The Augustan Settlement and the Julio-Claudian Emperors,

Ludi Saeculares

17 BC
"Saecular Games" Games to mark a new period of peace
Poet Horace composes Carmen Saeculare in honor of them. Augustus brings these religious games back as the Pontifex Maximus. Saeculum marks the length of a human life. Transferred worship from Etruscan netherworld deities to Apollo and Diana -- new age of tranquility after period of danger (Civil Wars)

Cult of Roma and Augustus

Hellenistic populations expressed fear/gratitude towards Romans by setting up altars to Roma

Greek towns paid homage to Augustus after Actium (31)

Livia was a priestess of his cult

Spread throughout the empire, from Asia Minor to Germany and Spain

Concilium Principis

The consilium principis (advisers to the princeps) was a council created by the first Roman Emperor, Augustus, in the latter years of his reign to control legislation in the deliberative institution of the Senate.[1]

Tiberius

son-in-law of Augustus who became a suspicious tyrannical Emperor of Rome after a brilliant military career (14- 37 CE). Second emperor and a great general. He helped carry out the expansion of the Roman empire along the Danube and into modern day Germany

Parthia

Historical region in N-E Iran
(Parthian Empire 247 BCE-224 CE)
Battle of Carrhae 53 (Crassus killed)
Caesar thinking about invading before assassinated
Augustus "threatened" invasion (20 BCE) and received all Roman prisoners and captured standards
Augustus let events and internal disputes in Parthia take their course
Parthian Wars 161-166

Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus

Emperor 54-68 CE
Last Roman emperor of the Julio-Claudians
Associated w tyranny and extravagance
Fancied himself a poet/artist
64 CE = Great Fire of Rome - then built Domus Aurea
Was the first Roman Emperor to commit suicide in 68 CE
Tried and condemned to death as a public enemy
Started the Year of the four emperors.

Seneca the Younger (4 BCE - 65 CE)

As a writer, Seneca is known for his philosophical works, and for his plays, which are all tragedies. His prose works include 12 essays and 124 letters dealing with moral issues. These writings constitute one of the most important bodies of primary material for ancient Stoicism. “Silver Age” of Latin literature. forced to take his own life for conspiring to kill Nero.

Boudicca

The Celtic queen that formented one of the more serious rebellions of the Celts in Britain in 60 CE. Iceni sacked multiple cities and killed ~80,000 Roman citizens in Britain, but was defeated but Roman Governor Suetonius by cutting off her army's escape route. Poisoned herself when rebellion failed.

Ostia

Ostia served two very important roles to Rome. First, during the Republic, it was the seat of naval power. Then, during the Empire, it became a massive trade hub for goods coming into Rome.

Curtius Rufus

1st or 2nd centuries CE. CURTIUS RUFUS, QUINTUS (probably fl. 1st century CE), author of the only extant Latin monograph on Alexander the Great, usually called Historiae Alexandri Magni, in many respects the most complete and liveliest account of Alexander's exploits in Asia. Rhetorical, doesn't name his authorities.

Tacitus

56 CE-120. Tacitus was a Roman orator and public official. He is widely regarded to have been among the most important Roman historians and to have been one of the greatest prose stylists who wrote in the Latin language. Recorded the good and bad of the julio-claudian emperors. his works include the Annals, Agricola, Germania, Dialogus de Oratoribus

Livy

Livy was a Roman historian, writer, and philosopher who lived from around 59 B.C.E.-17 C.E. He is important to Roman history because he wrote about the history of Rome from its foundations through the reign of Emperor Augustus. His texts reflected the attitudes and culture of Rome during his time. Written in Annalistic format, and is not highly critical of the regime.

Res Gestae Divi Augusti

An autobiography 76th year (13-14 CE) of Augustus’ life. The funerary inscription of the first Roman emperor, Augustus, giving a first-person record of his life and accomplishments. monumentalizes the foundation of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, and shows the image that Augustus offered to the people.

Virgils Aeneid

Famous epic poem by a Roman Poet about the ancestors of the Romans. Ca. 29-19 BCE, unfinished at the time of Virgil’s death thus edited by his friends Varius and Tucca (although supposedly against his wishes, Virgil reportedly wanted it burned upon his death) and published by Augustus. Epic poem.

