CLAS 201B: F05: ROMAN HISTORY AND THE THEORY OF HISTORY: RICHLIN

WEDNESDAY 1-4

This course has a threefold basic purpose, as is evident from the weekly divisions in the reading. First, the course aims to introduce students to a range of different kinds of material that can be used to explore Roman culture. Second, the course assigns students to read what has been written about this material by classicists, as a model of what can be done and as a springboard to further work. Third, the course juxtaposes this work with writing by historians, philosophers, and anthropologists, to suggest directions we might pursue.

Beyond that, the course requires each student to ask one question and work towards an answer: why am I doing this?

Students are expected to arrive in the course with an outline of Roman history well fixed in their minds. There will be a brief quiz in the first class meeting. See attached sheet for a basic list; more is always better.

Please note that we will be discussing large portions of Edward Carr, What Is History? and of Carlo Levi, Christ Stopped at Eboli. You might want to get a head start on this.

Required texts

Walter Benjamin, Illuminations (Schocken)

Edward Carr, What Is History? (Random House)

Peregrine Horden and Nicholas Purcell, The Corrupting Sea (Blackwell)

Keith Jenkins, The Postmodern History Reader (Routledge)

Carlo Levi, Christ Stopped at Eboli (Noonday)

Xeroxes of the remaining readings will be available for individual pickup for duplication as per arrangement in class; most of them are also on reserve in the YRL.

Optional: Richard Appignanesi & Chris Garratt, Introducing Postmodernism (Totem)

Note: Desk copies of Horden/Purcell, Jenkins, and Levi will be given out in a lottery at the first class meeting. If you're interested, do hold off from writing in books you buy until after the lottery.

Class structure:

- one hour close reading in Greek/Latin

- one hour forty mins. comparative work, overview, disc.

- translation quizzes are held in relevant weeks before class, 30 mins.

- every week one person does a literature review (I supply the list; you do annotated bibliography to hand out)

- every week there's a ton of secondary reading

For full references to the readings below, see the Course Bibliography.

In each week's reading assignment, Latin for which you are responsible for that week's quiz is boldfaced.

Assignments and readings are due in class on the date specified on this syllabus.

October 5 Introduction

Defining what ancient history is, and is for

Quiz on Roman history

What's new in history today, Billy?

- Firesign Theater

October 12 The theory of history (1)

What can we know about the past, how can we know it, why do we want to?

Read: George Grote, "Institutions of Ancient Greece" [62 pp.]

Leopold von Ranke, introduction to History of the Latin and Teutonic Nations [5 pp.]; with Wines, intro. to Ranke, The Secret of World History [31 pp.]

Theodor Mommsen, from History of Rome [8 pp.]

E. H. Carr, What Is History? (all)

Georg Iggers, from Historiography in the Twentieth Century, pp. 78-94 [17 pp.]

Peter Novick, from That Noble Dream, 21-60 [40 pp.]

Amy Richlin, "The Ethnographer's Dilemma and the Dream of a Lost Golden Age" [32 pp.]

Quentin Skinner, "Introduction: The Return of Grand Theory" [18 pp.]

Assignment due: Rummaging exercise

October 19 The theory of history (2)

Hannah Arendt, "Introduction," in Benjamin, 1-55

Walter Benjamin, "Theses on the Philosophy of History," in Benjamin, 253-64

Selections from Jenkins, PHR, as on study guide [79 pp.]

Assignment due: Definition of your stance as an historian

There is no document of civilization which is not at the same time a document of barbarism.

- Walter Benjamin

Assignments for 10/26 through 12/7: For one of these seven meetings, hand in a short paper combining analysis of a primary text with analysis of work by a current ancient historian and of work by a current theorist. Prior to five of these seven meetings, take the translation quiz. For one of these seven meetings, prepare a literature review to hand out to the class.

October 26 Countryside

[How] can we know the people who worked the land in Roman Italy? Do they have a history?

