Close
Staff (UCL)
*40 credits
Meets: Fridays 2-4 (both terms)
Core Course for Ancient Historians: teaching will consist of a weekly seminar on problems of theory and method of current importance to the study of ancient history; the seminar involves all teachers of ancient history in UCL and some from the rest of the University of London. There is also a very wide range of options available in fields such as: social anthropology, historiography, archaeology, epigraphy, numismatics, papyrology, and textual criticism that students will be encouraged to choose so as to help them in working on sources for their dissertations.
Assessment: will be by coursework.
Place: UCL
Dr Valentina Arena (UCL)
*20 credits
The aim of this course is to analyse the role played by political ideas in the Roman Republic. Beginning with the study of concepts such a Fides, Virtus, and Honos (Trust, Virtue, and Honour) that are first attested in Rome in the third century BC as deities, the course will proceed by analysing other values such as Concordia and Libertas (Concord and Liberty) that, although originally attested according to our literary tradition in the early Republic, also play an essential role throughout the Republic and in the writing of Roman thinkers of the first century BC. The most prolific period of republican activity in establishing these cults of abstract ideas corresponds to the age of so-called Roman imperialism, which saw the conquest of the Italian peninsula, the defeat of Carthage, and the establishment of Roman dominion over the Hellenistic East. Therefore, the course will study these ideas within the context of Roman contacts with other Italic peoples and the Greek world both of South of Italy and Greece mainland, to whose intellectual stimuli the Romans constantly reacted and with whom they always negotiated, continuously re-elaborating their intellectual framework. Given the dearth of extensive literary evidence for this time, the course will also exploit the visual vocabulary of these societies as well as the topographic context and the archaeological data available. Thus, the course will aim at providing Rome with a proper place within the study of intellectual history, moving away from a vision of Rome as a mere appendix of sophisticated Greece, and as a culture the only intellectual interest of which lies in Cicero's texts. The history of the use of these ideas so reconstructed will be immersed in the context of the socio-political world of Rome so as to identify what 'the Romans could do with their words'.
Method of Teaching
If a minimum number of six students is not enrolled on this course by the start of the academic year, the course will be taught traditionally at UCL in term 2, Friday 11-1.
This course will be taught in Italy (Rome, Orvieto, and surrounding sites) from March 30th 2015 to April 12th 2015. It will be taught in two-hour class discussion (10-12) in situ (Monday to Friday for two weeks), which will be complemented by daily visits to sites and museums in the afternoon. An additional fee of 510 pounds (September 2014 currency exchange), potentially subject to very minor alterations, will be applied. It will cover accommodation, subsistence, entrance to museums and archaeological sites, and internal travel for the whole period. For more information and a detailed programme of the visits, please contact the course tutor Dr Valentina Arena (v.arena@ucl.ac.uk). Assessment: Essay of up to 4,000 words.
Dr Benet Salway (UCL)
*20 credits
Meets: tbc
This course aims to provide students with a thorough grounding in the sources and scholarship relating to the study of the government, religion, and society of the Roman empire during late antiquity, a period which saw a series of radical transformations in the shape and identity of the Roman state: the establishment of a Greek-speaking Christian empire centred on Constantinople, theological dispute and schism, barbarian invasion and settlement, initiatives of reconquest in Africa, Italy, and Spain, triumph over Persia, and defeat by emerging Islam (also available as 15 credit module - HISTGA17).
Assessment: One essay of 4,000 words max.
Meets: UCL
Dr Riet Van Bremen (UCL)
*40 credits
Meets: tbc
This course will look at all aspects of this extraordinarily successful small dynasty, from diplomacy and monetary policy to art and literature. It will study the early phases of Attalid rule: expansion in the Troad, Mysia and Aeolis; relations with cities in Asia Minor and with mainland Greece (patronage of sanctuaries) and will ask questions about the hybrid city that was Pergamon.
Assessment: check with instructor
Meets: UCL
Dr Julietta Steinhauer (UCL)
*20 credits
Meets: tbc (Term 1)
Prerequisite: a good knowledge of Ancient Greek (A-level or equivalent).
The aim of this module is to provide a practical training in epigraphy, experience in dealing with inscriptions and their context and practice in the analysis and use of inscribed texts in the study of the Greek-speaking world.
Assessment: check with instructor.
Place: UCL
Dr Julietta Steinhauer (UCL)
*20 credits
Meets: tbc
This course explores the possibility of a 'religious identity' as an innovation of the Hellenistic Greek world and the changes in the history of religion that were perhaps necessary to pave the way for Christianity. The focus will be upon one aspect in the religious life of the people in the Aegean during the Hellenistic period that is known to us mainly from sources other than literature, namely religious associations. These groups of worshippers are recorded mainly in Greek poleis from the end of the fourth century BC, a period in which these cities experienced a huge influx of immigration from all over the Mediterranean and beyond, which brought with it new rituals, deities and religious traditions.
Assessment: one essay of 5,000 words max.
