The geography of the Roman Republic and the Mediterranean world it came to dominate.
The geography of the Roman Republic and the Mediterranean world it came to dominate.
Rome is the city in which Livarva’s central drama begins and returns. From huts on hills and marshland in the future Forum, it became the centre of a Mediterranean empire. Its streets, temples, assemblies, and sacred boundaries fo…
The Forum Romanum was the political heart of Rome: a place of speeches, trials, elections, funerals, business, and violence. In Livarva’s account, it becomes the visible stage on which republican dignity decays into fear.…
The Palatine was the oldest of Rome’s hills in tradition, associated with Romulus, the first settlement, and the sacred origins of the city. Later it became a place of aristocratic residence and eventually imperial power.…
Praeneste was a stronghold of Marian resistance during Sulla’s civil war. The younger Marius was trapped there and died rather than fall into Sulla’s hands.…
Numidia was the North African kingdom connected with the Jugurthine War, where Roman corruption, senatorial failure, and the rise of Marius became visible.…
Gaul was the theatre of Caesar’s greatest military achievement. Through conquest, campaigning, and command, Caesar gained the army, wealth, and auctoritas that made him indispensable and threatening.…
Alexandria was the great Hellenistic city of Egypt and the setting for Caesar’s encounter with Cleopatra. It represented the wealth, culture, dynasty, and strategic importance of the eastern Mediterranean.…
Utica is remembered above all as the place of Cato’s death. Rather than submit to Caesar after the defeat of the republican cause, Cato chose suicide.…
Leading Phoenician city of trade, seafaring and colonising energy.
Major Phoenician port and companion city to Tyre in the eastern Mediterranean.
Ancient Levantine centre of trade, timber, writing and cultural exchange.
Modern Cádiz; a western Phoenician foundation near the Atlantic gateway.
The greatest western Phoenician foundation and Rome’s decisive rival for the Mediterranean.
The ancient western gateway between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic.
Additional regions, cities and sacred or political spaces encountered throughout the Livarva Library.
Achaea was the Roman name for much of southern Greece.
Africa, especially the old Carthaginian and Numidian regions, served as a place of exile and refuge in Roman political crises.
Ancona was a harbour on the Adriatic coast of Italy.
Apulia was one of the southern regions drawn into the unrest after the Social War.
Ariminum was a strategic town on Italy’s Adriatic side, later important as a point from which commanders could move into or out of the peninsula.
Bithynia was one of the kingdoms through which Roman influence and Mithridatic ambition collided. Its rulers depended on Roman support, yet its position made it vulnerable to Pontic pressure and local resentment.
Boeotia was the Greek region of Chaeronea and Orchomenus.
Brundisium was the key crossing point between Italy and the Greek East.
Campania was one of the Italian regions in which the Social War and Sulla’s rise revealed the importance of local geography to Roman command. Its cities, roads and proximity to Rome made it a decisive theatre in the struggle between allied resistance and Roman recovery.
The Campus Martius was the open field where Romans exercised, assembled and prepared for military activity outside the old sacred boundary of the city.
The Comitium was one of Rome’s ancient political spaces near the Forum and Curia.
Delphi was one of the most sacred sanctuaries of the Greek world and a symbol of religious authority.
Ephesus was one of the great cities of Roman Asia and one of the places remembered in connection with the killings of 88 BCE. Its role in the narrative reveals how sacred space, civic resentment and Roman financial power collided during the Asiatic Vespers.
Epidaurus was a Greek sanctuary centre associated especially with Asclepius.
Epirus lay on the route between Italy and Greece and formed part of the western theatre through which Roman commanders moved toward the East.
Etruria was an important Italian region north of Rome, often drawn into the politics and military movements of the late Republic.
Greece was the theatre in which Sulla fought Mithridates while Rome fell under Cinna’s regime.
Lucania was a rugged southern region of Italy where unrest and armed bands could survive beyond easy control from Rome.
Nola became important in 88 BCE because Sulla’s army was stationed there when the political crisis over the eastern command reached its breaking point. From that camp he made the decision that led to the first march on Rome.
Olympia was one of the most prestigious sanctuaries in the Greek world.
Paphlagonia lay between Bithynia and Pontus along the Black Sea world that Mithridates sought to dominate. It was one of the regions whose instability allowed him to widen his influence before Rome fully understood the danger.
Patrae was a western Greek port used for crossing to Italy.
Pergamum was central to the creation of Rome’s province of Asia. Its royal bequest to Rome in 133 BCE turned a Hellenistic kingdom into one of the Republic’s richest possessions and helped create the conditions that later produced provincial resentment.
Picenum was the Italian region from which Pompeius Strabo and later Pompey drew soldiers and influence.
Thessaly was famous in antiquity for its horsemen.
The Tullianum was the dark prison below the Capitoline where defeated enemies of Rome could be confined and executed after triumphal display. In the story of Jugurtha it marks the brutal end of a king whose war had exposed the Republic’s weakness.