Author: admin

A retrospective on the material we’ve covered thus far as we head into Early Christianity and Late Antiquity, plus some announcements.

Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations shows an intelligent emperor coping with the realities of an empire buckling under its own weight.

Apuleius’ The Golden Ass is Ancient Rome’s only novel to survive in full – a strange, often disturbing fairytale that had a huge influence on posterity.

Juvenal’s Satires, produced some time in the decades around 100 CE, mercilessly mock some of the more colorful aspects of Roman life.

Statius’ Thebaid, Books 7-12. Six hundred years after Aeschylus, Statius once again brought the Theban epic to a thunderous conclusion.

Statius’ Thebaid, Books 1-6. This epic is hardly ever read or taught these days, but in 100 CE, it was as famous as anything in the Roman world.

Petronius’ Satyricon is a contender for history’s first novel, a picaresque filled with sex, misadventures, and details about daily life.

Seneca’s Phaedra (c 50s CE) is the story of an illicit passion, a stoic cautionary tale and simultaneously vivid character study.