May 15, 2020 Mary Gates Hall mental history. Furthermore, it demonstrates the complexity SESSION O-2B between the government and the conflicting political ideolo- gies during the late Roman Republic. Thus, through detailed PATHWAYS TO THE PAST: analysis of these selected passages and their wider contexts, I explore how the Catilinarian and Philippic orations use ref- APPROACHES TO HISTORY IN erences from Rome’s earlier history to adapt to, and reflect, UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH their particular moments. Session Moderator: Sarah Ketchley, Near Eastern Languages & Civilization SESSION O-2B 1:00 PM to 2:30 PM * Note: Titles in order of presentation. PATHWAYS TO THE PAST: Enemies and the End of the Roman Republic: A APPROACHES TO HISTORY IN Comparison of Cicero’s In Catilinam and Philippicae Emma Petersen, Senior, Classics UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH Mary Gates Scholar Session Moderator: Sarah Ketchley, Near Eastern Mentor: Catherine Connors, Classics Languages & Civilization Mentor: Sarah Stroup, Classics 1:00 PM to 2:30 PM * Note: Titles in order of presentation. This project examines what legal writings from ancient Rome reveal about the political ideology, social values, and power The Fallen Science: The Tradition and Skepticism of dynamics in Roman history. I focus on these concepts Ancient Astrology through analyzing selections from two sets of speeches given Owen Sarsfield Coats, Senior, History, Classics by Cicero, a politician, loyal proponent of the Roman Repub- Mentor: Catherine Connors, Classics lic, and philosopher educated in both Latin and Greek. Ad- ditionally, I explore the scholarship on Roman legal history Astrology, the prediction of events from the movements of to provide supplementary cultural context. The sociopolitical stars and planets, has grown from Mesopotamian omen- climate of the late Roman Republic was tumultuous. Near literature to the astrology of Hellenistic and Roman periods, the beginning of Cicero’s political career, he gave a set of and strangely enough it has endured even into the modern orations, In Catalinam, to the Senate that accused Catiline day. In this project, by drawing on scholarly analyses of the of conspiring against the consuls. Much later, Cicero tried intellectual and religious context of astrology (Barton) and to keep the Republic alive after Caesar’s assassination and the worldviews of the non-elite (Toner) I examine how astrol- accused Mark Antony of being disloyal to Caesar by want- ogy was interwoven into the political, intellectual and social ing to create an empire. This urge to defend the Repub- framework of the ancient world; and how the authority of as- lic prompted Cicero to write his Philippicae to attack Mark trologers was both supported and challenged by the polyva- Antony. These orations ultimately resulted in Cicero’s death, lence of their discipline, as well as their ability to connect to as Mark Antony wanted, and the Republic ended. My re- individual consultees. As for ancient sources, the Astronom- search compares Cicero’s In Catilinam 1, 2, and 4 and Philip- ica of Marcus Manilius, composed as a didactic poem in the picae 4, 5, and 14: both sets involve murder plots, denunci- early first century CE, shows how astrology was understood ations of powerful men, and the senatus consultum ultimum and used by the elite. It considers astrology in a broad the- decree for Republican emergency. Specifically, I analyze how oretical context, encompassing a wide array of astrological Cicero uses oratory to convince the Senate to declare Catiline concepts. He also illustrates the historical period in which he and Mark Antony as public enemies. This process reveals writes, under the new Principate of Augustus, by using as- elements of Roman sociopolitical culture, such as values, trology to legitimate Augustus’s self-made status as princeps. threats, and legal procedures, and follows these differences in On the other hand, other works such as that of Dorotheus this short, but crucial, time period in Roman legal and govern- of Sidon concern the more practical side of astrology. He Undergraduate Research Program 1 www.uw.edu/undergradresearch is less concerned with theory and more with specific horo- scopes, and better depicts the sorts of questions and concerns clients of a variety of social status would have had. Finally, skepticism toward astrology in antiquity is best rendered in Cicero’s On Divination and Sextus Empiricus’s Against Pro- fessors. These critiques and others, however, were directed less at astrological theory and more at its practitioners. By coming to understand how ancient peoples viewed astrology as both an intellectual discipline and a practical tool, we can better understand their cultural conception of the universe and in the process provide a useful comparison to similar institu- tions today. 2.