A comprehensive lecture survey of the history and literature of ancient Rome from the Battle of Actium in 31 B.C. through the collapse and fall of the western Roman Empire. Detailed examination of the nature of the imperial principate, with special attention to the personalities of the Roman emperors and the response of poets and historians to the madness around them. Authors read in English translation may include Tacitus with selections from his monumental histories; Dio Cassius on the Augustan principate; Suetonius with his lives of the Caesars; Virgil with his Aeneid; Ovid (especially his Heroides and Fasti); Juvenal and Persius; Petronius; Seneca (especially his tragedies); Pliny the Younger; epic poets of the Silver Age (especially Statius and Valerius Flaccus). (Group III)