DOCSLIB.ORG

Roman Emperors

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Roman Emperors Walter Scheidel Office hours: after class & by appointment Office: 110-105 Main Quad, Building 110 Mailbox: Classics Department Office phone: (650) 723-0479 e-mail: [email protected] www.stanford.edu/~scheidel CLASS HIS 340A ROMAN EMPERORS Fall Quarter 2012 Mo 2.15-5.05 Readings and background Acquire a copy of Fergus Millar’s The emperor in the Roman world . All other required readings are available online or will be provided. You are expected to be familiar with the basic outlines of Roman history from the end of the Republic to the sixth century CE. Recommended background readings include Suetonius, Lives of the Caesars ; Tacitus, Annals ; Pliny the Younger, Panegyric ; Herodian, History; Historia Augusta ; Eusebius, Life of Constantine ; Ammianus (esp. on Julian); In Praise of Later Roman Emperors: Panegyrici Latini (trs. Nixon/Rodgers); Procopius, Secret History . This course is restricted to graduate students. Schedule and readings September 24 Introduction October 1 Traditional approaches, I: imperial biography Assigned readings Suetonius, Life of Caligula (for this and the next session) J. P. V. D. Balsdon, The emperor Gaius (Caligula) (1934), 58-95; E. J. Phillips, “The emperor Gaius’ abortive invasion of Britain,” Historia 19 (1970), 369-373; M. B. Flory, “Pearls for Venus,” Historia 37 (1988), 498-504; A. A. Barrett, Caligula: the corruption of power (1990), 125-139; D. Woods, “Caligula’s sea-shells,” Greece and Rome 47 (2000), 80-87; S. J. V. Malloch, “Gaius on the Channel Coast,” Classical Quarterly 51 (2001), 551-556 Recommended further readings For recent perspectives on the topic of the seminar, see A. Winterling (ed.), Zwischen Strukturgeschichte und Biographie: Probleme und Perspektiven einer neuen Römischen Kaisergeschichte 31 v. Chr. - 192 n. Chr. (2011) October 8 Traditional approaches, II: more imperial biography Assigned readings J. P. V. D. Balsdon, The emperor Gaius (Caligula) (1934), 205-219; A. A. Barrett, Caligula: the corruption of power (1990), 213-241; A. Winterling, “Meaningful madness: the emperor Caligula,” in Winterling, PSIR 103-119; L. de Arrizabalaga y Prado, The emperor Elagabalus: fact or fiction? (2010), 1-56, with 294-343 Recommended further readings Try the movie Caligula (1979) or M. Icks, The crimes of Elagabalus: the life and legacy of Rome’s decadent boy emperor (2011) October 15 Traditional approaches, III: institutions and practice Assigned readings F. Millar, The emperor in the Roman world (31 BC – AD 337) (1977) XI-XII, 3-12, 203-272; K. Hopkins, “Rules of evidence,” Journal of Roman Studies 68 (1978), 178-186 Recommended further readings J. Bleicken, Zum Regierungsstil des römischen Kaisers : eine Antwort auf Fergus Millar (1982) November 22 Non-traditional approaches, I: turnover and discontinuity Presentation by instructor; no readings Recommended further readings For basic facts, F. Meijer, Emperors don’t die in bed (2004). On usurpations, E. Flaig, Den Kaiser herausfordern : die Usurpation im römischen Reich (1992), 208-568; J. Szidat, Usurpator tanti nominis : Kaiser und Usurpator in der Spätantike (337-476 n. Chr.) (2010). For comparanda, cf., e.g., D. Ogden, Polygamy, prostitutes and death: the Hellenistic dynasties (1999); R. von Friedeburg (ed.), Murder and monarchy: regicide in European history, 1300- 1800 (2004). October 29 Non-traditional approaches, II: theorizing autocratic rule (*Federica) Assigned readings B. Bueno de Mesquita, A. Smith, R. M. Siverson and J. D. Morrow, The logic of political survival (2003), 3-106, 273-292, 329-346; H. E Chelabi and J. J. Linz (eds.), Sultanistic regimes (1998), 3-48 Recommended further readings R. Burling, The passage of power: studies in political succession (1974); R. Wintrobe, The political economy of dictatorship (2000); B. Bueno de Mesquita and A. Smith, The dictator’s handbook (2011) November 5 Becoming emperor, I: selectorates and winning coalitions? (*Jackie) Assigned readings J. Nicols, Vespasian and the partes Flavianae (1978), 86-177 