History/Classics 205: Roman History
Spring 2018 (7 Week I)



Map of the Roman Empire, A.D. 117


Instructor:

John Bauschatz

Time/Location: online!
Contact Info:

Office: Cesar Chavez 410
Phone: (520) 621-7422 (office)
email: jbausch1@email.arizona.edu


OVERVIEW

History 205 traces the political, social, literary and cultural history of Rome over 1200 years: from the founding of the city of Rome (753 B.C.) to the so-called "fall" of the Western Roman Empire (A.D. 476). We will explore our subject primarily through the texts of Roman prose writers and poets, as well as modern historians; but we will also employ archaeological remains, artwork and other types of material culture to obtain a well-rounded view of the ancient Roman world.


GOALS

By the end of this course, you should be able to:

  • Identify the major Roman cultural sites of the ancient Mediterranean.
  • List the eastern Mediterranean civilizations from whom the Romans borrowed much of their culture and describe these civilizations in detail.
  • List ten or more Roman authors and provide detailed information about their lives and works.
  • Describe the characteristics of Roman poetry and prose and the motivations and agendas of the men and women who wrote it.
  • Describe the religion of the Romans, drawing not only on mythology, but also on the ample evidence for temples, cults, religious festivals and athletic contests.
  • Compare and contrast the evidence for Roman civilization in the literature with that provided by art, architecture and other material culture.
  • Trace major developments in science, technology, political thought, religion and philosophy over our more than 1200-year period.

READINGS

The required text is as follows:

  • Thomas Martin. Ancient Rome: From Romulus to Justinian. Yale UP, 2013. (ISBN-10: 0300198310; ISBN-13: 978-0300198317)

This book is free to read online via the University of Arizona Library. If you would like to buy a hard copy, you may of course do so, but not at the UA Bookstore, since the book has NOT been ordered for this class.

There are also a number of additional readings for this course. These will be hyperlinked to this page or made available for download from the D2L site for HIST 205 as pdf files: see the "Readings" area of the "Content" section. To view/download them, you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader (free download available here).


GRADING

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

    • Reading Worksheets (20%): For each assignment, you will need to complete a brief comprehension worksheet for one of the readings you are assigned. The worksheets can be found on D2L (see the "Worksheets" section of the course D2L page). Complete these—with responses of 75 or more words per question—and submit them electronically on D2L for grading (using the "Dropbox" feature).

    • Quizzes (20%): There is a brief (15 minute) D2L quiz to complete on the Martin readings for each assignment in the course. All of the questions on these reading quizzes are true/false or multiple choice. If you do the Martin readings, take notes on them and review your notes before taking the quizzes, you should have no trouble doing well on them.

    • Discussions (20%): The quality and quantity of your participation in (online) class discussions. There will be an online discussion forum for each assignment featuring one critical thinking question for you to answer. *In your discussion group, you will need to first start your own thread to respond to the question in a paragraph of 250 or more words. Next, you should read each of the other threads in your group, and respond to two other posts (of either another student or me, or both) with responses of your own of 125 or more words each.* 50% of a given week's discussion grade will come from your initial response, and 25% from each of your replies.

    • Short Papers (40% [13.33% each]): Three papers of between 750 and 1000 words in length based on course readings will be assigned. These are meant to be exercises in analytical thinking and should not require any additional research or reading (though you are certainly welcome to do additional work, if you like!). The topics for each paper are posted on D2L (in the "Short Papers" folder). The papers are to be submitted online (on D2L, via the Dropbox feature) and will lose one letter grade for each day late (Saturdays and Sundays included). ***You are allowed to submit drafts of your papers on D2L for some initial feedback, and will have the option to revise either the first or second paper for a better grade if you choose. If you would like to revise a paper, you are required to contact me to discuss ways in which you can improve it.


TEACHING ASSISTANTS AND OFFICE HOURS

There is one teaching assistant (TA) for this course, Lora Key (lmichellek71@email.arizona.edu), a PhD candidate in the UA History Department. Lora will be responsible for assisting with grading as well as answering questions about course materials and policies. Her office hours will be Wednesdays, 11 a.m.–1 p.m. and by appointment. Lora will be available via email during her office hours, but can also meet in person (in the History TA Office, Chavez 422) if you let her know in advance that you would like to meet.

I will also hold weekly office hours in my office, Cesar Chavez 410: Tuesdays, 9:15–10:45 a.m. and Thursdays, 12:30–2 p.m. Please come see me if you are on campus and have any questions about the course. For those of you outside of Tucson, I can easily be reached by phone, email or Skype. Send me an email and we'll set something up!