Virgils Ecologues

Ca. 39-38 BCE

Pastoral poems, also known as Bucolics

Evidence of Epicurean concepts in the Eclogues. depict shepherds living in a landscape half real, half fantastic; these allusive poems hover between the actual and the artificial. They are shot through with topical allusions, and he models his work after Theocritus

Virgil's Georgics is a poetic work about:

Didactic poetry ostensibly imparts practical knowledge. The models are Hesiod’s Theogony and Works and Days. Virgil justifies the hardship and evil that persists in the world by saying that Jupiter made things hard for humans after a golden age- An epic. 29 BCE

Ovid

(43 B.C.E.-17 C.E.) Writer of "Metamorphoses" and "On the Art of Love" among others. Born in 43 BCE, Ovid first made his name at Rome as a playful and experimental love poet, in the Amores. he was able to claim that “elegy owes as much to me as epic does to Virgil. Was exiled by Augustus, and remained there until his death in 17 CE.

Ovid's Fasti

Ovid's poem on the festivals of the Roman calendar, left half-finished in six books. Describes the festivals and their mythological origins, as well as providing astrological and agricultural information for the seasons. Does not sugar coat the unpleasant aspects, and actually heightens some of the difficult concepts, which may be seen as opposing Augustan morals

Ovid, Heroides

Epistles

A series of letters written from the perspective of famous women from mythology

Collection of 21 poems in elegiac couplets

Addressed to the men who scorned or abused them; contains their extreme emotions or pleas for their lovers return. Ariadne to Theseus

Dido to Aeneas

Authenticity of the collection has been questioned, the first 14 are believed to be authentic

Ovid's Metamorphoses

narrative poem comprised of fifteen books and over 250 myths, the poem chronicles the history of the world from its creation to the deification of Caesar wishing a loose mythico-historical framework. Though meeting the criteria for an epic, the poem defies simple genre classification by its varying use of themes and tones; Reflects on change, for example, ariadne.

Horace

Poet of the Augustan Age, 65-8 BCE. known for detailed self-portraits in genres such as epodes, satires and epistles, and lyrics. The most frequent themes of his Odes and verse Epistles are love, friendship, philosophy, and the art of poetry.

Horace's Ars Poetica

Ca. 10-8 B.C.E. (final phase of Horace’s career)

Didactic work on the theory of poetry/drama

Written reluctantly, includes tangents of cultural/literary history. consistently practical and addresses a wide range of issues of craft regarding translation, emotional affect, playwriting, the dangers of publishing. Follows in the footsteps of Aristotles poetry.

Lucan

Seneca's nephew who shared his fate; wrote epic "Pharsalia" to depict the civil war between Caesar and Pompey. He is regarded as one of the outstanding figures of the Imperial Latin period, known in particular for his epic Pharsalia. His youth and speed of composition set him apart from other poets. 39-65 AD. Based upon the atheistic sentiments of the poem, he has been termed as “Stoic who has lost his faith”

Repeated questioning of the role of Fate in history

Grotesque supernatural elements (necromancy, malign apparitions) compensate for absence of guiding cosmic powers

Propertius

The Roman poet Propertius is best known as the writer who perfected the Latin love elegy, a technical as much as a psychological and cultural feat. Propertius has been admired for both his metrical genius and the modernity of his narrative flow. Elegies

Statius

Roman poet of the Flavian era (Emperor=Domitian)

Born sometime between 40-50 CE in Naples

Died c. 96

Protegee of Domitian

Works (extant):

Silvae - 5 books of poems in various meters

Thebaid - epic poem

Achilleid - epic poem (unfinished; only up to beginning of second book extant).

Statius' use of allegory in the Thebaid and his abstract treatment of the gods has been seen as an important innovation in the tradition of classical poetry which ushered in Medieval conventions

Seneca the Youngers Medea

1st century CE (ca. 50 CE)

Tragedy

Medea is unique in depicted a figure who is self-consciously aware of her history as a dramatic character in earlier tragedies.

