Critics Flashcards
Scullard: First Triumvirate
“The ultimate origin of the civil war”
Zanker on the prima porta
“The Parthian motif”
“intimate association” between imagery on breastplate and motifs in the Carmen Seculare
Victory in Parthia is celebrated as the prerequisite and consequence of the GA
Nicholls on the Ara Pacis
“The imagery of the benefits of peace
Fits with Augustan poets msgs of “peace and plenty”
Nicholls on the forum of Augustus
“Both republican and regal”
corner defect shows not “kingly” but a “citizen respectful of his fellows citizens”
Jenkyns on his image split
Highlights the juxtaposing features of Augustus’ rule
Beard on similar image in all statues
“Mask of power”
Jenkyns on statues
Like Alexander the Great all Aug’s statues have the same un-aging face which
“Godlike in his immutability”
Goldsworthy on poetry
Poetry: “mark of a truly civilised man”
Doesn’t believe it contains veiled subversion or criticism of August
Jenkyns on poets
“As propagandists poets were useless”
“power to transmit glory of future generations”
Beard on the mausoleum
1- an aggressive assertion of the emperors power
2- commitment burial in Rome
Smith on the Sebasteion
- emperors represented are powerful warrior divinities … near equal partners of old divinities
- “Olympian Emperor Gods”
- Hellenistic heroic style
- borrowed from Rome
Galinsky on the secular games
17BC
Shouldn’t be taken out of context, it follows “corner stone” of Augs programme (moral reforms 18BC)
GA isn’t “passive bliss” not a “god given blessing” - depended on moral effort of Romans, especially ruling class
Galinsky: laurel, oak and Apollo
L & O = emblems originally associated with victory and war. Laurel was Apollos’ sacred tree
Apollo was patron god of the victorious in non military pursuits as well
“Victorious Apollo” - Propertius
Horsfall on Suetonius
Presents to us a “more humane, human, agreeable princeps”
Zanker on Augustus and Apollo
Apollo stood for “discipline and morality” & “purification and punishment of … excess”
After victory ➡️ singer, lure player, god of peace and reconciliation
Prophetic god ➡️ proclaimed new age
Seen in poem the temple of palatine Apollo
Zanker on Greek models
theorises that the art Augs principate appealed to the style of the Greek classical period, viewed as one of moral superiority.
mirroring this style implied Augs reign was also one of morality
Wallace Hadrill: Actium
- a battle for roman values, to save Rome from a frontal assault in its gods, its ideals, its moral fabric.
- the threat was not a tipsy Antony but the evil incarnate in Cleopatra
- victory of Roman decency over barbarism
- Antony scarcely named from RG to poetry accounts by Virgil, Horace and Propertius
- Antony a Roman in-Romaned
Beard on Cleopatra
Regal and seductive
Unnatural (undertakes male military responsibilities)
Beard: Antony vs Aug
Augustus exploited idea of clash between his “deep rooted Roman traditions” and Antony’s “oriental excess”
Wallace Hadrill on Augustus’ names re Caesar
Conventions of Roman names ‘vehicle for mystification’ … implication that descendants of a god should inherit divinity
Stanier “imperator”
Indication of military prowess suited him well at the time when control of the legions was crucial
Beard on Augs adoption
Caesar was Octavian’s passport to power
Galinsky RG
Important for what it says as well as what it omits
Beard on RG
Rose tinted
Ignores murderous illegalities
Cooley on RG
Point of reference for later authors moulding their accounts of his era
Witschel Augs self image
Had to play a number of divergent roles
- senators wanted to be treated as equals
- plebs want “super patron”
- soldiers want victorious general
- many in empire saw emperor deserving of cultic worship
