Atticus (real name Titus Pomponius) was a Roman of great wealth and culture. He was born in 109 BC, and died in 32 BC. On the death of his father he removed to Athens to avoid participation in the civil war, to which his brother Sulpicius had fallen a victim. There he so identified himself with Greek life and literature as to receive the surname Atticus. It was his principle never to mix in politics, and he lived undisturbed amid the strife of factions. Sulla and the Marian party, Csesar and Pompey, Brutus and Antony, were alike friendly to him, and he was in favour with Augustus. Of his close friendship with Marcus Cicero proof is given in the series of letters addressed to him by Marcus Cicero. He married at the age of 53, and had one daughter, Pomponia, named by Marcus Cicero Atticula and Attica. He reached the age of seventy-seven years without sickness, but being then attacked by an incurable disease, ended his life by voluntary starvation. He was a type of the refined Epicurean, and an author of some contemporary repute, though none of his works have reached us. Research Atticus
Caius Julius Caesar Octavianus Augustus originally called Caius Octavius,was a Roman Emperor. He was born in63 BC and died in 14 AD. He was the son of Caius Octavius and Atia, a daughter of Julia, the sister of Julius Caesar. Octavius was at Apollonia, in Epirus, when he received news of the death of his uncle in 44 BC, who had previously adopted him as his son. He returned to Rome to claim Caesar's property and avenge his death, and now took, according to usage, his uncle's name with the surname Octavianus. He was aiming secretly at the chief power, but at first he joined the republican party, and assisted at the defeat of Antony at Mutina. He got himself chosen consul in 43. Soon after the first triumvirate was formed between him and Antony and Lepidus, and this was followed by the conscription and assassination of three hundred senators and two thousand knights of the party opposed to the triumvirate. Next year Octavianus and Antony defeated the republican army under Brutus and Cassius at Philippi.
The victors now divided the Roman world between them, Octavianus getting the West, Antony the East, and Lepidus Africa. Sextus Pompeius, who had made himself formidable at sea, had now to be put down; and Lepidus, who had hitherto retained an appearance of power, was deprived of all authority in 36 BC and retired into private life. Antony and Octavianus now shared the empire between them; but while the former, in the East, gave himself up to a life of luxury, and alienated the Romans by his alliance with Cleopatra and his adoption of Oriental manners, Octavianus skilfully cultivated popularity, and soon declared war ostensibly against the Queen of Egypt. The naval victory of Actium, in which the fleet of Antony and Cleopatra was defeated, made Octavianus master of the world, in 31 BC. He returned to Rome in 29 BC, celebrated a splendid triumph, and caused the temple of Janus to be closed in token of peace being restored. Gradually all the highest offices of state, civil and religious, were united in his hands, and the new title of Augustus was also assumed by him, being formally conferred by the senate in 27 BC. Great as was the power given to him, he exercised it with wise moderation, and kept up the show of a republican form of government.
Under him successful wars were carried on in Africa and Asia (against the Parthians), in Gaul and Spain, in Pannonia, Dalmatia, etc; but the defeat of Varus by the Germans under Armmius with the loss of three legions, in 9 AD, was a great blow to him in his old age. Many useful decrees proceeded from him, and various abuses were abolished. He gave a new form to the senate, employed himself in improving the morals of the people, enacted laws for the suppression of luxury, introduced discipline into the armies, and order into the games of the circus. He adorned Rome in such a manner that it was said, ' He found it of brick, and left it of marble.' The people erected altars to him, and, by a decree of the senate, the month Sextilis was called Augustus (our August). He was a patron of literature; Virgil and Horace were befriended by him, and their works and those of their contemporaries are the glory of the Augustan Age. His death, which took place at Nola, plunged the empire into the greatest grief. He was thrice married, but had no son, and was succeeded by his stepson Tiberius, whose mother Livia he had married after prevailing on her husband to divorce her. Research Augustus
Brut or Brutus was a hero of Troy, the great-grandson of Aeneas. On his banishment from Italy he managed to reach Albion (Britain) whose gigantic warriors he overcame in battle and so took possession of the island. Research Brut
Caius Cassius Longinus was a Roman soldier. He was one of the assassins of Julius Caesar. In the civil war that broke out between Pompey and Caesar he espoused the cause of the former, and, as commander of his naval forces, rendered him important services. After the battle of Pharsalia he was apparently reconciled with Caesar, but later was amongst the more active of the conspirators who assassinated him in 44 BC. He then, together with Brutus, raised an army, but they were met by Octavianus and Antony at Philippi. The wing which Cassius commanded being defeated, he imagined that all was lost, and killed himself in 42 BC. Research Cassius
Decimus Junius Brutus was a Roman commander. He served under Julius Caesar in Gaul, and later was commander of his fleet. He was involved in the assassination of Caesar, and opposed Anthony for a while afterwards until his soldiers deserted him in Gaul and he was betrayed to Anthony who had him executed in 43 BC. Research Decimus Brutus
Degimus Junius Brutus was a Roman soldier. He served under Julius Caesar in Gaul, and was afterwards commander of his fleet, but, like his relative, Marcus Junius Brutus, joined in the assassination of Julius Caesar. He was afterwards for a short time successful in opposing Antony, but was deserted by his soldiers in Gaul and betrayed into the hands of his opponent, who put him to death in 43 BC. Research Degimus Brutus
Geoffrey of Monmouth (also known as Geoffrey apArthur, that is Geoffrey son of Arthur) was a British historian. He was born in 1100 and died in 1154. He sprang from the Norman settlers in Wales; became archdeacon of Monmouth, whence he was, in 1152, raised to the bishopric of St Asaph. His famous history was first published in 1128. This ' Chronicon sive Historia Britonum' is now known to be, as the compiler states, chiefly a translation from an ancient book in the Bretontongue, discovered by Walter Calenius, an archdeacon of Oxford. It contains a pretended genealogy of the kings of Britain from the time of the fabulous Brutus, or Brute, the Trojan, to the death of Cadwallader, king of Wessex, in 688. It was soon translated into French, English, and Welsh, and became a great source of romance to the writers of successive generations. Research Geoffrey of Monmouth
Herod (Herod the Great) was King of the Jews. He was born in about 74 BC at Ascalon, in Judea. He was the second son of Antipater the Idumean, who, being made procurator of Judea by Julius Caesar, appointed Herod to the government of Galilee. He at first embraced the party of Brutus and Cassius, but after their death reconciled himself to Antony, by whose interest he was first named Tetrarch, and afterwards king of Judea. After the battle of Actium he successfully paid court to Augustus, who confirmed him in his kingdom.
