How did Servius Tullius die?
Servius Tullius
When Servius Tullius arrived at the senate-house to defend his position, Tarquinius threw him down the steps and Servius was murdered in the street by Tarquin's men. Soon after, Tullia drove her chariot over her father's body. For Livy, Tarquinius' impious refusal to permit his father-in-law's burial earned him the sobriquet "Superbus" (“arrogant” or “proud”), and Servius' death is a "tragic crime" ("tragicum scelus"), a dark episode in Rome's history and just cause for the abolition of the monarchy. Servius thus becomes the last of Rome's benevolent kings; the place of this outrage – which Livy seems to suggest as a crossroads – is known thereafter as "Vicus Sceleratus" (street of shame, infamy or crime). His murder is parricide, the worst of all crimes. This morally justifies Tarquin's eventual expulsion and the abolition of Rome's aberrant, "un-Roman" monarchy. Livy's Republic is partly founded on the achievements and death of Rome's last benevolent king.
Proculus Verginius Tricostus Rutilus
Cassius was accused of trying to create support in the populace and allies to seek kingship. In a partisan struggle, Verginius sided with the Roman patricians, and Cassius the Roman plebeians. Upon retirement from office, Cassius was condemned and put to death.
Ancient Rome
Tiberius died (or was killed) in 37 AD. The male line of the Julio-Claudians was limited to Tiberius' nephew Claudius, his grandson Tiberius Gemellus and his grand-nephew Caligula. As Gemellus was still a child, Caligula was chosen to rule the Empire. He was a popular leader in the first half of his reign, but became a crude and insane tyrant in his years controlling government. Suetonius states that he committed incest with his sisters, killed some men just for amusement and nominated a horse for a consulship.
Marcus Marius Gratidianus
During the closing violence of the civil war, Gratidianus was tortured and killed. His fate under Sulla's dictatorship was never in doubt; his death was non-negotiable. Details vary and proliferate in their brutality over time. Cicero and Sallust offer the earliest accounts, but the works in which these survive are fragmentary.
Cicero described his cousin's murder in a speech during his candidacy for the consulship in 64 BC, nearly two decades after the fact. He had been a young man in his twenties at the time of the killing, and possibly an eyewitness. What is known of this speech, and thus Cicero's version of the events, depends on notes provided by the first-century grammarian Asconius. By chance, the surviving quotations from Cicero name neither the victim nor the executioner; these are supplied by Asconius. One of Cicero's purposes in the speech was to smear his rivals, among them Catiline, whose participation in the crime Cicero asserted repeatedly throughout. The orator claimed that Catiline cut off Gratidianus' head, and carried it through the city from the Janiculum to the Temple of Apollo, where he delivered it to Sulla "full of soul and breath."
Titus Flavius Sabinus (consul AD 47)
Soon afterward, the legions in the East declared for Vespasian, who then advanced toward Rome, supported by Marcus Antonius Primus. After Vitellius' troops were defeated, the emperor, despairing of success, offered to surrender the empire into the hands of Sabinus, until his brother arrived. However, Vitellius' German soldiers refused this arrangement, and Sabinus was besieged in the Capitol, together with his family. The capitol was burnt by Vitellius' forces, and in the confusion Sabinus' family made their escape, but Sabinus himself was captured and dragged before the emperor, who attempted in vain to save him from the fury of the soldiers. Sabinus was brutally murdered, and his remains thrown to a place where the corpses of malefactors were taken. When the generals of Vespasian obtained possession of the city, Sabinus was interred with the honour of a censor's funeral.
Mamercus Aemilius Scaurus
Scaurus' final episode in the Senate began in the year 32, when Servilius and Cornelius Tuscus accused him and a number of other senators of treason. While some were saved by the intervention of one of the tribunes of the urban cohorts, Tiberius postponed Scaurus' case intending to handle it himself; Tactius notes the emperor "affixed some ominous marks to the name of Scaurus." When Tiberius considered Scaurus' case two years later, his enemy the praetorian prefect Naevius Sutorius Macro added the charge that certain verses in a tragedy Scaurus had written could be interpreted to disrespect Tiberius. At the suggestion of his wife Sextia, Mamercus Aemilius Scaurus took his own life; she followed suit shortly after.
Servilia (mother of Brutus)
Servilia was married to Marcus Junius Brutus, tribune of the plebs and founder of a colony at Capua. They had one child, Marcus, born about 85 BC. The elder Brutus was killed by Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus after the surrender of Mutina in 77 BC. Servilia subsequently married Decimus Junius Silanus, by whom she had three daughters: Junia Prima, Junia Secunda, and Junia Tertia.
Titus Pullo (Rome character)
When Antony and Octavian unite to face their common enemies Brutus and Cassius, Pullo and Vorenus receive a list of prominent senators whom Octavian believes to have sympathies with the two assassins. Pullo kills Marcus Tullius Cicero himself. The normally cowardly senator shows great courage facing death. The two men have a strangely civil and amiable conversation before Cicero allows Pullo to kill him. Pullo remarks "he's not a bad fellow, that Cicero" to Vorenus afterwards.
Servius Tullius
In Livy's account, Tarquinius Priscus had been elected king on the death of the previous king, Ancus Marcius, whose two sons were too young to inherit or offer themselves for election. When Servius' popularity and his marriage to Tarquinius' daughter made him a likely successor to the throne, these sons attempted to seize the throne for themselves. They hired two assassins, who attacked and severely wounded Tarquinius. Tanaquil immediately ordered the palace to be shut, and publicly announced from a palace window that Tarquinius had appointed Servius as regent; meanwhile, Tarquinius died of his wounds. When his death became public knowledge, the senate elected Servius as king, and the sons of Ancus fled to exile in Suessa Pometia. Livy describes this as the first occasion that the people of Rome were not involved in the election of the king. In Plutarch, Servius reluctantly consented to the kingship at the death-bed insistence of Tanaquil.
Gaius Rabirius (senator)
Gaius Rabirius was a Roman senator who was involved in the death of Lucius Appuleius Saturninus in 100 BC. Titus Labienus, a Tribune of the Plebs whose uncle had lost his life among the followers of Saturninus on that occasion, was urged by fellow Senator and patron Julius Caesar to accuse Rabirius of participating in the murder. Caesar's real objective was to warn the Senate against interference by force with popular movements, to uphold the sovereignty of the people and the inviolability of the person of the tribunes, at the time of the conspiracy of Lucius Sergius Catilina. The obsolete accusation of "perduellio" was revived, and the case was heard before Caesar and his cousin Lucius Julius Caesar as commissioners specially appointed ("duumviri perduellionis"). Rabirius was condemned, and the people, to whom the accused had exercised the right of appeal, were on the point of ratifying the decision, when Quintus Caecilius Metellus Celer pulled down the military flag from the Janiculum, which was equivalent to the dissolution of the assembly. Caesar's object having been attained, the matter was then allowed to drop. The defense was taken by Marcus Tullius Cicero, consul at the time; the speech is extant: "Pro Rabirio reo perduellionis".
Servius Tullius
Despite the opposition of Rome's patricians, he expanded the Roman franchise and improved the lot and fortune of Rome's lowest classes of citizens and non-citizens. According to Livy, he reigned for 44 years, until murdered by his daughter Tullia and son-in-law Lucius Tarquinius Superbus. In consequence of this "tragic crime" and his hubristic arrogance as king, Tarquinius was eventually removed. This cleared the way for the abolition of Rome's monarchy and the founding of the Roman Republic, whose groundwork had already been laid by Servius' reforms.
