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CTC Glossary of the Classics Category: Language and Literature > Classical History Date & country: 11/09/2007, USA Words: 1434

Tablinum
(Latin) in a Roman house, a reception area and storage area for the images of ancestors and family records.

Tacitus
Publius Cornelius Tacitus, born ca. 56, died ca. 117; little is known of Tacitus, it is speculated that he is of Gallic or Northern Italian origin; his works include Histories of the years 69-96 (?), out of 12 or 14 books, four (4) and part of a fifth survive (on Civil Wars, years 69-70); Annals covering the years 14-68, with 10 out of 16 or 18 books (minus parts of book 3) surviving and covering the reigns of Tiberius, part of Claudius' reign, and most of Nero's; his earlier works include Agricola, a biography of his father-in-law, Germania, and Dialogus de Oratoribus (Dialogue on Orators).

Tarpeia
a woman from Roman legend who betrayed the Roman army; when the early Romans stole the Sabine women, the daughter of the Roman commander fell in love with the king of the Sabine people; Tarpeia arranged that the Sabine king would marry her if she allowed them into the Roman fortress; the Sabines killed her once inside; a cliff was named after her on the Capitoline Hill; this Tarpeian Rock became the site of execution for criminals.

Taurt
as an ancient Egyptian goddess, Taurt`s primary role was to protect pregnant women; she assisted the gods Bes and Hatshepsut at childbirths; this role was appropriate for a mother goddess who was said to help in the daily birth of the sun.

Teiresias (Tiresias)
an aged, blind Theban soothsayer (Antigone, Oedipus the King and Bacchae); one legend says that he was blinded by Athena because he saw her naked but at his mother's (Chariclo) request, Athena gave him the gift of prophecy as compensation.

Telemachus
son of Odysseus and Penelope; upon Odysseus' return to Ithaca, Telemachus helps his father slaughter the suitors of Penelope.

Tempestas
(Latin) storm.

Temple Of Capitoline Jupiter
a Roman temple that was built on the Capitoline Hill dedicated to Jupiter; the temple was begun under Tarquinius Priscus and finished under Tarquinius Superbus at the end of the Roman monarchy; however, it was not inaugurated until 509 BCE at the beginning of the Republic; the temple had to be rebuilt numerous times after being destroyed by different fires.

Temple Of Concordia
a temple built in Rome to commemorate the peace achieved between the plebeian and patrician classes in 367 BCE.

Temple Of Dionysus
a theater on the south slope of the acropolis in Athens; the temple was used for the performances of ancient Greek tragedy and comedy at the City Dionysia.

Temple Of Juno Moneta
a temple located on the Capitoline Hill dedicated to Juno; this temple housed the sacred geese that had supposedly warned the Romans that the Gauls were about to attack in 390 BCE; a flock of geese were taken care of in the temple ever since that event; eventually the temple housed a mint where money was made.

Temple Of Mars Ultor
a temple in the Roman Forum in honor of Mars; ultor means avenger and Augustus dedicated this temple to Mars in 2 BCE to give thanks for being able to avenge the death of Julius Caesar.

Temple Of Vesta
located on the Palatine Hill at the Roman Forum, the Temple of Vesta contained the sacred fire of Rome; the fire was maintained by the Vestal Virgins.

Tepidarium
(Latin) in a Roman bath, this was the warm room where a patron would prepare themselves for the calidarium, or sauna room, after having undressed in the apodyterium.

Tepidus
(Latin) Warm/ lukewarm; this word is linked to the Latin verb tepeo, to be warm.

Terence
(195 â€` 159 BCE) Roman playwright; his six plays include Andria, Hecyra and Adelphoe; many of his plays, like those of Plautus, were adapted from Greek originals, although Terence added Prologues in which he added additional information pertinent to his plays; Terence was popular throughout the following ages, helping sustain his manuscripts.

Terminus
(Latin) boundary, ending.

