The Romans
“the grandeur that was
Greece and the glory
that was Rome”
Edgar Allan Poe
The genius of the Greeks lay in art, literature,
science, and philosophy. The Romans were
best in warfare, engineering, and government.
Who Were the Romans?
• The time when Rome was powerful did not begin
until after the greatest powers of Egypt and Greece
passed.
• Roman history is usually divided into three main
periods:
– before the rise of Rome,
– the Roman Republic, and
– the Roman Empire.
• The Empire is usually divided up according to
who was emperor.
• Before the rise of Rome:
– Stone Age (to 3000 BC)
– Bronze Age (ca. 3000 BC-1000 BC)
– Etruscans (ca. 1000 BC-500 BC)
• Roman Republic:
– The early period (ca. 500 BC-300
A Roman Road
BC)
– The Punic Wars (ca. 275 BC-146 BC)
– The Civil Wars (ca. 146 BC-30 BC)
The Romans called the Mediterranean Mare Nostrum--“our sea.” The map indicates why they had good
reason to do so. The map shows that the empire extended from the British Isles in the northwest to Egypt in
the southeast and from Armenia in the northeast to Mauretania (now Morocco) in the southwest. The Roman
Empire thus encompassed the Mediterranean, ruled every civilized land in Europe and Africa, and extended
into Asia. The only other civilized countries in the world lay farther east, in Asia. Emperor Trajan extended
Roman rule into Mesopotamia (now Iraq). Hadrian, however, withdrew to the previous frontier.
The military conquest of Greece by
Rome in 146 BC resulted in the
cultural conquest of Rome by
Greece.
As the Roman poet Horace said,
“Captive Greece took captive her
rude conqueror and brought the arts
to Latium.”
• Although deeply influenced by Greek
education, Roman higher education was
nonetheless quite different. For most
Greeks, the end of education was to produce
a good citizen, and a good citizen meant a
well-rounded individual.
• The goal of Roman education was the same,
but for the Romans a good citizen came to
mean an effective speaker.
• In other words, there was an emphasis on
Rhetoric, the skill of being a politician.
A Worthy Roman Had. . .
• Piutus — Religious devotion "Dutifulness" — More
than religious piety; a respect for the natural order
socially, politically, and religiously. Includes the
ideas of patriotism and devotion to others
• Gravitas — "Gravity" — A sense of the importance
of the matter at hand, responsibility and earnestness.
Distrusted attempts to change.
• Auctoritas— "Spiritual Authority" — The sense of
one's social standing, built up through experience,
Pietas, and Industria.
• Industria — "Industriousness" — Hard work.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtue#Roman_virtues
Overview
• With its military victories in North Africa, Spain,
Greece, and Asia Minor, the social, cultural, and
economic life of Rome changed profoundly.
• Literature in Latin began with a translation of the
Greek Odyssey and continued to be modeled after
Greek sources until it became Christian.
• The Roman narrative becomes the narrative of
the west (just consider that both Kaiser and
Czar—terms for both the German and Russian
heads of state—are actually translations of the
title “Caesar.”
Virgil
70 BC--21, 19 BC
• Virgil was regarded by the
Romans as their greatest poet,
an estimation that subsequent
generations have upheld.
• His fame rests chiefly upon the Aeneid, which tells the
story of Rome's legendary founder and proclaims the
Roman mission to civilize the world under divine
guidance.
• His reputation as a poet endures not only for the music and
diction of his verse and for his skill in constructing an
intricate work on the grand scale but also because he
embodied in his poetry aspects of experience and
behaviour of permanent significance.
Left unfinished at the time of his death,
Virgil's Aeneid combines the themes of
the Homeric epics: the hero at war from
the Iliad, and the wanderer in search of a
home from the Odyssey.
• Virgil’s work was shaped by
the chaotic time of his youth.
• He avoided the public life his
father had planned for him
(probably saving his life).
• At 26 BC Julius Caesar was assonated.
• The chaos that followed only confirmed Virgil’s
low opinion of things having to do with the state.
