Concepts

On this page, you will find an overview of the mental concept of Antiquity, from acropolis to ziggurat, from ephor to tetrarch, from barbarian to tyrant.

There are 132 items in Concepts:

Suffete

Suffetes (Phoenician sptm, "judges"): highest official in a Phoenician city. A suffete from Lepcis Magna The Phoenician officials known as suffetes are…

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Synagogue

Synagogue: place of Jewish worship.Origins The synagogue of Sepphoris The name synagogue, “gathering”, is Greek and refers to both the activity and…

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Tetrarchy

Tetrarchy: system of imperial succession, developed by the Roman emperor Diocletian. The tetrarchs (San Marco, Venice) One of the great problems of…

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The Edges of the Earth (1)

Edges of the earth: the parts of the world where, according to the myths of the ancient Greeks and Romans, fabulous creatures and savage barbarians lived. These legendary beliefs influenced geography and can still obstruct our understanding of ancient ethnography.Introduction …

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Tribune

Tribune: Roman official whose task it was to protect the people against oppression.In the fifth century BCE, the republican magistracies were monopolized by aristocrats called patricians. This caused great tensions with two other groups: the poor, who had to appeal…

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Triere

Triere (Greek τριήρης, "three-oared"; Latin triremis): ancient warship, used by the Phoenicians and Greeks. Fourth-century coin of Sidon The triere (commonly also trireme, from…

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Triumvir

Triumvir or tresvir: member of a college of three members. The expression is mostly used to describe the First Triumvirate (60 BCE; Pompey the Great, Crassus, and Julius Caesar) and Second Triumvirate (43 BCE; Marc Antony, Lepidus, and Octavian). …

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Tyrant

Tyrant: sole ruler in a Greek city-state, usually an usurper, who held power in defiance of  a city's constitution. Originally, the word did not have any negative connotations. …

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Ziggurat

Ziggurat: a multi-storied temple tower from ancient Mesopotamia. Choga Zanbil Ziggurats are, architecturally, the Mesopotamian equivalent of the Egyptian pyramids: large artificial…

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