Agrippa, Marcus Vipsanius
(63–12 bc)Roman general. Augustus' adviser and son‐in‐law, he played an important part in the naval victories over Mark Antony, and held commands in both western and eastern provinces of the empire.
Alcamenes
Greek sculptor of the second half of the 5th century bc, a contemporary of Phidias and according to some ancient sources his pupil. Alcamenes had a high reputation (Pliny calls ...
alcoholism
n. the syndrome due to physical dependence on alcohol, such that sudden deprivation may cause withdrawal symptoms – tremor, anxiety, hallucinations, and delusions (see delirium tremens). The risk of ...
Alexander Mosaic
A floor mosaic (c.100 bc, Archaeological Mus., Naples), discovered in the House of the Faun in Pompeii, depicting Alexander the Great defeating Darius III, the king of Persia, at the ...
alum
Aluminium potassium sulphate. A white or colourless crystalline compound that is used to dress leather, and as a pigment in dyes. Also known as potash alum.
ancient scholarship
GreekIn one sense of the term, scholarship began when literature became a central element of education and the prescribed texts had to be explained and interpreted to pupils in a class. An early ...
Antenor
Athenian sculptor active in the late 6th century bc. In antiquity he was famous for his bronze group of the Tyrannicides (c.510 bc, now lost), which stood in the agora ...
Antistius Vetus, Lucius
(RE 53)of a patrician family from Gabii, consul with Nero in ad 55, was legate of Upper Germany (55–6), but was recalled when planning a waterway to connect the ...
Antonia
(RE ‘Antonius’ 115),daughter of Claudius and Aelia Paetina, married in ad 41 Cn. Pompeius Magnus and afterwards Faustus Cornelius Sulla. Her first husband was put to death by Claudius ...
Antonius Castor
Perhaps a freedman of M. Antonius (2), was one of the elder Pliny (1)'s sources for botany (Homo Necans 25. 9). Pliny mentions that he possessed his own botanical garden.[...]
Antonius Musa
(RE 79)physician to Augustus whom he cured of a grave illness (Suetonius Divus Augustus 59). Pliny the Elder links him with Themison and his hydropathic therapies may place him ...
Apelles
(4th century bc),Greek painter. He is now known only from written sources, as by Pliny's account of his Venus Anadyomene, but was highly acclaimed throughout the ancient world.
Aphrodite of Cnidus
Statue by Praxiteles, made for the city of Cnidus in Asia Minor. It is now lost, but it was his most famous work in antiquity (Pliny thought it was the finest statue in the world), and was the ...
Apollodorus
(RE ‘Apollodoros’ 69),of Alexandria (1), physician and zoologist of the beginning of the 3rd cent. bc. His major work, On Poisonous Animals, was a source for pharmacologists and toxicologists ...
art History
An academic discipline which, as its name implies, is concerned with the historical study of art in all its manifestations throughout the ages to the present day. Its origins can be traced back to ...
Art Market
Before offering an account of its historical development, it is first necessary to define what is meant by art market. An art market differs from the situation in which art ...
artist
In the MA the artist, or better artifex (‘artificer’), was most frequently considered a practitioner of the mechanical arts. Inextricably linked to his manual activities, he was viewed as a ...
Athenaeus
Of Attaleia in Pamphylia was the founder of a school of physicians, the Pneumatists. Imbued with Stoic ideas but well trained in philosophy in general, Athenaeus assumed as basic elements ...
Aufidius Bassus
(RE 15)1st-cent. ad Roman historian, admired for his eloquence (Tacitus Dialogi 23; Quintilian Institutiones 10. 1. 103). His health was uncertain, which perhaps prevented a public career; his death ...
Aulus Caecina
(RE 7)a friend of Cicero (Epistulae ad familiaries 6. 5–9) and a member of an old Etruscan family of Volaterrae (mod. Cecina). Cicero had defended his father in an ...
