia to which Caesar belonged. The temple was built in 46BC in the new Forum of Caesar. It was placed at the end of a long enclosure by the Forum, a practice that was borrowed by the Romans from the Etruscans and which later became a standard architectural feature throughout the Roman Empire. The area was damaged by the fire in 80AD. Later the temple was rebuilt by Domitian and was restored by Trajan in 113AD. The three columns now visible belong to this later reconstruction.

BookFourVII A Temple of Venus Erycina was dedicated in 215BC, on the Capitoline Hill, vowed by the dictator Quintus Fabius Maximus following the Roman defeat at the Battle of Lake Trasimene in 217BC, and after consultation of the Sybilline Books.

BookFourLII Caligula liked to dress as Venus.

BookFourLVI Her name used as a mock password by Caligula.

BookFiveXXV BookSevenXVIII Claudius restored the temple of Venus Erycina on the western tip of Sicily. Temples were erected to Venus of Eryx on the Capitoline and outside the Porta Collina.

BookSixXXXIX The Shrine of Venus Libitina, possibly on the Esquiline, was dedicated to Venus as an underworld goddess of funerals: the undertakers had offices on the site, and deaths were registered there.

BookEightXVIII The draped Venus of Cos was sculpted by Praxiteles. A Venus, possibly a copy of this, or conceivably the restored original, was consecrated by Vespasian in the Temple of Peace.

BookEightXXX Titus consulted her oracle at Paphos.

Veranius Flaccus, an unknown writer, presumably an archaizer. The suggestion has been made that the reference is to Marcus Verrius Flaccus, the freedman selected by Augustus, as preceptor to his grandsons, mentioned in Suetonius’ On Grammarians 17.

BookTwoLXXXVI Mentioned.

Vergilius Maro, Publius (Virgil, 70BC – 19BC) was a classical Roman poet, best known for three major works, the Eclogues, the Georgics, and the Aeneid, though several minor poems are also attributed to him. The son of a farmer, Virgil came to be regarded as one of Rome's greatest poets. His Aeneid may be considered the Roman national epic.

BookTwoXL The quotation is from Aeneid Book1:282.

BookFourXXXIV Caligula considered banning his works, out of envy and malice.

BookFourXLV The quotation is from Aeneid Book1:207.

BookSixXLVII The quotation is from Aeneid Book XII:646.

BookSixLIV Mentioned.

BookEightXLV The quotation is from Georgics Book 2:537.

Vespasia Polla, also known as Vespasia Pollia (b. c. 15BC) was the mother of Vespasian, grandmother to Emperors Titus and Domitian. Polla came from an equestrian family at Nursia. She married Flavius Sabinus, producing two sons, Sabinus and Vespasian, and a daughter Flavia Vespasia who died in infancy.

BookEightI Her background.

BookEightV Omens concerning the fates of her children.

Vespasian, Titus Flavius Vespasianus (9AD – 79AD), was Roman Emperor from 69AD to 79AD, and founder of the Flavian dynasty. Vespasian was descended from a family of equestrians which rose to senatorial rank under the emperors of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Consul in 51AD, Vespasian was a successful military commander, having participated in the Roman invasion of Britain in 43AD, and subjugating Judaea during the Jewish rebellion of 66AD. On his death in 79AD, he was succeeded by his eldest son Titus.

BookFiveXLV He reinstated Claudius’s deification.

BookSevenXXIII He cancelled the statue to Galba, convinced that Galba had tried to have him assassinated in Judaea.

BookSevenL The legions in Moesia, Pannonia, Syria and Judaea swore allegiance to him in 69AD.

BookSevenLII BookEightXXX His army entered Rome in December 69AD.

BookEightII Suetonius’s life of Vespasian follows.

BookEightXXVI Succeeded by his son Titus.

BookEightXXXVI His death at his summer villa near Reate.

BookEightXXXVII His son Domitian was born a month before Vespasian took up office as consul in November 51AD. He was consul for the remaining two months of the year.

BookEightXXXVIII BookEightLI Mentioned.

BookEightXL A College of priests was established for the worship of the deified Flavian Emperors after the manner of the Augustales.

BookEightXLIX Domitian boasted of having conferred power on his father.

Vespasian was a son of Flavius Clemens who had two sons both named Titus Flavius, born c. 88AD and c. 90AD, who were educated by Quintilian. Domitian named them as his heirs, changing their former names and calling the one Vespasian and the other Domitian.

BookEightLI Mentioned.

Vespasius Pollio, of Nursia, was a soldier and maternal grandfather of Vespasian.

BookEightI Mentioned.

