Loyola University Chicago

CLST 277 / CATH 200 / MSTU 298: The World of Late Antiquity

Spring Semester 2012
Dr. Jacqueline Long

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

Schedule of Reading Assignments and Topics

MWF 9:20am - 10:10am
Flanner Hall 7

The reading assignments yield essential preparation for class meetings and discussions:
complete the reading before the day for which a reading is listed;
review it again as needed.

Texts

W 1/18 Introduction: Entering the Roman World
F 1/20 Empire and Change in the Third Century
  • Cameron, Ch. I "Introduction"
  • Study resource: the Imperial Index of the DIR - dates, most-familiar forms of the names, and links to peer-edited scholarly overviews of the emperors, their reigns, sources, and scholarly bibliography (a good place to start following up on emperors: they make a good sequence of identities to organize chronology around)
  • Study questions
M 1/23 Old-Time Religions
W 1/25 Christian Conversion in Roman Society
F 1/27 Religious Enforcement by Decius
M 1/30 The Formation of the Tetrarchy
W 2/1 Imperial Care for the Economy
F 2/3 The Great Persecution
M 2/6 Christian Polemical History: Persecuting Emperors
W 2/8 Christian Polemical History: Evidence and Spin
F 2/10 Christian Polemical History: Assessing Evidence
M 2/13 Constantine
W 2/15 The "Rhetoric" of Imperial Capitals
F 2/17 Exam I
M 2/20 Imperial Power and Roman Religion
W 2/22 It was a Dark and Stormy Empire: Contemporary Narrative History
F 2/24 The Subject in Roman History
M 2/27 Roman Society and Its Discontents
  • (part review) Ammianus Marcellinus, Books 14.6; 15.7; 16.10; 17.4; 19.10
  • (review) Cameron, Ch. VIII "Late Roman Economy and Society"
  • Study questions
W 2/29 Catch a Rising Star
F 3/2 Julian the Retrograde
M 3/5 - Sa 3/10 No classes. MIDSEMESTER BREAK!
M 3/12 The Emperor, the Ideals, the Real City, and a Failure to Communicate
W 3/14 Growing up in a Roman Provincial Family of Mixed Religious Belief
F 3/16 Monnica and Women's Christianity
M 3/19 Late Roman Education
W 3/21 Late Antique Aesthetics and Culture
F 3/23 Pleasures
M 3/26 Swimming with Manichees
W 3/28 Exam II
F 3/30 Imperial Transitions
  • Cameron, Ch. VII "The Late Roman State"
  • Lee, items # 5.9, 5.10, 6.1
  • Study questions
M 4/2 Rome's Army
W 4/04 Violence and Corruption in International Relations
Th 4/5 (4:15 PM) - M 4/9 (4:15 PM) No classes. EASTER BREAK!
W 4/11 The Controversial Altar of Victory
  • Symmachus, Referral 3 (Vanderspoel's "Relation" in the title here Anglicizes the Latin, relatio, a technical term for a magistrate's letter referring some matter to the emperor's central administration for official advice - it has nothing except etymology to do with the current English word "relation")
  • Ambrose, Letters XVII and XVIII (again, Vanderspoel)
  • Study resources - visualization:
    • Victory, marble, between 240-190 BC, from Samothrace, now in the Louvre: in modern times the most famous image of Victory from the ancient Greek or Roman world (History Department of the University of North Florida)
    • Victory, marble relief, AD 315, Arch of Constantine, Rome
    • pagan worship, ivory diptych of the Nicomachi and Symmachi (posted to WikiMedia Commons by user "Marsyas")
  • Collaborative research project presentation today! Group working on The Late Roman Economy
  • Study questions
F 4/13 Ambrose the Bishop
M 4/16 Augustine in Milan
W 4/18 Christian Commitment
F 4/20 Holy Places: Contact and Transcendence
M 4/23 Christians and Jews
W 4/25 Ambrose and Theodosius: Articulating the Powers of Church and State
F 4/27 Legacy of the Later Roman Empire
W 5/2 (till 4:15pm) Study Day: no exams
Sa 5/5
1:00pm - 3:00pm
 Final examination.
See Loyola's Final Exam Schedule.

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Revised 29 March 2012 by jlong1@luc.edu
http://www.luc.edu/depts/classics/