9. From Brick to Marble: Augustus Assembles Rome

Roman Architecture (HSAR 252)

Professor Kleiner discusses the transformation of Rome by its first emperor, Augustus, who claimed to have found Rome a city of brick and left it a city of marble. The conversion was made possible by the exploitation of new marble quarries at Luna (modern Carrara) on the northwest coast of Italy. The lecture surveys the end of the Roman Republic and the inauguration of the Principate and analyzes the Forum of Julius Caesar and the Forum of Augustus. Professor Kleiner shines a spotlight on Caesar's attempt to link himself to his divine ancestress Venus Genetrix and on Augustus' appropriations of Greek caryatids and other decorative motifs that associate his era with the Golden Age of Periclean Athens. Finally, she analyzes the Ara Pacis Augustae, a monument commissioned upon Augustus' return to Rome after achieving diplomatic victories in Spain and Gaul, and serving as the Luna marble embodiment of the emperor's new hegemonic empire.

00:00 - Chapter 1. From Republic to Empire: Julius Caesar
08:39 - Chapter 2. Julius Caesar, Venus Genetrix, and the Forum Iulium
20:43 - Chapter 3. The Ascent of Augustus and Access to Italian Marble
32:43 - Chapter 4. Augustus Assembles His Marble City
44:01 - Chapter 5. The Forum of Augustus and Its Links to the Greek Past
54:03 - Chapter 6. The Ara Pacis Augustae
01:05:32 - Chapter 7. Mussolini, The Meier Museum, and a Jewel on Lungotevere

Complete course materials are available at the Open Yale Courses website: http://open.yale.edu/courses

This course was recorded in Spring 2009.