The Roman Spectacle Before and After Augustus

Excerpts from the Paper

Roman Spectacle Before and After Augustus
Augustus, the first Emperor of Rome, can be credited with widely expanding the content and character of Roman spectacle, until it took on a life of its own. While, in some cases, Augustus borrowed and formed spectacular entertainment from Roman precedent, he was also an innovator who either introduced or popularized novel forms of spectacle, in not only Rome itself but also all across the empire.
The most important clue as to Augustus’s devotion to spectacle comes from his own Res Gestae, in which Augustus writes that he held three gladiatorial games in his name, and five times in the names of his sons and grandsons; moreover, he held three athletic games, and also claimed to “have provided public...

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