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Lecture 12/13 Images
Updated 10/15/08                                                          

Lecture 13: Augustus and his times

 I. Policies and ideals (cont'd from Lect. 12)

           a. no ideology, but ideals and values: compulsory marriage laws;
           laws against legacy hunting and adultery; Lucretia again

           b. the pax Augusta: parta victoriis pax ("peace is born from victories")
            foreign policy and provinces; the Parthians

           c. recasting the Golden Age: unceasing effort, not paradise

II. Augustan art and architecture - a new synthesis

a. simplicity of form; moral dimension (vs. previous architectural excesses, e.g., Sulla's Temple of Fortuna at Praeneste)

b. complexity of associations and references; "image for contemplation"

c. buildings: Temple of Divus Julius; Forum of Augustus (Temple of Mars the Avenger); Pont du Gard (aqueduct);
Maison Carrée (Temple in Nimes, France); Circus Maximus

       d. The Ara Pacis (Altar of Augustan Peace; 13-9 B.C.):

how to represent the variety and totality of the Pax Augusta; complexity, associative pictorial program

       e. The Augustus Statue from Prima Porta:

Mars, Caelus (Sky God), Apollo, Diana, Mother Earth (Tellus), cornucopia

III. The uniqueness of Vergil's Aeneid; difficulty of conventional appreciation

a.	purpose; not an Augusteid
b.	Roman Odyssey-Iliad
c.	a complex epic about a complex subject; inversion of traditional heroism: Aeneas' first appearance (pp. 6-7)
d.	the Roman aspect: social responsibility (pietas)

Please bring Aeneid texts to class again on Tuesday.

galinsky@mail.utexas.edu
10/15/MMVIII