Vesta, was the goddess of the hearth. The Vestal Virgins were her priestesses.

BookThreeL BookSixXIX The circular Temple of Vesta was located in the Forum between the Temple of Castor and Pollux, the Temple of Caesar, the Regia and the House of the Vestal Virgins. It originally dated to the 7th century BC when Numa Pompilius was said to have built it along with the original Regia and the House of the Vestal Virgins. The surviving ruins are of later restorations.

Vestal Virgins were the female priestesses, (established by Numa, second king of Rome, disbanded AD394), of Vesta, the goddess of the hearth. Their primary task was to maintain the sacred fire. The vestal duty brought honour and privilege to women who served in that role. They were the only female priests within the Roman religious system.

BookOneI They interceded on behalf of the young Julius Caesar.

BookOneLXXXIII Caesar’s will was entrusted to the Vestals.

BookTwoXXXI Augustus increased their privileges.

BookTwoXLIV Augustus granted them special seats at the Games.

BookTwoCI They were the custodians of Augustus’ will.

BookThreeII Claudia, the sister (or daughter, Cicero) of Appius Claudius Pulcher was a Vestal who abused her sacred privilege.

BookThreeLXXVI Tiberius left them a bequest in his will.

BookSixXII Nero invited them to view the athletics contest.

BookSixXXVIII Nero raped the Vestal Virgin Rubria.

BookSevenLI Vitellius sent the Vestal Virgins with envoys to sue for peace.

BookEightXLIV As daughters of the State, sexual relationship with a citizen was considered incestuous and an act of treason. The ancient punishment for violating the oath of celibacy, devised by Tarquinius Priscus as a refinement of the previous method, was to be ‘buried alive’ in the Campus Sceleratus or Field of Wickedness, by being sealed in an underground chamber near the Colline Gate, with a limited supply of food and water.

Vestinus Atticus, Marcus Julius, see Julius

Vesuvius is a stratovolcano on the Bay of Naples, about 5.6 miles east of Naples itself, and a short distance from the shore. Its eruption in 79AD led to the destruction of the Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum and the death of Pliny the Elder. The cities were never rebuilt, although surviving townspeople and probably looters did undertake extensive salvage work after the destructions.

BookEightXXXIII Its eruption took place during Titus’ reign.

Vettius, Lucius, an informer who falsely accused Julius Caesar of involvement in the Catiline conspiracy.

BookOneXVII He was subsequently imprisoned by Caesar.

Vibius Crispus, Lucius Junius Quintus, served as a Legatus in Hispania Citerior and was three times suffect consul during the reigns of Nero Vespasian and Domitian.

BookEightXXXIX His wit.

Vibius Pansa Caetronianus, Gaius (d. 43BC) was tribune in 51BC. During the civil war between Julius Caesar and Pompey, he joined the cause of the Caesarians. After Caesar’s assassination, however, he became one of the leading proponents for the return of the Republic, and was elected consul in 43BC, with Aulus Hirtius. The two marched north to engage Mark Antony, on the orders of the Senate. On April 14, 43BC, the two forces met in the Battle of Forum Gallorum, near Mutina. Although the Senate’s forces proved victorious, Pansa was wounded, and died a few days later. A doctor was later arrested, suspected of poisoning him.

BookTwoX His death at Mutina.

BookTwoXI Claims that Augustus had him poisoned.

BookThreeV His consulship in 43BC.

Vienna, the modern Vienne, is a city located 20 miles south of Lyon, on the Rhône. The capital city of the Allobroges, it was transformed into a Roman colony in 47BC under Julius Caesar.

BookSevenXLIV BookSevenLIII Vitellius there in 69AD.

Vindelicians, or the Vindelici, were the inhabitants of a region bounded on the north by the Danube and (later) Hadrian’s Limes Germanicus, on the east by the Oenus (Inn), on the south by Raetia and on the west by the territory of the Helvetii.

BookTwoXXI BookThreeIX They retained their independence until their subjugation in 15BC, under Augustus, by Tiberius. The Augustan inscription of 12BC mentions four tribes of the Vindelici among the defeated.

Vindex, see Julius

Vinicius was the leader of a minor conspiracy against Nero organised from Beneventum.

BookSixXXXVI Mentioned.

