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For this study, I am investigating the “decline and fall” of Rome, as represented in British and American culture and thought, from the late nineteenth through the early twenty-first centuries. It is my argument that the “decline and fall” of Rome is no straightforward historical fact, but a “myth” in the academic sense coined by Claude Lévi-Strauss, meaning not a “falsehood” but a complex social and ideological construct. It represents the fears of European and American thinkers as they confront the perceived instability and pitfalls of the civilization to which they belonged. The material I have gathered illustrates the value of the decline and fall as a spatiotemporal concept, rather than a historical event - even when most of its popular and intellectual representations characterises it as such. I am therefore inquiring into the ways in which writers, filmmakers and the media have conceptualized this “decline”; and the parallels they have drawn, deliberately or unconsciously, with their contemporary world. My work fits into a broader collection of studies examining the continuing impact of the Greco-Roman heritage on our cultural and ideological horizons. However, though the representation of antiquity is a fast-growing field of scholarly inquiry, the theme of this project has been little examined. I am critical of the standard model of the “sociology of representation” in history, which holds that such media is almost exclusively a vehicle to articulate contemporary concerns, and which omits the recurring role of deeper, underlying historical and cultural narratives. When I consider the “decline and fall,” it instead becomes apparent how the present is adapted to fit the enduring tropes of the past.

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This thesis explores two key themes: (1) the social, cultural and economic changes in the Roman provinces of Spain during the last half of the first century BC and the early first century AD, and the direct effect that Augustus had in driving these developments; (2) the significance that the provinces of Spain had for Augustus and Rome. Initially we assess the exploitation of the Cantabrian War for the military image of Augustus, suggesting that the conflict played a crucial role in bolstering the position of the princeps following the Civil Wars and the constitutional arrangements reached with the senate up to 27. From here in turn we consider the manner in which Augustan action within Iberia impacted upon the literary and visual depictions of the peninsula. The thesis also highlights the fiscal imperatives that acted as a driving force behind the growth in urbanisation, the widespread promotion of privileged status and the provincial reorganisations of Augustus. Following this, the surge in monumentalisation across Hispania’s towns and cities is treated, placing a renewed emphasis on the role of the Augustan regime in encouraging, if indirectly, these processes. An assessment of the impact of Augustan rule on the upward mobility of the Spanish elites follows, highlighting patronage and wealth as the twin pillars of Spanish advancement and suggesting that the first princeps is instrumental in laying the groundwork for the expanding promotion of Spaniards during the reigns of his immediate successors. Finally, the thesis concludes with an overview of the nascent imperial cult in Spain, suggesting in the first instance that the imposition of the cult in the north-west aided the suppression of the recalcitrant tribes and may very well have impacted upon Augustan policies in similarly unstable areas such as Germany and Gaul; and secondly, that whilst direct compulsion cannot be countenanced, Augustus’ dissemination of civic organisation created a framework within which elite competition ensured the rapid proliferation of the imperial cult throughout the towns and cities of Spain and the western provinces.