TENTATIVE COURSE SCHEDULE:
Week 1 Itroduction to the course and overview of Roman history; Foundation myths
Readings: Livy Book 1; Scullard 1980 Ch. I
Week 2 The Roman Monarchy – fiction and facts
Readings: Livy, Book 1; Scullard 1980 Ch. II
Week 3 Birth of the Republic (subtheme: Roman families and social structure)
Readings: Scullard 1980 Ch. III-V
Week 4 The Roman Republic – conquest and consolidation
Readings: Scullard 1980 Ch. VI- VIII
Week 5 The Roman Republic – colonies, commerce and change (subtheme: slavery)
Readings: Scullard 1980 IX-X, XIV, XVI; Shelton Ch. VII-IX
Week 6 The Late Roman Republic
Readings: Scullard 1976 Ch. I-II; Plutarch, Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus
TEST ON Feb. 22
Week 7 The Late Roman Republic (subtheme: Roman Army)
Readings: Scullard 1976 Ch. 5-6; Shelton Ch. X-XI; Plutarch, Gaius Marius, Cornelius Sulla, Gneus Pompey
Week 8 Republic to Empire: Julius Caesar
Readings: Scullard 1976 Ch. VII; Plutarch, Julius Caesar; Suetonius, Julius Caesar
Week 9 Republic to Empire – Augustus
Readings: Scullard 1976 Ch. VIII; Suetonius, Augustus; Horace, Carmen Saeculare, Augustus’s Res Gestae, Virgil, The Aeneid
Week 10 The Roman Empire – Flavians and the Five “good” Emperors
Readings: Lives of the Later Caesars (Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius); Optional: Marcus Aurelius, Meditations.
Week 11 The Roman Empire – Flavians and the Five “good” Emperors
Readings: Lives of the Later Caesars (Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius); Optional: Marcus Aurelius, Meditations.
Week 12 The Roman Empire – the Severan Dynasty and the Third Century “Crisis”
Readings: Lives of the Later Caesars (Septimius Severus, Geta, Caracalla, Alexander Severus, Maximinus Thrax)
Week 13 The Tetrarchy and Constantine
Readings T.B.A.
Week 14 The “Fall” of the Roman Empire
Readings: T.B.A.
FINAL EXAM T.B.A. (n.b. the exam may take place on a Saturday or Sunday)