Read it, but always read it with questions/issues in mind. 

 

To simplify greatly, and with regard to Ancient Pagan Rome:

What was pagan religion like?

What were the most distinctive features of the ancient pagan view of virtue?

What were the main characteristics of pagan art and architecture?

 

[For more detail, consult these handouts: the table on “Three Romes” and “What we are looking for.”]

 

A secondary but related sort of question: How and why did Rome get transformed as she did? (What are the causes behind the establishment of the republic, the fall of the republic, the success of Octavian, the decline and fall of the empire, the long instability of the early middle ages, the emergence of order and increasing wealth of the high middle ages, emergence of the Renaissance, the weakening of the Roman Catholic Church, the success of the Risorgimento, the [temporary] success of Fascism, the “economic miracle” of the last 50 years?)

 

 

Ancient Pagan Rome:

Livy is our best guide to the ancient monarchy and the early republic. Read Livy with an eye on the kinds of actions or human qualities necessary at the foundation of Rome. Consider as well any evidence he suggests about their religion (pp. 7-19).

What does Cicero have in mind by “republican virtue” (p. 27)?

Suetonius is our best guide to the establishment of the empire (pp. 39-41): What kind of changes occurred at this important point in Roman history?

Augustine is our sharpest critic of pagan virtue. What are his complaints against it (pp. 9-10, 98-99)?

On the virtue of the Christian martyr, Ignatius is succinct and powerful: p. 62. How does this view of virtue compare with that of ancient Rome?

What is the pagan case against Christianity? Were their concerns simply signs of irrationality and bias? (Consider in general the role of religion in Roman politics and the sort of virtues the Romans sought. Also consider pp. 62-3, 68-9, 88-90)

 

Medieval and Renaissance Christian Rome:

Pages 72-84 contain important biblical passages, as well as a brief retelling of the story of David by Machiavelli, a critic of Christianity. How does Machiavelli’s story differ from that of the Bible?

Pages 85-88 tell part of the story of Constantine, who made Christianity legal and also supported it. What are the key points in the Christian memory of Constantine?

Pages 88-91 testify to the effort to preserve and strengthen paganism as Christianity approached. Why was this thought to be so important?

Pages 92-3 give evidence regarding the triumph of Christianity as a state religion. Do you suspect Christianity changed as its circumstances changed?

 

Pages 93-97 offer Gibbon’s account of the end of paganism. He wrote in the 18^th C (hence his prose is difficult for us) and to a Christian audience. Does he see the triumph of Christianity as a triumph for mankind?

Pages 97-98: Machiavelli could not openly declare Christianity to be false, but this did not stop him from attacking it for what he considered to be its political consequences. What are the bases of his criticisms?

Pages 100-103 suggest both the international power of the popes in the High Middle Ages, and their weakness in the tenth and eleventh centuries. How could it be that the power of the papacy could vary so?

Pages 103-111 try to capture the excitement of the Renaissance through the lives of Brunelleschi and Michelangelo. They also indicate something of the power of the popes and of their worldliness. Was the place of Christianity in the world changing? Or, perhaps, was Christianity itself changing?

Pages 112-120 continue the theme of the attacks on the worldliness of the Catholic Church (in the Protestant Reformation) and the military attack on Rome and the papacy in 1527. Did these attacks have lasting consequences?

 

Modern Secular Rome:

 

Pages 122-23: The passages from Mazzini are especially clear on the new principles of Italian politics.

Consult the “Syllabus of Errors” by Pope Pius IX, a separate handout, for the resistance by the Church to these principles.

On Mussolini and Fascism:

            Read esp Fundamental Ideas,

pp. 123-4, points 2, 3, 4, 7, 9, 13

            pp. 125-26, points 3, 6, 13

                        Be ready to learn what the Lateran Pact is.

Apart from the Reading Packet: How do the principles and judgments of the contemporary Roman compare with Romans of prior ages? (Yes, this invites a huge generalization!)

 

Questions in the Readings Packet, pp. 71, 121, and 131. Some of the questions require careful reading; others are more immediately accessible. Start with these: 

 

On p. 131:        Modern Secular Rome: Numbers 6, 8, 10, 11, 12

 

On p. 121:        Christian Rome: Numbers 8, 9, 23

 

On p. 71:          Ancient Rome: Numbers 1, 2, 7, 8, 10