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Lex Gabinia de piratis persequendis

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The lex Gabinia (Gabinian Law), lex de uno imperatore contra praedones instituendo (Law establishing a single commander against raiders) or lex de piratis persequendis (Law on pursuing the pirates) was an ancient Roman special law passed in 67 BC, which granted Pompey the Great proconsular powers in any province within 50 miles of the Mediterranean Sea without holding a properly elected magistracy for the purpose of combating piracy . It also gave Pompey the power to appoint many legates and significant financial resources. The law was proposed and passed by the tribune Aulus Gabinius .

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68-579: Pompey enjoyed huge popularity amongst the plebeians of Rome on account of his previous successes against Sertorius and the allies of Gaius Marius , but the Roman Senate was wary of him and his growing power. The Senate was reluctant to give massive powers to any one man, especially one as popular as Pompey, fearing it would allow another dictator to seize power as Sulla had done just fifteen years before. The people, however, were unconcerned about vague abstractions of tyranny. They were concerned about

136-555: A nomen distinguished by a cognomen . There existed an aristocracy of wealthy families in the regal period, but "a clear-cut distinction of birth does not seem to have become important before the foundation of the Republic". The literary sources hold that in the early Republic, plebeians were excluded from magistracies , religious colleges , and the Senate . Those sources also hold that they were also not permitted to know

204-400: A Scotsman involved in the first Jacobite uprising of 1715 was recaptured (and executed) because, having escaped, he yet lingered near the place of his captivity in "the hope of recovering his favourite Titus Livius ". The authority supplying information from which possible vital data on Livy can be deduced is Eusebius of Caesarea , a bishop of the early Christian Church . One of his works

272-620: A book on geography and a daughter married Lucius Magius, a rhetorician. Titus Livius died at his home city of Patavium in AD 17. The tombstone of Livy and his wife might have been found in Padua. Livy's only surviving work is commonly known as History of Rome (or Ab Urbe Condita , 'From the Founding of the City';). Together with Polybius it is considered one of the main accounts of

340-503: A century after Livy's time, described the Emperor Augustus as his friend. Describing the trial of Cremutius Cordus , Tacitus represents him as defending himself face-to-face with the frowning Tiberius as follows: I am said to have praised Brutus and Cassius , whose careers many have described and no one mentioned without eulogy. Titus Livius, pre-eminently famous for eloquence and truthfulness, extolled Cn. Pompeius in such

408-442: A common pastime. He was familiar with the emperor Augustus and the imperial family. Augustus was considered by later Romans to have been the greatest Roman emperor, benefiting Livy's reputation long after his death. Suetonius described how Livy encouraged the future emperor Claudius , who was born in 10 BC, to write historiographical works during his childhood. Livy's most famous work was his history of Rome . In it he narrates

476-502: A complete history of the city of Rome, from its foundation to the death of Augustus. Because he was writing under the reign of Augustus, Livy's history emphasizes the great triumphs of Rome. He wrote his history with embellished accounts of Roman heroism in order to promote the new type of government implemented by Augustus when he became emperor. In Livy's preface to his history, he said that he did not care whether his personal fame remained in darkness, as long as his work helped to "preserve

544-473: A panegyric that Augustus called him Pompeianus, and yet this was no obstacle to their friendship. Livy's reasons for returning to Padua after the death of Augustus (if he did) are unclear, but the circumstances of Tiberius 's reign certainly allow for speculation. During the Middle Ages , due to the length of the work, the literate class was already reading summaries rather than the work itself, which

612-416: A result, standard information in a standard rendition is used, which gives the impression of a standard set of dates for Livy. There are no such dates. A typical presumption is of a birth in the 2nd year of the 180th Olympiad and a death in the first year of the 199th Olympiad, which are coded 180.2 and 199.1 respectively. All sources use the same first Olympiad , 776/775–773/772 BC by the modern calendar. By

680-653: A search for the now missing books. Laurentius Valla published an amended text initiating the field of Livy scholarship. Dante speaks highly of him in his poetry, and Francis I of France commissioned extensive artwork treating Livian themes; Niccolò Machiavelli 's work on republics , the Discourses on Livy , is presented as a commentary on the History of Rome . Respect for Livy rose to lofty heights. Walter Scott reports in Waverley (1814) as an historical fact that

