Sept. 2, 2009
We will compare works of the two earliest surviving Roman historians, Sallust and Livy, focusing in each case on an important enemy of Rome: Jugurtha (in Sallust), and Hannibal (in Livy). Our reading will offer us an opportunity to see how Sallust and Livy thought about these foreign foes as individuals and as leaders of a rebellion against Roman power, and to consider more generally how each approaches the study and writing of history.Topics we will discuss include the role of great individuals in history and the relation of biographic and historical narrative; culture, ethnicity and geography as historical forces and subjects for historical analysis; and differing attitudes towards Roman imperium as the product of history.