York University

Programme in Classical Studies

History 4130

 

Problems in Roman History

 

Paul Swarney

033 McLaughlin College

416-736-5158

pswarney@yorku.ca

 

MMV-MMVI

 

Required Texts:

 

Books required for purchase from the University Bookstore (or wherever you buy books):

 

1.         Naphtali Lewis and Meyer Reinhold, Roman Civilization Volume I, Columbia University Press,  ISBN 0-231-07131-0

2.         Naphtali Lewis and Meyer Reinhold, Roman Civilization Volume II, Columbia University Press, ISBN 0-231-07133-7

 

3.         A.S Hunt and C.C. Edgar, Select Papyri I, Loeb Classical Library (Harvard University Press and William Heinmann LTD.) ISBN 0674992946

4.         A.S Hunt and C.C. Edgar, Select Papyri  II, Loeb Classical Library (Harvard University Press and William Heinmann LTD.) ISBN 0674993128

 

ESSAYS AND REPORTS  (50%)

 

A continuous list of Essays and reports will be assigned throughout the Fall and Winter Terms.

 

RESEARCH ESSAY (50%)

 

A major research essay emerging from work done in first and second term will be assigned in Winter Term.

 

PLEASE NOTE THAT ESSAYS ARE DUE IN SEMINAR ON THE ASSIGNED DATE. ANY ESSAY HANDED IN AFTER THE DUE DATE WILL HAVE ONE GRADE SUBTRACTED FROM ITS EVALUATION FOR EACH SEMINAR BY WHICH IT IS OVERDUE; E.G. AN A ESSAY HANDED IN ONE SEMINAR LATE WILL BE GRADED  B ETC.

 

You must make and retain copies of all assignments submitted in class.  You should also be able to produce notes and material used to prepare assignments as required.

 

 

PARTICIPATION

Participation in seminar is obligatory! 

FORMAT

 

The seminar will meet weekly on Wednesday from 08:30 - 10:20.  Students will have read and worked through material assigned and questions raised from each seminar week by week.  Failure to prepare in advance or to attend  will be to the academic disadvantage of students who do not prepare or attend seminar.

 

ACADEMIC STANDARDS AND REGULATIONS

 

The rules and regulations concerning plagiarism and other forms of  academic dishonesty governing the course are those of the University and Faculty of Arts. Students will be expected to have acquainted themselves with these regulations and will be reminded of disciplinary procedures and penalties should occasion for such procedures present themselves. 

 

YOU MUST CAREFULLY READ AND REMBER THE UNIVERSITY POLICY ON ACADEMIC INTEGRITY!

http://www.yorku.ca/academicintegrity

 

 

Rule # 24 You may no longer eat or drink in seminar.   You must either have breakfast before the lecture or starve.  This is a matter of courtesy to your fellow students and a matter of necessity for one of the professors who gains significantly in weight merely by looking at food!

 

LECTURES AND ASSIGNMENTS: FALL TERM MMV

 

September    07   The first century

                             Suetonius, Caesar Augustus

                             Caesar Augustus, res gestae

                             First Essay Due

                             First report assigned

 

                     14    The first century

                             First Report Due 

 

                     21    The first century

                             Second Report 

                       Documents for 21 September    

                    

28       The first century 

                        Margarette Moniz 

Event:  The Death of Tiberius March 20th A.D 37 

Document:

“Oath of the Aritensians”. Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum (CIL), vol. II, no. 72 (=Dessau, no. 190); A.D. 37

Found in:

Lewis, Naphtali, and Meyer Reinhold, ed. Roman Civilizations vol. II: The Empire.  3rd ed.  New York: Columbia University Press, 1990.  8.

 Article:

A.J. Woodman, Obituary of Tiberius”, The Classical Quarterly 39 no.1 (1989):  pp.197-205.

 Book:
Barbara Levick,
Tiberius the Politician, London: Thames and Hudson, 1976.

