Herod, also known as Herod I or Herod the Great, was a Roman client king of Israel. He was (descended from converts to Judaism) serving as a servant first. Described as A madman who murdered his own family and a great many rabbis. He is com...

Publius Vergilius Maro, usually called Virgil or Vergil in English, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He is known for three major works of Latin literature, the Eclogues (or Bucolics), the Georgics, and the epic Aeneid. A nu...

Cleopatra was the last active pharaoh of Ptolemaic Egypt, briefly survived as pharaoh by her son Caesarion. After her reign, Egypt became a province of the recently established Roman Empire. Cleopatra was a member of the Ptolemaic dynast...

Quintus Horatius Flaccus, known in the English-speaking world as Horace, was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus (also known as Octavian). The rhetorician Quintillian regarded his Odes as just about the only Latin lyric...

Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa was a Roman consul, statesman, general and architect. He was a close friend, son-in-law, and lieutenant to Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus and was responsible for the construction of some of the most notable building...

Emperor Augustus of Rome was born with the given name Gaius Octavius on September 23, 63 B.C. He took the name Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus (Octavian) in 44 B.C. after the murder of his great uncle, Julius Caesar. In his will Caesar had a...

Strabo was a Greek historian, geographer and philosopher. Strabo is mostly famous for his 17-volume work Geographica, which presented a descriptive history of people and places from different regions of the world known to his era. Although...

Titus Livius, or Livy, was a Roman historian. He wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people, titled Ab Urbe Condita, "From the Founding of the City", covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome before the traditional...

Juba II or Juba II of Numidia (52/50 BC – AD 23) was a king of Numidia and then later moved to Mauretania. His first wife was Cleopatra Selene II, daughter of Greek Ptolemaic Queen Cleopatra VII of Egypt and Roman triumvir Mark Antony. J...

The Great Roman Civil War (49–45 BC), aka Caesar’s Civil War, was one of the last politico-military conflicts in the Roman Republic before the establishment of the Roman Empire. It began as a series of political and military confrontations,...

The Battle of Pharsalus was a decisive battle of Caesar's Civil War. On 9 August 48 BC at Pharsalus in central Greece, Gaius Julius Caesar and his allies formed up opposite the army of the republic under the command of Gnaeus Pompeius Magnu...

The Julian calendar was introduced by Julius Caesar in 45 BC. It was in common use until the 1500s, when countries started changing to the Gregorian Calendar. However, some countries (for example, Greece and Russia) used it into this centur...

Duty, friendship, the training of a statesman and the importance of moral integrity in the search for happiness are reflected upon. This volume brings together his tentative and undogmatic reflections on the good life, in which he discus...

Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC) was a key figure in the turbulent closing years of the Roman Republic. The principles he expounded, occasionally compromised, and eventually died for, draw on wide practical experience as well as deep knowl...

Publius Ovidius Naso, known as Ovid in the English-speaking world, was a Roman poet best known for the Metamorphoses, a 15-book continuous mythological narrative written in the meter of epic, and for collections of love poetry in elegiac co...