CC 302/347 INTRO TO ANCIENT ROME

Outline for Lecture 37: Roman Legacy (ii). Renaissance & Modern


Renaissance

- Renaissance ("rebirth") starts in Italy in the 1400s.

- revival of urban culture, revival of ancient literature, philosophy, science.

- new passion for what was human: Humanism

- Classical past as a Golden Age.

Thomas Aquinas

- 13th century Dominican theologian

- combined Christian theology with the rational principles of classical philosophy

Dante

- 1265-1321

- born in Florence, but last 20 years spent as exile

- Divine Comedy has 3 sections:

  • Hell
  • Purgatory
  • Paradise

- poetic models from the ancient world

- e.g. Inferno (Hell) modelled on Aeneas' visit to Underworld in Aeneid 6

- but Inferno differs from Vergil both in position and purpose

Modern Legacy

Politics

- American Founders used imagery, structure of the Roman republic (senate, congress)

Linguistics

- Latin --> Romance languages (French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish).

Literary

- e.g. Ovid's Metamorphoses --> Chaucer, Shakespeare, etc.


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