CLST 180.02 / HIST 104.08: Crime and Punishment in the Ancient World
*Note: This is an old document. Most of the links are broken.*
Instructor:

John Bauschatz
Time/Location: Tu/Th, 2:50-4:05 p.m.; Carr 103
Contact Info:

Papyrology, Perkins Library 344D
Phone: 610-957-6168 (office); 610-328-0424 (home)
email: jbausch1@email.arizona.edu

OVERVIEW

Many aspects of ancient criminal justice are still poorly understood or marginalized by modern scholars. For instance, common consensus holds that ancient civilizations had no organized police forces; that long-term detention in prisons is a modern innovation; that victims of crime were typically powerless and resourceless. The evidence demonstrates that these beliefs are fundamentally flawed. From the earliest times to the dawn of the Renaissance, official law enforcement structures addressed public grievances, provided for the common defense, apprehended, detained, and punished offenders, and otherwise saw to it that the business of living was carried out in a relatively unmolested fashion.

This course explores the history of criminal justice systems in the ancient Mediterranean. Its primary focus is Greece and Rome, but it will also cover Pharaonic Egypt and the Ancient Near East. We shall move chronologically, geographically, and topically, treating a broad range of sources: ancient literature (drama, poetry, history, etc.) and modern scholarship, but also epigraphical and papyrological evidence, archaeological data, and artwork. Police, courts, prisons, outlaws, crime rates, security forces, and the like, but also (more generally) social and political climates, biases, cultural traditions, and economies: the course encompasses it all.

READINGS

There are no books to buy for this course. Readings will be available electronically; see the course schedule (below) for details. The following books are reccommended as general reference works on the cultures we'll be studying. All are available at one or more Duke libraries:

  • L. Adkins and R.A. Adkins, A Handbook to Life in Ancient Greece (New York, 1997). Perkins Reference: 938 A236, H236, 1997

  • ---, A Handbook to Life in Ancient Rome, Updated Edition (New York, 2004). Perkins Reference: 937 A236, H236, 2004

  • S. Bertman, A Handbook to Life in Ancient Mesopotamia (New York, 2002). Perkins Reference: 935 B544, H236, 2002

  • G.W. Bowersock, P. Brown and O. Grabar (eds.), Late Antiquity: A Guide to the Postclassical World (Cambridge, Mass., 1999). Lilly Reference: 938.003 L351, 1999; Perkins: 938.003 L351, 1999. The Perkins copy will be put on reserve at the Perkins Reference Desk.

  • A.R. David, A Handbook to Life in Ancient Egypt, Revised Edition (New York, 2003). Perkins Reference: 932 D249, H236, 2003; Divinity: 932 D249, H236, 1998 (orig. ed.)

The following texts are general reference works useful for classicists and ancient historians and can be found in the Duke libraries (Perkins, Lilly, and/or Divinity). They may prove helpful starting points for supplementary research (i.e., papers and presentations):

  • S. Hornblower and A. Spawforth (eds.), The Oxford Classical Dictionary (3rd ed.) (Oxford, 2003). Divinity Reference: 938.003 O98, 2003; Lilly Reference: 938.003 O98, 2003; Perkins Reference Desk: 938.003 O98, 2003

  • The Cambridge Ancient History (3rd ed.) (London, 1970-2000). Perkins Reference: 930 C178C; also available in Perkins and Divinity stacks

  • Loeb Classical Library (Perkins Reference: 880.8 L825 - by Current Periodicals). Translations of most major works by ancient Greek and Roman authors. Greek works are green, Latin works red.

  • T.J. Luce, ed., Ancient Writers: Greece and Rome. 2 Vols. (New York, 1982). Perkins and Lilly Reference: 880.09 A541, 1982

  • J.M. Sasson, ed., Civilizations of the Ancient Near East. 4 Vols. (New York, 1995). Divinity Reference Quarto: 939.4 C582, 1995

  • M. Grant and R. Kitzinger, eds., Civilization of the Ancient Mediterranean. Greece and Rome. 3 vols. (New York, 1988). Perkins stacks: 938 C582, 1988. These volumes will be put on reserve at the Perkins Reference Desk.

GRADING

Grading for the course will be based on the following breakdown:

  • Attendance/Participation (35%): How often you come to class, how well you perform on announced and unannounced quizzes and how enthusiastically you participate in, and occasionally lead, class discussions. I will not take attendance, but will keep an eye out for regular absences and reserve the right to arbitrarily deduct points from those who choose to cut. Quizzes (5-10 minutes in length) on reading assignments will happen at least once per week. Regular, brief (no more than 10 minutes in length) presentations by students will require a bit of additional reading and research. They are intended to provide information to supplement the readings. Each student will give one of these brief presentations over the course of the semester, as well as a more formal 10-15 minute presentation on his or her research for the final paper (see below). A schedule of presenters and presentations (with supplementary bibliography) is available here.

