Suetonius: The Twelve Caesars - Index LMN
Laberius, Decimus (c. 105BC - 43BC) was a Roman eques and writer of mimes. In 46BC, Julius Caesar ordered him to appear in one of his own mimes in a public contest with the actor Publilius Syrus. Caesar awarded the victory to Publilius, but restored Laberius to his equestrian rank, which he had forfeited by appearing as a mimus.
BookOneXXXIX His appearance before Caesar.
Labienus, Titus (c. 100BC – March 17, 45BC) served as Tribune of the Plebs in 63BC, and is remembered as one of Julius Caesar’s lieutenants, mentioned frequently in the accounts of his military campaigns. He was the father of Quintus Labienus who sided with Brutus and Cassius, and fought inParthia.
BookOneXII At Caesar’s instigation, Labienus accused Gaius Rabirius of high treason (perduellio) for the murder of the tribune Lucius Appuleius Saturninus and of his uncle Titus Labienus in 100BC.
Labienus, Titus, was an orator and historian in the time of Augustus, nicknamed Rabienus for his vigorous style. He may have been the son or grandson of Quintus Labienus. He was a friend of Cassius Severus. His writings were ritually burnt by Senate decree, probably in 12AD. Labienus thereafter committed suicide.
BookFourXVI Caligula reinstated his writings.
Laetorius, Gaius was a young patrician who identified the site of Augustus’ birthplace.
BookTwoV Mentioned.
Laetus, see Suetonius
Lanuvium, later Civita Lavinia, modern Lanuvio, is an ancient city of Latium some 32 km southeast of Rome, a little southwest of the Via Appia, situated on an isolated hill projecting south from the main mass of the Alban Hills, and commanding an extensive view over the low country between it and the sea. It was conquered by Rome in 338BC. It was especially famous for its rich and much venerated temple of Juno Sospes, from which Octavian (Augustus) borrowed money in 31BC.
BookTwoLXXII Augustus spent time there.
Laodicea on the Lycus, earlier known as Diospolis and Rhoas, was a city on on the river Lycus, in Anatolia near the modern village of Eskihisar (Eski Hissar). In 188BC, the city passed to the Kingdom of Pergamon, and after 133BC fell under Roman control. It suffered greatly during the Mithridatic Wars, but quickly recovered and under the first emperors, was one of the most important and flourishing commercial cities of Asia Minor, The location suffered from frequent earthquakes, especially in the reign of Nero (60AD), when it was completely destroyed, and subsequently rebuilt.
BookThreeVIII Tiberius acted as advocate in Rome for the citizens after a devastating earthquake.
Latin Festival: the first town established by the Latin people was Alba; around this sprung up other towns, e.g. Lanuvium, Aricia, Tusculum, Tibur, Praeneste, Laurentum, Roma, and Lavinium. The towns, thirty in number, formed the Latin Confederacy, with Alba at its head. An annual festival was celebrated with great solemnity by the magistrates on the Alban Mount, called the Latin Festival, where sacrifice was offered to their god, Jupiter (Latiaris). The Latin Festival lasted 3 to 4 days and had to take place early in the year since it required that the consuls still be in Rome prior to leaving on campaign.
BookOneLXXIX Celebrated by Caesar.
BookFiveIV Mentioned by Augustus, when banning the young Claudius from attending.
BookSixVII Nero acted as judge at the Festival during Claudius’s reign.
Latinus, was an actor in farces, a comic mime, at the time of Domitian. He was an informer, and a favourite of the Emperor, and is mentioned by Martial who gives his epitaph (ix:29). He often acted as mimus with Thymele as mima.
BookEightLI Mentioned.
Lavicum, or Labicum, or Labici, near the modern Colonna, was located about 20 km southeast of Rome, on the Alban Hills.
BookOneLXXXIII Caesar’s villa there.
Lentulus, Gnaeus Cornelius, was consul in 3BC.
BookSevenIV Galba was born during his consulship.
Lentulus Augur, Gnaeus Cornelius (d. 25AD). Circa 1BC, he was proconsul of Asia. After the death of Augustus, he accompanied Drusus to Dalmatia in 14AD. He was a loyal supporter of the imperial house, and a member of the colleges of augurs.
BookThreeXLIX He was supposedly driven to suicide by Tiberius.
Lentulus Gaetulicus, Gnaeus Cornelius (d. 39AD) was Consul in 26AD. He later became Legate of Germania Superior, possibly in succession to his brother. He served there from 29AD - 39AD while his father-in-law governed Germania Inferior. He became involved in a conspiracy against Caligula in 39AD, in league with Lepidus, the husband of Caligula’s late sister Drusilla. Caligula had Gaetulicus executed. He wrote poetry and other works.
BookFourVIII One of Suetonius’s sources.
BookFiveIX His involvement in the conspiracy.
BookSevenVI Galba replaced him in Upper Germany.
BookEightII Vespasian proposed he was refused public burial.
Lepida, Aemilia, was a daughter of Manius Aemilius Lepidus, consul in 11AD. She is commonly identified with Lepida, wife of the Emperor Galba. She was connected by inter-marriage to some of the Julii-Claudii. She bore Galba two sons. Galba Major the elder was born circa 25AD and is believed to have died c. 48AD. Galba Minor the younger was born before 30AD. He was a quaestor in 58AD, but is not recorded thereafter. His death is believed to have occurred c. 60AD. Lepida died in or after 40AD.
BookSevenV The wife of Galba.
Lepida, Aemilia, was daughter to Lepidus the Younger, and sister to Manius Aemilius Lepidus (consul 11AD). She married the wealthy Roman Governor Publius Sulpicius Quirinius. In her younger years, she was engaged to Lucius Caesar, and had borne a son to senator Mamercus Aemilius Scaurus.
BookThreeXLIX In 20AD, she was charged with adultery, consulting astrologers, falsely claiming to have borne a son to her ex-husband Quirinius and attempting to poison him. At her trial her brother defended her. She was found guilty and executed.
Lepidus, see Aemilius
Liber, Dionysus, or Bacchus was the Greek god of wine, theatre, and fertility. His festival was the Liberalia, celebrated on March 17.
BookTwoXCIV An oracular grove of the god in Thrace, possibly the sanctuary and oracular shrine at Perperikon (near modern Kardzhali, Bulgaria) dedicated to the god Sabazios (merged with the Greek Dionysus) of the Bessi was situated there.
Liburnia was a region along the northeastern Adriatic coast, in modern Croatia. The Liburnians were noted for their seamanship and their fast galleys with one or two banks of oars. Illyrian and Liburnian pirate activities motivated Octavian to organize decisive operations in Illyricum in 35BC, to achieve Roman control. He commandeered Liburnian ships, and Liburnian galleys played a decisive role at the battle of Actium.
BookFourXXXVII Caligula’s Liburnian galleys with ten banks of oars were a grotesque misapplication of the design.
Licinius Macer Calvus, Gaius (82BC - c. 47BC) was an orator and poet, the son of Licinius Macer and thus a member of the gens Licinia, he was a friend of Catullus, whose style and subject matter he shared. Calvus’ oratical style opposed the Asian school in favor of a simpler Attic model: he characterized Cicero as wordy and artificial. Twenty-one speeches are mentioned, including several against Publius Vatinius. Calvus was apparently rather short in height, since Catullus alludes to him as salaputium disertum (the eloquent Lilliputian).
BookOneXLIX On Caesar’s relationship with Nicomedes.
BookOneLXXIII His epigrams against Caesar.
BookTwoLXXII His house near the Forum occupied by Augustus.
Licinius Crassus, Lucius (140BC – 91BC) was consul in 95BC. He was considered the greatest Roman orator of his day, by his pupil Cicero. In 92BC he was elected Censor.
BookSixII Mentioned.
Licinius Crassus, Marcus, (c. 115BC – 53BC) Roman general and politician who commanded the left wing of Sulla’s army at the Battle of the Colline Gate, suppressed the slave revolt led by Spartacus and entered into the political alliance known as the First Triumvirate, with Pompey and Julius Caesar. He was consul in 70BC and 55BC. As governor of Syria (54BC) Crassus invaded Parthia; and died defeated at the Battle of Carrhae in 53BC. BookOneIX Conspires with Julius Caesar in 65BC.
BookOneXIX He was a member of the First Triumvirate with Caesar and Pompey, which was unofficial, and lasted from 60BC until his death in 53BC.
BookOneXXI Caesar gave Pompey precedence over him.
BookOneXXIV The First Triumvirate re-affirmed at Lucca in 56BC.
BookOneL Caesar was reputed to have had an affair with his wife, Axia Tertulla.
BookTwoXXI BookThreeIX His standards lost at Carrhae were recovered in 20BC.