• He wrote about country life (probably thinking
back to his home town of Mantua by the Alps)
• Called the Eclogues, -- a major developer of the
Pastoral idea based originated by Theocritus:
– Shepherds and Shepherdesses living in an ideal place.
– Most of the individual poems are in the form of
conversations and singing contests between shepherds
and goatherds with names such as "Tityrus"
(supposedly representing Virgil himself), "Meliboeus",
"Menalcas" and "Mopsus".
– The poems are all carefully arranged, both as a whole
and individually.
The Eclogues
• Imitating the Greek Bucolica ("on care of
cattle",They were a collection of 10 pastoral
poems composed between 42 and 37 BC.
• Some of them are escapist, literary
excursions to the idyllic pastoral world of
Arcadia based on the Greek poet Theocritus
(fl. c. 280 BC)
• These escapist ones convey in liquid song
the idealized situations of an imaginary
world (Arcadia).
Meliboeus.
You, Tityrus, 'neath a broad beech-canopy
Reclining, on the slender oat rehearse
Your silvan ditties: I from my sweet fields, (just
And home's familiar bounds, even now depart.
Exiled from home am I; while, Tityrus, you
Sit careless in the shade, and, at your call,
"Fair Amaryllis" bid the woods resound.
Eclogue I
Tityrus.
O Meliboeus, 'twas a god vouchsafed
This ease to us, for him a god will I
Deem ever, and from my folds a tender lamb
Oft with its life-blood shall his altar stain.
His gift it is that, as your eyes may see,
My kine may roam at large, and I myself
Play on my shepherd's pipe what songs I will.
a sample)
Christian Message?
• The most famous of them is Eclogue 4 (PP Ecl.4),
which contains a prophecy of a future 'golden age',
which will be heralded in by the birth of a boy.
• While the identity of the child in question is
uncertain, later Christians read this as a Messianic
prophecy - one reason why Dante later chose
Virgil as his guide through the underworld.
• Some modern scholars have pointed to Virgil's
knowledge of Roman Jewish families as a possible
route for his near quotations of Isaiah in the poem.
Muses of Sicily, essay we now
a somewhat loftier task! Not all men love
coppice or lowly tamarisk: sing we woods,
woods worthy of a Consul let them be.
Now the last age by Cumae's Sibyl sung
has come and gone, and the majestic roll
of circling centuries begins anew:
justice returns, returns old Saturn's reign,
with a new breed of men sent down from heaven.
Only do thou, at the boy's birth in whom
the iron shall cease, the golden race arise,
befriend him, chaste Lucina; 'tis thine own
apollo reigns. And in thy consulate,
this glorious age, O Pollio, shall begin,
and the months enter on their mighty march.
Eclogue IV
Under thy guidance, whatso tracks remain
of our old wickedness, once done away,
shall free the earth from never-ceasing fear.
He shall receive the life of gods, and see
heroes with gods commingling, and himself
be seen of them, and with his father's worth
reign o'er a world at peace. For thee, O boy,
first shall the earth, untilled, pour freely forth
her childish gifts, the gadding ivy-spray
with foxglove and Egyptian bean-flower mixed,
and laughing-eyed acanthus. Of themselves,
untended, will the she-goats then bring home
their udders swollen with milk, while flocks afield
shall of the monstrous lion have no fear.
Thy very cradle shall pour forth for thee
caressing flowers. The serpent too shall die,
die shall the treacherous poison-plant, and far
and wide Assyrian spices spring. But soon
as thou hast skill to read of heroes' fame,
and of thy father's deeds, and inly learn
what virtue is, the plain by slow degrees
with waving corn-crops shall to golden grow,
from the wild briar shall hang the blushing grape,
and stubborn oaks sweat honey-dew. Nathless
yet shall there lurk within of ancient wrong
some traces, bidding tempt the deep with ships,
gird towns with walls, with furrows cleave the earth.
Therewith a second Tiphys shall there be,
her hero-freight a second Argo bear;
new wars too shall arise, and once again
some great Achilles to some Troy be sent.
