Classics key terms

A Mycenaean human figurine type with arms against the sides or folded across the chest, giving an outline resembling the Greek letter Φ.

The Roman ideal of fulfilling obligations to the gods, family and community, exemplified by Aeneas’ protection of his family and Troy’s sacred objects.

Reverence towards the gods and fulfilment of religious obligations.

A coloured substance used to make paint.

Small stacks or pillars supporting the raised floor above the hot-air space of a hypocaust.

A Roman throwing spear used before close combat, which could injure an enemy or become lodged in a shield.

Large pottery storage jars used for keeping supplies in Mycenaean buildings.

A large jar. In Hesiod’s account, Pandora opens a jar and releases miseries upon humanity.

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

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

The arrangement and causal connection of events in a story.

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

A raised platform supporting a temple, approached by steps.

The voice speaking within a poem, which should not automatically be treated as an exact account of the poet’s own experiences.

A senior Spartan military officer who received orders from the campaigning king; in Xenophon’s later description, the commander of a mora.

Religious uncleanness associated with contact with death, addressed through purification rather than simply ordinary cleaning.

Belief in and worship of many gods.

A ceremonial procession; at the City Dionysia it accompanied the wooden image of Dionysus to his sanctuary.

The chief pontiff, who headed the college of pontiffs and selected the Vestal Virgins.

Members of a Roman priestly college responsible for supervising religious practice, including the religious calendar and rules governing burial.

A woman who sold sexual services, typically in a brothel or on the street in ancient Greece. The plural is pornai.

The furnace that supplied heat to a Roman hypocaust and could also heat water for the baths.

The commanding officer's residence within a Roman military base.

An appointed Roman official responsible for a particular service or territory, such as the grain supply or Egypt.

A woman who holds a religious office and performs duties connected with the worship of a deity.

Evidence produced in the period being studied. Pliny’s letters are primary sources for Imperial Roman society, but this does not make every account impartial or eyewitness testimony.

The most senior centurion in a legion, commanding the first century of the first cohort.