XVI. End as of 11/1/95
To Notes as of 11/1/95
XVII. Now, speaking of sequels--This one wasn't even written in Greek!
XVIII. Rome is on the perimeter of the Greek oikumene, and began to be a part of it.
A. Aristotle's (d. 322) reference to Rome as a Greek city on the Tyrrhenian sea.
B. Rome conquered and annexed the Greek cities of Southern Italy (Magna Graecia)
C. One of the Diadochi (by courtesy), Pyrrhus invades Italy in 280.
1. Pyrrhus was another name of Achilles' son and also considered himself Achilles' descendant
2. The Romans (see Plutarch's life) made a great deal over their purity from all things Greek, and yet
a) Cineas made a speech in Greek to the Roman senate
b) And the Roman envoys were able to engage in sophisticated repartee with Pyrrhus.
c) Pyrrhus find the Romans allied with descendants of the Phoenicians, the Carthaginians, and his invasion collapses in 278.
D. Rome and Carthage had united against Pyrrhus because each of them wanted to dominate the Western Mediterranean
1. Had it out in three horrific wars, worse than almost anything the Greeks had ever seen, and certainly larger
2. Wars start in 264, end when what was left of Carthage was destroyed in 146.
3. In the same year, the Romans also burned and destroyed the fabled Greek city of Corinth.
E. Philip V of Macedonia had tried to help Hannibal against the Romans in 215.
1. Enemies of Rome didn't last long
2. Three Macedonian wars, Pydna in 169
3. Rome now looting Greek cities, fighting Greek-speakers
F. Antiochus III, "the Great," of Syria fights Rome from 195-189
1. Romans now fighting in areas almost as far as Colchis
2. Rome becomes sole arbiter of affairs in the East, and Greek writers, artists, intellectuals and sculptors start playing for the Roman market.
G. Pompey finally cleans up the East from 65-62
1. Julius Caesar and Pompey fight for control of the Republic, 49-45
2. Octavius Caesar, "divi filius" fights Mark Antony for control of the Empire from c. 42-31, Actium
3. Cleopatra VII supports Antony in Alexandria vs. Octavian in Rome and Octavian unleashes his secret weapon: Poetry!
XIX. Gaius Octavius Caesar, divi filius
A. Nephew and adopted son of Julius Caesar, Rome's most successful general/politician
B. Traded upon Julius's popularity with citizens and army, and Antony's unending stream of political blunders.
C. Also knew how to delegate.
1. Hopelessly incompetent as a soldier, had M. Vipsanius Agrippa fight his battles for him
2. Had Gaeas Maecenas as his monitor of public opinion, and, sensibly as his minister of propaganda.
D. Maecenas kept a stable of poets under his and the emperor's patronage (explain):
1. Horatius Flaccus, who had actually fought against Octavian and first
a) Wrote satires everybody read making fun of the frivolity and artificiality of Roman society at his time
b) And then wrote a series of poems and the Carmen Saeculaire, praising Roman values
c) And MOST of the time wrote excellent poems praising family values, clean living, and simple pleasures.
XX. End as of 11/8/95
1. P. Vergilius Maro
a) Born in Mantua, Cisalpine Gaul (no big deal--Colorado) in 70, the consulship of Pompey and Crassus
b) Since 133 the Romans were trying to cope with the consequences of faction: Politicians/Generals leading their followers against other politicans and generals with factions of their own.
c) Educated in Cremona, then Rome, where he entered the remnants of Catullus' (d. c. 54) old circle of friends.
A. The Romans had done quite well developing a literature of their own, despite their debt to Greece
1. Livius Andronicus c.272 was a Tarentine Greek P.O.W. who did a translation of the Odyssey where Odysseus became Ulysses, in Latin and in the forms of Latin songs and verse forms. He also translated some tragedies.
2. Naevius was an Italian native Latin speaker, fought in the first Punic War, c. 241, wrote tragedies, comedies, and a Bellum Poenicum, a treatment of the Punic War as an epic. It wasn't Homer, but it was something distinctively Roman, and it appealed t o Roman values.
3. By the time of Quintus Ennius, who fought in the East, c. 204, there was a market for his multiple Roman epics, including the Annales, a straight history of Rome, that seems to have met all standards of criticism.
4. The next great Latin epic poet was T. Lucretius Carus, d. c. 55, who wrote a huge, intricate, detailed paen to Epicurean philosphy and science, which we have. Magnificent, if strange.
5. Catullus Valerius was his near contemporary, writing incredibly intricate and passionate love and satirical poems in the Alexandrian style.
6. Vergil was aware of all these works, it seems very safe to say.
XXI. End as of 11/10/95