Monica's Personal Blog #2

Personal Blog #2

A lot of my frustrations have been navigating blogger for the past week. I had no idea that even though I had put my personal blog #1 under my personal page AND if you go to edit the page you can see the blog however when I go to view the page it just linked back to the home page. I tried to delete the page and remake it. I'll have to find this out because this is getting really annoying and distracting me from the research I am doing. Speaking of the research I am doing, I had to change my entire direction of my personal research. I was given the task of researching Seneca and Platus, two Roman playwrights in my mind just to fill that part of the rubric where we focus on a certain playwright. I was not 100 percent on board to research it because I felt like it was going in the opposite direction of all the arguments we were putting out, but I didn't argue because there really wasn't much else. When talking to Will this week he told us to scrap all of our research regarding the playwrights which means I had to start from square one. I just took on the imperial games because we didn't really cover that and it was really the only thing left for me to do.

Although changing the direction though frustrating has led me to some great sources. I picked up a book called Blood in the Arena: The Spectacle of Roman Power. I found the following quotation:

“The simplest form was the exhibition of wild or unusual animals/ Once captured, many animals capable of being trained to do interesting tricks, which were a source of capable of being trained to do interesting tricks….Eventually the Roman taste for bloody exotica overshadowed the milder types of animal exhibitions as thousands of animals met their deaths in combat during the Imperial period.”

I found this personally interesting because although it may not be a showing of power and strength of the Roman Empire, but the use of animals shows a different side of the spectacle. The flashiness of the animals says to me personally that the Roman Empire was saying "Look at how extravagant we are! We can get these exotic animals, as many as you can imagine, and just show how great we are for getting them to you." Not to mention there was a materialistic look at the animals since they used these beautiful exotic animals as gladiators as well sending them to their deaths. 

Monica's Personal Blog #1

Personal blog #1

As a general rule whenever I want to look up anything quickly I turn to Wikipedia. It may not be the best research tool I know, but it's good for getting to the point quickly. So when my group brought up the idea of using the concept of "Bread and Circuses" in our presentation I had no idea what that was. The phrase originated from Ancient Roman times from a satirical poem titled Satire X written by Juvenal. The poem goes as follows:

It is to be prayed that the mind be sound in a sound body.
Ask for a brave soul that lacks the fear of death,
which places the length of life last among nature’s blessings,
which is able to bear whatever kind of sufferings,
does not know anger, lusts for nothing and believes
the hardships and savage labors of Hercules better than
the satisfactions, feasts, and feather bed of an Eastern king.
I will reveal what you are able to give yourself;
For certain, the one footpath of a tranquil life lies through virtue.

Not only did I learn that panem is latin for bread (which gives some added depth to The Hunger Games series), but that the idea of a false Good was the center piece of the poem. I got even more curious as to who was Juvenal and why does this poem exist? I turned to A Companion to Persius and Juvenal by Susanna Brand and Josiah Osgood. There is a quotation describing that "Juvenal is not just a fighter, but holds up the 'lamp of Venusia" (13). What this says to me is that he not only was "fighting the government" but also bringing light to the issues so others can join his fight. The idea of bread and circuses is a distraction and Juvenal's goals within his writings was to not be distracted by bread an circuses when there are bigger problems at hand. It's something I found very intriguing seeing our group is focusing on the acts of Roman Spectacle in comparison to the fall of Rome.  

Divide and Conquer!

     In regards to ancient roman spectacle the contextual information we will want to talk about how Roman Spectacle was utilized as a political tactic of distraction and how during the time of the Roman Empire art and performance was tightly woven into the culture. Connecting with that we will emphasize how the Romans valued and gave great importance to the mechanics of art. A few specific political movements supporting this topic will be the impact and strain on the economy and the threat and invasions from foreign forces. Relating this to Roman Spectacle we want to compare the two movements and see if spectacle had any specific influence on them or if roman spectacle was affected by these two important moments in time. With the time given we unfortunately won't be able to discuss the power figures of this time and the specific impact they left, we will avoid going into detail about the playwrights we have pulled into our topic but instead how they used spectacle in their writings and also keep the overall concentration on spectacle as a whole rather than smaller details.

