Augustan Rome

Book excerpt: Written by Andrew Wallace-Hadrill, one of the world's foremost scholars on Roman social and cultural history, this well-established introduction to Rome in the Age of Augustus provides a fascinating insight into the social and physical contexts of Augustan politics and poetry, exploring in detail the impact of the new regime of government on society. Taking an interpretative approach, the ideas and environment manipulated by Augustus are explored, along with reactions to that manipulation. Emphasising the role and impact of art and architecture of the time, and on Roman attitudes and values, Augustan Rome explains how the victory of Octavian at Actium transformed Rome and Roman life. This thought-provoking yet concise volume sets political changes in the context of their impact on Roman values, on the imaginative world of poetry, on the visual world of art, and on the fabric of the city of Rome.