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

Jus Gentium
(Latin) the laws and legal system that developed as a result of the interpretation and administration of the Law of the Twelve Tables by praetors in Rome and the Roman provinces; the jus gentium applied to non-Roman citizens; praetors in the Roman provinces administered the laws based on rulings and the patterns of rulings by the praetors in Rome; the jus gentium became obsolete and merged with the jus civile when all free inhabitants of the Roman Empire became citizens between 100 BCE and 212 CE.

Justinian
born in 482, Justinian was in some ways the last 'Roman Emperor'; he was the last to conquer (or in his case, reconquer) territory, and the last to witness the resources and stability that could produce great Roman literary, artistic, and architectural achievement; famous for the Justinian Code, a compilation and standardization of the Roman legal tradition, which influences Western legal traditions to this day; when he Justinian died in 565, the Roman Empire was in transition and headed for decline.

Juturna
nymph, considered a healer in Roman times; (2) sister of Turnus.

Juvenal
Roman satirical poet; born in Aquinum in southern Italy ca. 65; wrote in epigrammatic style; 16 of his satires survive and attack the vices of imperial Roman society providing a vivid description of life in Rome and often sympathizing with the poor; writers from the 17th and 18th centuries, such as John Dryden, Jonathan Swift, and Samuel Johnson, modeled their satirical works after Juvenal's; Juvenal died ca. 128.

Juventas
Roman god of youth.

Kalathos
a small krater with a spout near the foot used to hold wine.

Kalchas (Calchas)
soothsayer who predicts Troy will not be taken without Achilles.

Kalends
in the Roman calendar the Kalends fell on the first day of each month; tristes Kalendae, called the 'gloomy Kalends' because interest was due on the Kalends.

Kallipateira
in ancient Greece women were not allowed to participate in or attend athletic competitions, with the exception of young girls (virgins) and the priestess of Demeter Chamyne were; if caught attending the Olympic games, for example, a woman was thrown off mount Typaion; Kallipateira defied the rules by disguising herself as a trainer so she could watch her son, who she had trained her son following her husbands death, compete; Kallipateira was so elated when her son won that she lept over the barrier that enclosed the trainers` area and lost her clothing; her identity revealed, Kallipateira faced certain death but because her father, three brothers, nephew, and son were Olympic victors the official pardoned her in honor of her victorious family members.

Kalos Names
the names of individuals that appear in inscriptions on vases in reference to a beautiful or fair youth.

Kalpe
a race for mares established as an Olympic event in 496 BCE.

Kanon
a wooden rod used to record jumps by athletes in ancient Greek athletics.

Kantharos
a footed bowl whose name means 'dung beetle'; the bowl has two curving handles set on each side.

Kartereia
the level of sacrifices, mental strength, and endurance in the face of long hours of training and practice without complaint an athlete demonstrated during the long training periods and competition; an athletes kartereia was his most important virtue.

Katabasis
(Greek) going underneath; descent to the Underworld included in literature; many epics include a katabasis at some point; Homer includes a katabasis in the Odyssey and Vergil includes one in Book 6 of the Aeneid.

Kato Pale
ground wrestling in ancient Greek athletics in which opponents fought until one acknowledged defeat by holding up their right hand with their index finger extended.

Kekryphalos
a hair net for women.

Keles
bare back horse riding competition established as an Olympic event in 648 BCE.

Kentron
a stick with a pointed end used to drive animals.

Keres
the spirits who controlled the destiny of each hero on the battlefield; they played a prominent role in the Iliad; the Keres were horrible monsters with long white fangs and nails; these creatures drank the blood of the wounded and dead and tore dead bodies to pieces; they resembled the Moirae.

Keroma
an ancient Greek wrestling arena that was muddy; keroma means beeswax.

Keros
an animal horn.

Kerykeion
a caduceus or messenger's wand.

Kerykes
a family group from whom the officials for the Eleusinian Mysteries were chosen.

Ketos
a sea monster.

Khepri
an ancient Egyptian deity, Khepri`s association with the dung beetle and his role as a sun god resulted in his depiction as a man with a beetle on his head or with a beetle head rolling the sun and moon across the sky.

Khonsu
an ancient Egyptian deity, Khonsu is the son of Amon-Re and Mut; Khonsu is a moon-god, who was said to cause the crescent moon to shine, cattle to become fertile, women to conceive, and for the lungs of the people to fill with fresh air.

Kibisis
a wallet or sack; the silver bag with gold tassels (as Hesiod describes it, Shield of Herakles line 234) in which Perseus carried Medusa's head; sack carried by Hermes and Mercury.

Kidaris
a Scythian hat from which flaps hang down onto the chest.

Kithara
a stringed instrument, like a lyre.

Kleisthenes
see Cleisthenes.

Klimax
in ancient Greek athletics, a voluntary point in a boxing match that was running long when the two boxers took turns standing still while one hit the other; the boxer receiving the blows did not try to avoid them and this led to a quicker resolution of the fight.

Kline
a dining couch.

