CMS 206
Roman Civilization
Discussion Questions
|
Week 1 [1/7]
no discussion group
|
Week 5 [2/4]
|
Week 9 [3/4]
|
Week 13 - Reading Week
no discussion group
|
|
Week 2 [1/14]
no discussion group
|
Week 6 [2/11]
no discussion group
|
Week 10 [3/11]
|
Week 14 - Finals Week
no discussion group
|
|
Week 3 [1/21]
|
Week 7 - February Break
|
Week 11 [3/18]
|
|
|
Week 4 [1/28]
|
Week 8 [2/25]
|
Week 12 [3/25]
|
|
Week 1 - no discussion group
Week 2 - no discussion group
Week 3
Assigned primary readings from this week:
Things for discussion group leaders to think about:
Who are the authors of the primary texts you've read?
How do you think their identities might affect the way they percieved the events
they described: Josephus; Livy on triumphs Suetonius; Polybius on funerals
The two funerals and two triumphs you've read about describe similar events
separated by significant periods of time in Rome's history. How are the descriptions
similar and different?
Do you think the differences reflect changes in Roman civilization? If they
do reflect differences, does that mean Romanitas changed? If Romanitas could
change what might cause these changes? what does it mean that a concept like
Romanitas could change? Do you think the similarities reflect continuities in
Roman civilization? If they do reflect continuities, does that mean Romanitas
didn't change? If Romanitas didn't change what might cause these continuites?
what does it mean that a concept like Romanitas could endure?
What does the fact that the same rituals might change and yet stay the same
tell us about Romanitas as a conceptual tool? How are triumphs and funerals
similar? How are each of these activities related to Roman ideas about the identity
of the Roman citizen and his relationship to his communtiy?
top
Week 4
Assigned primary readings from this week:
- Horace
- Epode
2 - The problems of public and business life
- Pliny on
- Quintus Cicero (or a clever forger's) advice on how to get elected RCiv,
v. I, #155
- Marcus Cicero on
- how to govern a province: RCiv, v.1, #140
- how not to govern a province: RCiv, v.1, #144
- how he governed his province: RCiv, v.1, #145
Suggested Questions:
- Rome's political elite managed not merely an empire, but also a city [a
modern comparison might be the administration of Washington, D.C.]. How did
the job of managing Rome get done? How was the distribution of political power
related to the provision of basic municipal services? Who had access to this
distribution of power?
- Modern Americans tend to think about the administration of municipal services
as a public function (as opposed to private services; e.g. plowing the streets
vs. plowing your driveway). Did Romans draw this public/private distinction?
Did they do it differently than we? What does the way Romans thought about
this distinction with respect to municipal services tell us about Romanitas.
- Rome administered its empire through a system of provinces under the governance
of a Roman empowered by the Senate with imperium.
- Why would a Roman senator want to be a provincial governor?
- What did a Roman governor do?
- What were the routine problems of provincial administration?
- How are Pliny's problems in his province alike and different from those
described by Cicero?
- You might want to look at Chris Mackay's essay on
- What weaknesses or limitations in the Roman constitution do patterns
of provinical maladministration point to?
- What threat to Roman hegemony in the Mediterranean Basin did patterns
of provinical maladministration pose?
- How do you think the Romans could have addressed these problems?
- Horace seems to offer a wry assessment of public life. Pliny, similarly,
seems to document problems that could plague a public political figure under
the Empire.
- Why would a Roman enter political life?
- What kind of Roman would or could?
- What about Horace's biography might account for the stance he adopts in
his epode?
- Pliny has an entirely different biography.
- Do you think that affected his attitude towards public life?
- RCiv, v.1, #155, (the Commentariolum - or "little book of advice") purports
to be a letter from Quintus to Marcus Cicero, advising him on how to manage
his election campaign.
- How does the fact that the document may be a forgery of the first century
of the common era effect your analysis of its value as a source for helping
us define Romanitas?
- What does the Commentariolum tell us about the things that mattered
to Roman voters? [How is that different than today? - Think about the
New Hampshire primary.]
- What particular challenges did Marcus Cicero face as a candidate?
- How did Quintus advice him to meet and overcome those challenges?
- How does the Commentariolum suggest that political power was distributed
in Rome?
- What does this system of power distribution tell us about Romanitas?
- What prompted the Gracchan reforms?
- Who were more revolutionary, the Gracchi or their opponents? Why?
Week 5
Assigned primary readings from this week:
- RCiv1 - 165 (472-474) [Occupations];
- RCiv1 - 167 (484-486) [Equites];
- RCiv1 - 169 (487-489) [Publicans];
- RCiv1 - 187 (534-537)
- RCiv2 - 12-14 (41-50) [Senate & Senators; Equites];
- RCiv2 - 42 (151-154) [Juvenal on Wealth & Misery];
- RCiv2 - 70 &72 (255-259) [Public & Private Philanthropy];
- MWPC: p. 233-241 (up to the "Christianizing the Empire"
section)
- Horace,
Satires 1.6
- Cicero,
On Friendship
- Andrew Riggsby, Self
and Community in the Younger Pliny
- some letters of Pliny to his friends
Suggested Questions:
- What was the relationship between patronage and political elections in
Rome.
- Were Horace and Maecenas "friends," the way you are with your friends?
How? How not?