748-574: A variety of jewelry. Since meat was very expensive, animal products such as pork, beef and veal would have been considered a delicacy to plebeians. Instead, a plebeian diet mainly consisted of bread and vegetables. Common flavouring for their food included honey, vinegar and different herbs and spices. A well-known condiment to this day known as garum , which is a fish sauce, was also largely consumed. Apartments often did not have kitchens in them so families would get food from restaurants and/or bars. One popular outlet of entertainment for Roman plebeians

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816-412: A whole comprised a very small portion of the whole population. The average plebeian child was expected to enter the workforce at a young age. Plebeians typically belonged to a lower socio-economic class than their patrician counterparts, but there also were poor patricians and rich plebeians by the late Republic. Education was limited to what their parent would teach them, which consisted of only learning

884-547: Is a major class divide. The rich and educated live in safeguarded facilities while others live in dilapidated cities referred to as the "pleeblands". Livy Titus Livius ( Latin: [ˈtɪtʊs ˈliːwiʊs] ; 59 BC – AD 17), known in English as Livy ( / ˈ l ɪ v i / LIV -ee ), was a Roman historian. He wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people, titled Ab Urbe Condita , ''From

952-420: Is profoundly unclear: "many aspects of the story as it has come down to us must be wrong, heavily modernised... or still much more myth than history". Substantial portions of the rhetoric put into the mouths of the plebeian reformers of the early Republic are likely imaginative reconstructions reflecting the late republican politics of their writers. Contradicting claims that plebs were excluded from politics from

1020-399: The plebs urbana , while those who lived in the country and were part of the 31 smaller rural tribes are sometimes differentiated by using the label plebs rustica . In the annalistic tradition of Livy and Dionysius , the distinction between patricians and plebeians was as old as Rome itself, instituted by Romulus ' appointment of the first hundred senators, whose descendants became

1088-656: The Chronographia , a summary of history in annalist form, and the Chronikoi Kanones , tables of years and events. St. Jerome translated the tables into Latin as the Chronicon , probably adding some information of his own from unknown sources. Livy's dates appear in Jerome's Chronicon. The main problem with the information given in the manuscripts is that, between them, they often give different dates for

1156-478: The Roman army . However, he was educated in philosophy and rhetoric. It seems that Livy had the financial resources and means to live an independent life, though the origin of that wealth is unknown. He devoted a large part of his life to his writings, which he was able to do because of his financial freedom. Livy was known to give recitations to small audiences, but he was not heard of to engage in declamation , then

1224-610: The Second Punic War . When he began this work he was already past his youth, probably 33; presumably, events in his life prior to that time had led to his intense activity as a historian. He continued working on it until he left Rome for Padua in his old age, probably in the reign of Tiberius after the death of Augustus. Seneca the Younger says he was an orator and philosopher and had written some historical treatises in those fields. History of Rome also served as

1292-490: The census , or in other words " commoners ". Both classes were hereditary. The precise origins of the group and the term are unclear, but may be related to the Greek, plēthos , meaning masses. In Latin, the word plebs is a singular collective noun , and its genitive is plebis . Plebeians were not a monolithic social class. Those who resided in the city and were part of the four urban tribes are sometimes called

1360-465: The curiae and the tribes; they also served in the army and also in army officer roles as tribuni militum . The Conflict of the Orders ( Latin : ordo meaning "social rank") refers to a struggle by plebeians for full political rights from the patricians. According to Roman tradition, shortly after the establishment of the Republic, plebeians objected to their exclusion from power and exploitation by

1428-399: The nobiles were patricians, patrician whose families had become plebeian (in a conjectural transitio ad plebem ), and plebeians who had held curule offices (e.g., dictator, consul, praetor, and curule aedile). Becoming a senator after election to a quaestorship did not make a man a nobilis , only those who were entitled to a curule seat were nobiles . However, by the time of Cicero in

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1496-422: The 40s BC, a period of civil wars throughout the Roman world . The governor of Cisalpine Gaul at the time, Asinius Pollio , tried to sway Patavium into supporting Marcus Antonius (Mark Antony) , the leader of one of the warring factions during Caesar's Civil War (49-45 BC). The wealthy citizens of Patavium refused to contribute money and arms to Asinius Pollio, and went into hiding. Pollio then attempted to bribe

