HU Credits: 2

Degree/Cycle: 1st degree (Bachelor)

Responsible Department: History

Semester: 2nd Semester

Teaching Languages: Hebrew

Campus: Mt. Scopus

Course/Module Coordinator: Dr. Matthias Schmidt

Coordinator Email: matthias.schmidt@mail.huji.ac.il

Coordinator Office Hours: Mondays 14:30-16:00

Teaching Staff:
Dr. Matthias Schmidt

Course/Module description:
The exercise will give an introduction to politics, culture and religion in the age of Augustus as well as to relevant methodological and historiographical problems. The reading and viewing of relevant sources will contribute to the understanding of Roman society’s re-creation and of the establishment of the monarchy through propaganda, persuasion and innovation of morals to justify the changes brought upon the Empire by the new political system of Augustus.

Course/Module aims:
Students will get acquainted with the historical facts and the structural, political and cultural changes during the the transition from the Roman Republic to the Principate/Monarchy. They will familiarize themselves with the central reasons of the crisis without alternative of the republic and collect the solutions offered by the monarchic system of Augustus to understand the establishment of monarchy as the restitution of the republic. They will interpret the different means of propaganda used by Augustus to justify his claim for power and will learn to differentiate between several elements in politics, culture, art, religion, military and economy which were fundamental and characteristic for the Augustan Age. They will analyze relevant source material for the Augustan Age, discuss methodological problems and research approaches as well as historiographical evaluations of the Augustan enterprise. They will learn how to use a variety of primary sources (texts, inscriptions, coins, art and portraits, archaeological material) to reconstruct and interpret the Augustan Age in Rome and the Roman empire and its importance for western civilization.

Learning outcomes - On successful completion of this module, students should be able to:
- Examine and evaluate the crisis of the Roman Republic in the 1st century BCE as a crisis without alternative
- Validate the political, social, cultural, military and economic changes in the transition from Republic to Principate
- Recognize the political propaganda used by the regime to justify the new order
- Describe the main political powers fundamental to the new system
- Explain the establishment of the monarchy as the restoration of the republic
- Identify, date and describe the different stages and developments of the new political order
- Validate the changes in social, cultural and religious life brought about by the establishment of the Principate
- Assess the accuracy, credibility and objectify of ancient authors concerning the Augustan Age
- Be able to use different source material (texts, archaeology, coins, inscriptions, iconography) for the reconstruction of the Augustan age
- Evaluate the Augustan System in historical perspectives and discuss the ambivalent approaches towards Augustus in ancient and modern historiography
- Synthesise material from lectures and recommended primary sources and secondary literature to use in oral and written discussion of set topics

Attendance requirements(%):
90

Teaching arrangement and method of instruction: Lecture, power point presentations (incl. film material), analysis of different source material (textual,visual, maps), discussions on methodological problems.

Course/Module Content:
Introduction
1.1 Principle Questions
1.2 Aims of the Exercise: Aspects of contents and methodology
1.3 Periodisation of Roman History and the Age of Augustus
1.4 Terminology and Definitions: res publica, princeps, saeculum Augustum
1.5 The Research Problem: The restored Republic as Principatus and Monarchy
1.6 Introduction into the Augustan Age

The Roman Republic - A Political System in Permanent Crisis without Alternative
2.1 The System of the Roman Republic: Polybios, Histories 6.11-18
2.2 The Development of the Roman Republican System from the Kings until Augustus: Cornelius Tacitus, Annales 1.1

From the Lost Republic to the Restored Republic
3.1 The Background for the assassination of Iulius Caesar: Gaius Suetonius, Divus Iulius 76-80
3.2 Mythos Actium and the Victory over the East: Horatius Carmina I 37
3.3 Political Propaganda of Coins during the Civil War and the Period of the Triumvirate
3.4 Augustus Rise to Power: Cornelius Tacitus, Annales 1.2-4

The Restoration of the Republic as Principatus
4.1 The Elements of the Augustan System: Res Gestae Divi Augusti 34-35
4.2 Augustus on himself: Res Gestae Divi Augustus
4.3 Gaius Suetonius, Divus Augustus - The Ancient Biography

Political and Cultural Propaganda in the Age of Augustus
5.1 Rome - The Golden City: The Urban Images of Rome during the Age of Augustus
5.2 The Imperial Triumph and the Religious Reforms - Augustus as Pontifex maximus
5.2.1 Res Gestae Divi Augusti 10; 12.2
5.2.2 Gaius Suetonius 31
5.2.3 Dio Cassius, Roman History 54, 27.2-3
5.3 The Power of Images - Art, Literature and Culture in the Age of Augustus
5.4 The Portrait of the Princeps and the Ruler Cult

6. Conclusion: Augustus in Antique Historiography: “The Trial of Augustus” by Tacitus, Annales 1.9-10

Required Reading:
משה עמית, תולדות הקיסרות הרומית, הוצאת ספרים ע‘‘ש י‘‘ל מגנס, ירושלים, 2002, חלק ראשון: תקופת אוגוסטוס, עמ‘ 1-240.

צבי יעבץ, אוגוסטוס - נצחונה של מתינות, תל אביב: דביר, 4991.

W. Eder, “Republicans and Sinners. The Decline of the Roman Republic and the End of a Provisional Arrangement”, in: Robert W. Wallace, Edward M. Harris (eds), Transitions to Empire. Essays in Greco-Roman History, 360-146 B.C., in honor of E. Badian,, Norman and London: University of Oklahoma Press, 1996, 439-461.