J. D. Grainger, Nerva and the succession crisis of AD 96-99 (2003), 66-108 November 12 Emperors and aristocrats, I: a comparative framework (*Sienna) Assigned readings K. Hopkins, Death and renewal (1983) 149-198; H. Zmora, Monarchy, aristocracy and the state in Europe 1300-1800 (2001) Recommended further readings F. Millar, The emperor in the Roman world (31 BC – AD 337) (1977) 275-361 (for this and the next session). On western aristocracies, cf. also R. Bendix, Kings or people: power and the mandate to rule (1978); J. Powis, Aristocracy (1984); S. Clark, State and status (1995). November 19 Emperors and aristocrats, II: relations [Thanksgiving Week] (*Scott) Assigned readings R. P. Saller, Personal patronage under the early Empire (1982) 41-78; B. W. Jones, The emperor Domitian (1992), 160-198; M. B. Roller, Constructing autocracy: aristocrats and emperors in Julio-Claudian Rome (2001), 129-212 November 26 Emperors and the court Assigned readings F. Millar, The emperor in the Roman world (31 BC – AD 337) (1977) 59-131; K. Hopkins, “The political power of eunuchs,” in Hopkins, Conquerors and slaves (1978) 172-196; A. Winterling, “A court without “state:” the aula Caesaris ,” in Winterling, PSIR 79-102 Recommended further readings A. Winterling, Aula Caesaris: Studien zur Institutionalisierung des römischen Kaiserhofes in der Zeit von Augustus bis Commodus (31 v. Chr.-192 n. Chr.) (1999); S. Tougher (ed.), Eunuchs in antiquity and beyond (2002); S. Tougher, The eunuch in Byzantine history and society (2008) December 3 no class Requirements Present critical reports on the readings for a class, or on parts of the readings for more than one class. If you take the seminar for one quarter (in the fall), write a paper of 6-8,000 words. Grades will be based on papers, reports and class participation. Students with documented disabilities Students who may need an academic accommodation based on the impact of a disability must initiate the request with the Student Disability Resource Center (SDRC) located within the Office of Accessible Education (OAE). SDRC staff will evaluate the request with required documentation, recommend reasonable accommodations, and prepare an Accommodation Letter for faculty dated in the current quarter in which the request is being made. Students should contact the SDRC as soon as possible since timely notice is needed to coordinate accommodations. The OAE is located at 563 Salvatierra Walk (phone: 723-1066). .
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Evolution of the Roman Calendar Dwayne Meisner, University of Regina
    The Evolution of the Roman Calendar Dwayne Meisner, University of Regina Abstract The Roman calendar was first developed as a lunar | 290 calendar, so it was difficult for the Romans to reconcile this with the natural solar year. In 45 BC, Julius Caesar reformed the calendar, creating a solar year of 365 days with leap years every four years. This article explains the process by which the Roman calendar evolved and argues that the reason February has 28 days is that Caesar did not want to interfere with religious festivals that occurred in February. Beginning as a lunar calendar, the Romans developed a lunisolar system that tried to reconcile lunar months with the solar year, with the unfortunate result that the calendar was often inaccurate by up to four months. Caesar fixed this by changing the lengths of most months, but made no change to February because of the tradition of intercalation, which the article explains, and because of festivals that were celebrated in February that were connected to the Roman New Year, which had originally been on March 1. Introduction The reason why February has 28 days in the modern calendar is that Caesar did not want to interfere with festivals that honored the dead, some of which were Past Imperfect 15 (2009) | © | ISSN 1711-053X | eISSN 1718-4487 connected to the position of the Roman New Year. In the earliest calendars of the Roman Republic, the year began on March 1, because the consuls, after whom the year was named, began their years in office on the Ides of March.