1564-702: The Founding of the City'', covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome before the traditional founding in 753 BC through the reign of Augustus in Livy's own lifetime. He was on good terms with members of the Julio-Claudian dynasty and was a friend of Augustus , whose young grandnephew, the future emperor Claudius , he encouraged to take up the writing of history. Livy was born in Patavium in northern Italy , now modern Padua , probably in 59 BC. At

1632-432: The Republic allowed Augustus room to claim that his actions were not out of line with the mos maiorum (the ways of the ancestors) lending him credibility in claiming the restoration of the Republic and the sovereignty of the Roman people. Plebeians People Events Places In ancient Rome , the plebeians or plebs were the general body of free Roman citizens who were not patricians , as determined by

1700-466: The Sullan constitutional reforms were not working. The senate was not empowered; power was not being shared among the aristocracy. The elevation of a person who, until his election to the highest office in the state was not even a senator, to a military command over an immense swath of the Republic's empire, established the precedent of extreme centralisation of military authority that could become central to

1768-594: The U.S. military, plebes are freshmen at the U.S. Military Academy , U.S. Naval Academy , Valley Forge Military Academy and College , the Marine Military Academy , the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy , Georgia Military College (only for the first quarter ), and California Maritime Academy . The term is also used for new cadets at the Philippine Military Academy . Since the construction of Philippine Military Academy ,

1836-467: The aura of nobilitas ("nobility", also "fame, renown"), marking the creation of a ruling elite of nobiles . From the mid-4th century to the early 3rd century BC, several plebeian–patrician " tickets " for the consulship repeated joint terms, suggesting a deliberate political strategy of cooperation. No contemporary definition of nobilis or novus homo (a person entering the nobility) exists; Mommsen, positively referenced by Brunt (1982), said

1904-555: The constitutional arrangements of the Principate. During the Roman Empire , the law served as precedent for Augustus' receipt of greater proconsular authority over the entire empire in the constitutional settlement of 23 BC. The provision allowing Pompey to appoint various legates with propraetorian authority was a forerunner to the legati Augusti who served as the emperor's deputies in his provinces. That it occurred during

1972-482: The course of many centuries. However, hairstyles and facial hair patterns changed as initially early plebeian men had beards before a clean shaven look became more popular during the Republican era before having facial hair was popularized again by Emperor Hadrian in the 2nd century CE. Some plebeian women would wear cosmetics made from charcoal and chalk. Romans generally wore clothes with bright colors and did wear

2040-468: The creation of plebeian tribunes with authority to defend plebeian interests. Following this, there was a period of consular tribunes who shared power between plebeians and patricians in various years, but the consular tribunes apparently were not endowed with religious authority. In 445 BC, the lex Canuleia permitted intermarriage among plebeians and patricians. There was a radical reform in 367–6 BC, which abolished consular tribunes and "laid

2108-440: The different plebe knowledges. In British, Irish , Australian , New Zealand and South African English , the back-formation pleb , along with the more recently derived adjectival form plebby , is used as a derogatory term for someone considered unsophisticated, uncultured, or lower class. The British comedy show Plebs followed plebeians during ancient Rome. In Margaret Atwood 's novel Oryx and Crake , there

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2176-534: The driving force behind the "northern theory" regarding the Etruscans' origins. This is because in the book Livy states, "The Greeks also call them the 'Tyrrhene' and the 'Adriatic ... The Alpine tribes are undoubtedly of the same kind, especially the Raetii, who had through the nature of their country become so uncivilized that they retained no trace of their original condition except their language, and even this

2244-463: The early empire, the word was used to refer to people who were not senators (of the empire or of the local municipalities) or equestrians . Much less is known about the plebeians than the patricians in Ancient Rome, as most could not write, and thus could not record what happened in their daily life. The average plebeian did not come into a wealthy family; the politically active nobiles as

2312-485: The fall of the monarchy, plebeians appear in the consular lists during the early fifth century BC. The form of the state may also have been substantially different, with a temporary ad hoc "senate", not taking on fully classical elements for more than a century from the republic's establishment. The completion of plebeian political emancipation was founded on a republican ideal dominated by nobiles , who were defined not by caste or heredity, but by their accession to

