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Greece and Rome

Greek tyrants, philosophers and Athenian lawsuits, Roman emperors' wills, legacy hunters and confiscations, from 600 BC to the fall of the Western empire.

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What do the greece and rome estate cases show?

A will can transfer a political base as well as money; the adoption clause was worth more to Octavian than the cash. Each condition in a Roman will was met by a matching legal move, and the money ended where the testators did not intend.

Stories
44
Years
1250 BCE to 439
Main regions
Europe, Middle East, Africa
Legal traditions
Roman law, Royal and church law
Updated
30 October 2026

Every case in greece and rome, best-known first

Best-known first: cases from 1900 on, then the United States, then Europe, and the people most read about on English Wikipedia each month. Fiction, scripture and legend come last.

Julius Caesar: Retrato de Julio César (26724093101) (cropped)44 BCE · Curia of Pompey, RomeJulius Caesar's will, opened after his murder, made Octavian his son and gave every Roman 300 sestercesCaesar was stabbed 23 times in the Curia of Pompey. The physician Antistius judged that only one wound, the second, in the breast, was fatal.University of Chicago, LacusCurtius and 3 moreMarcus Aurelius: Portrait of Emperor Marcus Aurelius (type III). Roman artwork of the Antonine period. Discovered at Acqua Traversa, near Rome, 1674.108 · Rome, ItalyAn orator ruined two brothers' father, made them his heirs, and the fortune passed down a chain of adoptions to Marcus Aurelius's motherPliny the Younger tells the story. The orator Domitius Afer helped have the estate of Sextus Curvius Tullus of Gallia Narbonensis confiscated.Project Gutenberg and 3 moreVirgil: Virgil mosaic in the Bardo National Museum (Tunis) (12241228546)19 BCE · Brundisium (Brindisi)Virgil asked for the Aeneid to be burned, and Augustus ordered it publishedVirgil met Augustus in Athens in 19 BC, fell ill with a fever near Megara, sailed back to Italy and died at Brundisium. The ancient Life of Virgil by Donatus gives the date and the money.livingpoets.awh.durham.ac.uk and 1 moreAureus Didius Iulianus: Didius Julianus, 193, Aureus, Rome, AV 7.25 g. IMP CAES M DID – IVLIAN AVG Laureate head r. Rev. RECTOR – ORBIS Julianus standing l., holding globe and roll193 · Rome, ItalyThe Praetorian Guard sold the Roman Empire to Didius Julianus for 25,000 sesterces a soldier, and he lasted 66 daysThe emperor Pertinax had divided his own property among his children and placed them with their grandfather rather than raise them in the palace. On 28 March 193 the Praetorian Guard murdered him.University of Chicago, LacusCurtius and 2 morePetronius Arbiter: (Téléversé avec Commonist) Nouvelle version plus claire.66 · Cumae, Campania, ItalyPetronius's will listed Nero's sex partners by name, and Pliny says he smashed a 300,000-sesterce basin to keep it from NeroPetronius had governed Bithynia and served as consul. At Nero's court he became the emperor's "arbiter" of taste. Tacitus says the guard prefect Tigellinus was jealous of him.Wikisource (primary text) and 2 moreBoudica statue, Westminster (8433726848): Boudica statue, Westminster60 · Territory of the Iceni (Norfolk), EnglandKing Prasutagus left half his kingdom to Nero to protect his daughters, and Tacitus says Roman officers flogged his widow Boudica and raped his daughtersPrasutagus, king of the Iceni in eastern Britain, ruled as an ally of Rome. Tacitus says he named the emperor Nero co-heir with his two daughters, expecting that this would keep his kingdom and household safe.Wikisource (primary text) and 2 moreOdysseus slays the suitors of his wife Penelope (Skyphos pot): Scanned B&W Images. Both vessels are fully scanned and include an Attic red-figure skyphos ca. 440 BCE from TarquLegend · 1180 BCE · Ithaca, GreeceThe Odyssey says 108 suitors ate through Odysseus's estate while he was away, and planned to kill his son and divide his propertyThe Odyssey, composed around the 8th or 7th century BC and attributed to Homer, tells what happened to a king's property when he did not come home. Odysseus spent ten years at Troy and about ten more getting back.Project Gutenberg and 2 moreHerodes Atticus: Herodes Atticus - bust - Athens Museum177 · Marathon and Athens, GreeceHerodes Atticus paid out his father's legacy to Athens by deducting debts, gave his son only his mother's property, and the Athenians took his body from MarathonPhilostratus says Herodes's grandfather Hipparchus lost his estate on a charge of aiming at tyranny. Herodes's father Atticus found a great hoard in a house he owned near the theatre in Athens.Internet Archive and 2 moreAI illustration: Ptolemy's cavalry turn Alexander the Great's funeral carriage toward Egypt, 321 BC323 BCE · BabylonAlexander the Great left his empire "to the strongest", and his general Ptolemy hijacked his bodyAlexander died in Babylon aged 32, on 10 or 11 June 323 BC by a Babylonian astronomical diary. He ruled from Greece to India and left no adult heir. Arrian records that his Companions asked who would get the kingdom.Wikisource (primary text) and 3 moreMelania the Younger: Melania the Younger, nun of Rome (Menologion of Basil II)439 · Rome, Italy; JerusalemMelania the Younger sold estates across the Roman West and freed 8,000 slaves, and a later account says opponents tried to have her estates seizedMelania was born at Rome about 383. The Catholic Encyclopedia says she married her relative Pinianus at 13 out of obedience to her parents, and that their two children died young.tertullian.org and 2 moreSeptimius Severus: Septimius Severus busto-Musei Capitolini211 · Eboracum (York), England; Palatine, Rome, ItalySeverus left Rome to two sons, their mother stopped them dividing the empire, and Caracalla had his brother killed in her armsThe emperor Septimius Severus died in Britain on 4 February 211. Cassius Dio says his illness carried him off "not without some help, they say," from his elder son Antoninus, known as Caracalla.University of Chicago, LacusCurtius and 2 moreAureus Didius Iulianus: Didius Julianus, 193, Aureus, Rome, AV 7.25 g. IMP CAES M DID – IVLIAN AVG Laureate head r. Rev. RECTOR – ORBIS Julianus standing l., holding globe and roll193 · Praetorian camp, Rome, ItalyThe praetorian guard killed the emperor Pertinax and sold the empire to the highest bidder for 25,000 sesterces a soldierIn AD 193 the praetorian guard killed the emperor Pertinax. Herodian says the guards then announced from their camp walls that the empire was for sale.University of Chicago, LacusCurtius and 2 more2017-08-03 August 2017 in Athens 51: August 2017 in Athens177 · Athens and Marathon, GreeceA father found a treasure in his Athens house and willed every citizen a mina a year; his son paid it by collecting their grandfathers' debtsPhilostratus writes that the emperor confiscated the estate of Hipparchus, grandfather of Herodes Atticus, on a charge of aiming at tyranny. His son Atticus was left poor.Internet Archive and 2 moreHadrian: München SMAEK 2019-03-23n136 · Rome, ItalyHadrian forced his 90-year-old brother-in-law and the man's 18-year-old grandson to die, and the old man prayed Hadrian would long for death and not be able to dieThe emperor Hadrian had no son. Lucius Julius Ursus Servianus had married Hadrian's elder sister Domitia Paulina. Their grandson, Pedanius Fuscus, was Hadrian's closest male relative.University of Chicago, LacusCurtius and 2 morePliny the Younger: 'Pliny the Younger and His Mother at Miseno'104 · Rome, ItalyPliny says an 80-year-old father disinherited his daughter 11 days after remarrying, and 180 judges in four panels split two against twoPliny the Younger, a Roman senator and advocate, wrote to his friend Romanus about an inheritance case he argued. His client was Attia Viriola, a woman of high birth married to a man of praetorian rank. Her father was over 80.attalus.org and 2 moreGalba: Gold Aureus of Galba (MANTIS)69 · Rome, ItalyA senator was accused of biting the severed head of Galba's heir, and years later he swore on his son's life to get into the heir's widow's willIn AD 69 the emperor Galba adopted Piso Licinianus as his heir. Both were murdered.University of Chicago, LacusCurtius and 1 moreClaudius: Claudius crop54 · Palatine, Rome, ItalyClaudius's will was never read in public, and Nero poisoned Claudius's son Britannicus four months after taking the throneThe emperor Claudius had a son, Britannicus, born on the 22nd day of his reign. He later married Agrippina and adopted