 Ancient Source:

J.C.Rolfe, Suetonius, De Vita Caesarum: Tiberius, The Internet Ancient History Sourcebook

 

 

 Zahar Orlov

Event:

The fall of Masada 

Date: April 15 , 73 AD

Historical Document:

A.S Hunt and C.C. Edgar, “Toll Receit" P.Oxy. 1439
Select Papyri II,  Loeb Classic Library. Cambridge: Harvard University Press and
William Heinmann LTD, 1956, 485

Book:

Yadin Yaegal, Masada: Herod’s Fortress and the Zealot’s Last Stand, New York: Welcome Rain, 1998

Article:

Goodman, Martin “Trajan and the Origins of Roman Hostility to the Jews” Past and Present, no182 (2004): 3-29

Ancient Historian:

Josephus Flavius, Antiquities, XVII

Josephus Flavius, The War of the Jewish, XIV

 

 

October        05    The first century

                        Name: Aris Kappos

Event & Date: Death of Nero, 9th or 11th June, 68 CE

Document: P.Tebt.380.

Select Papyri I: Private Affairs. Translated by A. S. Hunt et al. Vol. 266, Document 54. Loeb Classical Library. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2001. pp. 163-165

            *A translation can be found on the opposing pages*

Article: Benny R. Reece., “The Date of Nero’s Death”, The American Journal of Philology, Vol. 90, No. 1. (Jan. 1969), pp. 72-74.

Book: David Shotter., Nero (2nd edition). (New York: Routledge) 2005.

Ancient Historian: Dio: The Julio-Claudians. Translated by Jonathan Edmondson. (London: London Association of Classical Teachers) 1992. pp. 111-112

 

12       The first century

Lesley Giacomel

Event:

Road Building, A.D. 69

Document:

 Road Building. CIL, vol. III, no. 7,203 (Asia Minor, near Smyrna, A.D.75).

Naphtali Lewis and Meyer Reinhold. Eds, Roman Civilization vII The Empire.  New York:  Columbia University Press, Third Edition, 1940.  pp 73

Article:

B.H. Isaac and I. Roll,

“A Milestone of A.D. 69 From Judea:  The Elder Trajan And Vespesian”,

The Journal of Roman Studies. Vol. 66.  1976. pp 15-19. 

Book:

Barbara Levick. Vespasian.  New York:  Routledge, 1999.

Ancient Historian:

Suetonius. Trans by Harriet Margretta Thompson Skerrett, A.M.

C. Suetoni Tranquilli De Vita Ceasarum Liber VIII Divus Vespasianus, Suetonius’ Life Of Vespasian.  Lancaster:  Intelligences Printing Co., 1915.

 

 

                     19    The first century                  

 

26       The first century

                        Heather McKnight

Event

The Eruption of Mount Vesuvius (Aug 24-25th A.D. 79)

Document

L’Annee Epigraphique, 1962, no. 288; September 7, A.D. 79; p 242

Lewis, Naphtali and Meyer Reinhold.  “The Empire”, Roman Civilization Vol II

Selected Readings, New York: Columbia University Press.

Article

Haraldur Sigurdsson; Stanford Cashdollar; Stephen R.J. Sparks. “The Eruption of Vesuvius in A.D. 79: Reconstruction from Historical and Volcanological Evidence” American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 86, No. 1, Jan 1982 pp. 39-51.

Book

Michael Grant.  Cities of Vesuvius: Pompeii and Herculaneum

            The Macmillan Company, New York, 1971.

Ancient Historian

Pliny, transl. Betty Radice, The Letters of the Younger Pliny

            “To Cornelius Tacitus”, Book 6, n. 16, Penguin Books Ltd., London, 1969.

 

            Gabriella Bator
Event
The murder of Julius Ceasar March 15, 44 BC
Document
Select Papyri II Public Documents, 209. .BGU 8.173, (prostagma concerning wheat
and pulse from middle of Egypt) Edicts and Orders The Royal Decree 50 B.C. Page
57 and 59.
Article
Kenneth, Scott, "The SIDUS IULIUM and the Apotheosis of Caesar",
 Journal of Classical Philology, The University of Chicago Press. Copyright
1941.
Book
Irwin Wallace 1876- , The Julius Caesar murder case. New York: Appleton Century,
          1935. Call Number PS 3517 R87 J8
Ancient Historian
Suetonius, Lives of the Caesars (tr. C. Edwards).
Oxford World Classics. Copyright 2000.  Call Number DG 277 S83 2000.

 

                        Dennis Ovsyannikov

Event: The crossing of the river Rubicon by Julius Caesar.

Date of event: November 10/11, 50 B.C.

Document: B.G.U. 1730

Translation: Hunt A. S. and Edgar C. C. Trans. Select Papyri II: Official Documents. 

Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2003. #209.

Article: Robert Stanton.  "Why did Caesar cross the Rubicon?" Historia. 52(1) (2003) 67-94

Book: Roman L. Jimenez. Caesar Against Rome. Westport: Praeger Publishers, 2000.

Ancient Historian: Plutarch, "Caesar." Roman Lives.  Trans. Robin Waterfield. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. 302-359 

    

November    02    The first century

 

Beatrice Kimak

Burning of Rome: Nero’s Involvement

July 18, 64 AD

Document:
A.S Hunt and C.C. Edgar, “13. Apprenticeship to a Weaver.” Select Papyri I, Loeb Classic Library.
Cambridge: Harvard University Press and William Heinmann LTD, 2001, 39.

Call #: PA 3611 A9 1932

Article: C.E. Manning, Acting and Nero’s Conception of the Principate. Greece & Rome, 2nd Ser., Vol. 22, No. 2. (Oct., 1975), pp. 164-175.
Book: Shotter, David. Nero.
London; New York: Routledge, 2005.

 Call #: DG 285 S535 2005

Grant, Michael. Nero: Emperor in Revolt. New York: American Heritage Press, 1970.

Call#: DG 285 G73 1970

Ancient Historian:

Suetonius. “Nero.” Lives of the Caesars. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 2000. 195-227.

                             Call #: DG 277 S83 2000

 

Parthenia Magharious

Event & Date

The deposit of the Res Gestae Divi Augusti with the Vestal Virgins-

April 3rd AD 13

Document

EJ no. 98a (Asia Mourns the God Augustus). Translation found: 

Naphtali Lewis & Meyer Reinhold, eds., Roman Civilization Volume I: The Republic and the Augustan Age, New York: Columbia University       Press, third edition 1990. (pp. 627)

Journal Article Brian Bosworth, “Augustus, the Res Gestae and Hellenistic Theories of Apotheosis” The Journal of Roman Studies v. 89 1999 [pp. 1-18]

Book   Evelyn S. Shuckburgh, Augustus: the life and times of the founder of the Roman Empire (BC 63-AD 14), London: T. F. Unwin, 1903.

Ancient Historian Suetonius. Trans. Catherine Edwards, Lives of the Caesars  The Deified Augustus” New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.

 

Name: Alex Kyriakides

Event & Date: End of the Third Mithridatic War, 64/63 BC

Document:  B.G.U 1749

Order for Payment of Soldiers Wages, 63 BC,

Select Papyri II: Public Affairs. Translated by A. S. Hunt et al. Doc. 393 Loeb Classical Library. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2001.

Article:

Article: “The Date of the Outbreak of the Third Mithridatic War,” BC McGing PHOENIX-THE JOURNAL OF THE CLASSICAL ASSOCIATION OF CANADA
Vol. 38 (1): 12-18 1984

Book:

Modern Book:  He Died Old: Mithridates Eupator, King of Pontus, Alfred Duggan, Faber & Faber, London, 1958

Ancient Historian:

Appianus of Alexandria, Appians’ Roman History, trans. Horace White, London, 1962, The Loeb Classical Library

 

 

09       The first century

        Elana Winick

Event The Battle at Actium (September 2nd, 31 B.C.E)

Ancient Documents P. Bingen 45 and L’Année Epigraphique, 1977, no.778; 29 B.C.

Bingen, P(?). can be found at [http://www.yorku.ca/pswarney/3130/p-Bingen-45.htm]

Lewis, Naphtali and Meyer Reinhold.  Roman Civilization: Volume I: The Republic and

            And The Augustan Age. 3rd Ed.  New York: Columbia University Press, 1990,

            pp.329.

Journal Article

Richardson, G.W.  Actiumin Journal of Roman Studies, Volume 27, part 2, 1973,

            pp.153-164.

Book

Gurval, Robert Alan.  Actium and Augustus. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press,

            1998.

Ancient Historian

Paterculus, Velleius. “The Battle of Actium” in Velleius Paterculus and Res Gestae

            Divi Augustae., trans. Frederick W. Shipley.  Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard

            University Press, 1924, pp. 226-235 (History of Rome 2.84-87).

