B5094 - History of the Roman Empire (1) (LM)

Learning outcomes

At the end of the module, students will have highly specialised skills and appropriate research methods in the history of Rome and the provinces of the Roman Empire in the Imperial period. Students will be able to analyse historiographical and documentary sources in the original language and to discuss the evidence on the basis of modern bibliography written in European languages other than Italian. They will have a sound knowledge of themes, events and phenomena relating to the history of the Roman world in the Imperial period. They will be able to make competent use of tools and databases for learning and research.

Course contents

The course will be devoted to the theme Rome and Egypt in order to foster better connection with the module of Archaic and republican Roman history which together with this module forms the 12 credit course on Roman History - Integrated course for students in degree in History and Oriental Studies.

Lectures will then cover the following topics:

1. Presentation of the course (1 hour)
   
2. The subject of the course and its chronological, geographical and thematic limits (3 hours)
3. The sources (4 hours)
4. Political and ideological aspects of the roman province of Egypt (5 hours)
5. Administrative and institutional aspects of the roman province of Egypt (5 hours)
6. Economic aspects of the roman province of Egypt: grain supply (4 hours)
7. Connections with the Far East through the Red Sed (4 hours)
8. Connections with Africa (4 hours).
   

The program will be completed with the study, by the students, of the main structural problems of the history of the roman empire.

For students attending the integrated course of Roman History (12 credits), the preparation - in a working group - of a research project is also required. This project (5 pages) should include relevant sources and an up-to-date modern bibliography  on one of the topics covered in the lectures of either of the two modules, or on a theme of Roman history, to be agreed upon with the instructors. The project must be submitted at least one week before the exam date. The project preparation work will be structured in a dedicated seminar, which will last approximately 5 hours and will cover the following topics:

1. The general characteristics of a scientific project (about 1 hour).
2. Finding modern bibliography (about 2 hours).
3. Locating ancient documentation (about 2 hours).

During the seminar, we will specifically look at the tools (both traditional print format tools and new digital tools) for research in the field of Roman History, and we will set up the work for the groups.

 

Students with Specific Learning Disabilities (SLD) or temporary or permanent disabilities: It is suggested to immediately contact both the responsible University office (https://site.unibo.it/studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/en) and the instructor, to jointly seek the most effective strategies for attending classes and/or preparing for the exam.

Readings/Bibliography

For attending students:

1. On the main structural problems of the history of the Roman Empire: A. Giardina – A. Schiavone, Storia di Roma, Torino, Einaudi, 1999, part III, pp. 339-540: I principi e il mondo [the text is available in the library of the Department of Storia Culture Civiltà – Sezione di Storia Antica, via Zamboni 38, 4th floor, under the signature CONS V Giar; in case of problems in finding the volume you can contact the teacher].
2. On the special theme of the course: lecture notes, which will also be published in the form of slides, on the platform Virtuale (https://virtuale.unibo.it/).
3. For writing the project: special literature, in italian and other european languages, identified by the students themselves, thanks to the bibliographic tools which will be presented in the seminar.

For not attending students:

1. On the main structural problems of the history of the Roman Empire: A. Giardina – A. Schiavone, Storia di Roma, Torino, Einaudi, 1999, part III, pp. 339-540: I principi e il mondo [the text is available in the library of the Department of Storia Culture Civiltà – Sezione di Storia Antica, via Zamboni 38, 2nd floor, under the signature CONS V Giar; in case of problems in finding the volume you can contact the teacher].
2. On the special theme fo the course: C. Riggs (ed. by), Oxford Handbook of Roman Egypt, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2012, following chapters: Introduction; Part I: Land and State; Part III: People; Part VII: Borders, Trade, and Tourism [the book is available in the Library of the Department of History and Cultures Ancient History, via Zamboni 38, II floor under the signature PROV. VII. 212; in case of problems in finding the volume you can contact the teacher]
3. For an alternative program (particularly on item 2 of the program for non-attending students) contact me, by email too at alessandro.cristofori@unibo.it [mailto:alessandro.cristofori@unibo.it] .

Basic bibliography

The topics that will be dealt with in class assume a good knowledge of the main historical events of the Roman Empire. To recover this general historical picture you can consult a good handbook of Roman History, for example G. Geraci – A. Marcone, Storia romana, Firenze, Le Monnier, 2002 or later editions, also available at the Library of the Department of Storia Culture Civiltà - sezione di Storia antica, via Zamboni 38, 2nd floor, under the signature ESAMI CONS 0082, ESAMI PRES 0016, ESAMI PRES 0094.

For an historical overview of the topics of the course see C. Salvaterra, l’Egitto romano, «Storia d’Europa e del Mediterraneo. Il Mondo antico. III l’Ecumene Romana. vol. VI da Augusto a Diocleziano» (ed. by G. Traina), pp. 355-416 [can be found in the teaching materials in Virtuale (https://virtuale.unibo.it/)].

This basic bibliography is useful for a better understanding of the topics that will be covered in class, but will not be the subject of the final assessment.

Teaching methods

Lectures on the special theme Rome and Egypt. In the lectures I will try to actively involve students, especially in reading and interpreting the ancient sources that we will examine in class.