    [Show full text]
  • Varro's Roman Seasons
    HAL, Submitted 30 November 2019 Varro's Roman Seasons A. C. Sparavigna1 1 Dipartimento di Scienza Applicata e Tecnologia, Politecnico di Torino, Torino, Italy The four seasons of the Roman calendar, as described by Marcus Terentius Varro, are different from our seasons, in the sense that they start on days which differ from those that we are using today. In his Books on Agriculture, Varro shows that the Roman seasons started on the Cross Quarter-days instead than on the Quarter-days of the year as it happens today. Besides the classic subdivision in four parts, in the Books on Agriculture we can also find the year divided into eight parts, that is eight seasons having quite different lengths. In our discussion of Varro's seasons we will compare the days he mentions for the separation of seasons to the Cross Quarter- and Quarter-days that we find in Celtic calendars. Keywords: Chronology, Roman Chronology, Julian Calendar, Celtic festivals. DOI:10.5281/zenodo.3559524 Marcus Terentius Varro (116 - 27 BC) was a Roman scholar and writer. In his political career, he became tribune of the people, quaestor and curule aedile. Supporting Pompey, Varro reached the office of praetor [1,2]. He was also one of the members of the commission that carried out the agrarian plan of Julius Caesar for the resettlement of Capua and Campania (59 BC) [2]. During the civil war, Varro commanded one of Pompey's armies in Spain. After the battle of Pharsalus, he reconciled with Julius Caesar, and Caesar appointed him to oversee the public library of Rome [1].
    [Show full text]
  • Calendar of Roman Events
    Introduction Steve Worboys and I began this calendar in 1980 or 1981 when we discovered that the exact dates of many events survive from Roman antiquity, the most famous being the ides of March murder of Caesar. Flipping through a few books on Roman history revealed a handful of dates, and we believed that to fill every day of the year would certainly be impossible. From 1981 until 1989 I kept the calendar, adding dates as I ran across them. In 1989 I typed the list into the computer and we began again to plunder books and journals for dates, this time recording sources. Since then I have worked and reworked the Calendar, revising old entries and adding many, many more. The Roman Calendar The calendar was reformed twice, once by Caesar in 46 BC and later by Augustus in 8 BC. Each of these reforms is described in A. K. Michels’ book The Calendar of the Roman Republic. In an ordinary pre-Julian year, the number of days in each month was as follows: 29 January 31 May 29 September 28 February 29 June 31 October 31 March 31 Quintilis (July) 29 November 29 April 29 Sextilis (August) 29 December. The Romans did not number the days of the months consecutively. They reckoned backwards from three fixed points: The kalends, the nones, and the ides. The kalends is the first day of the month. For months with 31 days the nones fall on the 7th and the ides the 15th. For other months the nones fall on the 5th and the ides on the 13th.
    [Show full text]
  • Portrait N Augustus Tiberius Caligula Claudius Name B September BC
    Portrait Name Born Reigned Succession Died Became de January facto emperor as a Augustus September 23 63 16 27 BC – result of the 'first August 19, 14 AD CAESAR DIVI FILIVS AVGVSTVS BC, Nola, Italia August 19, settlement' between Natural causes. 14 AD himself and the Roman Senate. Son of Augustus's September March 16, 37 AD wife Livia by a November 16 42 18, 14 AD – Probably old age, Tiberius previous marriage; TIBERIVS CAESAR AVGVSTVS BC, Rome March 16, 37 possibly adopted son AD assassinated ofAugustus. January 24, 41 AD Assassinated in a March 18, 37 Caligula August 31, 12 Son of Tiberius's conspiracy GAIVS CAESAR AVGVSTVS AD – January AD,Antium, Italia nephew Germanicus. involving senators GERMANICVS 24, 41 AD and Praetorian Guards. Nephew of Tiberius, October 13, 54 AD brother January Probably poisoned August 1, 10 ofGermanicus and Claudius 25/26, 41 AD by his TIBERIVS CLAVDIVS CAESAR BC,Lugdunum, Gallia uncle of Caligula; – October 13, wife Agrippina the AVGVSTVS GERMANICVS Lugdunensis proclaimed emperor 54 AD Younger, in favour by the Praetorian of her son Nero. Guard. June 11, 68 AD Grandson October 13, Committed suicide Nero December 15, 37 of Germanicus, step- NERO CLAVDIVS CAESAR 54 AD – June after being declared AD, Antiuum, Italia and adopted son AVGVSTVS GERMANICVS 11, 68 AD a public enemy by of Claudius. the Senate. Portrait Name Born Reigned Succession Died Seized power June 8, 68 after Nero's January 15, 69 AD Galba December 24 3 BC, AD – SERVIVS GALBA IMPERATOR suicide, with Murdered Near Terracina,Italia January CAESAR
