What is history?

1. What is history?

2. History … • is a form of discourse about the past • emphasizes critical analysis and interpretation of the surviving traces of the past • usually is presented in prose narrative

3. History is not … • myth • fiction • propaganda

4. So, history IS … • a kind of myth • a kind of fiction • a kind of propaganda

5. So …

6. History is … • a particular way of telling a story about the past, which claims to offer a trustworthy account of past events.

7. Or … • History is a storehouse of information about how people and societies behave. • History is an imperfect human laboratory where data is collected, revealing the most vital evidence in our efforts to understand who we are and why we behave as we do

8. To the Greeks and Romans … • History was written by men • The historian was an artist

9. Historians were … • Men of leisure and • Artists

10. Historians … • Collected material • Weighed sources • Exercised independent criticism • Established a contract with the reader • Professed to avoid partiality.

11. Why study history? • Why bother with the past? Why study the Romans? • Historians don’t replicate DNA, perform heart surgery, improve highways, battle hurricanes or arrest criminals. What is their function, and what is the function of history?

12. Why study history? • It is essential to who we are • It harbors beauty • It is art and entertainment • It reveals how people and societies function, and helps us understand the human experience • It contributes to moral understanding • It provides identity-for the individual, the family, the community, the nation

13. What does the student of history learn? • The ability to assess various kinds of evidence: leaders’ speeches, historians’ observations, poets’ and critics’ comments, private records, numerical data, physical remains • The ability to use this evidence to craft a coherent argument • The ability to sort through diverse, conflicting interpretations • To become a well-informed citizen and member of a community

14. Why Rome? • Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1812-1818) byGeorge Gordon, Lord Byron: Canto IV, stanzas LXXVII-LXXXII "Roma! Roma! Roma! Roma non è più come era prima!" (Letter to John Hobhouse, Venice, January 2, 1818) Portrait of Lord Byron, by Thomas Phillips, after 1835 (National Gallery, London)

15. Oh Rome! my country! city of the soul!The orphans of the heart must turn to thee,Lone mother of dead empires! and controlIn their shut breasts their petty misery.What are our woes and sufferance? Come and seeThe cypress, hear the owl, and plod your wayO'er steps of broken thrones and temples, Ye!Whose agonies are evils of a day --A world is at our feet as fragile as our clay. (LXXVIII ) • Roman Forum: • Arch of Constantine • pyramidal Tomb of Cestus

16. The Niobe of nations! there she stands,Childless and crownless, in her voiceless woe;An empty urn within her wither'd hands,Whose holy dust was scatter'd long ago;The Scipios' tomb contains no ashes now;The very sepulchres lie tenantlessOf their heroic dwellers: dost thou flow,Old Tiber! through a marble wilderness?Rise, with thy yellow waves, and mantle her distress. (LXXIX) • Sarcophagus of Lucius Cornelius Scipio Barbatus, ca. 150 BCE (Vatican Museums) • “Cornelius Lucius Scipio Barbatus, sprung from Gnaeus his father, a man strong and wise, whose appearance was most in keeping with his virtue, who was consul, censor, and aedile among you. He captured Taurasia, Cisauna, Samnium - he subdued all Lucania and led off hostages.”

17. The Goth, the Christian, Time, War, Flood, and Fire,Have dealt upon the seven-hill'd city's pride;She saw her glories star by star expire,And up the steep barbarian monarchs ride,Where the car climb'd the capitol; far and wideTemple and tower went down, nor left a site: --Chaos of ruins! who shall trace the void,O'er the dim fragments cast a lunar light,And say, 'here was, or is," where all is doubly night? (LXXX) • Roman Forum: • Vedutadi Campo Vaccino (View of the Cow Pasture) by Giovanni Battista Piranesi, 1772 (Foundation for Landscape Studies)

18. The double night of ages, and of her,Night's daughter, Ignorance, hath wrapt and wrapAll round us; we but feel our way to err:The ocean hath his chart, the stars their map,And Knowledge spreads them on her ample lap;But Rome is as the desert, where we steerStumbling o'er recollections; now we clapOur hands, and cry 'Eureka!' it is clearWhen but some false mirage of ruin rises near. (LXXXI) • Flavian Amphitheater (known as the Colosseum) • Roman Caprice with the Colosseum, by Bernardo Bellotto, 1745 (Galleria nazionaledi Parma )

19. Alas! the lofty city! and alas!The trebly hundred triumphs! and the dayWhen Brutus made the dagger's edge surpassThe conqueror's sword on bearing fame away!Alas, for Tully's voice, and Virgil's lay,And Livy's pictured page! -- but these shall beHer resurrection; all beside -- decay.Alas, for Earth, for never shall we seeThat brightness in her eyes she bore when Rome was free! (LXXXII) • Roman Curia (Senate House): • Cicero Denounces Catiline, by Cesare Maccari, 1882-1888 (Villa Madama, Rome) • Cicero = Marcus Tullius Cicero, known as “Tully” in the 18° and 19° centuries

20. But is Rome dead? Digital Colosseum and Arch of Constantine, Rome Reborn(www.romereborn.virginia.edu) and Google Earth • Altar of Augustan Peace (AraPacisAugustae), built 13-9 BCE • Exterior: designed by Richard Meyer, 1996-2006 • Interior: retrospective exhibit of the designs of Valentino, 2007