Licinius Crassus Frugi, Marcus, served as a praetor and then later as a consul with Lucius Calpurnius Piso in 27AD. Sometime after 44AD, he served as Roman Governor of Mauretania. In the spring of 47AD, Frugi, his wife, and his second son Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, who had married Claudius’ daughter Claudia, were executed on the orders of Messalina.
BookFiveXVII His distinction at Claudius’s British triumph in 43AD
Licinius Mucianus was sent by Claudius to Armenia with Gnaeus Domitius Corbulo. Under Nero he was suffect consul c. 65. At the time of the outbreak of the Jewish revolt in 66AD, he was governor of Syria, a post he still held during the Year of Four Emperors (69AD). He failed to put down the Jewish revolt and Vespasian was sent to replace him. After the death of Galba (69AD), both swore allegiance to Otho, but when civil war broke out Mucianus persuaded Vespasian to take up arms against Vitellius. Mucianus marched via Asia Minor and Thrace to attack Vitellius who was dead by the time he reached Rome. He was suffect consul in 70AD and 72AD. He published a collection of speeches and letters of Romans of the Republican period, and was the author of a natural history and geography of the East, quoted by Pliny regarding miraculous occurrences.
BookEightVI His support for Vespasian.
BookEightXIII Noted for his insolent and lewd behaviour.
Licinus, Gaius Julius, was a slave and freedman of Augustus, employed by him as his procurator in Gaul.
BookTwoLXVII Mentioned.
Livia Drusilla, after 14AD called Julia Augusta (58BC - 29AD) was the third wife of the Emperor Augustus and his adviser. She was the mother of the Emperor Tiberius, paternal great-grandmother of the Emperor Caligula, paternal grandmother of the Emperor Claudius, and maternal great-great grandmother of the Emperor Nero. She was later deified by Claudius who acknowledged her title of Augusta, in 42AD. In 40BC her father had married her to Tiberius Claudius Nero, her cousin. Livia had two sons by him, the future emperor Tiberius, and Nero Claudius Drusus (Drusus the Elder). Octavian divorced Scribonia in 39BC to marry Livia who also divorced. Augustus, in his will, left her one third of his property, the other two thirds to Tiberius, and adopted her into the Julian family, granting her the honorific title of Augusta. Speaking against her became treason in 20AD, and in 24AD Tiberius granted her a theatre seat among the Vestal Virgins.
BookTwoXXIX The Porticus of Livia, begun by Augustus on the site of the house of Vedius Pollio in 15BC, was dedicated to Livia in 7BC. It was situated on the north slope of the Oppius on the south side of the clivus Suburanus, between this street and the later baths of Trajan.
BookTwoXL Mentioned regarding a minor request to Augustus.
BookTwoLXII BookTwoLXIX Her marriage to Octavian (Augustus) in 38BC.
BookTwoLXIII Her marriage to Augustus was childless.
BookTwoLXXIII She made clothes for Augustus.
BookTwoLXXXIV Augustus used to draft and read aloud his most important statements to her.
BookTwoXCIX Augustus’ dying words to her.
BookTwoCI Augustus appointed her as a main heir, receiving a third of the estate.
BookThreeIV She was divorced by Tiberius father, Tiberius Nero in favour of Augustus in 39BC.
BookThreeVI Fled with her husband Nero in 40BC, and the infant Tiberius.
BookThreeVII She co-funded the young Tiberius’ gladiatorial contests in honour of his father and grandfather.
BookThreeX Her attempts to persuade Tiberius to remain in Rome in 6BC.
BookThreeXII Her interventions to help Tiberius in ‘exile’ on Rhodes.
BookThreeXIII Her intervention to aid Tiberius’ recall from Rhodes in 2AD.
BookThreeXIV Her attempts to identify the sex of her child while pregnant.
BookThreeXXVI Tiberius refused to allow September and October to be renamed ‘Tiberius’ and ‘Livius’ (after Livia).
BookThreeL BookThreeLI BookThreeLXI Tiberius’ enmity towards her.
BookFourVII She dedicated a staue of Gaius Julius Caesar, a son of Germanicus who died in early childhood.
BookFourXV Caligula awarded Antonia the Younger, his grandmother, all Livia’s honours in 37AD.
BookFourXVI Caligula paid the bequests specified in her will, which Tiberius had suppressed.
BookFourXXIII Caligula described her insultingly.
BookFiveI The mother of Drusus the Elder, and grandmother of Claudius.
BookFiveIII Her contemptuous treatment of the young Claudius.
BookFiveIV Augustus writes to her regarding Claudius.
BookFiveXI Claudius voted her divine honours.
BookSevenI A portent associated with her regarding the line of Caesars.
BookSevenV She showed Galba great favour and left him a substantial legacy which Tiberius appropriated.
BookSevenXXIV Otho’s grandfather Marcus owed his Senate position to her.
Livia Medullina Camilla was the second fiancée of the Emperor Claudius. She was the daughter of Marcus Furius Camillus, the consul of 8AD, who was a close friend of the Emperor Tiberius. Medullina unexpectedly fell ill and died on the day assigned for her wedding to Claudius. Furius Camillus Scribonianus was her adoptive brother.
BookFiveXXVI She was betrothed to Claudius, but died before the marriage could take place.
Livia Ocellina was the second wife of Galba’s father, Gaius. Galba was raised by her and took the name Lucius Livius Ocella (rather than his birth name of Servius Sulpicius Galba) prior to his assuming power.
BookSevenIII Mentioned.
BookSevenIV She formally adopted Galba.
Livia Orestilla, or Cornelia Orestilla, was the second wife of Caligula, 37AD/38AD. She was originally married to Gaius Calpurnius Piso who was forced to annul the marriage so that Caligula could marry her. According to both Dio and Suetonius, this occurred during the wedding celebrations.
BookFourXXV Caligula forcibly married her.
Livilla, see Julia Livilla
Livilla, (Claudia) Livia Julia known as Livilla (little Livia) (c. 13BC – 31AD), was the only daughter of Drusus the Elder and Antonia Minor. She was married twice, first in 2BC to Gaius Caesar, who died in 4AD, and then to her cousin Drusus the Younger, son of Tiberius. Her daughter Julia was born shortly after this second wedding. In 19AD she gave birth to twin sons of whom only Tiberius Gemellus survived infancy. At this time it appears she was seduced by Sejanus, Ancient sources (Tacitus, Suetonius, Cassius Dio) concur that with Livilla as his accomplice he poisoned her husband. In 31AD Tiberius received evidence from his sister-in-law Antonia Minor that Sejanus planned to overthrow him and had him put to death. Sejanus’ former wife Apicata committed suicide, but not before addressing a letter to Tiberius claiming that Drusus had been poisoned, with the complicity of Livilla. Livilla was then executed or committed suicide.
BookThreeLXII The poisoning of her husband.
BookFiveI Sister of Claudius and Germanicus.
BookFiveIII Her reaction to prophecies of Claudius becoming Emperor.
Livius, Titus (c. 59BC – c. 17AD), known as Livy was a historian who wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people, Ab Urbe Condita Libri ‘From the Foundation of the City’ covering the earliest legends of Rome and the traditional foundation in 753BC through to the reign of Augustus and Livy’s own time.
BookFourXXXIV Caligula considered banning his works, out of envy and malice.
BookFiveXXV See Livy I:24 for the Fetial priests, the fetiales, an order of twenty priests drawn from the nobility who were involved in declarations of war and concluding treaties.
BookFiveXLI He encouraged the young Claudius to write a history.
BookEightXLVI His works mentioned.
Livius Drusus Claudianus, Marcus, was born Appius Claudius Pulcher, but adopted into the Livii by Marcus Livius Drusus, tribune in 91BC. He was a direct descendant of the consul and censor Appius Claudius Caecus. He was praetor in 50BC, and in 42BC married his daughter Livia to Tiberius Nero, the father of the Emperor Tiberius. He fought at Philippi also in 42BC and committed suicide to avoid capture.
BookThreeIII The maternal grandfather of the Emperor Tiberius.
BookThreeVII Tiberius honoured him with a gladiatorial contest.
Livius Drusus, the first of that surname, was granted it for killing a Gallic chieftain, Drausus, in personal combat. Livius was propraetor in Gallia Cisalpina, and was said to have brought back the gold paid to the Senones as a bribe to remove their army from Rome in 390BC. The story dates Drusus, and Drausus, to the consulship of Publius Cornelius Dolabella in 283BC, when the Senones were defeated and scattered, for the most part vacating northern Italy.
BookThreeIII Mentioned as the first of that surname.