Read: Cato, De Agri Cultura pr., 1.1-7, 2.1-6, 5.1-8,

83, 134.1-4, 142, 143.1-3, 160 (2.1-2, 5.1-5)

Varro 1.17-18, 2.10 (1.17.1, 3-5, 7; 2.10-1-7)

Columella 1.8 (1.8.15-20)

CIL selections (per your assigned town)

P.A. Brunt, Italian Manpower, pp. 3-16, 107-12, 128-30, 198-99, 285-300, 328-29, 345-75, 536-37, 694-97, 707-08, 711 [70 pp.]

Horden and Purcell, pp. 89-122, 231-97 [99 pp.]

Emmanuel LeRoy Ladurie, "Motionless History" [21 pp.]

Stuart Clark, "The Annales Historians" [19 pp.]

Carlo Levi, Christ Stopped at Eboli, all, but esp. pp. 3-11, 75-78, 132-45 [24 pp.]

David Soren et al., "The Infant Cemetery at Poggio Gramignano" [18 pp.]

Translation quiz #1

Literature review #1: Blok 1987; Culham and Edmunds 1989; Golden and Toohey 1997; Le Goff 1992; Marchand 1996; Nimis 1984; Redfield 1991; Shorey 1919; Stray 2003

Literature review #2: Braudel 1980; Davis 1975; Dubisch 1986; Dyson 1985; Greene 1991; Tringham 1991; Woolf 1998

November 2 Space

What is the relation between the material environment, culture, and history?

Read: Vitruvius Book 1.pr.; 1.1.1-6; 1.2.5-7, 9; 1.7.1; Book 3.1.3-4; Book 4.1.1-10; Book 5.1.1-3; 5.6.9; Book 6.pr.; 6.1.1-12; 6.5 (all); 6.7 (all); Book 8.3.24-25

Horden and Purcell, pp. 403-60

Andrew Wallace-Hadrill, Houses and Society in Pompeii and Herculaneum, pp. 3-16, 38-61 [46 pp.]

Pierre Bourdieu, "The Berber House" [10 pp.]

Translation quiz #2

Literature review #1: Ardener 1993, Burgin 1996, Colomina 1992, Duncan 1996, Gardner 1995, Grosz 1995, McDowell 1999, Rose 1993, Wilson 1992, Women and Geography 1997

Literature review #2: Clarke 1998, D'Ambra 1993, Edwards 1996, Fredrick 1995, Gazda 1994, Kellum 1996, Leach 1988, 2000, Nicolet 1991, Platner 1929, Stambaugh 1988, Steinby 1999-, Vasaly 1993, Zanker 1990

November 9 Work and ritual

What do ordinary people do every day? What goes on outside

the metropole?

Read: Selections from the CIL (occupational)

Julius Obsequens, Prodigiorum Liber (sel. per SQ)

Cicero, De Officiis 1.150-51

Shane Butler, "Notes on a Membrum Disiectum" [36 pp.]

Robert Darnton, "Workers Revolt: The Great Cat Massacre ..." [29 pp.]

Sandra Joshel, Work, Identity, and Legal Status at Rome, pp. 3-24, 62-91 [51 pp.]

Graeme Turner, British Cultural Studies, pp. 38-77 [39 pp.]

Translation quiz #3

Literature review #1: Gelder and Thornton 1997, Grossberg, Nelson, and Treichler 1992, Mukerji and Schudson 1991, Nelson and Grossberg 1988, Stallybrass and White 1986, Veeser 1989

Literature review #2: Bradley 1984, de Ste. Croix 1981, Finley 1973, MacMullen 1974, Momigliano 1990 ch. 3, Patterson 1982, Shaw 2001, Scheid 2003, Scullard 1981, Thompson 1963, Treggiari 1969

November 16 Family

Is there a history of the family? Is it grand or local? [How] is it knowable?

Read: Valerius Maximus 5.4.pr.-7; 5.5.pr.-4; 5.7.pr.-3;

5.8.pr.-5; 5.9.pr.-4; 5.10.pr.-3

Cicero, Att. 1.5, 1.6

Digest 41.2.49.1; 48.5.14.8; 50.16.195.1-5; Collatio

16.2.1-3; Gaius Inst. 1.190-91

CIL sel.

