Week 11-12: Finis

The end is here! Here is the end!
Professor Kendall gave me a gold star on my paper, and my presentation is ready to go. Yes, the gold star is a real physical gold star, and I am unusually proud of it.
The morning class finished up the chain of emperors with Septimius Severus and Caracalla.

They are pictured here with Julia Domna, and then Geta, poor Geta who was erased by Caracalla.

The afternoon class is finished with Mussolini and his "New Roman Empire." There is just something fundamentally wrong with a square Colosseum.

And this one is supposed to be a modern Pantheon...

 

Maybe this last post will just be of pretty pictures. I ended up comparing Obama's" "Hope" poster to the Prima Porta Augustus statue. The dolphin has a pug nose because dolphins can't stand on their noses. Go figure. 

 

I almost can't believe that this project is almost over. All that's left now is my final presentation which doesn't feel real. I'm excited about it, but I'm also quite nervous especially since I want to avoid a heated political debate. 

Here's another pretty picture of what Augustus' forum might have looked like. 

I'd like to thank Professor Kendall and Dr. Williams for helping and advising me on this project. I don't quite know how to put it into words. 

Hic est finis. This is the end. 

Week 10: Writing

Apologies if these posts are becoming rather boring, but my main focus is writing my paper now.

At the outset of my project, I wanted to avoid writing about politics, and look where I am now. Anyways, I'll be looking at both political propaganda put out by Obama and Augustus and media about them put out by the public. I won't be analyzing each man's character; I'll be looking at the persona that is created by them and forced upon them. The connecting thread between Augustus and Obama that I latched upon was the theme of hope. Augustus came to power when Rome was embroiled in civil war, and he put an end to it.  I also saw this between Nero and Obama, but the idea of propaganda is stronger between Augustus and Obama. Also, Augustus isn't remembered for fiddling while Rome burned, which helps. 

The afternoon class is in the French Revolution now(although, I don't think we've actually reached July 14 yet), and a couple of the classes have been spent looking at pretty pictures by Jacques Louis David. This ended up not being entirely relevant to my topic, but lots of pamphlets were printed during the time of the French Revolution expressing different opinions as well as offering a source of information to the public. This form of social media may be more formal than the words scrawled on a tavern wall, but these pamphlets were the "tweets" of the time. There were new ones every day, and they were widely circulated. That was a bit of a digression, ah well. 

The end is in sight. 

Week 8-9: Presidents and Emperors

Even with spring break being over, there still seems to be a general lack of people on campus.

The major thing that happened and is worth sharing is that I've changed my final paper topic again, and it will probably make some people mad. I'm going to compare a US president to a Roman emperor in terms of how their image was created by social media. The first idea was to compare Obama to Nero and Nixon to Domitian. Professor Kendall and I discussed which presidents to use and which were least likely to incite a riot...because you know, avoiding riots is usually better for everyone involved. To this end, Professor Kendall and I changed the Obama/Nero comparison to Obama and Augustus. This gives me the opportunity to focus on public language in propaganda which is all around better. I'm writing the first draft now. Yeah, that's what my weeks are now: writing, reading, class, writing.

The afternoon class moved past the Renaissance and onto the Enlightenment, and the reading for that time period was Montesquieu and Gibbon. Both were about the fall of Rome. The morning class studied "the five good emperors," Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, and Marcus Aurelius. The term "five good emperors" was coined by Gibbon oddly enough.

Week 7: Mentioned by Pasquino

So last week the UofA was on spring break so I didn't have class. Not having class left lots of time for sleep among other productive things such as reading and trying to write an introduction.

Pasquino and Marfario are two of the "talking statues" that are placed around Rome. Individuals would post short snippets of verse criticizing the pope on the statues for everyone else to see. Due to this, Pasquino was put under surveillance so then other statues like Marfario appeared and continued the practice. It's like an early Twitter in a way. "Marfario mentioned Pasquino in a tweet" or something would be a normal notification, and anonymous individuals had conversations as these statues. These statues remain today as well as records of some of their interactions. I can see it now...@Marfario replied to your tweet...


Marforio:- Dimmi: che fai Pasquino? (Pasquino, tell me: what are you doing?)
Pasquino:- Eh, guardo Roma, chè non vada a Urbino. (I watch over Rome, to make sure it's not moved to Urbino)

Reading and writing about them as well as reading Machiavelli's Discourses on Livy made up my break. Hope everyone's break was relaxing and enjoyable!

Week 6: Pen to Paper

The major event that happened this week is that I've further refined my project's topic. Professor Kendall and I went over an outline and brainstormed topics to write upon, and I'm going to compare the following:

• Roman gravestone inscriptions to modern gravestone inscriptions
• Twitter to Roman epigraphy in general 
• Yes this will get narrowed and refined because it's a general comparison. 
• Roman building dedications to modern building dedications

The morning class is learning about Trajan right now with his military excursions everywhere. On Friday, Professor Kendall was going to talk about the bath complex he built, but it was the Friday before spring break. A long lecture would not have been welcome. 

The afternoon class is reading Machiavelli's Discourses on Livy, and it seems like a satire. He may or may not be serious, but as I read it I feel like he's thumbing his nose at everyone. 

The morning class studied Titus a week or two ago, and I'm going to use the inscriptions on his arch in order to look at memory. The arch was put up by his younger brother Domitian after Titus' death. This is the inscription Domitian put on the arch when he built it. 

SENATVS

POPVLVSQUE ROMANVS

DIVO TITO DIVI VESPASIANI F

VESPASIANO AUGUSTO

The Senate and People of Rome

To the divine Titus Vespasian Augustus son on the divine Vespasian

On the other side of the arch, a pope put up an inscription of his own. 

