Vanderbilt University
Clas146/Fall 2004
Vanderbilt University
Clas146/Fall 2004
T, Th 1.15-2.25
Furman 325
e-mail: daniel.p.solomon@vanderbilt.edu
Office hours: almost any morning or afternoon by appointment
in Furman 327 (tel: 3-4134).
General infopaper guidelinesStudy/quiz questions: weeks 1-2 weeks 3-4 weeks 5-6 weeks 7-8 weeks 9-10
weeks 11-12 weeks 13-14
Required texts:
1) Jones & Sidwell, The World of Rome (Cambridge. 1997)2) R. Mellor, The Historians of Ancient Rome (Routledge. 1998)
3) Virgil, The Aeneid: a New Prose Translation (tr. West) (Penguin. 2003). Any prior or alternative version is fine, as long as it it provides verse numbers, to which you will have to refer instead of the page numbers assigned on the syllabus
4) Plutarch, Roman Lives (tr. Waterfield) (Oxford. 1999)
5) Class Pak, available from Campus Copy.
Please bring to each class all assigned texts, which we will be consulting together extensively.
Objectives:
This course aims to provide the broadest possible overview to the civilization of ancient Rome. In considering political, social, and cultural developments between the 8th century BC and the 4th century AD, we shall be exploring to what extent is it helpful to posit a distinct and unchanging Roman "identity." To this end, we will distinguish between four separate phases of Roman history; for each of these, we will compare primary and secondary documents (that is, how they said they lived and how later generations thought they lived). Romans' outlooks over the centuries changed in some respects but remained consistent in others; by the end of the semester, we will have isolated the values that inspired them, and we will better understand the various manifestations of their ideals, whether in artistic achievements, public policies or private interactions.
Your final papers and exams should reflect above all educated criticism of our sources, so that you may reach a conclusion for yourselves as to what made the Romans essentially "Roman." Throughout this semester we will try to abstain from passing value judgments, whether on the excesses of Roman cruelty or on the benefits of Roman empire. Feel free to form your own sympathies or antipathies, but the raison d'être for Classics 146 is to present the Romans, both as a society and as individuals, in all their complex and contradictory aspects. Our fascination with them rests primarily on the wealth of documentation they left us, of which you will be exposed to representative samples. You will leave this course with your own feelings on the worthiness of Romans to rule, based on their own record.
Either way, there is only so much we can do in class to deal with a course of this range and magnitude; I hope you will feel free to contact me outside of class, either by e-mail or in person, to discuss any doubts, concerns, or unresolved issues. The ultimate purpose of this course is not to give answers but to learn how to pose the right unanswerable questions, and to consider arguments and counterarguments for every suggestion. However frustrating such a task may initially appear, it is our research into the human experience that teaches us how we function as individuals within a collective. By searching for themes and clues as to what made 2,000-year-old Romans tick, we will gain further insight into our own sense of identity - whether national, ethnic, political, religious, or any other way in which we choose to define ourselves.
Happy hunting!
1) Participation in class (10 %): this grade reflects not only your attendance and classroom contribution but also the effort you out into this course. The relatively short core readings for each session are crucial to developing collective discussion of each topic (the alternative is sitting through an hour lecture by me...). The textbooks are general repositories of information: class notes will be essential to navigating them!
2) 21 almost daily quizzes (5%), answering questions to be found on the Course Web Page. At the beginning of class, I will have chosen 3 out of 4 or 5 assigned multiple-choice answers. CLICK THE ABOVE THE LINK "Study/quiz questions." Make-ups will be allowed in certain cases and only if you clear it with me first; they must be taken before the following class session. Please note that it is unacceptable to leave class after taking the quiz, unless you have cleared it with me first.
3) 2 Review quizzes (7.5% each): one on Sep. 23,1 of 6 seen essays on the material of the semester, the other on Nov. 16, on material since the midterm exam. Each will be 1.10-1.30 p.m..
4) Midterm exam on Oct. 7, in class (25%): web page id's, seen and unseen essays.
5) Term paper, 6-8 pages, (15%) due in class Thursday, December 2: "Examine an ancient Roman issue, person, event, or work of art (if literature, focus on one or two shorter episodes), by comparing it to a modern counterexample." LATE papers will be docked 3 points for each day late: please begin your paper as soon as you have found a suitable topic. See further comments below.
6) Cumulative Final (30%), on Wednesday, December 15, 3 p.m.
An alternate final will be offered on Saturday, December 18, noon.
!!! These policies and requirements are final: no extra credit will be offered.
Grading scale:
Points are scored out of a total of 100: the top ten constituted the "A" range, the next ten the "B" range, and so forth. The letter is accompanied by "+" or "-" if your score falls within the top or bottom 3 points of each range. Thus, e.g.,
87-89= B+ ; 83-86 = B ; 80-82 = B- .
The PAPER must be printed, double spaced, and titled: 6-8 pages with a font such as Times New Roman 12. Margins on all sides should be set at 1 inch; quotations longer than two lines should be indented, accompanied by full primary citations (i.e., book and verse/chapter of ancient text if available).
You are strongly encouraged to complete your assignments earlier than the due date, which is a week before the end of the semester; please note that the papers must be handed to me in person; I will accept by e-mail only proposed outlines.
The point of this project is to enable you to examine in detail one of the issues, events, or characters we have only had time to introduce superficially in class, in the context of changes or tensions in Roman civilization. You are referring to some aspect of contemporary culture primarily in order to bring in to sharper relief or focus a comparable aspect of the past. For example, a Latinless audience will better understand your explanation of virtus, if you show similarities and differences between the Roman term and the modern translations: "virtue," "valor," "virility," etc. If you browse the Internet for sources, please start with the links suggested on this Web Page (which must be cited), since I have vetted these for accuracy and standards; do not use Internet encyclopedia articles, class notes, high school projects, or other amateurs; in any case, the evaluation of the argument of your paper will mostly depend on your awareness and application of your class notes and readings. Therefore, if you use outside sources, you must integrate them with class materials.
