The Age of Augustus

PROMPT: The reign of Augustus saw one of the greatest bursts of literary production of all time. In the years before Actium and after Augustus’ death there was almost no literary production of note. Why do you think this happened? How connected does the Augustan literature that we’ve read (the Aeneid, Elegy, Livy) seem to Augustus himself? Does it seem to be pro- or anti-Augustus? What themes do you see in the different works? You don’t need to answer all of these questions, but be sure to make a specific argument and to support it with evidence from the texts!

DIRECTIONS:Response Paper Formatting and Grading RubricFormattingBasics: Size 12 font, double-spaced, 1-inch margins, numbered pages, name and course number in the header (just like on this document), centered title in size 14 font, no skipping lines between paragraphs. Short response papers should be 3-4 full pages.Citations: I prefer that you use parenthetical citations for both ancient and modern sources. These should include the author, the name of the work (if they wrote multiple things), and the book and line number for ancient sources, and the author and page number for modern sources. For example, if you were citing from Plutarch’s Life of Cato section 3, the citation would look like this: (Plutarch, Life of Cato 3). If you were citing page 332 of our sourcebook (for the introduction to an ancient author, but not an ancient author itself), the citation would look like this: (Francese and Smith 332). No bibliography is needed.When to CiteYou should cite your sources, both ancient and modern, whenever you: 1) refer to a specific passage, 2) quote from a source, or 3) use an idea from a modern source. For the most part, citations serve two main purposes, they help the reader find the passage that you’re talking about, and they allow you to give credit to a source in order to ensure that you are not plagiarizing. Citations are good. Having more citations is better than having fewer citations, since it means that you’re supporting your argument. When in doubt, cite! n.b. (nota bene = “pay attention closely” in Latin) if you are talking about a passage for an extended period in your paper, you don’t need to cite it every sentence, just at the start of the discussion. TipsItalicize the titles of ancient works and any non-English words.When talking about the Roman gods, you don’t capitalize the G.Only quote as much as is absolutely necessary, often a word or two will suffice.Argue for something specific and use the texts to support your claims.Avoid summarizing. You have limited space, and I’m familiar with the content.Use me as a resource! I’m happy to look at drafts, discuss ideas, or help with writing in general.