Terra
(Latin) earth, ground, soil.

Terra Firma
(Latin) dry land.

Terra Incognita
(Latin) Unknown land; on a map, unknown places could be labeled terra incognita, thereby indicating that they were still to be traveled and explored.

Tesserae
(Latin) a Roman dice game; the Romans called the six sided marked dice tesserae, but they also had a type of dice with only four marked faces called tali; the only difference between Roman dice and modern dice is that the numbers were arranged such that any two opposite sides would add up to seven; to play tesserae, dice were shaken in a cup then tossed, as croupiers do today; the Greeks played with three dice, but Romans played with two.

Tethrippon
a four horse chariot race established as an Olympic event in 680 BCE with a length of twelve laps around the hippodrome; there was also a tethrippon for foals established as an Olympic event in 384 BCE.

Tetragonon
a gymnasium at Elis where wrestlers and boxers trained one month prior to the start of the ancient Olympic games.

Thalia
the Muse of comedy; the Muses were nine goddesses whom artists appealed to in order to inspire their works.

The Thirty
a committee of Athenian oligarchs who, when given control of Athens in order to revise the constitution, used their power to rid Athens of their democratic enemies (Apology).

Theater Of Marcellus
a large theater in Rome dedicated in 13 BCE by Augustus in honor of his deceased nephew.

Theatron
theater auditorium.

Thebes
a Greek city that was the largest in the region of Boeotia; Thebes sided with the Persians against the Greeks in the Persian War and thus were greatly demoted in power after the war ended; Sparta allied itself with Thebes later when they sought help in their struggles against Athens; after the Peloponnesian War, however, they turned against Sparta; Philip II of Macedonia took power away from Thebes and, when Philip was murdered, Thebes attempted to remove itself from its place under Macedonian power; Alexander the Great, however, showed no mercy to the Thebans and burned the city to the ground in order to demonstrate his power; he allowed only the house of the poet Pindar to remain in the city.

Theologeion
in ancient Greek, 'god-speaking place'; place on the roof of the skene where gods would appear.

Thermae
(Latin) public baths used by the Romans to bath, for entertainment, and for therapeutic healing; most Roman baths were free though some charged a nominal fee to preclude their use by slaves and the poor; men and women bathed separately; a wealthy Roman man might bath in wine and a wealthy Roman woman in milk; the baths were a meeting place and might include a gym, a library, bars, restaurants, and even theaters; famous baths include the Baths at Bath (England), the Baths of Diocletian, and the Baths at Caracella.

Thermopylae
a narrow stretch of land between Mount Callidromus and the Euripus channel that, because of its geography, was a strategic battle site; in 480 BCE, 300 Spartans led by King Leonidas fought against the Persians and lost at Thermopylae and in 191 BCE King Antiochus lost to Cato the Elder.

Theseus
Attic hero, son of Aegeus and Aethra but legend also says he was the son of Poseidon; upon learning who his father was, Theseus went to Athens at 16 baring the sword and sandals Aegeus had hidden under a rock to identify Theseus as his son; after his reunion with his father at Athens, Theseus is sent to Crete with the Athenian tribute to Minos, where helped by Ariadne the daughter of Minos, he kills the Minotaur; see Plutarch's Theseus for more.

Thetis
daughter of Nereus and Doris, sea divinity and the most famous of the Nerieds; mother of Achilles whom she bathed in the river Styx in hopes to make him immortal.

Thoth
Thoth was the ancient Egyptian god of writing, wisdom, learning, and the moon; according to myth, Thoth invented writing, was the author of the Book of the Dead, and was the vizier and scribe of the afterlife.

Thrace
a large region encompassing parts of present-day Greece, Bulgaria and Turkey; Thrace was colonized by the ancient Greeks in the 6th century BCE and then by the Macedonians; following the Macedonian rule, Thrace was controlled by various empires; Rome ruled Thrace beginning in 46 CE

Thrasybulus
tyrant of Miletus from 625 BCE to 600 BCE; according to one story, the tyrant Periander asks Thrasybulus how he to keep his power; Thrasybulus responds by cutting off the tallest ears of corn in a corn field; Periander understands Thrasybulus' action to mean that he should kill or exile his potential political opponents.