 

 

16    The first century

 

Nicole Gavin

The death of Augustus, August 19 AD 14

Ancient Documents

Ehrenberg, V. and Jones, A. eds. "September 17, AD 14." Documents Illustrating the

Reigns of Augustus and Tiberius. London: Oxford University Press, 1976. p.52 (CIL. I, p.243)

Sherk, R. ed.& trans. "September 17, AD 14" in The Roman Empire: Augustus toHadrian. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1988. p. 4

Journal Article

M.P. Charlesworth, “Tiberius and the Death of Augustus” The American Journal of Philology, Vol. 44, pp. 145-157, 1923

Book

W. Eck, The Age of Augustus, Blackwell Publishing, Oxford, 2003

Ancient Historian

Dio Cassius Book 56 Sections 29-4, I. Scott-Kilvert, The Roman History: The Reign of Augustus

 

Tom Leszczyk

Battle of Teutoburg Forest, September 9 AD

Document:

Narbo honours Augustus' Birthday CIL, vol. XII, no. 4333 (=Dessau, no. 112)

Naphtali Lewis, Meyer Reinhold, eds. Roman Civilization: The Republic and Augustan Age. Columbia University Press. New York. 1990 p.622

Article:

Pagán, Victoria E. "Beyond Teutoburg: Transgression and transformation in Tacitus Annales 1.61-62". Classical Philology. 94. 1999. pp. 302-320 

Book:

Wells, Peter S. The Battle That Stopped Rome. Emperor Augustus, Arminius, and the slaughter of the legions in the Teutoburg Forest. W.W. Norton & Company, New York, 2003

Ancient Historian:

Frederick W. Shipley. The Roman History, Velleius Paterculus

Roman History. II, 117-120

 

Rick Last

Event: Paul’s Conversion: 36-8 CE

Document: P. Lond 1912, Document 212

Translation: Henderson, Jeffrey, ed. Select Papyri II: Public Affairs.  Trans. A. S. Hunt,

C. Edgar, Document 212, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press,

 2003, 79-89.

Article: Rordorf, Willy,“Paul’s Conversion in the Canonical Acts and in the Acts of

Paul,” Translated by Peter W. Dunn, Semeia 80 (1997), 137-144.

Book: Segal, Alan F., Paul, Paul The Convert: The Apostolate And Apostasy of Saul The

            Pharisee,  New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990. BS 2655 J4 S44 1990

Ancient Historian: “Luke,” Acts of the Apostles, ch.13-28. From the New Revised

            Standard Version Bible, 1989. 

 

23      The first century

 

Cuffy

Event:

1.      Event Name: The Emperor Vespasian accent and the Flavian Dynasty

2.      Event date: July 3, 69 A.D.

Article:

3.      Author First Last Name: Carlos F. Norena

4.      “Title of Article”: The Communication of the Emperor’s Virtues.

5.      Journal Vol. + Date pp.: The Journal of Roman Studies Vol. XCI 2001 + pp. 146-168

Book:

6.      Book: Vespasian

7.      Author First Last Name: Barbara Levick

8.      Title, Publisher, Place, Date, Year: C.J. Phoeniz-Toronto-2001 VOL55; Part ¾, pages 460-461 University of Toronto Press Incorporated.

 

9.      Ancient Historian: Tacitus

10.  Name of translation: Lewis, N. and Reinhold, M. Roman Civilization Vol. II, 3rd. Edition. Columbia; Columbia University Press. 1990.

11.  Work, Book, Sections: Histories II. lxxix –lxxxi (abridged)

 

Ryan Kampen

Birth of Jesus Christ: December (possibly), 5 BC.

B.G.U. 1121.
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.05.0001&layout=&query=document%3D%231111&loc=1120

Dorothy-Jean Weaver, Rewriting the Messianic script: Matthew’s account of the birth of Jesus. Interpretation (Richmond, VA), Vol.54, Iss.4, pp.376-385.

Raymond E. Brown, The birth of the Messiah: a Commentary on the Infancy Narratives in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. New York: Doubleday, 1999.

Luke the evangelist.

Translation available in any Bible, else here:http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%202&version=31

Gospel of Luke, chapter 2, verses 1-7.

 

                     30    The first century

 

December  07    The first century

 

 

Essay 1

 

Due:   Wednesday 07 September  125 Winters College 08:30

Length:           1 double spaced typewritten page

Topic:              The three most  important events of the first century

 

Select three events from the first century that you consider most important.  Carefully explain your choices.