Spartacus: Rebellion

by Ben Kane

  Glossary

  acetum: sour wine, the universal beverage served to Roman soldiers. Also the word for vinegar, the most common disinfectant used by Roman doctors. Vinegar is excellent at killing bacteria, and its widespread use in Western medicine continued until late in the nineteenth century.

  Alba Longa: an ancient city near modern-day Castel Gandolfo that preceded the founding of Rome and other Latin cities. It lost its primacy in the seventh century BC.

  amphora (pl. amphorae): a large, two-handled clay vessel with a narrow neck used to store wine, olive oil and other produce.

  Apulia: a region of south-east Italy roughly equating to modern-day Puglia.

  aquilifer (pl. aquiliferi): the standard-bearer for the aquila, or eagle, of a legion.

  Ariminum: modern-day Rimini.

  as (pl. asses): a small bronze coin, originally worth two-fifths of a sestertius.

  Asia Minor: a geographical term used to describe the westernmost part of the continent of Asia, equating to much of modern-day Turkey.

  atrium: the large chamber immediately beyond the entrance hall in a Roman house. This was the social and devotional centre of the house. It had an opening in the roof and a pool, the impluvium, to catch the rainwater that entered.

  auctoratus (pl. auctorati): a free Roman citizen who volunteered to become a gladiator.

  aureus (pl. aurei): a small gold coin worth twenty-five denarii. Until the time of the early Empire, it was minted infrequently.

  auxiliaries: Rome was happy to use allied soldiers of different types to increase its armies’ effectiveness. For most of the first century BC, there was no Roman citizen cavalry. It became the norm to recruit natural horsemen such as German, Gaulish and Spanish tribesmen.

  ballista (pl. ballistae): a two-armed Roman catapult that looked like a crossbow on a stand, and which fired either bolts or stones with great accuracy and force.

  Basilica Aemilia: a large covered market off the Forum in Rome.

  Bithynia: a territory in north-west Asia Minor that was bequeathed to Rome by its king in 75/4 BC.

  Brennus: the Gaulish chieftain who is reputed to have sacked Rome in 387 BC. (Also a character in my book The Forgotten Legion!)

  Brundisium: modern-day Brindisi.

  Bruttium: the modern-day Calabrian peninsula.

  bucina (pl. bucinae): a military trumpet. The Romans used a number of types of instruments, among them the tuba, the cornu and the bucina. To simplify matters, I have used just one of them: the bucina.

  caldarium: an intensely hot room in Roman bath complexes. Used like a modern-day sauna, most also had a hot plunge pool. The caldarium was heated by hot air which flowed from a furnace through pipes into hollow bricks in the walls and under the raised floor.

  caligae: heavy leather sandals worn by the Roman soldier. Sturdily constructed in three layers – a sole, insole and upper – caligae resembled an open-toed boot. Dozens of metal studs on the sole gave the sandals good grip.

  Campania: a fertile region of west central Italy.

  Capua: modern-day Santa Maria di Capua Vetere, near Naples. Site of an excellent amphitheatre, built upon the one that Spartacus would have fought in.

  Caudine Forks: the narrow valley in which a Roman army was trapped and defeated by the Samnites in 321 BC.

  centurion (in Latin, centurio): the disciplined career officers who formed the backbone of the Roman army. In the first century BC, there were six centurions to a cohort, and sixty to a legion. See also entry for cohort.

  Ceres: a goddess of growth.

  Charon: the ferryman over the River Styx in Hades.

  Charybdis: the whirlpool just off the eastern coast of Sicily that sat opposite the cave on the mainland in which the monster Scylla lived.

  Cilician pirates: corsairs from a region in southern Asia Minor who, in the second and first centuries BC, caused severe problems to shipping in the eastern Mediterranean.

  Cimbri: a Germanic tribe who in the second century BC migrated to southern Gaul, where they encountered the Romans, winning several large-scale victories in the process. They were annihilated by Marius in 102 BC.

  Cinna, Lucius Cornelius, died 84 BC: little is known of the early life of this four-time consul. An ally of Marius, and an enemy of Sulla, he was killed in a mutiny by his own troops in 84 BC.

