History 503.01
History 503.01
THE ROMAN REPUBLIC
Class texts
The following books are available for purchase at SBX.
Required:
Cicero, Selected Political Speeches, Penguin
ibid., Selected Letters, Penguin
Livy, The Early History of Rome, Penguin
Plautus, The Pot of Gold and Other Plays, Penguin
Plutarch, Makers of Rome, Penguin
ibid., The Fall of the Roman Republic, Penguin
Polybius, The Rise of the Roman Empire, Penguin
Sallust, The Jugurthine War and the Conspiracy of Catiline, Penguin
Readings (A Xeroxed Packet)
Recommended:
Cary, M. & H.H. Scullard, A History of Rome, 3rd ed., St. Martin's
Copies of the assigned readings may also be found on closed reserve at the undergraduate library.
Requirements: Undergraduate students in this course will be required to take a midterm and a final exam and to turn in a term paper, all of which must be completed in order to pass the class. Graduate students enrolled in the course must take the midterm and final exam but will be graded according to a more rigorous standard. In addition, graduate students will be expected to write a more ambitious research paper for the course. A student's grade will be determined as follows: the midterm exam will count for twenty percent of the final grade; the term paper for forty percent; and the final exam will comprise the remaining forty percent.
Objectives: This course offers an advanced survey of Roman history during the Republican era, c.753-44 B.C., from a variety of perspectives: political, social, diplomatic, economic, and intellectual. In addition, students will be introduced to some of the basic problems which historians of the period are currently attempting to solve as well as to some of the most important hypotheses their work has produced. In the process, students will become acquainted with certain of the principal research tools and techniques which ancient historians have developed to aid them in their investigations.
Schedule of Lectures
First Week
.Introduction: Italians, Greeks, and Etruscans
Reading:
Cary and Scullard, A History of Rome, pp. 3-28
.Earliest Rome
Reading:
Cary and Scullard, A History of Rome, pp. 31-61
Livy, The Early History of Rome, Book I (complete)
Xerox Packet, pp. 1-7
Second Week
.From Monarchy to Republic
Reading:
Livy, The Early History of Rome Book II, chs. 1-21
Polybius, The Rise of the Roman Empire, Book III, ch. 22
Xerox Packet, pp. 11-16
.The Struggle of the Orders
Reading:
Cary and Scullard, 62-69, 75-83
Livy, II 22-32; III 32-59
Xerox Packet, pp. 17-30 (= Livy, VI 34-37; 42)
.The Conquest of Latium
Reading:
Cary and Scullard, 70-74, 84-94, 99-107
Polybius, III 22, 24
Livy, III 25-29; V (complete);
Xerox Packet, pp. 31-38 (= Livy, VIII 13-14; Cicero, Pro Balbo 53; Diony. Hal. VI 95)
Third Week
.First Steps to World Power
Reading:
Cary and Scullard, 94-96, 113-122
Polybius, I 1-16, 55-64; III 22-26
Xerox Packet, pp. 39-66 (= Plutarch, "Pyrrhus" 9; 13-26.2)
.The War with Hannibal: Part I
Reading:
Cary and Scullard, 124-137
Polybius, II 1, 13, 24, 36; III 1-17, 20-21, 27-35, 77-118, VI 58; VII 9; VIII 3-7, 24-34; IX 3-7; X 6-16; XI 1-13
.The War with Hannibal: Conclusion; Rome and the Greeks: Part I
Reading:
Cary and Scullard, 123, 150-168
Polybius, II 2-12; III 16, 18-19
Fourth Week
.Rome and the Greeks: Conclusion
Reading:
Polybius, XVIII 1-12, 44-46, XXIV 11-13; XXXI 11-15
.Rome and the Western Mediterranean
Reading:
Cary and Scullard, 138-149
.The Consequences of Empire
Reading:
Cary and Scullard, 169-176, 186-193
Fifth Week
.The Roman Constitution
Reading:
Cary and Scullard, 79-83, 97-99
Polybius, VI 2-18, 43-58
.Politics at Rome
Reading:
Cary and Scullard, 177-185
Plutarch, "Cato the Elder"
.Society and Literature in the Middle Republic
Reading:
Cary and Scullard, 194-198
Plautus, The Brothers Menaechmus, The Swaggering Solder, Pseudolus
Sixth Week
.MIDTERM EXAM
.Tiberius Gracchus
Reading:
Cary and Scullard, 203-206
Plutarch, "Tiberius Gracchus"
Xerox Packet, pp. 67-82 (= Appian, Civil Wars 1-17)
.Caius Gracchus
Reading:
Cary and Scullard, 206-211
Plutarch, "Caius Gracchus"
Xerox Packet, pp. 82-91 (= Appian, Civil Wars 18-26)
Seventh Week
TERM PAPER DUE IN TWO WEEKS
.Crisis at the Century's Close
Reading:
Cary and Scullard, 212-221
Plutarch, "Marius", chs. 1-31.
Xerox Packet, pp. 92-98 (= Appian, Civil Wars 27-33)
.The Alliance Crumbles; The Republic ~Falters
Reading:
Cary and Scullard, 222-229
Plutarch, "Marius", chs. 32-46
ibid. "Sulla", chs. 1-10
Xerox Packet, pp. 98-131 (= Appian, Civil Wars 34-71)
.Calamity
Reading:
Cary and Scullard, 230-238
Plutarch, "Sulla", chs. 11-37
Xerox Packet, pp. 130-165 (= Appian, Civil Wars 71-107)
Eighth Week
TERM PAPER DUE NEXT WEEK
.Veterans Day: No Class
.Recovery
Reading:
Cary and Scullard, 239-244
Plutarch, "Sulla", ch. 38
Xerox Packet, pp. 165-178 (= Appian, Civil Wars 108-121)
.The Ascendency of Pompey
Reading:
Cary and Scullard, 250-255
Cicero, Selected Letters nos. 8-12
Xerox Packet, pp. 179-200 (= Cicero, Letters to Atticus nos. 17, 19, 21, 23)
Ninth Week
.Catiline and Cicero; TERM PAPER DUE TODAY
Reading:
Cary and Scullard, 244-248
Cicero, "Against Catiline" I, II, IV
Sallust, The Conspiracy of Catiline
.The First Triumvirate
Reading:
Cary and Scullard, 248-49, 265-66, 255-256
Cicero, Letters nos. 12, 14-16, 21-22, 28
Xerox Packet, pp. 201-231 (= Letters to Atticus. nos 27, 38, 40, 52, 60, 68 )
.Rome and the Provinces
Reading:
Cary and Scullard, 258-265
Cicero, Letters nos. 50
Xerox Packet, pp. 233-266 (= Letters to Atticus nos. 104, 114-117
Tenth Week
.Private Life and the Family in the Late Republic
Reading:
Xerox Packet, pp. 323-330
.Literature in the Late Republic
Reading:
Cary and Scullard, 304-312
Plutarch, "Cicero"
Catullus, The Poems of Catullus, nos. 1-62, 83, 85-86, 93
.Thanksgiving Recess; No Class
Eleventh Week
.The Shadow of Civil War
Reading:
Cary and Scullard, 266-269
Cicero, Letters nos. 59, 60
Xerox Packet, pp. 233-235, 267-287 (= Letters to Atticus 104, 122, 124, 126-128, 130, 132)
.Caesar the Dictator
Reading:
Cary and Scullard, 270-282
Cicero, Letters nos. 64, 66, 67, 69, 70, 71,
Xerox Packet, pp. 289-321 (= Letters to Atticus 134-135, 139, 144-146, 158, 161, 165A, 171, 174, 199, 199B, 217)
.Decline and Fall?