Portal:Ancient Rome

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In modern historiography, ancient Rome encompasses the founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC, the Roman Kingdom (753–509 BC), Roman Republic (509–27 BC), Roman Empire (27 BC– 395 AD), and the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD.

Ancient Rome began as an Italic settlement, traditionally dated to 753 BC, beside the River Tiber in the Italian Peninsula. The settlement grew into the city and polity of Rome, and came to control its neighbours through a combination of treaties and military strength. It eventually controlled the Italian Peninsula, assimilated the Greek culture of southern Italy (Magna Grecia) and the Etruscan culture, becoming a dominant power in the Mediterranean region and parts of Europe. It was among the largest empires in the ancient world, with an estimated 50 to 90 million inhabitants, roughly 20% of the world's population at the time. It covered around 5 million square kilometres (1.9 million square miles) at its height in AD 117.

The Roman state evolved from an elective monarchy to a classical republic and then to an increasingly autocratic semi-elective military dictatorship during the Empire. Through conquest, cultural, and linguistic assimilation, at its height it controlled the North African coast, Egypt, Southern Europe, and most of Western Europe, the Balkans, Crimea, and much of the Middle East, including Anatolia, Levant, and parts of Mesopotamia and Arabia. It is often grouped into classical antiquity together with ancient Greece, and their similar cultures and societies are known as the Greco-Roman world.

Ancient Roman civilisation has contributed to modern language, religion, society, technology, law, politics, government, warfare, art, literature, architecture, and engineering. Rome professionalised and expanded its military and created a system of government called res publica, the inspiration for modern republics such as the United States and France. It achieved impressive technological and architectural feats, such as the empire-wide construction of aqueducts and roads, as well as more grandiose monuments and facilities. (Full article...)

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The Western Mediterranean just before the start of the war in 264 BC: Rome is shown in red, Carthage in grey, and Syracuse in green

The First Punic War (264–241 BC) was the first of three wars fought between Rome and Carthage, the two main powers of the western Mediterranean in the early 3rd century BC. For 23 years, in the longest continuous conflict and greatest naval war of antiquity, the two powers struggled for supremacy. The war was fought primarily on the Mediterranean island of Sicily and its surrounding waters, and also in North Africa. After immense losses on both sides, the Carthaginians were defeated.

The war began in 264 BC with the Romans gaining a foothold on Sicily at Messana (modern Messina). The Romans then pressed Syracuse, the only significant independent power on the island, into allying with them and laid siege to Carthage's main base at Akragas. A large Carthaginian army attempted to lift the siege in 262 BC but was heavily defeated at the Battle of Akragas. The Romans then built a navy to challenge the Carthaginians', and using novel tactics inflicted several defeats. A Carthaginian base on Corsica was seized, but an attack on Sardinia was repulsed; the base on Corsica was then lost. Taking advantage of their naval victories the Romans launched an invasion of North Africa, which the Carthaginians intercepted. At the Battle of Cape Ecnomus the Carthaginians were again beaten; this was possibly the largest naval battle in history by the number of combatants involved. The invasion initially went well and in 255 BC the Carthaginians sued for peace; the proposed terms were so harsh they fought on, defeating the invaders. The Romans sent a fleet to evacuate their survivors and the Carthaginians opposed it at the Battle of Cape Hermaeum off Africa; the Carthaginians were heavily defeated. The Roman fleet, in turn, was devastated by a storm while returning to Italy, losing most of its ships and over 100,000 men. (Full article...)

