Aeschylus
in Classics
Published online December 2009.
Article. Subjects: classical studies; classical art and architecture; classical history; classical literature; classical philosophy. 12130 words.
Aeschylus (also spelled Aischylos or Aiskhylos) was born c. 525/4 bce to an aristocratic family in Eleusis, a town in western Attica, part of the territory controlled by Athens. He was...
Alexander the Great
in Classics
Published online April 2011.
Article. Subjects: classical studies; classical art and architecture; classical history; classical literature; classical philosophy. 23057 words.
It has been said about Alexander the Great (b. 356–d. 323 bce) that his name marked the end of an old world epoch and the beginning of a new one. Alexander’s empire that stretched from...
Ammianus Marcellinus
in Classics
Published online May 2011.
Article. Subjects: classical studies; classical art and architecture; classical history; classical literature; classical philosophy. 11656 words.
Ammianus Marcellinus (b. c. 330—d. after 390) was a native Greek speaker who served in the Roman army and in about 390 completed the Res gestae, a Latin history in thirty-one books from...
Ancient Crete
in Classics
Published online February 2010.
Article. Subjects: classical studies; classical art and architecture; classical history; classical literature; classical philosophy. 27355 words.
The island of Crete holds a special position in classical studies, primarily as the birthplace of the earliest “high culture” in Europe: the Minoan civilization of the Bronze Age. But in...
Ancient Greek Language
in Classics
Published online April 2012.
Article. Subjects: classical studies; classical art and architecture; classical history; classical literature; classical philosophy. 9702 words.
The Greek language is first attested written in an awkward syllabic script on clay tablets dating to the 14th–13th centuries bce. After a gap of around four centuries, it is found again...
Apollonius of Rhodes
in Classics
Published online December 2009.
Article. Subjects: classical studies; classical art and architecture; classical history; classical literature; classical philosophy. 6931 words.
Apollonius of Rhodes (3rd century bce) is the author of the Argonautica, the only full-scale epic surviving from the seven centuries that separate Virgil’s Aeneid from Homer’s Iliad and...
Apuleius
in Classics
Published online April 2011.
Article. Subjects: classical studies; classical art and architecture; classical history; classical literature; classical philosophy. 7530 words.
Apuleius (no other names certain, c. 125–after 170 ce) is one of the key Latin writers of the 2nd century ce, a period that marks the transition from the end of traditional classical...
Ara Pacis Augustae
in Classics
Published online November 2012.
Article. Subjects: classical studies; classical art and architecture; classical history; classical literature; classical philosophy. 3904 words.
The Ara Pacis Augustae (Altar of Augustan Peace) is a relatively large marble structure (estimated to have been approximately eleven by eleven meters) dedicated on 30 January 9 bce in...
Aratus
in Classics
Published online May 2011.
Article. Subjects: classical studies; classical art and architecture; classical history; classical literature; classical philosophy. 7580 words.
Aratus of Soli (3rd century bce) is the author of the Phaenomena, a hexameter poem of just over one thousand lines on constellations and weather signs, presented as clues to the will of...
Arena Spectacles
in Classics
Published online December 2009.
Article. Subjects: classical studies; classical art and architecture; classical history; classical literature; classical philosophy. 12936 words.
The staging of various types of violent spectacle characterizes Roman urban culture from the mid-Republic until Late Antiquity. Gradually, temporary structures erected in the Forum were...