R

ratis - (Latin noun) a vessel or boat made of logs fastened together like a raft.

Re - Re was ancinet Egyptian god of the sun and was associated with Horus, the god of the sky; Re was known as the creator of men by some and became the state deity during the Fifth Dynasty; an ancient god, Re was the father of Shu and Tefnut, the grandfather of Geb and Nut, the great-grandfather of Seth, Nephthys, Isis, and Osiris.

Ancient Egyptian Gods - Re

recito - (Latin) to read something aloud, to recite.

recordatio - (Latin) remembrance; Cicero often mentions in his letters to his friends different recordationes

recordor - (Latin) to remember, to think over.

relaxatio - (Latin) relaxation.

reminiscor - (Latin) to remember.

Remus - son of Mars and Rhea Silvia, twin brother of Romulus, exposed at birth in a basket floated on the Tiber River and washed a shore under a fig tree; the twins were suckled by a she-wolf.

remus - (Latin) oar; while the most popular ship was a trireme (with three sets of oars), there were also biremis (ships with two sets of oars), quadremis (four sets of oars) and quinqueremis (five sets of oars).

repotia - (Latin) essentially a party that follows the original entertainment.

reproba - (Latin) false.

responsa - (Latin) a significant development in the Roman justice system introduced by Augustus and his successors; a responsa was an opinion on a legal case heard in court by eminent jurists; jurists earned fame based on their responsa; famous jurists include Papinian, Julius Paulus, and Ulpian, all of whom held the position of praefectus praetoria, minister of justice of the Roman Empire.

reverse - the side of a coin on which the minor design appears; the tails side.

rex - (Latin) king; the term rex is tied to the Latin verb rego, to rule.

rhabdos - a stick used by ancient Greek athletic trainers to maintain discipline.

• The Ancient Olympics

Rhea Silvia - a woman from Roman legend; mother of Romulus and Remus; she was raped by Mars and became pregnant with twins; the twins were taken from her when they were newly born and left exposed because the children of Rhea Silvia were predicated to overthrow their grandfather.

rhetor - (Latin) teacher of rhetoric.

rhetoric - the effective use of language; the art of persuasion.

rhyton - a drinking cup shaped like an animal horn (image).

rogo - (Latin) to ask for

Romanization - a process through which areas conquered by or added to the Roman Empire became more like Rome and through which Rome spread its influence; this process took place in many different ways, such as through the adoption of legal and administrative processes, the spread of the Latin language, the erection of Roman-style buildings and monuments and the spread of Roman religion; Romanization did not require that newly added regions take on only Roman characteristics; the Roman Empire incorporated parts of others' cultures also, but Romanization is the process by which other cultures became "Roman".

Romulus - son of Mars and Rhea Silvia, twin brother of Remus and founder of Rome.

roseus - (Latin) rosy/pink; this word was often used to describe the color of dawn, and Lucretius used it in this way in his De Rerum Natura.

rostrum - (Latin) literally a beak; through metonymy, the rostrum takes on the meaning of the prow of the ship.

rubor - (Latin) redness.

Rumina - Roman goddess of nursing mothers.

Rural Dionysia - a smaller celebration of the City Dionysia that is held in various cities throughout the countryside; like in the City Dionysia, there were competitions of comedies, tragedies and poetry; the Acharnians by Aristophanes refers to the Rural Dionysia. 

rus - (Latin) the countryside

rusticus - (Latin) peasant/farmer; the rusticus was a man who lived in the countryside, the rus.

ruta - (Latin) the herb rue; comes to mean bitterness or unpleasantness.