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would achieve greatness, but first had to face an Aper (a boar). Aper was dragged before him and
declared guilty of murder. Diocletian ran him through with a sword on the spot.
¤ APICATA (d. 31 A.D.) Wife of SEJANUS, the prefect of the PRAETORIAN GUARD in the region
of Tiberius. She had borne her husband three children when he divorced her as part of his scheme to gain
the throne. Apicata apparently knew much of the plot, for she later revealed considerable details about it.
In 31 A.D. her ex-husband fell from power. According to the historian Dio, she was not condemned.
Upon hearing of the deaths of her children, however, she retired to her own rooms, composed a letter
incriminating LIVILLA in the plot and in the murder of Tiberius' son Drusus, and then killed herself.
¤ APICIUS The name bestowed upon gluttons, based upon Marcus Gavius Apicius, author of a lost
cookbook in the early 1st century A.D. The only extant cookbook, De Re Coquinaria, is the work of
Apicius Caelius (3rd century A.D.). See also GLUTTONY; VITELLIUS.
¤ APIS The sacred bull of Egypt, worshipped with the bulls Mnevis of Heliopolis and Buchis of
Hermonthis. Apis, whose cult was centered in Memphis, possessed oracular powers and had been
honored for centuries on the Nile, remaining a source of interest in the Roman period. It was said that
Germanicus, the adopted son of Tiberius, visited Egypt in 19 A.D. The Bull of Apis refused to eat from his
hand, an omen that his death was imminent, which was in fact the case. Many characteristics of the Apis
rituals were used in the Roman cult of Mithras. See also RELIGION.
¤ APOLLINARIS OF LAODICEA (fl. 4th century A.D.) Christian scriptural writer. In 361 A.D.,
Emperor Julian ordered all Christian teachers to cease teaching pagan doctrines and to center their
instruction on the gospels of Matthew and Luke and other Christian writers. Apollinaris and his father,
also named Apollinaris, one a grammarian and the other a master of rhetoric, rewrote the Christian
scriptures into a classical style. The Old Testament was converted into a 24-book epic in the Homeric style
by the father. Apollinaris the Younger rewrote the New Testament in Platonic-style dialogues and became
bishop of Laodicea, in Syria. See also CHRISTIANITY.
¤ APOLLO Greek god who was in time accepted by the Romans. When the Greeks were establishing their
colonies in Italy, they dedicated their first settlement, at Cumae, to Apollo. The Italians believed in Apollo
as a god of healing and medicine, but he was not given admission into the dry of Rome itself because he
was a foreign deity. Apollo was, however, a dominant figure in many periods. Although his name was
never Latinized, his title of God of the Sun was forgotten. As the god of medicine he could be honored, a
custom preserved by the Romans.