Livius Drusus, Marcus the Elder (d. 108BC) was set up as tribune by the Senate in 121BC to undermine Gaius Gracchus land reform bills. To do this, he proposed creating colonies and relieving rent on property distributed since 133BC. He also proposed Latin allies should not be mistreated by Roman generals, which was the counter offer to Gaius’ offer of full citizenship. Drusus was consul in 112BC and fought in Macedonia. In 109BC he was elected censor with the elder Marcus Aemilius Scaurus, but died the next year.
BookThreeIII Mentioned as a famous member of the Livii.
Livius Drusus, Marcus the Younger son of Marcus Livius Drusus the Elder, was tribune of the plebeians in 91BC. He set out with comprehensive plans to strengthen senatorial rule. He was assassinated and the Italian allies revolted, starting the Social War of 91BC – 88BC. His adopted son was Marcus Livius Drusus Claudianus the maternal grandfather of Tiberius.
BookThreeIII Mentioned as a famous member of the Livii.
Livius Salinator, Marcus, (254BC - c. 204BC) was elected consul with Lucius Aemilius Paulus shortly before the Second Illyrian War in 219BC. After leading a successful campaign against Illyrians, he was charged with malfeasance concerning war spoils during a mission to Carthage and was tried and found guilty upon his return to Rome. He retired from public life for several years, until 210. In 207 during the Second Punic War he was again elected consul with Gaius Claudius Nero. In the spring of 207BC, Livius, reinforced by Nero, defeated the Carthaginians in the decisive Battle of the Metaurus. He and Nero were awarded a triumph in 206BC. Livius remained as proconsul, defending Etruria between 206BC - 205BC and later Cisalpine Gaul from 204BC until the end of the war. He was elected censor again with Gaius Claudius Nero in 204BC. This was marred by constant quarreling with Nero, particularly concerning a salt tax (inspiring his cognomen Salinator), as well as by the vendetta against those responsible for his trial, continuing until his death.
BookThreeIII Mentioned as a famous member of the Livii.
Locri is a town in the province of Reggio Calabria, southern Italy. The name derives from the ancient Greek region Locris, home of the Locrians, The Italian city, Epizephyrian Locris (from Greek epi-Zephyros, ‘under the West Wind’ was founded by them c. 680BC on the Italian shore of the Ionian Sea, near modern Capo Zefirio, and was one of the cities of Magna Graecia. The city was abandoned in the fifth century AD. The remaining town was finally destroyed by the Saracens in 915.
BookTwoXVI Augustus (Octavian) there in c. 36BC.
Lollia, the wife of Aulus Gabinius, was perhaps a daughter of Marcus Lollius Palicanus, tribunus plebis in 71BC.
BookOneL Caesar was reputed to have had an affair with her.
Lollia Paulina (d. 49AD) was for six months in 38AD the third wife of the Emperor Caligula. Her first husband Publius Memmius Regulus was suffect consul in 31AD and a Roman Governor. Later on, Paulina became a rival to Caligula’s sister Agrippina the Younger and was considered a choice for fourth wife of Claudius, following the death of Valeria Messalina. In 49AD, Agrippina, now the wife of Claudius, had Paulina charged with sorcery. Her property was confiscated and she was sent into exile. Tacitus claims she was forced to commit suicide on Agrippina’s orders.
BookFourXXV Forcibly married to Caligula.
BookFiveXXVI Claudius considered marrying her.
Lollius Paulinus, Marcus, was the first governor of Galatia (25BC) and served as consul in 21BC. In 16BC, when governor of Gaul he was defeated by the Sicambri, Tencteri and Usipetes, German tribes who had crossed the Rhine. He was subsequently (2BC) tutor and adviser to Gaius Caesar, who accused him of extortion and treachery to the state, and denounced him to Augustus. To avoid punishment he is said to have taken poison.
BookTwoXXIII His defeat in Germany.
BookThreeXII His slanders against Tiberius c. 1BC, when he was guardian to Gaius, Governor of the East.
BookThreeXIII His falling out with Gaius c. 2AD.
Longinus, see Cassius
Lucca, Roman Luca, a city in Tuscany, central Italy, is situated on the river Serchio in a fertile plain near the Ligurian Sea. It became a Roman colony in 180BC, and lay just within the borders of Cisalpine Gaul.
BookOneXXIV The First Triumvirate, Caesar, Crassus and Pompey met and re-affirmed their mutual pact, at Lucca, in 56BC.
Lucceius, Lucius, orator and historian, was friend and correspondent of Cicero. He failed to become consul in 60BC, retired from public life, and devoted his time to writing a history of the Social and Civil Wars. In the civil war between Caesar and Pompey, he took the side of Pompey; but, having been pardoned by Caesar, returned to Rome, where he lived in retirement until his death.
BookOneXIX A candidate for the consulship of 60BC.
Lucullus, Lucius Licinius (c. 118BC - 57BC), was closely connected with Sulla. Over twenty years of almost continuous military and government service, he became the main conqueror of the eastern kingdoms in the course of the Third Mithridatic War, exhibiting extraordinary generalship abilities in diverse situations, most famously during the siege of Cyzicus, 73BC - 2BC, and at the battle of Tigranocerta in Armenian Arzanene, 69BC.
BookOneXX Threatened with prosecution by Julius Caesar.
BookThreeLXXIII Marius had a villa at Misenum on the promontory that Sulla’s daughter Cornelia bought when Marius was proscribed. She sold it a little later 76/75BC to Lucullus. The emperor Tiberius supposedly died there in 37AD. Castel dell’Ovo on the island of Megaride at Naples is also said however to be the site of the ‘Villa of Lucullus’.
Lucusta, (or Locusta, Tacitus) was an expert in the concoction of poisonous substances, employed by Nero.
BookSixXXXIII BookSixXLVII Mentioned.
Lugdunum, modern Lyon (or Lyons), is a city in east-central France. Lyon was founded on the Fourvière hill as a Roman colony in 43BC by Munatius Plancus, on the site of a Gaulish hill-fort. The Celtic god Lug was equated by the Romans with Mercury. Agrippa recognized its location as a natural communications hub, and made it the focal point of the principal Roman roads through Gaul. It subsequently became the capital. Two emperors were born in the city, namely Claudius and Caracalla.
BookFourXVII Caligula there in 40AD.
BookFourXX Caligula gave entertainments there.
BookFiveII Claudius was born there in 10BC, on 1st August when an altar to Augustus was dedicated.
BookFiveIX The meeting between Caligula and Claudius probably took place there. The ‘river’ would therefore be the confluence of the Rhone and Saone.
Luna, modern Luni, was an ancient city of Etruria, 4 miles southeast of modern Sarzana. It was the frontier town of Etruria, on the left bank of the river Macra (now Magra), the boundary in imperial times between Etruria and Liguria. It was renowned for the marble from the neighboring mountains ofCarrara.
BookSixL Nero’s tomb adorned with an altar of Luna marble.
Luperci were Roman priests who officiated at the festival of Lupercalia on February 15th. Tradition ties the formation of the Luperci to Romulus and Remus at which time the gens permitted to become Luperci were limited to the Fabii or Fabiani (whose name became that of a Roman tribe) and the Quinctilii or Quinctiliani. (The most famous member of the Quinctilia gens being the commander of the Roman forces at the disastrous battle of theTeutoberg Forest, Publius Quintilius Varus.) Caesar added the college of Julii or Juliani. The Luperci were not appointed for life, but could hold the position repeatedly.
BookOneLXXVI Caesar’s creation of his own college of Luperci.
BookOneLXXIX BookTwoXXXI The Lupercalia mentioned. Revived by Augustus.
Lusitanians, an Indo-European people, the inhabitants of Lusitania, the Roman province including approximately all of modern Portugal south of the Douro river and part of modern Spain (the present autonomous community of Extremadura and a small part of the province of Salamanca). Its capital was Emerita Augusta (currently Mérida, Spain), and it was initially part of the Republican province of Hispania Ulterior, before becoming a province of its own under the Empire.
BookOneLIV Caesar attacked their townships.
BookSevenIII Massacred in 151BC by Servius Sulpicius Galba.
BookSevenXXVI Otho was governor of the province from 58AD - 68AD.
Lycians were inhabitants of a region on the southern coast of Turkey. The Lycian League was an early federation of ancient cities in the region, which later became a province of the Roman Empire in 43AD.
BookTwoLXV Gaius Caesar died in Lycia in 4AD.
BookFiveXXV Claudius deprived the Lycians of their independence in 43AD.
BookEightVIII Vespasian reduced Lycia from free to provincial status.
Lycius, a dwarf presented at the Games, in Augustus’ day, as a curiosity.
BookTwoXLIII Mentioned.