  Cisalpine Gaul: the northern area of modern-day Italy, comprising the Po plain and its mountain borders from the Alps to the Apennines.

  cohort: a unit of the Roman legion. There were ten cohorts in a legion in the 70s BC, with six centuries of eighty legionaries in every unit. Each century was under the command of a centurion.

  consul: one of two annually elected chief magistrates, appointed by the people and ratified by the Senate. Effective rulers of Rome for a year, they were in charge of civil and military matters and led the Republic’s armies into war. Each could countermand the other and both were supposed to heed the wishes of the Senate. No man was supposed to serve as consul more than once. But by the early decades of the first century BC, powerful nobles such as Marius and Sulla were holding on to the position for years on end. This dangerously weakened Rome’s democracy.

  contubernium (pl. contubernia): a group of eight legionaries who shared a tent or barracks room and who cooked and ate together.

  corona civica: a prestigious award made of oak leaves, given for the saving of another citizen’s life.

  Crassus, Marcus Licinius (c.115–53 BC): an astute Roman politician and general who joined with Sulla and whose actions at the Colline Gate on Sulla’s behalf helped to take Rome. Despite being known as the richest man in Rome, he lived modestly. He made much of his fortune by buying and seizing the properties of those affected by Sulla’s proscriptions.

  Curia: the building in Rome in which the Senate met.

  Delos: a small Greek island. By the first century BC, it had become a free port and the largest slave market in the Mediterranean.

  denarius (pl. denarii): the staple coin of the Roman Republic. Made from silver, it was worth four sestertii, or ten asses (later sixteen).

  Dionysus: the twice-born son of Zeus and Semele, daughter of the founder of Thebes. Recognised as man and animal, young and old, male and effeminate, he was one of the most versatile and indefinable of all Greek gods. Essentially, he was the god of wine and intoxication but was also associated with ritual madness – mania – and an afterlife blessed by his joys. Named Bacchus by the Romans, his cults were secretive, violent and strange.

  Dioscuri, Castor and Pollux. The twin sons of Zeus, they shared one immortal life between them, living half their lives on Mount Olympus and half in Sparta.

  Elysium: a paradise inhabited by the distinguished or good after their death.

  Enna: an ancient city in central Sicily.

  Epirus: the ancient north-western area of Greece.

  Falernian: a wine from the fertile area of north Campania, the Falernus ager.

  fasces: see lictor.

  fides: essentially, good faith. It was regarded as an important quality in Rome. The system whereby citizens sought the patronage of the rich and powerful had been around for centuries. In return for loyalty, the client could expect the guidance and protection of their patron.

  Fortuna: the goddess of luck and good fortune. Like all deities, she was notoriously fickle.

  Forum Annii: a farming settlement on the Via Annia to the east of Paestum, the location of which has been lost to history.

  Gaul: modern-day France.

  gladius (pl. gladii): little information remains about the ‘Spanish’ sword of the Republican army, the gladius hispaniensis, with its waisted blade. It is not clear when it was adopted by the Romans, but it was probably after encountering the weapon during the First Punic War, when it was used by Celtiberian troops. The shaped hilt was made of bone and protected by a pommel and guard of wood. The gladius was worn on the right, except by centurions and other senior officers, who wore it on the left.

  Grea
t Rider: almost nothing is known about Thracian religion. However, more than three thousand representations of one mysterious figure survive from Thrace. These depict a deity on horseback who is often accompanied by a dog or a lion. He is usually aiming his spear at a boar hiding behind an altar. Invariably, there is a tree nearby with a snake coiled around it; often there are women present too. Other carvings depict the ‘hero’ god returning from a successful hunt with his dogs or lions, or returning to the altar in triumph, a bowl held in his hand. No name for this heroic deity survives, but his importance to the Thracians cannot be understated. I have therefore given him a name I thought suited quite well.

  gugga: In Plautus’ comedy, Poenulus, one of the Roman characters refers to a Carthaginian trader as a ‘gugga’. This insult can be translated as ‘little rat’.

