CX 110 – Roman Culture and Society

The University of Warwick Department of Classics and Ancient History

Module convenor: Dr. Luca Asmonti Humanities Building, room 232 Tel. 024 765 50407 [email protected]

Office hours: Monday, 2.00 – 3.00 pm; Thursday, 3.00 – 4.00 pm

1 OUTLINE

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE MODULE ‘The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there’ (L.P. Hartley, The Go‐Between) ‐ however much our modern western culture is influenced by Roman architecture, literature, and law (to name but a few influences), the Roman world is no exception to this statement. This module seeks to explore what was distinctively ‘Roman’ about Roman culture and society, both at its centre in Rome, and all around its empire, from Britain to Bulgaria, and from the Nile to the Euphrates. The module will cover topics from the late first century BC to the early third century AD, exploring the impact on Roman society of the emergence of sole rulers and dynastic powers, and the gradual opening up of society to provincials. How did cultural change occur, and to what extent was there resistance in the provinces to adopting a Roman way of life? How did people in the provinces know that they were living in the Roman empire? To what extent can we widen our picture of society beyond the sphere of the élite, who dominate our literary sources? These issues will be explored through a whole range of source material (literature, archaeology, coins, inscriptions, art, and architecture) and students will be encouraged to form their own views on both the usefulness and drawbacks of painting a picture of Roman culture and society from them. In this module, we examine the ways in which people's private lives were structured, considering the impact of an individual’s legal status, place of habitation, and religious attitudes. The interaction between different social strata through patronage of various kinds is a theme common to many of the lectures. We also look at the public, political context of art, literature, and religion; in the final term, we visit the British Museum in order to find out what new possibilities open up to the historian from examining individual artefacts. Six seminars allow us to explore in depth certain aspects of the Roman world, touched on more briefly in lectures. It is essential that students prepare for these seminars, so as to be able to join in the informal discussion of topics. This will help develop the ability to develop arguments in a lucid, well‐structured manner in the more formal framework of assessed essays. During the course of the module, we shall revise crucial study skills, including note‐taking, footnoting, time management, and compiling a bibliography.

ORGANISATION There is one two‐hour weekly lecture session, punctuated by a 10‐minute break: Thursdays 13 p.m., Room S0.21. The lectures will present primary sources (texts and artefacts), providing guidance in assessing their relative strengths and weaknesses as historical evidence, and will highlight some of the main areas of debate. The group will be divided into smaller groups for three seminars in each of the first two terms in weeks 4, 7, 10. Students will be asked to complete some preparatory reading, and come prepared to participate in informal discussion of the topics. Seminar worksheets will be distributed two weeks before each seminar. Students are advised that attendance at every lecture and seminar is compulsory since the assessed essays and exam paper will draw upon the

2 material covered in them. If you have to miss a lecture or seminar for some good reason, please let the lecturer and module convenor know in advance if possible, or as soon as possible thereafter. Students are expected to do some consolidation work after each lecture, working from the weekly bibliographies. You should aim to read one general work, and then choose a couple of more specialized works.

3 SYLLABUS

Lecturers Luca Asmonti (LA); Kevin Butcher (KB); Stanley Ireland (SI) Monica Matthews (MM); Daniel Orrells (DO)

AUTUMN TERM

WEEK 1 – 8TH OCTOBER Rome, the centre of the world (LA)

WEEK 2 – 15TH OCTOBER Trade and Economy (LA)

WEEK 3 – 22TH OCTOBER Family and familia (LA)

WEEK 4 – 29TH OCTOBER Citizens, Freed, and Slaves (LA) Seminar: Archaeology and the Roman Economy: the case of Ostia (LA, KB)

WEEK 5 – 5TH NOVEMBER Patronage (LA)

WEEK 6 – 12TH NOVEMBER Bread and Circuses (LA)

WEEK 7 – 19TH NOVEMBER Death and Burial (LA) Seminar: Gladiatorial games: varying perspectives (LA, KB)

WEEK 8 – 26TH NOVEMBER Army (LA)