Macer, see Clodius and Pompeius
Macro, Quintus Naevius Cordus Sutorius (21BC - 38AD) was prefect of the Praetorian Guard, from 31AD until 38AD, serving under the Emperors Tiberius and Caligula. Macro was appointed Praetorian prefect by Tiberius after the arrest of Sejanus. He furthered his ambitions by befriending Caligula and turning a blind eye to his wife Ennia’s affair with Caligula c. 34AD. He was promised the governorship of Egypt but arrested in 38AD. Macro and Ennia both committed suicide.
BookFourXII BookFourXXIII Mentioned.
BookFourXXVI Condemned by Caligula.
Maecenas, Gaius Cilnius, (70BC – 8BC) was a confidant and political advisor to Octavian (Augustus) and an important patron of Augustan poets. Maecenas served as a quasi-culture minister to the Emperor. His name has become a byword for enlightened patronage of the arts. He prided himself on his ancient Etruscan lineage, and first appears in 40BC, when he was employed by Octavian in arranging his marriage with Scribonia, and afterwards in assisting to negotiate the treaty of Brundisium and the reconciliation with Mark Antony. He was vicegerent of Octavian during the campaign that led to the battle of Actium, when, he crushed the conspiracy of Lepidus the Younger; during the subsequent absences of his leader in the provinces he again held the same position. Maecenas died leaving Augustus as his sole heir.
BookTwoLXVI He was said to have leaked news of the Murena conspiracy to his wife Terentia.
BookTwoLXXXVI Augustus ridiculed his elaborate style of speech.
BookThreeXV The Gardens of Maecenas were the first in Rome to be built in the Hellenistic-Persian garden style. Maecenas sited them on the Esquiline Hill, on the summit of the Servian Wall and its adjoining necropolis, near the gardens of Lamia. They became imperial property after Maecenas’ death, and Tiberius lived there prior to his accession.
BookSixXXXVIII The Tower of Maecenas was probably attached to the Gardens and connected to the Palatine by way of the Golden House.
Maecius was an unknown friend of Domitian who had a high self-opinion of his looks.
BookEightLVI Mentioned.
Magi were followers of Zoroaster, or rather, a follower of what the Hellenistic world associated Zoroaster with, which was – in the main – the ability to read the stars, and manipulate the fate that the stars foretold. They were probably a sect of Persian origin but were found throughout Asia Minor, North Africa and the Mediterranean world.
BookSixXXXIV Nero had them perform their rites to summon the dead.
Mago (243BC – 203BC), played an important role for Carthage in the Second Punic War, fighting in Hispania, Gallia Cisalpina and Italy. Mago was the third son of Hamilcar Barca, brother to Hannibal and Hasdrubal Barca.
BookEightXLVI Mentioned.
Mallia, possibly a person but equally it may be a location.
BookTwoLXX Mentioned.
Mallonia, an unknown woman sexually abused by Tiberius.
BookThreeXLV Mentioned.
Mamurra, was a military officer who served under Julius Caesar, an equestrian who came from Formiae. His family must have been prominent there, as Horace calls it ‘the city of the Mamurrae’. He served as praefectus fabrum (prefect of engineers) under Caesar in Gaul, and a poem by Catullus also refers to his service in Britain as well as in Pontus and Hispania suggesting he also served during the civil war. Among the engineering feats achieved by Caesar’s army during this time, include the rapid construction of a bridge over the Rhine in 55BC, the designing and building of a new kind of ship for the second expedition to Britain in 54BC, and the double circumvallation of Alesia in 52BC. Catullus attacked his profligacy, womanising and scandalous lifestyle, accusing him of a homosexual relationship with Caesar.
BookOneLXXIII Libelled by Catullus.
Marcellus Minor, Gaius Claudius (88BC – May 40BC) was a friend to Cicero, and an early opponent of Julius Caesar. Caius Claudius Marcellus Maior was his cousin. In 54BC, his wife Octavia’s great-uncle Julius Caesar was said to be anxious for Octavia to divorce Marcellus and marry Pompey. However, Pompey declined the proposal and Marcellus continued to oppose Caesar, culminating in the crucial year of his consulship in 50BC when he tried to recall Julius Caesar from his ten-year governorship in Gaul two years early, without his army, in an attempt to save the Republic. Failing this, he called unsuccessfully upon Caesar to resign. He also obstructed Caesar from standing for a second consulship in absentia, insisting that he should return to Rome to stand, thereby forgoing the protection of his armies in Gaul. When Caesar finally invaded Italy in 49BC, Marcellus did not take up arms against him. Caesar subsequently pardoned him. The Roman general Publius Quinctilius Varus and his two sisters were grandchildren from his first marriage.
BookOneXXVII Married to Octavia.
BookOneXXIX His opposition to Caesar when consul in 50BC.
Marcellus, Marcus Claudius was the brother of Gaius Claudius Marcellus Maior, consul in 49BC and the cousin of Gaius Claudius Marcellus Minor, consul in 50BC. He married Octavia the Younger. He was elected curule aedile in 56BC, and in 52BC was elected consul, together with Servius Sulpicius Rufus, for the following year 51BC. During his consulship Marcellus proved a zealous partisan of Pompey and the optimates, and urged the senate to extreme measures against Julius Caesar, managing to procure a resolution of the senate, that the whole subject of abrogating Caesar’s Gallic command be discussed on the 1st of March the following year. After the battle of Pharsalus, Marcellus abandoned opposition to Caesar, and withdrew to Mytilene. His cousin Gaius Claudius Marcellus Minor petioned the dictator for clemency on his behalf, and on it being granted he started out for Rome but was assassinated en route by one of his own attendants, Publius Magius Chilo.
BookOneXXVIII BookOneXXIX His opposition to Caesar in the Senate.
Marcellus, Marcus Claudius (42BC - 23BC) was the eldest son of Octavia Minor, sister of Augustus and, a former consul Gaius Claudius Marcellus Minor. In 25BC, Marcellus married Augustus’ only daughter, Julia the Elder, with Agrippa officiating in Augustus’ absence. Augustus began to encourage Marcellus’ political career, grooming him for the succession, in 23BC gaining him the right to be a senator among the ex-praetors, to stand for the consulship ten years earlier than was customary, and his election as aedile that year. Marcellus became ill in the year of his aedileship, and died in Baiae.
BookTwoXXIX BookTwoXLIII BookTwoXLV BookEightXIX Augustus built the Theatre of Marcellus, located in the modern district of Sant’Angelo, which was inaugurated in 12BC. Vespasian built and dedicated a new stage for the theatre.
BookTwoLXIII His marriage to Julia.
BookTwoLXVI Agrippa suspected Augustus of favouritism towards Marcellus.
BookThreeVI He took part in Augustus’ triple-triumph of 29BC.
Marcia Furnilla was a daughter of the Senator Quintus Marcius Barea Sura and Antonia Furnilla. Her sister was Marcia, the mother of Ulpia Marciana and of the Emperor Trajan. She married Titus, widowed from his first marriage, in 63AD. In 64AD, Furnilla bore him a daughter, Flavia Julia Titi or Julia Flavia. In 65AD after the failure of the Pisonian conspiracy, Furnilla’s family fell out of favour with Nero, and Titus and Furnilla divorced, Titus raising their daughter.
BookEightXXIX The second wife of Titus.
Marcius, Ancus, see Ancus
Marcius Philippus, Lucius was a descendant of Roman King Ancus Marcius and the son of the consul and censor Lucius Marcius Philippus. He was a praetor in 60BC, and propraetor of Syria in 59BC. That same year he married Atia Balba Caesonia, niece of Julius Caesar. Philippus had a son and a daughter Marcia (later the wife of Cato the Younger) from a previous marriage which had ended with his wife’s death. Atia’s previous husband, Gaius Octavius, had died on his return to Rome, leaving her with two children: Octavia Minor and Gaius Octavius (the future Emperor Augustus). He was consul of 56BC with Gnaeus Cornelius Lentulus Marcellinus. He appears to have been a cautious and moderate politican. Atia died during August/September 43BC and according to Ovid, Philippus later married one of Atia’s sisters. He lived to old age and Augustus rewarded him for his continued loyalty with spoils from foreign victories, with which he restored the temple ‘Hercules of the Muses’.
BookTwoVIII Step-father to Augustus, he opposed Augustus’ return to Rome in 44BC, as too risky.
BookTwoXXIX He restored the Temple of Hercules and the Muses in the Circus Flaminius in 29BC.
Marius, Gaius, (157BC – January 13, 86BC) general and politician he was elected consul an unprecedented seven times (107BC, 104BC - 100BC, 86BC). He was also noted for his dramatic reforms of the Roman army.
BookOneI He nominated Julius Caesar as priest of Jupiter (flamen Dialis).
BookOneXI Julius Caesar restored the monuments to his defeats of Jugurtha (105BC) the Cimbri (101BC) and the Teutones (102BC) which Sulla had destroyed.