Suzanne Dixon, "... Retrieving 'Family Feeling(s)' from Roman Law and Literature" [11 pp.]

Lawrence Stone, from The Family, Sex, and Marriage in England 1500-1800 [38 pp.]

Friedrich Engels, from Origins of the Family, Private Property, and the State [15 pp.]

Translation quiz #4

Literature reviews #1-2: Bettini 1991, Boswell 1990, Bradley 1991, Dixon 1988, 1992, Grubbs 2002, Frier and McGinn 2004, Hallett 1984, Hopkins 1983, Joshel 1986, Joshel and Murnaghan 1998, Rawson 1986 or later, Saller 1994, Thompson 1994 (rev. Stone), Treggiari 1991

November 23 Race

Was there a concept of race in Roman society? Why does that matter?

Read: Pomponius Mela 1.20-60, 3.81-107; and review Vitruvius on climate, race, and geography

Benedict Anderson, "Census, Map, Museum" from Imagined Communities, pp. 163-85 [12 pp.]

Shelley Haley, "Black Feminist Thought and Classics" [20 pp.]

Benjamin Isaac, The Invention of Racism in

Classical Antiquity, pp. 1-51, 82-85, and illustrations following page 252 -- on reserve [54 pp.]

Mary Lefkowitz, from Not Out of Africa [40 pp.]

Frank Snowden, Blacks in Antiquity, pp. 169-95 + plates

Translation quiz #5

Literature review column A: Arethusa fall 1989, Balsdon 1979, Bernal 1987, Evans 1999, Hall 1991, Romm 1994, Sherwin-White 1967, Thompson 1989

Literature review column B: Ashcroft, Griffiths, and Tiffin 1995, esp. pp. 428-30 (Macaulay's "Minute on Indian Education"), Bhabha 1994, McClintock 1995, Packer, Russo, Sommer, and Yaeger 1992, Pratt 1992, Said 1979, Sharpe 1993, Spivak 1988, Trinh 1989, Williams and Chrisman 1994

November 30 Women

Is there a category "women"? What would "women's status" be, and does it change over time? Is women's history one of patriarchal oppression or of a thriving subculture?

Special guest: Maryline Parca, University of Illinois

Read: Nepos, letters attributed to Cornelia, mater Gracchorum

Sulpicia 1, elegies

Valerius Maximus 6.1.1-13, 8.3.1-3

Cicero Fam. 14.1-2

CIL 4.5296

Pliny Epistles 4.19

Sel. papyri from Hunt & Edgar (read in English)

Bernadette Brooten, from Love between Women, 73-113 [40 pp.]

Judith Hallett, "Women as Same and Other in the Classical Roman Elite" [19 pp.]

Linda Gordon, "What's New in Women's History" [10 pp.]

Joan Scott, "Gender: A Useful Category in History?" [20 pp.]

Translation quiz #6

Literature review #1: Bennett 2000, Culham 1997, Hallett 1985, Helios 17.2 (1990), McManus 1997, Rabinowitz and Richlin 1993, Richlin 1990, 1991, Skinner 1985, 1986, 1987a, 1987b

Literature review #2: Archer/Fischler/Wyke 1992, Baskin 1991, Clark 1993, Eller 2000, Fantham, Foley, Kampen, Pomeroy, and Shapiro 1994, Gardner 1986, Hallett 1989a, 1989b, Hallett and Skinner 1997, [Joshel and Murnaghan 1998], Kraemer 2004, Lefkowitz and Fant 1992, McGinn 1998, 2004, Peskowitz 1997, Richlin 1997a, 1997b, Snyder 1989, Vivante 1999, Wyke 2002

December 7 Bodies

Is there a history of the body?

Read: Pliny HN 28.58, 70, 72-87

Caelius Aurelianus On Chronic Disorders 4.9 (do use

the English translation thoughtfully provided in file)

Horden and Purcell pp. 485-523

von Staden, "Women and Dirt" [24 pp.]