    [Show full text]
  • Greenfield, P. N. 2011. Virgin Territory
    _____________________________________ VIRGIN TERRITORY THE VESTALS AND THE TRANSITION FROM REPUBLIC TO PRINCIPATE _____________________________________ PETA NICOLE GREENFIELD 2011 Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Classics and Ancient History The University of Sydney ABSTRACT _____________________________________ The cult of Vesta was vital to the city of Rome. The goddess was associated with the City’s very foundation, and Romans believed that the continuity of the state depended on the sexual and moral purity of her priestesses. In this dissertation, Virgin Territory: The Vestals and the Transition from Republic to Principate, I examine the Vestal cult between c. 150 BCE and 14 CE, that is, from the beginning of Roman domination in the Mediterranean to the establishment of authoritarian rule at Rome. Six aspects of the cult are discussed: the Vestals’ relationship with water in ritual and literature; a re-evaluation of Vestal incestum (unchastity) which seeks a nuanced approach to the evidence and examines the record of incestum cases; the Vestals’ extra-ritual activities; the Vestals’ role as custodians of politically sensitive documents; the Vestals’ legal standing relative to other Roman women, especially in the context of Augustus’ moral reform legislation; and the cult’s changing relationship with the topography of Rome in light of the construction of a new shrine to Vesta on the Palatine after Augustus became pontifex maximus in 12 BCE. It will be shown that the cult of Vesta did not survive the turmoil of the Late Republic unchanged, nor did it maintain its ancient prerogative in the face of Augustus’ ascendancy.
    [Show full text]
  • Arh 382 Architecture and Regime Change in Ancient Rome
    ARH 382 ARCHITECTURE AND REGIME CHANGE IN ANCIENT ROME Professor Penelope Davies Online graduate seminar Fall semester 2020 W 12-3 pm Office hours by appointment Course description: This seminar examines the role of architecture in the process of regime change in ancient Rome. Classes will examine the gradual modifications of oligarchic rule during the Republic, the momentous shift from Republic to Empire, and the evolution from the early imperial principate to a dominate. Participants are also encouraged to consider the place of architecture in regime change in other cultures. Reading: Essential readings are indicated under the appropriate lectures in the schedule below (and others may be added as the semester progresses). For those who would like additional background information on Roman architecture and general, and specific topics in particular, the following books are available at the University Coop: Davies, Penelope J. E. (2017). Architecture and Politics in Republican Rome. Cambridge University Press. Favro, Diane, and Fikret Yegül (2020). Roman Architecture and Urbanism: From the Origins to Late Antiquity. Cambridge University Press. Flower, Harriet I. (2010). Roman Republics. Princeton University Press. Gowing, Alain (2005). Empire and Memory: The Representation of the Roman Republic in Imperial Culture. Cambridge University Press. Hopkins, John N. (2016). The Genesis of Roman Architecture. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. L’Orange, Hans P. (1971). Art Forms and Civic Life in the Late Roman Empire. Princeton University Press. Thornton, M. K. and R. L. Thornton (1989). Julio-Claudian Building Programs: A Quantitative Study in Political Management. Wauconda, IL, Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers. Requirements: • This course is designed to be 100% online.
