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Roman religion

(Encyclopedia)Roman religion, the religious beliefs and practices of the people of ancient Rome. The spirits were held in awe and were placated with offerings and prayers. In the earliest period of Roman state r...

Roman roads

(Encyclopedia)Roman roads, ancient system of highways linking Rome with its provinces. Their primary purpose was military, but they also were of great commercial importance and brought the distant provinces in touc...

senate, Roman

(Encyclopedia)senate, Roman, governing council of the Roman republic. It was the outgrowth of the council of the kings. By the 3d cent. b.c. the senate was a group of 300 men with a high degree of political, legisl...

Polanski, Roman

(Encyclopedia)Polanski, Roman, 1933–, Polish-French film director, b. Paris. His family returned to Kraków, Poland, when he was three. His parents were imprisoned in Nazi concentration camps and his mother died ...

Vishniac, Roman

(Encyclopedia)Vishniac, Roman vĭshˈnēăk [key], 1897–1990, Russian-American biologist, photographer, linguist, art historian, and philosopher, b. Pavlosk, near St. Petersburg. Vishniac took degrees in medicine...

Clodius

(Encyclopedia)Clodius (Publius Clodius Pulcher) klōˈdēəs [key], d. 52 b.c., Roman politician. He belonged to the Claudian gens (see Claudius), and his name is also written as Publius Claudius Pulcher. He was br...

Dolabella

(Encyclopedia)Dolabella (Publius Cornelius Dolabella) dŏləbĕlˈə [key], c.70 b.c.–43 b.c., Roman general, notorious for his unscrupulousness. He divorced his wife Fabia and married (50 b.c.) Tullia, daughter ...

Mai, Angelo

(Encyclopedia)Mai, Angelo änˈjālō mī [key], 1782–1854, Italian philologist and, from 1838, cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. As an official at the Ambrosian Library in Milan and the Vatican Library, he ...

Scipio Africanus Minor

(Encyclopedia)Scipio Africanus Minor (Publius Cornelius Scipio Aemilianus Africanus Numantinus), c.185–129 b.c., Roman general, destroyer of Carthage. He was the son of Aemilius Paullus, under whom he fought at P...

gens

(Encyclopedia)gens jĕnz [key], ancient Roman kinship group. It was the counterpart of what is known in other societies as a patrilineal clan or sib, and the word has been used in social science as a generic term f...