Classics key terms

An agent of the Roman emperor, often an equestrian, who could manage imperial finances.

A representation of a face or figure viewed from the side.

The Titan who stole fire for humanity and warned Epimetheus not to accept gifts from Zeus. His name means ‘forethought’.

The entrance porch at the front of a Greek temple.

An introductory song honouring a deity before a longer poetic performance.

Information or imagery shaped to influence an audience’s political beliefs, often by selecting, exaggerating or distorting events.

The minimum value of property someone had to possess to qualify for a particular status or office.

A prediction of a future event, often delivered by a seer.

A woman believed to communicate prophetic or divine knowledge.

A monumental entrance gateway leading into a palace or other important complex.

The queen of the underworld and wife of its king. Her Greek name, Persephone, appears in the prescribed translation.

The central character of a story, whose experiences and actions organise much of its narrative.

The laying out of a dead person's body at home in ancient Greece so that family and friends could mourn and pay their respects.

A territory governed directly as part of the Roman state.

A Mycenaean human figurine type with upraised arms, giving an outline resembling the Greek letter Ψ.

An enslaved person owned by the state or a local community and employed in public services.

The Roman ideal of sexual modesty and honour, closely connected with a woman’s reputation and her family’s standing.

What a writer seeks to achieve through a text, such as entertaining, persuading, criticising or presenting a particular image of themselves.

The title of Apollo's priestess at Delphi, who delivered answers to people consulting his oracle.

A small box or lidded container; the Shaft Grave V pyxis is a wooden box covered with gold plates.

A chariot drawn by four horses abreast.

A method of estimating the age of once-living material by measuring its remaining radioactive carbon-14 and calibrating the result.

A projecting weapon at a warship’s bow, used to strike and damage an enemy vessel.

The use of a warship’s projecting ram to strike and damage an enemy vessel.

A payment offered to secure the release of a captive or the return of a body.

The ways in which audiences interpret, respond to or value a work, potentially differently across groups and periods.

A pottery-painting technique in which figures retain the reddish colour of the clay against a dark background.