Then, when the mellowing years have made thee man,
no more shall mariner sail, nor pine-tree bark
ply traffic on the sea, but every land
shall all things bear alike: the glebe no more
shall feel the harrow's grip, nor vine the hook;
the sturdy ploughman shall loose yoke from steer,
nor wool with varying colours learn to lie;
but in the meadows shall the ram himself,
now with soft flush of purple, now with tint
of yellow saffron, teach his fleece to shine.
While clothed in natural scarlet graze the lambs.
“Such still, such ages weave ye, as ye run,”
sang to their spindles the consenting Fates
by Destiny's unalterable decree.
Assume thy greatness, for the time draws nigh,
dear child of gods, great progeny of Jove!
See how it totters--the world's orbed might,
. . .earth, and wide ocean, and the vault profound,
all, see, enraptured of the coming time.
Ah! might such length of days to me be given,
and breath suffice me to rehearse thy deeds,
nor Thracian Orpheus should out-sing me then,
nor Linus, though his mother this, and that
his sire should aid--Orpheus Calliope,
and Linus fair Apollo. Nay, though Pan,
with Arcady for judge, my claim contest,
with Arcady for judge great Pan himself
should own him foiled, and from the field retire.
Begin to greet thy mother with a smile,
o baby-boy! ten months of weariness
for thee she bore: O baby-boy, begin!
For him, on whom his parents have not smiled,
gods deem not worthy of their board or bed.
• In the Eclogues shepherds sing in the
sunshine of their simple joys and mute their
sorrows (whether for unhappy love or
untimely death) in a formalized pathos.
• Some of the eclogues, however, bring the
pastoral mode into touch with the real world,
either directly or by means of allegory.
• In this way Virgil gave a new direction to the
genre.
• They were a hit, and he made his famous and
rich at 33.
• Virgil followed up the Eclogues with the
Georgics, a book of poems about farming.
The Georgics
• One of the most disastrous effects of the
civil wars--and one of which Virgil, as a
countryman, would be most intensely
aware--was the depopulation of rural Italy.
• The farmers had been obliged to go to the
war, and their farms fell into neglect and
ruin as a result.
• The Georgics, composed between 37 and 30
BC (the final period of the civil wars), is a
superb plea for the restoration of the
traditional agricultural life of Italy.
• In form it is didactic, but, as Seneca later
said, it was written "not to instruct farmers
but to delight readers."
• The practical instruction (about plowing,
growing trees, tending cattle, and keeping
bees) is presented with vivid insight into
nature.
• Furthermore it is interspersed with highly
wrought poetical digressions on such topics
as the beauty of the Italian countryside
(Book II. line 136 ff.) and the joy of the
farmer when all is gathered in (II.458 ff.).
The Transforming Moment
• In 31 B.C., something happened that
completely changed Virgil's feelings about
Rome and about what he wanted to write.
• The Emperor Augustus (formally Octavian)
finally managed to end the civil wars that had
plagued the city for so long and restored order
and peace.
• For the first time in his life, Virgil had hope for
the future of his country, and he felt deep
gratitude and admiration for Augustus, the man
who had made it all possible.
• Virgil was inspired to write his great epic
poem, the Aeneid, to celebrate Rome and
Augustus' achievement.
• He had come a long way from his early days
writing about nature and hating politics.
• Virgil cleverly didn't just write a story about
Augustus.
• He wanted to make Romans proud of their
history and their vast empire.
• He also wanted to show how Augustus was
the most recent in a long line of great Roman
leaders- strong, dedicated to their city, and
willing to make great sacrifices for it.
The Aeneid
• THE AENEID is a national epic poem about
the beginnings of Rome.
• THE AENEID IS is a tribute to Augustus and a
celebration of the End of the Civil Wars in
Rome/
• THE AENEID is the story of Aeneas’ personal
search for a new identity.
• THE AENEID describes the struggles between
the forces of order and disorder in the world.
• THE AENEID describes the relationship
between people and fate.
Major Figures of The Aeneid
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
AENEAS
DIDO
TURNUS
JUNO
VENUS
JUPTER
ANCHISES
LATINUS
EVANDER
Aeneas
A great survivor, Aeneas is a cousin of King
Priam of Troy. A major question is
whether Aeneas great because his fate made
him great or is he great because he had
the courage and determination to live
up to the role fate handed him?