  • Short Paper (10%): A 5-page paper based on course readings and presentations. This is an exercise in analytical thinking and will not require any research or additional reading. The topic is available for download here. The short paper is due at 5 p.m. on Thursday, March 10. Late papers will lose one letter grade for each day late.

  • Exams (15% each, 30% total): There will be two hour exams in this course. The first will occur on Thursday, February 24, the second on Thursday, April 14. Each exam will cover all material read and discussed in the course over a specific period of time: the first exam will cover parts 1 and 2, the second parts 3 and 4 (see schedule). Do not miss the exams.

  • Long Paper (25%): In lieu of a final exam, students will select a topic of their own choosing and write a term paper of 10-15 pages. This is a research paper and will require additional readings in both ancient and modern literature. All students must clear their topics with me before beginning work. I will not accept papers on topics that have not been approved. The long paper is due by 5 p.m. on Saturday, May 7, the last day of final exams. No late papers will be accepted.

OTHER INFO

Surprise! Cheating is not allowed. If you cheat, and I find out, you will receive a grade of 0 for the assignment and be reported to the Dean of Students. (See Duke's Procedures for Handling Cases of Suspected Academic Dishonesty .) Crime and punishment, you know.

Office hours will be held immediately after class. You are also welcome and encouraged to make an appointment to meet with me. I am usually available from approximately 8 a.m. until 6 p.m., M-F in the Papyrology Room (344D) of Perkins Library (but I migrate). Call, email or holler.

COURSE SCHEDULE

What follows is a sketch outline of the Spring semester. Nightly reading assignments are due on the dates specified. Quizzes - generally once a week - will be announced at least one class session in advance (save for the occasional pop quiz, which won't).

All reading assignments are pdf files. To view/download them, you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader (free download available here). You will also need a computer recognized by Duke (e.g.: library, cluster, department, networked PC, etc.). If you want to access course materials using a non-Duke ISP, you'll have to configure your browser to use a Duke proxy server. I've never done this, but it's apparently not that hard (see instructions here).

Check this page often. Readings and assignments are subject to change. I'll try to give a heads-up in class if a major shake-up is imminent. I'll also try to have readings posted at least a week before the due date.

Week Tuesday Thursday
1  

1/13 - Introduction/Business

RECEIVE:
Mesopotamian chronology/geography handout
Mesopotamian gods handout

Part 1: Beginnings

A survey of the oldest evidence for law enforcement structures: the Sumerian law codes and those of Hammurabi; the accounts of the great tomb robberies in the Egyptian New Kingdom and the Harem conspiracy under Ramesses III; paintings and inscriptional evidence for corporal punishment, prisons, and court proceedings; tomb literature detailing the encounters of peasants with government legal machinery.
Week Tuesday Thursday
2

1/18 - Mesopotamian Law: The Beginnings

READ:
Roth, Introduction
Laws of Ur-Nammu
Laws of Lipit-Ishtar
Laws of Eshnunna
Homicide Trial

SEE:
map 1 - map 2 - map 3 - Ur-Nammu stele 1 - stele 2 - stele 3 - Eshnunna's code - Ur ziggurat

PRESENTER:
Mesopotamian Law

1/20 - Hammurabi's Code

READ:
Hammurabi's Laws

PRESENTER:
Importance/Highlights of Hammurabi

SEE:
Hamurrabi's code 1 - code 2 - stele - stele top - head

RECEIVE:
Egyptian chronology/geography handout
Egyptian gods handout

3

1/25 - How to Behave, How to Rule

READ:
Book of the Dead, introduction; spells 30B, 125; 20
Appointment of the Vizier Rekhmire
Edict of Horemheb

SEE:
map 1 - map 2 - Book of Dead 1 - BOD 2 - BOD 3 - Horemheb gate - Hor. tomb map - Hor. stele - Hor. statue - Rekhmire's tomb 1 - RT 2 - RT 3 - RT 4 - RT 5 - RT 6 - RT 7

PRESENTER:
Egyptian Law and Order

1/27 - Robbery, Assassination and Other Misbehavior

READ:
The Eloquent Peasant
Harem Conspiracy
Tomb Robberies

SEE:
Ramesses III tomb inscriptions - Ram. smiting enemies - Ram. sea battle - Ram. tomb - Ram. mummy - Ram. x-ray