2380-435: The family to fathers and husbands. Plebeians who lived in the cities were referred to as plebs urbana . Plebeians in ancient Rome lived in three or four-storey buildings called insula , apartment buildings that housed many families. These apartments usually lacked running water and heat. These buildings had no bathrooms and was common for a pot to be used. The quality of these buildings varied. Accessing upper floors

2448-399: The foundation for a system of government led by two consuls, shared between patricians and plebeians" over the religious objections of patricians, requiring at least one of the consuls to be a plebeian. And after 342 BC, plebeians regularly attained the consulship. Debt bondage was abolished in 326, freeing plebeians from the possibility of slavery by patrician creditors. By 287, with

2516-470: The growing problems of pirates disrupting trade in the Mediterranean Sea . Appian , in his Roman History , estimated it at 270 warships, 120,000 infantry , and 4,000 cavalry . Others estimate these at 500 warships, 120,000 infantry and around 5,000 cavalry. He was also granted 144 million sesterces, disposal of the state treasury, and the authority to appoint 25 legates of praetorian rank. He

2584-554: The height of the buildings to 18 metres (59 ft) but it appeared this law was not closely followed as buildings appeared that were six or seven floors high. Plebeian apartments had frescoes and mosaics on them to serve as decorations. Rents for housing in cities was often high because of the amount of demand and simultaneously low supply. Rents were higher in Rome than other cities in Italy along with other provincial cities. The owner of

2652-532: The high cost of living in the city of Rome kept the value of real wages down. Some plebeians would sell themselves into slavery or their children in order to have access to wealthy households and to them hopefully advance socially along with getting a chance to have an education. Another way plebeians would try to advance themselves was by joining the military which became easier after the Marian reforms as soldiers were expected to pay for their own weapons. By joining

2720-558: The high offices of state, elected from both patrician and plebeian families. There was substantial convergence in this class of people, with a complex culture of preserving the memory of and celebrating one's political accomplishments and those of one's ancestors. This culture also focused considerably on achievements in terms of war and personal merit. Throughout the Second Samnite War (326–304 BC), plebeians who had risen to power through these social reforms began to acquire

2788-435: The insulae did not attend to duties regarding it and instead used an insularius who was most often an educated slave or a freedman instead. Their job was to collect rent from tenants, manage disputes between individual tenants and be responsible for maintenance. Not all plebeians lived in these conditions, as some wealthier plebs were able to live in single-family homes, called a domus . Another type of housing that existed

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2856-482: The laws by which they were governed. However, some scholars doubt that patricians monopolised the magistracies of the early republic, as plebeian names appear in the lists of Roman magistrates back to the fifth century BC. It is likely that patricians, over the course of the first half of the fifth century, were able to close off high political office from plebeians and exclude plebeians from permanent social integration through marriage. Plebeians were enrolled into

2924-439: The length of the hours varied as Romans divided the day into 12 daytime hours and 12 nighttime hours; with the hours being determined based on the seasons. Cicero wrote in the late republican period that he estimated the average laborer working in the city of Rome earned 6 1/2 denarii a day which was 5 times what a provincial worker would make. By middle of the 1st century CE this number was higher because of inflation but however

2992-510: The lower offices. A person becoming nobilis by election to the consulate was a novus homo (a new man). Marius and Cicero are notable examples of novi homines (new men) in the late Republic, when many of Rome's richest and most powerful men – such as Lucullus , Marcus Crassus , and Pompey – were plebeian nobles. In the later Republic, the term lost its indication of a social order or formal hereditary class, becoming used instead to refer to citizens of lower socio-economic status. By

3060-422: The material effects of the pirates' raids and resulting disruption of the grain supply. In 68 BC, pirates set ablaze Rome's port at Ostia, destroyed the consular war fleet, and kidnapped two prominent senators, along with their retinue. Pompey, seeing a political opportunity, arranged for Aulus Gabinius to introduce what would become lex Gabinia . The command came with a substantial fleet and army to fight

3128-508: The memory of the deeds of the world’s preeminent nation." Because Livy was mostly writing about events that had occurred hundreds of years earlier, the historical value of his work was questionable, although many Romans came to believe his account to be true. Livy was married and had at least one daughter and one son. He also produced other works, including an essay in the form of a letter to his son, and numerous dialogues, most likely modelled on similar works by Cicero . One of his sons wrote

