Course Description

1. A firm grasp of the distinguishing features of the major phases of Roman History.
2. An understanding of:
   • the varied causes responsible for the transformations which distinguish these phases;
   • the Roman institutions that contributed to Rome's success in government;
   • Roman pragmatism and flexibility in adapting those institutions to new challenges while retaining elemental, traditional features;
   • the role of social and economic structures and pressures in political change, particularly at key points in Rome's history (e.g., the Gracchan Agrarian Reforms).
3. An appreciation of Rome's legacy to Western Civilization as encapsulated in its achievements, e.g., Roman Law (principles, structures, etc.)
4. An introduction to the source materials--literary texts, art and archaeology--and their use in the study and writing of Roman history.
5. Practice at utilizing original source materials (in translation) to write on topics in ancient history, through the assigned memos and final paper.

• Map Exercise 10%
  
• Class Participation 10%
  
• Response Papers (3) 45%
  
• Term Paper Outline 5%
  
• Term Paper 30%

Textbooks:

• Marcel Le Glay, Jean-Louis Voisin, Yann Le Bohec, A History of Rome. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 2001.
• David Potter & David Mattingly, Life, Death, and Entertainment in the Roman Empire, Ann Arbor,1999.
• Shelton, Jo-Ann, As the Romans Did: A Sourcebook in Roman Social History. Second Edition.
• Plutarch, Roman Lives, transl. Robin Waterfield, Oxford, 1999.
• Suetonius, The Twelve Caesars, transl. Robert Graves, Penguin, 1979. (Any other version of The Twelve Caesars is acceptable, if you already have one).
  
  

Class Schedule

Term Paper

Historians often use what they call 'primary sources' as raw materials for their reconstruction of the past. By primary sources we mean writings that were composed at the time of the events themselves, or close to them, by persons who witnessed events or who had direct access to immediate accounts of them. Some of the textbooks for this course composed by modern authors like that written by David Potter and David Mattingly, or Le Glay et al., on the other hand, are called 'secondary' sources because they were written so long after the time period with which they are dealing by persons who live or lived in quite different circumstances. The authors of these books are modern-day historians who have had to seek out accounts that were written by Greeks or Romans who lived at the time of the events, institutions, and social practices that the modern historian is trying to describe and to analyze. The purpose of the term paper is to turn your attention, like modern-day historians, to an original primary source that was written by a Roman who lived about two thousand years ago.

In writing your paper, you will only be asked to utilize the source material(s) under discussion; you will not need to use secondary materials (although you may derive some help in interpreting your sources from the discussions in your textbooks).

PAPER TOPICS:

1. What can Livy's account of early Roman history tell us about how Romans living under Augustus thought about their origins? What kind of people did they think they were? Where had they come from? What special qualities and achievements had led to their rise?

2. How does Polybius, who is writing for an audience of his fellow Greeks account, for the rise of Roman power in the Mediterranean world? According to him, what institutions, customs, and events led the Romans to become the dominant power in their area so rapidly?

3. Write a critical assessment of either Plutarch's Cato or Suetonius' Julius Caesar. You can write this like a book report, but you should analyze strengths and weaknesses, as well as what kinds of sources each writer used.

4. Compare and contrast the biographies of Caesar written by Plutarch and Suetonius. What are some of the major differences in coverage and emphasis? What do you think are the effects of the writers' personal backgrounds and potential audiences on what and how they write? How do you think the social and geographical positions of each affected his access to, and use of, source materials?

5. How did Tacitus treat the characters of Tiberius and Germanicus in his Annals? Is there a contrast between these two characters? Is one the hero and the other the villain? Or is it more complicated than that? What role does characterization play in Tacitus' narrative?

6. What kind of useful information about Roman Society of the Late Republic can we get from the speeches of Cicero? Choose either his Pro Cluentio (a murder trial) or the Verrine Orations (a trial for gubernatorial corruption). Focus on some of the following topics: Types of violence utilized, when and why; types and statuses of various people discussed (e.g., women, freemen, slaves, etc.; information about recent political or legal developments.

7. What kind of useful information about Roman Society of the High Empire can we get from the letters of Pliny the Younger? You may either focus on a single theme brought up in many letters, and show the various nuances of Pliny's thinking of that subject; or, you may survey a broad sampling of letters (as given in the syllabus above), and discuss the range of his interests and erudition, giving examples for each area.

8. How does Suetonius' account of Augustus' career, particularly his rise to power, differ from the account offered by Augustus himself (in the Res Gestae)? What points do they emphasize or discount? To what purpose?

9. Using the primary sources for slavery in Shelton's source book and the presentation of the Spartacus revolt in Plutarch's Life of Crassus, assess the validity of the perceived threat of the slave population and Crassus' means of dealing with that threat.

You may also choose one of the "Response Memo" topics you did not write on, and expand it into a paper.

FORMAT:

Length: An absolute length in pages is not as important as the quality of the work. Six to eight single-sided, double-spaced pages with normal margins (one inch) and typefaces (no larger than 12 point, no smaller than 10 point) should be sufficient (i.e. about 1,800 to2400 words, not counting footnotes).