Roman Intellectual Achievements

1. Roman Intellectual Achievements …because sometimes bread and circuses just aren’t enough.

2. “How much greater and more glorious to have enlarged the limits of the Roman mind than the boundaries of Roman rule” -Julius Caesar to Cicero

3. Latin • Italic language spoken by people in Latium • The language of the Romans has become the foundation for French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese • Latin is still the language of the Catholic church • Although we generally use Arabic numbers, we still use the Roman alphabet • How many Latin phrases can you think of?

4. How many English words can you create out of these Latin prefixes? • ambi- around, about, on both sides [amb- before vowels] • circum- around • extra- {variant, extro-} outside, beyond • post- behind, after • inter- among, between, at intervals, mutually, each other • super- over, above, excessively, beyond • trans- across, over, beyond, through

5. Literature • Romans were more well known for their literature than their philosophy Genres: • Prose • Verse • Satire • Speeches

6. Ovid (43 BCE-18 CE) • Born in provincial Italy to a family of the equestrian order - father wanted him to pursue politics and law so sent him to study in Rome • Metamorphoses is an epic poem that tells stories about the transformations of humans and nymphs into animals, plants, etc. • It spans the emergence of the cosmos from formless mass to the organized, material world, to the deification of Julius Caesar • Unlike other epics, it does not follow the journey of a protagonist, it is more like a collection of variations on a theme, a complex web of interrelationships

7. Ovid • Wrote love poetry - Amoris and Ars Amatoria, • Also wrote Heroides, a collection of epistles wherein women (Penelope, Dido, Ariadne) address their heroic lovers who have in some way mistreated, neglected, or abandoned them. • Some regard it as “fluff” but it gives us insight into the side of Roman society less concerned with gravitas. • Ovid was exiled by Augustus, said his crime was "a poem and a mistake"

8. Virgil (70-19 BCE) • Grew up on a farm in northern Italy • Most famous work: Aeneid (12 books) • This epic poem was commissioned by Augustus. Hoped it would unite the Roman people and increase patriotism after years of civil war • Romans saw their own struggle and acheievement mirrored in Aeneas’ heroic journey, and cemented their connection with Classical Greece and its gods (Aeneas is the son of Venus and a mortal man)

9. Livy (59 BCE- 17 CE) • Lived at the same time as Augustus. Born in the provinces. • Most important work: History of Rome from its Foundation (between 26 BCE and 17 CE) - huge book, equivalent to over 9,000 modern pages - 142 volumes • Serious, moralizing tone - claimed that the Romans had suffered at the hands of history because they had been immoral. They have conquered the world but lost their soul: Let him note how, with the gradual relaxation of discipline, morals first subsided, as it were, then sank lower and lower, and finally began the downward plunge which has brought us to our present time, when we can endure neither our vices nor their cure. • Men had to be courageous and take responsibility for public live; chastity and life at home were a woman's tasks, which were equally important.

10. Livy • Rhetorical skill, often inserts speeches to help create a psychological portrait of his subjects • Chronological arrangement - year by year • Concerned with the truth, not imperial propaganda • Attempts to be comprehensive, based on a compilation of older Greek & Roman sources

11. Seneca • Born in Spain, son of a wealthy family • Father was a teacher of rhetoric, sent to school in Rome and Egypt where he got a good philosophical education and became a stoic • Got on the bad side of Caligula and Claudius,(who exiled him) but came back to favour under Nero • Nero implicated him in an attempted assassination conspiracy and ordered him to commit suicide by bleeding to death in a bath • Early Christians saw this as a baptism, believed he had been converted by St. Paul • His tragedies, often emphasizing gloom and horror in Greek mythological subjects, are highly influential in Medieval and Renaissance drama - Shakespeare, Chaucer, Thomas Kidd claim him as an inspiration

12. Satire • Satire: holds society up for ridicule • Horace: playful and tolerant • Juvenal: abrasive and pessimistic • Satiric devices include irony, humour, exaggeration, deflation

13. Juvenal (55-128 AD) • His satires exposed folly and corruption • Angered people, including the emperor Domitian, who exiled him in 93 • Juvenal's poetry gives us important insight into what it was like to live in Rome • One of the few Roman writers who showed a genuine concern for the poor. • It is usually assumed that he tended to exaggerate in order to make people laugh. Therefore, as historical evidence, Juvenal's poetry has to be used with caution

14. This one, of course is entirely true… Juvenal, Satire VII (c. AD 125) What schoolmaster, even the most successful, commands a proper return for his labours?... What's more, parents demand quite impossible standards from any master... They'll waylay him on the way to the public baths, and expect him to answer their questions. Straight off the cuff - who was Anchises' nurse, what was the name of Anchemolus' stepmother, and where did she come from? How old was Acestes when he died?... He must, they insist, be a father to all his pupils, and stop them getting up to tricks... "See to it," you're told, "and when the school year's ended, you'll get as much as a jockey makes from a single race."

