Classics key terms

A company within the Spartan army; its plural is lochoi, and its commander was a lochagos.

Fortifications connecting Athens with its port, Piraeus, allowing the city to maintain access to supplies arriving by sea.

Roman body armour made from overlapping iron strips joined using leather straps.

A vessel used to carry water for the ritual wedding bath in Athens.

A strong attachment to another person or to a community; in warfare literature, love can motivate protection, sacrifice, reconciliation or revenge.

Faithfulness to a person or household, demonstrated through support and actions even when that commitment is difficult or dangerous.

A cave at the Palatine Hill in Rome, believed to be where the she-wolf suckled Romulus and Remus.

An annual Roman festival held on 15 February, associated with purification, fertility and Rome’s founding myth.

The priests who performed the Lupercalia’s sacrifices and ritual run.

A Roman god associated with fertility and purification, honoured at the Lupercalia.

The poetic name associated with Cytheris as the beloved of the Roman poet Cornelius Gallus.

The traditional Spartan lawgiver to whom Plutarch attributes reforms of education and marriage.

A stringed musical instrument. Orpheus plays one while singing his appeal to the rulers of the underworld.

Poetry associated with song and composed in patterned verse forms, often exploring feelings, values or particular occasions rather than telling an extended heroic story.

A female follower of Dionysos, commonly represented dancing in religious ecstasy.

An elected Roman public official, such as a consul or praetor.

An unmarried young woman. Camilla’s maidenhood is also connected with her commitment to chastity and devotion to Diana.

The spirits of the dead honoured by the Romans as deified ancestors.

A Greek seer or prophet who interpreted signs believed to reveal the gods’ wishes or the likely outcome of events.

The act of an owner freeing an enslaved person.

A Roman legal power over a wife which made her a member of her husband's legal family, with the position of a daughter.

A soldier trained to fight aboard ships and to board enemy vessels.

The Roman god of war whom Rhea Silvia claimed was the father of Romulus and Remus.

Surviving physical evidence of a society, including buildings, objects and archaeological remains.

Surviving physical evidence from the past, including buildings, objects, decoration and writing.

A surviving object, building or physical trace used as evidence about the past.

A society in which women hold the dominant authority.