From Augustus to Augustine (In-person)
Fall (14 hours or more) | Registration opens 7/29/2025 12:00 AM EDT
In Book 1 of Virgil’s Aeneid, Jupiter promises the goddess Venus that he has given the Romans “the gift of empire without end” (imperium sine fine). Later in the poem, in Book 6, Anchises, the father of the hero Aeneas, announces to his son that the Emperor Augustus will “bring once again an Age of gold” (aurea saecula) to Rome. And it is true that the principate of Augustus (27 BC - 14 AD) brought to the Roman Empire a long period of peace and stability. Yet three centuries later in 312 AD, the Emperor Constantine attributed his victory over Maxentius at the Milvian Bridge to the Christian God, and when he died in 337 he was a baptized Christian and buried with the title of “Equal to Apostles” (isapostolos).
This team-taught course will investigate the gradual transformation of the Roman state of the first century of our era—along with its own pantheon of anthropomorphic gods and traditional religious beliefs and practices —into the fully Christian society that officially outlawed pagan worship in 391 AD.
This course will combine lecture with class discussions. Study Leaders will supply a required reading packet; fee to come, payable to Study Leaders.
Required Books:
Reading packet (to be supplied by Study Leaders)
Meditations - Marcus Aurelius, trans. Maxwell Staniforth (ISBN-13: 978-0140441406)
The Confessions of St. Augustine - trans. John K. Ryan (ISBN-13: 978-0385029551)
Optional Books:
The Golden Ass - Apuleius, trans. Jack Lindsay (ISBN-13: 978-0253200365)
The History of Rome - Tim Pulju (ISBN-13: 978-1981551835)
Edward Bradley
Retired professor of Classics at Dartmouth College with broad interests and experience in teaching Latin and Greek literature, Roman and early Christian art and architecture.
Timothy Danaher
Chaplain to Aquinas House at Dartmouth. He graduated with a BA in American Literature and Theology from Franciscan University of Steubenville, then an MDiv and STB from the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C. His interests include early Christian history, T.S. Eliot, and lap swimming.