Lecture Date: March 26, 2024
Ten Caesars is the story of the Roman Empire from rise to reinvention, from Augustus, who founded the empire, to Constantine, who made it Christian and moved the capital east to Constantinople.
The empire reached from modern-day Britain to Iraq. By the fourth century, the time of Constantine, the Roman Empire had changed so dramatically in geography, ethnicity, religion, and culture that it would have been virtually unrecognizable to Augustus.
In the imperial era Roman women—mothers, wives, mistresses—had substantial influence over the emperors, and we will meet some of the most important among them, from Livia, Augustus’s wife, to Helena, Constantine’s mother. But even women in the imperial family faced limits and the emperors often forced them to marry or divorce for purely political reasons.
Rome’s legacy remains today in so many ways, from language, law, and architecture to the seat of the Roman Catholic Church. Strauss examines this enduring heritage through the lives of the men who shaped it: Augustus, Tiberius, Nero, Vespasian, Trajan, Hadrian, Marcus Aurelius, Septimius Severus, Diocletian and Constantine. Over the ages, they learned to maintain the family business—the government of an empire—by adapting when necessary and always persevering no matter the cost.
Speaker: Barry Straus
Barry Straus is Bryce and Edith M. Bowmar Professor in Humanistic Studies at Cornell University, and the Corliss Page Dean Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution. He is the author of The War that made the Roman Empire: Antony, Cleopatra, and Octavian at Actium, Ten Caesars: Roman Emperors from Augustus to Constantine, and a range of other best-selling books. His books have been translated into twenty languages. He completed his Doctorate at Yale University and his Bachelor’s degree at Cornell.