Loyola University Chicago

CLST 277: The World of Late Antiquity

Spring Semester 2017
Dr. Jacqueline Long

Diocletian, portrait head c 284 from Nicomedia, Archaeological Museum of Istanbul, photo J. Long


Source-Excercises in Historical Evidence


Goals


Instructions
  • Specific instructions for individual Source Exercises will be posted as the exercises come due - keep watching!
  • Each assignment of this set includes a 250-300 word written report (1 typed page), due at the start of the period for which the Exercise is assigned. Legible typing or word-processing, correct spelling and grammar, and meticulous observance of all principles and practices of academic integrity are required.

file in progress

Source-Exercise in Numismatics


Research-Exercise in Imperial Public Building


Source-exercise in Visual and Material Culture

  1. Follow the link to look at the Lycurgus Cup at the website of the British Museum (www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?assetId=36154001&objectId=61219&partId=1). The cup itself dates to the fourth century. The gilt-bronze rim and foot were added to it about the beginning of the nineteenth century: it is possible the Cup was originally made to be a hanging lamp, and would have had different fittings in antiquity.
  2. Below the image of the cup, a link offers you the opportunity to look at "more views." Look at as many of these images as you find helpful, but be sure to include numbers 1, 4, 16, 24, 29, 34, 36, 37, 38, and 40 in order to see all the images around the Cup and other pertinent details.
    • If you were turning the Cup clockwise, you would see the images around its outer surface in the order 1 (and 34); 29; 4; 16; 24.
    • 36 and 37 show virtually the same angle on the Cup, with a change of directions in the light: how the inner surface of the Cup is hollowed out to make some parts of some figures more able to catch light shining through the Cup.
    • 38 and 40 show angles on the surface of the Cup.
  3. Background reading: the primary sources (two selections: brief poems by Claudian) and secondary scholarship (chapter in Cameron) assigned for W 3/22; also the article about Cage cups in Wikipedia. (Wikipedia, as a source, needs verifying, but this article is well documented in scholarly sources; if you follow the link to the Wikipedia article about the Lycurgus Cup, however, please note that the paragraph in the section "Iconography" that suggests political and/or mystical significance for the images or the way the glass changes color depending on the angle at which light hits it, is almost certainly not worth taking seriously. The fact Lycurgus images are as widespread in the period as they are, in different media, and none of them closely datable, diminishes the chance they all respond to the same historical event. And the Claudian poems suggest the Cup would have been regarded as a fascinating object for its craftsmanship alone, without any presumption of esoteric meaning. Please exclude from your reports any reference to this untenable speculation.)
  4. For your report, please consider (a) how the Lycurgus Cup compares and contrasts with "Cage cups" also preserved from the same period: what characteristics does it share? in respect of what characteristics is it different? (b) what do the images on the Lycurgus Cup imply about its intended "audience" of viewers' knowledge of Classical mythological stories? (n.b. knowledge of stories does not necessarily imply religious belief) (c) identify and explain other connections you can draw between the Lycurgus Cup and late-antique visual and material culture, especially as described by the chapter in Cameron and Claudian's poems. Clearly connect your conclusions to the evidence on which they are based, and explain how you get from the evidence to each conclusion.
  5. The written reports of this Excursus are due in hand at the beginning of class, Wednesday 22 March.

Thanks!

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Revised 17 March 2017 by jlong1@luc.edu
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