Vinicius, Marcus was grandfather to the Marcus Vinicius (consul 30AD) who married Germanicus’s daughter Julia Livilla. Born to an equestrian family at Cales in Campania, Vinicius distinguished himself as legatus Augusti pro praetore in 25BC when he led a victorious campaign into Germania. At some point, he may also have served as governor of the Roman province of Achaea. He was made suffect consul in 19BC. Around 13BC, he served as legate in Illyricum where he was in charge of the early stages of the Pannonian War (Bellum Pannonicum) until Tiberius, assumed command. Between 1AD and 4AD, Vinicius commanded the five legions stationed in Germany, and won the ornamenta triumphalia.

BookTwoLXXI He dines with Augustus.

Vinicius, Lucius, a young man of good family.

BookTwoLXIV Augustus warned him about seeing his daughter Julia.

Vinius, Titus (12AD – 69AD) was a Roman general during the reign of the Emperor Galba. He was proconsul of Gallia Narbonensis and later commander of a legion in Spain under Galba as governor. When Galba was proclaimed emperor in 68AD, Vinius accompanied him to Rome. In early 69AD Galba was faced with the need to designate an heir. Titus Vinius supported Otho, having already secretly agreed that Otho should marry his daughter. He was however killed by the Prateorian Guard when Otho achieved power.

BookSevenXIV Mentioned.

BookSevenXLII He may have been responsible for Vitellius’s appointment to Lower Germany in 68AD.

Vinius Philopoemen, Titus was made a knight by Augustus for hiding his proscribed patron. Cassius Dio has the patroness Tanusia hiding her husband Titus Vinius at the house of Philopoemon.

BookTwoXXVII Mentioned.

Viriathus, or Viriato (d. c. 139BC) was a leader of the Lusitanians who resisted Roman expansion into the regions of Western Hispania. He achieved several victories over the Romans between 147BC and 139BC when he was betrayed and killed.

BookSevenIII Mentioned.

Vitellia, or Vitula, was an indigenous goddess of the Latins, presiding over joy and victory, and celebrated at the Vitulatio (5th-6th July)

BookSevenXXXVI Consort of Faunus. The name Vitellia may have been a corruption of Vitula influenced by the rise of the Vitelli family.

Vitellia (b. c. 55AD) was the daughter of the emperor Vitellius and his second wife Galeria Fundana. She survived her father’s downfall and was enabled to marry well, by Vespasian. She may have married Libo Rupilius Frugi.

BookSevenXLI BookEightXIV Mentioned.

Vitellius, Aulus (15AD - 69AD), later Aulus Vitellius Germanicus, was Emperor for eight months, from 16 April to 22 December 69AD. He succeeded Galba and Otho, in the Year of the Four Emperors. He added the honorific cognomen Germanicus to his name instead of Caesar upon his accession; the latter name having fallen into disrepute. His claim was soon challenged by legions in the eastern provinces, who proclaimed their commander Vespasian emperor instead. Civil war led to a crushing defeat for Vitellius at the Second Battle of Betriacum in northern Italy. Once he realised support was wavering, Vitellius prepared to abdicate in favour of Vespasian, but was executed in Rome by Vespasian’s soldiers on December 22nd 69AD.

BookSevenXXXI Otho suggested sharing power with him, and marrying his daughter.

BookSevenXXXVI Suetonius’s life of Vitellius follows.

BookEightV BookEightVI BookEightVII BookEightXXXVII Mentioned.

BookEightVIII Vespasian gave many of Vitellius’s soldiers their discharge.

Vitellius, Aulus was one of the four sons of quaestor Publius Vitellius. He was uncle to the Emperor Vitellius, and consul suffectus in 32AD, the year of his death, along with Nero’s father.

BookSevenXXXVII Mentioned.

Vitellius Germanicus was the son of the emperor Vitellius by Galeria Fundana, his second wife. He was killed in AD69 with his father.

BookSevenXLI Mentioned.

BookSevenLIII Executed along with Vitellius.

Vitellius, Lucius the Elder (before 5BC – 51AD), the father of the Emperor Vitellius, was the youngest of four sons of quaestor Publius Vitellius. Under Tiberius, he was Consul in 34AD and Governor of Syria in 35AD. He deposed Pontius Pilate in 36AD after complaints from the Samarians. He supported Caligula, and was a favorite of Claudius’ wife Messalina. During Claudius’ reign, he was Consul twice in 43 and 47AD, and governed Rome during the Campaign in Britain. In 48AD or 49AD, Vitellius served as Censor. He died of paralysis in 51AD. Lucius married Sestilia, from a distinguished family. She gave birth to two sons, Aulus Vitellius Germanicus (Emperor in 69AD) and Lucius the Younger.

BookSevenXXXVII Suetonius gives a brief life.

BookSevenXXXVIII His death in 51AD.

