Classics

This course introduces students to the history and culture of Rome under the emperors. It focuses both on the city of Rome and its vast empire, from the Antonine Wall to the Euphrates. The course covers the political and social history of Rome from the death of Augustus to the late 3rd century AD, together with the material culture, monuments, art, literature and thought of the Romans during this period. Lectures cover topics such the expansion of the empire, the Roman army, Roman religion, monuments of the city of Rome, Roman villas, and Roman poetry and drama, as well as the various imperial dynasties. 

This course introduces the principate of Augustus (27 BCE - 14 CE) as a pivotal moment in the political and cultural history of Rome and its subsequent influence. This course helps students understand the creation and design of the Principate in the context of the late Republic, its experiments in one-man rule, and the Civil Wars; explores the literature and art of the Augustan period, above all Virgil's Aeneid, with particular attention to their cultural and political backgrounds, and discusses the development of the Principate over the course of Augustus' reign.

This course examines the political system established at Rome by Octavian at the end of the Roman "Republican" period which is normally known as the "Principate" or "High Empire" until the reforms of Emperor Diocletian and the Edict of Milan which granted the Christians freedom of religion.  Students look at the tensions and development in the structures of the state in this period, the role of the army and foreign policy, life in the provinces of the empire, and social issues including religious practices and the rise of Christianity.