  Hades: the underworld – hell. The god of the underworld was also called Hades.

  haruspex (pl. haruspices): a soothsayer. A man trained to divine in many ways, from the inspection of animal entrails to the shapes of clouds and the way birds fly. In addition, many natural phenomena – thunder, lightning, wind – could be used to interpret the present, past and future.

  Hera: wife of Zeus and one of the most significant Greek goddesses.

  Hercules (or, more correctly, Heracles): the greatest of Greek heroes, who completed twelve monumentally difficult labours.

  Hermes: the messenger god.

  Horatius: called Horatio in modern times, an ancient Roman hero who held the Sublician bridge over the Tiber against an invading army until it could be cut down. He then swam to safety across the river.

  Hydra: a mythical, many-headed beast with poisonous breath that lived in a lake in the Peloponnese region of Greece. It was slain by Hercules as one of his twelve labours.

  Iberia: the Iberian peninsula. In the first century BC, it was divided into two Roman provinces, Hispania Citerior and Hispania Ulterior.

  Illyria (or Illyricum): the Roman name for the lands that lay across the Adriatic Sea from Italy, including parts of modern-day Slovenia, Serbia, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Montenegro.

  imperium: supreme power, involving command in wars and the understanding and implementation of law (including capital punishment), which was granted to consuls, proconsuls, military tribunes, praetors, propraetors and other magistrates. This power was symbolised by the fasces carried by the lictores.

  impluvium: see atrium.

  Juno: sister and wife of Jupiter, she was the Roman goddess of marriage and women.

  Jupiter: often referred to as Optimus Maximus – ‘Greatest and Best’. Most powerful of the Roman gods, he was responsible for weather, especially storms.

  Lactans: a god of crops.

  lanista (pl. lanistae): a gladiator trainer, often the owner of a ludus, a gladiator school.

  lararium: a shrine found in Roman homes, where the household gods were worshipped.

  latifundium (pl. latifundia): a large estate, usually owned by Roman nobility, and which utilised large numbers of slaves as labour. Latifundia date back to the second century BC, when vast areas of land were confiscated from Italian peoples defeated by Rome, such as the Samnites.

  Latin: in ancient times this was not just a language. The Latins were the inhabitants of Latium, an area close to Rome. By about 300 BC it had been vanquished by the Romans.

  latro (pl. latrones): thief or brigand. The word also meant ‘insurgent’.

  legate: the officer in command of a legion, and a man of senatorial rank.

  liburnian: a bireme adapted by the Romans from the lembus, an Illyrian vessel. It probably had between fifty and sixty oarsmen.

  licium: linen loincloth worn by nobles. It is likely that all classes wore a variant of this.

  lictor (pl. lictores): a magistrates’ enforcer. Lictores were essentially the bodyguards for the consuls, praetors and other senior Roman magistrates. Such officials were accompanied at all times in public by set numbers of lictores (the number depended on their rank). Each lictor carried fasces, the symbol of justice: a bundle of rods enclosing an axe.

  Lucania: modern-day Basilicata, a mountainous region of southern Italy.

  ludus (pl. ludi): a gladiator school.

  lyre: an ancient Greek musical instrument with varying numbers of strings.

  Maedi (also spelt Maidi): a Thracian tribe from which Spartacus may have originated.

  maenads: women inspired to mania, or ritual ecstasy, by Dionysus. Euripides reported that they ate raw meat, handled snakes and tore live animals apart.

  Marius, Gaius (c.157–86 BC): another prominent Roman politician of the late second century and early first century BC. He served as consul a record seven times, and was a very successful general, but was outwitted by Sulla’s march on Rome in 87 BC. Marius was also responsible for extensive remodelling of the Roman army. He was married to Julia, the aunt of Julius Caesar.

  Mars: the Roman god of war.

  Messana: modern-day Messina.

  Minerva: the Roman goddess of war and also of wisdom.

  Mithridates (also spelt Mithradates): the greatest and most famous king of Pontus in Asia Minor. In the first century BC, he was one of Rome’s foremost enemies, fighting three wars against the Republic.

