How to Lose a Republic in 10 Days
Unlike a formal magistracy or constitutional office, this 60s BCE arrangement between Caesar, Pompey, and Crassus was an unofficial alliance whose members used their combined political influence to overcome senatorial resistance.
What is the First Triumvirate?
Unlike the wealthy Roman domus, this type of urban dwelling was typically a multi-story apartment building, often housing poorer residents and notorious for fires and structural collapses.
What is an insula?
This 2000 Coen Brothers film follows three escaped convicts through Depression-era Mississippi and loosely adapts Homer's Odyssey, including encounters with sirens, a cyclops-like figure, and a returning war hero.
What is O Brother, Where Art Thou??
This philosopher distinguishes eudaimonia from mere pleasure or amusement and argues that the highest human good consists in activity of the soul in accordance with virtue over a complete life.
Who is Aristotle?
These two Athenian orators became bitter political opponents over whether Athens should resist Macedonian expansion; their rivalry culminated in a famous trial over the crown awarded to Demosthenes.
Who are Demosthenes and Aeschines?
Rome's Italian allies revolted after centuries of military service without full citizenship; the conflict ended after Rome extended citizenship through measures including the Lex Julia of 90 BCE.
What is the Social War?
A Roman aristocrat's morning could begin with this formal ritual, in which clientes visited their patronus to offer greetings and demonstrate loyalty in exchange for his protection and assistance.
What is the salutatio?
This Tony Award-winning musical reimagines the myths of Orpheus and Eurydice and of Hades and Persephone, blending ancient mythology with the sounds of American folk and jazz.
What is Hadestown?
This philosopher's analogy of the divided line places dianoia and noesis above belief and imagination, with the latter representing the highest form of intellectual apprehension.
Who is Plato?
Both founded influential schools in fourth-century BCE Athens, but this rivalry centered partly on whether education should pursue philosophical knowledge and truth or primarily train young men for effective participation in public life.
Who are Plato and Isocrates?
Following his victory in the civil war, Sulla published lists of condemned Romans whose property was confiscated and whose killing was legally rewarded, turning political persecution into an instrument of the state.
What are the proscriptions?
These enormous public complexes offered Romans far more than bathing, commonly incorporating exercise facilities, libraries, gardens, shops, and spaces for socializing.
What are the thermae?
This 2011 novel by Madeline Miller retells the story of the Trojan War through the relationship between Achilles and this figure, transforming a relatively obscure Homeric character into the narrator and central protagonist.
What is The Song of Achilles?
The Stoics called this state of freedom from irrational passions the ideal condition of the wise person; it should not be confused with simply feeling no emotions whatsoever.
What is apatheia?
This rivalry began over the command against King Jugurtha and later intensified when the Senate awarded one man command against Mithridates; the other responded by marching his legions on Rome.
Who are Marius and Sulla?
Meaning “the customs of the ancestors,” this unwritten body of political norms constrained Roman magistrates and senators; its erosion during the late Republic helped make extraordinary commands, political violence, and constitutional manipulation increasingly acceptable.
What is mos maiorum?
Named for the three couches arranged around three sides of a dining table, this room was the traditional setting for elite Roman banquets, where diners reclined rather than sat.
What is a triclinium?
This 1976 BBC television adaptation of Robert Graves' novel dramatizes the Julio-Claudian dynasty through the perspective of its unlikely emperor, who famously survives the intrigues that eliminate much of his family.
What is I, Claudius?
In this philosophical dialogue, Cicero presents competing arguments concerning whether the wise person should pursue pleasure, virtue, or a combination of the two, with the Epicurean, Stoic, and Academic positions represented by different speakers.
What is De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum (On the Ends of Good and Evil)?
This patrician-turned-plebeian tribune was infamous for his feud with Cicero, his role in Cicero’s exile, and the Bona Dea scandal in which he allegedly infiltrated a women-only religious ceremony.
Who is Publius Clodius Pulcher?
Passed in 133 BCE despite fierce senatorial opposition, this controversial measure associated with Tiberius Gracchus sought to enforce an older limit on the amount of public land (ager publicus) an individual could possess.
What is the Lex Sempronia Agraria?
Sometimes cited as an ancient Roman toilet implement, this object consisted of a sponge attached to a stick; ancient evidence suggests it was associated with public latrines, though precisely how it was used remains debated.
What is a xylospongium?
In this 2020 video game, the player controls Zagreus, son of Hades, as he repeatedly attempts to escape the Underworld; its cast includes Olympians such as Athena, Dionysus, and Artemis alongside figures from Greek myth.
What is Hades?
In this philosopher's De Brevitate Vitae, he argues that life is not inherently too short; rather, people squander much of the time they possess by pursuing wealth, status, and trivial occupations.
Who is Seneca the Younger?
During the Peloponnesian War, this revolt by a member of the Delian League prompted a notorious Athenian debate in which Cleon initially advocated executing the entire male population; a second assembly narrowly reversed the decision.
What is the Mytilenean Revolt?