her son Nero. Suetonius says that late in life Claudius regretted the marriage and the adoption.University of Chicago, LacusCurtius and 2 morePliny the Younger: 'Pliny the Younger and His Mother at Miseno'54 · Rome, Italy; Africa Proconsularis (Tunisia)Pliny says six men owned half of Roman Africa when Nero had them killed, and Suetonius says Nero seized the estates of anyone whose will left him too littlePliny the Elder wrote that great estates had ruined Italy. He added that six proprietors held half of the province of Africa when Nero had them put to death. Suetonius lists Nero's methods for raising money.perseus.tufts.edu and 3 moreLivia: (Toulouse) Livie Musée Saint-Raymond Ra 34029 · Rome, ItalyLivia left Galba 50 million sesterces in figures, and her son Tiberius read it as 500,000 and paid nothingLivia, widow of Augustus and mother of the emperor Tiberius, left legacies to many people.University of Chicago, LacusCurtius and 3 moreSuetonius: Suetonius etching (cropped)25 · Rome, ItalySuetonius says Tiberius frightened a man worth 400 million sesterces into suicide to inherit, and Caligula sent poisoned sweets to men who named him heirSeneca says Gnaeus Lentulus the Augur was thought to be worth 400 million sesterces, owed his rise to Augustus, and was as barren in intellect as in spirit.Project Gutenberg and 5 moreAugustus: Augustus of Prima Porta14 · Nola, Campania, ItalyAugustus's will, read to the Senate by the Vestal Virgins, barred his daughter and granddaughter from his tombAugustus died at Nola on 19 August AD 14. About 16 months earlier he had written his will in two notebooks. The Vestal Virgins, who held it, brought it to the Senate with three sealed rolls.University of Chicago, LacusCurtius and 2 moreMap of Italy, marked on the globe30 BCE · Croton (Crotone), Italy (setting of the Satyricon episode)Horace's Tiresias tells Ulysses to court rich old men's wills, and Petronius's Eumolpus wills his body to be eaten by his heirsThese are works of fiction. In Horace's fifth satire of Book II, Ulysses, back in Ithaca poor, asks the prophet Tiresias how to rebuild his fortune.Project Gutenberg and 2 moreHortensia (orator): Woodcut illustration of Hortensia pleading her case before the triumvirs - Penn Provenance Project43 BCE · Rome, ItalyRome's triumvirs ordered the 1,400 richest women to value their property for a war tax, and Hortensia's speech cut the list to 400After Caesar's murder, Antony, Octavian and Lepidus ruled Rome as triumvirs and needed money for war.University of Chicago, LacusCurtius and 2 moreBust of Cicero (1st-cent. BC) - Palazzo Nuovo - Musei Capitolini - Rome 2016: Palazzo Nuovo - Capitoline Museums - Rome43 BCE · near Formiae (Formia), ItalyOctavian traded Cicero to Antony for the proscription list, and Antony's wife pierced the dead orator's tongue with her hairpinsCicero was Rome's most famous orator. He backed the young Octavian for the consulship. Octavian then joined Antony and Lepidus, and the three drew up a list of men to be killed and their property taken.University of Chicago, LacusCurtius and 2 moreCicero: Bust of Cicero (1st-cent. BC) - Palazzo Nuovo - Musei Capitolini - Rome 201643 BCE · Palatine, Rome, ItalyClodius burned Cicero's house and built a shrine to Liberty on the site, and Cicero's son was consul the year Antony's statues came downIn 58 BC the tribune Publius Clodius drove Cicero into exile. Plutarch says Clodius burned Cicero's villas and his house and built a temple of Liberty on the house site.University of Chicago, LacusCurtius and 2 moreDenarius Sextus Pompeius-Scilla: Sextus Pompeius. 42-40 BC. AR Denarius (3.50 gm). MAG PIVS IMP ITER, galley adorned with aquila, sceptre and trident before the Colonna Rhegina, de48 BCE · Misenum (Miseno), ItalyPompey's son held the sea, feasted Antony aboard his flagship, called it the only family house Antony had left him, and refused to cut the cablesAfter Pompey the Great's death his house in Rome was sold. Plutarch says Mark Antony bought it and was angry when asked to pay.University of Chicago, LacusCurtius and 2 moreLaudatio Turiae col2 Terme: So-called “Laudatio Turiæ”, col.2 (2.2a to 2.11a). Latin inscription: “[varia et ampla subsi]dia fugae meae praestitisti ornamentis / [me instruxisti] c49 BCE · Rome, ItalyA Roman husband's funeral