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Article

Carsulae  

Edward Togo Salmon and T. W. Potter

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Ancient Geography
  2. Roman Material Culture

Carsulae, on the *via Flaminia in Umbria, near *Narnia. It was rarely mentioned, but Vespasian's army stopped there in ce 69 (Tac. Hist. 3. 60). Extensive excavations have revealed the forum, basilica, temples, arches, and a theatre and amphitheatre.

Article

Carthage, topography  

William Nassau Weech, Brian Herbert Warmington, and R. J. A. Wilson

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Near East
  2. Roman Material Culture
Carthage was founded on part of a large peninsula which stretched eastwards from lagoons into the gulf of Tunis; the isthmus linking it to the mainland further west is c. 5 km. (3 mi.) wide at its narrowest point. Scanty remains of houses of the last quarter of the 8th cent. bce have been found, at one point up to 350 m. (380 yds.) from the shore, suggesting that the settlement then was already of considerable size; but the original nucleus, if there really was a colony here a century earlier to correspond with the traditional foundation date, has yet to be found. Little is known of the archaic urban layout, but surface evidence and cemeteries to the north and west suggest that it covered at least 55 ha. (136 acres). Pottery kilns and metal-working quarters have been identified on its fringes, and the tophet, where child sacrifice to Baal and Tanit took place, has been located on the south; this was in continuous use from the later 8th cent. down to 146 bce.

Article

Casinum  

Edward Togo Salmon and T. W. Potter

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Ancient Geography
  2. Roman Material Culture
Casinum (mod. Cassino), on the *via Latina. An *Oscan, *Volscian, Samnite (see samnium), and, from the late 4th cent. bce, Roman city (sacked by Hannibal in 208 bce), it became a flourishing *municipium. The Ummidii were a prominent local family. It was destroyed by the *Lombards in the 6th cent.

Article

catacombs, Christian  

Ian Archibald Richmond, Jocelyn M. C. Toynbee, and Leonard V. Rutgers

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Christianity
  2. Roman Material Culture
A term derived from κατὰ κύμβας, a locality close to the church of St Sebastian on the *via Appia, 3 miles south of Rome. The name may refer to the natural hollows across which the road passes or to an inn-sign, but was in use in the 4th and 5th cents. ce for the Christian cemetery associated with St Sebastian's in the form ad catacumbas or catacumbae. This famous cemetery consisted of a series of narrow underground galleries and limited number of tomb-chambers cut in the volcanic rock. The walls of the galleries are lined with tiers of up to seven simple coffin-like recesses (loculi) for inhumation, holding normally one but sometimes up to four bodies apiece and sealed with a stone slab or tiles. Tomb chambers tend to be more monumental, containing wall paintings and arcosolia (arched) graves. The early Christian catacombs were designed as large communal cemeteries from the outset and were used for burial from the late 2nd through early 5th cent. Radiocarbon dating suggests that the Jewish catacombs of Rome (see catacombs, jewish) may have served as an example.

Article

Catana  

Arthur Geoffrey Woodhead and R. J. A. Wilson

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Ancient Geography
  2. Roman Material Culture
Catana (Κατάνη, Lat. Catina, mod. Catania), founded from *Naxos (2) in 729 bce, lies on the sea at the SE side of Mt. Aetna; to the south and west stretches the fertile Catania plain, coveted by the Syracusans, whose superior power dominated Catana for much of its history. Its lawgiver *Charondas was its most famous citizen in its early period. *Hieron (1) I removed the Catanaeans to Leontini and renamed the city Aetna, repeopling it with Doric mercenaries. In 461 these were expelled and the old name restored. The Athenians used Catana as a base in 415–413. Captured by *Dionysius (1) I in 403, it from then on formed part of the Syracusan empire, with brief intervals of independence or subjection to *Carthage. After 263, when the Romans captured it, it became a civitas decumana, and it flourished under the Roman republic (Cic. 2 Verr.

Article

Celtiberians  

Simon J. Keay

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Roman Material Culture
A name used by Graeco-Roman writers to describe several peoples (Arevaci, Lusones, etc. ) living around the middle Ebro valley and in the eastern Meseta of Spain. The Celtic flavour of their script, religion, and elements of their material culture distinguishes them from their neighbours to the west and east (see celts). However their characteristic ceramics and richly decorated weapons were widely adopted by indigenous peoples in central and northern Iberia. Most of the population lived in castros (hill-forts). Towns were rare and appear after the 5th–4th cents. bce. After a first encounter with Cato (Censorius) (195 bce), wars against Rome occurred between 181 and 179 (peace of Ti. Sempronius Gracchus (2)), 153 and 151, and finally 143 and 133 (the war of *Numantia). Pompey sacked the towns of Celtiberians who had supported *Sertorius (72 bce). The tabula Contrebiensis and settlements like Azaila suggest that *Romanization had begun in the early 1st cent.

