Conquest, warfare, administration, and law making were the great successes of the Roman state. We shall also consider limitations to Roman power and various types of challenges, military, cultural, and religious, to the hegemony of the Roman state. Finally, we shall try to understand the process of the development of a distinctive Roman culture from the emergence new forms of literature, like satire, to the gladiatorial arena as typical elements that contributed to a Roman social order. An introduction to classical mythology through close analysis of selected texts. No prior background is required.
Students come to the study of mythology from a variety of disciplines.
This course should be particularly useful to those interested in literature, the fine arts, anthropology, folklore, and religion.