Thucydides
ancient Greek historian of the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta; Thucydides began writing his History of the Peloponnesian War in 431 BCE; during the time Thucydides composed his History, he was exiled from Athens because, as an Athenian general, he failed to save the town of Amphipolis from the the Spartan general Brasidas; his History was published in 395 BCE.

Thymbra
(Latin) the herb savory.

Thymum
(Latin) thyme, the herb.

Thyrsos
a staff with one end covered with leafy vines and/or pine cones carried by Dionysus and his followers in a Bacchic procession.

Tiber
river that runs through Rome.

Tibicines
(singular form tibicen) the Tibia players were one of the oldest professional music organizations in Rome; they were the musicians of the state religion and played the bone pipe, an instrument with three to four holes made from bone that eventually evolved into a double pipe of silver, ivory, or boxwood; the tibicines played at their annual festival of Jupiter Optimus Maximus.

Tirocinium
(Latin) the first military experience of a young man; during this period, the new soldier would have to train; period of recruitment training.

Toga
large cloth made of wool worn by male Roman citizens that is draped over a tunic.

Toga Praetexta
(Latin) a crimson-bordered toga that a young boy would wear.

Toga Virilis
(Latin) a plain white toga a boy would begin to wear between the ages of fourteen and seventeen to show that he has begun to be an adult; the toga a boy wears after having given up wearing his toga praetexta.

Tonsor
(Latin) a man's barber entrusted with complete body care, cura corporis; a tonsor had assistants who worked with him to groom a man according to the latest fashion; grooming included shaving and haircuts; due to the lack of sharp scissor blades, Roman men preferred a curly hair style to conceal the poor tonsus, or haircut, resulting from blunt iron scissors blades.

Tonsorina
(Latin) a barber shop (taberna); all Romans went to a barber, even slaves, though they went to an open-air tonsorina; benches were available in the tonsorina for customers to sit while waiting their turn.

Tragedy
a dramatic work dealing with a serious theme in which typically a noble person possesses a character flawed by pride (hubris), envy, weakness, etc., causing him to break a moral code or divine law; Oedipus is one such tragic character.

Tragoedia
a tragic play or a scene in a tragedy.

Transalpine Gaul
(Gallia Transalpina or Gallia Narbonensis) a region created by boundaries that include the Pyrenee Mountains, the Alps and the Rhine; this was the oldest Roman province in Gaul and also one of its most important in the Roman drive toward expanding its territory; the region was taken in the name of Rome in 121 BCE by Q. Fabius Maximus and became more and more important as a link to Rome's more western provinces because of its strategic location and also the goods that it provided to the empire.

Tribulum
(Latin) wooden sled pulled over wheat to separate the chaff.

Tribune
Roman magistrate from the plebian order; legislator who convened the Senate; ten office holders who served to protect plebians from arbitrary actions through a veto of any administrative action; tribunes were considered 'sacrosanct' and anyone who attacked them could be put to death.

Tributum
(Latin) an extra tax sometimes called for by the senate to be paid by Roman citizens; after 167 BCE, tributum was no longer allowed for Roman citizens, but it was still permitted that tributum could be sought from people in colonies.

Triclinium
(Latin) the dining room of a house for more upper-class Romans; the triclinium`s name refers to the fact that the room generally held three couches inside of it.

Trierarchy
the office of the trieracrch, who was the commander of a trireme; in Athens, the trierarchy had the duty of fitting out or furnishing triremes for public service; Periandros established an Athenian naval reform in the middle of the fourth century BCE, changing the former system of the trierarchy, when expenses were paid for a warship by one or two citizens, also known as trierarchs; instead Periandros' law made 1200 citizens responsible for the trierarchy payments dividing the financial burden for a warship among many.

