This course is a survey of Roman political thought, beginning with Polybius and concluding with Augustine of Hippo. We will study writers whose works are viewed as traditionally philosophical – e.g. Cicero, Lucretius, Seneca, Marcus Aurelius, and Augustine – along with historians (Sallust, Livy, Tacitus), Vergil’s Aeneid, and Pliny’s Panegyric to Trajan. Participants will write seminar papers with the goal of presenting them at conference, incorporating them into dissertation research, or publishing them as articles. Though we will study texts in translation, students familiar with Latin or Greek are encouraged to incorporate their language skills in their research.
