The Roman World

Amphitheatres are notorious as the places where the Romans held their more gruesome forms of "entertainment", including gladiatorial fights, executions of condemned prisoners, and wild beast hunts. As such displays grew more complicated and imaginative in their staging and special effects, so too did the design of the amphitheatres in order to accommodate elaborate performances and the Colosseum in Rome represents the culmination of this architectural development. However, Roman amphitheatres were not just about entertaining the masses: the structures and the events held in them were tightly linked to Roman society and especially to the careers of prominent Romans, who used this form of entertainment as a way to claw their way up the political ladder - and to stay there. This lecture also deals with the wildly popular horse and chariot racing in the circus, a form of entertainment even more closely tied to political factionalism and with huge popular appeal. Copyright 2013 La Trobe University, all rights reserved. Contact for permissions.

Amphitheatres are notorious as the places where the Romans held their more gruesome forms of "entertainment", including gladiatorial fights, executions of condemned prisoners, and wild beast hunts. As such displays grew more complicated and imaginative in their staging and special effects, so too did the design of the amphitheatres in order to accommodate elaborate performances and the Colosseum in Rome represents the culmination of this architectural development. However, Roman amphitheatres were not just about entertaining the masses: the structures and the events held in them were tightly linked to Roman society and especially to the careers of prominent Romans, who used this form of entertainment as a way to claw their way up the political ladder - and to stay there. This lecture also deals with the wildly popular horse and chariot racing in the circus, a form of entertainment even more closely tied to political factionalism and with huge popular appeal. Copyright 2013 La Trobe University, all rights reserved. Contact for permissions.

After Nero's suicide in 68 CE Rome was plunged into civil war again, as successive military commanders were declared emperor. The victor was Flavius Vespasian, who managed to found a new (Flavian) dynasty. Vespasian oversaw the building of the Colosseum, and both he and his son, Titus, remained popular. However, the third Flavian, Domitian, is depicted as one of the most sinister, paranoid and tyrannical of all Roman emperors, and his murder in 96 brought an end to Rome's second dynasty. Copyright 2013 La Trobe University, all rights reserved. Contact for permissions.

After Nero's suicide in 68 CE Rome was plunged into civil war again, as successive military commanders were declared emperor. The victor was Flavius Vespasian, who managed to found a new (Flavian) dynasty. Vespasian oversaw the building of the Colosseum, and both he and his son, Titus, remained popular. However, the third Flavian, Domitian, is depicted as one of the most sinister, paranoid and tyrannical of all Roman emperors, and his murder in 96 brought an end to Rome's second dynasty. Copyright 2013 La Trobe University, all rights reserved. Contact for permissions.

Nero’s subversive courtier, Petronius, is almost certainly the Petronius Arbiter who wrote the satirical work Satyricon, one of the most interesting and bizarre pieces of Roman literature which survives. This novel deals with the nefarious adventures and sexual exploits of three characters travelling through southern Italy, and unusually in Roman literature, primarily involves characters of low status. Freedmen are oftencentral, particularly in the ‘Dinner of Trimalchio’ episode, which satirises the extraordinarily rich but uneducated and vulgar freedman, Trimalchio, whose tyrannical behaviour and aspirations to greatness have led some to see him as a satirical version of Nero himself. Copyright 2013 La Trobe University, all rights reserved. Contact for permissions.

Nero’s subversive courtier, Petronius, is almost certainly the Petronius Arbiter who wrote the satirical work Satyricon, one of the most interesting and bizarre pieces of Roman literature which survives. This novel deals with the nefarious adventures and sexual exploits of three characters travelling through southern Italy, and unusually in Roman literature, primarily involves characters of low status. Freedmen are oftencentral, particularly in the ‘Dinner of Trimalchio’ episode, which satirises the extraordinarily rich but uneducated and vulgar freedman, Trimalchio, whose tyrannical behaviour and aspirations to greatness have led some to see him as a satirical version of Nero himself. Copyright 2013 La Trobe University, all rights reserved. Contact for permissions.

Work is represented as something dirty and sordid by the Roman elite, particularly Cicero, while freedmen always retained some of the stigma associated with their former slave status. This lecture looks at the way workers and freedmen were represented in both elite texts and by themselves, and shows a quite different picture emerging from the tombstones and inscriptions put up by non-elites. Copyright 2013 La Trobe University, all rights reserved. Contact for permissions.

Work is represented as something dirty and sordid by the Roman elite, particularly Cicero, while freedmen always retained some of the stigma associated with their former slave status. This lecture looks at the way workers and freedmen were represented in both elite texts and by themselves, and shows a quite different picture emerging from the tombstones and inscriptions put up by non-elites. Copyright 2013 La Trobe University, all rights reserved. Contact for permissions.

Nero seems to have encouraged innovative art and architecture (including his own extravagant houses), and to have fostered literary achievement. But his 'Golden House' in particular proved unpopular, as it dominated Rome and gave rise to the rumour that Nero himself started the fire of 64 CE so that he could rebuild the city (and then blamed the Christians). Meanwhile the significant literary figures of his reign (Seneca, Lucan and Petronius), who were also members of Nero's imperial court, all fell from grace spectacularly and were forced to suicide. This lecture explores Neronian culture and the key elements of its artistic and literary output. Copyright 2013 La Trobe University, all rights reserved. Contact for permissions.

Nero seems to have encouraged innovative art and architecture (including his own extravagant houses), and to have fostered literary achievement. But his 'Golden House' in particular proved unpopular, as it dominated Rome and gave rise to the rumour that Nero himself started the fire of 64 CE so that he could rebuild the city (and then blamed the Christians). Meanwhile the significant literary figures of his reign (Seneca, Lucan and Petronius), who were also members of Nero's imperial court, all fell from grace spectacularly and were forced to suicide. This lecture explores Neronian culture and the key elements of its artistic and literary output. Copyright 2013 La Trobe University, all rights reserved. Contact for permissions.