Dido
She has been called the only true original
figure in Roman literature. She's the most
human. She's beautiful, generous, kind, and
successful. Her passionate nature is both
attractive and dangerous (to herself).
Turnus
Turnus was a chieftain of the Rutuli whose
conflict with Aeneas is the subject of the
second half of the Aeneid.
He is the suitor of Lavinia of Latium (daughter
of Latinos) until Aeneas arrives. This rivalry
motivates the Latins to war against the
Trojans.
Because Turnus never really stops to think
about the consequences of his actions,
everything he does is incredibly destructive.
That's why Virgil always compares him to a
wild animal. And that's Turnus' great flaw.
Juno
Still furious with the Trojans over the beauty
contest she lost at Paris’ hands. She is the
patron goddess of Carthage which Rome is
destined to destroy. Tries to stop Aeneas by
encouraging the relationship between him
and Dido. Foolishly fights fate.
Venus
Aeneas’ mother and the goddess of love.
She, in fact, demonstrates that love is not
always the positive emotion moderns think
of it as being. She is self interested and does
not restore order. At best she only counteracts Juno but she works with her as well.
Jupiter
He is the only god in the Aeneid who acts the
way most of us would think a god should.
He's calm, rational, impartial. But in one way
he's very different from what Christians expect
in their deity.
He's not particularly interested in goodness.
His major interest is to see that everything goes
according to fate.
Anchises
• As Aeneas' father, he is literally and
symbolically a burden to Aeneas. For
example he will not leave Troy until two major
revelations occur confirming Aeneas’ fate.
• Although Aeneas loves and respects his father
very much, the old man basically representative
of one thinks that the future will resemble the
past.
• Anchises must die and go to the underworld
before he will understand how different the
future will be.
• Anchises symbolizes the old life and the old
ways of Troy.
Aeneas carries
his father
Anchises, and
leads his son
Ascanius
by the hand
from burning
Troy.
Latinus
• The son of Faunus and the
nymph Marica. He was the
king of Laurentum in Latium
and ancestor of the Latini.
According to Roman myth he
had welcomed Aeneas, who
returned from exile, and
offered the hero the hand of
his daughter Lavinia.
• He is the king of the Latins, is
the first native king Aeneas
meets in Italy.
• The old king has heard many omens that his
daughter Lavinia is destined to marry a
stranger, and that together they will start a
new race that will rule the world. So Latinus
is well disposed toward Aeneas when
Aeneas first arrives.
• Latinus is an old man who has lost most of
his power. Thus he is as a symbol of the
weakness of the Latin society. Latinus'
inability to control his people strongly
suggests that the Latin people needed a new
leader. Thus Virgil can justify or overlook
the fact that the Trojans were invaders of
Italy.
Evander
• King of Pallanteum. His city is on the
exact spot where Rome will be built.
• Evander illustrates some of the
qualities of which the Romans were
particularly proud: simple and rustic, without
finery or luxury of any kind.
• Evander also becomes a substitute father
figure, replacing Anchises. Aeneas treats
him with great respect and his family loyalty
is transferred to a father with roots in Italy.
• Evander also shows the greatest of Roman
virtues: good political judgment. He knows
how and where Aeneas can find allies.
Let's be no stoics nor no stocks, I pray;
Or so devote to Aristotle's cheques
As Ovid be an outcast quite abjured:
Balk logic with acquaintance that you have
And practise rhetoric in your common talk;
Music and poesy use to quicken you;
The mathematics and the metaphysics,
Fall to them as you find your stomach serves
you;
No profit grows where is no pleasure ta'en:
In brief, sir, study what you most affect.
Tranio from Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew 1, i
43 BC--AD 17
Ovid
Ovid's influence on Western
art and literature cannot be
exaggerated.
The Metamorphoses is our best
classical source of 250 myths.
"The poem is the most
comprehensive, creative
mythological work that has
come down to us from
antiquity" (Galinsky qt. in
Brown)..