Triglyph
'three-grooved'; on a Doric panel, what separates two metopes. For more information, see a architectural drawing of a triglyph and an image of the metope of Temple F at Selinus.

Trigon
(Latin) a ball to play with.

Trilogy
a set of three plays on the same theme or representing one story and performed at one competition; the only surviving trilogy is the Oresteia by Aeschylus.

Tripod
a three-legged stand in which cauldrons were set.

Trireme
a light and fast Greek oar-powered warship; principal naval vessel for Persia, Phoenicia, and the Greek city-states; a trireme was propelled by the arrangement of 170 oarsmen in three tiers along each side of the vessel 31 oarsmen in the top tier, 27 in the middle, and 27 in the bottom; the trireme's hull was constructed from a thin shell of planks; it had an overall length of approximately 120 feet (37 m) and a beam of 18 feet (5.5 m); affixed to the front of the trireme was a bronze-clad ram designed to pierce the hulls of enemy warships.

Triskeles
three legs or a three-legged design in a pinwheel shape.

Tristis
(Latin) sad, depressing.

Tristitia
(Latin) sadness, wretchedness, unhappiness.

Triumvirate
a term describing a three-member board or commission; triumvirate was first applied to the political alliance of Julius Caesar, Pompey the Great, and Marcus Crassus, in 60 BCE, deemed the 'First Triumvirate'; the rule of the 'Second Triumvirate', Mark Antony, Octavius, and Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, began in 43 BCE and lasted until 32 BCE.

Trochus
(Latin) a hoop that a child might play with.

Trojans
people of Troy led by Hektor against the Achaians in the Trojan War and led by Aeneas in a war against the Italian allies.

Tuba
(Latin) a trumpet sounded during war battles by the Romans

Tubicines
(Latin) a trumpet player in the Roman military who was a senior centurion; trumpets and horns were used to sound the alarm and signal attacks, retreats, formation changes, and watch changes.

Tunny
a fish.

Turbo
(Latin) a top or a toy that spins around.

Turres Ambulatoriae
(Latin) literally, 'movable towers'; an important tool for laying siege to a place; these towers were constructed on wheels, able to be brought up to a wall and tall enough to be bigger than the walls of a besieged city.

Twelve Tables
coprus juris civilis, the first codification of the Roman legal system, used from their establishment in 450 BCE to 565 CE following the death of Justinian I; the Twelve Tables were the result of plebian complaints and unrest and were committed to writing to codify existing laws and customs; accepted by a popular assembly, initially the Twelve Tables were administered and interpreted by priests from the patrician class; the laws and the legal system (jus civile) that developed around the Twelve Tables, applied only to Roman citizens; with the expansion of the Roman Republic, and later the Roman Empire, came the need for new laws (jus gentium) to govern non-Roman citizens; from 367 BCE to 137 CE, praetors (Roman magistrates) administered justice and defined and interpreted law in Rome and in Roman provinces in all cases except those between Roman citizens; praetors in the provinces based their rulings on the those of the praetors in Rome; the difference between the jus civile and jus gentium became blurred and eventually obsolete between 100 BCE and 212 CE when Roman citizenship was extended to all free inhabitants of the Roman Empire; the Twelve Tables are the foundation for modern legal systems.

Typology
a similarity that links different literary characters; for example, in the second half of the Aeneid, Aeneas is typologically Achilles as the two are military heroes who lay siege to a major city; further in the Aeneid, Augustus is typologically tied to Aeneas since the two politicians lead and establish a society in Italy out of the ruins of a civil war.

Tyranny
a government ruled by a tyrant who uses his power oppressively or unjustly; an absolute ruler; from the Greek word tyrannos.

Ubi
(Latin) when (interrogative pronoun).

