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A for AQUEDUCT. "Greater than the Pyramids" was how the
Roman writer, Frontinus, described the water system of ancient Rome,
and it was all based on aqueducts that brought water into the city from
as far as 100km away. None of Rome's extraordinary achievements
would have been possible without them.
C for CZAR, which like "shah" and "kaiser" is a term meaning "absolute ruler",
derived from the word "Caesar".
I for INSULA, the Latin word for an island, but also for an apartment block, and the
kind of accommodation in which the majority of Romans lived. Insulas ranged from the
swankiest condominium on the Palatine Hill to the poorest, seven-storey tenements in
the notorious Roman slum, the Subura.
J for JUPITER, the king of all the Roman gods - and someone to have on your
side. His temple on the Capitoline Hill was the most important in Rome. So
important that he was known by his initials alone, JOM, standing for Jupiter
Optimus Maximus (Jupiter, Biggest and Best).
K for KALENDS. The Romans had three set days in every month: the Kalends,
which fell on the first day of the month; the Nones, which normally fell on the seventh
day; and the Ides, usually on the 15th. Other dates were counted backwards from
these days. So, what we would call the 12th of the month the Romans would call
"three days before the Ides".
L for LIQUAMEN. One of the most popular ingredients in Roman cooking was a
fish sauce called liquamen, boiled down from the salted entrails of anchovies or small
fish. Worcestershire Sauce is a direct descendant.
M for MILLION, which was the estimated population of Rome at the time of the
birth of Christ. This made Rome the most populous city of the ancient world. No city
in the West would again reach such a size for nearly 1,800 years.
Q for QUAESTOR. Any Roman male with money, family and ambition dreamed
of political office. There was a strict ladder to climb before you could reach the
ultimate of Consul, or head of state. The first rung was Quaestor - an administrative
and financial post. In Rome nobody could be anybody important without being a
Quaestor first.
T is for TEPIDARIUM. The most popular of all Roman leisure pastimes was
visiting the baths. There were 170 in Rome at the time of the Emperor Augustus,
and by the end of the Empire, more than 900. On the Goldilocks principle most
baths had three main rooms: the calidarium, which was too hot; the frigidarium, too
cold; and the tepidarium, just right.
V is for VISIGOTHS, who, under the leadership of their
commander, Alaric, sacked the city of Rome in 410AD, signalling the
collapse of the Western Roman Empire.
W is for WOLF, or more strictly, she-wolf. Remus and his brother,
Romulus, the legendary founders of Rome, were suckled and saved by
a she-wolf after being rescued from the Tiber. A famous bronze statue
of the wolf is on display in the Capitoline Museum in Rome.
X is for XULSIGIAE, a group of Celtic gods linked to the worship
of Mars, the Roman god of war. In terms of importance they rank
between negligible and zero, but there aren't that many X's to choose
from.
Y is for the letter Y, which did not feature in the original Latin
alphabet. As time went on, the Roman's "imported" the letters Y, K
and Z into their alphabet, for use in words which were borrowed from
ancient Greek. This brought the number of letters in the Roman Latin
alphabet to 23: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R,
S, T, V, X, Y and Z. The letters J, U and W were added at a later
stage, to write languages other than Latin.
Z for ZAMA The battle in North Africa (modern-day Tunisia) in
which the Romans finally defeated their arch-rival, Hannibal. More than
any event, the defeat of Hannibal and Carthage, the city from which he
came, was what opened the door to Rome's eventual domination of the
Mediterranean and then the known world.
Additional Rome vocab:
Aqueducts
Nero
Colosseum
Ides of March
Ennius
Neptune
Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus
Romulus
Ostia
Mars
Esquiline Hill
Alps - The Alps mountain range naturally separates Italy from the
rest of Europe.
Beware the Ides of March - March 15
was murdered by the senators.
th
was when Julius Caesar