The Romans

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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.
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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.

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• 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 BC)
• The Punic Wars (ca. 275 BC-146 BC)
• The Civil Wars (ca. 146 BC-30 BC)

A Roman Road
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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.
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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.

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• 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.

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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/VirtueRoman_virtues
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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
  Czarterms for both the German and Russian heads
  of stateare actually translations of the title
  Caesar.

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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.

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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.

• Virgils 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).

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• At 26 BC Julius Caesar was assonated.
• The chaos that followed only confirmed Virgils
  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.

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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).

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Eclogue I(just a sample)

• Meliboeus.  You, Tityrus, 'neath a broad
  beech-canopy Reclining, on the slender oat
  rehearse Your silvan ditties I from my sweet
  fields, 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.
  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.

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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.

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• 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
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• 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.

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• 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.

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• 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,

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• . . .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.

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• 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.

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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.

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• 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.).

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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.

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• 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.

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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.

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Major Figures of The Aeneid

• AENEAS
• DIDO
• TURNUS
• JUNO
• VENUS
• JUPTER
• ANCHISES
• LATINUS
• EVANDER

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• 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).

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• 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.

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• 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 counter-acts Juno but
  she works with her as well.

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• 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.

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• 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.

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Aeneas carries his father Anchises, and leads
his son Ascanius by the hand from burning Troy.
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• 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.

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• 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.

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• 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.

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• Let's be no stoics nor no stocks, I prayOr
  so devote to Aristotle's chequesAs Ovid be an
  outcast quite abjured
• Balk logic with acquaintance that you haveAnd
  practise rhetoric in your common talkMusic and
  poesy use to quicken youThe mathematics and the
  metaphysics,Fall to them as you find your
  stomach serves youNo profit grows where is no
  pleasure ta'enIn brief, sir, study what you
  most affect.

Tranio from Shakespeares Taming of the Shrew 1, i
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Ovid
43 BC--AD 17

• 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)..

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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. Ovids
  celebration of extramarital love must have seemed
  an intolerable affront to a regime that sought to
  promote family values

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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.

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• 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).

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• 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.

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• 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)

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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

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• "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 Vernons
  town square here in Ohio).

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Jesus of Nazareth(72 BC2636 AD)

• Called the ChristGreek 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.

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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.

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• 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.

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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 (Peters
  Denial) the crucifixion, and the Resurrection Go
  and Tell

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Sites Cited

• Ancient Rome. History for Kids. 8 Nov. 2005
  lthttp//www.historyforkids.org/learn/romans/gt
• Anthology of World Literature Section 5
  Overview W.W. Norton and Company. 8 Nov. 2005 lt
  http//www.wwnorto n.com/nawol/s5_overview.htm1gt
• Brown, Larry. Ovids Metamorphosis an
  Introductionhttp//larryavisbrown.homestead.com/f
  iles/xeno.ovid1.htm 15 Nov. 2005
• Catullus The Poems Poetry in Translation
  (2001) S. A. Kline ed. http//www.adkline.freeuk.c
  om/Catullus.htm_Toc531846798 13 Nov. 2007
• Drake, David Ovid http//david-drake.com/ovid.ht
  ml 15 Nov. 2005

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More Citations

• Garrison, Daniel H. Catullus - Roman Poet Salem
  Press. https//salempress.com/Store/samples/great_
  lives_from_history_ancient_world/great_lives_from_
  history_ancient_world_catullus.htmgt 16 Nov. 2006
• Kenney, Edward John "Petronius Arbiter, Gaius."
  Encyclopædia Britannica. 2006. Encyclopædia
  Britannica Online. 21 Nov. 2006
  http//search.eb.com/eb/article-5644.
• "Roman Empire." Britannica Student Encyclopedia.
  2005. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
  8 Nov. 2005  lthttp//search.eb.com/ebi/article-927
  6779gt.
• Oxford English Dictionary 2nd Ed.
  http//dictionary.oed.com/entrance.dtl 21 Nov.
  2006
• "Virgil." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2006.
  Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 16 Nov. 2006
   lthttp//search.eb.com/eb/article-9108776gt

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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.com
  cast.net/pythian/courses/decadence/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