Course Calendar

COURSE CALENDAR

INTRODUCTION

Week 1 (Sept. 4) Who was Augustus, how do we know, and why do we care?

Week 2 (Sept. 9) The world that made Augustus. Who was there, what they did, what they said they did, and why… Read for Sept 9: Zanker, Introduction; Augustus, Res Gestae.

THE BEGINNING OF THE END: THE LATE REPUBLIC

Week 2, cont. (Sept. 11) Friends and Enemies: The wars at home Read for Sept 11: Zanker, Chapter 1

Week 3 (Sept. 16, 18) Uncle Julius: The rise and fall of Caesar Read for Sept. 16: Suetonius, Julius Caesar, Sections 1-44. Favro, Chapter 2. Read for Sept. 18: Suetonius, Julius Caesar, Sections 45-end. Favro, Chapter 3.

OCTAVIAN TO AUGUSTUS

Week 4 (Sept. 23, 25) The heir, the cad, and the queen: Octavian and Antony take on the world Read for Sept. 23 (Augustus’s birthday—there will be cake!): Zanker, Chapter 2. Suetonius, Augustus, Sections 1-19. Horace, Odes 1.37 (Suicide of Cleopatra).

Assignment 1 due in class Sept. 25: Modern interpretations of Augustus and friends.

Week 5 (Sept 30, Oct. 2) Alone at the Top: The world after Actium and becoming Augustus Read for Sept. 30: Suetonius, Augustus, Sections 20-60. Zanker, Chapter 3. Favro, Chapter 4 (up to Phase III). Read for Oct. 2: Elsner, Reflections on a Roman Revolution: A Transformation in the Image and Conception of the Emperor. In Art and the Roman Viewer, p. 159-172.

AUGUSTUS IN ROME, AUGUSTUS AT HOME

Week 6 (Oct. 7, 9) The city of brick: Augustus and friends spiff up the capital Read for Oct. 7: Favro, Chapter 4 (finish). Zanker, Ch. 4, p. 101-118; 135-166. Read for Oct. 9: Favro, Making Rome a World City, in The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Augustus.

Week 7 (Oct. 14, 16) The city of marble: The Rome we always wanted Read for Oct. 14: Elsner, Inventing Imperium: texts and the propaganda of monuments in Augustan Rome, in Art and Text in Roman Culture, p. 32-53.

Midterm Exam, Thursday, Oct. 16 in class (on material through week 6)

Week 8 (Oct. 21, 23) Augustus the man, the myth, the message. Read for Oct. 21: Zanker, Chapter 5, p. 192-215 (Starting from: Myth in Past and Present); Favro, Chapter 6. Read for Oct. 23: Suetonius, Augustus, Sections 61-end. Aeneid 1.257-296 (in Coolley, Jupiter’s Prophecy, p. 135-137).

Week 9 (Oct. 28, 30) Behind Every Great Man…Women and family values for a new age Read for Oct. 28: Coolley, M.G.L., ed. “The Social Legislation of Augustus,” in The Age of Augustus, p. 353-367. Treggiari, S. “Women in the Time of Augustus,” Cambridge Companion to the Age of Augustus, p. 130-147; Lenaghan, J. “Aspects of Portraiture: Women and the Statue Tradition,” in Ancient Portraits and Production at Aphrodisias.

Prepare for Oct. 30: Comfortable shoes, supplies to be discussed. Class meets at RISD Museum.

THE AUGUSTAN WORLD

Week 10 (Nov. 4, 6) Rome for the Romans: Life in the center of the universe Read for Nov .4: Zanker, Chapter 7; Milnor, K. Chapter 1 (“Reading and Writing Gender on the Augustan Palatine”) in Gender, Domesticity, and the Age of Augustus.

Assignment 2 due in class Nov. 6: Word, image, and object in the Augustan age.

Week 11 (Nov. 11, 13) Rome for the Rest: The empire abroad Read for Nov. 11: Zanker, Chapter 8, p. 307-333 (starting with “The Imperial Cult in the West”). Read for Nov. 13: Catch up day…

Week 12 (Nov. 18, 20) “You shouldn’t have!” The art of kissing up in the East Read for Nov. 18: Zanker, Chapter 8, p. 297-306. Read for Nov. 20: Smith, R.R.R. The Monument of C. Julius Zoilos, p.1-23.

Assignment 3 due in class Nov. 20: Augustus and the Others.

SUCCESSION AND LEGACY

Week 13 (Nov. 25) Passing the Torch: Turning it over to Tiberius Read for Nov. 25: Zanker, Chapter 5, p. 215-end (starting with “The Assimilation of Augustus’s Successors into the National Mythology”). Suetonius, Tiberius; Cassius Dio, Books 55-57, on line at: http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cassius_Dio/home.html

NOV. 27. THANKSGIVING. NO CLASS.

Week 14 (Dec. 2, 4) The Legacy of Augustus Read for Dec. 2: Selected readings provided by instructor and students on wiki page. Read for Dec. 4: News of Rome (also on wiki, as above).

Final Exam, December 17, 9am.