BookThreeLIX Mentioned.
Maroboduus (c. 30BC - 37AD), was king of the Marcomanni, and ruled a Germanic confederation in the area of Bohemia. In 17AD, war broke out between Arminius the Cheruscan leader and Maroboduus, and after an indecisive battle Maroboduus withdrew. In the next year Catualda, a nobleman, who had been exiled by Maroboduus, returned – perhaps with Roman connivance – and defeated Maroboduus who fled to Italy where Tiberius detained him for 18 years in Ravenna where Maroboduus died.
BookThreeXXXVII Detained by Tiberius.
Mars, was the Roman god of war, the equivalent of the Greek Ares.
BookTwoXVIII Augustus consecrated the site of his camp at Actium to the god.
BookTwoXXIX BookFourXLIV BookFiveXXXIII The Temple of Mars Ultor, Mars the Avenger, in Augustus’ new Forum was eventually dedicated in 2BC, after a building program of forty years.
BookFourXXIV Caligula dedicated three swords, supposedly to be used to kill him, to Mars Ultor.
BookFiveIV Possibly the games of 12AD in honour of Mars Ultor.
BookSevenXXXI It was considered unlucky to begin any enterprise during the period when the sacred shields were out of the temple. See Ovid, Fasti iii.393
BookSevenXLIII The shrine of Mars at Vitellius’s military headquarters in Germany.
BookSevenXLV Vitellius sent Otho’s dagger with which he had committed suicide to the Temple of Mars at Colonia Agrippinensium (Cologne).
BookEightV An oak tree on the Flavian estate was sacred to Mars.
Marsians. The Marsi were a people of ancient Italy, whose chief centre was Marruvium, on the eastern shore of Lake Fucinus.
BookFiveXX Their requests for the draining of the lake.
Masgaba was a favourite of Augustus, who died on Capri. Probably, from the form of his name, he was Numidian.
BookTwoXCVIII His tomb mentioned.
Masintha was a Numidian prince defended by Caesar.
BookOneLXXI Mentioned.
Massilia, modern Marseilles, was of Greek foundation (600BC), and maintained its independence until the rise of Julius Caesar, when it joined the losing side (Pompey and the optimates) in the civil war, losing its independence in 49BC.
BookOneXXXIV BookSixII The city was besieged (April to September 49BC) by Caesar’s forces. Again, as at Corfinium, Caesar’s forces encountered Lucius Domitius, who was again allowed to depart, this time to Thessaly.
BookOneLXVIII After the siege had begun, Ahenobarbus arrived in Massilia to defend it against the Caesarian forces. In late June, Caesar's ships were victorious in the ensuing naval battle.
BookTwoLXV Lucius Caesar died there in 2AD, on his way to Spain.
BookFiveXVII Claudius landed there in 43AD on his way to Britain.
Matius, Gaius belonged to Caesar’s faction, and helped Cicero in his relationship with Caesar in 49BC/48BC. After the murder of Caesar, he warned of potential for grave repercussions including possible rebellions in Gaul or among Caesar’s legions. When Octavian returned to Rome, Matius became one of his close associates. Matius and Octavian managed the July 44 games honoring the recently-assassinated dictator. An exchange of letters between Cicero and Matius later in 44BC has been preserved
BookOneLII Supposedly knew of Caesarion’s paternity.
BookEightLVII The same Matius may be the friend and assistant of Augustus, an eques who wrote three volumes on gastronomy. Columella credits him with pork mincemeat à la Matius, minutal Matianum, which includes Matian apples, and he was said by Pliny the Elder to have invented the clipping of shrubbery. Matian apples were said to come from the mountains north of Aquileia in north-eastern Italy, and to have been named for Matius.
Mauretania is on the Mediterranean coast of North Africa, and named after the Mauri tribe, from whom the term ‘Moors’ is derived. It corresponds to modern western Algeria, northern Morocco and Spanish North Africa. Claudius annexed Mauretania directly as a Roman province in 44AD.
BookFourXXVI BookFourXXXV BookFourLV King Ptolemy of Mauretania mentioned.
BookSixXXX Nero’s escort comprised cavalry of the Mazaces, a Mauretanian tribe.
Maximus was a freedman of Parthenius’s involved in the assassination of Domitian in 96AD.
BookEightLIII Mentioned.
Maximus, Quintus Fabius, (d. 45BC) was Legate (general) to Julius Caesar in the campaigns in Gaul and in the Civil War, where Caesar chose him to be commander in chief of his advance guard in the conquest of Spain. After the Battle of Munda, Caesar awarded him a triumph and, together with Gaius Trebonius, the suffect consulship of that year on Caesar’s abdication of his sole consulship in September. He died on December 31, the last day of his consulship, and was replaced for the remaining hours of the year by Gaius Caninius Rebilus.
BookOneLXXX Jeered at in the Theatre as not being a true consul.
Mediolanum, modern Milan, is a city in northern Italy, the capital of the Lombardy. Founded under the name of Medhlan by the Insubres, a Celtic people it was captured by the Romans in 222BC, became a permanent Latin colony in 89BC, and by 42BC Rome had exerted its hold over Cisalpine Gaul sufficiently to make the city part of its Italian territories. In his reorganisation of Italy in 15BC, Augustus made Milan the capital of the Transpadania region, including the towns of Como, Bergamo, Pavia and Lodi and extending as far west as Turin.
BookTwoXX Augustus there 12BC - 10BC.
Meleager was a Greek mythical hero venerated at Calydon in Aetolia. He was famous as the leader of the Calydonian boar hunt.
BookThreeXLIV Mentioned.
Memmius, Gaius, orator and poet, was tribune of the people (66BC), patron of Lucretius the poet and an acquaintance of Catullus. At first a strong supporter of Pompey, he went over to Caesar, whom he had previously attacked. In 54BC, as candidate for the consulship, he lost Caesar’s support by revealing a scandalous transaction in which he and his fellow candidate had been implicated. Being subsequently condemned for illegal practices at the election, he withdrew to Athens, and afterwards, to Mytilene. He died about the year 49BC. He is remembered chiefly because it was to him that Lucretius addressed the De rerum natura, perhaps with the idea of converting him to the doctrines of Epicurus.
BookOneXXIII Demanded an official enquiry into Caesar’s conduct.
BookOneXLIX On Caesar’s relationship with Nicomedes.
BookOneLXXIII His reconciliation with Caesar who initially supported his bid for the consulship.
Memmius Regulus, Publius was consul suffectus in 31AD. His magistracy saw the downfall of Sejanus, whom Regulus personally conducted to prison. Regulus was later prefect of Macedonia and Achaea when Caligula ordered him to send the Jupiter of Phidias from Olympia, to Rome. The emperor compelled him to divorce his wife, Lollia Paullina. She became Caligula’s third wife in 38AD, but he divorced her and sent her into exile after six months. Regulus died c. 63AD. He was probably the father of Gaius Memmius Regulus, consul in that year.
BookFourXXV Caligula forced his divorce.
Memphis was the capital of Egypt during the Old Kingdom, its ruins lying 12 miles south of Cairo, on the west bank of the Nile. The ruins of the Temple of Apis there have not yet been located.
BookEightXXX Titus attended the Apis bull’s consecration ceremony at Memphis.
Menander (c. 342BC – 291BC), the Greek dramatist, is the best-known representative of Athenian New Comedy, and the author of more than a hundred comedies.
BookEightXXIII Fragment 223 (Koch) gives an idea of metempsychosis parodied perhaps here by Vespasian.
Menas, also known as Menodorus, was a freedman of Pompey the Great. When Pompey’s son, Sextus, appointed himself ruler of Sicily Menas became one of his leading admirals. He captured Sardinia in 40BC for Sextus, driving out Octavian’s governor Marcus Lurius. In 38BC he surrenderedSardinia to Octavian and received equestrian rank as a reward. He fought for Octavian under Calvisius Sabinus in the naval battle off Cumae. In 36BC he returned to Sextus Pompey, but again changed sides. He was killed in the Illyrian campaign of 35BC.
BookTwoLXXIV Augustus made him a fre-born knight.
Menecrates was a famous lyre-player under Nero.
BookSixXXX Nero lavished money on him.
Mercury was the messenger of the Gods in Roman mythology, equating to Hermes in the Greek myths. He was also the god of trade, thieves, literature and sports. His emblem was the caduceus, a short staff entwined by twin serpents in the form of a double helix, and sometimes surmounted by wings.
BookFourLII Caligula liked to dress as him.
Messala, see Valerius
Messalina, see Statilia and Valeria
Messana is a city located near the northeast corner of Sicily, on the Strait of Messina, opposite Villa San Giovanni on the mainland of Italy.
BookFourLI Aetna’s eruption, seen from there, scared Caligula.