Ars Amatoria
• The Ars Amatoria ("The Art of Love") is a
series of three books by the Roman poet Ovid.
• Written in verse, their guiding theme is the art of
seduction.
• The first two, written for men about 1 BC to AD 1
, deal with 'winning women's hearts' and 'keeping
the loved one', respectively.
• The third, addressed to women telling them how
to best attract men, was written somewhat later.
• The publication of the Ars Amatoria may have
been at least partly responsible for Ovid's
banishment to the provinces by the Emperor
Augustus. Ovid’s celebration of extramarital love
must have seemed an intolerable affront to a
regime that sought to promote ‘family values
Metamorphoses
• The Metamorphoses by the Roman poet Ovid is a
poem in fifteen books that describes the creation and
history of the world in terms according Greek and
Roman points of view. It has remained one of the
most popular works of mythology, being the work
best known to medieval writers and thus having a
great deal of influence on medieval
• Ovid emphasizes tales of transformation often found
in myths, in which a person or lesser deity is
permanently transformed into an animal or plant.
• The poem begins with the transformations of creation
and Prometheus metamorphizing earth into Man and
ends with the transformation of the spirit of Julius
Caesar into a star.
• Ovid goes from one to the other by working his
way through mythology, often in apparently
arbitrary fashion, jumping from one
transformation tale to another, sometimes retelling
what had come to be seen as central events in the
world of Greek myth and sometimes straying in
odd directions.
• There is perhaps little depth in most of Ovid's
portrayals. However, if others have written far
more deeply, few have written more colorfully.
• Instead, the recurring theme, as with nearly all of
Ovid's work, is that of love -- personal love or
love personified as Amor (Cupid).
• Indeed, the other Roman gods are repeatedly
perplexed, humiliated, and made ridiculous by
Amor, an otherwise relatively minor god of the
pantheon who is the closest thing this mock-epic
has to an epic hero.
• Apollo comes in for particular ridicule as Ovid
shows how irrational love can confound the god of
pure reason.
• While few individual stories are outright
sacrilegious, the work as a whole inverts the
accepted order, elevating humans and human
passions while making the gods and their desires
and conquests objects of low humor.
• Based on its influence, "European literature and art
would be poorer for the loss of the Metamorphoses than
for the loss of Homer" (Hadas qt. in Brown).
• Ovid was a major inspiration for Dante, Chaucer,
Shakespeare, Milton.
• Ovid's extraordinary subtlety and psychological depth
make his poetry second only to Virgil's for its influence
on western poets and writers of the Middle Ages, the
Renaissance, and beyond. (Norton)
• If Virgil is Rome's greatest poet, Ovid is the most
popular
– (even in his own time; Ovidian graffiti has been
found on the walls of Pompeii).(Brown)
Horace (65 BC – 8 BC)
Famous for his Ars Poetica (also known as
"The Art of Poetry", Epistula Ad Pisones, or
Letters to Piso), published c. 18 BC, was a
treatise on poetics. It was first translated into
English by Ben Jonson, Three quotes often
used in literary criticism in particular are
associated with the work:
"in medias res", or "into the middle of
things"; this describes a popular narrative
technique that appears frequently in ancient
epics, (remember The Odyssey?) and remains
popular to this day
• "bonus dormitat Homerus" or "good Homer nods"; an
indication that even the most skilled poet can make
continuity errors
• "ut pictura poesis", or "As is painting so is poetry", by
which Horace meant that poetry (in its widest sense,
"imaginative texts") merited the same careful interpretation
that was, in Horace's day, reserved for painting.
• Horace also served as a soldier under the generalship of
Brutus after the assassination of Caesar. He fought as a
staff officer (tribunus militum) in the Battle of Philippi.
• One of the most often quoted phrases depicting the mind of
a soldier is “Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori.” This
is a line from Horace's Odes (iii 2.13). The line can be
rendered in English as: "It is sweet and fitting to die for
one's country.", "It is noble and glorious to die for your
fatherland." or "It is beautiful and honorable to die for your
fatherland.“ Wilfred Owen the British poet called it “the
old lie” but many feel differently. (Note: you can find this
quote on the Civil War memorial in Mount Vernon’s town
square here in Ohio).
