ROMAN HISTORY (HIST103a)

William E. Kapelle

Olin-Sang 120

Office hours: Thursday 12:15-1:15 and by appointment

781 736-2279

General Description:

People have been fascinated with Rome since the Middle Ages because of the size of its state and its cultural prestige. HIST 103a will cover Roman history in one semester. The class begins with the rise of the Roman Republic which created the greatest empire of the ancient world. This expansion in turn led to the failure of the Republic and its replacement with an authoritarian empire. Along the way you will meet the great names of Roman history in their own time. In the beginning the Empire was a tacit admission of political failure that rested on murder and illusion, but it turned its territory into a cosmopolitan world for many of its civilians and a significant number of the excluded. The class will conclude with the fall of “Rome” and why it mattered.

My Approach:

I intend to take you on an intellectual ride into a distant culture. The itinerary is chronological. Lectures will be our vehicle for the trip. They are also a guide for students. Regular attendance is a requirement. I do not count absences, but each one leaves a hole in the absentee’s knowledge of the period and of possible essay questions. The readings reinforce the lectures and allow students to investigate topics of interest in more detail and sometimes from different points of view, an essential skill in our multi-cultural world.

What merits attention?

The high road to success in this class is regular attendance and good notes, but what should you write down? This material seems deceptively simple at the start, but it is difficult for some students because it is so new and because of the cultural distance between this vanished world and our own. You will need to learn both basic facts which people take for granted in their own time and more sophisticated stories and ideas that bring this mundane information to life. If something seems too simple to be important, the best course is to ask about it. I welcome questions. You should expect to spend considerable time on the readings and reviewing (and improving) your notes. The University’s mandated nine hours a week per class should be adequate, however. By the end of the term, you will have a good, general knowledge of the Roman period, and you will have practiced a variety of basic skills (see below under tests).

Texts:

Mary T. Boatwight, Daniel J. Gargola, Noel Lenski, Richard J.A. Talbert, The Romans, from Village to Empire: a History of Rome from Earliest Times to the End of the Western Empire, 2nd edition (2012).

Christopher S. MacKay, Ancient Rome: a Military and Political History (2004).

Lectures:

Lecture TitlesBi-weekly Readings

1. Introduction
2. Archaic Rome
3. The Republic
4. Creation of the Roman Confederation
5. Pyrrhus of Epirus
6. First Punic War / Boatwright, pp. 1-100
MacKay, pp. 5-72
7. Government between the wars
8. Second Punic War
9. Rome and the Hellenistic World
10. The Greek Wars
11. The Fall of Carthage
12. Tiberius Gracchus
13. TEST / Boatwright, pp. 100-57
MacKay, pp. 72-111
14. Gaius Gracchus & the Rise of Marius
15. Marius and Sulla
16. Sulla and the Rise of Pompey
17. Pompey’s Great Days
18. Caesar Makes Good
19. Real Civil War / Boatwright, pp. 148-244
MacKay, pp. 111-57
20. Caesar Imperator
21. Fall of the Republic: Octavian
22.Same: Antony & Cleopatra
23. The Principate
24. Augustus the Conqueror
25. Defeat in Germany & Tiberius
26. TEST / Boatwright, pp. 244-308
MacKay, pp. 157-92
27. Claudius
28. Nero
29. The Year 69
30. The Flavian Dynasty
31. Barbarians at Home
32. Trajan and Romanization / Boatwright, pp. 309-73
MacKay, pp. 192-235
33. The Roman Economy
34. Marcus Aurelius and his fake son
35. 3rd Century Collapse
36. Diocletian’s New Roman Empire
37. Rise of Christianity
38. Constantine and his Dynasty
39. The Fall of the cosmopolitan World
40. FINAL DEC. 19, 9:15 / Boatwright, pp. 373-517
MacKay, pp. 236-356

Requirements:

The course requirements are two hour exams and a final; each worth 100 points. The hour exams will take place during the thirteenth and twenty-sixth class meetings, depending on snow, & etc. They and the final will consist of a few identifications to keep students focused on detail, some map items, and two essays. The latter will mostly be describe-and- explain type questions. Students will describe events or developments and discuss why they took place and their importance in multiple page essays. No student is likely to get a strong grade with a one-page essay. This regime is designed to develop students’ skills at note taking, composing arguments under pressure and learning to evaluate questions from an historical perspective. I remain convinced that the latter skill is important for understanding the world.

Smart pens:

Students who are slow at taking notes should consider obtaining one of these devices. They record the lecture while you write and replay each written line on command which makes it easy to perfect the notes.

Disabilities:

If you are s student with a documented disability on record at Brandeis University and wish to have a reasonable accommodation made for you in this class, please see me immediately.

Academic Integrity:

Students are expected to be honest in all their academic work. Please consult Brandeis University Rights and Responsibilities for policies and procedures. Allegations of alleged academic dishonesty will be forwarded to the Director of Academic Integrity. Sanctions can include failing grades and/or suspension.