    [Show full text]
  • THE LABOR SUPPLY of the EARLY ROMAN EMPIRE Peter Temin
    Massachusetts Institute of Technology Department of Economics Working Paper Series THE LABOR SUPPLY OF THE EARLY ROMAN EMPIRE Peter Temin Working Paper 01-45 November 2001 Room E52-251 50 Memorial Drive Cambridge, MA 02142 This paper can be downloaded without charge from the Social Science Research Network Paper Collection at http://papers.ssrn.com/paper.taf?abstract_id=293397 The Labor Supply of the Early Roman Empire Peter Temin 07 December 2001 Abstract I argue that it makes sense to speak of a functioning labor market in the early Roman Empire where the supply and demand for labor were equilibrated by wages and other payments to workers, albeit in a rough way. The economy of the early Roman Empire therefore had a market in this critical factor of production that resembles the labor market in more recent market economies. Slaves were included in the general labor market because Roman slavery was very different from modern slavery in the Americas. In the early Roman Empire, frequent manumission provided incentives for slaves to cooperate with their owners and act like free laborers. My thanks for help and advice from Roger Bagnall, Alan Bowman, Richard Duncan- Jones, Peter Garnsey, Keith Hopkins, Dominic Rathbone, and Joshua Sosin. I also thank the Warden and Fellows of Nuffield College, Oxford, for research support. All errors remain mine alone. The Labor Supply of the Early Roman Empire Ancient Rome was a slave society. This view has become so common as to need no citation, although Moses Finley may have been the first to assert that Rome was one of only five slave societies in recorded history (Finley, 1980).
    [Show full text]
  • History of the Calendar
    History of the Calendar The premise of the earliest Roman calendar is the meshing of a thirty-day lunar cycle with an eight-day market week (the interval required for the processing of goat’s cheese). Four months of thirty days each was the soonest these two units can be integrated. 120 days also roughly corresponds with the gestation period of a pig. The first month of the Roman year was March, followed by April, May, and June. March is named after the god of war, Mars. April is derived from the word aper, a boar. May is probably related to an old word for a sow, and June is named after the queen of the gods, Juno. There is evidence to suggest that March and June were originally named Caprotinus and Fabarius, words also related to the raising of pigs. According to tradition, around 738 B.C. Romulus, the legendary founder of Rome, added six months to the calendar. He unimaginatively named them the fifth through tenth months. An additional day was added to March, May, July, and October to maintain the eight-day market week –304 days. Numa Pompilius, the second king of Rome, added January (29 days) and February (28 days), and he took away one day each from the thirty-day months – 355 days. This calendar does not maintain the eight-day market week, but it does roughly coincide with twelve cycles of the moon, a lunar year. Initially intercalary days were added at the end of February to keep the calendar in line with the eight-day market week; later an intercalary month (Mercedonius) was added in alternate years to bring the lunar year into accord with the solar year and the changes in the seasons.
    [Show full text]
  • The Dog in Roman Peasant Life
    University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Anthropology Senior Theses Department of Anthropology Spring 2013 The Dog in Roman Peasant Life Kyle deSandes-Moyer University of Pennsylvania Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/anthro_seniortheses Part of the Anthropology Commons Recommended Citation deSandes-Moyer, Kyle, "The Dog in Roman Peasant Life" (2013). Anthropology Senior Theses. Paper 148. This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/anthro_seniortheses/148 For more information, please contact [email protected]. The Dog in Roman Peasant Life Abstract Dogs have been a part of civilization for thousands of years and have maintained one of the closest animal relationships with humans that exist today. The following research seeks to understand this connection during antiquity. This study answers the question of what roles the dog filled during antiquity and uses a case study focused on Roman peasant life. In order to answer the question of what role dogs had in antiquity, this study makes use of several different types of material, including a zooarchaeological assemblage from a Roman site in Tuscany, Italy. This original material comes from work on the Roman Peasant Project (University of Pennsylvania, Università di Grosseto, Cambridge University) which is the first project aimed at understanding the experience of the peasantry in the Roman period. One of these sites produced the dog remains which were studied through zooarchaeological analysis to better understand the relationship that existed between the peasant occupants and the dogs. In order to fully understand the context these dogs existed in, research was conducted regarding other archaeological evidence of dogs in antiquity.
    [Show full text]
  • The Rule of the Emperor Augustus: Despicable Tyrant Or Enlightened Despot?