Servius Tullius
Claudius' story of Servius as an Etruscan named "Macstarna" was published as an incidental scholarly comment within the "Oratio Claudii Caesaris" of the Lugdunum Tablet. There is some support for this Etruscan version of Servius, in wall paintings at the François Tomb in Etruscan Vulci. They were commissioned some time in the second half of the 4th century BC. One panel shows heroic Etruscans putting foreign captives to the sword. The victims include an individual named Gneve Tarchunies Rumach, interpreted as a Roman named Gnaeus Tarquinius, although known Roman history records no Tarquinius of that praenomen. The victors include Aule and Caile Vipinas – known to the Romans as the Vibenna brothers – and their ally Macstrna [Macstarna], who seems instrumental in winning the day. Claudius was certain that Macstarna was simply another name for Servius Tullius, who started his career as an Etruscan ally of the Vibenna brothers and helped them settle Rome's Caelian Hill. Claudius' account evidently drew on sources unavailable to his fellow-historians, or rejected by them. There may have been two different, Servius-like figures, or two different traditions about the same figure. "Macstarna" may have been the name of a once celebrated Etruscan hero, or more speculatively, an Etruscan rendering of Roman "magister" (magistrate). Claudius' "Etruscan Servius" seems less a monarch than a freelance Roman "magister", an "archaic condottiere" who placed himself and his own band of armed clients at Vibenna's service, and may later have seized, rather than settled Rome's Caelian Hill. If the Etruscan Macstarna was identical with the Roman Servius, the latter may have been less monarch than some kind of proto-Republican magistrate given permanent office, perhaps a "magister populi", a war-leader, or in Republican parlance, a "dictator".
Battle of Lugdunum
The exact cause of Albinus' death is unclear. He fled into Lugdunum where he either, in the Roman tradition, "ran upon his sword" after finding all escape routes cut, or he was finished off by an assassin's blade. Severus had Albinus' body stripped and beheaded. He rode over the headless corpse with his horse in front of his victorious troops. The head he sent back to Rome as a warning along with the heads of Albinus' family. In Lugdunum itself, Septimius remodeled the Imperial cult sanctuary to celebrate his dominance and humiliate Albinus' provincial supporters. According to Duncan Fishwick, the reformed Imperial rites at Lugdunum resembled those due a master from his slaves. At some point after this battle, the unified Roman province of Britain was broken up into Upper and Lower halves ( & ""). Roman forces in Britannia were also severely weakened, which would lead to incursions, uprisings, and a withdrawal of Rome from the Antonine Wall south to Hadrian's Wall. It was while quelling one of these uprisings that Severus himself would die near present-day York on 4 February 211, only weeks short of the 14th anniversary of his victory at Lugdunum.
Servilia (mother of Brutus)
Servilia (b. "circa" 104 BC, d. after 42 BC) was a Roman matron from a distinguished family, the Servilii Caepiones, and the half-sister of Cato the Younger. She was the wife of Marcus Junius Brutus, and then of Decimus Junius Silanus. But she is more famous as the mistress of Caesar, the mother of the younger Marcus Junius Brutus, and the mother-in-law of Gaius Cassius Longinus, the leaders of the conspiracy to assassinate Caesar in 44 BC.
Tiberius
Tiberius died in Misenum on 16 March AD 37, in his seventy eighth year. Tacitus relates that the emperor appeared to have stopped breathing, and that Caligula, who was at Tiberius' villa, was being congratulated on his succession to the empire, when news arrived that the emperor had revived and was recovering his faculties. Those who had moments before recognized Caligula as Augustus fled in fear of the emperor's wrath, while Macro took advantage of the chaos to have Tiberius smothered with his own bedclothes. Suetonius reports several rumours, including that the emperor had been poisoned by Caligula, starved, and smothered with a pillow; that recovering, and finding himself deserted by his attendants, he attempted to rise from his couch, but fell dead. According to Cassius Dio, Caligula, fearing that the emperor would recover, refused Tiberius' requests for food, insisting that he needed warmth, not food; then assisted by Macro, he smothered the emperor in his bedclothes.
Gaius Blossius
After the death of Tiberius Gracchus, Blossius was interrogated by the consuls on the matter. Blossius freely admitted that he had done anything Tiberius had asked. The consuls asked "What? What would you do if Tiberius ordered you to burn the Capitol?" He answered that Tiberius would never have given such an order. Being pressed on the point, though, Blossius eventually stated that Tiberius would only have ordered such a thing, if it were in the true interests of the Roman people. After that, he was released. Blossius went to the province of Asia, where he took part in Aristonicus' popular uprising against Rome, aiding in the organization of the Heliopolis state. When the uprising was ultimately defeated, he killed himself.
Marcus Servilius
Little is known about the rest of his life, nor when Servilius died.
Atia of the Julii
In "Death Mask", both Brutus and Cassius have been killed in the Battle of Philippi, and Atia has one final encounter with Servilia. Broken and alone, Servilia curses her rival before publicly killing herself on Atia's doorstep. Despite their animosity, Atia is clearly unnerved by Servilia's death, as the suicide was meant to bring misfortune to Atia's house. Atia is also oddly bereft, as Servilia's death leaves her without a lifelong, albeit antagonistic, presence in her life.
Tullius Crispinus
Tullius Crispinus was Praetorian Prefect with Titus Flavius Genialis in 193 AD. He was appointed by Didius Julianus, who had just bought the throne from the guard. Didius Julianus had planned to name Septimius Severus his co-emperor and sent Crispinus to deliver the offer. Severus killed him and thus declined the offer.
The Twelve Caesars
Suetonius finally describes the assassination of Vitellius. According to Suetonius, Vitellius was dragged naked by Roman subjects, tied to a post, and had animal waste thrown at him before he was killed. However, unlike the prior two emperors, it was not the next emperor who killed Vitellius. The next emperor and his followers had been waging a war against the Jews in Judaea at the time. The death of Vitellius and subsequent ascendance of his successor ended the worst year of the early principate.
Publius Valerius Publicola
After the death of Brutus, Valerius was the sole surviving consul. Spurius Lucretius was chosen in place of Brutus, but he died after a few days, and was followed by Marcus Horatius Pulvillus. When Valerius began construction of a new house on top of the Velian Hill, which would be conspicuously visible from the Senate house, a rumor began to circulate that he intended to re-establish the monarchy, with himself as king. At once, Valerius stopped building, and demolished the structure in a single night. Addressing an assembly of the people, he caused his lictors to lower their fasces as a mark of humility, and to remove the axes from them within the city. "I have just liberated Rome, bravely, but now I am slandered, like being either an Aquillius or a Vitellian. I am the bitterest enemy of the former kings, so I shouldn't be accused of wanting to be king." In order to allay suspicions, he caused his house to be built at the foot of the hill, rather than its peak. In later times, the Temple of Victory stood in the same place.
La clemenza di Tito (Gluck)
Publius is telling Titus about citizens who have been heard speaking ill of previous emperors but steps away to give Titus privacy when Servilia enters. Alone with Titus, Servilia reveals her secret love for Annius. Titus is overjoyed at Servilia’s honesty and gladly relinquishes her hand to Annius. Titus proclaims that if all his subjects followed her lead, his reign would indeed be nothing but delight (Titus: “Ah! se fosse intorno al trono”). Vitellia, bitter about being passed over yet again, storms into the room to confront Titus, but finds Servilia alone. Vitellia mockingly curtsies to her perceived rival. In revenge, Servilia decides not to reveal that Titus’s hand is once again free and departs, leaving Vitellia to stew in her delusion. Sextus appears and Vitellia berates him for failing to assassinate Titus. Vitellia reminds Sextus that she has loved Titus once before and she can love him again. Vitellia continues to goad Sextus to kill the only rival for her hand, as she may yet marry Titus if he lives. Finally, Sextus relents and promises to kill Titus. Vitellia is cold and uncompromising as Sextus departs (Sextus: “Parto; ma tu, ben mio”). Publius appears and announces to Vitellia that Titus has just chosen her as his bride. Vitellia sends Publius out to find Sextus and bring him back to her. Anxious, Vitellia awaits the return of Sextus (Vitellia: “Quando sarà quel dì”).
Gaius Servilius Ahala
Plutarch says, in his life of Brutus, that Brutus' mother Servilia was a descendant of Servilius Ahala, and the ancestral example was an inspiration for his assassination of Julius Caesar.