Knossos
an ancient city on the island of Crete best known as the location of the great Minoan palace; Knossos was well established by the Geometric period and was the leading city on the island in the archaic, Classical, and Hellenistic periods; Knossos was made a Roman colony in 36 BCE and prospered until the early Byzantine period; found at Knossos are well-preserved Roman houses.

Kommos
(plural, kommoi): a song of lament in tragedy; a set of lines that alternate between an actor (or actors) and the chorus in ancient drama; a kommos could be used to heighten emotion or show indecision for a character.

Komos
a scene depicting a party.

Kore
female youth or maiden.

Koros
a youth or boy.

Koryphaeus
see coryphaeus.

Kotinos
crowns of wild olives leaves awarded to the winners of competitions in the Olympic games; according to myth, it was Iphitos who first used a crown of wild olive leaves from the kallistephanos, an ancient wild olive tree near the temple of Zeus, to crown victors at the Olympic games.

Kottabos
a drinking game from Sicily that involved flicking a few drops of wine from the bottom of a kylix onto a specified target.

Krotala
a rattle or castanets associated with the rituals of Dionysus and Cybele.

Kykeon
a drink made from grain and pennyroyal that was used traditionally in the Eleusinian Mysteries in ancient Greece.

Kylix
a drinking cup.

Labrys
a double ax.

Laena
Etruscan in origin, this heavy rounded mantle is shaped like a toga but was draped over both shoulders and fastened with a pin on the back; the laena was worn by the augurs and flamines during sacrifices.

Laetus
(Latin) happy, fertile, rich.

Lanarius
(Latin) Wool worker; a lanarius was a man who worked with wool, lana in Latin.

Laniator
(Latin) butcher; the laniator prepared the meats in and sold them from a laniatorium, or a butcher`s stall; another word for laniator is makellarios.

Lanife
x(Latin) weaver: this word refers to a man who worked with wool; it is tied to the words lana (wool) and facio (to make).

Lanista
(Latin) owner and trainer of gladiators.

Lapith
a pre-Hellenic race of men and women; fought the Centaurs.

Lar
(Latin) Roman gods of a household; comes to represent the hearth and home.

Latifundia
(Latin) in Rome, a large slave-run estate.

Latin League
an alliance formed in the 6th century BCE between different small states of Latium including Alba Longa in Italy; the purpose of this alliance was to help each other militarily and to share religious rites; the Latin League ended in 338 BCE.

Latinus
king of Latins who gives Aeneas 680 hectares of land and his daughter Lavinia.

Latrocinium Maris
(Latin) 'robbery of the sea', piracy; piracy grew to be a problem for the Romans; using the navy he had raised for the battle of Actium, Augustus was able to fight pirates and ensure safer travel for sea-merchants.

Laurus
(Latin) laurel tree; the laurel comes to signify success or triumph.

Laus
(Latin) praise, glory, fame.

Lautia
(Latin) when foreign ambassadors came to Rome, they would be entertained by a lautia

Laverna
Roman goddess of robbery and trickery; Laverna's sanctuary in Rome was close to the Porta Lavernalis.

Lectus
(Latin) in Rome, an all-purpose couch that could be used in a dining room as a bed or simply as a seat; these couches held up to three people.

Leda
wife of King Tyndareus of Sparta; mother of Helen, Clytemnestra, Castor and Pollux; she was visited one night by Zeus in the form of a swan and as a result she conceived Helen and Pollux; on the same night, she conceived Clytemnestra and Castor with King Tyndareus; the children were born from two eggs that she laid.

Legio
(Latin) legion; a Roman military group consisting of ten cohorts (about 6,000 men).

Legis Actiones
(Latin) the Roman legal code; originally, the legis actiones were kept secret by the patricians so that they could control the civil law; however, Flavius, a freedman's son who became curule aedile, published the legis actiones and the official calendar in 304 BCE.

Lemma
the dictionary form or gloss heading of an ancient Greek word.

Lenaea
a festival of Dionysus that took place during the winter; part of the celebration included dramatic competitions for comedy, although on a smaller scale than that of the Rural and City Dionysia.

Leonidas
a teacher who instilled strict discipline in Alexander the Great; Leonidas was possibly a kinsman of Olympias, Alexander's mother.

Leonidas
Leonidas of Rhodes competed in and won the stadion, the diaulos, and the hoplitodromos in four successive ancient Olympics; Leonidas was deified for his victories in these three most difficult running events and earned greater renown that any other Olympic victor in these events.

Lex Acilia De Intercalando
(Latin) a Roman law created in 191 BCE that sought to correct the Roman calendar.

Lex Aelia Sentia
(Latin) Roman law instituted in 4 CE regarding slaves; the law created rules for the manumission of slaves.

Lex Oppia
(Latin) a Roman law created in 215 BCE and cancelled in 195 BCE despite the influence of Cato the Elder; this law limited how much gold women could have, forbade women from wearing dresses of too many colors and driving in a horse-drawn vehicle too close to the City unless for a religious rite.

