sources

• Harris - Literacy in Rome was 10%

  • Can argue against as you need some kind of functional literacy to get by
  • Graffiti in Pompey shows that ordinary people interacted with epic poetry
  • Aeneid pun. Aeneid starts "I sing of arms and the man". Graffiti on the side of a laundry place "I sing of an owl and laundry". Owl linked to Minerva, the goddess of laundry
• Syme - ""Poets favoured by the government proceeded to celebrate in verse the ideals of renascent Rome"

  • The glorification of Actium e.g. in Temple of Palatine Apollo the "Muse" is invoked + reference to Thessaly in Cleopatra + reference to Phalgrean Plain in Woman's Power
  • Linked to the patronage of Maecenas
• Rowan - coinage served as "monument in minature"
• Sutherland - "coinage under the empire has a primarily economic purpose"
• Zanker - argues that Classical art was held to "high" "aesthetic" and "moral" standards so by using features of Classical art Augustus encourages his Principate was one of similar moral superiority
• Bishop - Augustus' early sculpture "evokes Alexander the Great and his miraculous campaigns" in his disshevelled hair
• Bishop - "Along with this change in title [to Augustus] came a modification in image”

  • Reference to 27 BC First Settlement