Places

The geography of the Roman Republic and the Mediterranean world it came to dominate.

Places

The geography of the Roman Republic and the Mediterranean world it came to dominate.

Places

Rome

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…

Forum Romanum

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.…

Palatine Hill

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

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

Numidia was the North African kingdom connected with the Jugurthine War, where Roman corruption, senatorial failure, and the rise of Marius became visible.…

Gaul

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

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

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.…