In conclusion ...

In conclusion 

My initial plan for this blog was to look at Augustus and his use of myth in relation too: Community, Children, Deities, Reception, Gender, Cult and History.  However, although I covered most if not all of these topics I did not end up writing a dedicated post on all of them. When Dr Deacy said our assessment for this module was going to be a blog I honestly couldn't think of anything I wanted to do less, I think my exact words were "give me a good old fashioned essay or even an exam any day over that." However, this whole experience pleasantly surprised me. I found my self liberated about what I could wright about, with no word limit (always my biggest problem) and no set topic or question I could write on anything that interested me.

Whilst writing my first post on the Prima Porta statue and forgetting to mention the importance of the fact it would have originally been highly coloured I got pulled into the fascinating world of colour in the ancient world, something that without this blog I probably never would have thought to really look into. This is where I first got a taste of the freedom that came with blogging, for my next post I followed tangent and wrote a post on colour and the belief most people hold today that Roman and Greek statues were white. It became one of the most interesting post I researched and something that went on to influence large section of subsequent posts.

Next came my look at foundation myths and the story of Romulus and Remus. I have always loved this myth and I thought I great way to start this blog post would be to get a clip from youtube so I did not have to spend ages writing the story down. However, I soon discovered that I couldn't find a video I liked. The videos I found were fine but they all either were inaccurate or did not mention that their are many variations of the myth told by different authors. Getting increasingly frustrated I decide that the best thing to do would be to make my own video, this possessed problems of its own as I had never made a video before. I decide I would use screen record on my iPad and try to show the story via simple drawings whist speaking into the microphone, after several failed attempts and a lot frustration I finally recorded the video. Although as I stated in the blog post I would be in no rush to do such a thing again I am so glad I did it and know that I can if I need to. Following on from the Video I found my self drawn still to foundation myths and deciding I'm not done with the topic yet decided to do another post on the subject. This time I focused less on the myth itself and instead on how Augustus use the myths to reaffirm his position. The freedom I mentioned earlier when writing a blog is liberating when it comes to following something that interests you and that is defiantly what happened here.

The next post I wrote was as a direct result of a lecture, Myth and making a difference. This post although really interesting in a slightly horrifying way challenged my love of Augustus. One of my final sentences of this post was "can a good man influence such evil?" That was more a question I was asking myself than one I expected answered for I certainly didn't have one. As anyone who knows me even little they will know that I love Augustus but this post really had me examine why and where my "Augustus the saviour" mentality comes from. Don't get me wrong I still love Augustus but I will never again be able to look at him in quite the same way. This blog post was a complete crossover between Modern and Ancient history something I'm not sure I ever would have discovered without this blog.

My next post was more out of necessity than any real interest. However, I soon became curious into what the difference was and why there even was a difference. This is something that again I don't know if I would have necessarily spent the time to research without this assignment.

And finally, The Ara Pacis. I had been avoiding mentioning this building in previous posts for fear of not doing it justice and the need to give it its own post. I believe that this post was the longest by far and that alone should demonstrate my love for this building. Despite years of being taught about this building I still found things I didn't know or different interpretations of things I had been taught as fact. During this post I had to make my self focus on the building alone and not get distracted and run away with every thought I had (that is hopefully for another day) instead I focused on each panel in turn discussing its significance and what we can learn from it. I had a lot of fun writing this post and there is defiantly still more to learn and see about this monument in the future.

On the whole I have throughly enjoy this blog and that is not something I never thought I would say. I have learnt so much through out the experience particularly about topics I would never have had the chance to learn about in a more formal situation.

The initial idea behind this blog was "to look at the use of mythology within Augustan propaganda and to what extent this helped establish his power and dominion over not just Rome but the whole of the Empire." I think its safe to say here after everything I have learned during this assignment that mythology had made its way into the very core of Augustan ideology and was used systematically to help legitimise his position as princeps and secure his dynasty.



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