CL 203: Public virtues and private vices in imperial Rome

Class meets: Summer I 2008, M, T, W 9:30 am- 12n, CAS 208

Course description:

Men in public life are not responsible merely for their public words and actions. Their dinners, their bed, their marriage, their amusements and interests are all objects of curiosity.

These words, which could have been written today, in fact come from the early second century of the empire (Plutarch, Rules for politicians 800D). In this course, we shall undertake a detailed study of how Julius Caesar, Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius and Nero – the first six emperors whose biographies Suetonius preserved – were represented in terms of public and private aspects of their lives. In a critical engagement with these Lives, as well as with other contemporary representations, such as the evidence of public monuments, inscriptions and coinage, we shall examine where positive and negative depictions may have originated and how they spread across Roman society. How were both the public and private aspects of imperial rule recognized as contributing to that ruler’s essential character? We ask how the fascination with both public and private lives of emperors contributed to developing notions of self-control and why was such self-control such an important part of what it meant to be a good person. Finally, we include discussions about the female members of the imperial family to see how the roles of women and wives in general came to be transformed in this period.

Grading:
-PARTICIPATION/PREPARATION: 15% of your final grade.
In a summer course, every day equals to almost a week’s worth of class. You need to be present (physically and mentally) at class and at any additional events. Class participation includes contributing to class discussions.
-QUIZZES: 15 % of your final grade.
There will be three take-home quizzes during the semester, worth 5% each.
-PRESENTATIONS: 30% of your final grade.
Three in-class presentations on an individual subject, related to the topic of that class.
-WRITING ASSIGNMENT: 20% of your final grade. Due June 16, in the beginning of class. (Optional drafts are due on June 10.)
A 2000-word paper related to one of your presentations.  
-FINAL EXAM: 20% of your final grade; in the final class.
90-minute exam based on material covered in the whole semester.

Other information:
◊ Discussions with the instructor: It is a good idea to plan to come see me for office hours at least once early in the course to talk about your paper.
◊ Attendance policy: You need to attend class to be able to complete this course. More than three unexcused absences will result in a lower final grade. Note also the CAS policy on incompletes: this is an extreme option available only in special cases.
◊ Plagiarism: The CAS Academic Conduct Code (available in CAS 105 if you do not have a copy) defines what qualifies as cheating and plagiarism, and I expect you to understand and follow the Code’s guidelines. We shall discuss in class how you can avoid cheating and develop a writing style of your own.

Textbooks: (available at Barnes and Noble on Kenmore Square):
Note: Please bring the appropriate volume of readings to class.
◊ Plutarch, Roman Lives, Oxford 1999, ISBN-13: 978-0192825025.
◊ Suetonius, Lives of the Caesars, Oxford 2001, ISBN-13: 978-0192832719.
◊ Tacitus, The Annals of Imperial Rome, Penguin 1976, ISBN-13: 978-0140440607.
◊ R. Graves, I, Claudius. Vintage 1989, ISBN-13: 978-0679724773
◊ P. Zanker, Pompeii: Public and Private Life. Harvard 1999, ISBN: 978-0674689671.
◊ P. Zanker, The Power of Images in the Age of Augustus. Michigan 1988. ISBN-13: 978-0472081240.

SCHEDULE OF CLASSES
Before Augustus
5/20 Class 1: Introduction: public and private in history
Additional readings: (for those interested in exploring the issues discussed)
-Champlin, E. “Creditur vulgo testamenta hominum speculum esse morum. Why the Romans made wills,” CPh 1989 84: 198-215.
-Schenker, D. J. “Poetic voices in Horace's Roman odes,” CJ 88 (1992-1993) 147-166.
-Vout, C. “The erotics of imperium” in Vout 2007, 1-51.

