Crossroads: Imperial Rome

(CRD 30)

"Crossroads” is a comparative journey that will take you to a pinnacle moment of Western culture for five weeks, and then to a paired episode from a contemporaneous non-Western culture for another five weeks. Every course will be richly illustrated with slides of art, architecture, and archaeology; and one great book from the world’s best literature, philosophy, or religious thought will be the primary reading for each segment. We invite you to join us on our journey.

In 31 BCE Octavian defeated the fleets of Marc Antony and Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium. His victory brought an end to a long period of social and political turmoil that had undermined the Roman Republic for decades. It also brought to an end the republic itself and all that it had represented since its birth some 500 years earlier. The powers that Octavian received from the senate were never relinquished by his successors. The Roman Empire was born. For the next three centuries, emperors governed as absolute rulers an empire that stretched from Iberia to Mesopotamia. The stability, wealth, and cultural diversity of the empire created a majestic civilization that compares in its complexity and power to those of India and China. Its achievements in the fields of literature, philosophy, and the arts are still with us today. The poetry of Ovid and Horace, the philosophical musings of Marcus Aurelius, the elegant villas of Pompeii, and the majestic dome of the Pantheon, among other marvels, made the imperial period not only unique in itself, but also a model for the rebirth of European civilization in the Renaissance.

See also: Crossroads: India - The Gupta Dynasty

Edward Steidle, Lecturer in English

Edward Steidle joined Stanford’s English faculty in 1984. His area of specialization is medieval art and literature. He is currently working on comparative approaches to the study of ancient European, Asian, and Central American cultures. He also leads travel groups to historic sites in Italy and the Aegean.