Roman Emperors and Imperial Lives

Module overview

For most people even today Nero was one of the ‘bad’ emperors (he killed his mother), and Caligula was mad and depraved (he wanted to appoint his favourite horse as consul, and committed incest with his sisters); but the categorisation of emperors along moral lines is not a modern phenomenon. The emperor was without doubt the most important individual in the Roman world, the embodiment of the imperial project. His character, appearance, and actions were of fascination to contemporaries during and after his life. In this module we will survey Roman cultural responses to the office of emperor, and specifically the role played by prominent authors in creating a discourse on the individuals that occupied the imperial throne from its inception to Late Antiquity. We will also explore the role Imperial women played in validating the position of the emperor and as a means of undermining him.

Several genres of ‘political’ literature flourished under the empire, which took the emperor as their primary subject - biography, historiography, and speeches of praise and blame. Their rise may partly have been a response to the concentration of power in a single individual, but they also constantly engaged in evaluating emperors in traditional terms of virtue and vice, turning emperors into examples of good or bad rule for later holders of the office. Such texts, then, played an active role in the creation of an image of an emperor both during and after his reign. In this module we will survey key texts and images chronologically from the first to sixth centuries, and consider how and why each author interpreted individual emperors; how the ideal of the emperor developed during that time; when and in what way it was acceptable to criticise an emperor, or how risky this could be; to what extent an emperor could influence the creation of his positive image via contemporary orators. We will examine some case studies of the ‘best’ and ‘worst’ of emperors such as Claudius, Caligula, and Constantine, and in the process you will gain a chronological overview of the Roman imperial period. Finally, we’ll reflect on how modern depictions of emperors, in formal biographies and TV/film depictions, compare to the concerns articulated in ancient texts and images.

Aims and Objectives

Learning Outcomes

Knowledge and Understanding

Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

Key primary sources that describe the lives of emperors.
The response of modern culture to the lives of ancient emperors.
Various ideals of emperorship expressed at differing periods of the empire.
The challenges faced by historians in using literary texts as historical sources.
Details of the lives of several important emperors from the early to late empire.
Trends in modern scholarship on ancient biographical, historiographical, and epideictic texts.

Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

Apply knowledge of modern scholarship to your evaluation of ancient texts.
Show familiarity with a range of primary sources.
Critically analyse source material.
Discuss the form and development of ancient political literature on emperors.

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

Analyse evidence critically.
Organise and structure material to write and present confidently.
Participate constructively in group discussions.
Identify, select, and synthesise key arguments from recommended resources.

Learning and Teaching

Teaching and learning methods

Teaching methods include:

Weekly lectures focusing on key emperors, texts, chronology and concepts, including lecturer-led examination and discussion of sources.
Weekly seminars focusing on examination and discussion of the historical context of texts and secondary literature and the key issues of debate they raise.

Learning activities include:

Preparatory reading before each seminar.
Participation in group and class discussion.
Independent reading of the texts provided and of related secondary works.
Short oral presentations on primary sources.
Independent research of additional information and source materials.
Discussion in seminars will help you to develop your ideas on a topic, to analyse a range of source material and to articulate a critical argument.

Study time
Type	Hours
Lecture	24
Seminar	12
Preparation for scheduled sessions	264
Total study time	300

Resources & Reading list

Textbooks

Marincola, John, ed. (2007). A companion to Greek and Roman historiography. Malden, MA: Blackwell.

Millar, Fergus (1992). The emperor in the Roman world. Ithaca, NY: Cornell Univ. Pres.

Feldherr, Andrew, ed. (2009). The Cambridge companion to the Roman historians.. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.

Assessment

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.

Breakdown
Method	Percentage contribution
Written assignment	40%
Essay	60%

Referral

This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.

Breakdown
Method	Percentage contribution
Coursework	100%

Repeat

An internal repeat is where you take all of your modules again, including any you passed. An external repeat is where you only re-take the modules you failed.

Breakdown
Method	Percentage contribution
Coursework	100%

Repeat Information

Repeat type: Internal & External