Module CLAS2751: Early Rome

Department: Classics and Ancient History

CLAS2751: Early Rome

Prerequisites

• CLAS 1301 Monuments and Memory in the Age of Augustus

Corequisites

• None

Excluded Combination of Modules

• N/A

Aims

• To build on core first-year modules by exploring earlier periods of Roman history.
• To provide an overview of the development of the Roman state from the eighth to the third centuries BC.
• To complement the modules available on the Roman Republic and empire.
• To explore and analyse both archaeological and textual evidence.

Content

• This module provides an overview of Roman history from the beginning to the end of the third century, covering Rome's foundation, the regal period, the beginning of the Republic, the Struggle of the Orders, the conquest of Italy, Rome's earliest imperial expansion and the resulting conflict with Carthage.
• Sources to be examined in detail include texts such as Livy and Polybius, archaeological material, inscriptional and numismatic evidence.
• Themes to be discussed include the reliability of the tradition on archaic Rome; the relative value of textual and archaeological evidence; the changing distribution of power in the state; the causes and consequences of Rome's expansion within and beyond Italy.
• In the course of the module, we move from the almost unknowable realm of myth-history to periods well documented in Livy and Polybius, paying close attention to the range of skills required to understand these different eras.

Learning Outcomes

• Appropriate knowledge of the history of Rome from foundation to the Second Punic War.
• Awareness of scholarly approaches to and debates concerning the traditional narratives of archaic Rome, the development of the Roman political system, and the expansion of Rome's territories.
• Appropriate knowledge of relevant textual and archaeological evidence.

• Ability to evaluate and analyse both textual and archaeological evidence for early Rome.
• Ability to identify and apply appropriate methods in researching both periods which are not well known and those which are better attested.
• Ability to locate and make use of secondary scholarship in English.

• Ability to draw together and assess the relative value of a range of information from sources of different kinds.
• Ability to research independently historical topics.
• Ability to construct and communicate a coherent argument orally or in writing.
• Ability to evaluate published scholarly arguments.

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

• Lectures convey information, introduce key themes and scholarly debates, and model approaches to evidence.
• Small group discussion in seminars allows students to work closely analysing and evaluating individual sources, present the results of their research orally, and practice constructing arguments.
• Tutorials allow individual feedback on written work.
• Reading in preparation for lectures and seminars gives students awareness of factual material, sources, and debates in scholarship.
• Essay writing enables students to practice and demonstrate their skills conveying information and arguments coherently and evaluating the arguments of others.
• Written examinations, to include essays and passages for comment, allow students to display their subject-specific knowledge and their skills in communication, argument, and close analysis of sources.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment:

One formative written assignment, 600 words maximum. One formative essay, 2000 words maximum. Contributions to seminars. No collections.

■ Attendance at all activities marked with this symbol will be monitored. Students who fail to attend these activities, or to complete the summative or formative assessment specified above, will be subject to the procedures defined in the University's General Regulation V, and may be required to leave the University