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

Ficus
(Latin) a fig tree

Fidelis
(Latin) loyal, faithful.

Fidem Servo
(Latin) literally to preserve faith; this phrase comes to mean to keep one`s word.

Fides
(Latin) a promise; word of honor.

Fidicen
(Latin) a person who plays the lute or harp.

Figulus
(Latin) potter; this word is tied to the Latin verb, fingo, which means to touch, fashion or shape; a figulus created a number of items that would be used daily in the Roman home, such as pots used for cooking and vessels for transporting water and wine.

Fillet
an architectural term referring to the narrow, flat section between the flutes of an Ionic column's shaft .

Finis
(Latin) a end, boundary, limit.

Fistulator
(Latin) a person who plays the reed-pipe.

Flamen
(plural flamines) a Roman priest under the pontifex maximus; the positions of Flamen Dialis (worshipper of Jupiter), Flamen Martialis (worshipper of Mars), and Flamen Quirinalis (worshipper of Quirinus) were filled only by patricians, although plebeians could be flamines for other deities.

Flora
(Latin) Roman goddess of flowers.

Fluentum
(Latin) a stream; running water.

Fluidus
(Latin) flowing, relaxed.

Fluto
(Latin) to float, to swim.

Folium
(Latin) a leaf.

Fons
(Latin) Roman goddess of water; a Roman festival held in her honor entitled the Fontinalia occurred in October.

Forensic Speeches
speeches given during a trial to reenact the events and decide upon justice; some of the most famous ancient speeches extant today were written and delivered by Cicero.

Foreshadowing
literary device whereby the author gives hints about what is going to happen later in the story.

Formula
(Latin) physical beauty, principle.

Fortitudo
(Latin) physical strength.

Fortuna Primigenia At Praeneste
a temple to Fortuna Primigenia (first-born chance) that was also an oracle; this oracle would be sought especially to ask for children.

Fortuno
(Latin) to make happy or bless, similar in meaning to the verb beo.

Forum
(Latin) civic and trade center where all manner of commerce, governmental and judicial procedings, and public assembly took place; the most famous forum was found in Rome, had been rebuilt in 54 BCE, and included buildings and landmarks such as the Curia Julia, Basilica Aemilia, the comitium, the rostra, the Volcanal, and the Lacus Curtius.

Fossae
(Latin) canals or ditches; the Romans greatly relied upon canals and undertook large projects to dig canals in provinces such as Britain and Egypt; fossae are also ditches dug around a Roman camp of a depth of approximately five feet to protect against an invading enemy.

Fossor
(Latin) a digger; someone who digs ditches; a fool, a boor.

Frieze
in reference to architecture and sculpture, the section of the entablature between the architrave and the cornice on which a sculpture scene may appear.

Frigidarium
(Latin) in a Roman bath, this was the cold room; a bath's patron would enter this room following their use of the calidarium; the cold pool of water into which the patron leapt was used to close open pores or to wash off sweat after visiting the palaestra, where male patrons lifted weights and wrestled or just hung out and played board games.

Frigidus
(Latin) cold; frigidus means the opposite of calidus, the Latin word for hot.

Frondator
(Latin) someone who cuts or prunes trees

Fructus
(Latin) fruit, profit.

Frumentum
(Latin) grain, a staple of the Roman diet.

Frustro
(Latin) to deceive, to trick.

Frustror
(Latin) to deceive, to trick.

Fuga
(Latin) flight, running away.

Fulvus
(Latin) deep-yellow; this term is related to the Latin verb fulgeo, to flash, shine.

Fundo
(Latin) to defeat; to scatter; to pour out.

Furnarius
(Latin) baker; the furnarius literally means the one who uses the oven, or furnus.

Furor
(Latin) fury, passion; in the Aeneid, furor unbalances events and people; Vergil creates in Aeneas a hero who wants to cling to Stoic values, but who ultimately is undone by furor in the final scene of the poem; in Book Four of the Aeneid, Dido is an element of furor that foretells the destruction of her city, Carthage; both she and the city burn and fire is one of the clearest metaphors for furor.

Furta
(Latin) stolen property; trick.

