An introductory course studying Roman literature produced under the Julio-Claudian emperors, with specific considerations of issues such as the impact of the Principate and civil war on literature; how to write history after Augustus; whether we should take love poetry seriously; the Roman theatre of cruelty; and whether the Romans invented the novel. Authors to be considered are Valerius Maximus, Ovid, Seneca the younger, Petronius and Lucan, with reference to select works in translation.