Jesus of Nazareth
(7–2 BC—26–36 AD)
• Called ‘the Christ’—
Greek for anointed.
• The principal sources of
information regarding
Jesus' life and teachings
are the four canonical
gospels: Matt, Mark,
Luke and John
• Included in the Norton.
Jesus, Christianity and Rome
• Rome while distant is always in the background of
Christ and his kingdom.
• One of Caesar Augustus’ titles was “Prince of Peace”
since his reign marked the end of the civil wars. The
irony is not lost.
• The centurion whose servant Jesus healed was in charge
of at least 80 men, maybe more.
• Jesus was executed by Roman law for being the king of
the Jews when only Caesar was king.
• St. Paul was a Roman citizen and used that status often.
• Some scholars argue that other texts (such as the
Gospel of Thomas) are as relevant as the
canonical gospels to the historical Jesus.
• Most critical scholars in the fields of history and
biblical studies believe that ancient texts on Jesus'
life are at least partially accurate, agreeing that
Jesus was
– a Galilean Jew who was regarded as a teacher and
healer.
– was baptized by John the Baptist, and
– was crucified in Jerusalem on orders of the Roman
Prefect of Judaea Pontius Pilate, on the charge of
sedition against the Roman Empire.
Included in the Norton
• Luke: The story of his Nativity “Good Tidings” up
to him at 12 debating with the elders.
• Mathew: Sermon on the Mount (Words of the
Lord)
• Luke: Jesus’ parables
– Lost sheep,
– Lost piece of silver
– Prodigal Son
• Mathew: The Last Supper, the Garden (Peter’s
Denial) the crucifixion, and the Resurrection: Go
and Tell
Sites Cited
“Ancient Rome.” History for Kids. 8 Nov. 2005
<http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/romans/>
“Anthology of World Literature: Section 5 Overview”
W.W. Norton and Company. 8 Nov. 2005 <
http://www.wwnorto
n.com/nawol/s5_overview.htm#1>
Brown, Larry. “Ovid’s Metamorphosis an
Introduction”http://larryavisbrown.homestead.com/fi
les/xeno.ovid1.htm 15 Nov. 2005
“Catullus: The Poems” Poetry in Translation (2001) S.
A. Kline ed.
http://www.adkline.freeuk.com/Catullus.htm#_Toc5
31846798 13 Nov. 2007
Drake, David “Ovid” http://david-drake.com/ovid.html
15 Nov. 2005
More Citations
Garrison, Daniel H. “Catullus - Roman Poet” Salem Press.
https://salempress.com/Store/samples/great_lives_from_his
tory_ancient_world/great_lives_from_history_ancient_wor
ld_catullus.htm> 16 Nov. 2006
Kenney, Edward John "Petronius Arbiter, Gaius."
Encyclopædia Britannica. 2006. Encyclopædia Britannica
Online. 21 Nov. 2006 http://search.eb.com/eb/article5644.
"Roman Empire." Britannica Student Encyclopedia. 2005.
Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
8 Nov. 2005 <http://search.eb.com/ebi/article-9276779>.
Oxford English Dictionary 2nd Ed.
http://dictionary.oed.com/entrance.dtl 21 Nov. 2006
"Virgil." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2006. Encyclopædia
Britannica Online.
16 Nov. 2006 <http://search.eb.com/eb/article-9108776>
Not Cited but Interesting
• Mr. Donn.org 21 (Nov. 2006)
http://www.mrdonn.org/index.html. While not
intended for college academics, this resource for
teachers of K-12 has a number of helpful and
accessible presentations. Accessible is good!
• Mayer, Ken. Roman Decadence.
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/pythian/courses/decade
nce/syllabus.html A syllabus for a class which
examines the decline as it has usually be defined of the
Roman Empire through its literature.
• The Illustrated History of the Roman Empire
http://www.roman-empire.net/index.html
• UNRN History http://www.unrv.com/
• The Roman Empire: The First Century
http://www.pbs.org/empires/romans/index.html