1. What's in a Name?

About this Lecture

Lecture

In this module, we think about how Augustus' names and titles evolved over the course of his life and career, from his birth name of Gaius Octavius Thurinus to the honorific title of Augustus.

Course

In this course, Dr Hannah Cornwell (University of Birmingham) explores Augustus' self-presentation and management of public opinion during his reign as Emperor. In the first module, we explore the evolution of Augustus' names, from his birth name of Gaius Octavius Thurinus to the title of Augustus itself, awarded to him by the Senate in 27 BC. In the second module, we think about the ways in which Augustus presented himself as a great military leader, before turning in the third module to his image from a the point of view of Roman religion. In the fourth module, we think about how Augustus promoted the view of a new Golden Age, focusing in particular on the revival of the Secular Games, before moving on in the fifth module to look at Augustus' self-presentation as Pater Patriae, 'Father of the State', and his reforms relating to marriage and adultery.

Lecturer

Dr Hannah Cornwell is Lecturer in Ancient History at the University of Birmingham. Her research interests focus on socio-political history of the Roman Republic and Empire, with a particular interest in the nature of Roman imperialism, and Roman attitudes towards their position as a political power in the Mediterranean. Her recent publications include Pax and the Politics of Peace (2017), which examines the two generations that spanned the collapse of the Republic and the Augustan period in order to understand how the concept of pax Romana, as a central ideology of Roman imperialism, evolved.