Mestrius Florus, Lucius was proconsul in Asia Minor (c. 88AD/89AD) and a friend and patron of Plutarch.
BookEightXXII Mocked by Vespasian.
Mettius Pompusianus was a senator during Vespasian’s reign. He was later exiled to Corsica before being executed under Domitian.
BookEightXIV Vespasian made him consul, according to Suetonius, though he does not appear in the consular lists.
BookEightXLVI He was executed by Domitian for revealing imperial pretensions.
Mettius Rufus, Marcus (b. c. 50AD) was prefect of Egypt in 89AD - 91AD, then prefect for the grain supply at Rome, before falling into disgrace.
BookEightXL Mentioned.
Mevania (modern Bevagna), was an ancient Roman town of Umbria, on the western branch of the Via Flaminia. In 69AD Vitellius awaited Vespasian’s advancing army there. Pastures near the Tinia River and the white oxen of the Clitumnus (Clitunno) River are mentioned by Propertius, whose family was from the area (from Assisium, Hispellum, or Mevania itself).
BookFourXLIII Caligula visited the town.
Milo, see Annius
Minerva was the Roman goddess equivalent to the Greek Athena. She was a virgin goddess of poetry, medicine, wisdom, commerce, weaving, crafts, magic, and the inventor of the flute
BookFourXXV Caligula considered that the goddess was entrusted with bringing up his daughter Julia Drusilla.
BookSixXXXIV The Quinquatria or Quinquatrus was a festival sacred to Minerva, celebrated on the 19th March. It was so called according to Varro because it was held on the fifth day after the Ides, though Ovid says that it was so named because it was celebrated for five days.
BookSevenXLVIII Minerva was equated to the Greek Athena, the Defender of Athens. Vitellius dedicated a huge dish to her.
BookEightXL Her image was on Domitian’s ceremonial crown. Domitian also celebrated her festival the Quinquatria every year.
BookEightLI Domitian’s veneration for her, and his dream of her.
Minos was a Cretan king of mythological status (his name being given to the Minoan civilisation), the son of Zeus and Europa. After his death, Minos became a judge of the dead in Hades. Aegeus, King of Athens, killed Minos’s son Androgeus because he won every prize during a feast. As punishment, the Athenians were obliged to send several youths every nine years to be devoured by the Minotaur, who was eventually killed by Theseus.
BookThreeLXX His sacrifice on the death of his son Androgeus.
BookSevenII His wife was Pasiphae.
Minucius Thermus, Marcus. A praetor in 81BC, and propraetor of the Roman province of Asia the following year, succeeding Murena. The capture of Mytilene occurred during his governorship; Mytilene had been in revolt against Rome and was suspected of actively or tacitly aiding so-called pirates in the region. Suetonius credits Thermus with the victory, but the siege may have been conducted by or in coordination with Lucius Licinius Lucullus.
BookOneII Julius Caesar acts as his aide-de-camp, and he awards Julius a civic crown at the storming of Mytilene.
Mithridates, the Great, Mithradates VI (134BC - 63BC), also known as Eupator Dionysius, was king of Pontus and Armenia Minor in northern Anatolia (now part of Turkey) from about 119BC to 63BC. Of Persian origin, he claimed descent from Darius the Great, and is remembered as one of Rome’s most formidable and successful enemies, who engaged three of the most prominent generals of the late Republic in the Mithridatic Wars: Sulla, Lucullus, and Pompey.
BookOneIV Julius Caesar campaigned against his deputy in Asia Minor.
BookOneXIX He was defeated by Pompey (between 65BC and 63BC) in the Third Mithridatic War.
BookOneXXXV Father of Pharnaces II.
BookSixXXIV Nero’s criticism of him.
Misenum is the site of an ancient port in Campania, in southern Italy, located on a cape on the northwest end of the Bay of Naples, at modern Miseno. Misenum was the largest base of the Roman navy, since its port (Portus Julius) was the base of the Classis Misenensis, the most important Roman fleet. It was first established as a naval base in 27BC by Marcus Agrippa, and was later adorned with luxury villas. Pliny the Elder was the praefect in charge of the naval fleet at Misenum in 79AD, at the time of the eruption of Vesuvius. Pliny left for a closer view and to attempt a possible rescue, and was killed by the eruption. The account of his death is given by his nephew Pliny the Younger, who was also resident in Misenum at the time.
BookTwoXLIX Location of one of the two Mediterranean fleets.
BookThreeLXXII BookThreeLXXV Tiberius died at or near there in 37AD at the ‘Villa of Lucullus’.
BookThreeLXXIV A portent of Tiberius’ death there.
BookFourXIII Caligula escorted Tiberius’s body to Rome from there.
BookSixXXXI Nero’s project to connect Lake Avernus, Lago d’Averno, a lake located in the Avernus crater about 2.5 miles northwest of Pozzuoli, to Misenum.
Mnester was a celebrated comic actor in the reigns of Caligula and Claudius.
BookFourXXXVI Caligula was rumoured to have had sexual intercourse with him.
BookFourLV A favourite of Caligula.
BookFourLVII Mnester ominously danced the tragedy Cinyras on the day of Caligula’s assassination, which had been played at the death of Philip of Macedon.
Moesia was an ancient region, later a Roman province (c. 6AD), situated in the Balkans, along the south bank of the Danube.
BookThreeXLI The Dacians and Sarmatians allowed to overrun Moesia c. 34AD.
BookSevenXXXII Otho drew on troops from Moesia in 69AD.
BookSevenL BookEightVI The legions in Moesia swore allegiance to Vespasian in 69AD, prompted by members of the Third legion.
Mucia, the third wife of Pompey, was the daughter of Quintus Mucius Scaevola, the pontifex maximus, consul in 95BC. Her mother was a Licinia who divorced her father to marry Quintus Caecilius Metellus Nepos, in a scandal mentioned by several sources. Mucia’s first husband was the short-lived and unlucky Gaius Marius the Younger. After his death at the hands of Sulla, the dictator needed to secure Pompey’s loyalty and arranged his marriage to Mucia c. 79BC. This marriage resulted in three children: Gnaeus Pompeius (Pompey the Younger), a daughter Pompeia Magna (married to Faustus Cornelius Sulla) and Sextus Pompey. She outlived all three children. On his return to Rome, in 61BC, Pompey divorced her. According to Cicero, the motive was adultery (it is said that she was one of Julius Caesar’s many affairs). Mucia then married Marcus Aemilius Scaurus, a stepson of Sulla. In 39BC, Mucia, at the request of the Roman people, went to Sicily to mediate between her son Sextus Pompey and Augustus. She was living at the time of the battle of Actium, 31BC and Augustus treated her with great respect.
BookOneL Caesar was reputed to have had an affair with her.
Mummia Achaica was the mother of the Roman Emperor Galba and his elder brother Gaius. She was the granddaughter of Catulus and great-granddaughter of the general Lucius Mummius Achaicus. She died shortly after Galba’s birth.
BookSevenIII Mentioned.
Mummius Achaicus, Lucius was appointed to take command of the Achaean War, in 146BC, and having obtained an easy victory over Diaeus, entered Corinth. The men of Corinth were put to the sword, the women and children sold into slavery, and the works of art seized and shipped to Rome. Corinth was then razed. In 142BC Mummius was censor with Scipio Aemilianus Africanus.
BookSevenIII Mentioned.
Munatius Plancus, Lucius (87BC - 15BC) was a Roman senator, consul in 42BC and censor in 22BC with Aemilius Lepidus Paulus. He was Julius Caesar’s officer during the conquest of Gaul and the civil war. His funerary inscription attests that he founded the cities of Augusta Raurica (44BC) and Lyon (43BC) When Caesar was assassinated Plancus was Proconsul of Gallia Comata. But he turned to Mark Antony, and held the consulship with Marcus Aemilius Lepidus in 42BC. He became proconsul of Asia in about 40BC. During Mark Antony’s expedition to Armenia and Parthia, to avenge Crassus’ death, he was proconsul of Syria. But when Antony’s campaign against the Parthians failed, he chose to leave him and join Octavian. The Mausoleum of Plancus, a massive cylinder tomb now much restored is in Gaeta, on a hill overlooking the sea.
BookTwoVI He suggested Octavian adopt the title Augustus.
BookTwoXXIX He restored the the Temple of Saturn at the west end of the Forum at the foot of the Capitoline Hill between 43BC and 30BC.
BookThreeV Tiberius born during his consulship.
BookFiveXVI He was censor in 22BC.
BookSixIV Mentioned.
Munatius Plancus, Lucius (c. 45BC - after 14AD) was consul in 13AD and Legate in 14AD. He married Aemilia Paula, daughter of Aemilius Lepidus Paulus and Cornelia Lentula.
