A video of the advantages and disadvantages of using poetry as historic evidence – particularly when thinking about how the ancient Romans interacted with their surroundings. Conversation between Professor Matthew Nicholls and Dr Luke Houghton, Classics Department. Particular focus on poetry written during Augustus period who was establishing imperial rule in the city of Rome after the collapse of the Republic. Video explains how Virgil includes several monuments that had recently been restored by Augustus and Rome’s foundation legends. This short video and worksheet has been made available by the University of Reading and comes from our free online course Rome: A Virtual Tour of the Ancient City, available from FutureLearn. Visit futurelearn .com site and search ‘Rome: A Virtual Tour of the Ancient City’ for the full course (free without certificates option available) The University of Reading Recruitment and Outreach team offers a huge range of free events, programmes and activities for students to give them all the information they need about higher education and to enhance their subject knowledge and experience. Visit our website for more details.

Let’s explore ancient Rome’s great forum spaces. The oldest was the main Forum, followed later on by the nearby imperial fora. These started with Julius Caesar’s Forum Iulium, which set a pattern which other emperors followed. First and foremost was Caesar’s adoptive heir Augustus, who built the Forum Augustum, partly to honour Caesar (and Augustus’ revenge on his killers). Look around the grand political and religious structures of the Forum in the high imperial period. You should get the flavour of the dynastic space taking shape and see some of the structures which still stand today. These films and worksheets have been made available by the University of Reading and come from our free online course Rome: A Virtual Tour of the Ancient City, available from FutureLearn. Visit futurelearn .com site and search ‘Rome: A Virtual Tour of the Ancient City’ for the full course (free without certificates option available) This animation was created by Guy Horsfall, Todd Howson Moxey and Will Day, students from the University of Reading’s Typography and Graphic Communication department.