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21H.402

The Making of a Roman Emperor

Undergraduate · Historical course

Fall 2005

Topics

  • Introduction: Studying Roman Emperors
  • The Emperors and Their Empire
  • Suetonius’ Augustus
  • Tacitus and Tacitus’ Augustus
  • Tacitus’ Nero
  • Suetonius’ Nero
  • Reading the Written Emperor
  • Warring images: Octavian, Antony, and Actium
  • Inventing Augustus
  • Shaping Roman Values
  • Golden Prosperity
  • Making Augustan History
  • Nero Makes a Spectacle of Himself
  • Neronian Myth-making
  • Nero Behaving Badly
  • Nero’s Rome
  • Making a Military Mockery
  • Making Imperial History
  • The Reel Nero: Viewing of Quo Vadis ? (1951)
  • Nero’s Christian Afterlife
  • Mussolini’s Augustus
  • Syme’s Augustus
  • Presentation and Discussion of Final Paper Topics
  • Presentation and Discussion of Final Paper Topics (cont.)
  • Viewing of I, Claudius (1976)
  • Conclusion: Whose Emperors?

Readings

  • Suetonius. The Lives of the Caesars . Translated by C. Edwards. Oxford, UK; New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2000, 2001. ISBN: 9780192832719.
    Required
  • Tacitus. The Annals of Imperial Rome . Translated by M. Grant. New York, NY: Penguin Books, 1971, 1956. ISBN: 9780140440607.
    Required
  • Champlin, E. Nero . Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2003. ISBN: 9780674011922.
    Required
  • Zanker, P. The Power of Images in the Age of Augustus . Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 1988, 1990. ISBN: 9780472081240.
    Required
  • The Oxford Classical Dictionary . 3rd ed. Entries for: ‘Rome (history)’, ‘senate’, ‘praetorians’, ‘Augustus’, and ‘Nero’.
    Required
  • Suetonius. Augustus. pp. 43-97.
    Required
  • The Oxford Classical Dictionary. 3rd ed. Entry for: ‘Suetonius’.
    Required
  • Tacitus. Annals. 1.1-15, and 12.1-13.58. pp. 31-42, and 252-312.
    Required
  • The Oxford Classical Dictionary. 3rd ed. Entry for: ‘Tacitus’.
    Required
  • Tacitus. Annals. 14.1-16.35. pp. 312-397.
    Required
  • Suetonius. Nero. pp. 195-227.
    Required
  • Barton, T. “The inventio of Nero: Suetonius.” In Reflections of Nero: culture, history, and representation . Edited by Jas Elsner, and Jamie Masters. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1994, pp. 48-63. ISBN: 9780807821435.
    Required
  • Syme, Ronald, ed. “The political opinions of Tacitus.” In Ten Studies in Tacitus . New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1970, pp. 119-40. ISBN: 9780198143581.
    Required
  • Brunt, P. A., and J. M. Moore, eds. Res Gestae Divi Augusti: The Achievements of the Divine Augustus . New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1969. ISBN: 9780198317722. ↗
    Required
  • The Aeneid of Virgil . Translated by Allen Mandelbaum. New York, NY: Bantam Press, 1981. 1.223-304, 6.679-end, 8.597-end, pp. 9-11, 161-168, 218-222. ISBN: 9780553210415.
    Required
  • Jenkins, Keith. Re-thinking History . New York, NY: Routledge, 1991, pp. 6-32. ISBN: 9780415067782.
    Required
  • Evans, Richard. In Defense of History. 2nd ed. New York, NY: W.W. Norton, 2000, pp. 75-102. ISBN: 9780393319590.
    Required
  • The Reel Nero: Viewing of Quo Vadis ? (1951)
    Required
  • Wyke, Maria. “Nero: Spectacles of Persecution and Excess.” In Projecting the Past: Ancient Rome, Cinema, and History . New York, NY: Routledge, 1997, pp. 110-46. ISBN: 9780415906142.
    Required
  • Raaflaub, K. A., and M. Toher. “Editors’ Preface.” In Between Republic and Empire: Interpretations of Augustus and His Principate . Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1993, pp. xi-xxi. ISBN: 9780520084476.
    Required
  • Scott, K. “Mussolini and the Roman Empire.” The Classical Journal 27 (1931-2): 645-657.
    Required
  • Aicher, P. ‘Mussolini’s Forum and the myth of Augustan Rome.’ The Classical Bulletin 76, no. 2 (2000): 117-139.
    Required
  • Syme, Ronald. The Roman Revolution . New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1939, 2002. pp. vii-xi, 1-9, 149-161, 459-475, and 509-524. ISBN: 9780192803207.
    Required
  • Galsterer, H. “A Man, a Book, and a Method: Sir Ronald Syme’s Roman Revolution After Fifty Years.” In Between Republic and Empire: Interpretations of Augustus and His Principate . Edited by K. A. Raaflaub, and M. Toher. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1993, pp. 1-20. ISBN: 9780520084476.
    Required
  • Viewing of I, Claudius (1976)
    Required
  • Joshel, Sandra. “ I Claudius : Projection and Imperial Soap Opera.” In Imperial Projections: Ancient Rome in Modern Popular Culture . Edited by Sandra Joshel, Margaret Malamud, and Donald McGuire. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001, pp. 119-61. ISBN: 9780801867422.
    Required
  • I, Claudius . Robert Wise, 1976. ↗
    Required
Sources