Search Results: Agrippina the Younger

Freeborn Roman children, ingenuiae, born of Roman citizen parents lived a life that was dictated by the level of society into which they were born; a day in the life of a child from the lower level of society and one from the more affluent...

Xenophon's Defense of Socrates (c. 371 BCE) is a passage from the Memorabilia of Xenophon (l. 430 to c. 354 BCE) in which he addresses the teachings and actions of Socrates of Athens and denounces the charges against him as unjust and unfounded...

There was no compulsory state education for children in any of the western provinces of the Roman Empire. The primary sources are sparse when it comes to the education in Roman Spain, and while some scholars argue for a network of schools...

A c. 1601 CE portrait of Elizabeth I of England (r. 1588-1603 CE). The 'Rainbow Portrait', so-called because the queen grasps a rainbow - a traditional symbol of peace - in her right hand, has been attributed to various artists: Isaac Oliver...

A c. 1592 CE portrait of Elizabeth I of England (r. 1588-1603 CE) known as the 'Ditchley Portrait' after the courtier Sir Henry Lee who commissioned it and who had estates at Ditchley near Oxford. It was painted by Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger...

The 'Peasant Wedding Dance', a painting by Pieter Brueghel the Younger, c. 1610 CE. (Louvre Museum, Paris)

Marie Antoinette (l. 1755-1793) was the queen of France during the turbulent final years of the Ancien Régime and the subsequent French Revolution (1789-1799). With the ascension of her husband Louis XVI of France (r. 1774-1792), she became...

Pompeii was a large Roman town in Campania, Italy which was buried in volcanic ash following the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 CE. Excavated in the 19th-20th century, its excellent state of preservation gives an invaluable insight into Roman...

The Roman Senate functioned as an advisory body to Rome's magistrates and was composed of the city's most experienced public servants and society's elite. Its decisions carried great weight, even if these were not always converted into laws...

The vigiles (or cohortes vigilum) were formed during the reign of Augustus to act as ancient Rome's permanent firefighting service. Evolving from earlier slave teams, the vigiles were organised as an urban military unit and eventually recruits...