5/21 Class 2: Julius Caesar: the familial traditions of great men in the Roman Republic
Required reading: Plutarch, Life of Caesar (pp. 297-360); Suetonius, Julius Caesar (pp. 3-42).
Study questions: How do the two lives of Caesar compare to each other? What topics and themes do Plutarch and Suetonius prefer? Why do you think this is so?
Additional readings: (for those interested in exploring the issues discussed)
-Plutarch, Alexander the Great.
-White, P. “Julius Caesar in Augustan Rome,” Phoenix42 (1988) 334-356.
- Burke, J. W. “Emblematic scenes in Suetonius' Vitellius,” Histos 1998.
-Swain, Simon C. R. “Biography and biographic in the literature of the Roman empire,” In: Portraits : biographical representation in the Greek and Latin literature of the Roman Empire / ed. by M. J. Edwards and S. C. R. Swain. Oxford : Clarendon Pr., 1997: 1-37.
-Selection from Wallace-Hadrill, A. Suetonius: the Scholar and his Caesars. New Haven 1983; esp. 142-174.

Augustus: the revolution of public and private
5/27: From the death of Caesar to Augustus: Rome’s old-new mission and the public private divide – Quiz 1 due
Presentation 1: Vergil’s Aeneid: public and private
Required reading: Suetonius, Life of Augustus (pp. 43-97); Tacitus, Annals 1.1-1.15 (=pp. 31-42); Vergil, Aeneid Bks. 1 and 4. (handout, pp. 3-30 and 95-121).
Study questions: How does the biography of Augustus compare to that of Caesar in Suetonius? What are the main differences between this biography and the historical summary of Tacitus?
Additional readings: (for presenters)
-Flory, M.B., "Livia and the history of public honorific statues for women in Rome," TAPA 123 (1993) 287-308.
-Selection from Severy, B. Augustus and the Family at the Birth of the Roman Empire. New York 2003.
-Selection from Wiltshire, S. F. Public and Private in Vergil's Aeneid 1989.
-Selection from Wood, S. Imperial Women: A Study in PublicImages, 40 B.C. - A.D. 68, Leiden 1999.

5/28 Class 4: Augustus: the Augustan Res Gestae as the self-representation of Rome’s first emperor
Presentation 2: Representations of the battle of Actium
Required reading: Augustus, Res Gestae (handout, pp. 561-572); Zanker, Power of Images, pp. 79-167.
Study questions: What are the main virtues Augustus attributes to himself in his Res Gestae? How does the text of the Res Gestae match with the images representing Augustus as described by Zanker?
Additional readings: (for presenters)
- Selections from R.A. Gurval, Actium and Augustus : the politics and emotions of civil war. Ann Arbor 1995.
- Brunt, P. A.; Moore, J. M. Res Gestae Divi Augusti: the Achievements of the Divine Augustus. Oxford 1967.
- Jenkyns, R. Virgil's experience: nature and history, times, names, and places. Oxford 1998, pp. 631-677.

5/30 Class 5: Augustus: Augustan love poetry and moral legislation: the boundaries of public and private
Presentation 3: Julia, daughter of Augustus
Required reading: selections from Augustan love poetry (handout, pp. 51-55); the evidence for moral legislation (handout, pp. 602-607); Zanker, Power of Images, pp. 265-296.
Study questions: How does the legal evidence compare with the poetry of the Augustan age? What does this tell us about the popularity and success of Augustan legislation concerning private life?
Additional readings: (for presenters)
- Fantham, E. “Roman elegy : problems of self-definition, and redirection,” in: L'histoire littéraire immanente dans la poésie latine, pp. 183-211.
- Habinek, T. “The invention of sexuality in the world-city of Rome,” in: The Roman cultural revolution, pp. 23-43.
-Wallace-Hadrill, A. “Mutatio morum: the idea of a cultural revolution,” in: The Roman cultural revolution, pp. 3-22.
-Selection from Wood, S. Imperial Women: A Study in PublicImages, 40 B.C. - A.D. 68, Leiden 1999.

After Augustus: the consolidation of imperial representation under the Julio-Claudian emperors
6/2 Class 6: Tiberius: the Suetonius life
Presentation 4: Sejanus as an anti-hero
Required reading: Suetonius, Life of Tiberius (pp. 98-135); Tacitus, Annals II.27-52, IV-VI (pp. 90-103, 157-226).
Study questions: How does Tiberius compare to Augustus in the depiction of Suetonius? In what way is Tiberius an anti-hero for Tacitus?
Additional readings: (for presenters)
- Beard, M.; Henderson, J. “The emperor's new body: ascension from Rome,” in: Deciphering the bodies of antiquity , pp. 191-219.
-Selection from Rutledge, S. H. Imperial Inquisitions: Prosecutors and Informants from Tiberius to Domitian. London 2001.

