Afterlives of Augustus, AD 14–2014

Explores two thousand years of radically changing opinions on the emperor Augustus, and what they reveal about the historical individual.

Penelope J. Goodman (Edited by)

9781108423687, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 26 April 2018

432 pages, 24 b/w illus. 1 map
25.5 x 18 x 2.5 cm, 1.03 kg

'Afterlives of Augustus, AD 14–2014 is a very attentively produced book … I can therefore heartily recommend the volume to anyone interested in the figure of Augustus himself and his reception, or in the development of the field of classical reception studies more generally.' William M. Barton, International Journal of the Classical Tradition

The bimillennium of Augustus' death on 19 August 2014 commemorated not only the end of his life but also the beginning of a two-thousand-year reception history. This volume addresses the range and breadth of that history. Beginning with the Emperor's death and continuing through Late Antiquity, Early Christianity, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance and early modernity to the present day, chapters address political positioning, religious mythologisation, philosophy, rhetoric, narratives, memory, and material embodiment. As they collectively reveal, Augustus has meant radically different things from one time and place to another, and even to some individual commentators as the circumstances around them changed. The weight of established narratives has often also shaped those of subsequent generations, with or without their conscious awareness. The book outlines and analyses the major themes in Augustus' reception history, clarifying the cultural and historiographical issues at stake and providing a platform for further scholarship.

1. Best of emperors or subtle tyrant? Augustus the ambivalent Penelope J. Goodman
2. The last days of Augustus Alison E. Cooley
3. Seneca's Augustus: (re)calibrating the imperial model for a young prince Steven J. Green
4. Embodying the Augustan in Suetonius and beyond Patrick Cook
5. The first emperor? Augustus and Julius Caesar as rival founders of the principate Joseph Geiger
6. Julian Augustus on Augustus: Octavian in the Caesars Shaun Tougher
7. Augustus: the harbinger of peace. Orosius' reception of Augustus in Historiae Adversus Paganos Michael C. Sloan
8. The Byzantine Augustus: the reception of the first Roman emperor in the Byzantine tradition Kosta Simi?
9. Augustus and the Carolingians Jürgen Strothmann
10. Augustus as visionary: the legend of the Augustan altar in S. Maria in Aracoeli, Rome Kerry Boeye and Nandini B. Pandey
11. From peacemaker to tyrant: the changing image of Augustus in Italian Renaissance political thought Robert Black
12. Augustus in Morisot's 'Book 8' of the Fasti Bobby Xinyue
13. The proconsul and the emperor: John Buchan's Augustus James T. Chlup
14. In search of a new princeps: Günther Birkenfeld and his Augustus novels, 1934–1984 Martin Lindner
15. Augustus in the rhetorical tradition Kathleen S. Lamp
16. The Parthian arch of Augustus and its legacy: memory manipulation in imperial Rome and modern scholarship Maggie L. Popkin
17. Life through a lens: Augustus and the politics of the past in television documentaries today Fiona Hobden
18. Augusto reframed: exhibiting Augustus in bimillennial Rome Anna Clareborn
19. Small bandwidth: Augustus' (non)reception in America and its context Karl Galinsky.

Subject Areas: Ancient history: to c 500 CE [HBLA], History: earliest times to present day [HBL], History [HB]