VR: Lesson - Authentic Latin - Getting Started

Getting Started With Authentic Texts

The passages that you will be reading in this module are divided up based on author. The first two passages, from Suetonius and Eutropius, two historians who wrote in Latin, discuss Augustus in retrospect (they were writing about Augustus many years after his death). The Sight Passage for this module is from the Res Gestae, which is Augustus' own account of his actions. Note the differences in style from the various authors.

Augustus' Legacy

Augustus Caesar was not included in the Real Characters information presented in the previous lesson. Instead, we will use the rest of this module to investigate the facts of his life. Even though this enormously important historical figure only played a small role in Caedes Foedissima, far from a central character, his patronage, influence and presence could still be felt. The focus now is to discuss the legacy of this figure in Roman history, and to do so through the eyes and words of the Romans themselves.

This famous statue, called the Augustus of Prima Porta, shows Augustus as Imperator. His pose is a traditional military stance, and his breastplate includes the god Mars.

In this lesson, you will encounter two different authors, Suetonius and Eutropius, both writing many years after the death of Augustus, trying to put him into his proper place in history. Suetonius, writing around the start of the 2nd century CE, is already mythologizing and creating a larger-than-life figure. Eutropius, writing much later, in the late 4th century CE, has taken the view of Augustus as a great figure as a given, and discusses only some basic points of interest in his life. As you read through each of these passages, try to gather some concept of what lesson they are teaching and what impact Augustus had on the development of the Roman Empire.