Week 1 July 8-11
M Course introduction; history - what is it, and how do you make it?
T Sources and methods for Roman history
Readings: A. Feldherr, ed., The Cambridge Companion to the Roman Historians. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2010.
J. Marincola, “Ancient Audiences and Expectations,” 11-23 (PDF)
M. Peachin, ed., The Oxford Handbook of Social Relations in the Roman World. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011.
E. A. Meyer, “Epigraphy and Communication,” 191-226 (PDF)
C. F. Noreña, “Coins and Communication,” 248-268 (PDF)
W Archaic Italy and the origins of Rome
Readings: The Romans Ch. 1
Livy, History of Rome from the Foundation of the City Book I (PDF)
Th Archaeology and/vs. early Roman history
Readings: J. M. Hall, Artifact and Artifice. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2014.
Ch. 7, “The City of Romulus,” 119-143 (PDF)
Ch. 8, “Birth of the Roman Republic,” 145-165 (PDF)
Week 2 July 15-18
M Republican Rome and the conquest of Italy
Readings: The Romans Ch. 2
H. I. Flower, ed., The Cambridge Companion to the Roman Republic. 2nd ed. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2014.
S. P. Oakley, “The Early Republic,” 3-18 (PDF)
T The beginnings of a Mediterranean empire
Readings: The Romans Ch. 3
Polybius, Histories Book I – excerpts (PDF)
Livy, History of Rome from the Foundation of the City Book XXIII.1-24 (PDF)
W Italy and empire
Readings: The Romans Ch. 4
Plutarch, Life of T. Gracchus (PDF)
Sallust, Jugurthine War Chs. 1-16, 63-73, 95-114 (PDF)
Th Italy threatened, enfranchised, divided
Readings: The Romans Ch. 5
Appian, Civil Wars Book I Chs. 34-54 (PDF)
Week 3 July 22-25
M The domination of Sulla and its legacy; review for mid-term exam
Readings: The Romans Ch. 6
Appian, Civil Wars Book I Chs. 97-106 (PDF)
Sallust, Catilinarian Conspiracy
T End of the Republic: Caesar’s dictatorship
Readings: The Romans Ch. 7
M. Tullius Cicero, selected letters (PDF)
J. Caesar, Civil War – excerpts (PDF)
W Augustus and the transformation of the Roman world
Readings: The Romans Ch. 8
Augustus, Res Gestae (Deeds and Accomplishments) (PDF)
Th Mid-term exam
Week 4 July 29-August 1
M Why and how did the Republic end?
Readings: Cassius Dio, Roman History Book 50 (PDF)
R. Syme, The Roman Revolution. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1939.
Ch. I, “Introduction: Augustus and History” (PDF)
A. F. Giles, “Dux et princeps.” (Review of The Roman Revolution.) The Classical Review 54.1 (March 1940), 38-41 (PDF)
T The early Principate
Readings: The Romans Ch. 9
Tacitus, Annals Book I – excerpts (PDF)
Suetonius, Gaius (Caligula) (PDF)
W Military expansion and its limits; the empire and the provinces
Readings: The Romans Ch. 10
Tacitus, Histories Book I – excerpts (PDF)
Josephus, Jewish War Book VI – excerpts (PDF)
Th Italy and the provinces: civil and military affairs
Readings: The Romans Ch. 11
Historia Augusta, Life of Septimius Severus (PDF)
Week 5 August 5-8
M The third-century crisis and the tetrarchic restabilization
Readings: The Romans Ch. 12
M. Grant, The Collapse and Recovery of the Roman Empire. London: Routledge, 1999.
Chs. 1, 4, and 6 (PDF)
T The rise of Christianity and the growth of the barbarian threat (AD 324-395)
Readings: The Romans Ch. 13
Lactantius, On the Deaths of the Persecutors Chs. I, VII-XV (PDF)
Eusebius, Life of Constantine Book I Chs. XIII-XXXIX; Book II Chs. I-XVIII (PDF)
Memorials of Ambrose and Symmachus (PDF)
Ammianus Marcellinus, The History Book XIV Chs. 1-6 (PDF)
W The final years of the western empire and Rome’s revival in the east (AD 395-476)
Readings: The Romans Ch. 14
Augustine, City of God – excerpts (PDF)
Th The end of Roman civilization in Italy (AD 476-584); review for final exam
Readings: S. Mitchell, A History of the Later Roman Empire AD 284-641. Malden, MA: Blackwell 2007
– excerpts (PDF)
E. Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Ch. 39 (PDF)
Procopius of Caesarea, Gothic War 5.XIX-XXV (PDF)
Friday, August 9 Final exam
Research paper due