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Ancient Roman figures played a key role in shaping the history of the Roman Empire. In this category, you’ll find articles on emperors, politicians, generals, philosophers, and other figures who influenced the history of the ancient world. The texts present both well-known historical figures and lesser-known heroes, revealing their activities, significance, and place in the realities of the era. This is a compendium of knowledge about the people who shaped Rome’s power.
In 451, one of the bloodiest battles of antiquity took place. The Huns, Romans, and Visigoths clashed on the Catalaunian Plains. A year after this battle, the fearless Attila invaded Italy but retreated across the Danube, where he soon died, allowing Rome to breathe a sigh of relief. To whom does the Empire owe its salvation? General Aetius? Emperor Marcian? Or perhaps Pope Leo? Who truly stopped Attila?
In Roman forums, monuments once stood, immortalizing her likeness: a beautiful face, a proud profile, hair carefully braided into an intricate hairstyle. Faustina the Younger, the wife of Marcus Aurelius, was a figure who went down in history not only as an empress, but as a woman who managed to find harmony between duty and passion in difficult times. Some adored her, others whispered, attributing numerous scandals to her. Who was she really?
In the Roman Empire in the 3rd century CE there were many times when the throne was usurped and several emperors ruled at the same time. One day in 238, however, an extraordinary event occurred in Rome. The Senate elected two emperors at once and ordered them to rule together. Who were these two distinguished people?
Pompeia Plotina was the only wife of emperor Trajan. Faithful and loyal. History has produced a beautiful portrait of this Roman empress. But is it real?
The civil war of 193-197 was an extremely important event in the history of ancient Rome. After the death of Commodus, several candidates competed for the imperial purple. The ultimate winner of this conflict was to be Septimius Severus. In achieving political and military success, he was undoubtedly helped by a well-thought-out and effective propaganda program.
Over the dying Julius Caesar did not stand his longtime enemies or sworn defenders of the rights of the crumbling Republic. The consuls appointed by him, governors, commanders fighting at his side from Gaul to Africa, as well as close friends, reached for daggers. Among them stood Brutus, or rather two Brutus – Marcus and Decimius. The history of both politicians shows how different paths led to the conspiracy against Caesar.
Caligula is a particularly important ruler for the study of the descriptions of the appearance of emperors in the works of Suetonius because his body was supposed to clearly reflect the nature of the emperor. The features of the ruler’s disposition (e.g. lust and madness) were not only to be shown through specific events in his life but also manifested in his appearance (Suet. Cal. 50.1 -3).
Callicrates, a politician of the Achaean League, postulated faithful cooperation with the Romans after the defeat of Carthage in the Second Punic War. He is described by historians with unrefined epithets: “collaborator” or “ancient Quisling”, and sources say that the Achaeans avoided him and did not even want to bathe with him.
