HPRC School Classics & Ancient History Seminars - Livy’s World, Scipio Africanus and the Roman Virtues, Pietas and Virtus presented by Stephanie Golding & Augustus as Parens Orbis presented by Dr Tom Stevenson
Event Details
- Date:
- Friday, 22 August 2014
- Time:
- 3:30 pm - 5:00 pm
- Room:
- Room E303 Forgan Smith Building (1)
- UQ Location:
- Forgan Smith Building (St Lucia)
- Event category(s):
Event Contact
- Name:
- Serena Bagley
- Phone:
- 52795
- Email:
- s.bagley@uq.edu.au
- Org. Unit:
- Historical and Philosophical Inquiry
Event Description
- Full Description:
- Stephanie Golding:
Scholars have not fully examined one of Livy’s most famous heroes, Scipio Africanus, especially his connections with the traditional Roman virtues of pietas and virtus, for which Scipio was considered an exemplum. The neglect by scholars of Livy’s Scipio perhaps reflects long-held beliefs that the historian and his history are second-rate when compared to his source, Polybius. Although pietas and virtus played a significant role in shaping Roman identity and culture, more can be done to investigate how, by Livy’s lifetime, these concepts changed and took on new meanings. Following on from a recent suggestion that Livy places more importance on his moral argument across a greater span of the narrative than he actually places on the moral contribution a character makes to the narrative, I argue in my talk that Livy’s representation of Scipio Africanus embodies a greater theme than just a portrait of an exemplary life.
Tom Stevenson:
Recent treatments of the development of the Augustan regime have agreed that Augustus was recognised as parens orbis when he was hailed as pater patriae in 2 BC. In this paper I would like to argue that although a common basic ideal was involved, one ‘father’ honour did not follow mechanically from the other or represent an elaboration of it, that the different formulations imply differing perspectives of the people concerned, and that the patria continued to hold a special meaning for Romans and Italians into the early Empire that it did not for non-Roman inhabitants of the empire more broadly.
Directions to UQ
- Google Map:
-
- Directions:
- St Lucia Campus | Gatton campus.
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