Lucius Minucius Basilus
It was to Basilus that Cicero wrote his first excited note after hearing of the assassination of Caesar. In the notes to Cicero's "Selected Letters", Basilus is described:L. Minucius Basilus had been a prominent officer, probably a "legatus" under Caesar in Gaul, and apparently served also in the civil war. He was, however, mortally offended because Caesar would not give him a province after his praetorship in 45 BC, but only a sum of money in return for his services, and so joined the conspiracy against him. In 43 BC he was killed by some of his own slaves whom he had punished by mutilation. He should probably be distinguished from L. Minucius Basilus, who took the name (instead of M. Satrius) on his adoption by a rich uncle, [and] mentioned as assuming by force the position of "patronus" over certain towns in Italy.
Servilia (opera)
Servilia, daughter of the senator Soranus, is desired by her father to contract an alliance with Trasea, but the latter, hearing of her preference for his adopted son Valerius, withdraws his suit. Egnatius, the freedman of Soranus, being enamoured of Servilia, conspires against his master and Trasea, and intimates to Servilia that her submission alone will secure their safety. Valerius has mysteriously disappeared, and Servilia, becoming a convert to Christianity, renounces the World. Called before the tribunal, Trasea and Soranus are sentenced to banishment, while Servilia is awarded to Egnatius. Valerius now returns, bearing a proclamation from Nero that the tribunal is dissolved. The sudden reappearance of her lover causes Servilia's death, and Valerius is only prevented from destroying himself by the intervention of his foster-father. Egnatius, in his woe, invokes the Divine Being, and the rest join him in acclaiming the Christian God.
Opiter Verginius Tricostus Esquilinus (consul 478 BC)
Opiter Verginius Tricostus Esquilinus is the reconstructed name of the consul suffectus who replaced Gaius Servilius Structus Ahala as consul of the Roman Republic in 478 BC. The fact of Servilius' death is not recorded by Livy (who only mentions Servilius when he takes the fasces), nor by Dionysius of Halicarnassus (who states that Servilius campaigned against the Volscians, but had no success). However the "Fasti Capitolini" states that Servilius died in office and was replaced by a man most of whose name is obliterated except for the cognomen "Esquilinus".
Servian Wall
The wall is named after the sixth Roman King, Servius Tullius. Although its outline may go back to the 6th century BC, the currently extant wall was built in the 4th c., during the Roman Republic, in response to the sack of Rome after the Battle of the Allia by the Gauls of Brennus.
Publius Vitellius the Younger
Vitellius was later among the supporters of Sejanus, and upon the latter's downfall in the year 31, Vitellius was also indicted for complicity, having been Sejanus' prefect of the military treasury. Vitellius was given into the custody of his brother (Suetonius does not say which one), where anticipating the worst, he opened his veins with a penknife. Tacitus writes simply that Publius died, but Suetonius states that he was persuaded by pleas from his family and friends to be bandaged and treated; however, he died soon afterward from natural causes.
Servius Tullius
Early in his reign, Servius warred against Veii and the Etruscans. He is said to have shown valour in the campaign, and to have routed a great army of the enemy. His success helped him to cement his position at Rome. According to the "Fasti Triumphales", Servius celebrated three triumphs over the Etruscans, including on 25 November 571 BC and 25 May 567 BC (the date of the third triumph is not legible on the "Fasti").
Marcia Servilia Sorana
Tacitus describes Servilia as ‘young and imprudent’. The historian states that Servilia was inconsolable, about her husband and was worried about her elderly father, who committed suicide. In 66, Servilia and Annius Pollio were executed on Nero’s orders on the charge of consulting sorcerers ostensibly to find out her father's fate.
Gaius Servilius Glaucia
Gaius Servilius Glaucia (died 100 BC) was a Roman politician who served as Senator in 101 BC and consul in 100 BC. He arranged for the murder of an elected tribune of plebs to make a spot for Lucius Appuleius Saturninus who was the next one to become tribune by the votes. While attempting to stand for consul for 99 BC, he was engaged in an exchange between himself and another candidate Gaius Memmius who attempted to prevent his candidature on the grounds that he had not waited the mandatory two years between election as praetor and election to the consulship, as stipulated by the "Lex Villia Annalis". In a fit of rage he killed Memmius and fled to the home of one of his supporters, where he committed suicide after Saturninus' riot was suppressed.
Quintus Futius Lusius Saturninus
Quintus Futius Lusius Saturninus was a Roman senator, who lived during the reign of Claudius. He was suffect consul in the "nundinium" of September-October 41 with Marcus Seius Varanus as his colleague. Tacitus lists Saturninus as one of the victims of the notorious Publius Suillius Rufus, whose prosecution on behalf of the emperor Claudius or his wives led to the deaths of a number of Senators and equites. Seneca the Younger mentions him in his "Apocolocyntosis divi Claudii" as one of his consular friends who confront Claudius in the afterworld as being responsible for their deaths.
Spurius Maelius
During a severe famine, Spurius Maelius bought up a large amount of wheat and sold it at a low price to the people of Rome. According to Livy, Lucius Minucius Augurinus, the patrician "praefectus annonae" (president of the market), thereupon accused him of collecting arms in Maelius' house, and that he was holding secret meetings at which plans were being undoubtedly formed to establish a monarchy. The cry was taken up. Maelius, summoned before the aged Cincinnatus (specially appointed "dictator"), refused to appear, and was slain by the Master of the Horse, Gaius Servilius Ahala. Afterward his house was razed to the ground, his wheat distributed amongst the people, and his property confiscated. The open space called the Equimaelium, on which his house had stood, preserved the memory of his death along the Vicus Jugarius. Cicero calls Ahala's deed a glorious one, but, whether Maelius entertained any ambitious projects or not, his summary execution was an act of murder, since by the "Lex Valeria Horatia de provocatione" the dictator was bound to allow the right of appeal.
Marcus Peducaeus Plautius Quintillus
Plautius afterwards retired to his country villa. In 205, he was the target of a "delator" or informer, and Septimus ordered his execution. When he heard of the order, Plautius called for his funeral shroud. "What is this?" Plautius asked, observing how tattered it had become with age, "we are late!" Then preparing to take his own life, he burned incense before uttering his last words: "I make the same prayer that Servianus made for Hadrian" — that is, that Severus would one day wish to die, but would be unable to. It is unknown whether Fadilla was still alive then.
Manius Tullius Longus
Livius reports that no important events occurred during this year, but Dionysius states that a conspiracy to restore the Tarquins to power was detected and crushed by Camerinus. Tullius died during the course of the year, leaving his colleague as sole consul.
Quintus Fabius Ambustus (tribune)
Outraged, the Gauls demanded that the senate hand over the three brothers for violating "the law of nations". Instead, all three were honored by election as consular tribunes. Further incensed, the Gauls marched on Rome, defeated the Roman Army in the Battle of the Allia, and sacked the city. In 389 BC he was supposed to have been prosecuted for his actions at Clusium, but died before the trial could take place.
Servian constitution
The Servian constitution is the military and political organization of ancient Rome attributed by Roman tradition to the semi-legendary sixth king of Rome, Servius Tullius (578–534 BC). Most of the Servian reforms extended voting rights to certain groups, in particular to Rome's citizen-commoners who were minor landholders or landless citizens hitherto disqualified from voting by ancestry, status or ethnicity—collectively, the "plebs" as distinguished from the hereditary patricians. These reforms thus redefined the fiscal and military obligations of all Roman citizens. The so-called Servian constitution probably represents a long-drawn, complex and piecemeal process extending from Servius' predecessors, Ancus Marcius and Tarquinius Priscus, to his successor Tarquinius Superbus, and into the Middle and Late Republic. Rome's military and territorial expansion and the consequent changes in its population made franchise regulation and reform an ongoing necessity. The wholesale attribution of these measures to Servius "cannot be taken at face value".
Quintus Caecilius Metellus Celer
During Metellus Celer’s praetorship, Titus Labienus indicted an old backbench Optimate senator, Gaius Rabirius, for the murder of Lucius Appuleius Saturninus thirty-six years earlier. Saturninus had been opposed by the consuls of the time at the direction of the senate. Thus, with the proposed trial the senate would lose the authority to enforce its decrees. Acts which had received the approval of the senate and had been committed many years earlier tended to give immunity to those who tried to repeat the conduct of Saturninus and make punishment of such acts ineffective. The senate was outraged that an innocent elderly man of senatorial rank was attacked and that the tribunes were entrusted with the control of affairs. There were pro- and anti-prosecution factions. The former won through the support of Julius Caesar, who was the judge together with Lucius Julius Caesar, and Rabirius was charged. The judges had been unlawfully chosen by the urban praetor, Lentulus Sura, instead of the people. Rabirius appealed and would have been convicted by the people, but this was prevented by Metellus by obstructing the meeting of the assembly of the people.
