The “Libation Bearers,” the second of Aeschylus’s plays, is named after a “libation,” which is a mixed drink of wine, water, and honey and was used as a religious practice. This play is the center tragedy from the Orestes trilogy of Aeschylus and its title references the libation Electra offered at the tomb of her father Agamemnon. 

The god Apollo told Orestes that if he did not avenge his father’s murder, he would suffer judgment from the gods. The chorus, wanting to retaliate differently than Orestes, requests justice and invokes the underground gods to administer it. Orestes and his sister Electra call on them too, but their father did not have the proper rites, so he was not in favor with the gods. Consequently, Orestes tries to use deception to get revenge for his father’s death. 

To distract his mother Clytemnestra, Orestes pretends to be a stranger and tells Clytemnestra that he is dead. After distracting his mother, Orestes murders Aegisthus, who assisted in the murder of Agamemnon. Orestes had earlier sworn an oath to Apollo, saying that he would kill his mother to try to get the gods’ favor, but only Apollo agreed to help him. Because Orestes was lying, his mother warns him of the furies, who are goddesses of vengeance. To counter her, Orestes warns his mother of his father’s furies, who protect Agamemnon in the afterlife. 

Because he had sworn to murder Clytemnestra earlier, Apollo forces Orestes to murder her. The furies send hounds to get Orestes since he slayed his mother, but he saw them coming and got away. Orestes does not get mercy from the furies or the chorus, and although his father’s killers are dead, his death is not avenged. Orestes also does not get justice because he tried to use justice as vengeance. 

“Agamemnon” is the first of three plays that was performed in 458 BC. One of its characters, Tantalus, was an inhabitant of Tartarus, the deepest portion of the underworld where Odyesseus saw him. Tantalus was banished there because of his heinous crimes, such as sacrificing his son to a god and cannibalizing people.

Another figure from the play, Pelops, was venerated at Olympia, where his cult developed into the founding myth of the Olympic games. Pelops entered a chariot race against Oenomaus to try to get his daughter’s hand in marriage. With the help of the god Poseidon, Pelops defeated Oenomaus and his helper Myrtilus, with both dying in the race. Uttering his last breath, Myrtilus cursed Pelops’s family, causing three of Pelops’s sons to perish.

Agamemnon was Pelops’s grandson and the son of Atreus. Agamemnon had to placate the god Artemis, so he curried favor through human sacrifice. This angered the other gods, who placed negative sanctions on Agamemnon for his crime. 

Explaining the moral of the play, the author Aeschylus says that there is no security for the rich, and that profane people will ignore the god’s standards and be punished. The chorus warned Agamemnon and pronounced that a good man will discern his true character. Agamemnon then blamed everyone but Odyesseus for his trouble and bragged that he would destroy Troy. Agamemnon’s wife also tricked and tempted him, eventually killing him. 

The gods will be the end of the Greeks, Aeschylus stated, and that the god Apollo is a vengeful god and a seducer. The chorus proclaimed that wealth will only satisfy you temporarily and called on fate to bring Agamemnon’s son Orestes back. Even though they were sometimes influenced by each other, all of the gods were sovereign. The leader of the gods was Zeus, whose subordinates were Artemis and Apollo. Eventually fighting Troy, the Greek fleet was utterly destroyed in the battle. However, they also conquered Troy. As a result of their horrible crimes, the Greeks received negative sanctions from the gods.

In 76 BC, Pompey (106-48 BC), who had served under Sulla, sought a command in Spain against Sertorius, but the Senate refused. So Pompey disobeyed the Senate’s orders to disband his legions until he got control in Spain. Eventually, Pompey won a victory in Spain in 71 BC, and cleared the Mediterranean of pirates in 66 BC. For this, he was rewarded with a campaign against Mithridates. Crassus (155-53 BC), who was the richest man in Rome, and suppressed Spartacus’s slave revolt, joined Pompey as one of two consuls in 70 BC. 

Julius Caesar (100-44 BC) served as quaestor in Spain and threw support to Pompey in 67 BC. The consuls elected in 65 BC were condemned for electoral bribery after Catiline, who had served under Sulla, tried to start an uprising against the consuls after he lost an election. Caesar was rewarded with a command in Gaul after helping defeat Catiline. Pompey married Caesar’s daughter and in return Pompey’s soldiers were given a land grant. 

Backed by the Senate, Pompey later had Crassus killed while Caesar was in Gaul, and started a civil war against his former ally Caesar. Caesar won the conflict, declared himself dictator for life in 48 BC, and filled the Senate with his supporters. Although most Senators were loyal, the old Senate members still resented him and in 44 BC Julius Caesar was assassinated.

After Julius Caesar’s reign, Marc Antony was one of the only surviving associates of Caesar, and declared that Caesar’s decrees would be respected. Antony got much of Caesar’s wealth, and the Senate, which was warned by Cicero, was concerned about Antony’s power. Octavian was given the task of defeating Antony. He was successful and marched on Rome to declare himself consul. In 43 BC, Octavian declared himself “Caesar Augustus”. 

In 43 BC, the traditional process of lawmaking was disbanded, and the empire was divided up into three sections, each controlled by Augustus, Antony, and Lepidus. Augustus also killed members of the Senate who had conspired against Julius Caesar. Antony then married Cleopatra, the Queen of Egypt, and tried to move the capital of the empire to Alexandria, an act which caused Augustus and Lepidus to worry about him trying to take over the empire. At the Battle of Actium in 31 BC, Augustus defeated Antony and Cleopatra, who fled to Egypt and both commitied suicide. 

By 29 BC Caesar Augustus was back in Rome and spent the wealth he got from Egypt on Roman building plans. In 27 BC he told the Senate that Rome was safe and tried to give up his power. However, the Senate instead made him consul and gave him the power to override governors and exercise vetos. Caesar Augustus implemented many new reforms such as encouraging marriage, discouraging childlessness, and making marriage mandatory for men and women of a certain age. He also installed new shrines to the gods to make people more religious. 

During the first century BC, known as the Golden Age of Latin Literature, many of the greatest Roman writers composed their work. Horace (65-8 BC) was a playwright who wrote mostly satire. His most famous work was Odes, a short lyrical poem that was a great success. Virgil (born 70 BC) created two books about country life and how to have a well-maintained farm. Virgil is best known for the Aeneid, which was about the legend of Aeneas and the Trojan War. Livy (born 59 BC) wrote the entire history of Rome over 142 books. Ovid (43 BC-17 AD) wrote romantic novels and was banished to Romania by Caesar Augustus because of his writings. 

At the same time Rome’s greatest writers were doing their work, Rome changed from a republic into a dictatorship ruled by Caesars and continued to conquer land until their peak in 117 AD.