Journal of Popular Culture. 00223840. Aug. 2011 Vol. 44 Issue 4.
"I found this source to be very important because it helps me to see the relevancy of studying Ancient Roman Spectacle in the first place. It warns that history may be repeating itself, thus it is important to understand the mistakes the Romans made so as to avoid repeating them"

Potter, D.S., and D.J. Mattingly. Life, Death, and Entertainment in the Roman Empire. 2. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 2010. Print.
  Through this source we found the connection more closely to the fall of the Roman Empire.  With our two spectacle topics being Pax Romana and bread and circus, we intend to connect how the fall of the empire took place. With this source we can follow the progress with spectacle and the society of Rome itself to see how they transformed as the fall of the empire came closer. We can also study the types of spectacle offered through the different forms of entertainment. Not striving away from our main focus points for spectacle this source can help bring chronological order to our argument. 

Schullard , H.H. A History of the Roman World 753 to 146 BC. 5th. New York: Routledge, 2003. Print.
From this source we grasped the main ideas behind the history of Rome. Not to necessarily to bring the history of Rome as one of our topics but a tool to help carrying on our argument. With Ancient Roman Spectacle one of our main goals is to connect the influences ad affects historical moments had on spectacle.  With art and theatre having such a big part in the life of Romans moments such as the fall of the Roman Empire had to take great affect on spectacle part of Roman life. Revisiting important parts of the history such as the political organization (67) and Roman Policy and Government (318-340)  we have the capability of connecting the reasoning behind some of the spectacle movements Roman chose to do.

Dunkle, Roger. Gladiators: Violence and Spectacle in Ancient Rome. Harlow, England: Pearson/Longman, 2008. Print.
From this source we get a more concise look at who the Gladiators were and what they did. With the mention of Ancient Roman Spectacle most people automatically think of the Gladiator games and any depiction of it in pop culture. Since one of the main goals is to seek fact and bring it to light through this project this source will assist us in that. Not only does it talk about the history of the gladiators, but this source also includes a section about Roman Amphitheatre and the Colosseum itself (245) as well as a comparison to pop culture gladiators (288)

Crowther, Nigel B. Sport in Ancient times. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2007. Print.
This source covers all ancient civilizations but has quite a few chapters on Roman games, gladiators, and chariot races. With a source that covers a more broad look we can get main ideas from these concepts. There is also mention of the mock sea battles (116) and wild beast shows (113) which is something we are interested in exploring as well. This source also focuses on the religious foundations or lack thereof behind each event which will also be intriguing. 

Futrell, Alison. Blood in the Arena: The Spectacle of Roman Power. Austin, Texas: University of Texas, 1997. Print.
This source is important because there is a chapter called "The Late Republic: Spectacle and Political Manipulation" (29) This is important to our research because this comparison is the basis of where all of our research is going. Not only that, but there is more of a history of a bigger picture than a focused look at the ideals of Spectacle

First Source - Rome and U.S.A

The very first thing that I wanted to focus my research on was how the theater/ entertainment practices of the ancient Romans connects to us today. This is because there will be no reason for our audience to listen to what we have to say if we do not find a way to relate it back to their lives or how they might be affected by our research. I was fortunate enough to find an academic journal via Milner Library’s online database. The article is entitled, “When in Las Vegas, Do As the Ancient Romans Did: Bread and Circuses Then and Now” and it was written by Gregory A. Borchard and Anthony J. Ferri in the Journal of Popular Culture. As the title would suggest, the article shows some very strong and slightly disturbing links between the sometimes brutal, and often deceitful, tactics of ancient Rome and the popular American tourist destination that is Las Vegas, Nevada.

According to Borchard and Ferri, spectacle was used as an illusion to exaggerate the strength of the Roman Empire. “The entertainment facilities of Rome functioned (and in Las Vegas continue to function) as forms of public welfare. While this welfare in Rome provided illusions of stability in the sense that leaders could placate the public with theatrics and spectacle in an empire threatened by enemies, Las Vegas creates a sense of wealth and power for tourists from all lifestyles” (Brochard and Ferri). Basically, these spectacular events produced by the Empire were used to lull people into a sense of false security by making them believe that nothing could tear apart a nation of such grandeur. In the same vein, Las Vegas, with its shining lights and promise of wealth and fortune gives a message not only to any foreign visitors, but also to Americans facing a troubling financial situation or feeling frustration with the bipartisanism that is plaguing our country, that America is still a beacon of hope and promise. Perhaps I am reaching a bit far by mentioning bipartisanism, but I do know that it is a legitimate concern facing American politics and, as the article goes on to state, Rome had very political reasons behind endorsing such spectacle.