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General images

The following are images from various ancient Rome-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1Mosaic depicting a theatrical troupe preparing for a performance (from Culture of ancient Rome)
Image 2Forum of Gerasa (Jerash in present-day Jordan), with columns marking a covered walkway (stoa) for vendor stalls, and a semicircular space for public speaking (from Roman Empire)
Image 3Dressing of a priestess or bride, Roman fresco from Herculaneum, Italy (30–40 AD) (from Roman Empire)
Image 4Aquae Sulis in Bath, England: architectural features above the level of the pillar bases are a later reconstruction. (from Roman Empire)
Image 5Fragment of a sarcophagus depicting Gordian III and senators (3rd century) (from Roman Empire)
Image 6Fragmentary military diploma from Carnuntum; Latin was the language of the military throughout the Empire (from Culture of ancient Rome)
Image 7Winged Victory, ancient Roman fresco of the Neronian era from Pompeii (from Roman Empire)
Image 8The Zliten mosaic, from a dining room in present-day Libya, depicts a series of arena scenes: from top, musicians; gladiators; beast fighters; and convicts condemned to the beasts (from Roman Empire)
Image 9Relief panel from Trajan's Column in Rome, showing the building of a fort and the reception of a Dacian embassy (from Roman Empire)
Image 10Togate statue in the Museo Archeologico Nazionale d'Abruzzo (from Roman Empire)
Image 11The Triumph of Neptune floor mosaic from Africa Proconsularis (present-day Tunisia) (from Roman Empire)
Image 12Head of Constantine the Great, part of a colossal statue. Bronze, 4th century, Musei Capitolini, Rome. (from Culture of ancient Rome)
Image 13The Roman Empire by 476, noting western and eastern divisions (from Roman Empire)
Image 14All-male theatrical troupe preparing for a masked performance, on a mosaic from the House of the Tragic Poet (from Roman Empire)
Image 15The Flavian Amphitheatre, more commonly known as the Colosseum (from Roman Empire)
Image 16Circus Maximus, a mass entertainment venue located in Rome (from Culture of ancient Rome)
Image 17Model of archaic Rome, 6th century BC (from Founding of Rome)
Image 18Toga-clad statue, restored with the head of the emperor Nerva (from Culture of ancient Rome)
Image 19A late Republican banquet scene in a fresco from Herculaneum, Italy, c. 50 BC; the woman wears a transparent silk gown while the man to the left raises a rhyton drinking vessel (from Culture of ancient Rome)
Image 20Eggs, thrushes, napkin, and vessels (wall painting from the House of Julia Felix, Pompeii) (from Culture of ancient Rome)
Image 21Solidus issued under Constantine II, and on the reverse Victoria, one of the last deities to appear on Roman coins, gradually transforming into an angel under Christian rule (from Roman Empire)
Image 22Marble relief of Mithras slaying the bull (2nd century, Louvre-Lens); Mithraism was among the most widespread mystery religions of the Roman Empire. (from Culture of ancient Rome)
Image 23Reconstructed peristyle garden based on the House of the Vettii (from Roman Empire)
Image 24A victor in his four-horse chariot (from Roman Empire)
Image 25Cityscape from the Villa Boscoreale (60s AD) (from Roman Empire)
Image 26Silver cup, from the Boscoreale Treasure (early 1st century AD) (from Roman Empire)
Image 27A multigenerational banquet depicted on a wall painting from Pompeii (1st century AD) (from Roman Empire)
Image 28Western Europe during its Middle Bronze Age, with the Apennine Culture in blue (from Founding of Rome)
Image 29Plato's Academy mosaic from Pompeii (from Culture of ancient Rome)
Image 30Capitoline Wolf, sculpture of the she-wolf feeding the twins Romulus and Remus, the most famous image associated with the founding of Rome. According to Livy, it was erected in 296 BC. (from Founding of Rome)
Image 31Aeneas's route in Virgil's Aeneid. The epic poem was written in the early first century BC. (from Founding of Rome)
Image 32Reconstruction of a wax writing tablet (from Roman Empire)
Image 33Fresco of a seated woman from Stabiae, 1st century AD (from Culture of ancient Rome)
Image 34The Roman empire under Hadrian (ruled 117–138) showing the location of the Roman legions deployed in 125 AD (from Roman Empire)
Image 35Musicians playing a Roman tuba, a water organ (hydraulis), and a pair of cornua, detail from the Zliten mosaic, 2nd century AD (from Culture of ancient Rome)
Image 36Condemned man attacked by a leopard in the arena (3rd-century mosaic from Tunisia) (from Roman Empire)