Lex Pappia Poppaea
(Latin) this Roman law was created in 9 CE and tried to strengthen marriage and criminalize adultery.

Lex Poetelia Papiria
(Latin) this Roman law abolished debt-bondage and was ratified in 326 BCE.

Lex Porcia
(Latin) a Roman law proposed by P. Porcius Laeca in 199 BCE to allow appeals in capital cases.

Lex Sacrata
(Latin) a law ratified in 494 BCE after the first plebeian secession; it stated that the tribunes were sacred and made the plebeians a group united against the patricians.

Lex Valeriae Et Horatiae
(Latin) Roman laws passed in 449 BCE that protected and gave rights to the tribunes of the plebs.

Lex Voconia
(Latin) a Roman law instituted in 169 BCE that said that a woman could not be the primary heir of an estate even if there were no male heirs.

Liberalia
(Latin) a festival held when a boy would stop wearing the toga of his childhood and start wearing more adult clothing; the boy would give up his childhood insignia, process to the forum with others where his name could be added to the list of citizens, and make a sacrifice at the temple of Liber.

Liberi
(Latin) children (word is in the plural).

Libertus
(Latin) a Roman freedman or emancipated slave; Augustus created legislation that made it possible for freedmen of citizens to gain citizen status themselves; the most famous story of a freedman is that of the wealthy and eccentric Trimalchio in Petronius' Satyricon.

Librarius
(Latin) ) Bookseller; Cicero mentions a specific librarius, Hilarus, in his Letters to Atticus.

Libri Sibyllini
(Latin) 'Sibylline Books'; a collection of prophecies; the books were lost in a fire at the temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus in 83 BCE and replaced in 76 BCE.

Libum
(Latin) a cake made from cheese, flour and eggs that could be left as a gift to household gods

Lifepolis
city.

Lighthouse At Pharus
a lighthouse off the coast of Alexandria, Egypt, that was built by Sostratus of Cnidos in 290 BCE; the lighthouse stood 100m tall; it became one of the 7 wonders of the world.

Ligurians
a people who lived between the Arno and Savoy in the area of modern-day Genoa; last stronghold against Roman rule is conquered in 180 BCE; Ligura became one of the Augustan regiones.

Lintel
a beam or stone that goes over an opening; a lintel in a temple would span the distance between two columns by being laid on top of their capitals.

Linteum
(Latin) a napkin.

Liquamen
(Latin) a sauce made from salty fish; this sauce could take the place of salt or be replaced by salt in a meal.

Litter
a vehicle carried by men or animals consisting of a bed or couch suspended between two shafts often covered and curtained for privacy.

Littera
(Latin) literature; literally letters, but the word takes on the meaning books. the Romans produced outstanding works of literature in all genres â€` epic, drama, lyric poetry, history, etc.; literature was a means of solidifying political agendas, recording historical events and entertainment; some of the most famous Latin authors are Vergil, Horace, Ovid, Livy and Plautus.

Livia
(58 BCE 29 CE) wife of Augustus and mother to Tiberius (son of her first husband Ti. Claudius Nero); she was noted for her political skill and her veneration of tradition and conservative virtues; with her son Tiberius, erected a building in Rome called the Porticus Liviae in 7 BCE; she has generated mixed historical reviews, with some people thinking that she embodied the virtues of the Augustan Age while others believed that she wielded too much influence over her husband`s long rule; she was deified during Claudius` reign.

Livia Julia
(13 BCE-31 CE) sister to Emperor Claudius; aunt to Emperor Caligula; she married Gaius Caesar, the son of Augustus, who died; her next marriage was to Drusus, the son of Tiberius; in 23 CE, Drusus died, presumably poisoned by Livia Julia and Sejanus although at the time it seemed a natural death; she was executed in 31 CE for her involvement in Drusus' death.

Livius Andronicus
Roman epic poet and playwright who wrote during the 3rd century BCE.

Livy
Titus Livius, 59 BCE-17 CE; born at Patavium (Padua); wrote History of Rome, Ab Urbe Condita, in 142 books, 35 of which are extant, covering 753 BCE-243 BCE and 219 BCE-167 BCE.

Loco Citato
(Latin) literally in the place cited; can appear as loc.cit.

Londinium
modern-day London; city founded in 43 CE by Roman soldiers campaigning in Roman Britain; this city was an important trading center and, in fact, the city was founded on a site where traders already conducted business; eventually by the close of the 1st century CE, Londinium had become a major administrative and trading site of the Roman province.

Loquor
(Latin) to speak; the English cognate loquacious, meaning talkative, is tied to this word.

Lotis
a nymph daughter of Poseidon who was pursued by the god Priapus; Lotis refused Priapus' advances frustrating the god; one night while she was sleeping amongst the maenads, Priapus tried to take her by surprise but was caught when a donkey brayed so loudly that everyone woke up; everyone laughed at Priapus and Lotis got away; Lotis later asked to be turned into a plant to escape Priapus and was changed into the lotus tree with red flowers.