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CLST 277-WI:
The World of Late Antiquity - Writing Intensive
Fall Semester 2006
This Writing-Intensive Core course in Historical Knowledge will investigate the historical development
of the Roman Empire in the 3rd to 5th centuries C.E., when people of the Mediterranean basin
and Europe re-evaluated their Classical past and decisively set their course toward
Medieval and later governmental, religious, and cultural history. Students will
learn and practice the work of historical inquiry as directly as possible, on
literary, documentary, and material sources. By integrating different approaches
they will better understand the complexity of lived experience and the interaction
of historical forces. Sequential developments in Roman government establish a
chronological framework for our study: why did the Principate’s administration of
the Roman Empire spin out of control? How did late imperial governments, amid
chaotic rivalries, evolve a new system? As later Roman governments switched from
persecuting to promoting Christianity, how did religious sensibilities change – and
what remained constant? How were Classical cultural ideals like piety, family,
public service and education maintained and re-colored? How did individual men and
women, Christians and pagans and Manichees, emperors and soldiers and citizens and
sophists, martyrs and bishops and monks and philosophers see their world? Do we agree?
Our work will pursue five main aims (plus the sixth, of having fun
with all of them):
- Acquiring historical knowledge, to master the chronology of the later
Roman empire and to know its signal events, people, institutions, and productions.
- Thinking critically, to analyze late antique texts, artistic representations,
spaces, and experiences, in order to understand how events and social forces, both
collective and individual, influence the processes of historical change.
- Reasoning across diverse cultural backgrounds from the present to the later
Roman empire, to identify distinctive patterns of thought and behavior so as to
understand late antique motivations and actions on their own terms.
- Synthesizing historical understanding, to assess late-antique and modern
interpretations of what happened and what it meant, from material, documentary, and
literary sources, and to generate and evaluate our own theories about historical change.
- Communicating thoughtfully and effectively, to participate in the process of
historical inquiry and formation of knowledge.
Monday - Wednesday - Friday, 12:35-1:25 PM
Damen Hall 430
Dr. Jacqueline Long
Office Hours: MWF 1:40-2:30 PM on 2nd floor of Piper Hall, or by appointment
in Crown Center 553
phone: 773-598-3654
e-mail:
jlong1@orion.it.luc.edu
Texts
- Averil Cameron, The Later Roman Empire (Harvard)
- Ammianus Marcellinus, The Later Roman Empire, tr. W.
Hamilton (Penguin)
- A. D. Lee, ed., Pagans and Christians in Late Antiquity: A
Sourcebook (Routledge)
- William Strunk, Jr. and E. B. White, The Elements of Style, 4th edn. (Longman);
the 1st edn. (1918) is available on-line from
bartleby.com
- Additional resources in photocopy and on the Internet
Policies and Assessment
Schedule of Reading Assignments and Topics
Additional Resources
Writing
Late Antique Literature, History, Archaeology, and Culture
- ORB
- Late Antiquity: a division of the
On-Line Reference Book
for Medieval Studies focused on the period AD 284-632. A
clearinghouse of on-line resources for the study of late antiquity,
with links to other sites. Scholarly; edited and managed by Steven
Muhlberger of Nipissing University.
- IAHS
- Late Antiquity: part of the
Internet
Ancient History Sourcebook, an index of on-line translations of
primary sources, focused on "the end of antiquity" - some texts as
early as the first and second centuries AD, but mostly third and
fourth; the main site covers ancient history comprehensively.
Scholarly compilation for teaching purposes, relying principally on
older translations in the public domain; edited by Paul Hallsall, then
of Fordham University where the Sourcebook is maintained, now of the
University of North Florida.
- IMS
- the End of the Classical World: part of the
Internet
Medieval Sourcebook, an index of on-line translations of
primary sources, a few texts as early as the second and third
centuries AD, but mainly focused on the fourth and fifth; the main
collection is the largest of on-line medieval texts. Scholarly; edited
by Paul Hallsall, then
of Fordham University where the Sourcebook is maintained, now of the
University of North Florida.
- De Imperatoribus
Romanis: an on-line encyclopedia of Roman emperors, including
empresses, junior emperors, and ultimately non-successful claimants of
imperial power - classical, later Roman, and Byzantine. Includes
interlinked biographical articles with bibliography, imperial stemmata,
the DIR/ORB Ancient and Medieval Atlas, and an index of
select major battles. Scholarly, peer-edited; editorial boards
currently under the presidency of Richard Weigel of Western Kentucky
University (Classical through Later Roman Empire) and Lynda Garland of
the University of New England, New South Wales (Byzantine).
- Lacus
Curtius, a staggeringly rich treasurehouse of on-line resources for
Roman archaeology and topography (especially; compiled by Bill Thayer.
- Pagan
and Christian Rome, by Rodolfo Lanciani (Boston and New York:
Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1892; republished in a web-enhanced
edition by Bill Thayer as part of
Lacus
Curtius [see above]) - detailed, albeit now rather old, scholarly
study of the transformation of a city.
- Augustine's
web-page: nerve-center for teaching and research on Augustine on
the Internet, including articles, bibliographies, texts, commentaries,
images, records of an on-line seminar run in 1994 and 1995, and links
to other off-site resources; edited by James J. O'Donnell, formerly of
the University of Pennsylvania (where a
mirror-site
is still maintained), now Provost of Georgetown University
- Perseus Project:
an evolving digital library for the study of the Greek and Roman worlds, not
excluding their late periods.
- Diotima: a clearing-house of resources
on the Internet for the study of women and gender in the ancient world:
including items relevant to late antiquity.
Revised 28 August 2006 by
jlong1@orion.it.luc.edu
http://www.luc.edu/depts/classics/