Bynum, "Why All the Fuss about the Body?" [33 pp.]

Richlin, "Towards a History of Body History" [20 pp.]

Translation quiz #7

Literature review #1: Bakhtin 1984, Boyarin 1993, Eilberg-Schwartz and Doniger 1995, Foucault 1980, Gaca 2003, Herzfeld 1985, Laqueur 1990, MacKinnon 1992, Moore 2001, Satlow 1995

Literature review #2: Barton 1993, 2001, Clarke 1993, 1996, Corbeill 1996, Dean-Jones 1994, Edwards 1993, Foucault 1985, 1986, Gleason 1995, Larmour, Miller, and Platter 1997, Lloyd 1983, 1979, Montserrat 1998, Porter 1999, Sissa 1990, 1999, Winkler 1990

The final exam. will take place on Friday, December 16, from 8 to 11 AM.

No ending, no conclusions, no resolution, no time. History goes on.

ROMAN HISTORY QUIZ

Oh, nooo! But remember, Roman history is about cruelty. So this is a great way to get in the right frame of mind. Do not overdo this -- this will be a short-answer quiz and we won't spend more than 30 minutes class time on it. Far, far better to spend time getting ahead with the reading.

Please be able to give dates for:

the founding of Rome

the birth of the Republic

the XII Tables

the three Punic Wars, esp. the final fall of Carthage

the assassination of Tiberius Gracchus

ditto Gaius Gracchus

Marius (consulships)

Sulla (return to Rome; proscriptions; dictatorship)

Cicero: birth, consulship, exile, Philippics, death

Caesar crosses Rubicon

Pompey's death

Caesar's death

battle of Actium

Octavian becomes Augustus

all the emperors from Augustus to Commodus

Please read any basic social history of Rome, or for that matter the OCD, so that you can answer brief questions about Roman slavery and give a brief definition of: paterfamilias (with list of rights), cliens, patronus, familia, manus marriage, Roman divorce, libertus, officium. Highly recommended for all this: J. Crook, Law and Life of Rome.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

1. All students are expected to attend all class meetings, to have done the required translations, and to be able to discuss the assigned readings. Students are expected NOT to have written out translations, and not to work from written-out translations in class. Texts should be marked ONLY with notes on constructions and vocabulary.

2. Grades will be assessed as follows:

quiz on Roman history 5%

rummaging exercise 5%

stance paper 10%

literature review 10%

short paper 15%

contribution to discussion 10%

translation quizzes 25% (5 of 7, at 5% apiece)

final exam 20%

3. Students may elect to take any five of the seven set quizzes. Quizzes will take place in the 30 minutes prior to class. Quizzes will be graded on a percent basis and will cover Latin assigned for that week as indicated on the syllabus.

4. In-class discussion should reflect thought on the reading in English in relation to the reading in Latin. You'll get feedback on this.

5. Papers are to follow the stylesheet distributed in class. All work must be proofread, double-spaced (including block quotations), on standard typing paper. We will be using social science format (author-date citation) to refer to secondary sources. Each paper will be given a split grade, 50% for style (including clean proofreading, punctuation, word usage, syntax, etc.) and 50% for content. Students are expected to understand what plagiarism is and not to do it; all quoted or paraphrased or closely-followed work must be correctly attributed. Students are warned that I will forward any plagiarism to the university's disciplinary process, and that the penalty may well be expulsion. You are expected to do your own translations of primary materials included in your papers, and the first footnote or endnote should include the true statement "All translations here are my own unless otherwise indicated."

6. Assignments are due in class as specified on the syllabus. Late work will not be accepted.

7. The final exam will take place at the time scheduled for the final exam for this course in the Schedule of Classes. This is not negotiable; please make travel plans accordingly. This will be a three- to four-hour test, starting from the start time listed in the Schedule.

SEMESTER QUESTIONS FOR CLAS 201B: A draft of a possible final exam for this course

Theory: Describe the postmodernism/history debate:

(a) Begin with a brief description of your own stance (one paragraph).