PRESENTERS:
Harem Conspiracy
Tomb Robberies

RECEIVE:
Greek chronology handout
Greek gods handout

Part 2: The Greeks

From the beginnings of Hellenic culture, the evidence for crime and punishment is rich and extensive. We begin with a consideration of community justice in the Iliad and the Odyssey. From there, we examine the early law code of Gortyn, the trial of Socrates and a number of Attic criminal cases, consider evidence for the prison at Athens, investigate the phenomenon of piracy in the Greek world and conclude with a treatment of law and order in Ptolemaic Egypt, for which ample documentary evidence survives.
Week Tuesday Thursday
4

2/1 - Conflict, Resolution and Community Justice in Archaic Greece

READ:
Iliad 1; 18.468-617 (shield of Achilles)
Odyssey 9.105-566 (Cyclops); 15.222-300 (Theoklymenos)
Hesiod, Works and Days 27-285

SEE:
map - aerial map - forging Achilles' shield - shield 1 - shield 2 - shield diagram

PRESENTER:
Hesiod

2/3 - Codes and Lawgivers: Gortyn, Lycurgus, Drakon, Solon

READ:
Law code of Gortyn
Xenophon, Constitution of the Spartans
Plutarch, Life of Solon xiii-xxv (pp188-204)

SEE:
Gortyn code 1 - code 2 - Saenredam Lycurgus - Solon

PRESENTERS:
Xenophon
Plutarch

5

2/8 - Athens and the Development of Democracy

READ:
Aristotle, Constitution of the Athenians part 1 - part 2 (read part 2, xlii-lxix)

SEE:
map - Acropolis - bouleuterion - papyrus of Ath. Pol.

PRESENTER:
Aristotle

2/10 - The Golden Age of Litigation

READ:
Carey, Introduction pp1-25
Lysias, On the Murder of Eratosthenes
Antiphon, Accusation of Poisoning against the Stepmother
Demosthenes, Against Conon for Battery
Isokrates, Against Lochites

SEE:
ballot disks (for voting)

PRESENTER:
Demosthenes

6

2/15 - Plato and Socrates

READ:
Plato, Apology
---, Crito

SEE:
Socrates - Socrates and Plato - Athenian prison 1 - prison 2 - prison (?)

PRESENTER:
Plato

 2/17 - Sea-zure: Pirates

READ:
Odyssey 14.191-359 (Odysseus the pirate)
Thucydides 1.5 (Greek piracy)
Homeric Hymn to Dionysus
Menander, The Sicyonian lines 3-15 (#86); Inscriptions from Amorgos (#87) and Athens (#88) re: piracy
Chariton, Callirhoe 1; 3.3.9-3.4

SEE:
Dionysus and the pirates - Dionysus and the dolphins

PRESENTER:
Pirates in Antiquity

7

2/22 - Greeks in Ptolemaic Egypt

READ:
Ptolemaic Policing
Ptolemaic Administration

SEE:
map - Ptolemy I coin (obverse) - same coin (reverse) - Ptolemy VI coin - Ptolemaic genealogy - Rosetta stone - PAP1 - PAP2 - PAP3 - PAP4 - PAP5 - PAP6

PRESENTER:
Ptolemaic Egypt

2/24 - Hour Exam #1 on parts 1-2

RECEIVE:
Roman chronology/history handout
Roman gods handout

Part 3: The Romans

The Twelve Tables, Rome's earliest law code, present a convenient starting point for this segment of the course. We examine the Roman legal bureaucracy as portrayed in historians and legal writers, read selected speeches of Cicero for insights into the Catilinarian conspiracy, investigate the physical organization of the city of Rome for evidence of police activity and crime prevention, confront Roman attitudes to crime from satire and poetry and survey the abundant archaeological, epigraphical and literary material from the Roman provinces.
Week Tuesday Thursday
8

3/1 - Early Rome and the Twelve Tables

READ:
Livy, III 31-37
Twelve Tables part 1 - part 2

SEE:
early map - Map 60 B.C. - Map 51 B.C. - Map 116 A.D. - Map 138 A.D. - Map 180 A.D. - Map 290 A.D. - Twelve Tables - Romulus and Remus coin - with she-wolf

PRESENTER:
Roman Law

3/3 - Cicero and the Age of Oratory

READ:
Cicero, Pro Milone part 1 - part 2 (read appendix, as well)

SEE:
Rome in the Late Republic - Republican territories - Cicero 1 - Cicero 2 - trial scene

