Coming soon. This page will house the weekly lectures and seminars for HIST 305: Roman Civilization. The full schedule is set out below; the individual session pages and the Resources section — overview timeline, reading list, and lecture summaries — will be added before term begins. No links are active yet.
Weekly Schedule
Week 01 · Introductions; Origins
1AIntroduction to the class, the syllabus, and resources
1BLecture 1. Origin Myths: From Troy to Rome
Week 02
2ALecture 2. Founding Rome
2BSeminar. Rome as a Greek “city-state” (Dionysius of Halicarnassus)
Week 03
3ALecture 3. Rome at War with its Neighbors
3BSeminar. Kings and Consuls, Patricians and Plebeians (Livy)
Week 04
4ALecture 4. Roman Constitution and Roman Law
4BSeminar. Roman History and Roman Constitution (Polybius)
Week 05
5ALecture 5. The Punic Wars
5BSeminar. Hannibal and Cato the Elder (Cornelius Nepos)
Week 06
6ALecture 6. Rome’s First Civil War
6BSeminar. Caesar’s Gallic Wars
Week 07
7ALecture 7. The End of the Republic
7BIndividual meetings to discuss progress prior to Spring Break
Week 08
8ALecture 8. Roman Religion
8BSeminar. Roman Religious Festival (Ovid, Fasti)
Week 09
9ALecture 9. From the Second Triumvirate to the Death of Augustus
9BMidterm exam
Week 10
10ALecture 10. Pax Augusta: Golden Age?
10BSeminar. Roman Trade (Muziris Papyrus)
Week 11
11ALecture 11. The Early Principate
11BSeminar. Pompeii and Herculaneum (Pliny the Younger)
Week 12
12ALecture 12. The Flavians and Severans
12BSeminar. Bread and Circuses (Juvenal, Martial, Colosseum)
Week 13
13ALecture 13. The Roman Army
13BSeminar. Britannia: Life in Roman Britain
Week 14
14ALecture 14. The Third Century Crisis
14BSeminar. The Tetrarchy
Week 15
15ALecture 15. Constantine and the Christian Empire
15BFinal day of classes