Search Results

Roman military leader and politician, was born in Tusculum, a town southwest of Rome, to a wealthy landowning family. Some of his ancestors had distinguished themselves in military service, but none had ever held office in Rome or been members of the Senate. Cato’s father died when he was still a child, and he grew up on a farm he had inherited. One of his neighbors, Lucius Valerius Flaccus, belonged to a powerful Senatorial clan; he and Cato shared the idea that Rome’s traditional values were being undermined by the more sophisticated Hellenistic culture. Although both were about the same age, Flaccus became Cato’s patron, supporting him financially and politically.

Cato was seventeen when Hannibal invaded Italy in 218 BCE and like virtually every Roman male of his age he went to war Given his social class Cato probably served either in the legionary cavalry or as the commander of ...

Carthaginian military leader and politician was one of Carthage s greatest generals and the father of the famous Hannibal It has been suggested that Hamilcar s family came from Cyrene modern day Libya and that they were part of the landed nobility but we know next to nothing about his personal background not even the names of his father and mother Hamilcar was a child when the First Punic War broke out in 264 but would have been of military age when a Roman army invaded Africa in 256 He might have fought in this campaign and may also have seen service in Sicily in the late 250s and early 240s It seems likely that by this time he had become an officer in the navy since in 247 he was given command of the entire Carthaginian fleet in Sicily After launching a successful raid on southern Italy with this ...

Carthaginian military leader and politician, was born in Carthage, in what in now Tunisia, the son of Hamilcar Barca, an important Carthaginian general. Although we know a great deal about his military career, few details of his personal life survive. Several stories about Hannibal’s youth are related in ancient sources, but these must be taken with a grain of salt. One, related by the historian Livy, has a young Hannibal asking his father to take him on campaign to Spain. Hamilcar agrees but insists that his son swear eternal hostility for Rome. In any case, it is true that Hamilcar took his nine- or ten-year-old son to Spain. After Hamilcar’s death in 229 or 228, the eighteen-year-old Hannibal served as an officer in the army commanded by his brother-in-law Hasdrubal.

Around 226 Hannibal married Imilce the daughter of the king of Castulo a town in south central Spain According to ...

Fatimid general and administrator of Egypt, was born Jawhar b. ʿAbd Allah. His origins are obscure, but his epithets of al-Saqlabi (“the Slav”), al-Siqilli (“the Sicilian”), and al-Rumi (“the Greek”) shed some light on his possible ancestry. His date of birth is unknown, but is estimated to have been in the early tenth century. Although still debated, scholars believe that he was a Fatimid freedman of Slavic origin. His father, ʿAbd Allah, was likely a Fatimid slave.

Jawhar appears to have begun his career in the Fatimid dynasty as a ghulam or soldier or as the secretary of the third Fatimid caliph al Mansur r 946 953 However Jawhar rose to preeminence under the tenure of the fourth Fatimid caliph al Muʿizz li Din Allah r 953 975 who selected him to lead a campaign to dominate the western half of North Africa This campaign was exceedingly difficult and ...

Roman magistrate and military commander of equestrian rank, was from a distinguished family in Alexandria that had come to prominence in the early Julio-Claudian period: his father was renowned for his wealth and was on the staff of Antonia, the mother of the emperor Claudius; his uncle was the famous scholar and political leader Philo of Alexandria; and his sister married the son of King Herod, Agrippa I. Tiberius was probably born around 20 CE. His first known appointment was as epistrategos of the Thebais In 42 CE he joined in setting up a relief at the temple at Dendara which had long been associated with the Ptolemies and the Roman administration this raises the question of whether he converted to paganism It is more probable that as a Roman official in multicultural Egypt he was exposed to various cultural norms and like other famous Jewish leaders of the ...

was one of the most important military and political figures of Roman history—indeed, of world civilization. His brilliant and complex career is not the subject of this brief biography, which focuses on the last four years of his life, when he was heavily involved in the fortunes of Africa.

By 48 BCE Caesar at fifty two years of age was at the peak of his career He had been involved in Roman politics since the 70s BCE and had served throughout Roman territory He had reached the consulship in 59 BCE and had spent most of the following decade establishing a Roman presence in Gaul Yet continued internal instability within Rome had resulted in increasing polarization between him and his old political colleague now rival Gnaeus Pompeius Pompey the Great who consolidated power in the city while Caesar was effectively exiled in Gaul Realizing that political oblivion or worse awaited ...

Roman consul and general, was born in the vicinity of Arpinum, southeast of Rome. In 134 BCE he took part in the war against the Keltiberians in Spain and was present at the siege of Numantia, which established Roman control in the region. At this time, he made the acquaintance of the Roman ally Jugurtha, prince of Numidia and grandson of the famous Massinissa.

Over the next twenty five years Marius s fortunes steadily increased both militarily and politically he led campaigns in Asia and Spain and then rose to the rank of praetor in 115 BCE Yet instability in the Numidian kingdom led to Roman involvement Jugurtha who had become king in 118 BCE had reacted against the claims of his brothers by killing one of them which caused the other to flee to Rome The king himself was summoned to the city and a Roman commission divided the ...

leader of the Musulamii, a Numidian tribe, was active from 17 to 24 CE in opposing the power of the established governments in north central Africa, in other words, the Romans and the Mauretanian allied kingdom of Juba II. His career is known solely from the Annals of Tacitus, the point of view of the Romans who defeated him, and thus the data must be considered with caution.

Tacfarinas is an early example of the indigenous leader skilled in Roman ways who used his knowledge to fight against Roman power. As the Roman Empire spread, increasing numbers of peoples on its frontier became accustomed to Roman civilization without accepting Roman political control. In North Africa there was also the constant conflict between the agriculturalists—both indigenous and European settlers—and the transhumant peoples who found their routes blocked by the agrarian population, a historic problem still apparent today in many areas.

Tacfarinas ...