(b) Sum up the arguments of three theorists, not all of which should be either pro or con. Base this summary in the context of modern historiography from Ranke on up, and include one postmodernist.

(c) Explain, based on your readings this semester, what this debate means for the writing of ancient history.

Social history: Describe the state of the question in one of the following fields:

- history of the Roman countryside and of rural people

- history and meaning of the Roman built environment

- Roman labor history

- Roman family history

- Roman women's history

- race in antiquity

- body history

Your answer should include (a) a literature review and (b) comparison between the state of the question outside of Classics and inside it. The literature review should begin with explanation of theoretical grounding for the field, e.g. Annales school, space theory, visual theory, Marx, sociology, Second Wave feminism, Birmingham school, race theory, postcolonial theory ...

Comparative periods: How does Christ Stopped at Eboli work with the study of antiquity, or doesn't it? What is your policy on the use of comparisons between the modern Mediterranean and the ancient? Illustrate with reference to Horden and Purcell.

DIVING INTO THE WRECK, OR, A SCAVENGER HUNT IN THE WRITTEN SOURCES FOR ROMAN HISTORY

[background for the rummaging exercise]

*Well, there's the Major Historians: Polybius, Sallust, Livy, Tacitus. I suppose Caesar counts here, too. And, later on, Ammianus Marcellinus, and Procopius, author of the Secret History, inter alia.

*Then there's the Minor Historians: Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Velleius Paterculus, Appian, Cassius Dio (Mr. Dirtmonger). Josephus.

Then there's the biographers -- do they count as historians? Gosh -- Nepos, Suetonius, Plutarch. Don't forget that Suetonius wrote lives of the poets & professors as well as Caesars, to which cf. Philostratus Lives of the Sophists; & that Plutarch wrote other things besides biographies. And then there's the pseudo-biographers: the SHA, where you'll find the spurious and curious lives of the Antonine and Severan emperors.

*Then there's the collectors of curiosities: Varro, Paulus ex Festo (based on Verrius Flaccus), Aulus Gellius, Plutarch (esp. Quaestiones Romanae). And anecdotes: Valerius Maximus is a gold mine, & organized by topic. And the paradoxographers, e.g. Phlegon of Tralles.

And the writers on technical subjects: the agricultural writers Cato, Varro, Columella; the architect Vitruvius; the science writers Pliny, Celsus, Galen; the astrologer Firmicus Maternus, the interpreter of dreams Artemidorus, the physiognomists, incl. Polemo.

If you're interested in ethnography, there are a lot of geographers besides Pomponius Mela: Strabo, the elder Pliny, Ptolemy, & Tacitus Germania as well as Agricola, Pausanias.

Among letter collections, besides Cicero, there's Seneca; the younger Pliny; and Fronto. And, later on, Ausonius and Jerome and Symmachus.

*Not to leave out our "archives": inscriptions; collected papyri. Where do you find these? What is their scope? Do laws fit here?

Of course there's more, but maybe this is enough to get started.

Extra credit: find the source of the title of this assignment, and consider the problem of the distance between its project and the project of this assignment.

RUMMAGING EXERCISE: due in class 10/12

Go to the library and find your item. Open it up and find out what's in it; bring back your report.

Suggested (but see "Diving" for other options):

- MGH AA

- Paulus ex Festo

- Pausanias

- Talmud

- Mishnah

- Migne PL and PG

- Ammianus

- Procopius

- Cassius Dio

- SHA

- Plutarch Moralia

- Valerius Maximus

- Digest

...

Your description must include: how to find it (call number, where it's kept, other useful info); does it circulate; what is it; date, place written; how transmitted; if online, how to access (step by step instructions); list of what this source has inside it, and indication of how that's useful for writing history (a small sample can work well).

For class, please bring with you your writeup in the form of a handout for the whole class to look at -- this is where your sample will come in handy, each student will have five minutes in which to talk the class through his/her handout. I will cut you off at five minutes; please practice in advance!