CLCV 228 - Spectacles of Power in the Age of Nero

Institution:

Trinity College

Subject:

Description:

This course explores the intersection of power and public display-how power reinforces and legitimizes itself through display and representation, and how varieties of representation, literary and visual, respond to power by commenting on, supporting, and challenging authority. Focusing on the early Roman Empire in the age of Nero, we will examine the public spectacles of the Romans-triumphs, circuses and gladiatorial games, tragedies and other public performances-and the ways in which the city of Rome itself served as a stage for the display of power, all of which helped to define the role of the emperor and his relationship with his subjects. The age of Nero was one of remarkable literary and artistic production strikingly preoccupied with examining the nature of power in the context of the developing imperial system and society. Lucan's epic poem, "The Civil War," describes the grasping for power and loss of freedom in the rise of Nero's ancestor Julius Caesar. Through the lens of Stoic philosophy, Seneca's tragedies-the only surviving examples of Roman tragedy and the precursors of later Western tragedies-use mythology to understand figures of authority and the consequences of power misused. In turn, the satirists Persius and Petronius make fun of the current society and its preoccupation with power, money, and status. The interconnection between performance and politics finds its apogee in the figure of Nero himself, the actor-emperor who took to the stage and imagined himself to be a great artist in his own 1.00 units, Lecture

Credits:

1.00

Credit Hours:

Prerequisites:

Corequisites:

Exclusions:

Level:

Instructional Type:

Lecture

Notes:

Additional Information:

Historical Version(s):

Institution Website:

www.Trincoll.edu

Phone Number:

(860) 297-2000

Regional Accreditation:

New England Association of Schools and Colleges

Calendar System:

Semester

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