People - Ancient Rome

Marcus Junius Brutus the Younger in Wikipedia

Marcus Junius Brutus (early June 85 BC – late October 42 BC), often referred to simply as Brutus, was a politician of the late Roman Republic. He is best known in modern times for taking a leading role in the assassination conspiracy against Julius Caesar. Early life - Marcus Junius Brutus the Younger was the son of Marcus Junius Brutus the Elde...

Read More

Marcus Aurelius in Harpers Dictionary

Marcus Annius (Verus) Aurelius, was born at Rome in the year A.D. 121. Upon the death of Ceionius Commodus, the emperor Hadrian turned his attention towards Marcus Aurelius; but he being then too young for an early assumption of the cares of empire, Hadrian adopted Antoninus Pius, on condition that he in his turn should adopt Marcus Aurelius. Hi...

Read More

Boethius in Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities

(better Boetius), Anicius Manlius Torquātus Severīnus. A Roman statesman and scholar, born in Rome about A.D. 475, and one of the distinguished family of the Anicii, who had for some time been Christians. Having been left an orphan in his childhood, he was taken in his tenth year to Athens, where he remained eighteen years, and acquired a stoc...

Read More

Marcus Aurelius in Wikipedia

Marcus Aurelius Antoninus[notes 1] (26 April 121 – 17 March 180) was Roman Emperor from 161 to 180. He ruled with Lucius Verus as co-emperor from 161 until Verus' death in 169. He was the last of the "Five Good Emperors", and is also considered one of the most important Stoic philosophers. During his reign, the empire defeated a revitalized Part...

Read More

Boethius in Wikipedia

Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius,[1][2][3] commonly called Boethius (ca. 480–524 or 525) was a Christian philosopher of the early 6th century. He was born in Rome to an ancient and important family which included emperors Petronius Maximus and Olybrius and many consuls.[3] His father, Flavius Manlius Boethius, was consul in 487 after Odoacer d...

Read More

Arius in Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities

(Ἄρειος). A celebrated writer and theologian of Alexandria, who denied the eternal divinity and consubstantiality of the Second Person of the Trinity. Though much persecuted for his heresy, he succeeded in winning the favour of the emperor Constantine, and supplanted his great opponent St. Athanasius. When about to enter the cathedral at Const...

Read More

Belisarius in Wikipedia

Flavius Belisarius (Greek: Βελισάριος, ca. AD 500[1] – AD 565) was one of the greatest generals of the Eastern Roman or Byzantine Empire. He was instrumental to Emperor Justinian's ambitious project of reconquering much of the Mediterranean territory of the former Western Roman Empire, which had been lost less than a century previously. One of th...

Read More

Belisarius in Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities

(Slavonic Beli-Tsar, "White Prince"). One of the greatest generals of his time, to whom the emperor Justinian chiefly owed the splendour of his reign. Sprung from an obscure family in Thrace, Belisarius first served in the body-guard of the emperor, but soon obtained the chief command of an army of 25,000 men, stationed on the Persian frontiers, ...

Read More

Arius in Wikipedia

Arius (AD 250 or 256 – 336) was a Christian presbyter from Alexandria, Egypt. His teachings about the nature of the Godhead, which emphasized the Father's Divinity over the Son, and his opposition to the Athanasian or Trinitarian Christology, made him a controversial figure in the First Council of Nicea, convened by Roman Emperor Constantine in 3...

Read More

Augustīnus in Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities

Augustīnus Aurelius. One of the most renowned Fathers of the Christian Church, was born at Tagasté, a city of Africa, November 13th, A.D. 354, during the reign of the emperor Constantius II. He has related his own life in the work to which he gave the title of Confessiones, and it is from this source, together with the Retractationes, some of...

Read More