Admission requirements
This course is part of the (Res)MA History Programme. It is not accessible for BA students.
Students will be asked to read J. Patterson, Landscapes and Cities. Rural Settlement and Civic Transformation in Early-Imperial Italy (Oxford 2006).
In week 2 they will have to do an entry-test consisting of 10 open questions.
The miminum score required to ensure access to the seminar is 60 %.
Description
In his monograph ‘The Emperor in the Roman World’ (1977) the Oxford ancient historian Fergus Millar observed that “Italy under the Empire has no history”. During the past 45 years some attempts have been made to remedy this unsatisfactory state of affairs but a lot of work remains to be done. The focus of this course will be on the cities of Roman Italy. Of course there is a huge literature on Rome, Pompeii and Herculaneum. But how many other cities can be identified in imperial Italy (assuming that a satisfactory definition of ‘city’ can be found). How were cities scattered over the landscape? Which cities prospered and how many declined? To what extent were cities sustained by elite benefactors, and who were these benefactors? What do we know about communal activities in these cities? Do we see patterns in the geographical distribution of urban occupations, and where do we find professional or religious collegia? Did cities across Italy converge towards a single model, or did at least some of the old Greek cities of southern Italy hang on to the Greek language and perhaps also to polis-type institutions?
While it will be impossible to answer all of these questions, it should be possible for the paticipants in ths course to shed at least some new light on the political, social, economic, religious or cultural history of the cities of Roman-imnperial Italy during the first three centuries of the Empire.
Students will be asked to read J. Patterson, Landscapes and Cities. Rural Settlement and Civic Transformation in Early-Imperial Italy (Oxford 2006).
In week 2 they will have to do an entry-test consisting of 10 open questions.
The miminum score required to ensure access to the seminar is 60 %.
Course objectives
General learning objectives
The student has acquired:
- The ability to independently identify and select literature, using traditional and modern techniques;
- The ability to independently identify and select sources, using traditional and modern techniques;
- The ability to analyse and evaluate a corpus of sources with a view to addressing a particular historical problem;
- The ability to analyse and evaluate literature with a view to addressing a particular historical problem;
- The ability to independently formulate a clear and well-argued research question, taking into account the theory and method of the field and to reduce this question to accessible and manageable sub-questions;
- The ability to independently set up and carry out an original research project that can make a contribution to existing scholarly debates;
- The ability to give a clear and well-founded oral and written report on research results in correct English, when required, or Dutch, meeting the criteria of the discipline;
- The ability to participate in current debates in the specialisation;
- The ability to provide constructive feedback to and formulate criticism of the work of others and the ability to evaluate the value of such criticism and feedback on one’s own work and incorporate it;
- (ResMA only:) The ability to participate in a discussion of the theoretical foundations of the discipline.
Learning objectives, pertaining to the specialisation
The student has acquired:
- Thorough knowledge and comprehension of one of the specialisations or subspecialisations as well as of the historiography of the specialisation, focusing particularly on the following; -in the specialisation Ancient History: unification processes in the Graeco-Roman World, 400 BC – 400 AD; insight into the recent large-scale debates in the field with respect to both the history of mentality and socio-economic history.
- Thorough knowledge and comprehension of the theoretical, conceptual and methodological aspects of the specialisation or subspecialisation in question, with a particular focus on the following: -in the specialisation Ancient History: the comparative method; application of socio-scientific methods; specialized source knowledge, in particular of documentary sources, and more specifically epigraphy.
Learning objectives, pertaining to this Research Seminar
The student:
- will have acquired a deep knowledge of urban life in Roman-imnperial Italy
- will have improved his/her ability to carry out historical research using primary sources
- will have significantly improved his/her ability to assess the merits/weakness of existing publications dealing with early-imperial Italy as well as her/his ability to develop a sustained argument dealing with a specific problem in the field of urban-historical studies
- (ResMA only – will have singnificantly improved her/his ability to deal with difficult primary sources, large amounts of literary, epigraphic or archaeological evidence and complex historical debates. She/he will have significantly improved her/his ability to carry out original research which raises new questions, pioneers new approaches and/or points to new directions of future research.
Timetable
Visit MyTimetable.
Mode of instruction
- Seminar (compulsory attendance)
This means that students have to attend every session of the course. If a student is not able to attend, he is required to notify the teacher beforehand. The teacher will determine if and how the missed session can be compensated by an additional assignment. If specific restrictions apply to a particular course, the teacher will notify the students at the beginning of the semester. If a student does not comply with the aforementioned requirements, he will be excluded from the seminar.
Assessment method
Assessment
Written paper (6,500-7,500 words, based on research in primary sources, excluding title page, table of contents, footnotes and bibliography)
Entry test
Oral presentation
Assignment 1: short paper (2-3 pages) on number of cities and city-sizes in Roman-imperial Italy
Assignment 2: short paper (2-3 pages) dealing with urban building activities in Roman-imperial Italy
measured learning objectives: 1-16.
Weighing
Written paper: 70 %
Entry test: 10 %
Oral presentation: 10 %
Assignment 5: %
Assignment 5: %
The final grade for the course is established by determining the weighted average with the additional requirement that the written paper must always be sufficient.
Deadlines
Assignments and written papers should be handed in within the deadline as provided in the relevant course outline on Brightspace.
Resit
Should the overall mark be unsatisfactory, the paper is to be revised after consultation with the instructor.
Inspection and feedback
How and when a review of the written paper will take place will be disclosed together with the publication of the results at the latest. If a student requests a review within 30 days after publication of the results, a review of the written paper will have to be organised.
Reading list
J.R. Patterson, Landscapes and Cities. Rural Settlement and Civic Transfomation in Early Imperial Italy (Oxford 2006).
Registration
Enrolment through uSis is mandatory.
General information about uSis is available on the website.
Registration Studeren à la carte and Contractonderwijs
Not applicable.
Contact
Remarks
None.