Quintus Arrius (praetor 73 BC)
Quintus Arrius was a Roman Praetor in 73 BC. In the next year he should follow Gaius Verres as governor of Sicilia. But first he had to support the consuls Lucius Gellius Publicola and Gnaeus Cornelius Lentulus Clodianus in the Third Servile War against the leaders of the rebellious slaves, Spartacus and Crixus. In the battle in which Arrius conquered Crixus 20,000 slaves are said to have been killed; but Arrius was soon after defeated by Spartacus.. A scholiast on Cicero says, that Quintus Arrius thereafter went to Sicily to take over this province from Verres but died on the way thither. However, the scholiast does not seem to be well informed, and the veracity of his assertion is doubtful. It only can be said for sure, that Quintus Arrius did not govern Sicilia.
Gaius Calpurnius Aviola
If they are identical, then Aviola is the subject of a tale recorded by Pliny the Elder and Valerius Maximus. Assumed to be dead, his body was set on top of a funeral pyre, which was then lit. Whereupon he is said to have come to life again, but due to the intensity of the flames, Aviola could not be rescued, and burned to death. This must have occurred prior to the death of Tiberius in AD 37, since Valerius Maximus published his work during that emperor's reign.
Early life and career of Julius Caesar
In 63 a tribune, Titus Labienus, prosecuted the elderly optimate senator Gaius Rabirius for the killing, 37 years previously, of the populist tribune Lucius Appuleius Saturninus, who had been declared a public enemy by the Senate after a candidate for the consulship had been murdered during an election. Caesar was one of the two judges, and Suetonius says he had bribed Labienus to bring the prosecution. The charge was the archaic offence of "perduellio", a form of treason, the punishment for which was crucifixion. Rabirius was defended by Quintus Hortensius, who argued that he had not killed Saturninus, and Cicero, who argued that the killing of Saturninus was lawful as it had been done under the "senatus consultum ultimum", a declaration of a state of emergency which authorised the consuls to do whatever it took to protect the Republic. Rabirius was convicted, and exercised his right of appeal to the people. During his appeal, a procedural technicality was contrived - the praetor Quintus Caecilius Metellus Celer took down the military flag from the Janiculum hill, indicating foreign invasion - and proceedings were adjourned. The prosecution was never resumed. The purpose of the trial is obscure, but it has been interpreted as a challenge to the use of the "senatus consultum ultimum". Cassius Dio characterises it as a populist attack on the authority of the Senate. Labienus would remain an important ally of Caesar over the next decade, and served under him during the Gallic wars.
Agrippa Postumus
At almost the same time as Augustus' death, Agrippa was killed by centurion Gaius Sallustius Crispus, the great-nephew and adopted son of the historian Sallust. When Crispus reported to Tiberius that "his orders have been carried out", Tiberius threatened to bring the matter before the Senate, professing that he had given no such orders. Tiberius denied any involvement, arguing that he had been "en route" to Illyricum when he was recalled to Rome, and later issued a statement that it was his father who gave the order that Agrippa not survive him. It is not clear if the killing was carried out before or after Tiberius became emperor.
Jupiter (mythology)
Throughout his reign, King Tullus had a scornful attitude towards religion. His temperament was warlike, and he disregarded religious rites and piety. After conquering the Albans with the duel between the Horatii and Curiatii, Tullus destroyed Alba Longa and deported its inhabitants to Rome. As Livy tells the story, omens "(prodigia)" in the form of a rain of stones occurred on the Alban Mount because the deported Albans had disregarded their ancestral rites linked to the sanctuary of Jupiter. In addition to the omens, a voice was heard requesting that the Albans perform the rites. A plague followed and at last the king himself fell ill. As a consequence, the warlike character of Tullus broke down; he resorted to religion and petty, superstitious practices. At last, he found a book by Numa recording a secret rite on how to evoke "Iuppiter Elicius". The king attempted to perform it, but since he executed the rite improperly the god threw a lightning bolt which burned down the king's house and killed Tullus.
Servilia of the Junii
In "Death Mask", both Brutus and Cassius have been killed in the Battle of Philippi. Broken and alone, a dishevelled Servilia kneels in front of Atia's house, repeatedly chanting "Atia of the Julii, I call for justice" while her servant Eleni throws the cremated remains of Brutus over her. After two days of this, Atia finally emerges, and Servilia curses her rival before publicly killing herself; Eleni follows suit. Despite their animosity, Atia is clearly unnerved by Servilia's death.
Ceres (mythology)
The killing of the tribune Tiberius Gracchus in 133 BC was justified by some as rightful punishment for attempted tyranny, an offense against Ceres' "Lex sacrata". Others deplored it as murder, because the same "Lex sacrata" made his person sacrosanct. In 70 BC, Cicero refers to this killing in connection with Ceres' laws and cults, during his prosecution of Verres, Roman governor of Sicily, for extortion. The case included circumstantial details of Verres' irreligious exploitation and abuse of Sicilian grain farmers, who were naturally under Ceres' special protection at the very place of her "earthly home" – and his thefts from her temple, including an ancient image of the goddess herself. Faced by the mounting evidence against him, Verres abandoned his own defense and withdrew to a prosperous exile. Soon after, Cicero won election as aedile.
Servius Tullius
The oldest surviving source for the overall political developments of the Roman kingdom and Republic is Cicero's "De republica" ("On the State"), written in 44 BC. The main literary sources for Servius' life and achievements are the Roman historian Livy (59 BC – AD 17), whose Ab urbe condita was generally accepted by the Romans as the standard, most authoritative account; Livy's near contemporary Dionysius of Halicarnassus, and Plutarch (c. 46 – 120 AD); their own sources included works by Quintus Fabius Pictor, Diocles of Peparethus, Quintus Ennius and Cato the Elder. Livy's sources probably included at least some official state records, he excluded what seemed implausible or contradictory traditions, and arranged his material within an overarching chronology. Dionysius and Plutarch offer various alternatives not found in Livy, and Livy's own pupil, the etruscologist, historian and emperor Claudius, offered yet another, based on Etruscan tradition.
Servilia (mother of Brutus)
Servilia was a patrician who could trace her line back to Gaius Servilius Ahala, and was the eldest child of Livia and Quintus Servilius Caepio the Younger. Her parents had two other children, a younger Servilia and a Quintus Servilius Caepio. They divorced when she was young (c. 97 BC), and her mother then married Marcus Porcius Cato. From this union, Servilia's half-brother, Cato, and half-sister, Porcia, were born. However, her mother and stepfather both died before 91 BC. As a result, Servilia, her younger siblings, and her half-siblings were all brought up in the house of their maternal uncle, Marcus Livius Drusus. He was assassinated during his tribunate in 91 BC, when Servilia would have been around 16 years of age.
Servius Tullius
Most Roman sources name Servius' mother as Ocrisia, a young noblewoman taken at the Roman siege of Corniculum and brought to Rome, either pregnant by her husband, who was killed at the siege: or as a virgin. She was given to Tanaquil, wife of king Tarquinius, and though slave, was treated with the respect due her former status. In one variant, she became wife to a noble client of Tarquinius. In others, she served the domestic rites of the royal hearth as a Vestal Virgin, and on one such occasion, having damped the hearth flames with a sacrificial offering, she was penetrated by a disembodied phallus that rose from the hearth. According to Tanaquil, this was a divine manifestation, either of the household Lar or Vulcan himself. Thus Servius was divinely fathered and already destined for greatness, despite his mother's servile status; for the time being, Tanaquil and Ocrisia kept this a secret.
