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Academic Year 2004/2005

Living like a Roman: Roman Literature and Daily Life
CCIV 208 SP

What did the average Roman eat? Were Roman families close? Did the Romans have bathrooms? Did girls go to school? Who went to the gladiatorial games? This course offers a select survey of Roman daily life based primarily on literary texts (taught in English translation), but also on inscriptions, material culture, and art. Treating such topics as the house and family, gender and sexuality, slaves and freedmen, ethnicity, food and drink, the army, religion, entertainment and patronage the course aims at a broad understanding of Roman lives lived on the margins and alongside of grand scale political history and monumental architecture.

MAJOR READINGS

Readings may vary and many will be assembled in a coursepack, but will likely include:
Karl Christ, THE ROMANS
LIFE, DEATH, AND ENTERTAINMENT IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE, eds. D.S. Potter and D.J. Mattingly
Other selected secondary readings
Jo-Ann Shelton, AS THE ROMANS DID (sourcebook)
Mary R. Lefkowitz and Maureen B. Fant, WOMEN'S LIFE IN GREECE AND ROME
THE TWELVE TABLES
some Roman comedy
Cato the Elder, ON FARMING
Cicero, LETTERS
Catallus
Horace
Varro
Ovid (THE ART OF LOVE, FASTI)
Pliny the Younger, LETTERS
Juvenal

EXAMINATIONS AND ASSIGNMENTS

Two short papers (5-7 pages) and midterm and final exams.

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS and/or COMMENTS

Regular attendance and participation in discussion is expected.

COURSE FORMAT: Lecture/Discussion

REGISTRATION INFORMATION

Level: UGRD    Credit: 1    Gen Ed Area Dept: HA CLAS    Grading Mode: Student Option   

Prerequisites: NONE Links to Web Resources For This Course.

Last Updated on MAR-21-2005

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