WEEK 9 – 3RD DECEMBER Religions of Rome (1) (KB)

WEEK 10 – 10TH DECEMBER Religions of Rome (2) (KB) Seminar: Vindolanda Writing Tablets (LA, SI)

SPRING TERM

WEEK 1 – RETURN OF ESSAYS Essay meetings

4 WEEK 2 Historiography (LA)

WEEK 3 Literacy (LA)

WEEK 4 Coins (SI) Seminar ‐ Historiography (LA, SI)

WEEK 5 Literature (1) (MM)

WEEK 6 Literature (2) (MM)

WEEK 7 Literature (3) (MM) Seminar – Virgil (LA, MM)

WEEK 8 Art and Architecture (2 ‐ private sphere) (LA)

WEEK 9 i. The death of Caesar and the second triumvirate ii. Octavian’s triumph: tradition and innovation

WEEK 10 Eating and Drinking (LA) Seminar: Images of Augustus (LA)

SUMMER TERM

WEEK 1 No lecture ‐ return of essays (LA)

WEEK 2 Field trip ‐ British Museum (LA/DO)

WEEK 3 Imperialism and Romanization (LA)

WEEK 4 Revision class (LA)

5 ASSESSMENT

Assessment for the module for all students is 50% for work submitted during the module and 50% for a 2‐hour exam in the May/June session of examinations. Overlap should be avoided between pre‐submitted essays and the questions answered in the exam. Lack of breadth may be penalised. Students are required to pass both parts of the module, achieving a minimum of 40% on both the assessed work during the module and on the exam. • The exam will be divided into two parts: students will be required to comment on two 'gobbets' (from a choice of six) – one text and one artefact ‐ illustrative of different aspects of Roman culture and society; to write two essays (from a choice of seven titles). • Students are required to produce TWO essays during the module (length 2,500 words, including footnotes, but excluding bibliography). The normal expected length for assessed essays is ‘c. 2,500 words’, which in practice means 2250‐ 3000 words (including footnotes not including bibliography). Students are required to declare a word count on the cover sheet. Essays will be penalized for being too short and those who have written too much risk the end of the essay – e.g. your clever and sophisticated final paragraph not being read at all. Essays must include footnotes where appropriate, and a bibliography of works cited. They should be word‐processed. Due attention should be given to literacy (both spelling and grammar). Titles and submission dates follow below. Please refer to the departmental handbook and the document ‘Advice on writing essays’ for further information about assessment criteria and marking.

GENERAL GUIDANCE ON ESSAY WRITING Presentation: your essay should contain accurate use of English expression; you will be penalised for poor presentation, including poor grammar and spelling. Clarity of analysis: your essay should be organised coherently on the basis of arguments; you will be penalised for work which is incoherent or which presents a mass of amorphous material. The case the student is arguing should be clear to the assessor in every paragraph ‐ don't fall automatically into a chronological arrangement of your material, or a line by line examination of a text, unless you are making a specific point, narrowly argued, about development or change over time. Primary data: your essay should show thoughtful use of a wide range of ancient texts and other material; unsubstantiated arguments and opinions will be penalised. Unless you engage directly with primary evidence (texts, objects), you will not get a good mark. Secondary material: your essay should isolate the main issues and debates in modern scholarship on the subject. You will be penalised for overdependence on a single unquestioned authority. Originality and sophistication: your essay should demonstrate thoughtfulness, well‐founded scepticism and original ideas which attempt to surpass the issues and debates found in modern discussions in order to take the argument in a new direction.

6 SUBMISSION OF ESSAYS Essays/dissertations for submission should be signed into the departmental office and a cover sheet filled in before 12 noon on or before the date posted. Anonymity of marking is an adopted principle of the University for both assessed essays and examinations. By University regulation, late essays will attract a penalty of 5% (i.e. 5 marks) for each day they are late.

DEADLINES The first essay should be submitted by 12 noon, 9th December. You may not submit essays by email, but should hand them in to the departmental office.