3196-415: The military they could get a fixed salary, share of war loot along with a pension and an allotted land parcel. There was also the reward of getting citizenship for non-citizens. Potential recruits needed to meet a variety of requirements as well which included: being male, at least 172 centimetres (5.64 ft) tall, enlist before one was 35, having a letter of recommendation and completing training. In

3264-418: The passage of the lex Hortensia , plebiscites – or laws passed by the concilium plebis – were made binding on the whole Roman people. Moreover, it banned senatorial vetoes of plebeian council laws. And also around the year 300 BC, the priesthoods also were shared between patricians and plebeians, ending the "last significant barrier to plebeian emancipation". The veracity of the traditional story

3332-680: The patricians. The plebeians were able to achieve their political goals by a series of secessions from the city: "a combination of mutiny and a strike". Ancient Roman tradition claimed that the Conflict led to laws being published, written down, and given open access starting in 494 BC with the law of the Twelve Tables , which also introduced the concept of equality before the law, often referred to in Latin as libertas , which became foundational to republican politics. This succession also forced

3400-524: The patriciate. Modern hypotheses date the distinction "anywhere from the regal period to the late fifth century" BC. The 19th-century historian Barthold Georg Niebuhr believed plebeians were possibly foreigners immigrating from other parts of Italy . This hypothesis, that plebeians were racially distinct from patricians, however, is not supported by the ancient evidence. Alternatively, the patriciate may have been defined by their monopolisation of hereditary priesthoods that granted ex officio membership in

3468-411: The post-Sullan Republic, the definition of nobilis had shifted. Now, nobilis came to refer only to former consuls and the direct relatives and male descendants thereof. The new focus on the consulship "can be directly related to the many other displays of pedigree and family heritage that became increasingly common after Sulla" and with the expanded senate and number of praetors diluting the honour of

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3536-569: The reign of Augustus, who came to power after a civil war with generals and consuls claiming to be defending the Roman Republic , such as Pompey . Patavium had been pro-Pompey. To clarify his status, the victor of the civil war, Octavian Caesar , had wanted to take the title Romulus (the first king of Rome) but in the end accepted the senate proposal of Augustus . Rather than abolishing the republic, he adapted it and its institutions to imperial rule. The historian Tacitus , writing about

3604-475: The result of bad feelings he harboured toward the city of Patavium from his experiences there during the civil wars. Livy probably went to Rome in the 30s BC, and it is likely that he spent a large amount of time in the city after this, although it may not have been his primary home. During his time in Rome, he was never a senator nor held a government position. His writings contain elementary mistakes on military matters, indicating that he probably never served in

3672-590: The same events or different events, do not include the same material entirely, and reformat what they do include. A date may be in Ab Urbe Condita or in Olympiads or in some other form, such as age. These variations may have occurred through scribal error or scribal license. Some material has been inserted under the aegis of Eusebius . The topic of manuscript variants is a large and specialized one, on which authors of works on Livy seldom care to linger. As

3740-477: The senate. Patricians also may have emerged from a nucleus of the rich religious leaders who formed themselves into a closed elite after accomplishing the expulsion of the kings . Certain gentes ("clans") were patrician, signalled by their family names ( nomen ). In the early Roman Republic , there are attested 43 clan names, of which 10 are plebeian with 17 of uncertain status. A single clan also might have both patrician and plebeian branches sharing

3808-561: The slaves of those wealthy citizens to expose the whereabouts of their masters; his bribery did not work, and the citizens instead pledged their allegiance to the Senate . It is therefore likely that the Roman civil wars prevented Livy from pursuing a higher education in Rome or going on a tour of Greece , which was common for adolescent males of the nobility at the time. Many years later, Asinius Pollio derisively commented on Livy's "patavinity", saying that Livy's Latin showed certain "provincialisms" frowned on at Rome. Pollio's dig may have been

3876-615: The system and traditions were programmed the same as the United States Military Academy . First Year Cadets in PMA are called Plebes or Plebos (short term for Fourth Class Cadets) because they are still civilian antiques and they are expected to master first the spirit of Followership . As plebes, they are also expected to become the "working force (force men or "porsmen" ) in the Corps of Cadets. They must also know

