LBST 505: Transformation and Identity in the Roman Empire
Schedule of Readings
W Jan. 27: Ovid, Metamorphoses, Books 1-3; and, in The Roman Empire: Economy, Society, and Culture by Peter Garnsey and Richard Saller (on reserve), read chapter 1 ("A Mediterranean Empire"), chapter 6 ("The Social Hierarchy") and chapter 9 ("Social Relations"). W Feb. 3: Ovid, Metamorphoses, Books 6, 10, and 15; in The Roman Empire (on reserve), read chapter 9 ("Religion"); and read "Ovid's Metamorphic Bodies: Art, Gender, and Violence in the Metamorphoses" by Charles Segal (available on JSTOR). W Feb. 10: In The Stoic Philosophy of Seneca, read "On Providence," (pp. 27-45), "On Tranquillity of Mind" (pp. 75-106) "Slaves" (pp. 190-195), "On Suicide" (pp. 202-207), and "The Happy Life" (239-247); and “Anger Management: Seneca” in Peter Adamson, Philosophy in the Hellenistic and Roman Worlds (handout), pp. 80-86. W Feb. 17: Epictetus, The Handbook; Tacitus, Germania; in The Roman Empire (on reserve), read chapter 10 and "Conclusion." W Feb. 24: Apuleius, The Golden Ass; in Peter Brown, The World of Late Antiquity, read pp. 7-21. W Mar. 2: Apuleius, The Golden Ass; in Peter Brown, The World of Late Antiquity, read pp. 22-34. M Mar 7: Paper #1 due (6-8 pages) W Mar. 9: Philo of Alexandria, The Embassy to Gaius (handout); The Tractate Avot (handout); “Social Foundations of Early Judaic Worlds” in Martin S. Jaffee, Early Judaism: Religious Worlds of the First Judaic Millennium (on reserve), pp. 125-171. W Mar. 16: The First Letter to the Corinthians, The First Letter to the Thessalonians, The Letter of James, The First Letter of John; “The Concept and Basic Characteristics of Christ-Confessing Communities” in The Jesus Movement: A Social History of Its First Century(on reserve), pp. 262-287. W Mar. 23: Spring Break W Mar. 30: The Gospel of Matthew; The Gospel of John; “Messianic Communities in the Land of Israel After 70 C.E.” in Ekkehard W. Stegemann and Wolfgang Stegemann, The Jesus Movement (on reserve), pp. 221-247. W Apr. 6: The Martyrdom of Sts. Perpetua and Felicitas (handout); The Life of St. Anthony (handout); in Peter Brown, The World of Late Antiquity, read pp. 49-115. W Apr. 13: In The Essential Plotinus, read pp. 13-71, and 125-175; in Dominic J. O’Meara, Plotinus: An Introduction to the Enneads (on reserve), read pp. 1-21, 41-53, 79-99. W Apr. 20: Augustine, Confessions, Books 1-7; in Peter Brown, The World of Late Antiquity, read pp. 115-135. W Apr. 27: Augustine, Confessions, Books 8-13; “Learning to Read” in Brian Stock, Augustine the Reader (on reserve), pp. 23-44 ** Final course paper, 12-15 pages, due sometime in mid-May (date is negotiable to some extent) Required Texts Apuleius, The Golden Ass, trans. Jack Lindsay (Indiana) Augustine, Confessions, trans. Henry Chadwick (Oxford) Peter Brown, The World of Late Antiquity (Norton) Epictetus, The Handbook (Hackett) The New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha, New Revised Standard Version (Oxford) Ovid, Metamorphoses, trans. A. D. Melville (Oxford) Plotinus, The Essential Plotinus, trans. Elmer O'Brien (Hackett) Seneca, The Stoic Philosophy of Seneca: Essays and Letters, trans. Moses Hadas (Norton) Tacitus, Agricola and Germania, trans. Harold Mattingley (Penguin) |
For a bibliography of scholarly work and primary sources relevant to the course, click here. |