History 21.5: Rome and the Mediterranean World (5487)

Fall 2008 -- Fridays 9:30 AM – 12:00 Noon

Professor M. L. King

Schedule

Description * Requirements * Bibliography * Contact me * MLKHome

Week

  Date Topic Assignment    Readings
1 8/29 Introduction    
    The Hellenistic world and ancient Italy  
1 Maccabees 8:1-18
2 9/5 The Etruscans Writing sample (ungraded)
Herodotus and Livy, Reports on the Etruscans
    Roman founding and monarchy  
Livy, 1:49-1:60
3 9/12 The Roman republic to c. 250: patricians and plebeians  
  1. Polybius, Roman constitution
  2. Twelve Tables
    Society and culture of republican Rome  
Sources: on social networks BB
4 9/19 The conflict with Carthage: beginnings Quiz 1   
  1. Constitution of Carthage  
  2. Polybius, Rome and Carthage compared
  3. Polybius, Roman military institutions
    Hannibal and the Scipios  
  1. Polybius, Character of Hannibal and
  2. Polybius, the destruction of Carthage
  3. Appian, Scipio takes Carthage
    4.
5 9/26 The Conquest of Greece  
  1. Polybius, Destruction of Corinth
  2. Plutarch, the triumph of Aemilius Paullus, 32-35
    The age of the Gracchi  
Plutarch, Life of Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus
6 10/3 Slavery and Roman society  
  1. Three slave revolts  
  2. Sources: on slavery BB
    Roman religion in the republican age  
  1. Accounts of Roman state religion  BB
  2. Livy, the self-sacrifice of Decius (295 BCE)
  3. Livy, Prayer of Scipio Africanus (204 BCE)
  4. Sources: on Bacchus, Cybele, Isis
7 10/10 From Marius and Sulla to the First Triumvirate Quiz 2   
  1. Cicero, from On the Republic
  2. Cicero, against Verres BB

 
    Cicero  

Selected letters
8 10/17

 

 Caesar’s triumph and fall  
  1. Plutarch, Caesar, excerpt (Part IV)
  2. Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, Act III Scene 1 
    Augustus and the principate  
  1. The Deeds of the Divine Augustus and
  2. Augustus’ legislation
9 10/24 The Augustan legacy Essay
  1. Juvenal, Satire VI  and
  2. Sources: on imperial society BB
    The Julio-Claudian emperors  

Suetonius, Life of Caligula
10 10/31 Seneca and Tacitus  
  1. Seneca: from On Tranquility of Mind
  2. Tacitus, the death of Seneca
  3. Tacitus, Agricola
    Expansion into Europe  

Tacitus, Germania
11 11/7 From the Flavians to the Severans  
  1. Josephus, The Jewish War, the Roman army
  2.  Pliny the Younger, correspondence with Trajan
  3.  Aelius Spartianus, Life of Hadrian, excerpt
    Pax Romana: economy and society  
  1. Quintilian, Institutes, book I
  2. Pliny the Elder, a wealthy Roman’s fortune
  3. Statius, a Roman seaside villa
  4. Pliny the Younger, Letters III.1, a Roman gentleman
  5. Macrobius, Saturnalia, a Roman banquet
  6. Tacitus, on a slave who murdered his master
  7. Seneca, Epistle 7: a gladiatorial game
  8. Pliny the Elder, on  Pompeii
12 11/14 Religious change: Rome and the Jews Quiz 3
  1. Josephus, Siege and fall of Jerusalem
  2. Josephus, Masada
  3. Josephus, The Jewish War, imperial triumph 71 CE
  4. Roman Sources on Jews and Judaism BB
    Religious change: Christianity  

Acts of the Apostles (chapters 1-17)
13 11/21 Diocletian and Constantine  
  1. Diocletian, Edict on prices
  2. Diocletian, Edicts against the Christians
  3. Eusebius, Conversion of Constantine  
  4. Galerius, Constantine, Edicts of toleration
    The Christianization of the Empire  
  1. Christians charged with cannibalism  
  2. Martyrdom of Perpetua and Felicitas
  3. Theodosius on religion
  4. Augustine, Confessions, conversion narrative
14 12/5 The fall of Rome in the West Quiz 4 
  1. Jordanes, History of the Goths, ch20  
  2. Procopius of Caesarea, Alaric’s sack of Rome, 410
    Europe, Byzantium, and Islam  
  1. St. Gregory of Tours, the conversion of Clovis  
  2. Justinian, Corpus Iuris Civilis, selections  
  3. Qur’an selections
  TBA Final exam