The Age of Augustus

One of our chief sources for the socio-history of the reign of the Emperor Augustus is the remarkable outpouring of verse and prose that marked his reign. This textbook, comprising an anthology of sources, aims to introduce undergraduates and school students to the types of texts available through translations of a variety of works presented thematically. Sections cover the range of sources, such as Histories and poetry, the texts that accompanied Augustus' rise to power, the imperial family, Rome and Italy, religion, administration, war and expansion, conspiracies and scandal, Maecenas and the arts, social legislation and society. Extracts are taken from letters and official records as well as works by some of the most familiar Latin writers including Horace, Josephus, Livy, Ovid, Pliny the Elder, Plutarch, Seneca the Elder, Strabo, Tacitus and, of couse, Virgil. Cooley also looks at Augustus' own work, the Res Gestae Divi Augusti , and the evidence of Augustus' imperial coinage, examples of which are illustrated throughout. Translations by B W J G Wilson.