Galba
(3 BCE-69 CE) Roman emperor; he was a good soldier and moved through the Roman political ranks, becoming praetor and consul; he became emperor after the death of Nero, but was never very popular with the soldiers or the Roman people; he was murdered in 69 CE, after which Otho became emperor.

Ganymede
also known as Aquarius; an adolescent boy who was said to be the most beautiful of all mortals; while guarding his father's flock, Zeus saw Ganymede and fell in love with him; Zeus carried Ganymede off to Olympus where Ganymede served as his cup-bearer pouring nectar for Zeus, a position formally held by Hebe; to compensate his father for taking his son, Zeus gave Ganymede's father divine horses.

Garum
(Latin) a fish sauce that has been fermented.

Gaul
a portion of western Europe nearly identical in its geography to modern France; the founding of the colony of Massalía (Marseille) by the Phocaean Greeks in 600 BCE is the first historic mention of Gaul; according to Julius Caesar's Gallic Wars, Gaul was divided into three parts, inhabited by the Belgae in the north, the Aquitani in the south, and the Galli or Celtae in the area in between; the three groups used different languages, customs, and laws, and the Aquitani were ethnically distinct from the Belgae and Celtae; the Romans divided Gaul into two sections: Gallia Cisalpina and Gallia Translapina; in 387 BCE, the Senons from Gallia Cisalpina (modern day northern Italy) sacked Rome easily defeating the frightened Romans and their warriors; Rome bought its freedom from the Senons back with gold but eventually defeated the Senons driving them from Rome under the leadership of the Roman general Camillo; Julius Caesar invaded Gaul in 58 BCE; in 52 BCE the rebellion of Vergcingetorix, 'king' of the Gauls, takes place but is put down by Roman forces; following the defeat of Vergcingetorix, Rome ruled Gaul as its province; in 49 BCE, Caesar conferred Roman citizenship on the inhabitants of Gallia Cisalpina.

Geb
an ancient Egyptian god of the earth, Geb`s laugh was said to be the cause of earthquakes; his sister and wife was Nut, the goddess of the sky; Geb was the son of Shu and Tefnut; with Nut he produced four children, Osiris, Isis, Seth, and Nephthys.

Gelu
(Latin) frost, chill.

Genialis
(Latin) enjoyable, fun, easygoing.

Genre
class or category of art or literature in accordance with characteristic form, technique and content; examples of literary genres are tragedy, comedy, and epic.

Gens
(Latin) a family group in Rome; members of the same gens shared common property, the right to inherit, a common burial place, religious rites, and the same name.

Geographical Context
the locational circumstances of an event.

Georgicus
(Latin) having to do with agriculture; Vergil`s Georgics dealt with pastoral matters.

Germania
(Latin) Germany also known in Latin as Alemannia; the territory located between the Rhone, Vistule, Danube and the sea; it was divided by the Romans into two sections â€` Upper and Lower Germania.

Germanicus
Germanicus Julius Caesar; Germanicus was very popular and a good soldier; in 4 CE, Augustus chose Tiberius to be his heir, but arranged that Tiberius would select Germanicus to follow his rule; Germanicus was consul in 12 CE and was left behind to continue the war in Germany by Tiberius that same year; Germanicus died in 17 CE under suspicious circumstances in Egypt; he had several children with his wife Agrippina the Elder, among whom were Caligula and Agrippina the Younger, the mother of Nero.

Gladiator
the term comes from the Latin word meaning 'sword', gladius; gladiators were condemned criminals, prisoners of war, or slaves bought for the purpose of gladiatorial combat by a lanista, or owner/trainer of gladiators; gladiators could also be free men who voluteered fight.

Glaucus
helped Paris abduct Helen and the Trojan ally who meets, but does not fight Diomedes (Iliad); (13) son of Sisyphus who became king of Corinth, dies at the funeral games of Pelias when he loses a chariot race and is eaten by his horses.

Glaukon
brother of Plato and one of the interlocutors of the Republic.

Gloria
(Latin) fame, glory.

Glorificus
(Latin) glorious.

Glorior
(Latin) to glory, to boast.