INSIGNE RELIGIONES ATQUE ARTIS MONVMENTVM 

VETUSTATE FATISCENS

PIVS SEPTIMIVS PONTIFEX MAXIMVS

MOVIS OPERIBUS PRISCVM EXEMPLAR IMITANTIBUS

FVLCIRI SERVARIQUE IVSSIT

ANNO SACRI PRINCIPATVS EIVS XXIIII

(This) monument, remarkable in terms of both religion and art, had weakened from age: 

Pius the Seventh, Supreme Pontiff,

by new works on the model of the ancient exemplar ordered it reinforced and preserved.

In the year of his sacred rule the 24th.

Looking at gravestones, I found that we remember people by the same markers as the Romans did: family relations, age(to an extent), other associations the deceased belonged to. For buildings, I'm going to look at the same thing. 

Week 5: AP Euro and Gravestones

Managed to remember the "k" this time. All is well.
Boccaccio and Botticelli AND Beccaria...too much too much. Seriously, trying to remember what each of these guys did can cause a minor headache.

The afternoon class is getting more into the Renaissance and how it connects back to Rome which is important for my topic of memory. Speaking of memory, I went to a cemetery this week to see how we memorialize people today as opposed to when the Romans were putting up funerary inscriptions.

The grave inscriptions I saw and Roman funerary monuments are strikingly similar. Grave markers from both the modern and ancient world included the name of the deceased(duh) and often some sort of familial relation. The Roman gravestones often didn't record the exact day of death, and if the deceased age was included it was often approximate.

Take 2 since it didn't save last time...
At the outset of my project, I thought I was going to look at literacy and language in public writing to see what it says about society as a whole, but attending classes and reading books has changed the focus of my project. Now I'm looking at memory in the form of twitter and gravestones, and I've found that graffiti doesn't fit in so much anymore. It's been a refinement process because I didn't realize just how huge my topic was.

Here's an example of a funerary inscription.
AE 1962.70 – Merida, Spain – probably 2nd

D M S
LUTATIA LUPATA ANN XVI
LUTATIA SEVERA ALUMNAE
H S E S T T L

Edited:
D(is) M(anibus) S(acrum)
LUTATIA LUPATA ANN(os) XVI
LUTATIA SEVERA ALUMNAE
H(aec) S(ita) E(st) S(it) T(ibi) T(erra) L(evis)

Translated:
To the Underworld Gods,
Lutatia Lupata 16 years
Foster child of Lutatia Severa
She lies here. May the earth rest lightly on you.

Here's a modern one.

Hope everyone's well! 

Week 4: Death by Pollen

Allergies are killing me. I don't have time to feel sick, but sick I feel. Also, sneezing in a library feels like an unforgivable sin. 

Anyways, Rome has fallen...in the afternoon class at least. Now we're moving onto looking at how Rome was viewed in the Renaissance. I'm looking forward to this because this gets into the idea of Rome and memory which is what my project might be kind of about. 

The morning class is moving onto Trajan next who built a bath complex! I might love Roman baths a little too much. 

Both classes discussed Domitian and Tacitus' Agricola which was Tacitus' eulogy of sorts for his father. In it he talks about all of Agricola's finest moments as governor while mentioning Domitian as a way to show just how bad Domitian was as an emperor. It was a bit of a deja vu moment in the afternoon class, and honestly, Domitian wasn't that bad. Treason trials were never good, but he wasn't as bad as Tacitus made him out to be. 

Publication: AE 1940     EDCS-ID: EDCS-15300223

Province: Roma         Place: Roma

Therm(ae) Traian(i)

Translation: Baths of Trajan

That's the inscription on the complex which in his time would've been a form of propaganda to promote his image. Now, it remains on a feature of Roman society that was distinctly Roman. 

Here's another picture of public writing that I've collected. What everyone assumes to be graffiti is actually dipinti because graffiti has to be carved into its medium. Anyways, the above picture is taken from a bathroom in BASIS, and the message is written on the stall wall with silver sharpie.
For these epigraphs, I'm considering questions about who wrote it and why did they write it as well as the deeper meaning behind a simple phrase. In the way that Latin inscriptions are a window into Roman society, I'm looking at the modern ones I find for what insight they offer about our modern society.

Who wrote this? Seeing as it was found in a girl's bathroom, I think we're safe in assuming that it was not written by an 8th grade boy. Then again, his shenanigans are his own. 

Why was it written? Notice the grammar structure of this particular epigraph. The command to "be happy" is imploring whomever is in the stall to, very simply, be happy. The why was it written connects to deeper meanings behind this public writing. While on the surface it seems rather inane, it could relate to deeper issues such as depression. 

And the hashtag, oh the hashtag, "You only live once." The abbreviated hashtag is a reason for the reader to be happy. Personally, I find YOLO to be used to often as a means of justifying blatant stupidity. The phrase is thrown around because...yolo. The idea is the same as carpe diem which was at the end of one of Horace's odes. Although the words have changed, the idea of living in the moment connects this scrawled bathroom message to Horace and the Romans. 

BkI:XI Carpe Diem

Leuconoë, don’t ask, we never know, what fate the gods grant us,

whether your fate or mine, don’t waste your time on Babylonian,

futile, calculations. How much better to suffer what happens,

whether Jupiter gives us more winters or this is the last one,

one debilitating the Tyrrhenian Sea on opposing cliffs.

Be wise, and mix the wine, since time is short: limit that far-reaching hope.

The envious moment is flying now, now, while we’re speaking:

Seize the day, place in the hours that come as little faith as you can.

Ita, carpe diem, amici.