The play is about the vengeance of Medea against her betraying husband Jason and King Creon. The leading role, Medea, delivers over half of the play's lines. Medea addresses many themes, one being that the title character represents "payment" for humans' transgression of natural laws.

Seneca the Youngers Phaedra

Written sometime before 54 BCE

Based upon the earlier tragedy Hippolytus by Euripides

Seneca portrays Phaedra as self-aware and direct in the pursuit of her stepson, while in other treatments of the myth she is more of a passive victim of fate.

Phaedra is cursed by Aphrodite to fall in love with Hyppolytus.

Seneca the Youngers Apocolocyntosis

Written in 54 AD
A satirical work about Emperor Claudius + his rise to power and death
Title literally translates to "pumpkinification"
Play on "apotheosis"
One of the best preserved examples of roman menippean satire - a combination of prose and verse
perhaps inspired the later writings of Lucian

Cicero's De Amicitia

Dialogue on Friendship is Magic ™
True versus False friendship, the benefits of friendship and what makes a good friendship
Follows Greek philosophical tradition, but expands friendship beyond the nobilitas. 44 BCE. An interesting year for this to have come out lol

Cicero's De Officiis

Philosophical work, a treatise

Speaks to young Romans on why embracing, studying, and reflecting on Greek philosophy helps one to perform the duties of a good Roman

In three books, first two books borrow elements from the Stoic Panaetius of Rhodes’ On Duty. The third book borrows from a lot of people

Talks about natural law (believes it exists) 44 BCE

Cicero's Catalinam

One of Cicero's most famous speeches
Delivered after the events of the Second Catilinarian Conspiracy, during the year of Cicero's consulship (63 B.C.E.)
Famous first line "quo usque tandem abutere, Catilina, patientia nostra"
Cicero presents Catiline as an extreme threat to Rome, and his own life
Makes Cicero seem like the hero for saving the republic from Catiline and his goonies

Cicero's Philippics

44-43 B.C.E.

Modeled after Demosthenes’ speech of the same name against Philip of Macedon

A set of 14 scathing speech against Marc Antony

He is a drunk

He loves Egypt a bit too much (how un-Roman!)

Alot of political ambition

Peace with Antony is not possible. Leads to Cicero's death through conscription in 43 BCE

Quintillian

A Roman educator who believed that the ideal orator should not only be an eloquent speaker, but also a lover of wisdom and virtue. Latin teacher and writer whose work on rhetoric, Institutio oratoria, is a major contribution to educational theory and literary criticism.

Seneca the Elder

55 BCE- 41 CE. called "Rhetor," he wrote Controversiae and Suasoriae. 5 books of Controversiae and 1 book of Suasoriae survive. His principle work, a history of Roman affairs from the beginning of the Civil Wars until the last years of his life, is, sadly, almost entirely lost to us

Seneca the Youngers Epistulae Morales

a collection of 124 letters that Seneca the Younger wrote at the end of his life, during his retirement, after he had worked for the Emperor Nero for more than ten years.

Pliny the Elder

24-79 CE

From Cisalpine Gaul, equestrian who was favored by the Flavians, Did not write from a philosophical viewpoint

“...best known as the author of the 37-book Naturalis Historia, an encyclopaedia of all contemporary knowledge. Died while rescuing friends from the eruption of Vesuvius in Pompeii. Pliny the Youngers letters are our best source for his career and death. Bill Nye the Science guy who died in 79.

Naturalis Historia

nature encyclopedia written by Pliny the Elder. Teleological, how do different aspects of nature serve humans?

Reflects the expansion of the Roman Empire. 77, finished after his death by Pliny the Younger. The largest single work to have survived from the Roman Empire to the modern day, and was the primary source of nature knowledge in the Western world for several centuries.

Vitruvius' De Architectura

- Vitruvius was a Roman architect who based his plans on highly geometric ideas

- Vitruvius' "de Architectura" heavily influenced Alberti in the making of the Palazzo Rucellai

Invaluable resource on early scientists, his works are encyclopedic and relate a history of architectural development; almost serves as an historian, Date to the 1st century BCE