Gorgon
one of three sisters, Stheino, Euryale, and Medusa; Medusa's monstrous hair was comprised of writhing snakes and her eyes turned people to stone when they look into them).

Gorytos
a combination quiver and bow case from the Persians.

Gracchus, Gaius Sempronius
brother to Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus; tribune in 123 and 122 BCE; Gaius Gracchus promoted laws to help the poor of Rome; he also wanted to make the Latins (the original inhabitants of Latium) Roman citizens, a suggestion which was not popular; in 121, after he was not re-elected, Gaius Gracchus led an armed revolt that caused the senate to use the senatus consultum ultimum for the first time; after this revolt, he and his supporters were killed.

Gracchus, Tiberius Sempronius
politician, brother to Gaius Sempronius Gracchus; Tiberius Gracchus became tribune in 133 BCE and carried out controversial legislation that ultimately caused his murder in the same year; Tiberius Gracchus wanted to take care of two of Rome's problems: (1) small land-owners who had lost their land and (2) the possibility of not having enough food for the city; he suggested the enforcement of a law that did not permit estates of more than 500 iugera; the extra land would then be given to poor citizens; the more wealthy senators did not support the restrictions on their property and rejected Tiberius' proposal; Tiberius Gracchus was murdered by a group of senators led by the Pontifex Maximus P. Cornelius Scipio Nasica Serapio in 133 BCE.

Graces
the three daughters of Zeus and Eurynome; their names are Aglaia (Splendor), Euphrosyne (Festivity), and Thalia; they brought happiness to whomever they visited.

Gramen
(Latin) any plant or grass.

Grammaticus
(Latin) a teacher of literature and language; upper-class Roman boys, following primary school, were taught by a grammaticus who instructed them in Greek and Roman literature; this system of education was adopted from the Greeks.

Gratia
(Latin) on account of.

Grave Stele
a grave monument standing upright with an inscription and/or sculpted picture on it; a grave stone or marker.

Gravitas
(Latin) 'gravity', a greatly valued Roman characteristic; gravitas meant that one took seriously public and private responsibilities and realized their importance.

Greave
a piece of a soldiers armor wore on the shin and calf between the knee and the ankle.

Greek Alphabet
Greek letters, English transliterations of the Greek letters, and names of the Greek letters appear in the chart below.

Griffin
a mythical being with the head and wings of an eagle of body of a lion.

Groma
Roman engineers used a groma as a surveying device to build roads, aqueducts and buildings; a groma consisted of a wooden stand with crossbar from which weights were hung; the weights on the end of each crossbar assured that the groma was kept perpendicular to the ground.

Gustatio
(Latin) an appetizer or hors d`oeuvre; Romans might serve eggs, shell fish, or vegetables as a gustatio.

Gymnastes
in ancient Greece, a high paid, athletic exercise trainers.

Gyrus
or vivarium; in the Roman legionary camp, the gyrus with the training ring and animal corral. The structure was formed from fifty semicircular cut timbers set upright in a circular trench, probably supporting a framework of cross-timbers. A single entrance passage adjoined the structure on the north-east and had gates at both ends, presumably to control the entrance and exite of animals. It is probable that both horses and men were trained within the gyrus.

Hadrian
born in 76, Hadrian became Roman emperor in 117 following the death of Trajan; Hadrian is considered one of the greatest Roman emperors, the third in the line of the 'Adoptive Emperors'; Hadrian was a successful general, under whom the Roman Empire reached its greatest geographical extent; he was also an adventurer who loved travel and who was a talented architect who designed the Pantheon in Rome and his own villa outside Rome; Hadrian died in 138.

Haemon
son of Creon and fiancé of Antigone who kills himself when Creon condemned Antigone to death.

Halteres
in ancient Greek athletics, lead or stone weights used by athletes in jumping events; used to increase jump distance, athletes held these telephone receiver or dumb bell shaped weights in their hands, ran forward, jumped swinging the weights, and released the halteres behind him at the end of the jump; halteres weighed between 1.6 to 4.6 kilograms, or 3.5 to 10.1 pounds.

Hamartia
an error, failure.