inscription says relatives tried to void his wife's father's will after her parents were murdered, and she stopped themThe Laudatio Turiae is a long funeral eulogy carved in stone by a Roman husband for his wife, dated about 8 to 2 BC. Neither is named in the surviving text. It is catalogued as CIL VI 1527.droitromain.univ-grenoble-alpes.fr and 2 moreCato Volubilis bronze bust: Bronze bust of Cato the Younger from the Archaeological Museum of Rabat, Morocco. Found in the House of Venus, Volubilis.50 BCE · Rome, ItalyCato gave his pregnant wife Marcia to the orator Hortensius, and took her back as Hortensius's rich widowQuintus Hortensius, the leading orator of Rome, first asked Cato the Younger for his daughter Porcia, who was married to Bibulus. Cato refused. Hortensius then asked for Cato's own wife, Marcia.University of Chicago, LacusCurtius and 2 moreEpicurus: Epikouros BM 1843270 BCE · Athens, GreeceEpicurus willed his Garden to his school for ever, and two centuries later a Roman exile owned the ruins of his house and planned to pull it downEpicurus died at Athens in 271 or 270 BC, aged 72, after a fortnight's illness from kidney stones. Hermippus says he sat in a warm bronze bath, drank unmixed wine and told his friends to remember his teachings.Wikisource (primary text) and 2 moreMap of Greece, marked on the globe287 BCE · Athens, GreeceTheophrastus left the Lyceum garden to ten men in common, Athens briefly banned unlicensed schools on pain of death, and Sulla's army wrecked the siteTheophrastus succeeded Aristotle at the Lyceum and lectured to about 2,000 pupils. After Aristotle's death he obtained a garden of his own through his friend Demetrius of Phalerum, governor of Athens.Wikisource (primary text) and 3 moreFrench: Les Restes de Phocion title QS:P1476,fr:"Les Restes de Phocion "label QS:Lfr,"Les Restes de Phocion ": Esquisse de Charles Meynier pour le tableau "Les Cendres de Phocion" 318 BCE · Athens, Greece; burned beyond Eleusis near Megara, GreeceAthens executed Phocion at about 80, banned his burial in Attica, and Plutarch says his wife buried his bones under her hearthPhocion was an Athenian general in his eighties when the restored democracy condemned him. Nepos says he was sentenced to death without being allowed to plead.University of Chicago, LacusCurtius and 2 moreAlexander Pope: Alexander Pope title QS:P1476,en:"Alexander Pope "label QS:Len,"Alexander Pope "335 BCE · Thebes (Thiva), GreeceAlexander razed Thebes and sold its people into slavery, but spared the house and descendants of the poet PindarPindar was a lyric poet of Thebes. In 335 BC Thebes revolted against Alexander. Alexander stormed the city. Plutarch says more than 6,000 Thebans were killed and more than 30,000 sold as slaves.livingpoets.awh.durham.ac.uk and 2 morePlato: Plato Silanion Musei Capitolini MC1377347 BCE · Athens, GreecePlato's will left two farms and three minae to a boy, the Academy went to his nephew, and the nephew was carried to class paralysed until he took his own lifePlato died in 347 BC and was buried in the Academy. Diogenes Laertius preserves his will. He left an estate at Iphistiadae, which "may not be sold or alienated," to the boy Adeimantus, and a second estate at Eiresidae.Wikisource (primary text) and 3 moreMap of Greece, marked on the globe370 BCE · Athens and Piraeus, GreeceThe freed-slave banker Pasion willed his widow and his bank to his own freed slave Phormio; his son Apollodorus sued and was finedPasion had been the slave of Archestratus and became a banker. A speech written for his successor says Pasion held about twenty talents in real property and more than fifty talents lent at interest.perseus.tufts.edu and 5 moreDemosthenes: Demostheneslabel QS:Lfr,"Démosthène"label QS:Len,"Demosthenes"376 BCE · Athens, GreeceDemosthenes's guardians handed back the house, 14 slaves and 30 minae of a 14-talent estate, and he sued them at 20The orator Demosthenes was seven when his father died. Plutarch says the father was called the Cutler because he owned a large workshop of skilled slaves.University of Chicago, LacusCurtius and 3 morePiraeus: Piraeus állomás376 BCE · Athens and Piraeus, GreeceA 96-year-old Athenian moved into his brothel, tried to make a former prostitute's son his heir, and lay dead for two days while his