Tullia Minor
Having acquired the backing of a large number of senators, Tarquinius went to the senate house with an armed guard and seated himself on the throne. When Servius Tullius protested, Tarquinius hurled him bodily into the street, where he was murdered by Tarquinius' assassins, apparently at Tullia's suggestion. Tullia then drove in her carriage to the senate house, where she hailed her husband as king. He ordered her to return home, away from the tumult. She drove along the Cyprian Street and turned towards the Orbian Hill, in the direction of the Esquiline Hill. There at the top of the Cyprian Street she encountered her father's mutilated remains and, in a frenzy of madness, drove the carriage over his body. Ever afterwards this street was called the ""Vicus Sceleratus"" (street of infamy, or of wickedness) in memory of her actions. Tullia's act of desecration spattered her with blood that stained her clothes, and in this manner she returned to her husband's house. Livy states that Tarquinius' household gods were angered by this crime, and determined that a reign begun so badly would also end badly.
Lucius Fulcinius Trio
The trial was taken to Senate and the "Scribonii" brothers were tried by Tiberius himself. On the defence was a maternal relative, Publius Sulpicius Quirinus. Tiberius wanted to investigate Libo's slaves but there was a senatorial decree preventing confessions by tortured slaves from being used in trials against their own masters. To get around this Tiberius had Libo's slaves sold to the treasury agent, then the accusations made against Libo were considered confirmed by Libo's ex slaves. Libo killed himself on 13 September 16 AD as a result and his property was divided among his accusers – including Trio.
Gaius Considius Longus
Gaius Considius Longus was a Roman politician and general in the last years of the Roman republic. As a commander in Africa, he fought on the Pompeian side in the Roman civil war and was killed by his own retinue in 46 BC as he attempted to escape after Julius Caesar's victory at Thapsus.
Lucius Tarquinius Superbus
Tarquin was said to be the son or grandson of Lucius Tarquinius Priscus, the fifth king of Rome, and Tanaquil. Tanaquil had engineered her husband's succession to the Roman kingdom on the death of Ancus Marcius. When the sons of Marcius subsequently arranged the elder Tarquin's assassination in 579 BC, Tanaquil placed Servius Tullius on the throne, in preference to her own sons.
Tiberius Claudius Pompeianus
Pertinax, who was the Urban Prefect at the time, offered the throne to Pompeianus, but he declined the offer. The Praetorian Guard then proclaimed Pertinax as Emperor, but he was assassinated by the Praetorians after only 87 days for attempting to impose order upon the long-undisciplined unit. Senator Didius Julianus, after becoming Emperor by bribing the Praetorian Guard to proclaim him, experienced difficulty in garnering support within the ranks of his own troops. In a desperate attempt to save himself, Julianus asked Pompeianus to become co-emperor with him. Pompeianus again declined the offer, on the grounds of his advanced years and eye problems. Julianus was executed on the orders of Septimius Severus after ruling for only 66 days.
Titus Vettius Scato
Titus Vettius Scato (also Cato) was an Italian general of the Social War. He defeated Lucius Julius Caesar in battle before marching on and capturing Aesernia. He also defeated the other consul, Publius Rutilius Lupus, who died in battle against his forces. According to Seneca, he was captured by the Romans but was stabbed to death by his slave rather than face the ignominy of defeat.
Julius Caesar (play)
At the battle, Cassius and Brutus, knowing that they will probably both die, smile their last smiles to each other and hold hands. During the battle, Cassius has his servant kill him after hearing of the capture of his best friend, Titinius. After Titinius, who was not really captured, sees Cassius's corpse, he commits suicide. However, Brutus wins that stage of the battle, but his victory is not conclusive. With a heavy heart, Brutus battles again the next day. He loses and commits suicide by running on his own sword, held for him by a loyal soldier.
The Faithful Friends
While fighting the Sabines, Marcus Tullius receives messages warning him about treachery at home. He leaves the front in Marius's charge, instructing his friend to dress in his armor so that no one will know of the substitution. While taking his friend's place, Marius receives a message from the Sabine commander, offering peace terms. Marius meets with Sabinus, only to fall to an assassination attempt; the king has offered the rebels clemency if they murder Marcus Tullius (Rufinus isn't the only one who wants the young man dead), and they strike at the disguised Marius as a result. Marius is wounded and thought dead, but the protection he wears under his clothing frustrates the fatal blow. The page Janus rescues him, and reveals herself as Lelia, his lost love.
Quintus Valerius Soranus
Servius's account presents several difficulties. Crucifixion was a punishment generally reserved for slaves in the Late Republic; Valerius Maximus, a historian in the early Principate, reckoned that the punishment should not be inflicted on those of Roman blood even when they "deserved" it. Moreover, a tribune's person was by law sacrosanct. Finally, it is unclear whether the ten tribunes should possess the knowledge of Rome's secret name, or in what manner Soranus would have publicized it. Among sources earlier than Servius, both Pliny the Elder and Plutarch note that Valerius Soranus was punished for this violation. It has been suggested that the name was revealed in his one work for which a title is known, the "Epoptides." The title, if interpreted as it sometimes is to mean "tutelary deities," offers an apt context. But elsewhere Servius — so too Macrobius — implies that the name remained unrecorded.
Lucius Sergius Fidenas
In 418, Sergius was elected military tribune with consular power again and for the third time, with Gaius Servilius Axilla and Marcus Papirius Mugillanus. A new enemy, the Labiciani, had allied themselves with the Aequi and they pillaged the fields of Tusculum the previous year. Upon coming to power, the military tribunes declared war and raised a levy. Sergius took command against the Aequi and fought a battle near their camp on disadvantageous ground, during which he lost his life. In response to his death, Quintus Servilius Priscus was made dictator by the senate.
Senatus consultum ultimum
In early 63 BC, shortly after Marcus Tullius Cicero took office as consul, Julius Caesar urged Titus Labienus, a tribune who had lost his uncle during the turmoils of 100 BC, to accuse Gaius Rabirius of participating in the murder of Saturninus and his followers. Caesar's true motive was to undermine the authority of the SCU, limiting its power and defending the sovereignty of the people against the senatorial interference made possible by the decree. The importance of the trial is illustrated by the fact that Cicero himself, even though he was incumbent consul, decided to lead the defense for Rabirius. The trial was carried out in the obsolete form of "perduellio", with Caesar and his cousin Lucius Julius Caesar presiding. Cicero argued that even though Rabirius was a "privatus" (private man) and therefore not the addressee of the decree, he still had the duty as a Roman citizen to defend the state against its enemies, resorting to the ancient Roman principle of self-help. Labienus and Caesar argued the contrary: Even if the SCU gave the power to execute capital punishment, it should only be carried out by the highest magistrates. Rabirius was convicted but escaped punishment through a ruse during the appeal before the Concilium Plebis. The authority of the decree was nevertheless shaken and in no further cases did private persons act out a SCU.
Lucius Tarquinius Priscus
Tarquin is said to have reigned for thirty-eight years. According to legend, the sons of his predecessor, Ancus Marcius, believed that the throne should have been theirs. They arranged the king's assassination, disguised as a riot, during which Tarquin received a fatal blow to the head. However, the queen, Tanaquil, gave out that the king was merely wounded, and took advantage of the confusion to establish Servius Tullius as regent; when the death of Tarquin was confirmed, Tullius became king, in place of Marcius' sons, or those of Tarquin.
Caeso Quinctius
However, the trial was decided largely on the testimony of Marcus Volscius Fictor, a former tribune, who claimed that Caeso had struck his elder brother, Lucius, during a melee in the Subura. Lucius Volscius was in a weakened state, not fully recovered from the pestilence of 463, and had died as a result of the young nobleman's attack. After Marcus had told this story, the crowd tried to attack Caeso, and was only restrained with difficulty. Verginius ordered his arrest, but Titus Quinctius objected, since Caeso had not yet been tried. After some debate, the other tribunes granted Caeso his freedom until the trial could be held, granting bail of 3,000 "asses", to be given by ten sureties.
