Most important innovation was to change the military oath.  Before Marius, swore loyalty to Rome.  Now swear oath to the commander of the Legion.

From now own, Legionaries see each other as brothers, leader as father.

Produces an esprit de corps on the positive side.  The general / father looks after his troops. 

Pater very imp in Rome
Patria = fatherland

Killing father is bad.  Betraying fatherland is a variation on that.  Jupiter (Ius Pitar) is the father of the gods

Epithets for Aeneas - pius is one, pater is another.  He is very concerned for his father and his son.  Patrilineal system of thinking.  Pater patriae (father of the fatherland) is a title applied to him and other Romans as a great honor.  We translated it as Father of his country and applied it to George Washington, as in the portrait Patriæ Pater by Rembrant Peale.

Marius change means the commander looks after his men like his own children.  Not unnecessarily risky, gets booty & other rewards for them.

From now on, first allegiance is to commander, not to Rome. It's a political disaster for Rome

Marius returns to Rome as a hero of the lower classes. Marries the aunt of Julius Caesar, becomes hero of Julius Caesar.

58-54 BC, Caesar conquered Gaul, makes inroads in Britain

Crassus wanted military glory, went to fight Partia, got wiped out.  He should have stuck to being rich.

Pompey & Caesar try to ally.  Pompey marries Caesar's daughter, and the men got along.  But she died, ending their trust of each other

Civil war follows.  Pompey goes to Greece, Caesar follows & defeats him.  Caesar takes many prominant Romans prisoner, pardons them, including Horace.

Pompey flees to Egypt.  Cleopatria was fighting her brother/husband for power.  Pompey arrives now.  Young Pharoah asks what to do.  Advisors get him to execute Pompey & behead him

Caesar arrives.  Upset they have killed a Roman consul.

Myth of the carpet--Cleopatria rolled in it.  Caesar falls in love with Cleopatria.

Patricians hate Caesar as a turncoat on his class.  Accuse him of wanting to be rex.

Caesar stays in Egypt.  Arranges for grain shipments to Rome--helps lower classes. 

Cleopatria gives birth to a child.  Roman custom for Roman father to lift up child to show it's his.  Officers beg Caesar not to raise child; he does so anyway.

Caesar marries Cleopatria under Egyptian law.  She's queen, he's Pharoah.   Angers Romans--he's setting up a dynasty. He argues that what happens in Egypt stays in Egypt.

Need a squeaky-clean public image.  Caesar is ruining his. 

Caesar returns to Rome.  Gets named Dictator.  Carries some Legions along.  Has Senate pass a number of laws that seem reasonable & responsible.  Help poor

• Ceiling on interest rates
• Provide land to poor Romans

Threatens the privileges & wealth of rich

Things going ok until Cleopatria comes to visit.  Has a hugh parade through Rome.  Before, only a military commander got such a parade when VOTED a triumph.

Cleopatria brings all kinds of people and animals.  Cleopatria is riding on a big float with their children. 

The patricians have had enough, assassinate Caesar.
Brutus & Cassius lead the assassination.  Chose not to kill Mark Antony also. 

Antony aroused the mob at the funeral.  Mob burns houses of patricians.

Antony takes over legions.
Octavian joins Antony.  Caesar's adopted nephew.

Antony & Octavian defeat the Republicans in Greece.
Antony takes over Eastern Empire
Octavian takes over West--Italy, Greece, Gaul, etc.

Cleopatria fled to Egypt.  Antony finds her in Asia Minor.  Falls in love with her, stays in Egypt & they have children.

He becomes easternized

They have a final showdown.  Octavius wins; Antony & Cleopatria die

Octavius becomes Caesar Augustus, 1st Emperor.

Celtic & Latin ancestors.

40 BC Maecenus his patron introduced him to Augustus

Major works

• Eclogues 43-37 BC.  pastorals.  10 Eclogues

Modeled on Greek poet Theocritus' Idylls from the 3rd cen BC Alexandria, Egypt.  Alexandria, Egypt a big city.  Lots of learning and art.  Most sophisticated city in the world for a time. All the good, all the bad of the big city.  World's greatest library.

Poets made a school there.  Wrote for each other.  Were very obscure and erudite.

Preferred short poems.  Callimachus says "a great book is a great evil."  Poems extremely learned.

Theocritus grew up in Greek Sicily, writes little snapshots of lives of minor gods, sheperds, etc.

Virgil give us the name pastoral - pastor = shepherd

Names his area Arcadia.  Idealizes his rural youth.  Bucolic

Pastoral is not produced by a farmer.  Always by a city dweller who idealizes the farm life.  Farmer doesn't romanticizing waking in dark & slopping hogs. 

These shepherds care for flocks, sing to them, pursue country girls.

Virgil makes the pastoral and allegory.   The songs allegorize political and philosophical debates.

Virgil wrote pastoral elegy on death of ideal shepherd Daphnis.  Animals, plants, trees, and rocks mourn his death. 

Virgil is writing about the recent assassination of Caesar. 

Aligning himself with Octavian & Antony against the repubicans (optimates).

Backs Octavian against Antony later.

Virgil's writing always has multiple layers of meaning.  Political, social, philosophical, religious, etc.

Shepherds are associated with Epicureanism.  Virgil presents Epicureanism in the pastorals.  Shepherds retire from city life

Lentus in umbra - at ease in the shade (vs working in the sun). 

Catullus & Lucretius are his models during his Epicurean period.
Lucretius - De Rerum Natura

1. Cereal crops
2. vines and olives
3. animals
4. bees