CLAS 204 - Augustan Era

FDR: HL Literature Distribution
Credits: 3

An interdisciplinary course taught in English, using the tools of literature, history and art to examine a specific, complicated, and pivotally important period in the evolution of western culture, focused on the literary. Readings from the poets predominate (Virgil’s Aeneid and Ovid’s Metamorphosis, selections from Horace, Propertius, Tibullus and other poems of Ovid) and also including readings from ancient historians dealing with Augustus and the major events of his period (e.g., Suetonius, Plutarch, and Tacitus on such topics as Actium and problems of succession). The topic for each lecture is illustrated with slides of works of art and architecture from the period. Selections from historians and from material remains are chosen according to intersection points with the literature.