CLAS3356 · Classical Studies
Morrissey College of Arts & Sciences
A reading of the Nero books of Tacitus' Annals in Latin,accompanied by an investigation of Roman historiography and the history and culture of the Age of Nero. Much of our attention will be given to unpacking Tacitus brilliant, but notoriously thorny, Latin, but we will also explore central issues of these books: the history and culture of the age of Nero; the nature of the Julio-Claudian principate, the relation between principatus and libertas, the distortions of political language, and the dilemma of how to be live justly in an autocratic state; and the methods and rhetoric of Tacitean historiography.
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Spring 2024
1 sectionSpring 2021
1 section