Required Texts:

Peter Brown, The World of Late Antiquity AD 150-750

Recommended Texts (at bookstore):

General Bibliography

Ancient Sources

There are translated texts of many of the early church fathers at tertullian.org

Some brief advice on research projects

Office hours:  Mon. 10:00-11:00, Wed. 9:00-10:00, Fri. 3:30-4:30, and by appointment

September
3  The Republic

Start Reading Apuleius

Tacitus Annals any two contiguous books; Eusebius books 1-2

Tacitus' Annals at Perseus
To go to, e.g., the beginning of Book 11, type 11.1 into the box over the text and hit return

Tacitus Historiesbooks 1, 3.59-86, 4.1-52, 5.1-13

Tacitus' Histories at Perseus
To go to 3.59, type 3.59 into the box over the text and hit return

Eusebius book 3, SHA Life of Nerva

Pick a province from the list which will be in class. Find out basic things about this province: what is this area now called? when and how did the Romans become involved there and when did it becomes a province? what are some basic things about the peoples in the province (major cities, if any, language(s), customs, religions)? The best place to find concise information is the Oxford Classical Dictionary, preferably the third edition, which can be found in at least two places: Room 302 upstairs in 481 Main, and in the Reference Room of the library, call number DE5 .O9 1996.
List of Provinces

Here is a Map of the Roman Provinces to get you started thinking. Not all of these will necessarily be on the list which you will see in class, because the numbers and sometimes names of the provinces changed from time to time. For example, if you click on Sicily (Sicilia) on this map you get the province Italia, into which Sicily was incorporated after Italy was treated like the rest of the empire.

22 Foreign relations

24 Trajan: optimus princeps?

Eusebius book 4, SHA Life of Trajan, Pliny Panegyricus and Epistles Book 10

Rees, Roger. "To be and not to be : Pliny's paradoxical Trajan," BICS 2001 45 : 149-168. (Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies of the University of London)
Méthy, Nicole. Éloge rhétorique et propagande politique sous le Haut-Empire: l'exemple du Panégyrique de Trajan," MEFRA 2000 112(1) 365-411. (if you read French)
Showalter, Daniel Neal. The relationship between the emperor and the gods: images from Pliny's Panegyricus and other sources from the time of Trajan. Harvard Univ. Cambridge, Mass., 1989. 268 p. DA 50 (1989-1990) 2533A. (Dissertation Abstracts Z5053 .D57)

Siat, Jeannine. "La persécution des chrétiens au début du IIe s. d'après la lettre de Pline le Jeune et la réponse de Trajan en 112," LEC 1995 63 (2) : 161-170. (Les Études classiques)

Bennett, Julian. Trajan, optimus princeps: a life and times. DG294 .B46 1997
Fell, Martin. Optimus princeps? Anspruch und Wirklichkeit der imperialen Programmatik Kaiser Traians. DG294 .F45 2001 (please don't recall this book)

29 Hadrian

Brown, The Making of Late Antiquity chapter 1, SHA Lives of Hadrian, Aelius, Antoninus Pius

Here is some scholarship relating to Hadrian, divided into several areas. Two or more volunteers needed to investigate two or more areas.

October
1 Apuleius

Tatum, J., ed. The search for the ancient novel. 1994. PA3040 .S4 1994. There are several chapters of interest in this book, especially Ken Dowden, "The Roman audience of the Golden Ass," Ewen Bowie, "The readership of the Greek novels in the ancient world," Reinhold Merkelbach, "Novel and aretalogy," Susan Stephens, "Who read ancient novels?"

Other works of interest include:
Anderson, G. Ancient fiction: the novel in the Graeco-Roman world. 1984 PA3040 .A47x 1984b
Holzberg, N. The ancient novel: an introduction. trans. C. Jackson-Holzberg. 1995. PA3040 .H6513 1995
Panayotakis, S. et al., edd. The ancient novel and beyond. 2003. PA3040 .A46 2003
Hägg, T. The novel in antiquity. 1983. PA3040 .H2813 1983

This just in, courtesy of Erik, who brought my attention to it, and Bryn Mawr Classical Review, which has a review of a new book, edited by Michael Paschalis and Stavros Frangoulidis, Space in the Ancient Novel. Ancient Narrative Supplementum 1. Links and comments within the review will also bring your attention to the website of an electronic journal, Ancient Narrative.

