CC 302: Introduction to Ancient Rome

CC 347: The Cultural History of Rome

December 3: Rome, 192-476 CE

I. Lingua Latina

Phrases connected with Nero

• occidat, dum imperet (from Tacitus)
• ventrem feri (from Tacitus)
• Quis negat Aeneae magna de stirpe Neronem?
  sustulit hic matrem, sustulit ille patrem
  (from Suetonius)
• qualis artifex pereo (from Suetonius)

From Juvenal

• difficile est saturam non scribere
• quid Romae faciam? mentiri nescio
• panem et circenses
• orandum est ut sit mens sana in corpore sano

Some Graffiti from Pompeii

• C. Pumidius Dipilus Heic Fuit
• Augii Amat Allotenum
• Philiiros spado
• Admiror te, paries, non cecidisse, qui tot scriptorum taedia sustineas.
• Suspirium puellarum,... Celadus... III III

Latin and the Great Monuments of Rome

• Nero said that "se...quasi hominem tandem habitare coepisse."
• "aue imperator, nos morituri te salutamus!"
• M. AGRIPPA L. F. COS. TERTIUM FECIT
  (=Marcus Agrippa Lucii Filius Consul Tertium Fecit)

Latin from Late Antiquity

• In hoc signo vinces
• Per... [Romam] Deo placuit orbem debellare terrarum (Augustine, 354-430 CE)

II. The death of Commodus (192 CE) on Film

1. Gladiator (2000)
2. The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964)

III. Central events and reigns, 193 CE - 476 CE

• The Severans: 193-235
• "The Barracks Period": 235-284
• Diocletian: 284-305
• Constantine: 312-337
• Julian: 361-363
• Theodosius: 379-395
• Abdication of Romulus Augustulus: 476

IV. The Roman Empire after 476 CE

• In the East: The Byzantine Empire (until 1453)
• In the West: The Holy Roman Empire (until 1806)

Images to accompany discussion 23

Back to CC302/CC347 home page