3944-607: The time of his birth, his home city of Patavium was the second wealthiest on the Italian peninsula, and the largest in the province of Cisalpine Gaul (northern Italy). Cisalpine Gaul was merged in Italy proper during his lifetime and its inhabitants were given Roman citizenship by Julius Caesar . In his works, Livy often expressed his deep affection and pride for Patavium, and the city was well known for its conservative values in morality and politics. Livy's teenage years were during

4012-408: The very basics of writing, reading and mathematics. Wealthier plebeians were able to send their children to schools or hire a private tutor. Throughout Roman society at all levels including plebeians, the paterfamilias (oldest male in the family) held ultimate authority over household manners. Sons could have no authority over fathers at any point in their life. Women had a subservient position in

4080-433: Was diversorias (lodging houses) Tabernae which were made of timber frames and wicker walls open to streets with the exception of shutters being one to two floors high with tightly packed spaces. Plebeian men wore a tunic , generally made of wool felt or inexpensive material, with a belt at the waist, as well as sandals. Meanwhile, women wore a long dress called a stola . Roman fashion trends changed very little over

4148-597: Was a summary of world history in ancient Greek , termed the Chronikon , dating from the early 4th century AD. This work was lost except for fragments (mainly excerpts), but not before it had been translated in whole and in part by various authors such as St. Jerome . The entire work survives in two separate manuscripts, Armenian and Greek (Christesen and Martirosova-Torlone 2006). St. Jerome wrote in Latin. Fragments in Syriac exist. Eusebius ' work consists of two books:

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4216-429: Was charged with pacifying Crete. The main impact of the lex Gabinia was not its direct impact on Roman trade, though this was considerable. Rather, it created a clear vision of the unity of the Republic's empire under the control of one man. While Sulla, during his dictatorship, had intended to strengthen the senate and weaken the popular assemblies, Pompey's career and preceding consulship in 70 BC showed clearly that

4284-468: Was done via a staircase from the street they were built on. Sometimes these were built around a courtyard and of these, some were built around a courtyard containing a cistern. Lower floors were of higher quality while the higher ones were less so. By the beginning of the Roman Empire, the insulaes were deemed to be so dangerous because of a risk to collapse that Emperor Augustus passed a law limiting

4352-614: Was given an unprecedented term of three years to solve the problem. Pompey managed to defeat the pirates in just three months. Because most Roman territory was within the 50-mile limit around the Mediterranean, the law gave Pompey, who was then just 39, power over almost every province. In fact, this led to a dispute in 67 BC with the proconsul Quintus Caecilius Metellus Creticus , when the Cretans attempted to obtain better terms from Pompey than they were receiving from Metellus, who

4420-533: Was not free from corruption". Thus, many scholars, like Karl Otfried Müller, utilized this statement as evidence that the Etruscans or the Tyrrhenians migrated from the north and were descendants of an Alpine tribe known as the Raeti. Livy's History of Rome was in high demand from the time it was published and remained so during the early years of the empire. Pliny the Younger reported that Livy's celebrity

4488-503: Was so widespread, a man from Cádiz travelled to Rome and back for the sole purpose of meeting him. Livy's work was a source for the later works of Aurelius Victor , Cassiodorus , Eutropius , Festus , Florus , Granius Licinianus and Orosius . Julius Obsequens used Livy, or a source with access to Livy, to compose his De Prodigiis , an account of supernatural events in Rome from the consulship of Scipio and Laelius to that of Paulus Fabius and Quintus Aelius. Livy wrote during

4556-511: Was tedious to copy, expensive, and required a lot of storage space. It must have been during this period, if not before, that manuscripts began to be lost without replacement. The Renaissance was a time of intense revival; the population discovered that Livy's work was being lost and large amounts of money changed hands in the rush to collect Livian manuscripts. The poet Beccadelli sold a country home for funding to purchase one manuscript copied by Poggio . Petrarch and Pope Nicholas V launched

4624-495: Was to attend large entertainment events such as gladiator matches, military parades, religious festivals and chariot races. As time went on, politicians increased the number of games in an attempt to win over votes and make the plebeians happy. A popular dice game among plebeians was called alea . Plebeians who resided in urban areas had to often deal with job insecurity, low pay, unemployment and high prices along with underemployment. A standard workday lasted for 6 hours although

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