house was emptiedThe source is a speech written for one side of an Athenian lawsuit. Euctemon lived to 96 and was rich enough for his family to pay for costly public offices.perseus.tufts.edu and 3 moreSophocles: Sophocles pushkin406 BCE · Athens, GreeceCicero says Sophocles' son sued to take his estate on the ground that he was senile, and Sophocles read his new play to the courtSophocles kept writing tragedies into his nineties. Cicero says his sons took him to court and asked the judges to remove his control of the family property because he was neglecting it through dementia.livingpoets.awh.durham.ac.uk and 3 moreCHURCH(1893) p115 THEMISTOCLES: CHURCH(1893) p115 THEMISTOCLES459 BCE · Magnesia on the Maeander, Turkey; Attica, GreeceAthens condemned Themistocles for treason, Persia gave him three cities, and his relatives buried his bones in Attica in secretThemistocles led the Athenian fleet at Salamis. He was later ostracised, and Athens turned the ostracism into a death sentence for treason when Sparta accused him of dealing with Persia. He fled and settled in the Persian empire.Project Gutenberg and 2 morePythagoras: Pythagoras in the Roman Forumlabel QS:Len,"Pythagoras in the Roman Forum"label QS:Lhu,"Püthagorasz a római Fórumon"490 BCE · Croton and Metapontum, ItalyPythagoras's daughter Damo would not sell his writings for any price, and Plato is said to have paid 100 minae for Pythagorean booksPythagoras lived from about 570 to about 490 BC. Timaeus says his followers put all their possessions into one common stock.Wikisource (primary text) and 2 moreApuleius: Ancient philosopher (probably Apuleius or Lactantius) on late antique ceiling painting from Trier158 · Oea (Tripoli) and Sabratha, LibyaApuleius married a rich widow, her family charged him with winning her by magic, and he read her will aloud in court to show her son was the heirPudentilla of Oea was a widow worth 4,000,000 sesterces, owing part of it to her sons Pontianus and Pudens. Pontianus had studied with Apuleius at Athens and urged him to marry his mother. He did. Pontianus died.Project Gutenberg and 2 moreNicomedes IV of Bithynia: Bithynia - king Nikomedes IV - 94-74 BC - silver tetradrachm - head of Nikomedes IV - Zeus - München SMS 0174 BCE · Nicomedia (İzmit), TurkeyNicomedes IV left Bithynia to Rome, Mithridates said the queen had borne him a son, and Mithridates invadedNicomedes IV, king of Bithynia, was driven out by his brother, backed by Mithridates of Pontus, and restored by Roman envoys led by Manius Aquillius. Appian says the envoys then pressed him to raid Mithridates's land.University of Chicago, LacusCurtius and 4 moreNumitor, after the Death of Amulius, is Restored to the Throne of Alba, pl.6 from the series The Story of Romulus and Re: Numitor, after the Death of Amulius, is Restored to the ThLegend · 753 BCE · Alba Longa (Alban Hills, near Rome), ItalyLivy says Amulius broke his father's will, took the throne of Alba Longa, and made his niece a Vestal virgin so his brother would have no heirsThe Roman historian Livy opens his history with the legend of Rome's founding. He says King Proca of Alba Longa left "the ancient throne of the Silvian house" to his elder son, Numitor. His younger son Amulius did not accept it.perseus.tufts.edu and 3 moreAntigone Gives Token Burial to the Body of Her Brother Polyniceslabel QS:Len,"Antigone Gives Token Burial to the Body of: Drawing; DrawingsLegend · 1250 BCE · Thebes (Thiva), GreeceThe plays say Oedipus's sons agreed to rule Thebes in alternate years, then killed each other, and the new king forbade burial of one of themThe tradition says that after Oedipus left Thebes, his sons Eteocles and Polynices divided the kingdom by time. The mythographer Apollodorus records that they agreed "that each should rule alternately" for a year.classics.mit.edu and 2 moreThemis Aigeus Antikensammlung Berlin F2538: Themis and Aegeus. Attic red-figure kylix, 440–430 BC. From Vulci.Legend · 1250 BCE · Athens, GreeceTheseus forgot to change his black sail, his father Aegeus threw himself down from the Acropolis, and Theseus became king of AthensGreek tradition, as Plutarch tells it, says King Aegeus of Athens had no recognised son, and his brother Pallas's fifty sons expected the throne.University of Chicago, LacusCurtius and 3 more