Hapi
a male deity, Hapi is the oldest of the Egyptian gods whose name is an evolution of the ancient Egyptian word for Nile, hep; Hapi is depicted as a man with breasts and a round belly, which indicated nourishment and fertility.

Hariolus
a fortune-teller, a prophet.

Harmodius
conspirator against the Greek tyrants Hippias and Hipparchus; he and his friend Aristogeiton hatched a plan to kill the two tyrants in 514 BCE, however they were only successful in the killing of Hipparchus; Thucydides recounts their plan and its outcome in his history text.

Harpy (Harpies)
mythical beings with the head of a woman and body of a bird that are great tormentors; also known as the 'snatchers.

Hathor
an ancient Egyptian goddess also known as Sekhmet; Hathor was depicted as a woman with the head of a cow, as a cow, or as a woman wearing cow horns and holding a solar disk; the Hathors, who served a similar role as the Fates in ancient Greek mythology, were depicted as seven young women who wore the headdress of Hathor, horns and the solar disk.

Hecate (Hekate)
a mother goddess who exteneded goodwill towards mortals; daughter of Perses and Asteria, directly descended from the Titans; identified with Artemis; later became known as the goddess of the crossroads appearing in the form of a woman with three heads, one of snake, one of a horse and one of a dog.

Hector
see Hektor.

Hecuba
(Hekabe) wife of Priam and mother of Hektor, Paris, Creusa, Laodice, Polyxena and Cassandra.

Hektor (Hector)
son of Priam and Hecuba, hero of the Trojans (Iliad).

Helen
wife of Menelaos, whose abduction by Paris caused the Trojan War; said to be the most beautiul woman in the ancient Greek world.

Helenos
brother of Hektor with prophetic ability.

Heliodorus
Greek novelist; a popular novelist of the 4th century CE; his most famous text is the Ethiopian Story of Theagenes and Charicleia (Aethiopica).

Hellanodikai
the judges at the Olympic games, literally translated Hellanodikai means the judges of Greeks; they played an important role at the games and their names and hometowns were announced on the last day of the games in recognition of their participation.

Hellas
(Latin) mainland Greece; the Romans had an intricate relationship with ancient Greece; while fiercely proud of their own roots, the Romans nevertheless admired and sought to emulate Greek arts and culture.

Hellenes
name which the Greeks used for themselves.

Hellenistic Period
a period of ancient Greek history and culture from the death of Alexander the Great (323 BCE) to beginning of Roman domination (146 BCE).

Hellespont
the ancient name for the Dardanelles, a strait northwest of Turkey, between Asian Turkey and the Gallipoli Peninsula of European Turkey, about 40 miles (64 km) long and one to four miles (1.6 to 6.4 km) wide; the Hellespont connects the Mediterranean and the Black Sea; the name Hellespont is derived from Helle, a woman who drowned in the waters of the strait when she fell from the back of Chrysomallus, the ram whose golden fleece Jason retrieved with the help of Medea.

Helvetii
a Celtic people who lived in current-day Switzerland; in 107 BCE, they attacked the consul Lucius Cassius and his army, defeating them ruthlessly; in 58 BCE, they fought again Julius Caesar's army while attempting to cross into central Gaul and, in the 9-hour Battle of Bibracte, suffered the loss of approximately 65 % of their total population; after their loss to Caesar, they were compelled to return to their initial homeland; 10,000 of the remaining Helvetii joined with Vercingetorix to fight against the Roman empire in 52 BCE.

Hephaestion
the son of the Macedonian noble Amyntor, Hephaestion was the closest of Alexander the Great's friends; the two fought side by side for years and Hephaestion gave advice to Alexander; Alexander made Hephaestion his second-in-command and gave him power; h

Hephaestus (Hephaistos)
god of fire and metal craft; son of Hera and Zeus; thrown from Olympus by Zeus which results in his lameness; husband of Aphrodite; god who makes peace between Zeus and Hera and also makes armor for Achilles (Iliad); read the Homeric Hymn to Hephaestus to learn more.

Herakles (Heracles)
son of Zeus and Alcmene, Greek hero who carries out exploits selected by Eurystheus known as the Twelve Labors; identified by Romans as Hercules.