Teaching code

4S02144

Teacher

Attilio Mastrocinque

Credits

6

Also offered in courses

• Bachelor’s degree in Humanities
• Bachelor’s degree in Cultural Heritage

Scientific Disciplinary Sector (SSD)

L-ANT/03 - ROMAN HISTORY

Language

Italian

Period

Sem. IA dal Sep 25, 2017 al Nov 11, 2017.

Lessons timetable Moodle Seminars

To show the organization of the course that includes this module, follow this link:  Course organization

Learning outcomes

The course is aimed at improving the students’ knowledge of the urban culture of the Romans during the Imperial Age, the fundamental principles which the Roman society was based on, the dialectics between Romans and non-Romans, and the grant of Roman citizenship to the inhabitants of the Empire. The analysis will focus on the documents concerning the different rights of cities in Italy and in the provinces.
The critical analysis of the documentary sources (either archaeological or literary or epigraphical) will be introduced to students. This analysis is meant to allow students to distinguish and understand the peculiar features of the different kinds of documentation and subsequently, to put them in comparison one to another; it is also meant to single out and describe the principles which the Roman social life was based on, the Roman capability of integrating the foreigners into their society and politics, and the importance of Roman political engagements (such as in the case of the Constitutio Antoniniana) which modified deeply the basis of the social life. Onother aim is that of making understand the reasons why the bases of the social life in the Roman world had been discarded in the 3rd century.
Students will be able to evaluate autonomously some testimonies to Roman history by means of comparisons between different authors or between authors and different kinds of documentation, in order to evaluate the reliability of each document.
Students are expected to improve their communication skill by expressing their opinions or even their doubts concerning the dealt topics and by receiving answers and directions about how to organize their speech.
Also the understanding skill should be improved by means of a critical reading of historical texts and the study of images of monuments and other iconographies.
At the end of the teaching activities a student should be able to show that he has understood the most important problems discussed in the classes, that he is able to analyse in a critical manner both the sources and the iconographies taken into account. A student should explain this following a logical series of points, clearly and on the basis of the fundamental documents.

Program

Historical aspects of the 3rd century CE.
1) First: classes devoted to selected topics;
2) Second: the students should read and stuty the work of Herodianus, History of the Roman Empire after Marcus Aurelius, books, IV-VIII (ed. by Filippo Cassola, Sansoni, Firenze 1967, or Loeb edition). Knowledge of the original, Greek text is not mandatory.
3) Third: knowledge of passages from classical authors and monuments which will be read and commented during the course;
4) Fourth: knowledge of Roman history by studying a handbook . Suggested texts: A. Momigliano, Manuale di storia romana, ed. by A. Mastrocinque, Turin, UTET, 2016 (except the last chapter concerning the Middle Ages); or Storia di Roma dalle origini alla tarda antichità, Catania, Edizioni del Prisma, 2013 (except from chapter V to the end of the section IX).
5) The use of a historical atlas is recommended.

Further readings (their reading is not mandatory):
Clare Rowan, Under divine auspices: divine ideology and the visualisation of imperial power in the Severan period, Cambridge, Cambridge Univ. Press, 2012
Mario Mazza, Le maschere del potere : cultura e politica nella tarda antichità, Napoli: Jovene, 1986

Didactic method.
The course is divided into two parts:
- the first consists in the classes, devoted to the above mentioned topics. Students will be provided with images and texts thanks to powerpoint files with images of archaeological documents and historical texts, which will be at their disposal also online.
- the second part consists in the personal study of the above mentioned works.
At the end of each lesson a short debate is possible in order to clarify what could have been eventually difficult to understand.

Students who are unable to attend every class may use the E-Learning site of the University of Verona, where they may find the recorded lessons, the images and texts which are necessary for studying.

Bibliografia

Examination Methods