Special seminar on the preparation of the research project.

In agreement with prof. Carla Salvaterra, responsible for the module of Arcjaic and Republican Roman History, the course participates in the University's teaching experimentation project according to the Integrative Digital Teaching (DDI) model. The project is aimed at students who do not have the opportunity to attend lessons in person and who will compose a sort of virtual classroom.

The project involves recording the lectures through the Panopto application; the interaction with the students will be ensured by the opening of a Forum (one of the tools provided by the platform Virtuale) for each of the scheduled lessons, in which students who will follow the course in this mode will be able to ask the teachers questions on the subject dealt with; the questions and the relative answers will thus be visible to the whole virtual class.

Also through Virtuale, not only the slides with the guidelines of the lessons are made available, as was already foreseen in previous years for all course participants, but also additional in-depth materials intended explicitly for the virtual class.

A preliminary remote meeting is planned, through the Teams application, with all participants in the virtual class before the start of the lessons, to illustrate this experimental project to interested students; the date of the meeting will be announced on the News page of the two teachers' websites. From lesson to lesson, simple activities to verify learning on the subject matter will also be proposed, through Virtuale; completing these activities will allow students to continue attending the course.

At the end of the course there will be a meeting, at distance too, to verify the effectiveness of the chosen method (the meeting which will also be accompanied by a anonymous questionnaire, with the same purpose) which will certainly be of great use for adjustments in a possible re-edition of this experiment in the following academic years.

Students in the virtual classroom who have successfully completed the learning assessment activities, thus demonstrating that they have followed the cours

Assessment methods

Students who attend at least 75% of the lessons are considered to be attending.

The assessment, through an oral examination (and, for attending students of the 12 credits integrated course in Roman History, in form of a written essay), will test:

• a knowledge of the main structural problems of the history of the roman empire;
• a knowledge of the special theme Rome and Egypt;
• a critical approach to ancient evidence and to modern historiographical interpretations;
• a good ability to communicate orally, in particular skills in synthesis and in logical organization of the topics and the mastery of an appropriate vocabulary;
• for attending students of the 12 credits integrated course in Roman History, the ability to use the main tools for research in history of the roman empire (both in the traditional format, and the new digital tools) and a good ability to communicate in written form; also for the written research project, in addition to the correctness and completeness of the contents, the logical organization of the arguments and the use of a lexicon and a style appropriate to the discipline will be evaluated.The capacity to collaborate in a group will also be considered.
  

For each of the criteria outlined above, the following assessment scale can be proposed:

• Excellent (30 cum laude)
• Very Good (28-30)
• Good (25-27)
• Satisfactory (22-24)
• Sufficient (18-21)

Evaluation of the individual parameters will contribute to determine final vote. In the assessment of attending students, I will take into account constancy and active participation to the lectures.

In detail, oral examination, lasting about 25-30 minutes, tipically involves, for attending students:

• one question on the main structural problems of the history of the roman empire (based on A. Giardina – A. Schiavone, Storia di Roma, Torino, Einaudi, 1999);
• two questions on topics discussed in class, on the special theme Rome and Egypt;
• for attending students of the 12 credits integrated course in Roman History a discussion of the research project.

There will be three questions for not attending students, in a oral examination that will last about 25-30 minutes too:

• one question on the main structural problems of the history of the roman empire (based on A. Giardina – A. Schiavone, Storia di Roma, Torino, Einaudi, 1999);
• two question on the special theme of the course (based on C. Riggs (ed. by), Oxford Handbook of Roman Egypt, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2012, following chapters: Introduction, Part I: Land and State, Part III: People, Part VII: Borders, Trade, and Tourism).

The course unit of History of the Roman empire (1) (LM) is an integrated course with the course unit Archaic and republican Roman history (1) (LM) and together they form the course of Roman history (C.I) (LM) of 12 credits for students of the Master programme in History and Oriental Studies; it can also be chosen as a 6-credit independent course by students of Master Programmes in Archaeology and Cultures of the Ancient World, in Cultural Anthropology and Ethnology, in Philology, Literature and Classical Tradition and as free choice for other Master's Degree courses.

In the assessment of the integrated course of Roman history (12 credits), the overall grade will be the result of the joint assessment with arithmetic average between the mark of this module of History of the Roman empire and the mark in the module of Archaic and republican Roman history. Students are therefore asked to sit the exam in the same date.

 

Students with Specific Learning Disabilities (SLD) or temporary or permanent disabilities: It is recommended to contact the responsible University office in good time (https://site.unibo.it/studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/en) The office will propose any adaptations to interested students, which must be submitted, with 15 days' notice, for approval by the instructor, who will evaluate their appropriateness also in relation to the learning otcomes of the course.

Over the course of the academic year, there are 7 exam calls, open to all students, in November, January, March, May, June, July and October.

Teaching tools

In class we will use PowerPoint slide shows, which will be published on the website of the course on the platform Virtuale (https://virtuale.unibo.it/).

 

Students who, due to disabilities or specific learning disorders (SLD), require compensatory tools or exemptions must first contact the appropriate office: https://site.unibo.it/studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/en/for-students

Office hours

See the website of Alessandro Cristofori