Course Description:

This course is designed, above all, to introduce the student via PRIMARY SOURCES to the vibrant period of the Early Roman Empire, that is from the ‘founding’ of it by AUGUSTUS up to the early second century, principally, but we will absolutely want to treat certain issues of importance that take us beyond that period, for example the rise and ‘triumph’ of Christianity via the reign of the first Christian emperor, CONSTANTINE.  Of course all will be read within a given and particular historical context for which our SECONDARY SOURCE, The History of Rome, will serve as our guide. We shall trace the political, economic, social, and legal issues associated with the collapse of the Republican government and the efforts of, in particular, the first emperor (Augustus) to address this collapse by instituting various remedies, among them constitutional, social, legal, and religious provisions.  In this regard we shall be looking at matters of change and continuity.

As stated earlier, we will explore Rome’s history primarily through the use of primary source materials, that is, through the eyes of contemporaries (or almost) as manifested in their own writing (see above under required texts: primary). These sources permit us to read what the ancients themselves thought and recorded about their existence and about some of the issues we shall be exploring, such as wealth and society, citizenship and government, law and the courts, Romans and aliens, freedom and slavery, pagans and Christians, provincial life and administration.