On all occasions his abilities as a politician and commander were conspicuous; but his passions were fierce and ungovernable, and his wife Mariamne, her brother, grandfather, and mother, and his own sons by her, were all put to death by him. He rebuilt the temple at Jerusalem with great magnificence, and erected a stately theatre and amphitheatre in that city. He also rebuilt Samaria, which he called Sebaste, and constructed many strong fortresses throughout Judea, the principal termed Caesarea, after the emperor.
The birth of Jesus Christ is said to have taken place in the last year of the reign of Herod, about 4 BC, the year was also signaled by the massacre of the children of Bethlehem. Herod's policy and influence gave a great temporary splendour to the Jewish nation, but he was also the first to shake the foundation of the Jewish government, by dissolving the national council, and appointing the high-priests and removing them at pleasure, without regard to the laws of succession. Research Herod
Quintus Horatius Flaccus, commonly known as Horace, was the greatest of Latin lyric poets. He was born in 65 BC near Venusia, in southern Italy and died in 8 BC. His father was a freedman, a collector of taxes, and had purchased the farm at which his son was born. When Horace was about twelve years old his father moved with him to Rome, where he received an excellent education. At the age of eighteen he went to Athens to complete his studies.
After the assassination of Julius Caesar, Brutus came to Athens, and Horace, along with other Roman youths, joined his army. He was appointed to a military tribuneship, was present at Philippi, and on the defeat of Brutus saved himself by flight. On the proclamation of an amnesty to the vanquished Horace returned to Italy, but found his father dead, his paternal estate confiscated, and himself reduced to poverty. He was, however, enabled to purchase a clerkship in the quaestor's office, which enabled him to subsist frugally and to cultivate his poetical talent.
His poems procured him the friendship of Virgil and Varius, and to them he was indebted for his first acquaintance with Maecenas, who was the friend and confidant of Augustus Caesar, and who expended his wealth for the encouragement of literature and the arts.
Maecenas received Horace among his intimate friends, and, after some years, presented him with a small estate or farm in the Sabine country about 15 miles from Tibur (Tivoli), which was sufficient to maintain him in ease and comfort during the rest of his life. He had also a cottage at Tibur, and at Rome or one or other of these country residences the latter part of his life was spent. Although he was ultimately introduced to Augustus he never sought favours from him, and he is said to have declined an offer of the management of his private correspondence.
His works consist of four books of odes; a book of epodes or short poems, two books of satires; and two books of epistles, one of which is often cited as a separate work, under the title of Ars Poetica. The lyrics of Horace are largely based on Greek models, but the exquisite beauty of his language is all his own. It is, however, in his satires and epistles that he shows the greatest power and originality, wit and humour, gravity and gaiety, shrewdness and common sense, tender sentiment, and at times melancholy. His writings have been often translated, and into many languages. In English Pope and Swift have given free imitations of various parts of his writings. The poetical translation of Francis is well known, but is inferior to that of Sir Theodore Martin.
Jacques Louis David was a French historical painter. He was born in 1748 at Paris and died in 1825. He went to Rome in 1774, and passed several years there painting several important pictures. A second visit produced the Horatii, one of his masterpieces. In 1787 he produced The Death of Socrates, in 1788 Paris and Helen, and in 1789 Brutus. In the revolution he was a violent Jacobin, and wholly devoted to Robespierre. Several of the scenes of the revolution supplied subjects for his brush. What is considered his masterpiece, The Rape of the Sabines, was painted in 1799. He was appointed first painter to Napoleon about 1804; and after the second restoration of Louis XVIII, he was included in the decree which banished all regicides from France, when he retired to Brussels. Research Jacques Louis David
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Abbreviations
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