Harry Sidebottom - Blood and Steel

Triumvirate : ‘Three men’; term made notorious by two pacts to share control of the Roman government between three leading citizens that precipitated the end of the Roman Republic and ushered in the Principate.

Tullianum : Ancient prison just off the northwestern corner of the Forum Romanum ; prisoners were either strangled on site or housed for a short time before execution elsewhere; the Romans did not use imprisonment per se as a punishment.

Tutor : Guardian legally necessary for a child, imbecile or woman.

Umbro : Ancient name of the river Ombrone in northwestern Italy.

Urban Cohorts : Military unit stationed in major cities to act as a police force; at Rome, they were commanded by the Prefect of the City, and acted as a counterbalance to the Praetorian Guard.

Urbs Victrix : ‘The victorious city’; modern Huesca in northeastern Spain.

Utica : Coastal town of Africa Proconsularis northwest of Carthage.

Uxorius : Poem concerned with happiness in marriage alleged to have been written by Gordian the Elder; only the title survives.

Venus Cloacina : Venus the purifier; patron goddess of the Roman sewers; her circular shrine stood in front of the Basilica Aemilia in the Forum Romanum .

Venus : Roman goddess of love.

Verona : Important Roman town in northern Italy; its ancient name remains unchanged.

Via Annia : Road running along the northeastern coast of Italy.

Via Aurelia : Road running along the Italian coast northwest of Rome.

Via Decumana : Ancient name given to the road leading to the centre of a Roman army camp from the rear gate.

Via Flaminia : Road leading north from Rome, crossing the Apennines, and terminating on the Adriatic coast.

Via Gemina : Ancient road linking Aquileia and Emona.

Via Labicana : Road leading southeast from the centre of Rome.

Via Postumia : Road running north — south across the Apennines, linking Rome with the Po valley and northern Italy.

Via Praenestina : Road running east out of the centre of Rome.

Via Principalis : Ancient name for the road leading from the front gate to the centre of a Roman army camp.

Victoria : Roman goddess of victory.

Vicus Sandaliarius : Street of the sandal-makers in Rome.

Vigiles : Paramilitary unit stationed at Rome for police and firefighting duties.

Villa of Sextus : Country seat used by the governors of Africa Proconsularis , situated outside Carthage.

Villa Praenestina : Lavish country residence of the Gordiani, situated on the Via Praenestina three miles outside the city of Rome.

Villa Publica : Monumental complex in the Campus Martius at Rome.

Viminacium : Provincial capital of Upper Moesia; modern Kostolac in eastern Serbia.

Virtus Exercituum : Roughly ‘Virtue of the Armies’; see also Virtus .

Virtus : Latin, ‘courage’, ‘manliness’, and/or ‘virtue’; far stronger and with a more active sense than English ‘virtue’.

Virunum : Roman town in Noricum ; modern Maria Saal in southern Austria.

Voleterrae : Ancient name for Volterra, a town northwest of Rome.

XXviri ex Senatus Consulta Rei Publicae Curandae : Twenty men from the decree of the Senate (selected) for the care of the State.

Zakynthos : Or Zante, an island off the western coast of Greece.

Zerebas : Stockades of thorn bushes built by African tribesmen.

Zeus : Greek king of the gods.