Τμήμα Φιλολογίας

The course is offered to Erasmus students as well as to students attending courses at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA) through other student exchange programmes.

The Age of Augustus witnessed radical change in Rome’s political institutions and created some of the most important products of Roman culture: including Virgil’s Aeneid, Ovid’s Metamorphoses, the Forum Augustum, and the Ara Pacis. Augustus’ accomplishments paved the way for Rome’s continued expansion and influenced governance of the Empire well into the 6th century CE. The complexity of the Augustan Age (28 BCE – 14 CE) and its various manifestations in politics, literature, art and architecture will be examined in the course of this semester. No previous knowledge of Roman history, literature or culture is necessary.

Instructor: Professor Sophia Papaioannou  (spapaioan@phil.uoa.gr)

Student Learning Outcomes:

Students succeeding in this course will be expected to:

• Develop familiarity with major works of Roman literature from ca. 100 BCE until 14 CE and be able to argue how they are connected to events, individuals, culture, and institutions of the same era.
• Read patiently and comprehend both modern scholarship and ancient sources
• Craft arguments that develop a point and support that point with evidence
• Retain facts and demonstrate connections between them during class discussion and on essays

Syllabus

1. The Fall of the Republic and Julius Caesar
2. The Rise of Octavian, the civil wars and the 2^nd triumvirate
3. Actium and its aftermath: From Octavian to Augustus
4. Respublica restituta and Novus ordo saeclorum: the Augustan settlements (tribunicia potestas and maius proconsulare imperium)
5. Reviving the republican ideal: Livy, Books 1-2
6. Augustan religion
7. The Leges Iuliae de adulteriis and de maritandis ordinibus : Augustus’ moral legislation
8. Augustan art and architecture
9. Augustan literature: The Aeneid (I)
10. Augustan literature: The Aeneid (II)
11. Augustan literature: The Metamorphoses
12. Augustus’ succession.

Recommended Bibliography

M.G.L. Cooley (ed.), The Age of Augustus, Cambridge 2023

K. Galinsky (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Augustus, Cambridge 2005

D. Favro, The Urban Image of Augustan Rome, Cambridge 1998

K. Galinsky, Augustan Culture, Princeton 1995

K. Galinsky, Augustus: Introduction to the Life of an Emperor, Cambridge 2012

P. Zanker, The Power of Images in the Age of Augustus, Ann Arbor 1990

C. Edwards (transl.), Suetonius: The Lives of the Caesars, Oxford 2009