Image 37Finely decorated Gallo-Roman terra sigillata bowl (from Roman Empire)
Image 38A fresco from Herculaneum depicting Heracles and Achelous from Greco-Roman mythology, 1st century CE (from Culture of ancient Rome)
Image 39Public toilets (latrinae) from Ostia Antica (from Roman Empire)
Image 40The Pantheon in Rome, a Roman temple originally built under Augustus, later converted into a Catholic church in the 7th century (from Roman Empire)
Image 41Romulus and Remus on the House of the She-wolf at the Grand Place of Brussels (from Founding of Rome)
Image 42Statue in Constanța, Romania (the ancient colony Tomis), commemorating Ovid's exile (from Roman Empire)
Image 43The Pont du Gard aqueduct, which crosses the river Gardon in southern France, is on UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites. (from Roman Empire)
Image 44Gold earrings with gemstones, 3rd century (from Roman Empire)
Image 45Still life on a 2nd-century Roman mosaic (from Roman Empire)
Image 46A fresco portrait of a man holding a papyrus roll, Pompeii, Italy, 1st century AD (from Culture of ancient Rome)
Image 47The administrative divisions of the Roman Empire in 395 AD (from Roman Empire)
Image 48Antoninus Pius (r. 138–161) wearing a toga (Hermitage Museum) (from Roman Empire)
Image 49Augustus of Prima Porta (from Roman Empire)
Image 50The Barbarian Invasions consisted of the movement of (mainly) ancient Germanic peoples into Roman territory. Historically, this event marked the transition between classical antiquity and the Middle Ages. (from Roman Empire)
Image 51The Colosseum in Rome (from Culture of ancient Rome)
Image 52Excavation on the Palatine Hill has found the foundations of a hut believed to correspond to the Hut of Romulus, which the Romans themselves preserved into late antiquity (from Founding of Rome)
Image 53A bust of Cicero, Capitoline Museums, Rome (from Culture of ancient Rome)
Image 54Sestertius issued under Hadrian circa AD 134–138 (from Roman Empire)
Image 55Recreation of a deer hunt inspired by hunting scenes represented in Roman art. (from Roman Empire)
Image 56Trio of musicians playing an aulos, cymbala, and tympanum (mosaic from Pompeii) (from Roman Empire)
Image 57Workers at a cloth-processing shop, in a painting from the fullonica of Veranius Hypsaeus in Pompeii (from Roman Empire)
Image 58The Tabula Peutingeriana (Latin for "The Peutinger Map") an Itinerarium, often assumed to be based on the Roman cursus publicus (from Roman Empire)
Image 59Slave holding writing tablets for his master (relief from a 4th-century sarcophagus) (from Roman Empire)
Image 60Eighteenth century painting by Pompeo Batoni depicting Aeneas fleeing from Troy. Aeneas carries his father. (from Founding of Rome)
Image 61Glass cage cup from the Rhineland, 4th century (from Roman Empire)
Image 62A segment of the ruins of Hadrian's Wall in northern England, overlooking Crag Lough (from Roman Empire)
Image 63Mosaic from Pompeii depicting the Academy of Plato (from Roman Empire)
Image 64Landscape resulting from the ruina montium mining technique at Las Médulas, Spain, one of the most important gold mines in the Roman Empire (from Roman Empire)
Image 65A 3rd century funerary stele is among the earliest Christian inscriptions, written in both Greek and Latin. (from Roman Empire)
Image 66A teacher with two students, as a third arrives with his loculus, a writing case (from Roman Empire)
Image 67Roman portraiture fresco of a young man with a papyrus scroll, from Herculaneum, 1st century AD (from Culture of ancient Rome)
Image 68A green Roman glass cup unearthed from an Eastern Han Dynasty (25–220 AD) tomb in Guangxi, China (from Roman Empire)
Image 69The so-called Primavera of Stabiae, perhaps the goddess Flora (from Culture of ancient Rome)
Image 70Funerary urn of the Villanovan culture, precursor to Etruscan civilization (from Founding of Rome)
Image 71Wall painting (1st century AD) from Pompeii depicting a multigenerational banquet (from Culture of ancient Rome)
Image 72Bread stall, from a Pompeiian wall painting (from Roman Empire)
Image 73The Temple of Saturn, a religious monument that housed the treasury in ancient Rome (from Roman Empire)
Image 74So-called "Bikini Girls" mosaic from the Villa del Casale, Roman Sicily, 4th century (from Roman Empire)
Image 75On the Ludovisi sarcophagus (from Roman Empire)
Image 76Pride in literacy was displayed through emblems of reading and writing, as in this portrait of Terentius Neo and his wife (c. 20 AD) (from Roman Empire)
Image 77Cinerary urn for the freedman Tiberius Claudius Chryseros and two women, probably his wife and daughter (from Roman Empire)