  Mount Camalatrum: possibly the modern-day Mount Soprano.

  Mount Garganus: the modern-day Promontorio del Gargano, the ‘spur’ above the heel of the Italian ‘boot’.

  mulsum: a drink made by mixing four parts wine with one part honey. It was commonly drunk before meals and with lighter courses during them.

  munus (pl. munera): a gladiatorial combat, staged originally during celebrations honouring someone’s death. Their popularity meant that by the late Roman Republic, rival politicians were regularly staging munera to win the public’s favour and to upstage each other.

  Mutina: modern-day Modena.

  Neptune: in Latin, Neptunus. The god of water, he was linked with Poseidon, the Greek god of the sea.

  Numantia: modern-day Garray near Soria in Spain.

  Numidian: someone from Numidia, the area to the south and west of Carthage in North Africa.

  Ops: a goddess of the harvest.

  optio (pl. optiones): the officer who ranked immediately below a centurion; the second-in-command of a century.

  Ostia: a city at the mouth of the River Tiber; for centuries, the main port for Rome. (In my opinion, the site is a ‘must-see’ for anyone interested in ancient Rome.)

  Padus: the River Po.

  Paestum: modern-day Pesto, a town south-east of Naples that was founded circa 600 BC.

  Pegasus: the immortal horse who carries the thunder and lightning of Zeus.

  phalera (pl. phalerae): a sculpted disc-like decoration for bravery which was worn on a chest harness over a Roman soldier’s armour. Phalerae were commonly made of bronze, but could be made of more precious metals as well.

  Phrygian helmets: these originated in Phrygia, a region in Asia Minor. They had a characteristic forward curving crest.

  pilum (pl. pila): the Roman javelin. It consisted of a wooden shaft approximately 1.2 m (4 ft) long, joined to a thin iron shank approximately 0.6 m (2 ft) long, and was topped by a small pyramidal point. The range of the pilum was about 30 m (100 ft), although the effective range was probably about half this distance.

  Pisae: modern-day Pisa.

  Placentia: modern-day Piacenza.

  Pompeius Magnus, Gnaeus (106–48 BC): Son of a leading politician, ‘Pompey’ fought at a young age in the Social War. He led three private legions to Sulla’s aid in the civil war, helping Sulla to gain power. In 77 BC, he was sent to Iberia as proconsul, his mission to defeat the rebel Sertorius.

  Pontifex Maximus: the leading member and spokesman of the four colleges of the Roman priesthood.

  Pontus: the area of Asia Minor that included the south coast of the Black Sea.

  praetors: senior magistrates who administered justice in Rome and in its overseas possessions such as Sardinia, Sici
ly and Spain. They could also hold military commands and initiate legislation. The main understudy to the consuls, the praetors convened the Senate in their absence.

  proconsul: a magistrate who operated outside Rome in place of a consul (or in the case of a propraetor, a praetor). His position lay outside the normal annual magistracy and was usually used for military purposes, i.e. to conduct a war on Rome’s behalf.

  propraetor: see proconsul.

  pteryges (also spelt pteruges): this was a twin layer of stiffened linen strips that protected the waist and groin of the wearer. It either came attached to a cuirass of the same material, or as a detachable piece of equipment to be used below a bronze breastplate. Although pteryges were designed by the Greeks, many nations used them, including the Romans and Carthaginians.

  Pyrrhus: a king of Epirus who is best known for his bloody war against Rome on behalf of the Tarentines, a Greek people living in third century BC Italy. The term ‘Pyrrhic victory’ originates from his habit of winning battles but suffering heavy losses of his own.

  Rhegium: modern-day Reggio di Calabria.

  Samnites: the people of Samnium, a confederated area in the central southern Apennines. A warlike people, the Samnites fought three wars against Rome in the fourth and third centuries BC. They also backed Pyrrhus of Epirus and Hannibal against the Republic. Their fight against Sulla in the civil war was their last gasp. The large number of Samnite prisoners of war is thought to have given rise to the gladiator class.