BookSevenLI Vitellius fled to his father’s house on the Aventine in 69AD, occupied, according to Tacitus, by his wife, presumably Galeria Fundana.

Vitellius, Lucius the Younger (c. 16AD - 69AD) was the second son of Lucius Vitellius the Elder and Sextilia and younger brother of emperor Aulus Vitellius. He served a six-month Suffect consulship in 48AD. His first wife in 46AD or 47AD was Junia Calvina, a descendant of Augustus, but they divorced before 49AD. His second wife was Triaria. He had no issue. Lucius became Governor of Africa, with his brother as deputy, in 61/62AD. He was executed with his brother and nephew in December 69AD.

BookSevenXXXVIII BookSevenXL Mentioned.

BookSevenXLVIII His banquet staged on Vitellius’s arrival in Rome.

BookSevenL A commander during Vitellius’s reign.

BookSevenLIII Executed along with Vitellius.

Vitellius, Publius the Elder was the son of Quintus Vitellius, who served as a quaestor under Augustus. Publius himself was a Roman knight, who served as a quaestor and steward of Augustus. He was paternal grandfather to the emperor Vitellius.

BookSevenXXXVII Mentioned.

Vitellius, Publius the Younger (d. 32AD) was the son of Publius Vitellius the Elder and uncle of the future emperor Vitellius. In 15AD he accompanied Germanicus on his second campaign in Germania. On Germanicus's suspicious death in 19AD, Vitellius was one of the most eloquent prosecutors of Gnaeus Calpurnius Piso. Vitellius was later among the supporters of Sejanus and on Sejanus execution on charges of high treason in 31AD, Vitellius was also indicted for complicity, having been praefectus of the treasury under him.

BookSevenXXXVII He attempted suicide, but died of natural causes.

Vitellius, Quintus was one of the four sons of quaestor Publius Vitellius. He was uncle to the Emperor Vitellius, and a senator who was among those expelled by Tiberius from the Senate in 17AD, due to their scandalous lives and wild extravagance.

BookSevenXXXVII Mentioned.

Vitellius, Quintus was the paternal great-grandfather of the emperor, Vitellius, and a quaestor under Augustus.

BookSevenXXXVI Mentioned.

Vologases, or Vologeses, I ruled the Parthian Empire from c. 51AD - 78AD. He was the son of Vonones II. He gave the kingdom of Media Atropatene to his brother Pacorus II, and occupied Armenia for another brother, Tiridates. This led to a long war with Rome (54AD – 63AD). In the resulting peace Tiridates was acknowledged king of Armenia, as a vassal of the Romans.

BookSixLVII He asked for Nero’s memory to be honoured.

BookEightVI His support for Vespasian.

BookEightXXXVIII Mentioned.

Vonones I of Parthia, ruled the Parthian Empire c. 8AD - 12AD. He was deposed by the nobility, and fled to Armenia as king there. Artabanus II his successor demanded his deposition, and as Augustus did not want war with Parthia he exiled Vonones to Syria, where he was kept in princely custody. Later he was moved to Cilicia, and in about 19AD killed, ostensibly trying to escape.

BookThreeXLIX Robbed and treacherously executed by Tiberius.

BookFourI The situation in Armenia was complicated 16AD - 18AD. Vonones had claimed the throne but was in exile. Germanicus concluded a treaty with Artabanus II, in which he was recognized as king and friend of the Romans. Armenia was given in AD18 to Zeno, the son of the king of Pontus.

Xeno, was a Greek companion of Tiberius.

BookThreeLVI Exiled by Tiberius to Cinaria (Kinaros).

Xenophon (c. 430BC – 354BC), son of Gryllus, of the deme Erchia of Athens, also known as Xenophon of Athens, was a Greek historian, soldier, mercenary, and a contemporary and admirer of Socrates. He is known for his writings on the history of his own times, the 4th century BC, preserving the sayings of Socrates, and the life of ancient Greece.

BookOneLXXXVII His Cyropaedia ‘The Education of Cyrus’ is a partly fictional biography of Cyrus the Great.

Xerxes I of Persia, also known as Xerxes the Great (519BC - 465BC), was the fourth Zoroastrian king of kings of the Achamenid Empire. He bridged the Hellespont when unsuccessfully invading Greece c. 480BC.

BookFourXIX Caligula wished to outdo him, with his bridge of boats at Baiae.

Zela, modern Zile, is now a small hilltop town in the Tokat province of northern Turkey. Zile lies south of Amasya and west of Tokat. The Battle of Zela was fought in 47BC between Julius Caesar and Pharnaces II King of Pontus.

BookOneXXXV Caesar’s victory there.