SCS-1:

Organizers

Antony Augoustakis, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Nicholas Rudman, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Discussants

Eleni Manolaraki, University of South Florida

Introducers

Antony Augoustakis, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Nicholas Rudman, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Description

Tacitus' Histories presents a fascinating account of 69 CE and the long-term consequences for the continuation of imperial rule after the end of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Tacitus deftly approaches the topic of the new Flavian dynasty's rise to power and the first year of Vespasian's rule before the extant work breaks off. Although contemporary scholarship focuses primarily on Tacitus' premier annalistic work, the Annales, significant monographs on the Histories, among a series of important articles, have analyzed the role of armies and leadership in civil war (Ash, Master), imperial representation (Schulz, ten Berge), Tacitus' literary affiliations (Joseph), and the subjectivity of reality (Haynes). This panel builds on growing scholarship by examining how Tacitus fashions and manages images in the Histories. Panelists investigate themes of public perception, image formation, and self-fashioning through an analysis of the various leaders, whether generals or emperors and their kin, and concepts such as madness and deception to understand complex historiographical techniques and objectives. The fragmentary nature of the Histories may not allow us to trace the narrative's denouement, but through such analyses, we can see how Tacitus would have exploited themes and characterizations in depicting the rest of the Flavian regime and Domitian's tyrannical rule.