6 Marcus Aurelius and Commodus; the Marcomannic wars

Brown, The Making of Late Antiquity chapter 2, SHA Lives of Marcus Antoninus, Verus, Avidius Cassius, Commodus Antoninus, Pertinax, Didius Julianus

Some bibliography relating to Marcus Aurelius and Commodus

Eusebius book 5, SHA Lives of Severus, Pescennius Niger, Clodius Albinus, Antoninus Caracallus, Antoninus Geta

Southern pp. 14-63

Some bibliography relating to the Severan emperors

Eusebius book 6, SHA Lives of Opilius Macrinus, Diadumenus Antoninus, Antoninus Heliogabalus

Southern pp. 64-109

List of Roman Emperors from Augustus to Heraclius

15 Rome vs. Christians

Eusebius book 7, Lactantius DMP entire

Brown, The Making of Late Antiquity chapter 3
Check index to Southern for brief accounts

Some bibliography relating to the early Christian church and Rome
Those who are interested can find translations of the early church fathers at the Early Church Fathers site; the letters of Cyprian, a valuable source for the third century, are in Volume V of the Ante-Nicene Fathers.

Brown, The World of Late Antiquity AD 150-750 pp. 7-47; Southern pp. 110-133

Short bibliography

22 Formation of the Tetrarchy

Eusebius book 8

Southern pp. 134-168

Some bibiography relating to Diocletian and the tetrarchy

The Price Edict (translation), distributed in class. Latin version

Some bibliography pertaining to Diocletian and finances; mostly relating to the Edict on Maximum Prices

29 Religion and politics

Eusebius book 9

Brown, The Making of Late Antiquity chapter 4, Brown, The World of Late Antiquity AD 150-750 pp. 49-113

Some bibliography relating to Christians and pagans, especially after 312

Eusebius book 10

Southern pp. 169-181

Recent bibliography

Ammianus books 14-19

Southern chapter 7

Bibliography

Ammianus books 20-25

Brown, The World of Late Antiquity AD 150-750 pp. 115-135

Bibliography

Ammianus books 26-30

Bibliography

Ammianus book 31

Southern chapter 5

Bibliography

Symmachus On the Altar of Victory
Ambrose's reply: Ep. 17

Online lectures on history of the later Roman empire by Christopher Mackay at this link. Scroll down the page to get to the links for individual topics.

Brown, The World of Late Antiquity AD 150-750 pp.136-203

December
1 End of the Empire in the West

Procopius' History:

Sack of Rome under Alaric
Vandals under Gaiseric conquer North Africa

Introduction to the Letters of Sidonius Apollinaris

Sacred History of Sulpicius Severus; read 2.46 (II.XLVI) to end
[Those who are interested can read here the Life of St. Martin]

Please visit James O'Donnell's web pages on Augustine, Boethius, and Cassiodorus

An English translation of Jordanes' History of the Goths [this link for interest only]

3 Justinian

Please read at least one thing from this short bibliography

Paul Halsall's Internet Medieval Sourcebook contains a variety of texts relating to Justinian; please read something of interest

Procopius' Secret History (read all of this)

The current issue of Archaeology Magazine has an article on the restoration of Hagia Sophia

8 Early Middle Ages

Gregory of Tours, History of the Franks (check it out)

Einhard, Life of Charlemagne (read all of this)

10 West meets East, again

Liutprand, Bishop of Cremona, visited Constantinople as envoy of Otto II near the turn of the first millennium. Here is an account of his visit.

Last updated: 1 December 2003 Send Comments to: Barbara Rodgers, bsaylor@zoo.uvm.edu Copyright © 2003 Barbara Saylor Rodgers All Rights Reserved.