Key terms & definitions

An ordinary Roman citizen belonging to the common people rather than the patrician aristocracy. In Julius Caesar, the plebeians appear collectively as commoners and citizens.

A member of the Roman social order outside the patrician aristocracy; plebeians were not necessarily poor.

Roman citizens outside the patrician aristocracy; Livy describes them as bearing military service and compulsory building labour under Tarquin.

A direct vote by the electorate on a particular political question, also called a referendum.

The body of ordinary Roman citizens, distinguished from the patrician aristocracy.

The ability of a muscle or other soft tissue to bend or stretch easily.

A Roman author whose Letter 2.6 to Junius Avitus criticises unequal treatment of dinner guests.

The Palestine Liberation Organization: an organisation representing Palestinian national aspirations, led during this period by Yasser Arafat.

A secret plan by a group to carry out an action such as overthrowing or assassinating a ruler.

The sequence of events in a story and the connections between them, including causes and consequences.

The connected sequence of events in a narrative, including how one event leads to another.

The connected sequence of events in a literary work, including how one event causes or prepares for another.

The selection and arrangement of events and information presented to the spectator by a film.

A significant event that changes the direction of a narrative.

A small, freely turning compass used to find the direction of a magnetic field at different positions.

A small compass whose magnetic needle aligns with the magnetic field; its north-seeking end indicates the field direction.

Glacial erosion in which ice freezes onto rock and pulls it away as the glacier moves.

A blade inserted into a musket’s muzzle to turn it into a thrusting weapon for close combat.

A model in which an atom is a ball of positive charge with negative electrons embedded throughout it.

A model in which an atom is a ball of positive charge with negatively charged electrons embedded throughout it.

An early model of the atom consisting of a ball of positive charge with negative electrons embedded throughout it.

Goods taken by soldiers from people or places during warfare; the term also describes the act of taking them.

A deep hollow at the foot of a waterfall, excavated by falling water and the abrasion of rock fragments.

Holding more than one Church office at the same time.

The coexistence of different religions and worldviews within a society.

The view that power is distributed among competing groups and that no single group always controls political decisions.

A society in which people with different religions, beliefs and ways of life live alongside one another.

Able to differentiate into any type of body cell, but not form a complete organism by itself.

The king of the underworld, described in the prescribed translation as the ‘lord of the shadows’ and the ‘king of the deep’.

A layer in a layered material, or one of the strands combined to make a yarn. Its meaning depends on the material.