Date Thesis Awarded
5-2018
Access Type
Honors Thesis -- Access Restricted On-Campus Only
Degree Name
Bachelors of Arts (BA)
Department
Classical Studies
Advisor
Dr. Molly Swetnam-Burland
Committee Members
Dr. Sergio Ferrarese
Dr. William Hutton
Abstract
This project consists of a translation and literary analysis of the Carmen de Bello Actiaco, a fragmentary Latin epic from the Villa dei Papiri at Herculaneum. The epic describes the events surrounding the battle of Actium and Octavian's conquest of Egypt. This analysis explores the importance of the Carmen as a product of a distinctly Augustan ideology, regardless of the exact date of its writing. The first chapter addresses the character of Cleopatra VII and how her portrayal is indicative of the contemporary Roman imperialistic conceptualization of Egypt and other foreign territories. The second chapter explores the theme of growth and renewal through war present in the Carmen and, more generally, the literature and material culture of the Augustan era.
Recommended Citation
Dubit, Rachel, "A Song of Arms and of the Woman: Confronting Cleopatra in the Augustan Era through the Carmen de Bello Actiaco" (2018). Undergraduate Honors Theses. William & Mary. Paper 1226.
https://scholarworks.wm.edu/honorstheses/1226
