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In this course we will study the Rome of the first century C.E., as the inhabitants of the city struggled to come to terms with the radically changed circumstances of social and political life under the first Roman emperors. We will look back through the writings of the historian Tacitus and the biographer Suetonius at both the rules and the ruled: at the increasingly bizarre and monstrous members of the first imperial family, the Julio-Claudians, and at the psychological and moral consequences for th e traditional Roman ruling classes of living under an absolute ruler. In literature (the poet, Ovid; the philosopher, tragic poet, and statesman Seneca; and the satirical novelist Petronius) we will trace the struggle to retain a sense of personal integrity and identity under an increasingly unpredictable and oppressive regime and the complementary tendency to see public life (or, in the case of Ovid, a love affair) as a succession of discrete theatrical and rhetorical performances that conceal or are inconsistent with a stable, unified personality.
COURSE FORMAT: Lecture
Level: UGRD Credit: 1 Gen Ed Area Dept: HA CLAS Grading Mode: Student Option
Prerequisites: NONE
Last Updated on MAR-24-2000
Copyright Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, 06459