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Romans
Caius Julius Caesar (c 100-44 Bc) The most important member of the First Triumverate with Pompey and Crassus, and later as dictator, he virtually ruled Rome for over a decade. A popular leader and orator, he made a number of reforms to improve the living conditions of the people. However, his near absolute power led to his assassination. He was in his fifties during his civil war with Pompey.
Marcus Junius Brutus 985-44 BC) Brutus was an adherent of Pompey in their civil war until Caesar pardoned him. He was one of the principle consiprators in Caesar's assassination, but committed suicide two years later after Octavius and Antony defeated him in battle.
Gnaeus Pompeius (Pompey) Magnus (106-48 BC) Pompey won his title Magnus for military victories as a young man. He was married to Caesar's daughter, but at her death turned against Caesar. Caesar defeated him in the civil war which followed, and he was assassinated.
Marcus Licinius Crassus (d 53 BC) One of the richest men in Rome, he provided the money behind the First Triumverate . Since he and Pompey were enemies, only Caesar's political adroitness kept their alliance afloat. After disgracing himself in a failed military campaign against Parthia (Iran now), Crassus was murdered.
Boudicca (d 61AD) A queen of the Iceni in Britain that lived almost a century after Julius Caesar. When her husband died, the Romans invaded their kingdom. Under Boudicca's leadership, the Iceni revolted and sacked several Roman strongholds including London. She committed suicide when her army was finally destroyed by the Roman governor of Britain.
Cleopatra (69-30 BC) The legendary queen of Egypt was only 17 when she became queen through marriage to one of her brothers. Egypt was already a vassal of Rome, and most of Cleopatra's political maneuvers were probably aimed at restoring some real power to the Egyptian throne and to herself. Most Romans feared and hated Cleopatra, probably as a threat to the peace of the Empire, hence the determination of Octavius to defeat her and Antony and end their power in Egypt.
Marc Antony (c 83-30 BC) Antony supported Caesar in his civil war against Pompey, then later formed the Second Triumverate with Octavius and another Roman leader. His love affair and marriage to Cleopatra, for which he abandoned Rome and took up residence in Egypt, cost him the favor of the Senate and led to civil war. After the naval battle in which he and Cleopatra were defeated by Octavius, the couple fled back to Egypt, and when Octavius pursued them, they committed suicide.
Octavius/Augustus (63BC-14 AD) Caesar's grand nephew and heir became the sole ruler of Rome after Antony's death, although he considered himself only its first citizen. The Senate conferred on him the honorary titles Augustus and Imperator and the imperial title passed to his successors. He was a good ruler for a dicator. The Biblical tax census which sent Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem was part of his effort to make taxation more equitable. To keep peace in the provinces he encouraged local autonomy and allowed diverse cultures to flourish. In Rome he improved housing and the streets and polic and fire protection. He was a lavish patron of the arts.
Source: The Columbia Encyclopedia
Livia Augusta
She was the first wife of the first Augustus. Her husband when he died left her a third of his estate and the rest to his adopted son (from a previous marriage) Tiberius the rest of the estate. Tiberius became the second emperor and gifted his mother with the title Augusta (mother of the emperor). Very few women had this type of role only a handful of preistesses. She also received the right to sit with the high priestesses in the theater, was given immunity from the wealth resrictions of the Lex Voconia and coins had her image on them. The Senate even considered giving her the title Parens Patriae (parent of the country) but Tiberius vetoed the idea since he didn't want to lose any of his power. The title Augusta could also be meant to mean empress as well as mother of the emperor. If her son hand't stepped in and stopped her from gaining more power she could have proven that a woman was intelligent enough to hold a place in political office.
Virgil
Vergil or Virgil 70 BC- 19 BC. Roman poet, born in Andes near Mantua in Cisalpine Gual. Virgil's father, a farmer took his son to Cremona for his education. Thereafter Virgil continued his studies in Milan, Naples, and Rome. The poet's boyhood experience of life on the farm was an essential part of his education. After his studies in Rome, Virgil is believed to have lived with his father for about 10 years, engaged in farm work, study, and writing poetry. In 41 BC the farm was confiscated to provide land for soilders. Virgil went to Rome, where he became a part of the literary circle partronized by Maecenas and Augustus and where his Eclogues, or Bucolics, were completed in 37 BC. In this poems he idealizes rural life in the manner of his Greek predecessor Theocritus. From the Eclogues, Virgil turned to rural poetry of a contrasting kind, realistic and didactic. In his Georgics completed in 30 BC, he seeks, as had the Greek Hesiod before him to interpret the charm of real life and work on the far,. His perfect poetic expression gives him the first place among pastoral poets. For this rest of his life Virigl worked on the Aeneid, a national epis honoring Rome and fortelling prosperity to come. The adventures of Aeneas are unquestionably one of the greatest long poems in world literature. Virigl made Aeneas the paragon of the most revered Roman virtues devotion to family, loyalty to the state, and piety. In 12 books, Virgil tells how Aeneas escaped from Troy to Carthage, where he became Dido's lover and related his adventures to her. At Jupiter's command he left Carthage, went to Sicily, visited his father's shade in Hades, and landed in Italy. There he established the beginings of the Roman state and waged successful war against the natives. The work ends with the death of Turnus at the hands of Aeneas. The verse, in dactylic hexamters is strikingly regular, though Virigil's death left the epic incomplete and some of the lines unfinished. The sonority of the words and the nobility of purpose make the Aeneid a masterpiece. Virgil is a dominant figure in all Latin literature. His influence continued unabated throught the Middle Ages, and many poets since Dante have acknowledged their great debt to him. Minor poems ascribed to Virgil are of doubtful authorship.
Source: Columbia Encyclopedia
Caligula
12 AD-41 AD Roman emperor AD 37-AD 41, son of Germanicus Casear and Agrippina the Elder. His real name was Cauis Casear Germanicus. When he was a small child he wore military boots, from where his nickname emerged Caligula which means little boot. On the death of Tiberius the army helped make Caligula emperor. Shortly after he became severely ill, it is believed that afterwards he was insane. He earned a reputation for ruthless and cruel autocracy, and torture and execution became the order of the day. He was responsible for serious disturbances among the Jews, and he nearly caused a rebellion in Palestine by attempting to erect a statue of himself in their temple. He was assassinated by a tribune of the Praetorian Guard and succeeded by Claudius I.
Source: Columbia Encyclopedia
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