W. Eder, “Augustus and the Power of Tradition: The Augustan Principate as Binding Link between Republic and Empire”, in: Kurt A. Raaflaub, Mark Toher (eds), Between Republic and Empire. Interpretations of Augustus and His Principate, Berkeley Los Angeles Oxford: University of California Press, 1990, 71-122.

John Ferguson, “Ruler Worship”, in: John Wacker (ed.), The Roman World, London New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1987, Vol. II, Chap. 32, 766-784.

T. C. Luce, “Livy, Augustus and the Forum Augustum”, in: Kurt A. Raaflaub, Mark Toher (eds), Between Republic and Empire. Interpretations of Augustus and His Principate, Berkeley Los Angeles Oxford: University of California Press, 1990, 123-138.

C. Meier, “C. Caesar Divi filius and the Formation of the Alternative in Rome”, in: Kurt A. Raaflaub, Mark Toher (eds.), Between Republic and Empire. Interpretations of Augustus and His Principate, Berkeley, LA: University of California Press, 1990, 54-70.

Robert M. Ogilvie, The Romans and their Gods in the Age of Augustus, London: Chatto and Windus Ltd., 1969.

J. Pollini, “Man or God: Divine Assimilation and Imitation in the Late Republic and Early Principate”, in: Kurt A. Raaflaub, Mark Toher (eds), Between Republic and Empire. Interpretations of Augustus and His Principate, Berkeley Los Angeles Oxford: University of California Press, 1990, 334-357.

Simon R. F. Price, "The Place of Religion: Rome in the Early Empire", in: The Cambridge Ancient History (Second Edition), Volume X: The Augustan Empire, 43 B.C. - A. D. 69 (ed. by Alan K. Bowman, Edward Champlin, Andrew Lintott), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996, pp. 812-847.

David Shotter, Augustus Caesar, London New York: Routledge, 1995.

Andrew Wallace-Hadrill, Augustan Rome, Bristol Classical Press, 1993.

Andrew Wallace-Hadrill, “Mutatio morum: the idea of a cultural revolution”, in: Thomas Habinek, Alessandro Schiesaro (eds.), The Roman Cultural Revolution, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997, 3-22.

Additional Reading Material:
ישארל שצמן, תולדות הרפובליקה הרומית, הוצאת מגנס, ירושלים 7991.

The Cambridge Ancient History (Second Edition), Volume X: The Augustan Empire, 43 B.C. - A. D. 69 (ed. by Alan K. Bowman, Edward Champlin, Andrew Lintott), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.

Mary Beard, John North, Simon Price (eds.), Religions of Rome, Vol. I: A History; Vol. II: A Sourcebook, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998 (esp. Vol I, chap. 2: Imperial Triumph and Religious Change, 73-113).

P. A. Brunt, J. M. Moore, Res Gestae Divi Augusti. The Achievements of the Divine Augustus, with an Introduction and Commentary, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1967.

Ken Dowden, Religion and the Romans, Bristol Classical Press, 1992.

Diane Favro. The Urban Image of Augustan Rome, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.

Denis Feeney, Literature and Religion at Rome. Cultures, Contexts and Beliefs (Roman Literature in its Context), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998.

Andrew Feldherr, “Livy’s revolution: civic identity and the creation of the res publica”, in: Thomas Habinek, Alessandro Schiesaro (eds.), The Roman Cultural Revolution, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997, 136-157.

Karl Galinsky, Augustan Culture. An interpretive Introduction, Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1996.

Karl Galinsky (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Augustus, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005,

Peter Garnsey, Richard Saller, The Roman Empire. Economy, Society and Culture, Berkeley Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1987.

Martin Goodman, The Roman World 44 BC - AD 180, London New York: Routledge, 1997.
Thomas Habinek, Alessandro Schiesaro (eds.), The Roman Cultural Revolution, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997.

Fergus Millar, Erich Segal (eds.), Caesar Augustus. Seven Aspects, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1984.

Simon R. F. Price, Rituals and Power. The Roman Imperial Cult in Asia Minor, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984.

Kurt A. Raaflaub, Mark Toher (eds), Between Republic and Empire. Interpretations of Augustus and His Principate, Berkeley Los Angeles Oxford: University of California Press, 1990.

Jane De Rose Evans, The Art of Persuasion. Political Propaganda from Aeneas to Brutus, Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 1992.

Robert K. Sherk (ed.), The Roman Empire: Augustus to Hadrian (Translated Documents of Greece and Rome 6), Cambridge New York: Cambridge University Press, 1988.

Pat Southern, Augustus, London New York: Routledge, 1998.

Ronald Syme, The Roman Revolution, Oxford 1939.

M. Toher, “Augustus and the Evolution of Roman Historiography”, in: Kurt A. Raaflaub, Mark Toher (eds), Between Republic and Empire. Interpretations of Augustus and His Principate, Berkeley Los Angeles Oxford: University of California Press, 1990, 139-154,

John Wacker (ed.), The Roman World, 2 Vols., London New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1987.

Paul Zanker, The Power of Images in the Age of Augustus, Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 1990.

Course/Module evaluation:
End of year written/oral examination 90 %
Presentation 0 %
Participation in Tutorials 5 %
Project work 0 %
Assignments 5 %
Reports 0 %
Research project 0 %
Quizzes 0 %
Other 0 %

Additional information:
In this subject Classical literature and sources are studied in translation. No knowledge of Greek or Latin is required.