Upon being announced as one of the winners of the 1973 National Book Award, John Williams’ novel Augustus (1972) was classified as a book of a supposedly more traditional form compared to John Barth’s experimental work Chimera (1972) that Augustus shared the prize with that year. This essay will examine John Williams’ novel Augustus, with the purpose of analysing two of the novel’s main characters, Augustus and his daughter Julia. To define both of the characters, this essay will be looking in-depth into how Williams showcases the various ways both characters go about using the power that is bestowed upon them. This essay will be employing Fredric Jameson’s Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism (1991) to establish the environment of nihilism present in the Roman Empire that nears the “waning of affect” and exhaustion Jameson states occurs with the coming of postmodernism. Ferdinand de Saussure’s Course in General Linguistics (1916) will be placed in dialogue with Luce Irigaray’s Speculum of the Other Woman (1974) to showcase the varying masculine and feminine practices of language both characters employ and the consequences these forms of expression bring with the duplicitous ways of the Roman Empire looming in the background behind both Augustus and Julia.

Ce sujet consiste en l'étude des monuments et des images des provinces dans l'empire romain. il n'a jamais été traité dans la bibliographie scientifique dans la perspective de ce travail ce qui rend son approche innovante. il ne s'agit pas seulement de comprendre et d'expliquer la signification ou la typologie de l'iconographie des provinces de l'empire, mais aussi le contexte urbain et architectural de ce type de décoration., et l'histoire qui est à son origine. la mise en rapport entre les représentations et les divers monuments sur lesquels elles s'installent est très importante. a cela on peut également ajouter le contexte urbanistique de ces architectures transmettant l'image provinciale. la nature du monument a toujours un rapport direct avec les représentations qui y figurent, permettant à la fois de définir la nature du monument par rapport à l'iconographie présente ou l'interprétation des images à travers la fonction du bâtiment.sans renoncer aux aspects techniques, ni au catalogue, indispensables pour l'étude générale, cette recherche propose d'étudier l'ensemble de la documentation (iconographique, épigraphique, textuelle) , et d'analyser également la dimension sociale, urbanistique et historique des images des provinces à l'époque romaine.cette recherche est un complèment de la thèse de fabiola salcedo intitulé africa iconografia de una provincia romana, soutenue en 1996, qui est un travail complet sur l'iconographie de la province de l'afrique / This subject consists of the study of monuments and images of provinces in the Roman Empire.

The discovery of solidus coins on the islands of Öland and Gotland, propose a contactbetween Scandinavia and the Roman Empire during the Migration Period (AD 400-550), buthow did the Scandinavians get access to these coins? In this essay, I will study thestampidentity and coin embossing from 572 coins found on Öland and Gotland. The aim is tounderstand where the coins were minted and during which periods there was a big influx ofsolidus coins to Scandinavia. But also, to understand what European regions the people ofÖland and Gotland were in contact with. This essay will also map certain events that are vitalfor understanding why the solidus coins are found in Scandinavia.

The island Öland is rich in prehistoric archaeological finds. The ringforts at Ölandwere constructed during the Roman Iron Age and the Migration Period. Contact withthe Roman Empire is known from finds of gold and of objects of Roman character.This essay compares style of architecture and structure of the ringforts withconstructions of some buildings and places in contemporary European cultures. Theresults indicate that the society in which the ringforts in Öland were built, were incontact with Celtic and Roman societies during the Roman Iron Age and theMigration Period.

Gaius Julius Caesar is not only the most well-known figure in Roman history, but he is also one of the most difficult to understand. Since his assassination, Caesar has played an important role in discussions of political power, imperial government, tyranny, and tyrannicide. While there have been literary treatments of Caesar from William Shakespeare to the present, little has been done to trace the image of Caesar through the Middle Ages and into the Renaissance. The present work attempts to fill that hole by examining portrayals of Caesar in medieval and early Renaissance texts. An examination of specific authors such as Geoffrey of Monmouth, John of Salisbury, Thomas Aquinas, Dante, Petrarch, Salutati, and Bruni, clearly demonstrates that Caesar was consistently portrayed as the first emperor and used to represent the Roman Empire. As the first emperor, representations of Caesar figured significantly in debates about the power of the Church and the Empire, the benefits and downfalls of imperial government, and tyrannicide. Authors were influenced in their portrayals of Caesar by the classical portrayals found in the works of Vergil, Lucan, and Suetonius. Each author's interpretation of Caesar was also impacted by the political and intellectual milieu in which he flourished. Analysis of Caesar's image over this time period serves not only as a part of Caesar historiography, but also provides insight into the ways that scholars write history to understand the world around them.

