The Capitoline Wolf

Rome, Capitoline Museum

This image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lupa_Capitolina_con_sfondo_bianco.jpg

In 509 BC, the citizens of a little Latin-speaking city on the banks of the Tiber River threw out the last of their kings. They were now a republic. It took them a while to decide what this would look like in practice, but they were certain about one thing: those kings were never coming back.

The city was, of course, Rome. Just one of dozens of city-states in Italy at the time, and not a very interesting or cultured one at that. Nobody outside Latium paid it the slightest attention for quite some time. But the citizens did eventually figure out what their Republic would look like. It would be a strange mixture of monarchical power without a monarch, of law-makers from the best land-owning families, and eventually (after many bitter riots and feuds) of democracy through the Tribunes of the plebs - that is, the little people.

It was, at one and the same time, both a shambles and a formidable - even lethal - model. Every citizen had a role to play, whether in peace or in war, and eventually all of Italy had heard of Rome. Later Romans looked back on this era with pride and nostalgia, as have many peoples around the world ever since. So successful was the Roman Republic that it eventually conquered every other power in the Mediterranean world. And yet, from the moment of its first conquest, the Republic had also sown the seeds of its own downfall. We shall find out why.

Our course will follow Rome from its earliest history, through its wars with Carthage to the takeover of the entire Hellenistic world. We shall meet the demagogues Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus, the great dictators Marius and Sulla, and the empire-building rivals Pompey and Caesar.

We shall end with the death of the Republic - the era of Octavian and Mark Antony (and, of course, Cleopatra).

RJW F2402 Online course (via Zoom)

7 weeks, Monday 8 January - Monday 26 February (incl., with break on 29 January).

NB The “week off” for this course is not in the usual half-term week. This is because we have a little excursion on the 29th. There will, therefore, be a session during half term for this course only. It will, however, be recorded as usual, so you can catch up at leisure if you are otherwise engaged in w/c 12 February.

£80 (individual registration); £144 (for two people sharing one screen).