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Gaius Antonius Hybrida (flourished 1st century BC) was a politician of the Roman Republic. He was the second son of Marcus Antonius and brother of Marcus Antonius Creticus; his mother is unknown. He was also the uncle of the famed triumvir Mark Antony. He had two children, Antonia Hybrida Major and Antonia Hybrida Minor.

Hybrida's career began under Lucius Cornelius Sulla, whom he accompanied into Greece as either a military tribune or a legatus. Later, in 63 BC, he was elected to serve as consul of the Roman Republic alongside Marcus Tullius Cicero. The two struck a deal which effectively allowed Cicero to rule as sole consul in exchange for Hybrida receiving the governorship of Macedonia at the end of his term. The same year, Hybrida was involved in the Catilinarian Conspiracy, a plot against the Roman Senate led by Lucius Sergius Catilina, or "Catiline", and which culminated in a battle at Pistoria and the death of Catiline. Having served his term as consul, Hybrida was granted Macedonia as had been promised. Here, Hybrida abused his rule to rob the provincials and led invasions of the neighbouring barbaric lands of Moesia. His incursions brought two separate attacks from the natives who successfully forced Hybrida out of their lands without any loot. (Full article...)

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Did you know?

...That when Caesar's troops hesitated to leave their ships for fear of the Britons, the aquilifer of the tenth legion threw himself overboard and, carrying the eagle, advanced alone against the enemy?
...That the most well paid athlete in human history, Gaius Appuleius Diocles, was an illiterate Roman Chariot racer, and earned the equivalent of $15 Billion US Dollars.
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Trajan's Column (Italian: Colonna Traiana) is a monument in Rome which commemorates the Roman emperor Trajan's victory in the Dacian Wars in 101-106 AD.

Trajan's Column (Italian: Colonna Traiana) is a monument in Rome which commemorates the Roman emperor Trajan's victory in the Dacian Wars in 101-106 AD.

Photo credit: Radomil

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WikiProject Classical Greece and Rome: The project regularly invites its members to collaborate on article development.
WikiProject Rome: Includes stylistic help and lists of articles requiring attention or expansion.
WikiProject Military history: Highly-active WikiProject with regular competitions to improve military history articles.

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“

[...] Caesar is a god in his own city. Outstanding in war or peace, it was not so much his wars that ended in great victories, or his actions at home, or his swiftly won fame, that set him among the stars, a fiery comet, as his descendant. There is no greater achievement among Caesar's actions than that he stood father to our emperor. Is it a greater thing to have conquered the sea-going Britons; to have led his victorious ships up the seven-mouthed flood of the papyrus-bearing Nile; to have brought the rebellious Numidians, under Juba of Cinyps, and Pontus, swollen with the name of Mithridates, under the people of Quirinus; to have earned many triumphs and celebrated few; than to have sponsored such a man, with whom, as ruler of all, you gods have richly favoured the human race? Therefore, in order for the emperor not to have been born of mortal seed, Caesar needed to be made a god. [...]

Augustus, his 'son', will ensure that he ascends to heaven as a god, and is worshipped in the temples. Augustus, as heir to his name, will carry the burden placed upon him alone, and will have us with him, in battle, as the most courageous avenger of his father's murder. Under his command, the conquered walls of besieged Mutina will sue for peace; Pharsalia will know him; Macedonian Philippi twice flow with blood; and the one who holds Pompey's great name, will be defeated in Sicilian waters; and a Roman general's Egyptian consort, trusting, to her cost, in their marriage, will fall, her threat that our Capitol would bow to her city of Canopus, proved vain.

Why enumerate foreign countries or the nations living on either ocean shore? Wherever earth contains habitable land, it will be his: and even the sea will serve him!

”

— Ovid, Metamorphoses, XV, 745–842

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