EXTENSIONS TO ESSAY DEADLINES: Applications for an extension of the essay‐deadline are only allowed in exceptional circumstances – well‐documented medical reasons etc. Any such application should be made to the Head of Dept (Prof James Davidson) or Director of Undergraduate Studies (Dr Stanley Ireland) well before the deadline. Problems with e.g. printers, getting hold of books, bunching‐up of essay‐ deadlines etc. are rarely considered acceptable excuses. When an extension is granted, students must ensure that the module tutor is informed and that the extension (with date limit) is recorded by the secretaries in the ledger in the Office. Only in exceptional circumstances will an extension be allowed beyond two weeks.

FEEDBACK Essays should be returned to students within three working weeks or at the beginning of the following term. The marked copy of an assessed essay is retained by the Office. Copies of cover sheets and other comments can be made available to students once marks have been finalized and recorded. Essays will be handed back individually, when there will be a chance to discuss them. It is essential that students attend these tutorials.

PLAGIARISM Plagiarism, defined as ‘the attempt to pass off someone else’s work as one’s own’ is a variety of cheating or fraud. It is taken very seriously by the University and students who are caught can suffer penalties which are extremely detrimental to their career. Fortunately plagiarism has not been a problem in our Department and we fully anticipate that this situation will continue. To avoid any confusion however you should take special care with two things: • Cite the sources you are using • Use quotation marks for the quotes you are quoting.

7 ESSAYS

ASSESSED ESSAY 1 Write an essay of approximately 2,500 words on ONE of the following subjects, to be handed in to the departmental office (Room 222‐4) by 12 noon, 9th December. Make sure that your essay is only identified by your university number from your library card, and that a cover sheet is attached. Please ensure that your pages are numbered, and that you state a word count. See dept handbook for further advice about writing and presenting essays. These particular essays will not be set as exam questions in the examination paper at the end of the module. Overlap should be avoided between your pre‐submitted essays and the questions you answer in the exam. Consult the individual bibliographies handed out at lectures for guidance in your reading. Seminar sheets will also be useful for some titles.

1. What was the role of the elderly in the Roman family? 2. “The Roman people are held fast by two things above all, the corn‐dole and the shows” (Fronto. Princ. Hist. 17). Discuss the material and literary evidence on the politics of panem et circenses (“bread and games”). 3. Can we consider Trimalchio as the archetypal freedman? 4. To what extent did the public spaces and buildings of the forum reflect Roman civic ideology? 5. Do you think that military service could represent an opportunity for self‐ improvement for a Roman citizen? Answer this question by discussing the evidence concerning Trajan’s campaigns in the East. 6. What place did religion have in the daily life of a Roman citizen? 7. Was clientage a full‐time job in ancient Rome? Consider the evidence of Juvenal and Martial. 8. Did the Roman state actively promote the "imperial cult"?

Assessed Essay 2 Write an essay of approximately 2,500 words on ONE of the following subjects, to be handed in to the departmental office (Room 222‐4) by 12 noon, tbc. The essay should be approximately 2,500 words long, and should be handed in to the departmental office (Room 222‐4), identified only by your university number from your library card, and with a cover sheet attached. These particular essays will not be set as exam questions in the examination paper at the end of the module. Overlap should be avoided between your pre‐submitted essays and the questions you answer in the exam.

1. What does the Ara Pacis tell us about the ideology of the Principate? 2. What were the goals of education in ancient Rome? 3. Can Roman literature teach us anything today? 4. How did Romans adapt Greek literature to their own interests/purposes? 5. To what extent does Roman historiography reflect the culture of the senatorial elites? 6. How can we use coins to study Roman culture? 7. How fair is it to say that Roman imperial coinage mirrors the fortunes of

8 the empire itself? 8. Consider the possible effects of a text of your choice on both its original audience and on a modern reader. 9. What were the religious functions of the Roman household?

BIBLIOGRAPHY A reading list is available at the following link: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/classics/modules/rcs/bibliography/

VACATION READING Before the spring term, you should read the following: Virgil's Aeneid Pliny the Younger, Letters Tacitus, Agricola This will help you with your work in the spring term, and will also consolidate what we've been looking at during the autumn.