BookTwoCI He was consul in 13AD when Augustus made his last will.
Munda, Campus Mundensis, was probably near La Lantejuela, Andalusia, in southern Spain. The Battle of Munda took place on March 17, 45BC in the plain of Munda. This was the last battle of Julius Caesar’s civil war against the republican armies of the Optimate leaders. After this victory, and the deaths of Titus Labienus and Gnaeus Pompeius (Pompey’s elder son), Caesar returned to Rome as dictator.
BookOneXXXV BookOneLVI BookTwoXCIV Caesar’s victory there.
Mutina, the Battle of Mutina was fought on April 21, 43BC between the forces of Mark Antony and those of Gaius Vibius Pansa Caetronianus and Aulus Hirtius, who were providing aid to one of Caesar’s assassins, Decimus Junius Brutus Albinus. Pansa had been mortally wounded in an earlier battle where Antony’s forces were beaten off. Octavian’s forces now joined the remaining consul Hirtius. Antony was again defeated, but Hirtius himself was killed. Soon after the battle, a truce was formed between Antony and Octavian at Bolognaleading eventually to the Second Triumvirate of Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, Octavian and Mark Antony.
BookTwoIX BookTwoX BookTwoXII BookTwoLXXVII BookTwoLXXXIV Augustus (Octavian) involved in civil war there.
Mylae, the modern Milazzo, is a town on the northern coast of Sicily 40 km from Messina, north of the road to Palermo. It is located on a peninsula, Capo di Milazzo. In 36BC a naval battle was fought offshore between the fleet of Octavian, commanded by Marcus Agrippa, and that of Sextus Pompey. While the battle ended in stalemate, Sextus could not replace his losses, and was thus weaker at the following battle of Naulochus, where he was defeated.
BookTwoXVI The naval battle.
Mytilene is the capital city of Lesbos, the Greek island in the Aegean Sea, on the southeast coast of the island.
BookOneII Successfully besieged by Rome in 80BC, Julius Caesar being awarded a civic crown for saving a comrade during the siege.
BookTwoLXVI BookThreeX Agrippa used it as his power-base in the east in 23BC.
Naples, the Roman Neapolis, is the main city of Campania on the Bay of Naples. Originally a Greek colony, the city was respected by the Romans as a place of Hellenistic culture, the people maintaining their Greek language and customs.
BookTwoXCII Augustus exchanged the island of Aenaria with that of Capri, by agreement with Naples, in 6AD.
BookTwoXCVIII Augustus was there immediately before his death.
BookThreeIV BookThreeVI Tiberius father, Tiberius Nero, took refuge there.
BookFiveXI Claudius produced a Greek comedy of Germanicus’s in his honour, at the musical and theatrical contest there.
BookSixXX Nero made his debut as a singer and musician there.
BookSixXXV Nero landed there on his return from Greece in 67AD.
BookSixXL Nero heard of the Gallic uprising while staying there.
Narbo, modern Narbonne, is a city in southern France in the Languedoc-Roussillon region. Once a prosperous port, it is now located about 15km from the shore of the Mediterranean. Narbonne was established in Gaul in 118BC, as Colonia Narbo Martius. It was located on the Via Domitia, the first Roman road in Gaul, connecting Italy to Spain. Politically, Narbonne gained importance as a competitor to Massalia (Marseille). Julius Caesar settled veterans from his tenth legion there, Legio X Equestris, and attempted to develop its port. It was noted in Roman times for its rosemary-flower honey.
BookThreeIV Tiberius’ father, Tiberius Nero, established a colony of Caesar’s veterans there.
Narcissus, Tiberius Claudius, was a freedman of Claudius’s. It was through his influence that the future emperor Vespasian was appointed legate of the Legio II Augusta in Germania. When Messalina married Gaius Silius in 48AD, it was Narcissus who betrayed her to Claudius. He was charged with overseeing the draining of the Fucine Lake, but Agrippina the Younger, Claudius’s fourth wife, accused him of embezzling funds from the project, and she subsequently ordered his execution within weeks of Claudius’ death in October, 54AD.
BookFiveXXVIII A favourite of Claudius’s, awarded special status.
BookFiveXXXVII His part in the downfall of Appius Silanus.
BookEightIV Vespasian benefited from his influence.
BookEightXXVII Involved with the education of Britannicus and Titus.
Naulochus, Naulochos, or Naulocha was an ancient roadstead, precise location unknown, on the north coast of Sicily, between Mylae (modern Milazzo) and Cape Pelorus. It is known primarily from the naval encounter in which Sextus Pompeius was defeated by Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, in 36BC, offshore between Mylae and Naulochus.
BookTwoXVI The naval battle.
Nauplius, King of Nauplia in Greek Mythology, had a son Palamedes who died at Troy as a result of the intrigues of Odysseus and Agamemnon. Nauplius swore revenge against the Greek leaders, and lit false beacon fires along the dangerous coastline of Euboea, causing the wreck of the Greek fleet. He also convinced the wives of Greek commanders to betray their husbands.
BookSixXXXIX Nero sang his misfortunes.
Nemausus, modern Nîmes, in southern France, became a Roman colony sometime before 28BC. The name derived from a spring, possibly sacred to a local divinity Nemausus. Veterans of Caesar’s Nile legions, settled there. Augustus made the city the capital of Narbonne province, fortified the city, which had an estimated population of 60,000, and commissioned the Forum, and an aqueduct to the north. It crossed the River Gard between Uzes and Remoulins as the spectacular Pont du Gard.
BookThreeXIII The citizens disapproved of Tiberius, (who had been Governor of their province of Gallica Comata) during his Rhodes ‘exile’.
Nemi, the nemus Aricinum, or ‘grove of Aricia’ was the site of the Roman cult and temple of Diana Nemorensis, a study of which served as the starting point for Sir James Frazer’s seminal work on the anthropology of religion, The Golden Bough. It lies in the Alban Hills overlooking Lake Nemi, a volcanic crater-lake, 4 miles north-west of Velletri and about 18 miles south-east of Rome. The ‘King of Nemi’, priest of the sacred grove, was by tradition a fugitive slave, who obtained his office by killing his predecessor.
BookOneXLVI Caesar built a country mansion there which he subsequently had razed.
BookFourXXXV Caligula had the priest deposed by a stronger challenger.
Neoptolemus was a tragic actor who played Cinyras on the day Philip II of Macedon was assassinated.
BookFourLVII Mnester ominously danced the tragedy Cinyras on the day of Caligula’s assassination, which had been played at the death of Philip of Macedon.
Nepos, see Cornelius
Neptune, was the Roman god of the sea, equivalent to the Greek Poseidon.
BookTwoXVIII Augustus consecrated the site of his camp at Actium to the god.
BookFourLII Caligula liked to dress as him, carrying his emblem the trident.
Nero Julius Caesar Germanicus (c. 6AD – 30AD) was the son of Germanicus and Agrippina the Elder. In 20AD, he married Julia, the daughter of Drusus the Younger. However, Nero was accused of treason, as was his mother, in 29AD. He was exiled to the island of Pontia (Ponza) where in 30AD he was either starved to death or induced to commit suicide.
BookThreeLIV BookThreeLXI BookThreeLXIV BookFourVII BookFourXXX Persecuted and driven to suicide by Tiberius.
BookFourXII Caligula supposedly wished to avenge his death.
BookFourXV Caligula recovered his ashes from Pontia in 37AD.
BookFiveIX Claudius was charged with erecting a statue to him and his brother.
Nero, Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (37AD – 68AD), born Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, also called Nero Claudius Caesar Drusus Germanicus, was Emperor from 54AD to 68AD, and was the last of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. In 68AD, the rebellion of Vindex in Gaul and later the acclamation of Galba in Hispania drove Nero from the throne. Facing assassination, he committed suicide.
BookFiveXXVII Nero married Claudius’s daughter Octavia in 53AD.
BookFiveXXXIX Adopted by Claudius in 50AD.
BookFiveXLIII Claudius appeared to repent of having adopted him.
BookFiveXLV Claudius’ death was concealed until Nero’s succession was secured. Nero later ignored Claudius’s deification.
BookSixI Suetonius’s life of Nero follows.
BookSixXXI The references to tragedies sung by Nero would indicate his preoccupation with incest (Canace and Oedipus), matricide (Orestes), and madness (Hercules).
BookSevenI Nero was the last of the Caesars.
BookSevenVI BookSevenVIII BookSevenX BookSevenXII BookSevenXV BookSevenXXVII BookSevenXXIX BookSevenXXXIII BookSevenXXXVII BookEightIV BookEightVBookEightV BookEightVI BookEightIX BookEightXIV BookEightXXV BookEightXXXII BookEightXXXVII BookEightL Mentioned.