Lucius Julius Ursus Servianus
However, in 135, Hadrian changed his mind and decided to adopt Lucius Aelius Caesar as his son and heir. Servianus and the younger Salinator were very angry at Hadrian and wanted to challenge him over the adoption. It is possible Salinator went so far as to attempt a coup against Hadrian in which Servianus was implicated. In order to avoid any potential conflict in the succession, Hadrian ordered the deaths of Salinator and Servianus. Ironically, Aelius died before Hadrian in 138, leaving Hadrian to adopt Antoninus Pius.
Titus Tarquinius
In around 496 BC he fought with his father and the Latins against Rome at the Battle of Lake Regillus. During the battle, Marcus Valerius Volusus, who had been the Roman consul in 505 BC, charged Titus in an attempt to slay him, but was himself killed by Titus' men.
Servilia of the Junii
When Caesar is finally assassinated by the Senate, Servilia invites Atia to her villa to tell her the news in person. Worried what Servilia may be planning, Atia insists her son accompany her. Atia is devastated by the news, and somewhat shaken by Servilia's vow to make Atia suffer, "Slowly and deeply, as you made me suffer." Octavian remains composed and calm, eyeing Servilia coldly.
Senatus consultum ultimum
On 19 January 52 BC, a SCU was passed by the senate after public opinion had turned against the senators due to riots following the death of Publius Clodius Pulcher, who was murdered the day before by Titus Annius Milo when on his way back to Rome. The decree was aimed against the tribunes Q. Pompeius Rufus, T. Munatius Plancus and C. Sallustius Crispus, allies of Clodius', who had lit his corpse on fire inside the curia, burning it to the ground. When Pompey was declared "consul sine collega" two days later, the decree was obsolete, since the imminent emergency (the riots had made elections impossible) was over.
Roman Senate
The period between the death of one king and the election of a new king was called the "interregnum", during which time the Interrex nominated a candidate to replace the king. After the senate gave its initial approval to the nominee, he was then formally elected by the people, and then received the senate's final approval. At least one king, Servius Tullius, was elected by the senate alone, and not by the people.
Gaius Servilius Glaucia
The accepted account of Glaucia's death is that he died in 100 BC alongside his ally the Tribune Saturninus. They were killed following the issuance of a "senatus consultum ultimum" given to Gaius Marius by the Senate. Marius had previously disqualified Glaucia for candidature in the consular elections. Saturninus, not Glaucia, had Memmius killed because he feared he would be a hostile consul towards Saturninus' legislative programs. Memmius was not killed in altercation with Glaucia, and they were never competitors for the office of consul. The tradition that reports that they were competitors comes from Appian, and has been thoroughly disproved by Badian, who uses Cicero, among other ancient sources, to disprove Appian's account. Badian attributes the error to Appian's affinity for dramatic embellishment in his narratives.
Livia
Rumor had it that Livia was behind the death of Augustus' nephew Marcellus in 23 BC. After Julia's two elder sons by Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, whom Augustus had adopted as sons and successors, had died, the one remaining son Agrippa Postumus was adopted at the same time as Tiberius, but later Agrippa Postumus was sent into exile and finally killed. Tacitus charges that Livia was not altogether innocent of these deaths and Cassius Dio also mentions such rumours. There are also rumors mentioned by Tacitus and Cassius Dio that Livia brought about Augustus' death by poisoning fresh figs. Augustus' granddaughter was Julia the Younger. Sometime between 1 and 14, her husband Lucius Aemilius Paullus was executed as a conspirator in a revolt. Modern historians theorize that Julia's exile was not actually for adultery but for involvement in Paullus' revolt. Livia Drusilla plotted against her stepdaughter's family and ruined them. This led to open compassion for the fallen family. Julia died in 29 AD on the same island where she had been sent in exile twenty years earlier.
Lucius Julius Ursus Servianus
When Nerva died on January 27 98, Hadrian travelled to Germany to find Trajan, to announce the death of Nerva. Servianus tried unsuccessfully to stop Hadrian's travel to Germany, because he was jealous of the favor shown Hadrian by Trajan. However, Servianus and Hadrian reconciled and were for a long time on good terms.
Tullia Minor
Servius Tullius arranged the marriage of his daughters to the two sons of his predecessor, Lucius Tarquinius Priscus. The sons were named Lucius and Arruns. According to Livy, the younger of the two daughters had the fiercer disposition, yet she was married to Arruns, who had the milder disposition of the two sons. Livy says that the similar temperaments of the younger Tullia and Lucius Tarquinius drew them to each other, and Tullia inspired Tarquinius to greater daring. Together they arranged the murder of their respective siblings, in quick succession, and Tarquinius and Tullia were afterwards married.
Tanaquil
Tanaquil also played a role in the rise of Servius Tullius, the sixth king of Rome. Raising him as her own child, Tanaquil believed Servius would be the next successor to the throne. Her dreams would be realized when, one day Servius was sleeping and his head was surrounded with flames. The fires danced around his head without hurting him and when Servius awoke, the fire disappeared. Taking this as an omen, Tanaquil knew Servius would one day be king. When Tarquin was assassinated, Tanaquil hid his death from her subjects, instead telling them that Tarquin had been wounded and had Servius himself appointed regent until he got better. After gaining the people's respect and commanding the kingship, Servius and Tanaquil announced Tarquin's death. The Senate named Servius king and Tanaquil's son, Arruns Tarquinius, married Servius' daughter, Tullia.
Volusianus
Hostilian died in November 251, though the reason for his death is disputed. Aurelius Victor and the author of the "Epitome de Caesaribus" both say that Hostilian died of a plague, however Zosimus claims that he was killed off by Trebonianus Gallus, so that Volusianus could become "augustus". Trebonianus Gallus elevated Volusianus to "augustus" in November 251. He was made consul in 252, alongside Trebonianus Gallus, and in 253, alongside Valerius Maximus. The same plague that killed Hostilian devastated the rest of Rome, although Trebonianus Gallus gained much popularity by ensuring that all of the plague victims were given proper burials, regardless of their social status. During the reign of Trebonianus Gallus and Volusianus, the persecution of Christians was not as extreme as it was under Decius, although Pope Cornelius was exiled in 252AD. Novatian was also forced to flee Rome during this period of persecution. Trebonianus Gallus and Volusianus issued only two imperial rescripts during their reign.
Gaius Servilius Ahala
As related by Livy and others, Ahala served as magister equitum in 439 BC, when Cincinnatus was appointed dictator on the supposition that Spurius Maelius was styling himself a king and plotting against the state. During the night on which the dictator was appointed, the capitol and all the strong posts were garrisoned by the partisans of the patricians. In the morning, when the people assembled in the forum, with Spurius Maelius among them, Ahala summoned the latter to appear before the dictator; and upon Maelius disobeying and taking refuge in the crowd, Ahala rushed into the throng and killed him.
Vesta (mythology)
Dionysius of Halicarnassus recounts a local story regarding the birth of king Servius Tullius. In it, a phallus rose from the hearth of Vesta in Numa's palace, and Ocresia was the first to see it. She immediately informed the king and queen. King Tarquinius, upon hearing this, was astonished; but Tanaquil, whose knowledge of divination was well-known, told him it was a blessing that a birth by the hearth's phallus and a mortal woman would produce superior offspring. The king then chose Ocresia to have intercourse with it, for she had seen it first. During which either Vulcan, or the tutelary deity of the house, appeared to her. After disappearing, she conceived and delivered Tullius. This story of his birth could be based off his name as Servius would euphemistically mean "son of servant", because his mother was a handmaiden.
Corniculum (ancient Latin town)
Livy also records that one of the leading men of Corniculum, named Servius Tullius, was slain in the capture of the town, and that his pregnant wife was taken captive to Rome, but was exempted from slavery by the Roman queen Tanaquil on account of her rank, and was given a place in the king's household. She gave birth to a son, Servius Tullius, who later married Tarqunius' daughter, and succeeded him as king of Rome.