OTHER (IMPORTANT!) COURSE POLICIES: READ CAREFULLY

  • Course Content: Course readings will regularly contain brutally violent, sexually graphic and/or otherwise potentially offensive material. I assume that all students enrolled in HIST 205 are mature enough to handle such material and suggest that anyone easily offended by such material not take the course.
  • Honors Contracts: Students wishing to earn Honors in HIST 205 must select their own topics for their short papers and have these topics pre-approved by the instructor. If you want to do an honors contract for HIST 205, please be in touch with the Honors College about the required steps to sign up.
  • D2L: As mentioned above, students in HIST 205 will be expected to be familiar with D2L ("Desire2Learn"), the University's online course content management system. Our use of D2L in HIST 205 will be extensive: we will use D2L not only as a repository for course documents (additional readings, course handouts, etc.) and as a place to post grades, but also for discussions, quizzes, paper submission and email updates about the course. If you are unfamiliar with D2L, see the D2L help homepage.
  • Grades: Grades will be entered on D2L within one week of the assignment due date, save for quiz grades, which are generated imemdiately. ***It is your responsibility to keep track of your grades over the course of the semester. You have one week from the date of a posted grade to appeal it. After that, the assumption is that you have seen the grade and are OK with it.*** Grades for assignments turned in after posted due dates—and without documented excuses for the lateness—are only awarded at the discretion of the professor/TA. At the very least, late assignments will lose one letter grade (= 10 points off of the overall grade for the assignment) for every day they are late. Assignments that are five or more days late will receive no grade.
  • Paper Grading: The following rubric will be used to compile your grades on papers in HIST/CLAS 205 (with thanks to Jennifer Kendall!):

    Category & Description Max Points

    1.) Paper Mechanics

    15 points: The essay adheres to all of the mechanical requirements (formatting, length, margins, proper citations and following any specific instructions for content in the paper assignment).

    10 points: The essay has one or two mechanical errors.

    5 points: The essay has numerous mechanical errors.

    0 points: The essay has numerous mechanical errors and/or is less than the required length.

    15

    B.) Grammar/Spelling/Composition

    15 points: No / almost no spelling, grammar, punctuation or other compositional errors are present. The essay clearly appears to have been proofread and edited.

    10 points: There are a few grammar, spelling, punctuation or other compositional errors but the essay appears to have been proofread and edited.

    5 points: There are many grammar, spelling, punctuation or other compositional errors present.

    0 points: Numerous errors make the essay difficult to read and/or excessively long quotations or paraphrases are used.

    15

    C.) Content

    70 points: The depth of analysis greatly exceeds expectations, details are many and organization is excellent.

    55 points: The depth of analysis is good, as are details and organization, and minimum expectations are exceeded.

    40 points: The essay is basic with an adequate analysis.

    25 points: The essay is poor all around, but there is at least an attempt to follow directions.

    10 points: The essay is poor all around, and there is little to no evidence that the author followed instructions. But at least he/she handed something in!

    70
    Total Possible Points:
    100
  • Final Grades: For the final grade, the following breakdown will be used:

    A+ = 98–100 A = 93–97 A- = 90–92
    B+ = 88–89 B = 83–87 B- = 80–82
    C+ = 78–79 C = 73–77 C- = 70–72
    D+ = 68–69 D = 63–67 D- = 60–62
    F+ = 58–59 F = 53–57 F- = 0–52

    Final grades ending in .5 or higher will be rounded up; those ending in .49 or lower will be rounded down. ***There are NO exceptions to this policy.***

  • If you would like help with your writing, the University’s Writing Skills Improvement Program (http://wsip.arizona.edu) may be a valuable resource. The Program offers professional individual tutoring in writing for students, as well as biweekly writing workshops. These are free and open to UA students, but you do need to register with the program. This semester, the workshops will be held on Mondays from 2–2:50 p.m. and Wednesdays from 10–10:50 a.m. in Geronimo 216.

VARIOUS UNIVERSITY POLICIES:

  • Accessibility and Accommodations: My goal in this classroom is that learning experiences be as accessible as possible. If you anticipate or experience physical or academic barriers based on disability, please let me know immediately so that we can discuss options. You are also welcome to contact the Disability Resource Center (520-621-3268) to establish reasonable accommodations. For additional information on the Disability Resource Center and reasonable accommodations, please visit http://drc.arizona.edu.

  • Code of Academic Integrity: Students are encouraged to share intellectual views and discuss freely the principles and applications of course materials. However, graded work/ exercises must be the product of independent effort unless otherwise instructed. Students are expected to adhere to the UA Code of Academic Integrity as described in the UA General Catalog: http://deanofstudents.arizona.edu/academic-integrity/students/academic-integrity.

  • Subject to Change Statement: Information contained in the course syllabus, other than the grade and absence policy, may be subject to change with advance notice, as deemed appropriate by the instructor.

