Topic and Assignment Schedule

HISTORY OF ANCIENT ROME HIA 321 WILSON SPRING 2011

Reading assignments: To broaden our exposure to the Roman world, we’ll be supplementing the textbook with short excerpts from ancient writers. For each class, all students must read

u The assigned chapter from Nagle (Ancient Rome: A History), and

u At least one of the primary sources (i.e., one of the texts marked with a #) before coming to class.

1) Mon Jan 31 Introduction and Sources
nagle: pages 1-22

2) Mon Feb 7 Kings of Rome
nagle: pages 23-42
# dionysius: “On the Subject of Roman History”
# livy: “The Capture of the Sabine Women”
# livy: “Numa’s Religious Settlement”
# dionysius: “Servius Tullius’s Reform of the Comitia Centuriata”
# livy: “The Rape of Lucretia”

3) Mon Feb 14 Rome and Italy
nagle: pages 43-70
# dionysius: “The Tribunes and their Manipulation”
# livy: “The Roman Way of Declaring War”
# dionysius: “Treaties of Alliance with Rome’s Neighbors”
# livy: “The Defeat of the Latins”
# livy: “The Samnites’ ‘Linen Legion’ Remains Undaunted”

4) Wed Feb 23 The Secret of Rome’s Success
nagle: pages 71-104
# fragments: “The Twelve Tables”
# dionysius: “Patricians and Plebeians: Coriolanus Opposes the Plebs”
# polybius: “The Constitution of the Roman Republic”
# dionysius: “Early Rules for Clients and Patrons”
# cicero: “The Mythology of the Farmer-General”

5) Mon Feb 28 Mediterranean Empire: West and East
nagle: pages 105-140
# herodotus: “The Carthaginian Attack on Sicily, 480 BCE”
# cornelius nepos: “Hannibal”
# polybius: “The Battle of Cannae”
# polybius: “The Siege of Syracuse”
# polybius: “The Destruction of Corinth”
# polybius: “The Roman Maniple vs. the Macedonian Phalanx”

6) Mon Mar 7 The Ramifications of Empire
nagle: pages 141-169
# plautus: from “The Menaechmi”
# strabo, oxyrhn.: “Egypt under the Roman Empire”
# various: “Roman Educational Practices”
# various: “Slavery in the Roman Republic”
# livy: “Cato Opposes Extravagance”

7) Mon Mar 14 Constitutional Breakdown
nagle: pages 170-195
# appian: “On Tiberius Gracchi”
# appian: “On Gaius Gracchi”
# plutarch: “On Tiberius Gracchus”
# sallust: “Speech of Marius Against the Nobility”
# appian: “Drusus and his Enemies”
# livy, appian: “Sulla’s Brutality”

8) Mon Mar 21 Civil War and the Fall of the Republic
nagle: pages 196-226
# sallust: “Life in Rome in the Late Republic”
# sallust: “Pompey’s Letter to the Senate”
# cicero: “Against Catiline”
# asconius: “The Murder of Clodius”
# suetonius: “On Julius Caesar”

9) Mon Mar 28 Augustus, Princeps, Imperator
nagle: pages 227-266
# cicero: “On the Rise of Augustus”
# augustus: “Acts of the Divine Augustus”
# various: “Selected Testimonia on Augustus”
# horace: “The Secular Hymn”
# velleius: “The Battle of Teutoburg Forest”

10) Mon Apr 4 An Institution Both Stable and Volatile
nagle: pages 267-308
# tacitus: “The Death of Augustus and the Accession of Tiberius Nero”
# claudius: “Speech on Incorporating the Gauls”
# seneca: “The Pumpkinification of Claudius”
# tacitus: “The Principle of Adoption”
# suetonius: “How Domitian Attempted to Amuse the Populace”

11) Mon Apr 11 The Third Century Crises
nagle: pages 375-416
# herodian: “How Didius Julianus Bought the Empire at Auction”
# vopiscus: “Aurelian’s Conquest of Palmyra”
# zosimus: “Imperial Weakness Invites Barbarian Aggression”
# eusebius: “The Persecution under Decius”

12) Mon May 2 What Held It Together I
nagle: pages 309-348
# tacitus: “The Legions Proclaim Vespasian Emperor”
# legal text: “Law Concerning the Power of Vespasian”
# pliny the ygr: “Panegyric Addressed to the Emperor Trajan”
# josephus: “The Roman Army in the First Century CE”

13) Mon May 9 What Held It Together II
nagle: pages 349-374
# various: “Accounts of the Roman State Religion”
# various: “Roman Religiones Licitae and Illicitae”
# pliny the elder: “The Grandeur of Rome”
# pliny the ygr: “The Correspondence of a Provincial Governor and the Emperor”

14) Mon May 16 Rome Reinvents Itself
nagle: pages 417-441
# marcellinus: “The Luxury of the Rich in Rome”
# sozomen: “Constantine Founds Constantinople”
# constantine: “The Edict of Milan”
# julian: “Letter to Arsacius”

Date TBA FINAL EXAM (6:00-8:00 p.m.)