Lucius Tarquinius Superbus
As Tribune of the Celeres, Brutus was head of the king's personal bodyguard, and entitled to summon the Roman comitia. This he did, and by recounting the various grievances of the people, the king's abuses of power, and by inflaming public sentiment with the tale of the rape of Lucretia, Brutus persuaded the comitia to revoke the king's imperium and send him into exile. Tullia fled the city in fear of the mob, while Sextus Tarquinius, his deed revealed, fled to Gabii, where he hoped for the protection of the Roman garrison. However, his previous conduct there had made him many enemies, and he was soon assassinated. In place of the king, the "comitia centuriata" resolved to elect two consuls to hold power jointly. Lucretius, the prefect of the city, presided over the election of the first consuls, Brutus and Collatinus.
Publius Rupilius
Publius Rupilius, Roman statesman, consul in 132 BC. During the inquiry that followed the death of Tiberius Gracchus, conducted by himself and his colleague Popillius Laenas, he proceeded with the utmost severity against the supporters of Gracchus. In the same year he was despatched to Sicily, where he suppressed the revolt of the slaves under Eunus. During 131 BC he remained as proconsul of the island, and, with the assistance of ten commissioners appointed by the Senate, drew up regulations for the organization of Sicily as a province. These regulations were known by the title of "leges Rupiliae", though they were not laws in the strict sense. Rupilius was subsequently brought to trial (123 BC) and condemned for his treatment of the friends of Gracchus. The disgrace of his condemnation, added to disappointment at the failure of his brother to obtain the consulship in spite of the efforts of Scipio, caused his death shortly afterwards.
Lucius Appuleius Saturninus
Lucius Appuleius Saturninus (died late 100 BC) was a Roman populist and tribune. He is most notable for introducing a series of legislative reforms, alongside his associate Gaius Servilius Glaucia and with the consent of the famous Gaius Marius, during the last years of the second century BC. Senatorial opposition to these laws eventually led to an internal crisis, the declaration of the "senatus consultum ultimum", and the deaths of Saturninus, Glaucia, and their followers in 100 BC.
Tiberius
One of the few surviving sources contemporary with the rule of Tiberius comes from Velleius Paterculus, who served under Tiberius for eight years (from AD 4) in Germany and Pannonia as praefect of cavalry and "legatus". Paterculus' "Compendium of Roman History" spans a period from the fall of Troy to the death of Livia in AD 29. His text on Tiberius lavishes praise on both the emperor and Sejanus. How much of this is due to genuine admiration or prudence remains an open question, but it has been conjectured that he was put to death in AD 31 as a friend of Sejanus.
Lucius Tarquinius Superbus
Tullia, meanwhile, drove in her chariot to the senate-house, where she was the first to hail her husband as king. But Tarquin bade her return home, concerned that the crowd might do her violence. As she drove toward the Urbian Hill, her driver stopped suddenly, horrified at the sight of the king's body, lying in the street. But in a frenzy, Tullia herself seized the reins, and drove the wheels of her chariot over her father's corpse. The king's blood spattered against the chariot and stained Tullia's clothes, so that she brought a gruesome relic of the murder back to her house. The street where Tullia disgraced the dead king afterward became known as the "Vicus Sceleratus," the Street of Crime.
Gaius Asinius Gallus Saloninus
He died in prison of starvation in the year 33 (others mistakenly say 30). When Agrippina died in October of that same year, Tiberius accused her of "having had Asinius Gallus as a paramour and being driven by his death to loathe existence". His name was erased from public monuments (a practice known as "damnatio memoriae"), though they were restored after Tiberius' death.
Marcus Tullius Cicero (Rome character)
Cicero was eventually killed by Titus Pullo, at the instigation of Antony and on the direct order of Octavian Caesar. He learns of this order beforehand, but chooses to face his death instead of run, sending a letter to Brutus and Cassius informing them of the alliance of Octavian and Mark Antony. Cicero then engages in a friendly conversation with his killer before exposing his neck to the sword, unaware of the fact that his letter has been intercepted by an oblivious Vorenus. Cicero's hands are later seen being nailed to the senate doors by Pullo, as Antony had promised would happen should Cicero turn against him.
Servius Cornelius Scipio Salvidienus Orfitus (consul 51)
Our next glimpse of Servius is in Tacitus, who records him proposing in 65 that the months May and June be renamed "Claudius" and "Germanicus" respectively in honor of the emperor Nero, explaining that the execution of the two Junii Torquati had rendered the name "Junius" inauspicious. Frederik Juliaan Vervaet has argued that instead of an act of flattery, Nero and his partisans may have interpreted this proposal as a subtle form of criticism. If so, it would explain the actual motivation for Marcus Aquilius Regulus accusing him in the Senate of being a traitor to Nero the following year. Regardless of the motivation, Orfitus was found guilty and executed.
Servilius Nonianus
Marcus Servilius Nonianus (died in 59AD) was a Roman senator, best known as a historian. He was ordinary consul in 35 as the colleague of Gaius Cestius Gallus. Tacitus described Servilius Nonianus as a man of great eloquence and good-nature. He wrote a history of Rome which is considered the major contribution on the topic between the works of Livy and Tacitus, and which was much referred to by later historians; this history has since been lost. A number of anecdotes regarding him survive and help to give an understanding of Roman life in the first century.
Curtius Rufus
The fury of the people seemed to know no bounds. Tiberius refused to return to Rome but ended his days in Capri in 37, at age 77. The empire was left without direction. There was no suitable successor to Tiberius. He willed the imperium to the joint rule of Caligula and Tiberius Gemellus. Caligula's first move was to alter Tiberius' will. Then he assassinated his co-emperor. Leaning heavily on the advice of the Guard he was for several months a good and popular emperor. After a near-fatal episode of either illness or poisoning his behavior became deranged, which is often accounted for by authors both modern and ancient as a result of brain damage. In 41 he was assassinated by a general governmental conspiracy, which agreed that his reign could not continue. On that same night, probably the one mentioned by Quintus Curtius Rufus, the Senate debated the abolition of the principate. The Praetorian Guard intervened to propose the election of Claudius, Livilla's brother, which was accepted with gratitude.
Marcus Caelius Rufus
Caelius was tribune of the "plebs" in 52, and curule aedile in 50. During this period he wrote a series of witty and informative letters to Cicero, who was serving as proconsul of Cilicia at the time. Caelius sided with Julius Caesar against Pompey in the civil war, and in 48 BC was rewarded with the office of "praetor peregrinus" (“judge of suits involving foreigners”). However, when his proposed program of debt relief was opposed by the Senate and he was suspended from office, he joined in a rebellion against Caesar which was quickly crushed. It was during this rebellion that Caelius was killed.
Lucius Villius Annalis (praetor 43 BC)
Lucius Villius Annalis was a politician of the Villia gens of ancient Rome who served as praetor in 43 BC. He was proscribed by the triumvirs, and betrayed by his son, ultimately leading to his death. He is probably the same as the Lucius Villius L. F. Annalis mentioned in a letter of Caelius to Cicero, 51 BC. His son was killed shortly afterwards in a drunken brawl by the same soldiers who had killed his father.
Gaius Oppius Sabinus Julius Nepos Manius Vibius Sollemnis Severus
A number of details in his "cursus honorum" merit discussion. First, his origins. It is tempting to identify this Oppius Sabinus as the son of the consul of the year 84, Gaius Oppius Sabinus, who was killed by the Dacians the following year. The filiation of the younger Oppius Sabinus, "C.f." or "Gaius filius", supports this surmise. The name elements "Julius Nepos" could refer to his maternal grandfather. And the last four elements of his name, "Manius Vibius Sollemnis Severus" could come from the man who adopted Oppius Sabinus after his father's death and raised him. However, the primary objection to this surmise is that were the younger Oppius Sabinus the son of the consul of 84, he would have been considered a "nobiles", or member of the Senatorial class, and not in need of being adlected into the Senate. Further, there is no record of either a Julius Nepos or Manius Vibius Sollemnis Severus living at the appropriate time. One could argue further that both men were of the equestrian class, which would explain their obscurity, but this verges on special pleading. The only safe inference from his name is that the young Oppius Sabinus was a native of the countryside near Rome, as were many of the Oppii Sabini.
