Fake News is Old News: A Hostile Reading of the Emperor Augustus’ Last Words

Soon after the death of Augustus, Rome’s first emperor, the Senate assembled to hear his will read out in the presence of his designated successor Tiberius. But what they heard in addition to the reading of the will was an extraordinary recitation, in the voice of the dead emperor, of what he regarded his achievements and how he wished to be remembered. What he did and did not say, and whether or not anyone was taken in, will be the subject of this lecture.

Greg Woolf is Ronald J. Mellor Distinguished Professor of Ancient History in the Departments of History and Classics at UCLA. Before moving to the US in 2021, he served as Director of the Institute of Classical Studies in the University of London and before that was Professor at the University of St Andrews in Scotland. Before that he was educated and taught at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. His interests range across the economic, social and cultural history of the Roman world and his most recent book is The Life and Death of Ancient Cities: A Natural History. He has held visiting positions in Brazil, France, Germany, Italy and Spain. He is currently editor-in-chief of the Journal of Roman Archaeology. For more information on Greg Woolf, visit: https://history.ucla.edu/faculty/greg-woolf.