Although Zosimus is recognised as a generally servile epitomator, it has in the past been customary to regard his statements about the baneful influence of Christianity upon the Empire's fortunes as representing his own considered opinions. This dissertation attempts to show that Zosimus copied these ideas directly from his main source, Eunapius, modifying them only in very minor ways. The first chapter consists in a detailed comparison of the remaining fragments of Eunapius' History with Zosimus. It is shown that in many places Zosimus made only very slight changes in his epitome which were due to the need to condense his source or to his own very different taste in style. He was prone to abridge or omit especially rhetorical or reflective passages and those involving character portrayal. Some minor interpolations he introduced were due either to ignorance on his part or to a consciousness of the changes which the Empire had undergone since the time when his source wrote. The chapter concludes with a study of passages which seem to indicate a major divergence from Eunapius. All of these, it is suggested, conform to the types indicated earlier in the chapter. This part of the study then confirms the impression that Zosimus departed but little, and that rarely enough, from his source. Chapter two carries the study to parts of Zosimus' work for which there are no remains of Eunapius. Although Zosimus' carelessness and incompetence are abundantly revealed some evidence is produced of a crude attempt on Zosimus' part, from time to time, to dramatise, or rather to heighten the drama of, material taken from Eunapius. Attention is drawn to some passages, notably those on the mime and on the auri lustralis collatio, which have been seen as Zosimus' own contributions to his work, but which on closer investigation seem also to have been copied from Eunapius. In this chapter also the evidence for other sources within the part of the New History that was taken from Eunapius is reviewed and dismissed. The decline of the Roman Empire is the subject of the third chapter. The various elements in Zosimus' "theory"-the decline of the cities, the rise of Christianity, the abandonment of paganism--are shown to be present in the works of Eunapius and to a lesser extent Olympiodorus. Moreover two of the cardinal passages in Zosimus' work--the digressions on Palmyra and on the Secular Games--are shown to have probably been taken also from Eunapius. This is not to deny Zosimus all originality as in his proem he emphasises the idea of decline in a way that Eunapius did not do. Moreover his work belongs more to the genre of "world history" like those of the Christian chroniclers rather than of "secular history" like his models Eunapius and Olympiodorus. Nevertheless it seems that he took from Eunapius with minimal modifications the religious and political ideas which give distinction to an otherwise insipid piece of work. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Previous researchers of Jewish history in the Roman Empire have imperfectly employed Greco-Roman sources to describe Roman perceptions of Jews and Judaism by relying on a handful of Greek and Latin written and visual components without attempting to quantify or comprehensively explore this abundant material. Utilizing both quantitative and qualitative methodologies, this dissertation analyzes the vast array of Greco-Roman written and visual sources about Jews and Judaism from the first century BCE to the end of the third century CE. While qualitative reviews of Greek and Latin texts help eliminate potential inconsistencies in the data, computational tools like text-mining analysis quantify the information into calculable results. The addition of visual source material into the framework helps further refine the quantified textual material. Reviews of this data reveal the general traits imperial leaders within the Roman Empire knew about the geography and history of Judaea, Jewish religious beliefs and cultural practices, and Jewish communities in general. Further reviews of the data note regional and, more importantly, temporal variations connecting them to changes both in imperial rule and Judaism. This process presents a more detailed and coherent conception of Roman knowledge of Jews and Judaism than scholars have previously recognized. In addition to highlighting imperial knowledge, this dissertation also demonstrates how Roman authorities drew on this information while ruling over Jewish communities. From this analysis, it is clear Roman imperial authorities formed a complex knowledge of ethnic and religious communities like Jews and applied this information to their rule over these populations.

Since her first appearances, Venus has captivated the minds of poets. Her depictions in poetry are tied to each generation’s ideals of sexuality and beauty, and as morals and expectations of female behaviour change, so too do portrayals of the goddess. This thesis examines the shifting portrayals of Venus in poetry during a time of great social upheaval: the age of Augustus. The social and moral discourse of the period influenced the portrayals of Venus as the post-Civil War generation grappled with the newfound peace, a staunchly moralistic emperor who claimed descent from the goddess, and a series of legislations that reshaped the image of an ideal Roman woman. While the age of Augustus is overflowing with Latin poets, this thesis will dedicate itself to three: Vergil, Horace, and Ovid. Within their works, we can see the importance of the goddess’ portrayals and how their evolution can reflect Rome’s social, political, and moral climate. Vergil presents a transformed goddess, a morally upstanding mother who engages in the political and domestic spheres. Horace stands on the precipice of change, his Venus straddling the edges of elegy and epic. He recognizes and responds to a political, Augustan goddess before returning to more traditional elegiac matters. Our final source, Ovid, is seemingly traditional in his portrayals of the goddess. Closer examination of his works, however, reveals how Ovid’s Venus transformed from the traditional goddess of love and sexuality to become an empress in her own right. After the introduction of the lex Julia and Augustus’ portrayals of the goddess, the poets of his age used Venus as an exemplum of moral (or immoral) behaviour, motherhood, and dynastic pursuit.

The roman coins on the islands of Bornholm, Öland and Gotland have shownarchaeologist and historians that a connection between Scandinavia and the RomanEmpire existed. But what did the roman coins mean to the inhabitants of these islands?This essay will study the coins found on the islands and the context in which they havebeen found. The aim for this essay is to understand in what context the coins werefound and what they meant for the inhabitants. The essay also strive towardsconducting a discussion around theories, speculations and facts to form an idea of whatthe coins may have meant to the inhabitants.

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