6/3 Class 7: Caligula: the Suetonius life
Presentation 5: Drusilla, Caligula’s sister
Required reading: Suetonius, Life of Caligula (pp. 136-167)
Study questions: Is it possible to be a good leader and a bad person? How does Suetonius imply that Caligula was mad?
Additional readings: (for presenters)
-Selection from Barrett, A. A. Caligula: the Corruption of Power. New Haven 1990.

6/4 Class 8: Petronius: Satyricaor tell me how you eat and I tell you who you are
Presentation 6: Scary dinners as abuses of imperial power
Required reading: Petronius, The dinner of Trimalchio (handout)
Study questions: What is the social rank of Trimalchio? Which of his dinner elements mark his aspirations for high social rank and which betray his servile origins in Petronius’ depiction?
Additional readings: (for presenters)
-Selection from Donahue, J. F. The Roman Community at Table during the Principate. Ann Arbor 2004.
-Selection from Faas, P. Around the Roman Table: Food and Feasting in Ancient Rome. Chicago 2005.

Claudius: reflections on imperial rule from a “crazy” emperor
6/9 Class 9: Claudius: the Suetonius life – Quiz 2 due
Presentation 7: Graves’ and the BBC’s series I, Claudius and Suetonius
Required reading: Suetonius, Claudius (pp. 168-194)
Study question: Compare the Suetonius life to the clips from I, Claudius (as well as Graves volume). Focus on the public vs. private emphases.
Additional readings: (for presenters)
-Selection from B. Levick, Claudius. New Haven 1993.
- C. Koelb, “The Medium of History: Robert Graves and the Ancient Past,” in:
Comparative literary dimensions : essays in honor of Melvin J. Friedman, ed. by J. L. Halio, B. Siegel. Newark 2000, pp. 31-49.

6/10 Class 10: Contexts of madness (Claudius continued) – Paper drafts are due today!
Presentation 8: Physiognomy in the Roman Empire or Women’s illnesses 
Additional readings: (for presenters)
-Selection from Barton, T. Power and knowledge : astrology, physiognomics, and medicine under the Roman Empire. Ann Arbor 1994.
-Selection from Flemming, R. Medicine and the making of Roman women : gender, nature, and authority from Celsus to Galen. Oxford 2000.

6/11 Class 11: funerary art as non-narrative biography: representing what matters
Presentation 9: Mythological selves: representations on sarcophagi
Required: Koorbojian, Myth, Meaning and Memory, (selection, handout pp. 114-142)
Study question: Think about what factors shape how one might wish to depict oneself in death (e.g. surviving relatives, desire for afterlife, etc.)
Additional readings: (for presenters)
- George, M. “Family and familia on biographical sarcophagi,” RM 2000, 107: 191-207.
-Selection from Koorbojian, M. Myth, Meaning and Memory on Roman Sarcophagi. Berkeley 1995.

Pompeii
6/16 Class 12: Pompeii: public life – Papers are due!
Presentation 10: The Roman Imperial Fora
Required reading: Zanker, Pompeii, pp. 78-134.; Wallace-Hadrill, A. “Public honour and private shame: the urban texture of Pompeii,” In: Urban society in Roman Italy. ed. by T. J. Cornell and K. Lomas. London :1995: 39-62.
Study questions: What were the most important public monuments of Pompeii? What civic values can they be associated with?
Additional readings: (for presenters)
- A. Claridge: Rome : an Oxford archaeological guide. Oxford 1998.
-Selection from R. Laurence, Roman Pompeii : space and society. London 2007 (2nd ed.)
- Zanker, Pompeii, pp. 1-77.

6/17 Class 13: Pompeii: private life
Presentation 11: the Casa del Fauno in Pompeii
Required reading: Zanker, Pompeii, pp. 135-206.
Study questions: What values does the arrangement of private houses represent? Can we establish a public/private dynamic betwee the city and the home?
Additional readings: (for presenters)
-Riggsby, Andrew M. - « Public » and « private » in Roman culture : the case of the « cubiculum ». JRA 1997 10 : 36-56
- Grahame, Mark. - Public and private in the Roman house : the spatial order of the Casa del Fauno, in: Domestic space in the Roman world : Pompeii and beyond / ed. by R. Laurence, A. Wallace-Hadrill. Portsmouth 1997, pp. 137-164.

