Ebba Simone > Status Update

"It’s clear that many people had to die or be ruined before
Tiberius ascended to the throne. The deaths alone include Marcellus, Agrippa, Drusus, Lucius Caesar, and Gaius Caesar. If we ask the simple and valid question “Who benefited?” the answer is Tiberius. There is a tradition in the sources that (...) Tiberius, for his part, repeatedly declared his fatigue with public life and his reluctance to rule."

"At some later point, the young Augustus met Livia [Drusilla] and was
instantly smitten, as was Livia. Augustus, too, was married and had a daughter, Julia, but he began an affair with Livia. Shortly after Julia’s birth late in 39, and only a few weeks after meeting Livia, Augustus divorced his wife and betrothed Livia, who was pregnant with a second son by her first husband."

"Questions to Consider:

1. Was it possible for Antony and Octavian to reach a permanent
understanding, or were conflict and war unavoidable?

2. Was Augustus the same person as Octavian? What continuities do you see in the character of each? What differences?"

"Dissent was tolerated—up to a point. The poet Ovid was
exiled to a trading post on the Black Sea for his humorous
books called The Art of Love, which seemed to mock
Augustus’s conservative social agenda."

Lecture Four: The First Emperor Augustus (Gaius Octavius)

"The political prospects of the 18-year-old Octavius should have
perished with Caesar, had it not been for a bombshell in Caesar’s will:
Octavius was posthumously adopted as Caesar’s son and chief heir."

(Gaius Octvaius's mother, Atia, was the niece of Julius Caesar and his father, also named Gaius Octavius, died when he was aged 4.)

Lecture 2: The Roman Republic

"The Roman Republic was founded in 509 B.C., when the last of
Rome’s kings, Tarquin the Arrogant, was expelled."

I like that at the end of each lecture there are two questions to consider.

"The 50-year period following Severus Alexander was one of great instability: It saw some 21 legitimate emperors and staggering 38 usurpers; all of the latter perished violently as did all but three of the legitimate rulers. (...) Being emperor of Rome it seems was hazardous to one's health."