Augustus and the Greek World

Others will cast more tenderly in bronze

Their breathing figures, I can well believe,

And bring more lifelike portraits out of marble;

Argue more eloquently, use the pointer

To trace the paths of heaven accurately

And accurately foretell the rising stars.

Roman, remember by your strength to rule

Earth's peoples - for your arts are to be these:

To pacify, to impose the rule of law,

To spare the conquered, battle down the proud.

-(Robert Fitzgerald, translator)

Scholars have largely believed that the "others" whom Anchises is referring to are the Greeks. The Greeks were simply far more artistically and scientifically inclined than were the Romans. Moreover, the educated among the Romans realized this; it is for that reason that the wealthy Roman citizens hired Greeks to be tutors to both themselves & their children.

It is surely not by chance that it was Octavion who commissioned Virgil to write his epic poem. I am compelled to believe that it was Augustus himself whom Virgil was thinking of when he was writing these lines - and not merely because the trek to the underworld was to foretell the future (including the reign of Augustus). Rather, it is because of the immense respect that Octavion had for the Greeks - that, I think, was the impetus which inspired these lines.

In this book, G.W. Bowersock does a superb job of expounding on this fact. We learn of how Caesar Augustus longed for a cultural fusion between the Greeks and the Romans, much like what Alexander of Macedon was searching for between the Macedonians and the Persians a few centuries earlier. Octavion wished to have the Romans learn the Greek language & dress in Greek clothing and he desired to have the Greeks learn latin and dress in Roman attire. The goal was to have both cultures be interchangeable with each other while still preserving their own cultural heritage and identity. To have the best of both worlds shared amongst the two peoples was the objective. This is a noble purpose in any day & time.

Augustus responded to various Greek anti-Rome revolts with a temperance and restraint which is remarkable and in those times almost unheard of. He loved classical Greek plays and admonished his fellow Romans to disinter the didactic qualities the works of art held for the Roman people.

G.W. Bowersock covers all of these motifs and more in this book. It is a must book for all classical historians and for those who admire the great Caesar Augustus so much as a hundreth as much as I.