Servilia (mother of Brutus)
After Caesar's assassination in 44, in a conspiracy headed by Servilia's son and son-in-law, the conspirators met at Servilia's house. Apart from Servilia, the only women in attendance were Porcia and Junia Tertia. Despite her connections to the conspirators, Servilia escaped the purges of the second triumvirate unscathed. After Brutus' death, her son's ashes were sent to her from Philippi. While Porcia died soon after her husband, and was rumoured to have taken her own life by swallowing hot coals, Servilia lived out the remainder of her life in relative comfort and affluence under the care of Cicero's friend, Titus Pomponius Atticus. Servilia died a natural death, as did Junia Tertia after her.
Gaius Silius
Gaius Silius (died AD 24) was a Roman senator who achieved successes as a general over German barbarians following the disaster of the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest. For this achievement he was appointed consul in AD 13 with Lucius Munatius Plancus as his colleague. However, years later Silius became entangled in machinations of the ambitious Praetorian prefect Sejanus and was forced to commit suicide.
La clemenza di Tito (Gluck)
Publius, prefect of the Praetorian Guard, awaits the arrival of Titus with an assembly of Roman senators, envoys and members of the Roman public. Titus approaches with Sextus and Annius, preceded by the Praetorian Guard (March). Annius announces the Senate’s decision to declare Titus a god and build a temple in his name. Publius presents tributes from the envoys to be used for the project, but Titus requests that the funds instead be redirected to the recent victims of Mount Vesuvius. All depart except Titus, Sextus, and Annius. Alone with his friends, Titus explains his imperative to quickly take a native Roman as his wife and announces his intention to marry Servilia, to the horror of Annius. Sextus begins to object on behalf of Annius, but Annius intercedes and downplays Sextus’s objection as mere modesty. Titus requests for Annius to carry the good news to Servilia and magnanimously tells Sextus of his joy in lifting up his friends (Titus: “Del più sublime soglio”). Titus departs with Sextus. Servilia approaches Annius and is told of Titus’s desire to marry her. Sevilia is surprised by the news and asks Annius to explain further. Annius only begs Servilia’s forgiveness and departs (Annius: “Ah! perdona al primo affetto”). Alone, Servilia vows to do everything in her power to preserve her love with Annius (Servilia: “Amo te solo”).
Appius Claudius Crassus
Claudius ordered the arrest of Icilius, but the lictor was blocked by Valerius and Horatius; before they could be arrested, the crowd came to their aid, and Claudius fled for his life. The Senate gave the military command to Valerius and Horatius, who were duly elected consuls after the decemvirs were forced to resign. Once the threat from the Sabines and Aequi was dealt with, the decemvirs were brought to trial. Gaius Claudius again pleaded on behalf of his nephew, but Verginius demanded that Appius face justice; according to Dionysius, Appius was said to have hanged himself in prison before he could be tried, but the popular suspicion was that he was put to death at the orders of the plebeian tribunes. Livy reports that Appius killed himself before his trial. The other decemvirs went into exile, except for Spurius Oppius, who was tried, condemned, and put to death on the same day, for the crime of cruelly beating an old soldier.
Porcia (wife of Brutus)
According to the political journalist and classicist Garry Wills, although Shakespeare has Porcia die by the method Plutarch repeats, but rejects, "the historical Porcia died of illness (possibly of plague) a year before the battle of Philippi"...“but Valerius Maximus [mistakenly] wrote that she killed herself at news of Brutus’s death in that battle. This was the version of the story celebrated in works like Martial's "Epigram" 1.42." The claim that Porcia's death occurred before that of Brutus is backed up by a letter sent by Cicero. This letter would have been sent in late June or early July 43 BC, before either battle of Philippi. It further suggests that Porcia did not commit suicide, but died of some lingering illness. As Plutarch states, if the letter was genuine Brutus lamented her death and blamed their friends for not looking after her. There is also an earlier letter from Brutus to Atticus, which hints at Porcia's illness and compliments him for taking care of her. Cicero later wrote his surviving letter to Brutus, consoling him in his grief. This is probably the most accurate account of Porcia's death.
Servius Tullius
Most of the reforms credited to Servius extended voting rights to certain groups — in particular to Rome's citizen-commoners (known in the Republican era as plebs), minor landholders hitherto disqualified from voting by ancestry, status or ethnicity. The same reforms simultaneously defined the fiscal and military obligations of all Roman citizens. As a whole, the so-called Servian reforms probably represent a long-drawn, complex and piecemeal process of populist policy and reform, extending from Servius' predecessors, Ancus Marcius and Tarquinius Priscus, to his successor Tarquinius Superbus, and into the Middle and Late Republic. Rome's military and territorial expansion and consequent changes in its population would have made franchise regulation and reform an ongoing necessity, and their wholesale attribution to Servius "cannot be taken at face value".
Valerius Severus
On the death of Constantius I in Britain in the summer of 306, Severus was promoted to "Augustus" by Galerius, in opposition to the acclamation of Constantine I (Constantius' son) by his own soldiers. When Maxentius, the son of the retired emperor Maximian, revolted at Rome, Galerius sent Severus to suppress the rebellion. Severus moved towards Rome from his capital, Mediolanum, at the head of an army previously commanded by Maximian. Fearing the arrival of Severus, Maxentius offered Maximian the co-rule of the empire. Maximian accepted, and when Severus arrived under the walls of Rome and besieged it, his men deserted to Maximian, their old commander. Severus fled to Ravenna, an impregnable position. Maximian offered to spare his life and treat him humanely if he surrendered peaceably, which he did in March or April 307. Despite Maximian's assurance, Severus was nonetheless displayed as a captive and later imprisoned at Tres Tabernae. One belief is that when Galerius himself invaded Italy to suppress Maxentius and Maximian, the former ordered Severus's death, and that he was executed (or forced to commit suicide) on September 307 at "Tres Tabernae", near the current Cisterna di Latina. Another belief is that Severus II was killed in Ravenna.
Servilius Casca
At the time Casca held the office of Tribune of the People. After the assassination he fled Rome, and his colleague in the tribunate, P. Titius, had him deprived of his office. Casca joined Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus, the leaders of the assassins, during the Liberators' civil war against the Second Triumvirate, Caesar's former supporters. He seems to have died, probably by suicide, in the aftermath of their defeat at the Battle of Philippi, in October 42 B.C.
Lucius Tarquinius Superbus
When word of this brazen deed reached Servius, he hurried to the curia to confront Tarquin, who leveled the same accusations against his father-in-law, and then in his youth and vigor carried the king outside and flung him down the steps of the senate-house and into the street. The king's retainers fled, and as he made his way, dazed and unattended, toward the palace, the aged Servius was set upon and murdered by Tarquin's assassins, perhaps on the advice of his own daughter.
Servius Tullius
Servius Tullius was the legendary sixth king of Rome, and the second of its Etruscan dynasty. He reigned 575–535 BC. Roman and Greek sources describe his servile origins and later marriage to a daughter of Lucius Tarquinius Priscus, Rome's first Etruscan king, who was assassinated in 579 BC. Servius is said to have been the first Roman king to accede without election by the Senate, having gained the throne by popular support; and the first to be elected by the Senate alone, without reference to the people.
Quintus Valerius Soranus
The fullest account of the infamous death of Valerius Soranus is given by Servius, who says he was executed for revealing the secret name of Rome:
Spurius Cassius Viscellinus
In 485 BC once Cassius had left office he was condemned and executed. Livy says that the method of his trial is uncertain. Livy's preferred version is that a public trial on the charge of high treason was held on the orders of the quaestores parricidii Caeso Fabius and Lucius Valerius, at which Cassius was condemned by the people, and subsequently by public decree his house was demolished (being near the temple of Tellus). The alternative version is that Cassius' own father conducted a private trial (presumably exercising authority as pater familias) and put his son to death, and subsequently dedicated his son's assets to the goddess Ceres, including by dedicating a statue to her with the inscription "given from the Cassian family".
Publius Cornelius Lentulus Sura
The conspirators were arrested and forced to admit their guilt. Lentulus was compelled to abdicate his praetorship, and, as it was feared that there might be an attempt to rescue him, he was put to death in the Tullianum on 5 December 63 BC, along with other senatorial supporters of Catiline.