BookSevenIX BookSevenX Nero twice tried to have Galba assassinated, in 68AD.
BookSevenXXV BookSevenXXVI Otho was Nero’s chief favourite, and privy to all his secrets.
BookSevenXXX Otho used Nero’s name, and continued to recognise his reign, including granting money for completion of the Golden House.
BookSevenXXXIX Vitellius presided at the Neronia, the Games held in honour of Nero.
BookSevenXLVI Vitellius made offerings to Nero’s shade in 69AD.
BookEightIV BookEightV Vespasian toured Greece in Nero’s retinue.
BookEightXVIII The Colossus of Nero was the bronze statue of himself that Nero erected in the vestibule of the Golden House. Zenodorus created the statue between 64AD and 68AD. According to Pliny the Elder, it was 106.5 Roman Feet tall (30.3 metres). After Nero’s death, Vespasian added a sun-ray crown and renamed it Colossus Solis, after the Roman sun god Sol Invictus. Circa 128AD Hadrian ordered the statue moved from the Golden House to just northwest of the Colosseum in order to create space for the Temple of Venus and Roma.
Nero the Pretender: a claimant, or Pseudo-Nero, appeared in 68AD/69AD in Greece, pretending to be Nero re-born, and was hunted down by Galba’s troops (see Tacitus, Histories2.8/9), while a second claimant, Terentius Maximus, apparently appeared in the reign of Titus c. 80AD, sought Parthian aid, was exposed and executed (see Cassius Dio, Roman History, LXVI.19.3). Yet a third claimant, mentioned here by Suetonius, appeared c. 88AD during Domitian’s reign.
BookSixLVII Mentioned.
Nerulum was an ancient town in the interior of Lucania, mentioned by Livy during the wars of the Romans in that country, and was taken by assault by the consul Aemilius Barbula, 317BC (Liv. ix. 20). The only other notice of it is found in the Itineraries, suggesting it was situated on the high-road from Capua to Rhegium (modern Reggio di Calabria).
BookTwoIV A sneer that Augustus’ paternal grandfather came from there.
Nerva, Marcus Cocceius (30AD – 98AD), Roman Emperor from 96AD to 98AD, becoming emperor at the age of sixty-five, after a lifetime of imperial service under Nero and the Flavian dynasty. Under Nero, he was a member of the imperial entourage and played a vital part in exposing the Pisonian conspiracy of 65AD. Later, as a loyalist to the Flavians, he attained consulships in 71 and 90 during the reigns of Vespasian and Domitian respectively.
BookEightXXXVII Claims that he seduced the young Domitian.
BookEightXLI The Forum of Nerva planned by Domitian was dedicated by Nerva in 97AD. Between the Forums of Julius and Augustus and the Temple of Peace, it enclosed a portion of the Argiletum, the thoroughfare that joined the Forum Romanum and the Subura district, and so was also known as the Forum Transitorium.
New Carthage, the Roman Carthago Nova, and modern Cartagena, is located in the southeastern region of Spain in the Murcia region. The town was originally named Mastia. With one of the best harbours in the Western Mediterranean, it was re-found (c. 45BC - after 14AD) was consul in 13AD and Legate in 14AD. He married Aemilia Paula, daughter of Aemilius Lepidus Paulus and Cornelia Lentula.
BookTwoCI He was consul in 13AD when Augustus made his last will.
Nicanor was a son of Areus the Alexandrian philosopher.
BookTwoLXXXIX Augustus studied under him.
Nicomedes IV Philopator, King of Bithynia from c. 94BC to 75/4BC. He was the son and successor of Nicomedes III. Deposed by Mithridates the Great, he was re-instated by Rome in 84BC. As one of his last acts as king of Bithynia, in 74BC, Nicomedes bequeathed the kingdom of Bithynia toRome. The Senate voted it as a new province. But this was disputed by Mithridates which led directly to the Third Mithridatic War.
BookOneII BookOneXLIX Caesar dallied so long at his court that a rumor of a homosexual relationship surfaced, leading to the disparaging title, ‘the Queen of Bithynia’, an allegation made much of by Caesar’s political enemies later.
Nicopolis or Actia Nicopolis was an ancient city of Epirus about 4 miles north of modern Préveza, in northwestern Greece, opposite Actium (now Áktion) at the mouth of the Ambracian Gulf (now Amvrakikós Gulf). It was founded in 31BC by Octavian in memory of his victory at Actium. The colony, composed of settlers from towns of the neighboring countries proved highly successful, and the city was considered the capital of southern Epirus and Acarnania,
BookTwoXVIII Founded by Augustus.
Nigidius Figulus, Publius (c. 98BC – 45BC) was a friend of Cicero, to whom he gave his support at the time of the Catiline conspiracy. Nigidius sided with Pompey in the Civil Wars and subsequently died in exile without receiving a pardon. Among his contemporaries, Nigidius’s reputation for learning was second only to that of Varro. Even in his own time, his works were regarded as abstruse, containing esoteric Pythagoreanism, into which Nigidius incorporated Stoic elements. His vast works survive only in fragments preserved by other authors. By 63BC, Nigidius had been admitted to the Senate. He may have been aedile in 60BC, was praetor in 58BC, and a legate 52BC – 51BC in Asia.
BookTwoXCIV His prophecy concerning Augustus.
Nola is a city of Campania, in the province of Naples, situated in the plain between Mount Vesuvius and the Apennines. It was one of the oldest cities of Campania, said to have been founded by the Ausones. It became a Roman colony under Augustus, who died there in 14AD.
BookTwoXCVIII BookTwoC Augustus died there, as did his father Octavius.
BookThreeXL Tiberius dedicated a Temple of the God Augustus at Nola in 26AD.
Nonius Asprenas Torquatus, Gaius, was granted the surname Torquatus a revival of the name given originally to Titus Manlius.
BookTwoXLIII He was lamed by a fall during the Troy Game, and given a consolation prize of a gold torque and the surname by Augustus.
BookTwoLVI He was charged with poisoning guests at a banquet, by Cassius Severus in 9BC, and acquitted. Asinius Pollio conducted the defence.
BookFourXXXV Caligula deprived his descendants of the emblem of the family.
Norbanus Flaccus, Gaius was the grandson of Gaius, the consul for 38BC a friend of Augustus, and the son of Gaius the consul for 24BC with Augustus, and proconsul of Asia. The grandson was praetor in 11AD and consul in 15AD.
BookSevenXXXVIII Vitellius was born during his consulship in 15AD.
Novius Niger, a quaesitor or special commissioner appointed to conduct an investigation (quaestio) into the Catiline conspiracy.
BookOneXVII He was imprisoned by Caesar for allowing the indictment of a superior (Caesar himself) to be presented in his investigative court.
Novum Comum, is Como the city in Lombardy, 28 miles north of Milan, and situated at the southern tip of the south-west arm of Lake Como. The town was situated on the nearby hills, but was moved to its current location by order of Julius Caesar, who had the swamp near the southern tip of the lake drained and laid the plan of the walled city in the typical Roman grid of perpendicular streets. The newly founded town was named Novum Comum and had the status of municipium.
BookOneXXVIII Caesar settled the town.
Nuceria, the modern Nocera Inferiore, is a town in Campania, at the foot of Monte Albino, 20 kilometres east-south-east of Naples. In 309BC it joined the Samnite revolt, but in 307BC it was besieged and surrendered. It obtained favourable terms, and subsequently remained loyal to Rome.
BookSevenXXXVI Members of the Vitelli settled there.
Nursia, modern Norcia, is a town in the province of Perugia in southeastern Umbria, located in a plain abutting Monti Sibillini, a subrange of the Apennines, near the Sordo River, that flows into the Nera. The town is associated with the Valnerina (the valley of that river). Settled by the Sabines in the 5th century BC, it became an ally of Rome in 205BC, during the Second Punic War, when it was known in Latin as Nursia.
BookTwoXII Augustus imposed a fine on the citizens for expressing Republican sentiments.
BookEightI Vespasian’s maternal grandfather came from there. Vespia, a hilltop placename near the hamlet of Piandoli, south-west of Nursia may be the site of the Vespasii monuments mentioned.
Nymphidius Sabinus, Gaius (c. 35AD – 68AD) was a prefect of the imperial bodyguard, the Praetorian Guard, during the reign of Nero, from 65AD until his death in 68AD. After Nero’s death, he tried to assume power, claiming to be the illegitimate son of the former emperor Caligula. The Praetorians recognized Galba instead, and killed Nymphidius before Galba arrived in Rome.
BookSevenXI BookSevenXVI Mentioned as a rival to Galba.
Nysa was the daughter of Nicomedes IV.
BookOneXLIX Her interests were defended by Caesar in the Senate.