    The rule of the emperor Augustus: despicable tyrant or enlightened despot? Advanced Seminar 600. Fall semester 2005. Lecture room: Greek and Latin Reading Room (Memorial Library, 4th floor). In order to access the room you need a key. You need to pay a deposit of $10.00 on the third floor of Memorial Library. Time: Monday 1:20-3:20 PM. Instructor: Marc Kleijwegt, Humanities 5219; tel.: 263 2528; email: [email protected] After eighteen years of civil war (49 and 31 BC) the youthful Octavian, the adopted son and heir of Julius Caesar, finally re-imposed order and stability on an exhausted Roman state. After his decisive victory over Mark Antony and Cleopatra at Actium in 31 BC, Octavian found himself alone in charge of the Roman Empire. No opponent was strong enough to challenge him. The important question that was on everybody’s mind was how Octavian would rule. The answer came in the first meeting of the senate in January of 27 BC when Octavian dramatically renounced all his powers to the Roman Senate. In exchange for these powers Octavian received a new name, Augustus, and a number of titles that illustrated his unique position of power. Augustus claimed to have restored the Republican government as it had existed before the civil wars erupted with Julius Caesar crossing the Rubicon. In retrospect it appears that Augustus provided the foundations for the establishment of a new type of government, the absolute rule by a single individual. The pronounced ambivalent character of Augustus’ reign - in terms of its ideology a constitutional monarchy, in actual fact an absolute monarchy - has interested scholars for generations.
    [Show full text]
  • Varro's Roman Seasons
    Varro’s Roman Seasons Amelia Carolina Sparavigna To cite this version: Amelia Carolina Sparavigna. Varro’s Roman Seasons. 2019. hal-02387848 HAL Id: hal-02387848 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02387848 Preprint submitted on 30 Nov 2019 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. HAL, Submitted 30 November 2019 Varro's Roman Seasons A. C. Sparavigna1 1 Dipartimento di Scienza Applicata e Tecnologia, Politecnico di Torino, Torino, Italy The four seasons of the Roman calendar, as described by Marcus Terentius Varro, are different from our seasons, in the sense that they start on days which differ from those that we are using today. In his Books on Agriculture, Varro shows that the Roman seasons started on the Cross Quarter-days instead than on the Quarter-days of the year as it happens today. Besides the classic subdivision in four parts, in the Books on Agriculture we can also find the year divided into eight parts, that is eight seasons having quite different lengths. In our discussion of Varro's seasons we will compare the days he mentions for the separation of seasons to the Cross Quarter- and Quarter-days that we find in Celtic calendars.
    [Show full text]
  • Festivals from December 25 to Yalda. a Search for Mithra
    Festivals from December 25 to Yalda. A Search for Mithra By K. E. Eduljee A trusted harbinger of the festive December season is the perennial discussion about links between Christmas and Roman Mithraism. In recent years, another element has been added to the discussion – that of the Iranian festival of Yalda celebrated on December 21 (or when the winter solstice is deemed to occur). This article examines the main assertions around December 25 and Yalda – that: 1. When Mithraism (originally from Iran) was imported to Rome, the pre-Christian Romans celebrated the birth of Mithra on December 25, then the date of the winter solstice; 2. There is a relationship between Christmas and the birth of Mithra (called Yalda or Zayesh-e Meher by Iranians) now celebrated around December 21; 3. Yalda is an ancient Iranian festival celebrating the birth of Mithra (Zayesh-e Meher), once worshipped as an Aryan (ancient Iranian) deity but who is for Zoroastrians, a Yazata or Fereshteh (angel). Part of our examination will be a search for Mithra’s (Meher’s) role in all three assertions and the results may surprise you. We will start our examination with the pre- Christmas Roman festivals said to celebrate the birth of Mithra. 1. Roman Festivals of Saturnalia & Natalis Invicti By the fourth century CE, Christianity began to establish itself as the dominant religion of Rome under Emperor Constantine (r.306-337 CE). Not long thereafter Romans began to celebrate Christmas, the nativity of Jesus, on December 25. Two pre-Christian Roman festivals that were celebrated at the same time as Christmas were Saturnalia and Natalis Invicti meaning the ‘nativity or birth of the invincible’.
    [Show full text]