Classics key terms

A developed comparison using words such as ‘like’ or ‘as’, which expands a scene through an image drawn from another situation.

A short story, often featuring animals, which illustrates a moral or practical lesson.

A professional racing organisation which supplied horses, drivers and support workers; Roman racing had Blue, Green, Red and White factions.

A Roman household, including family members and enslaved people, rather than only a modern nuclear family.

Comedy using exaggerated situations, disguise, misunderstandings and ridiculous behaviour to provoke laughter.

Bundles of rods incorporating axes, used as Roman symbols of political office, power and authority.

The destined course or outcome of events. In the Odyssey, divine actions and human choices can help bring a destined outcome about.

Qualities regarded as morally admirable in women. In Roman legends these include sexual fidelity, domestic diligence, loyalty to family and courage in protecting others.

The public observance on 21 February that concluded the Parentalia, involving offerings at graves.

An invented narrative whose characters and events need not represent real people or actual occurrences.

A shield with two rounded sections and a narrowed middle, giving it an outline resembling the number eight.

A small representation of a human or animal.

Decoration made by attaching very fine metal wires to an object's surface.

The recorded place where an archaeological object was found; this is not necessarily the place where it was made or first used.

The Roman priest of Jupiter whose wife held the office of Flaminica Dialis.

The wife of the Flamen Dialis, with a religious role of her own that depended on their marriage.

The left or right side of an army or military formation, which may be vulnerable to an attack from the side.

A return to earlier events within a narrative, interrupting its current chronological sequence.

The commander of a Roman fleet; in the Imperial period, the office placed a permanent fleet under imperial authority.

An indication of a later event that prepares the reader for what is to come.

The way a literary work is shaped and organised, including whether it uses verse or prose, dialogue, narrative or a letter.

A traditional phrase used repeatedly in oral poetry, shaped to fit the poem’s metre.

A traditional story explaining the origins of a city, community or institution, often involving gods and heroes.

Stories explaining the origins of a community and its institutions, often combining human actions with religious beliefs and moral lessons.

A formerly enslaved man who has been legally freed. Freedom and wealth did not necessarily remove the social stigma of previous enslavement in Roman society.

A person who had been enslaved and was subsequently freed through manumission.

Freedom from domination or compulsion; in warfare literature this can mean a city’s independence or an individual’s protection from enslavement.