Teaching code

4S007531

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. 1A dal Sep 23, 2019 al Oct 31, 2019.

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 fundamental principles which the Roman society was based on, the dialectics between Romans and non-Romans (in particular the inhabitants of provinces), and the grant of the Roman citizenship to the inhabitants of the whole 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 epigraphic) 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 compare to one 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 foreigners into their own society and politic life, and the importance of the Constitutio Antoniniana which modified deeply the relationship between Italy and the provinces. Another aim is that of let students 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.
The understanding skill should be improved, as well 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) classes devoted to selected topics;
2) knowledge of passages from classical authors and monuments which will be read and commented during the course;
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

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.
Erasmus students who have some difficulties in understanding Italian can ask the professor for one or more abstracts in English of the lessons’ content.

Bibliografia

Examination Methods