Place: UCL
Dr Benet Salway (UCL)
*40 credits
Meets: Tuesdays 2.00-4.00 pm
This is a dedicated MA course, designed to introduce students to both the practical study and the interpretation of Latin inscriptions of all types. The classes will survey the expanding resources available for the study of Latin inscriptions, including electronic resources as well as traditional printed corpora; the production of epigraphic material from the point of view of those commissioning it and the individual craftsman; the development and the decline of 'epigraphic habit'; and the analysis and interpretation of the texts in the broader context of the artefacts, monuments or buildings to which they were attached. Students will learn how to measure and record inscriptions; how to read and interpret epigraphic texts; and how to edit and prepare epigraphic texts for publication. They will study and interpret a wide variety of examples different types of inscriptions: official, public, private and graffiti, from Rome, Italy and the provinces. It is intended to make use as much as possible of photographs and of epigraphic material in the collections of the British Museum, University College London, and the Museum of London.
Assessment: two epigraphic commentaries of c. 3,000 words (worth 60%) and one essay of c. 4,000 words (worth 40%).
Place: Senate House
Dr Eleanor Robson (UCL)
*40 credits
Can also be taken in the following 20 credit options:
> The Assyrian and Babylonian Empires (Term 1)
> The Achaemenid and Seleucid Empires (Term 2)
Meets: Monday 2-4
The module focuses on the period c. 800-c.100 BC, covering the Neo-Assyrian, Babylonian, Achaemenid, and Seleucid empires. The aim is to analyse shifts and continuities in political, social and intellectual life, by examining these states in their Near Eastern setting. Throughout the emphasis is on critical evaluation of a diverse corpus of evidence and assessment of relevant academic literature.
Assessment: four pieces of written work, totalling c. 10,000 words.
Place: UCL
Dr Irene Polinskaya (KCL)
*20 credits
Meets: tbc (Term 2)
The module addresses the subject of "Greekness," or "hellenicity," that is, the social content embedded in the terms "Hellenes" and "Hellas." The students are introduced to the complex web of strategies the people of ancient Greece employed in establishing, expressing, and negotiating their collective identities. In the process, we confront and deconstruct the modern paradigms and stereotypes of Greekness.
Assessment: will be by two essays of 2,500-words (25% each) and one essay of 5000-words (50%).
Place: KCL
Course tutor: Professors Roland Mayer & Dominic Rathbone (KCL)
+*40 credits
Meets: tbc
Prerequisites: For language-testing assessment: Advanced or Intermediate Latin at BA level. For assessment without testing language: Beginners Latin at BA level.
Through a close reading of Tacitus, Annals 13-16, the course combines historical study of the reign of Nero with literary study of Tacitus. Tacitus' language and style are analysed in the context of their creation of a particular portrait of Nero. Tacitus' presentation of the key episodes and issues in Nero's reign is examined and compared with other accounts and evidence to assess the historicity of the Tacitean image of Nero.
Assessment is by 3 elements, each contributing equally to the total mark. Students will have to write two essays, each of around 4,000 words, chosen from a set list. There will also be a two-hour unseen test at the end of the course containing passages in Latin for translation and comment in the language-testing version, and passages with translation for comment in the non-language-testing version.
Place: KCL
Dr Sophie Lunn-Rockliffe
+ 20 credits
Meets: tbc
This module introduces the history of magic in late antiquity (from the third to fifth centuries CE) through the close and contextualized study of a number of magical texts.
Assessment: One 4-5,000 word essay
Place: KCL
Dr Lindsay Allen (KCL)
Meets: tbc (Term 2)
*20 credits
This module uses Persepolis to consider the character of the first Persian empire, the evolution of historiography about the ancient Near East and ideological and scientific uses of 'world heritage' sites. We will analyse the remains on several different levels: as a centre of dynastic and imperial self-definition, as a node in an unprecedentedly interconnected system, as a medieval ruin and as a presence in post-enlightenment thought and politics. This layered site biography deploys several detailed contexts: Near Eastern architecture and iconography, early modern exploration, eighteenth century linguistic scholarship, the British East India Company, the history of collecting and nationalism and heritage.
Assessment: one essay of 4,000 words.
Place: KCL
Please view the range of KCL courses for 2014-15.
Please view the KCL MA Timetable 2014-15.
Prof. R. Alston (RHUL)
*20 credits
Meets: Thursdays 11-1 (Term 2)
The course looks at the development of Roman urbanism within the Roman Empire. It relates both changes in urban form and the spread of Classical urbanism to Roman imperial cultural, economic, and political structures. The course aims to question traditional approaches to Roman imperial urbanism, using in particular, contemporary theorisations of the city and employing a variety of different analytical perspectives. These include examination of ancient writings on urban communities (Philo on Alexandria), ideas of acculturation and cultural change in cities of the West, notions of political culture in cities of the East, issues of religious identity, and finally considerations of the sociological nature of the city. The period covered will be approximately AD 30 to AD 300.
Assessment: One essay of 4,000 words max.
Place: RHUL annexe Bedford Sq.
Please view the range of RHUL courses for 2014-15.
