Poetry, Politics, and Empire

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

By ruthlessness in war and sagacity in peace, Julius Caesar’s adopted son, Octavian, rose to the summit of power in the Roman world, receiving the name Augustus, creating an empire where there had been a republic, and inaugurating a form of government that would last, in many essentials, almost half a millennium. His rise to and consolidation of power, at every step, was the object of reflection and response by Roman poets, whose art, fusing native traditions with many Greek models, was reaching a high peak in the very same period. The purpose of this course is to reflect on the relationship between the poetry and the politics of that crucial time in Roman history. The course will examine the poetry of the period of the Civil War (Vergil’s "Eclogues," Horace’s "Epodes and Satires"), Octavian’s increasingly singular stature (Vergil’s "Georgics"), Octavian/Augustus’ imperial vision (Horace’s "Odes"), the glories and the costs of establishing empire (Vergil’s "Aeneid"), reflections on the fate of empires (Ovid’s "Metamorphoses"), and the nature of personal identity and ethics in a time of autocracy (Ovid’s "Ars Amatoria," Tibullus’ "Elegies," Phaedrus’ "Fables"), among other authors and works. Broad questions will include: How do Roman poets reflect the political and ideological concerns of their times? What is the nature of artistic speech in a republic? a failing republic? a nascent autocracy? a settled autocracy? How are the voices and techniques of Greek poetry adapted for Roman purposes? By way of creating context, other readings, for example from the orator Cicero and the historians Livy and Suetonius, will be included.