The Punic Wars was a series of three armed conflicts between Rome and Carthage fought from 264 to 146 BC. Carthage was originally a Phoenician colony and the Latin name for a Phoenician is “Poenus,” which leads to our English adjective “Punic.” The main cause of the Punic Wars was the clash of interests between [...]

The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, which was characterized by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe, Asia Minor, and the Mediterranean region. The Roman Empire began in 27 BC, when Octavian took power after the Battle of Actium and was granted the honorific title [...]

Livia Drusilla was the third wife of Emperor Augustus and one of the most powerful women in the Roman Empire, as she was Augustus’ faithful advisor. She was also mother of Drusus and Tiberius, grandmother of Germanicus and Claudius, great-grandmother of Caligula and Agrippina the Younger and great-great-grandmother to Nero. She was deified by Claudius [...]

In 510 BC, in Rome, the Etruscan king Tarquin was ousted from power by the Latins who had revolted against his tyrannical rule. Sextus, the son of king Tarquin Superbus had raped the wife of a Latin nobleman, Tarquinius Collatinus. King Tarquin’s rule was already deeply unpopular with the people and this rape was too [...]

Nero was the fifth and final Roman emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. He was born on December 15, 37 AD, in Atium (Anzio), Italy, to Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus and Agrippina the Younger, sister of emperor Caligula. Nero had been named at birth Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, but, as he was adopted by his great uncle Emperor [...]