The Romans: Gallery 2 - The Republic

First-century BC bronze figurine of lictor with fasces. (VRoma: British Museum: Barbara McManus)

Roman mosaic of child slave in kitchen, with figs and fish. (VRoma: Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg: Barbara McManus)

Statue of the young emperor Augustus as pontifex maximus, with his head covered as a mark of respect, end of first century BC. (VRoma: National Museums, Rome: Barbara McManus)

Republican coin, issued by the moneyer P. Licinius Nerva, showing voting in an assembly. Two voters are casting their ballots: the voter on the left receives his tablet from an attendant below, while the other, after crossing the bridge, places his tablet in the voting urn. (VRoma: National Museums, Rome: Barbara McManus)

A drawing of the previous image

One of the great plebeian dynasties and a pillar of the nobility was the family of the Caecilii Metelli. Inscriptions from the Arch of Augustus in the Forum name all Roman consuls from 753 BC to 19 AD. This part of a slab lists those from 123 to 115 BC, nine years during which four men named Caecilius Metellus held the highest office of state. (Capitoline Museums, Rome: René Seindal)

The early Roman coinage, like that under the kings, was linked to weight. This heavy bronze dupondius (c. 265 BC), 8.5 cm in diameter, was worth two asses (represented by the two bars) and carried the head of Roma, personifying the city. (Photo © Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery, University of Glasgow )

Hannibal, one of a line of gallant and spectacular military commanders whose efforts finally ended in failure but whose exploits are remembered better than, or at least as well as, those of the men who finally defeated them. (Acknowledgment Hannibal Barca and the Punic Wars web site)

Crossing the Alps. (Acknowledgment Hannibal Barca and the Punic Wars web site)

Gold stater, c. 217 BC, from the war against Hannibal: Roman soldiers with captive. (VRoma: British Museum: Barbara McManus)

Publius Cornelius Scipio (234-183 BC) was awarded the honorific surname of Africanus after his campaign against Hannibal in Africa. (Acknowledgment Museo Archaeologico Nazionale, Naples)

Cato (Picture acknowledgment Fenrir DK history web site)

The brothers Gracchus had an aristocratic upbringing. Their father was a notable consul and military leader, their mother the daughter of Scipio Africanus. (Acknowledgment Julius Caesar: the Last Dictator web site)

A group of senators, late first century BC. (VRoma: Ara Pacis, Rome: Ann Raia)

Gaius Gracchus was begged by his friends to escape, while they held off his pursuers. As he ran along, no-one helped him or gave him the horse for which he asked. He finally took refuge in a sacred grove. (“The Death of Gaius Gracchus” by Jean Baptiste Topino-Lebrun (1764-1801). Musée des Beaux-Arts, Marseilles: Gallery of Art web site.)

Treading grapes. (Illustration by John Pittaway from Picture Reference Ancient Romans, Brockhampton Press 1970)

Drawing of a legionary on the march, with his weapons and personal gear. (VRoma: Landesmuseum, Mainz: Barbara McManus)

Marble statue of a dying Gaul, a first-century copy of a third-century BC bronze original from Pergamum. (VRoma: Capitoline Museum, Rome: Susan Bonvallet)

Mid-first-century bust of a man believed to be Gaius Marius. (VRoma: Glyptotek, Munich: Barbara McManus)

Slave quarters at Villa Adriana, Palace of Hadrian, early second century AD. (VRoma: Sue Olsen)

Mid-first-century BC bust, believed to be that of Sulla. (VRoma: Glyptotek: Barbara McManus)

Republican denarius of about 57 BC, depicting Sulla, coined by his grandson, the moneyer Quintus Pompeius Rufus. (VRoma: British Museum: Barbara McManus)