CLST 24 The Birth of Rome
Why did the Rome emerge as the most powerful city of the Western world? How did later Romans remember and heroize the events that led to their supremacy? We will trace this remarkable transformation through both science and literature: the physical evidence recovered through archaeology, and literary accounts in Greeks' and Romans' prose and poetry that tell stories of Rome's foundation and struggle for survival. Readings include passages from Virgil's Aeneid and Livy's History of Rome, as well as excerpts from ancient writers that include Dionysius, Strabo, Plutarch, Cicero and Ovid.