Nero
6/18 Class 14: Nero: between crazy and normal, between history and biography
-- Quiz 3 due
Presentation 12: Agrippina, mother of Nero / Pythagoras and Sporus, Nero’s male husband and wife
Required reading: Suetonius, Nero (pp. 195-227); Tacitus, Annals Books 13-16 (pp. 283-397)
Study questions: In what different ways do Suetonius and Tacitus criticize Nero? Make a list of his good and bad deeds.
Additional readings: (for presenters)
- Frier, B. W. “Roman Same-Sex Weddings from the Legal Perspective”, CSN 10, 2004.
(http://www.umich.edu/~classics/news/newsletter/winter2004/weddings.html)
- Jones, C. P. “Nero speaking,” HSPh 2000, 100: 453-462.
- Mellor, R. The Roman Historians. London 1999, pp. 76-109.
-Vout, C. “Compromising traditions: the case of Nero and Sporus,” in Vout 2007, 136-166.

6/23 Class 15: Seneca: imperial virtues and Stoic philosophy or why the emperor should grant mercy
Presentation 13: The control of emotions: public and private OR Self on display
Required reading: Seneca, On mercy and On the Private Life (handout, pp. 117-180)
Study questions: Seneca’s On Mercy is often considered as a guide to how to be a “good” emperor; make a list of what constitutes Seneca’s advice. How does Seneca’s notion of “private life” compare to our modern sense of what is private?
Additional readings: (for presenters)
-Selection from S. Bartch, The mirror of the self : sexuality, self-knowledge, and the gaze in the early Roman Empire, Chicago 2006.
-Selection from Harris, W. V. Restraining rage: the ideology of anger control in classical antiquity. Cambridge 2001.
-Selection from Sorabji, R. Emotion and peace of mind: from Stoic agitation to Christian temptation : the Gifford lectures. Oxford 2000.

6/24 Class 16: After Nero: public and private, virtues and vices in the later Roman Empire
Presentation 14: Foucault on developing notions of the self
Required reading: Pliny, Panegyricus (handout); Plutarch, Advice to the Bride and Groom (selections, handout, pp. 5-13)
Study questions: What virtues do you recognize in Pliny’s praise of Trajan? What virtues are applied to the family in Plutarch?
Additional readings: (for presenters)
-Selection from Plutarch's Advice to the bride and groom, and A consolation to his wife, ed. by S. B. Pomeroy. New York 1999.
-McHoul, A., Grace, W. A Foucault primer : discourse, power and the subject. Melbourne 1993, pp. 93-125.

