The course will introduce the students to the period of the so-called crisis of the Roman Republic (146-43 BCE), pinpointing the general political and social tendencies as well as some capital episodes and figures of the age. After considering the very notion of the crisis, special emphasis will be put on the political rhetoric and discourse arousing in the last decades before the creation of the principate under Augustus. Students will get acquainted with three main actors and witnesses of these years, who will be considered for their literary endeuveurs as well as for their political roles: Cicero, Caesar and Sallust. The different rhetoric and imagery employed in their works manifest a different political stance and provide evidence for a different perspective on the crisis, its nature and the possible solutions to it.
- Kursleiter:in: Dr. Irene Leonardis