Attendance is mandatory. More than three unexcused absences will result in the lowering of your final grade by a full grade [an A becomes a B]. More than six unexcused absences results in the lowering of your grade by two full grades [an A becomes a C]. More than nine unexcused absences results in a failing grade. An unexcused absence is an absence for which you do not receive a note from the Health Center or Dean of Student's Office.Use Common Sense: If you are sick, do not come to class and spread your germs. Go to the health center and get [prescription] drugs. If you have a personal or family situtation that requires you to be away from class - go to the Dean's Office and attend to the problem. BUT, if you've simply forgotten to do your homework, COME TO CLASS. The single greatest cause of disasters in civilization classes arise from failure to attend class. It is better to attend unprepared, than to fail to attend.
Assignments
(1) You will have assigned readings for each class. In order to receive credit for participation you will have to have read these assignments, thought about them, and dare I say it - take notes on them - and say something about them in your small section (on Friday). If I feel students aren't preparing for lecture or discussion, I will occaisionally give pop quizzes in lecture. Don't drive me to this extreme tactic. Read the assigned readings. You will impress me mightily if you contribute to class during lecture sections on Monday and Wednesday. You will earn my wrath if you fail to contribute to class discussion in your small section.(2) You will be required to write one, seven to ten (7-10) page, paper in this course. This paper will be due on the last day of the reading period (Friday, April 7, 2000).Your papers are very important part of the class and I spend a lot of time grading them. I have provided formal and analytical grading guidelines to help you prepare your paper. Please review the information in these guidelines before you begin your papers. You will be held responsible for the information contained in the guidelines.
(3) You will be required to prepare at least one (1) and no more than two (2) Discussion Group Reports during the semester. These reports may be no more than three (3) pages. Each of these reports is due on the Monday following the discussion group for which you write the report. These reports will be posted on the Roma Page so that you and your classmates can take advantage of each other's fine thoughts when preparing for exams.
(4) You will lead discussion in at least one (1) and no more than two (2) of your discussion groups. You must prepare a one page outline of the kinds of questions you will ask on the topic and the kinds of activities in which you will lead the group in order to explore the topic by 9:00 a.m. on the Friday of the day on which you lead the discussion.
(5a) You will also be required to fulfill the Analtyical Assignment or the Web Page Assignment. You may choose to do either. You cannot do both. The Analytical Assignment requires that you submit three (3) short reports (no more than 3 pages or 900 words each) on articles from the secondary reading lists in each week's homework assignment. You must hand in your report by Friday (5:00, on my office door or by email) of the week for which the articles are recommended. No late reports will be accepted.
Your report must review three (3) of the recommended readings. It should contain the proper citations of the readings, a description of the arguments which the author of each reading makes, a comparison of the arguments or methods of the different authors, an evaluation of the authors' arguments, and a discussion of how these readings affect the way you think about the material contained in the primary readings and lectures that week. Your report should also contain your name, the date, a word count and a title that indicates the week for which you are submitting it (e.g.: "Analytical Assignment Report: Week 3"). Your report should conform to the standards for diction, grammar and spelling that govern your paper assignment. I will post your reports on the Roma Page, so that your classmates can have the benefit of your wisdom while preparing for exams. Accordingly, I will need to receive these reports on a diskette or by email (if you email, don't use fancy formatting).
Remember, you must hand in three (3) Analytical Assignment Reports during the course of the semester to receive credit for this assignment.
(5b) Alternatively, you and two of your classmates (i.e., no group should have more than three (3) people in it) may choose to collaborate on a Web Page Assignment. You must work with at least one other person on this assignment. You must tell me by Friday, February 4th, 2000, that you have elected the Web Page Assignment and who the members of your team are (one email per team will suffice). Your team must decide and inform me (one email per team), what topic you have chosen for your Web Page Assignment by Friday, February 18th, 2000. You must hand in your Web Page Assignments by Friday, March 10th, 2000. Your team will lose 3% of it's grade on this assignment for each day it is late (i.e., if your team hands in it's Web Page Assignment on Monday, March 13th, the highest possible grade it will receive is a 91%).
For your Web Page Assignment, you must choose a town/city in the Roman Empire outside of the city of Rome itself. You could choose a town/city in Gaul, Britain, Spain, North Africa (e.g. Carthage), Southern Italy (e.g. Pompeii), or Egypt, for example. Your report will take the form of a web site that describes the town/city. Your site should contain the following information:
- The ancient and modern name of the town and its location.
- When and by whom the town/city was founded.
- If the Romans did not found the town/city, a brief description of the distinctive features of the people who founded the town, and the reasons they did so.
- How the Romans came to be involved in the history of the town/city.
- What the economic and political significance of the town/city for the Roman Empire (note: this might change over time: you might choose a town/city that original wasn't very important, but became so; or started out as very important, but lost its influence over the centuries).
- A description of the the physical site of the town/city and its layout during the Roman empire [a link to a map already existing on the web, or your own map might help].
- A description [with links to pictures] of some of the principal archeological sites in the town/city [e.g., temples, fora, etc.] and a comparison of these sites and the cultural activities that occured at them to comparable sites in Rome.
- An assessment of what Romanitas was in this town/city.
- A bibliography (no more than one page) of suggested readings and web sites about this town/city.
You will find that the Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites [also in Ladd on permanent reserve] and the Romarch server contain excellent information about most sites and Romarch contains links to pictures, reports and articles you will find useful. You will also find that Ladd has an excellent selection of books on ancient Roman sites.
If you aren't particularly experienced with creating web pages - do not be afraid to try this assignment. BCIS (Bates College Information Services) offers regular workshops on creating web pages (they're excellent) and web page editors (e.g., Claris HomePage; Netscape Composer) are very easy to use. Team up with a classmate who's less of a luddite than you and give it a shot. It's the new millenium and you're going to have to learn how to do this sometime soon.
Exams
You will have a one hour midterm in class (during your small section hour on Friday) on Friday, February 18, 2000. You will have a two hour (cumulative) final exam on the day the registrar assigns for this class during Finals Week [the week of April 10, 2000]. Each exam will require you to identify slides of sites we have discussed in class (e.g., Circus Maximus), terms and persons we have discussed in class (e.g., the salutatio, Trajan), passages we have read for class and to answer essay questions about primary and secondary materials you will have read for class. I will post a study guide on the web before each exam that will include the total universe of questions I can possibly ask you on the exam. I encourage and exhort you to form study groups to prepare for the exams.
Grades
Roma
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