6/25 Final exam

Further bibliography:
-Bartsch, Shadi. - The self as audience : paradoxes of identity in imperial Rome. Pegasus 44 (2001) 4-12.
-Berry Christopher J. - Luxury and the politics of need and desire. The Roman case. HPTh 10 (1989) 597-613.
-Bruun, Patrick. “Coins and the Roman imperial government,” In: Roman coins and public life under the empire : 19-40.
-Candau Morón, José María. “Plutarch's Lysander and Sulla : integrated characters in Roman historical perspective,” AJPh 121 (2000) 453-478.
-Clarke, John R, Looking at Lovemaking in Roman Art: Constructions of Sexuality 100 B.C. to A.D. 250, Berkeley 1998.
-Corbeill, Anthony, "Dining Deviants in Roman Political Invective," in Roman Sexualities edited by Hallett, Judith P. and Skinner, Marilyn B., Princeton 1997, 99-128.
- Donahue, J. F. “Toward a typology of Roman public feasting,” AJPh 2003, 124 (3) : 423-441.
-Edwards, Catharine, The Politics of Immorality in Ancient Rome, Cambridge (1993)
-Edwards, C. "Unspeakable Professions: Public Performance and Prostitution in Ancient Rome," in Roman Sexualities edited by Hallett, Judith P. and Skinner, Marilyn B., Princeton 1997: 66-95.
-Fagan, Garrett G. - Bathing in public in the Roman world. Ann Arbor 1999.
-Forbis, E. P. "Women's Public Image in Italian Honorary Inscriptions," American Journal of Philology 111 (1990) 493-512.
-Fredrick, D. "Beyond the Atrium to Ariadne: Erotic Painting and Visual Pleasure in the Roman House," ClAnt (1995) 266-288 .
-Gardner, Jane F. - Status, sentiment and strategy in Roman adoption. Adoption et fosterage : 63-79.
-Gibson, Roy K. - Pliny and the art of (in)offensive self-praise. Arethusa 36 (2003) 235-254.
-Hales, Shelley. - At home with Cicero. G&R 47 (2000) 44-55.
-Hooper, Richard W. The Priapus Poems, Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press (1999)
-Joshel, Sandra R., "Female Desire and the Discourse of Empire: Tacitus' Messalina," in Roman Sexualities edited by Hallett, Judith P. and Skinner, Marilyn B., Princeton: Princeton University Press (1997) 221-254.
-Kampen, N. - Between public and private : women as historical subjects in Roman art. In: Women's history and ancient history / ed. by Pomeroy Sarah B. Chapel Hill 1991: 218-248.
-Kampen, Natalie Boymel, Sexuality in Ancient Art, Cambridge (1996).
-Ker, James. - Nocturnal writers in imperial Rome : the culture of « lucubratio ». CPh 99 (2004) 209-242.
-Kleiner, D.; Matheson, S.B. I, Claudia II. Women in Roman Art and Society. Austin 2000.
-Laycock, Anitra. - In the service of Rome : Stoic spirit in the « Aeneid ». Dionysius 17 (1999) 27-56.
-Levick, Barbara Mary. - Messages on the Roman coinage : types and inscriptions. Roman coins and public life under the empire : 41-60
-MacMullen, R., "Women in Public in the Roman Empire," Historia 29 (1980) 208-18 [reprinted in R. MacMullen. Changes in the Roman Empire: Essays in the Ordinary. Princeton, 1990. Pp. 162-68]
-Markus, Donka D. - Performing the book : the recital of epic in first-century C.E. Rome. ClAnt 19 (2000) 138-179.
-McClure, L. Sexuality and Gender in the Classical World: New York 2002.
-McGinn, T. "Concubinage and the Lex Iulia on Adultery," Transactions of the American Philological Association 121 (1991) 335-375.
-McGinn, T. The Economy of Prostitution in the Roman World: A Study of Social History and the Brothel, Ann Arbor 2004.
-Miller, P. A. Latin erotic elegy : an anthology and reader. London 2002.
- Milnor, K. Gender, domesticity, and the age of Augustus : inventing private life. Oxford 2005.
-Newbold, Ronald F. “Pardon and revenge in Suetonius and the « Historia Augusta »,” Prudentia 33 (2001) 41-58.
-Raditsa, L. "Augustus' Legislation Concerning Marriage, Procreation, Love Affairs, and Adultery," Aufstieg und Niedergang der Römischen Welt 2.13 (1980) 278-339.
-Rawson, B. The Family in Ancient Rome: New Perspectives, Ithaca 1986.
-Riddle, J. M. Eve's Herbs : A History of Contraception and Abortion in the West, Cambridge, MA 1997.
-Rousselle, A. "Personal Status and Sexual Practice in the Roman Empire," in Zone: Fragments for a History of the Human Body: Part Three edited by M. Feher 301-333.
-Vout, C. Power and Eroticism in Imperial Rome. Cambridge 2007.
-Wallace-Hadrill, A. “The social structure of the Roman house,” PBSR 43 (1988) 43-97.
-Williams, Craig A., Roman Homosexuality: Ideologies of Masculinity in Classical Antiquity, Oxford 1999.
-Williams, Gordon, "Some Aspects of Roman Marriage Ceremonies and Ideals," Journal of Roman Studies 48 (1958) 16-29.
-Williams, Gordon, "Poetry in the Moral Climate of Augustan Rome," Journal of Roman Studies 52 (1962) 28-46.