The article explains that wealthy individuals of Roman society vying for political power and influence would subsidize Roman entertainment. Similarly, “Las Vegas casino developers have invested their capital in promoting entertainment spectacles to augment their interests in gaming and increase their economic power” (Brochard and Ferri). What is truly scary is just how similar these spectacular entertainments, separated by thousands of years, have turned out to be. Often times epic sea battles were reenacted in the Colosseum with such realism that people would actually die in the re-enactments. One of the most famous attractions at Las Vegas is Treasure Island’s pirate ship battle on Buccaneer Bay, which is a “contemporary rendition of a full-scale sea battle.” The article also goes on to comment on how casino-hotels such as New York New York and Paris were made to closely resemble the sights they were named after so that the visitor can feel like they are traveling the world.

One last nugget of information that I found interesting from this article: “The word "spectacular" from the Latin noun spectāaculum, a word used to denote spaces rented to spectators at theatrical shows and gladiatorial events, has served as the root of many modern interpretations of entertainment”. I thought it was interesting that the Romans basically invented spectacle.

Kirsten's Blog 1

November 5, 2013 

Individual Blog # 1 

      As we begin our first week of our final project our group has narrowed down to specific areas with       Ancient Roman spectacle Once narrowed our topic we were able to find connecting idea to support a core argument. . Exploring the topics of the mechanics of spectacle and political connection with them sparked an interest in all of us. We broke down our subjects in to several smaller one to support our argument. An interesting topic that I have interest in learning in is the idea of bread and circus and how it was a distraction tactic towards the the lower class. Ancient Rome having a large time period we focused on the years of 27 AD to the fall of the Roman Empire which is dated about 476 BC.  With our topics we will connect them with the fall of the empire and determine how great of an influence spectacle had on the demise of Rome. 

     Slitting up the topics I have begun my research. Starting at Milner Library I have found a book titled Life Death and Entertainment in the Roman Empire by D.S Potter and D.J Mattingly and As the Romans did by Jo-Ann Shelton. With these two book I hope to find detailed information of the political background of roman spectacle. Once I meet with my group again we will come together and begin to connect our pieces of research to one another. 

      With our group our major issue like most students is time availability. Not letting this stop us our objective has been to achieve our separate topics on our own time and during class group work we bring it all back to make our presentation. Our learned methods of research from previous has become an advantage to us since we lack availability, we will be able to narrow down on our topics while still connecting them to the main argument.  

-Kirsten R. Turner 

Format of the Presentation

We plan on doing a Power Point presentation to display the following ideas. Our opening question will discuss the relevancy of Roman Spectacle with focusing on the aspect of distracting people with nationalism and how that compares with current times. Then our focus goes:

• Social and political fuel including the Pax Romana
• The mechanics of how the Romans pulled off the spectacle 
• Focusing on playwrights Platus and Senecca as well as the Bread and Circus types of performances

After that we'll end off with any of these factors contributing to the fall of Rome and tying it back to us asking if our great nation is the next to fall. 

-Monica

Narrowing the Scope

       Bringing a smaller focus to our topic of Ancient Roman Spectacle  we have chosen the specific time period of 27 BC to 476 AD ,the fall of the Roman Empire. This is a very interesting time frame to us because with the ever growing expansion of Rome, the empire realized that a strong sense of nationalism was required to keep it's enormous populace from unrest and revolution. Therefore glorifying Rome and all of it's strength became a priority, leading to entertainment heavy with spectacle and Roman pride.

      Within this we plan to focus on the playwrights Plautus, his writing of Brother Menaechmus, and Seneca and his method of taking Greek plays and giving them more Roman qualities. We will research in detail the expansion of rome, Caligula, and  Pax Romnana. We will explain the political purpose of each along with the objective behind the mechanics of spectacle. We will explore use of bread and circus as a distraction to the less fortunate citizens from their daily lives.Together the four of us decided to bring focus on the relevancy of ancient spectacle and the political motivation behind it by asking if modern day America may be repeating the mistakes of the Ancient Romans by focusing heavily on expansion and nationalism and less so on the needs of the people. Brining together both physical and literary tools we hope to connect our topic to see how our subjects contributed to the fall of the roman empire.

Hines, Thomas G. "The Ancient Theatre Archive." The Ancient Theatre Archive. Whitman College, 01 Jan. 2001. Web. 05 Nov. 2013.

Journal of Popular Culture. 00223840. Aug. 2011 Vol. 44 Issue 4.