- Consider Cicero's discussion of friendship. How do Scipio's friends characterize
the nature of amicitia in general and their specific friendships?
- What do they think is the relationship of duty and affection in the relationship?
Do they draw a distinction between the operation of friendship in public
and private life? What do you think Cicero imagined the relationship between
patronage and friendship to be?
- Compare Cicero's answer to that of Pliny the Younger, as described by
Riggsby and as represented in his letters.
- On a related note, what type of world does Cicero draw for us in this
dialogue. He is writing a work on friendship in the form of a dialogue between
famous historical Romans, dedicated to his own friend Atticus. In this work,
he "represents" Romanitas, whether consciously or not. Given the representation
of Romanitas in the de Amicitia, what do you think Cicero understood it
to be? Who is included in Cicero's vision and who is excluded? Is Pliny's
vision different than Cicero's?
- Why did members of the Roman elite object so to trade and the professions?
- Why did they cultivate literary activity?
Week 6 - no discussion group
Week 7 - no discussion group
Week 8 - no discussion group
Week 9
Assigned Readings This Week:
- RCvI 10-12 (66-69); 46-56 (129-150); 175-180 (466-482)
- RCvII 41 (149-150); 73-74 (274-278); 103 (368-371)
- Cicero, On
His House
Additional Readings:
Questions to Consider:
- What were the circumstances giving rise to the case (facts and parties)?
- Who decided the matter (tribunal); what was the basis of their authority?
- What was the senate's role in the matter?
- What were Cicero's arguments? do you find them persuasive? why, why not?
- What were Clodius' arguments? how can you tell? do you find them persuasive?
why, why not?
- What was the decision? what was the rational for it?
- Describe the relationship of authority between the decision makers and the
Senate over this decision?
- What this a political or religious case?
- What is Cicero's attitude towards religion?
- What does Cicero say Clodius' attitude toward religion was? Was Cicero right
about Clodius' attitude?
Week 10
Assigned Readings This Week:
Questions to Consider:
- What was the response of Roman governors to Christianity?
Why did they think there methods might be effective? How were they like and
different from their response to the Bacchus cult?
- Why did Christianity succeed in becoming the official
religion of the Roman Empire?
- What opportunities did early Christianity afford
women in the Roman empire? Give specific examples from the texts.
- Was "paganism" a religion like Christianity? Why or why
not?
Week 11
Assigned Readings This Week:
- RCvI -43 (126); 146 (370-373) 170-171 (455-462); 186
(494-498); 188 (501-503); 190 (505-507); 191 (507-509)
- RCvII &endash; 33 (125-129); 43 (157-160); 44 &endash;
48 (160-173); 50 (176 &endash; 182); 87 (323-324); 89- (326-329); 91-94 (338-347);
99 (356-358)
- ARC- Households and Housing (p. 157-182)
- Tour
of Roman Houses
Questions to Consider:
- Pick one of the houses from the Roman
House Tour page. As best as you can, create a floorplan or layout of the
house. Describe the kinds of family and social activities that went on in
each house.
- In the modern west, it is a truism to say, "a man's home is his castle."
Was this true for wealthy Romans? [you might want to consider what we
mean by this truism] Why or why not.
- Consider Pliny's description of his Laurentine villa [RCvII -44 (160-162)]
and his daily routine at his Tuscan villa [RCvII - 45 (163-164)].
Does the design of the Laurentine villa say something about Pliny's beliefs,
values or ideals? What does Pliny's description of his daily routine in Tuscany
tell us about the lifestyle of members of the Roman elite. Do you think Pliny's
self-description is accurate or idealizing? To the extent it is idealizing,
what does it tell us about what members of the Roman elite thought a proper
gentleman was? How do Pliny's comments about and attitudes towards his homes
compare to Cicero's about his?
Week 12
Assigned Readings This Week:
- Women
- Slavery
- RCvI - 94- 95 (227-234); 166 (440-450)
- RCvII - 24 (85-95)
- Pliny the Younger, Ep.
3.14; Ep.
5.19
Questions to Consider:
- Compare the status of Roman women to that of American women in the year
1900 and the year 2000. What were the important differences and similarities.
Do your observations hold true when comparing working class women as well
as women of the elite?
- How did the early Christian fathers view the social role of women. How is
this different from what non-Christians believed. Was there a difference between
the ideology and praxis of the Christian fathers comparable to what we discussed
in class about Cicero's writings on women and his own relationship to his
wife and daughter?
- Does Sulpicia's poetry give us a helpful insight on the perspective of Roman
women on their role in society? How might Sulpicia be better evidence than
what Pliny has to say about Arria Paeti and Appian has to say about Hortensia?
- Describe the range of social relationships a Roman citizen might have with
a slave. What does this information tell us about Romanitas?
- The Romans discovered that Gauls sometimes sold themselves into slavery
to pay off personal debts. Why would a Roman find this hard to understand?
- Based on what you know about what Romans thought about women and what they
thought about slaves, why do you think Romans abhorred the notion of Roman
women having sexual relationships with slaves?
- Why was slave rebellion so feared by the Roman citizens?
- Why was slavery so important in the distinctions between the rich and the
poor?
- What kind of opportunities were available to slave to "move up" from their
positions?
Week 13 -no discussion group
Week 14 - no discussion group
Course Home
Page / Syllabus
/ Imber's
Home Page