Suggested topics include:
Checks, balances, and values in the American and Roman Republican ConstitutionsPolitical skepticism in Late Republican Rome and Late 20th [or early 21st!] century America
Conservatism in Cato [or Rome as a whole] and any conservative individual or society you can think of
Strategy and/or ideology in Roman and contemporary warfare.
Our new obsession with reality TV shows, as opposed to the Romans' new obsession with private literature in the Late Republic.
Social commentary in Terence, Cicero, Catullus, Lucretius, Horace or Virgil and CBS' "60 Minutes," or Dickens' Oliver Twist, or Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbine, etc.
Authority figures [or self-discovery; or the power of love; or the figure of Juno; etc.] in Virgil's Aeneid and any modern book, film, or other media you can think of (come by with any suggestion you may have in mind and we can narrow it down together!). If you write on the Aeneid, please do not compare it to Homer, Milton, or any other epic poem with direct links to Virgil; the point is to find terms of comparison for yourself.
Any aspect of Ridley Scott's Gladiator reflected in real Roman society (though please note that we will not have covered gladiatorial fights by the time the paper is due!)
This paper will not only demonstrate your assimilation of the course materials, it will also prepare you to compose professional written documents in a public context. As such, your numerical paper grade will reflect both content and style. In your exams I have intermittently drawn your attention to ambiguities or inaccuracies in your choice of English without penalizing you at all; in the paper, this will no longer be the case. The ability to express one's self clearly, coherently, and persuasively in one's mother tongue is not simply a valuable commodity in today's job market, which is saturated with record numbers of college graduates: it is crucial that you distinguish yourself from the pack by developing and exhibiting your skills 1) in analyzing vast amounts of information, 2) in giving shape to your analysis, and then finally 3) in giving a voice to your conclusions.
Closer to the day I will supply a hard copy with this information, as well as further stylistic pointers. For now, the best approach to adopt in writing your papers is to pretend 1) that I have very little idea of what you are talking about, 2) that I have a very short attention span, and 3) that I can barely speak English! Just because you may have a clear idea of what you have in mind does not mean that everyone else will. Before you start writing you need to sketch a detailed structure of your essay, proceeding paragraph by paragraph; when you compose "free form," your carelessness is always more apparent and more frustrating to your audience than you may realize, because it becomes impossible to see where your argument is headed. It will also prove very helpful if, as soon as you have finished your paper, you first read it through again slowly, and then afterwards have a non-specialist look through it quickly, in order to assess whether you have articulated each thought in the best possible way. Don't just leave it to spell-checking software!
It is not necessary to make an original contribution to classical scholarship to excel in this paper; ideally you will provide either a sophisticated original analysis of a class reading, or you will find your own examples to corroborate the analysis offered in class. I am more interested in your knowledge of the primary materials: as always, the best way to demonstrate your preparation is to find examples or details we have not presented in class. There are plenty of other conservative paradigms than Cato, or progressive pioneers than Tiberius Gracchus; in the Aeneid, there are plenty of tests of Aeneas' pietas other than the temptation of Dido, and plenty of examples of premature tragedy other than Did's death. If you stick to my suggestions or my evidence in your class notes - no matter how accurately - you will not be able to display either the detail or the critical analysis necessary to break into the "A/A-" range.
Three caveats:
1) Do not forget to provide a social/historical/literary context for your topic, if you choose a certain episode or event; otherwise you will not be able to justify it as indicative of Roman Civilization in general. Remember: the main goal is not to understand Julius Caesar ourselves, but rather to reconstruct how the Romans would have understood him.
2) Do not quote extensively from World of Rome or any other secondary source; engage our eyewitnesses, the Romans themselves (sound bites in WR are fine!).
3) Do not neglect the bias inevitable in any author you may be quoting or referencing: take nothing anybody says for granted - ever!!!
Scholarly collection of essays on the Roman emperors: http://www.roman-emperors.org
Simpler compendium but with more images: http://www.roman-emperors.com
Best site on Julius Caesar (see especially "Legacy and Reforms"): http://heraklia.fws1.com/
Barbara McManus' handy timelines for the crucial transition period of our course, focusing on Julius Caesar, http://www.vroma.org/~bmcmanus/caesar.html, Second Triumvirate, http://www.vroma.org/~bmcmanus/antony.html, and Early Principate, http://www.vroma.org/~bmcmanus/augustus.html
Truly excellent site on Roman women (see 2, 6, 7, and especially 5 on legal status) : http://www.stoa.org/diotima/anthology/wlgr/ (NOTE: some of these references are to Greeks: pay attention to place names and dates!)
Roman maps of city, empire, and specialized topics: http://www.historylink101.com/ancient_rome/ancient_rome_maps.htm
Weird but comprehensive site on Roman religion (by modern worshippers!): http://www.novaroma.org/religio_romana/index.html
Four detailed examples of Augustan imagery: http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/users/morford/augimage.html
Virtual tour of (ruins of) the Forum of Pompeii: http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/pompeii/page-1.html
Comprehensive site on Epicureanism: http://www.epicurus.info
Introduction to Stoicism (though a little complicated): http://members.aol.com/Heraklit1/zeno.htm
Cool computer-generated reconstructions of ancient Rome: http://www.taisei.co.jp/cg_e/ancient_world/rome/rome_06.html
Roman ball games: http://www.personal.psu.edu/users/w/x/wxk116/romeball.html
Link to some PDF files of Greek and Roman jokes: http://www.curculio.org/Ioci/
