HIST 206 - Ancient Rome

Credits: (3)
The theme of this course is romanitas, or “Roman-ness”-what it meant to be a Roman. Through our reading, discussion, and writing about primary sources, we will discover the meaning of this term from the legendary founding of Rome in 753 B.C. until the overthrow of the last western emperor in A.D. 476. In the first half of the course, after a brief look at the Etruscan heritage and the legends of the Roman monarchy, we will consider the Roman Republic, established in 509 B.C. We will study the creation of romanitas in the institutions, values and ideas of the Republic; the expansion of romanitas as Rome grew from a single city-state to the head of an Italian confederacy to the ruler of an empire ringing the Mediterranean; and challenges to romanitas during the Roman Revolution. The second half of the course will be devoted to Imperial Rome, which began in 27 B.C. Topics will include the revival of romanitas during the early Empire; further expansion of romanitas during the “Roman peace”; and more challenges to romanitas during Rome’s decline and fall. We will conclude by inquiring how romanitas survived the end of antiquity and was transformed in the beginning of the Middle Ages.