Fourth Year Winner: Verse and Virtue: Horace, Propertius, and Ovid on Augustus’ Moral Reforms
HIST/CLST 4130, Problems in Roman History. Course Director: Jonathan Edmondson
Abstract
“Verse and Virtue: Horace, Propertius, and Ovid on Augustus’ Moral Reforms” is a well-written and deeply researched study. The author’s investigation focuses on how major poets reacted to legal changes in moral regulation during the Augustinian principate. On becoming Emperor, Augustus backed reforms “promoting the idea that family values and personal morality were essential to Rome’s stability,” and linked these contexts to elite social values. The poets—who might be thought of as a kind of classical influencer—used their work to reflect on these social changes. Horace, deeply affected by the civil war of the late Republic, supported the stability and peace that Augustus brought, generally supporting his reforms while resisting any attempt to control free expression. Propertius “resist[ed] full endorsement of imperial values,” sometimes supporting the Emperor, sometimes asserting his own freedom to write and individuals’ freedom to love. For his part, Ovid first resisted the Emperor’s attempts to legislate morality, then, after exile, acquiesced to the reality of Augustus power, while embedding subtle criticisms and looking to the future to vindicate his work. Together, their works show a quiet resistance, and a tempering of their own poetic freedom in the new empire.
The author carefully compares each poet in turn, consciously including evidence and cross referencing their claims with primary and secondary sources (and a special note of appreciation is due for their mastery of the discursive footnote). The author’s well-supported conclusion is that while discussion of Augustus moral reforms was possible, “conscious disobedience or active resistance” was not. The essay leaves readers reflecting on how interaction with official narratives can both buttress and quietly undermine authority—an insight with resonance well beyond ancient Rome.
