1. The Roman Empire
Introduction

2. The Roman Empire Founded 753 B.C.
Influenced by Greek culture and literature
Created peace, orderly government for 200 years
Even after fall of secular power, maintained religious authority of the pope
People were practical and valued seriousness, manliness, industry, and discipline
Latin literature began by translating Homer’s Odyssey (Greek)

3. The Roman Empire By 70 B.C. conflict beginning
Senate’s power diminishing
Julius Caesar murdered in 44 B.C.
Octavius (Augustus) took over and conquered. His successors kept relative peace and solidarity for 200 years. Toward the end, people felt a spiritual emptiness despite great prosperity.
Christianity arrived in Rome and began to spread in the late 2nd century A.D.
Rome fell to the Visigoths in 410 A.D.

4. Virgil
B.C.
Most famous work, The Aeneid, an epic poem unfinished at his death
Combines themes of Homer’s The Odyssey and The Iliad, archetypes of wanderer in search of home and hero in battle
Borrows both style and content from Homer
Thematic difference lies in objectives of protagonists – Aeneas works for the greater good, not for home or peace for himself.
Motifs of self-sacrifice, denial for the good of one’s people, patriotism.
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5. Ovid
43 B.C. – A.D. 17
Did not experience civil unrest
Themes of urban elite lifestyle, love, mythology, and local Italian legend
Known for unique style and elegant verse
Banished to outskirts of empire because of scandals, writing about seduction
Metamorphoses = Ovid’s epic, written in dactylic hexameter, traditional epic meter used by Homer and Virgil
Anti-Aeneid, critical response to Virgil, no hero, no cultural values represented
15 books of epyllions, or stories, connected by common motif of change.
Venus de Milo,