| A | B |
|---|
| Author | Gloria Stefanick |
| Agrippa | powerful deputy of Augustus; chiefly responsible for the victory over Mark Antony at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC; disliked by the Roman aristocracy |
| Augustus | original name Gaius Octavius; first Roman emperor following the republic; brought durable peace and prosperity to the Greco-Roman world |
| Caligula | the third of Rome's emperors; Tiberius adopted him; "little boot"; mother and brothers were accused of treason, and all died in prison or exile |
| Claudius | extended Roman rule in North Africa; made Britain a province; son of Nero Claudius Drusus; stuttered; pretended to be mentally ill |
| Constantine | initiated the evolution of the empire into a Christian state; son of Flavius Valerius Constantius; the first Roman emperor to profess Christianity; mother was a concubine |
| Domitian | second son of Vespasian; an imperial prince; was consul six times |
| Galba | Roman emperor for seven months; his advisers allegedly were corrupt; son of the consul Gaius Sulpicius Galba and Mummia Achaica |
| Hadrian | the emperor Trajan's cousin and successor; third of the so-called Five Good Emperors; married Trajan’s grand-niece, Vibia Sabina; built a wall in Scotland |
| Livia | Caesar Augustus's devoted and influential wife; son was Tiberius; Her father was Marcus Livius Drusus Claudianus |
| Maecenas | counseller to the Roman emperor Augustus; was criticized by Seneca for his luxurious way of life |
| Marcus Aurelius | best known for his meditationson Stoic philosophy; his father’s sister was married to the man who was destined to become the next emperor and whom he himself would in due time succeed |
| Nero | stepson and heir of the emperor Claudius; infamous for his personal debaucheries and extravagances and, on doubtful evidence, for his burning of Rome and persecutions of Christians |
| Octavian | also known as Augustus; adopted by his great-uncle Julius Caesar in 44 BCE |
| Tiberius | The adopted son of Augustus; In his last years he became a tyrannical recluse, inflicting a reign of terror against the major personages of Rome |
| Titus | the conqueror of Jerusalem; commanded a legion under his father, Vespasian, in Judaea |
| Trajan | sought to extend the boundaries of the empire to the east; undertook a vast building program; enlarged social welfare |
| Vespasian | became the founder of the Flavian dynasty; son of Flavius Sabinus, a Roman knight who had been a tax collector |
| Cleopatra | Egyptian queen; the lover of Julius Caesar and later the wife of Mark Antony |
| Brutus | one of the leaders in the conspiracy that assassinated Julius Caesar in 44 BCE; son of Marcus Junius Brutus |
| Cicero | English byname Tully; Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, and writer; tried to uphold republican principles in the final civil wars that destroyed the Roman Republic |
| Crassus | politician who in the last years of the Roman Republic formed the so-called First Triumvirate with Julius Caesar and Pompey; His death led to the outbreak of the Civil War between Caesar and Pompey |
| Julius Caesar | victor in the civil war of 49–45 BCE; was assassinated by a group of nobles in the Senate House on the Ides of March |
| Philippi | In 42 BC, the site of the decisive Roman battle in which Mark Antony and Octavian defeated Brutus and Cassius, the leading assassins of Julius Caesar |
| Pharsalus | battle between Julius Caesar and Pompey; The battle showed the values of discipline and training in a close-quarter fight; |
| Rubicon | Roman river; crossed by Julius Caesar; this event precipitated the Roman Civil War |
| Cato the Younger | Marcus Porcius Cato is his full name; He served in the ranks against the insurgent slave Spartacus |
| Vercingetorix | chieftain of the Gallic tribe of the Arverni; rebellion against Roman rule was crushed by Julius Caesar |
| Actium | battle between Octavian and Marc Antony; made Octavian the undisputed master of the Roman world |
| Marc Antony | the son and grandson of men of the same name; his grandfather was a consul and censor who was vividly portrayed as a speaker in Cicero’s De oratore |
