Severy Beth. Augustus and the Family at the Birth of the Roman Empire

Routledge, 2003. — 296 p.In this lively and detailed study, Beth Severy examines the relationship between the emergence of the Roman Empire and the status and role of this family in Roman society. The family is placed within the social and historical context of the transition from republic to empire, from Augustus' rise to sole power into the early reign of his successor Tiberius.Augustus and the Family at the Birth of the Roman Empire is an outstanding example of how, if we examine "private" issues such as those of family and gender, we gain a greater understanding of "public" concerns such as politics, religion and history. Discussing evidence from sculpture to cults and from monuments to military history, the book pursues the changing lines between public and private, family and state that gave shape to the Roman imperial system.Beth Severy is an Assistant Professor of Classics at Macalester College in Saint Paul, Minnesota. She received her PhD in Ancient History and Mediterranean Archaeology at the University of California, Berkeley, and has been published in Classical Philology and The Chronicle of Higher Education.