Ultima Verba
(Latin) the final argument; this phrase indicates what we might term the straw that broke the camel`s back; Louis XIV of France has the phrase ultima ratio regum or the last word of kings inscribed upon his cannons, indicating that lethal force was his final argument.

Ultio
(Latin) the word means punishment, but more specifically it means punishment in the sense of revenge.

Ulysseus
see Odysseus.

Unde
(Latin) from where (interrogative pronoun.

Urbanitas
(Latin) refinement, urbanity, elegance; urbanitas is generally opposed to the roughness associated with country life.

Uxor
(Latin) wife; a wife in Roman society would generally be under the control of the paterfamilias, or the male head of the household; she would enter into connubium (marriage) with her husband.

Valetudo
(Latin) health, state of being healthy.

Vallus
(Latin) reaping machine invented in Gaul, the area now known as Germany.

Varro
(116 27 BCE) Roman scholar; Varro's intellect led him to study with great teachers in both Athens and Rome; in the civil wars, he sided with Pompey, but was granted a pardon from Caesar; however, after Caesar's assassination, he was politically threatened by Mark Antony so he left Rome; he wrote nearly 500 works and exhibited extensive knowledge.

Varus
Publis Quinctilius Varus; a soldier and a politician; he held the office of consul in 13 BCE; he famously fought Arminius in the Teutoburg Forest in Germania and lost the battle in 9 CE; when Varus realized that the battle would be lost, he committed suicide.

Vates
(Latin) a priest; a religious authority figure.

Vector
(Latin) a carrier, one who bears; can also be a passenger or rider.

Velarium
(Latin) an awning found in a theater.

Velleius Paterculus
(ca. 20 BCE 31 CE) Roman historian; he held various military and political offices before he focused on writing; his subject matter ranged over the entirety of Greek mythology and history through the time of his writing; however he condensed all of the material into two volumes.

Velum
(Latin) sail for a boat usually made from linen but also from cotton; generally large pieces of cloth were sewn together leaving a visible seam that can be seen in ancient artwork depicting ships.

Venatio
(Latin) a hunt or wild beast show conducted during gladiatorial games in which bestiarii fight wild animals in an arena for sport; condemn criminals who committed capital crimes participated in the venatio without weapons to carry out their death sentence.

Vendo
(Latin) to sell.

Veneratio
(Latin) respect, honor, veneration.

Ventosus
(Latin) windy; this word relates to the Latin word ventus, meaning wind.

Venus
an ancient Latin divinity; goddess of love; mother of Aeneas; identified with Aphrodite.

Ver
(Latin) spring; the opposite season of autumnus, or autumn.

Verbum
(Latin) word; in the singular, this word refers to individual words; in the plural, it refers to speech in general.

Vereor
(Latin) to respect, to fear, to be afraid.

Vergil (Virgil)
Publius Vergilius Maro, Roman poet; lived from 70 to19 BCE; the son of a farmer, Vergil studied Greek and Roman literature and rhetoric; he was a contemporary of and friend to Octavian (Augustus), Gaius Cornelius Gallus, Horace, and Lucius Varius Rufus; author of the Aeneid, the Georgics, and the Eclogues; Virgil is one of the greatest Latin poets and his works had a lasting effect on Latin literature; Virgil`s fourth eclogue, published in 40 BCE, forecast the coming of a child who would usher in a Golden Age and has long fascinated readers; the Aeneid was a long epic poem, begun in 27 BCE, written in dactylic hexameter that followed the flight of Aeneas from the fall of Troy to Carthage and then onto Italy; in the epic, Virgil included references to Rome`s political situation, grafting together the Homeric Trojan tradition with the foundational story of Romulus and Remus as well as the history of Julius Caesar and Augustus; he was able to weave together these different stories of Rome with an implication of divine fate, making it seem as though Augustus` rule was pre-destined; the poem can also be read against the grain to see anxieties about the new political situation of Rome; Virgil had not finished the Aeneid before his death and Augustus had the poem published posthumously.