Article

cemeteries  

Ian Morris

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Greek Material Culture
  2. Roman Material Culture
The organization of a formal cemetery, as a space reserved exclusively for the disposal of the *dead, was an important dimension of the social definition of the ancient city. Burial within the settlement had been common in many parts of the Mediterranean world in the early iron age, but after the 8th cent. bce it was rare. Cemeteries normally lined the roads leading away from cities. They usually consisted of numerous small grave-plots, which were rarely used for more than two or three generations, although some cemeteries, such as the *Ceramicus at Athens, remained in use for over a millennium. Burial in a recognized cemetery was a primary symbol of *citizenship in Athens.The spatial distinction between city and cemetery held fast throughout pagan antiquity, only changing as part of the broader transformation associated with the Christian take-over of the western Roman empire. There were two parallel developments. Starting in the 3rd cent., Christians began building *basilicas over the shrines of saints, which were normally in extramural cemeteries.

Article

Cenchreae  

John Salmon

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Ancient Geography
  2. Roman Material Culture
Cenchreae (mod. Kechries), eastern port of *Corinth on the Saronic Gulf. Natural protection was increased by moles of uncertain date. Little Classical or earlier has been recovered, but the place was fortified perhaps as early as 480 bce. Excavations show that major development (quays, warehouses) occurred in the 1st cent. ce following Corinth's refoundation as a colonia.

Article

centuriation  

Michael Crawford

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Roman Material Culture
A system of marking out the land in squares or rectangles, by means of limites, boundaries, normally prior to distribution in a colonial foundation. (The units above and below the centuria are explained by Varro, Rust. 1. 10.) The practice appears with the second phase of Latin colonization beginning after 338 bce, perhaps at much the same time as apparently similar approaches in such cities of Magna Graecia as *Heraclea (1) and *Metapontum. (There is no good evidence that in the Roman world the earliest stage involved marking out only in strips, rather than in squares or rectangles.) Centuriation was widespread in Italy between the 4th cent. bce and the early empire, spreading to the provinces with the projected colony of *Carthage-Junonia in 122 bce. In so far as a single plot of land in a single location was distributed, the practice was not rational in the normal conditions of Mediterranean agriculture: peasant strategies probably depended then as now on farming scattered plots with different soils, altitudes, and aspects, and therefore minimizing the risk of total crop failure; and marriage and inheritance probably rapidly fragmented originally unitary holdings. Those centuriation systems which remain visible today are on the whole those in relatively homogeneous terrain, especially where the limites between lots were also ditches which served for drainage, as in the Po (*Padus) valley.

Article

Cestius Epulo, Gaius, senator  

Nicholas Purcell

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Roman History and Historiography
  2. Roman Material Culture
Significant only as the builder of the conspicuous pyramid tomb beside the via Ostiensis at Rome (later built into the Porta S. Paolo). The tomb, with its grandiose Egyptian aspirations, and an inscription recording the execution of Cestius’ will (*Agrippa was an heir), shows the pride and wealth of a *novus homo in the Augustan system.

Article

Cetius Faventinus, Marcus  

Leofranc Holford-Strevens

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Science, Technology, and Medicine
  2. Roman Material Culture

Marcus Cetius Faventinus, (3rd–4th cent. ce), made a revised abridgement of *Vitruvius for builders of private houses; his work was used by *Palladius (1) and *Isidorus (2).

Article

churches, early Christian  

Bryan Ward-Perkins

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Christianity
  2. Late Antiquity
  3. Roman Material Culture
The first Christians met in the private houses of the faithful. Gradually, as local Christian communities became more established both in numbers and in wealth, they might acquire their own church-houses, using them specifically as places of worship and for other religious activities, such as the granting of charity and the instruction of converts. Externally these buildings looked just like other private houses, though internally they might be adapted for their new function, for instance by combining rooms to create a large enough space for worship. The best example of an early church-house is that excavated at Dura-*Europus on the Euphrates: an ordinary town house, built around ce 200, adapted for Christian use before 231, and destroyed when the city walls were reinforced in 257. Before the conversion of Constantine I, and his conquest of the empire between 312 and 324, some Christian communities may already have commissioned halls specifically for worship, and certainly small shrines, such as the 2nd-cent. aedicula over the supposed tomb of St Peter in Rome (see vatican), were already being built over the bodies of the martyrs.

Article

Cilician gates  

Stephen Mitchell

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Ancient Geography
  2. Roman Material Culture
The pass through the *Taurus mountains which connected the central Anatolian plateau with the Cilician plain and with *Syria. In Roman times this was one of the key routes of the eastern part of the empire, carrying almost all the overland traffic heading for *Antioch (1) and the Syrian regions. By the time of Caracalla the road, which had been traversed by Cicero as proconsul of Cilicia, was known as the via Tauri, and, apart from the *via Sebaste, was the only route between the highlands and the south coast of Asia Minor that was suitable for wheeled traffic.

