Rome Political Terms Flashcards
Legion
A group of roughly 5,000 soldiers (similar to the phalanx of the Greeks) fought in close formation.
Punic Wars
The battle between Rome and Carthage. Rome defeats Carthage after the first Punic War. Rome defeats Carthage in the second Punic War as well.
Navy
Soldiers who fight on boats.
Cannae
Key city of the second Punic War.
Hannibal
General that starts the second Punic War and single-handedly defeats half of the Roman soldiers in one battle.
Carthage
The powerful empire that controlled trade and merchants and had a large navy around the Mediterranean Sea.
Militia
An army that was made up of Roman men and not a professional army.
Gladius
A short sword that is the standard weapon for Roman legionaries.
Pilum
A vital tool for Rome’s imperial regions. Feature a sharp iron in the head of the weapon.
Marius Mule’s
The solider of Marius. Marius is said in ancient sources to have moved much of the baggage off beasts of burden and onto the backs of the common soldiers
Patrician
an aristocrat or nobleman.
Plebian
Plebeians were average working citizens of Rome – farmers, bakers, builders or craftsmen – who worked hard to support their families and pay their taxes.
Princeps
First among equals in a restored Republic
Augustus
One of the many honorific titles that the Senate gave Octavian, connotes prosperity and piety. Became the name by which he is best known to posterity.
Third-century crisis
When political, military, and economic problems beset and nearly destroyed the Roman Empire through frequent changes of rulers.
Constantine
Reunited the entire Roman empire under his sole rule by 324. Religious tolerance.
Diocletian
The Roman princeps under the time of Roman hostility against the Jewish people and persecution against Christians. Institutionalized such actions.
Theodosius
Made Christianity the official religion of Rome.
Nero
The emperor after Caligula’s death. People believed he started the Great fire that destroyed most of buildings in Rome.
Vespasian
Tasked by Nero with crushing the rebellion and was appointed emperor. Under the Vespasian, the Romans broke the Jewish resistance in the North.
Rhea Silvia
Mother of Romulus and Remus
Romulus and Remus
The first king/emperor of the Roman empire. Romulus killed his brother Remus for the throne.
Tarquin “the proud”
The last Etruscan Roman emperor was taken down because his son raped a noble Roman woman.
Marius
The Roman military general who revolutionized the way that the Roman military was structured. Allowed farmers and the poor to be elected into the army and made the army more loyal to the general rather than the states.