15. Horace (65 BCE-6 CE) • Horace was born in Venusia in south-east Italy in 65 BC. His father was an ex-slave who later became a successful businessman. • After the assassination of Julius Caesar, Horace became a senior officer in Brutus' army. When Brutus was defeated by Octavian in 42 BC, Horace's family's property was confiscated. • Forced to earn a living as a scribe, he spent his spare time writing poetry. His work was brought to the attention of Maecenas, (Emperor Augustus' unofficial Minister of Propaganda). Horace was given a villa and financial help so that he could write full-time. • Horace's work reflects strong support for the achievements of Augustus, and occasionally attacks government enemies such as Mark Antony and Cleopatra.

16. This girl really knows her stuff…you guys had better get to work! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iiZ-UHhuzqE

17. Law “Let justice be done though the heavens fall” • Roman saying • One of Rome’s greatest legacies is its commitment to the rule of law and justice • These ideas have shaped western civilization and continue to in the present

18. Justinian Code • From the original Twelve Tables (450 BCE), the code had grown into thousands of laws that ordered life in Rome and in the whole empire. • In A.D. 528 the Emperor Justinian began a review of the old Roman laws. The emperor chose ten men to review 1,600 books full of Roman Law and create a simpler legal code. These men were able to create the Justinian Code with just over 4,000 laws. • Laws are divided into 4 books I. Rights Of Persons. II. Rights Of Things. III. Private Injuries And Actions. IV. Crimes And Punishments.

19. Impact of Justinian Code • The laws seem to have disappeared during the “dark ages” but resurfaced in Medieval period and became the foundation of civic law • Also influenced Canon Law of the Catholic church • Solidifies the status of Christianity as the state religion - provisions against heresy and paganism

20. Science - Medicine • The Romans started by learning what the Greeks thought about medicine, and in fact most Roman doctors were from Greece, or of Greek origin. • The most important Roman doctor was Galen whose book about medicine was the main medical book that doctors used in Europe for the next thousand years and more. • Galen repeated a lot of Hippocrates' work on the four humors, but he also added a lot of observations about how the human body worked that he learned from looking at internal anatomy. He saw the insides of people by looking at wounded soldiers and gladiators. • Galen certainly knew more about anatomy than Hippocrates did - that the heart pushed blood around the body, for instance, that nerves controlled the movement of the body, and that people thought with their brains.

21. Pliny the Elder “The fortunate man, in my opinion, is he to whom the gods have granted the power either to do something which is worth recording or to write what is worth reading, and most fortunate of all is he who can do both. Such a man was my uncle.” - Pliny the Younger, Letters 6.16.3 • Born into a wealthy equestrian family • Sent to Rome to study, then traveled extensively as a soldier in wars against Gallic and Germanic enemies • Most famous work is the encyclopedic Natural History. Includes geography, astronomy, zoology, anthropology, botany, horticulture, medicine, magic, geology etc. • Died investigating the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius

22. Calendar • The original Roman calendar was said to be invented by Romulus, around 753 BCE. • Started the year in March (Martius) and consisted of 10 months, with 6 months of 30 days and 4 months of 31 days. • The winter season was not assigned to any month, so the calendar year only lasted 304 days with 61 days unaccounted for in the winter. Calendar of Romulus: • Martius - 31 Days • Aprilis - 30 Days • Maius - 31 Days • Iunius - 30 Days • Quintilis - 31 Days • Sextilis - 30 Days • September - 30 Days • October - 31 Days • November - 30 Days • December - 30 Days

23. Julian Calendar (45 BCE) • Julius Caesar consulted with an Alexandrian astronomer named Sosigenes to create a more regulated civil calendar based entirely on the Earth's revolutions around the sun. • The Julian calendar has a regular (common) year of 365 days divided into 12 months with a leap day added to the month of February every four years (leap year). • Replaced by the Gregorian Calendar in 1582 - a few modifications in leap year calculations