PRESENTER:
Cicero

9

3/8 - Condemned to the Colosseum: Gladiatorial Punishment

READ:
Coleman, JRS 80 (1990): 44-73
Cicero, In Catilinam I

SEE:
Colosseum from Via dei Fori Imperiali - Colosseum looking east through Colonnade of Temple of Venus and Rome - Amphitheater at El Jem, Tunisia - Amphiteater at El Jem showing animal passage under floor - Condemned criminal mosaic, El Jem museum, 3rd cent. A.D. - Jean-Leon Gerome Pollice Verso 1872 - Man killed by leopard, Zliten mosaic, Libya - Murmillo and Thracian Gladiators from Zliten mosaic, Libya - Smirat Venatio mosaic, North Africa, 3rd cent. A.D., Sousse museum

PRESENTER:
Sex Offenses

3/10 - Augustus' Reforms: Policing the City

READ:
Suetonius, Divus Augustus part 1 - part 2 (read i-lx)

SEE:
Augustus - coin (obverse) - coin (reverse) - Suetonius on Caesar - on Tiberius

PRESENTER:
Suetonius

Short Paper due at 5 p.m. on Friday, 3/11

 

Spring Break

Spring Break

10

3/22 - The Perils of Life at Rome: Crooks and Lawyers

READ:
Juvenal, Satire 3
Martial: i 17, 20, 79, 95, 97, 98; ii 13, 32, 34, 37, 64, 74; iii 38; iv 46, 69; v 16, 33; vi 19, 31, 35, 72, 75; vii 20, 65; viii 7, 16, 17, 43, 76, 59, 81; ix 15, 78; x 16; xi 30, 54; xii 28, 72, 91
Catullus: x, xii, xxxiii, xlix

SEE:
Catullus MS - Juvenal - Juvenal MS - Martial - Martial MS

PRESENTERS:
Catullus
Martial
Juvenal

3/24 - Robbers: Fact and Fiction

READ:
Apuleius, Libri Metamorphoseon III 5-9; III 27 - IV 27; VI 25-32; VII 1-13
Davies, Crime in Roman Egypt

SEE:
Apuleius - coin
11

3/29 - Celebrity Justice: Frauds and Frame-Ups

READ:
Lucian, Alexander the False Prophet
SEE:
Glykon statue - coin

PRESENTER:
Lucian

3/31 - The Jurists

READ:
Codex Theodosianus, introduction and book 9

PRESENTER:
Law Codes and Jurists

RECEIVE:
Medieval chronology handout

Part 4: Late Antiquity-Middle Ages-Renaissance

A brief consideration of some of the source material for crime and punishment in the Middle Ages and Renaissance (ca 500-1500 A.D.), focusing on the contrast between earthly and divine punishments and philosophies of rule.
Week Tuesday Thursday
12

4/5 - Damned if You Do, Damned if You Don't: Spiritual Punishment

READ:
Dante, Inferno xviii-xxx

SEE:
Dante - map of hell 1 - map 2 - map 3 - doomed souls 1 - doomed souls 2 - Inferno manuscript

PRESENTER:
Dante

4/7 - Crime, Persecution and Torture in the Middle Ages

READ:
Janin, Medieval Crime
Merback, Pain and Spectacle

SEE:
executioner's mask - finger screws - garrotte - interrogation chair - stocks

PRESENTER:
Roman Law in the Middle Ages
13

4/12 - The New Face of the State

READ:
Machiavelli, The Prince

SEE:
map - Machiavelli - Lorenzo de' Medici - Lorenzo's tomb (Michelangelo) - tomb, large view

 4/14 - Hour Exam #2 on parts 3-4

Part 5: The Modern Era

A short survey of "modern" (19th-21st century) developments in law, order, and justice, including the creation of the first (?) organized police agencies in Britain in the 1800's, the emergence of modern crime-fighting techniques and the dawn of international policing (the formation of INTERPOL).
Week Tuesday Thursday
14

4/19 - The First "Real" Police?

Paper presentations

SEE:
Henry Fielding - John Fielding - Patrick Colquhoun - Bow Street office - office, exterior - Robert Peel - "Peelers" 1 - 2 - Charles Rowan - Richard Mayne

READ:
J.B. Rubenstein, Fieldings
P.J. Stead, Colquhoun
T.A. Critchley, Peel, Rowan, Mayne

4/21 - Law & Order, CSI et al.: Modern Police

Paper presentations

SEE:
Henry Faulds - William James Herschel - Francis Galton - Galton fingerprints - Edward Richard Henry - Juan Vucetich - J. Edgar Hoover - MAD ad - cartoon - Interpol symbol

READ:
J.J. Cronin, Fingerprinters
P.V. Murphy, Hoover
J. Népote, Interpol
15 4/26 - Finale

Paper presentations

Long Papers due at 5 p.m., Saturday, May 7
  

U of A | Classics | Bauschatz