Article

circus  

Janet DeLaine

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
06 July 2015
Subjects:
  1. Roman Material Culture
Circus, the Roman arena for chariot-racing. The most important at Rome was the Circus Maximus (c.650×125 m.: c.711×137 yds.), in the Murcia valley between the Palatine and Aventine, traditionally founded in the regal period and progressively adorned during the republic. The distinctive form with parallel sides and one semi-circular end fitted with tiered seating, and with twelve starting gates (carceres) at the open end, was created under *Caesar and preserved in the monumental rebuilding by *Trajan. The area was divided into two tracks by a long central barrier (euripus or spina), marked at the ends with conical turning-posts (metae) and decorated with Augustus’ obelisk and other monuments, including the movable eggs and dolphins which marked the ends of the seven laps in each race. Four, six, eight or twelve teams of horses competed under different colours, red and white at first (Tert.

Article

Circus Maximus  

Marialetizia Buonfiglio

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
24 May 2023
Subjects:
  1. Roman Material Culture
The Circus Maximus in Rome has a history that spans more than a millennium. The complex gradually took form in what was once the Murcia Valley, a wide space that, from the regal period, was organized to house equestrian events, the ludi circensi, held during major religious festivals. The first permanent building, later reconstructed by Trajan, was established at the end of the 1st century bce and constituted the architectural model of reference for other circuses in the Empire. The Circus of Rome was a large, highly functional, multipurpose structure, able to accommodate a vast number of spectators. It not only provided a venue for the majority of popular spectacles as well as civic, ludic, and military events, but it also represented an urban area of great attraction for the daily life of the city due to the numerous commercial and entertainment spaces located in its interior.The Circus Maximus in Rome, the greatest edifice for spectacles in the classical world, is an architectural complex that occupies the Murcia Valley, a long and narrow area located between the Palatine and Aventine hills and the Tiber river (.

Article

clavus angustus and latus clavus  

Graham Burton

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Roman Material Culture

The angustus clavus was a narrow, the latus clavus a broad, purple upright stripe (possibly two stripes) stitched to or woven into the Roman tunica. The former indicated equestrian, the latter senatorial rank. Under the emperors the latus clavus was worn before admission to the *Senate, on the assumption of the toga virilis, by sons of senators as a right (see toga). The latus clavus could also be granted by emperors to men of non-senatorial origin; the award of the latus clavus gave such men the right to stand for senatorial office (so the future emperor Septimius Severus arrived at Rome at the age of 17 and successfully petitioned Marcus Aurelius for the latus clavus). Military tribunes (*tribuni militum) in the legions were distinguished as tribuni angusticlavii or tribuni laticlavii according to whether they were pursuing an equestrian or senatorial career.

Article

Cloaca Maxima  

Janet DeLaine

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Roman Material Culture
Originally a stream draining NE Rome from the Argiletum to the Tiber through the *forum Romanum and *Velabrum. According to tradition it was canalized by *Tarquinius Priscus or *Tarquinius Superbus, but, while traces of early construction remain, the main sewer is largely due to *Agrippa's overhaul in 33 bce with later repairs and extensions.

Article

Clunia  

Simon J. Keay

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Ancient Geography
  2. Roman Material Culture
A town in the territory of the Celtiberian Arevaci and later in Roman *Tarraconensis, lay 40 km. (25 mi.) north-west of Uxama (mod. Osma). It was a *conventus capital which had been granted municipal status (see municipium) under *Tiberius and was made a colonia (Clunia Sulpicia) by the future emperor *Galba.

Article

Clusium  

D. W. R. Ridgway

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Ancient Geography
  2. Roman Material Culture

Clusium (Etr. Clevsin-, Chamars; mod. Chiusi), above the *via Cassia in the Val di Chiana, traditionally played an important role in early Roman history under *Porsenna; it did not pass into Roman hands until a comparatively late stage. Clusium was one of the twelve cities of Etruria (see etruscans), and one of the oldest in the north-east. The earliest finds are *Villanovan, the ossuaries developing in the orientalizing period into ‘canopic urns’ (i.e. images of the dead). One of the earliest of the numerous chamber tombs produced the François vase (see pottery, greek), and a number are painted. The city was an important centre of stone-carving and, from the 5th cent. bce, of decorative bronze-working. Its territory has produced an exceptionally large number of Etruscan inscriptions (CIE475–3306). A man of Clusium, Arruns, invited the Gauls to cross the Alps into Italy (Livy 5. 33).

Article

cohors  

Henry Michael Denne Parker, George Ronald Watson, and Jonathan Coulston

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Roman History and Historiography
  2. Roman Material Culture
In the early Roman republic the infantry provided by the allies were organized in separate cohortes of varying strength, each under a Roman or native *praefectus. In the legions the cohort was first used as a tactical unit by P. *Cornelius Scipio Africanus in Spain, but for over a century it was employed alongside the manipular organization (see manipulus) before the latter was superseded in the field (perhaps in the Marian period). The cohort was made up of three maniples, or six centuries, the latter retaining manipular titulature into the Tetrarchic period. There were ten cohortes in a legion.From the time of P. *Cornelius Scipio Aemilianus, the general's personal bodyguard was known as the cohors praetoria. By the middle of the 1st cent. bce, the term was used also to describe the group of personal friends and acquaintances which accompanied a provincial governor. Both these usages led to developments in the empire. This entourage was the origin of the emperor's cohors amicorum (see amicus augusti); the military cohortes praetoriae were formalized in the praetorian guard (see praetorians).