Actium and Augustus: The Politics and Emotions of Civil War

Front Cover
University of Michigan Press, 1998 - History - 337 pages
On 2 September 31 B.C.E., the heir of Julius Caesar defeated the forces of Antony and Cleopatra in a naval engagement at Actium. Despite the varied judgments this battle received in antiquity, common opinion held that Actium marked the start of a new era, a turning point in Roman history and, indeed, in Western civilization.
Actium and Augustus marks a turning point as well. Robert Alan Gurval's unusual approach is to examine contemporary views of the battle and its immediate political and social consequences. He starts with a consideration of the official celebration and public commemoration of the Actian victory and then moves on to other questions. What were the "Actian" monuments that Octavian erected on the battle site and later in Rome? What role did the Actian victory play in the political formation of the Principate and its public ideology? What was the response of contemporary poetry? Throughout, this volume concentrates on contemporary views of Actium and its results.
Written to include the general reader, Actium and Augustus presents a thoughtful examination of a complex period. All Greek and Latin quotations are translated, and extensive illustrations present graphic evidence about the issues Romans faced.
Robert Alan Gurval is Associate Professor of Classics, University of California, Los Angeles, and has been a recipient of the Rome Prize awarded by the American Academy in Rome.
 

Contents

Abbreviations
xi
Introduction
1
The Imperious Show of the FullFortund Caesar Celebration in Rome and the Monuments of Victory
19
The Actian Arch
36
The Coinage of the Victor
47
Victory Cities and Actian Games
65
Tuus iam regnat Apollo Octavian Apollo and the Temple on the Palatine
87
The Temple of Apollo
111
The Defeat and Flight of the hostis
154
Final Anxiety Fear and the fluens nausea
157
Bellaque resque tui memorarem Caesaris Propertius and the Memorials of Actium
167
Romes Fear of Cleopatra and the Shame of Civil War
189
No Virgil No The Battle of Actium on the Shield of Aeneas
209
Alexandrian Poetics and Roman Politics Propertius 46
249
Actium Renascens
279
Bibliography
293

Posteri Negabitis Horace and Actium
137
Initial Joy of Victory and the mixtutn carmen
141
The Neptunius dux and the Recollection of Naulochus
145
The Actian Campaign and Battle
147
The Cry of Triumph and the nee parem ducem
152

Common terms and phrases

About the author (1998)

Robert Alan Gurval is Associate Professor of Classics, University of California, Los Angeles, and has been a recipient of the Rome Prize awarded by the American Academy in Rome.

Bibliographic information