COURSE SCHEDULE

There are seven assigments in HIST 205. Each assignment consists of readings to do, PowerPoints to view, a reading worksheet to complete, a response paper to write, a quiz to take and a discussion to participate in. As noted above, in addition to these seven basic assignments there are three short papers to complete. You will be able to complete each of the papers after completing a set number of basic assignments (specific details on what you will be able to do when can be found in the table below).

Since this is an online course, it is in large part self-paced, but not completely. Whereas you are welcome to work as far ahead as you like, and finish the course super-early, there are also non-negotiable due dates for every assignment in the course, so you can't, say, wait until the last couple of weeks of the term and do everything then.

Here's an outline of what is due when:

  • Friday, 1/19, 5 p.m.: Assignment 1; first discussion thread by 5 p.m. on Thursday, 1/18
  • Friday, 1/26, 5 p.m.: Assignment 2; first discussion thread by 5 p.m. on Thursday, 1/25
  • Friday, 2/2, 5 p.m.: Assignment 3; short paper #1; first discussion thread by 5 p.m. on Thursday, 2/1
  • Friday, 2/9, 5 p.m.: Assignment 4; first discussion thread by 5 p.m. on Thursday, 2/8
  • Friday, 2/16, 5 p.m.: Assignment 5; short paper #2; short paper #1 revision (not required); first discussion thread by 5 p.m. on Thursday, 2/15
  • Friday, 2/23, 5 p.m.: Assignment 6; first discussion thread by 5 p.m. on Thursday, 2/22
  • Friday, 3/2, 5 p.m.: Assignment 7; short paper #3; short paper #2 revision (not required); first discussion thread by 5 p.m. on Thursday, 3/1

You will note that all assignments for this course are due on Fridays at 5 p.m. You will also note that initial posts for D2L discussions are always due on Thursdays at 5 p.m. to give everyone in each discussion section ample time to read and respond to other students' posts.

What follows is a list of assignments for HIST 205 during the first 7-week term. Check this page often, as readings and assignments are subject to change. I will also (of course!) give you all a heads-up over email or on the course D2L page if a major shake-up is imminent.


Assignment Subject/Details
1

Rome: Beginnings

READ (textbook): Martin, Ancient Rome, chapters 1 and 2 and take D2L quiz #1
VIEW (D2L): PowerPoints on Mediterranean geography and Roman religion and write and upload response paper #1
READ (online): history of ancient Greece (read intro page and sections a–h) and complete and upload reading worksheet #1
READ (online):
summary of the Aeneid, books 1–6; Virgil, Aeneid, books 2 and 6 and complete D2L discussion #1

2

The Early Roman Republic

READ (textbook): Martin, Ancient Rome, chapters 3 and 4 and take D2L quiz #2
VIEW (D2L): PowerPoints on early Rome, Roman expansion and Roman class and government and write and upload response paper #2
READ (online): Livy, History of Rome, book 1 and complete and upload reading worksheet #2
READ (D2L):
Alan Watson, "Roman Law" (pp607–629 of M. Grant and R. Kitzinger, eds., Civilization of the Ancient Mediterranean: Greece and Rome, vol. 1 [New York, 1988]); (online): the Twelve Tables and complete D2L discussion #2

3

The Late Roman Republic

READ (textbook): Martin, Ancient Rome, chapter 5 and take D2L quiz #3
VIEW (D2L): PowerPoints on the Roman "Revolution", the Late Republic and Roman sexuality and write and upload response paper #3
READ (online): Suetonius, Life of Caesar and complete and upload reading worksheet #3
READ (online):
Ovid, The Art of Love, book 1 and the poems of Catullus (all except 61–64, 66 and 68b, which are optional) and complete D2L discussion #3

***Short paper #1 is due with assignment #3***

4

From Republic to Empire

READ (textbook): Martin, Ancient Rome, chapter 6 and take D2L quiz #4
VIEW (D2L): PowerPoints on Augustus and the Principate and entertainment and write and upload response paper #4
READ (online): Augustus, The Deeds of the Divine Augustus, and complete and upload reading worksheet #4
READ (D2L):
Martial, On the Spectacles; (online): basic info on Tertullian; Tertullian, On the Spectacles and complete D2L discussion #4

5

The Roman Empire in the First and Second Centuries A.D.

READ (textbook): Martin, Ancient Rome, chapter 7 and take D2L quiz #5
VIEW (D2L): PowerPoints on the Julio-Claudians, Flavians, Antonines and Roman Provinces and write and upload response paper #5
READ (D2L): Tacitus, Annals 1 and complete and upload reading worksheet #5
READ (D2L):
Pliny, Letters book 10 (selections) and complete D2L discussion #5

***Short paper #2 is due with assignment #5***
***Short paper #1 revisions (not required) are due with assignment #5***

6

The Crisis of the Third Century A.D.

READ (textbook): Martin, Ancient Rome, chapter 8 and take D2L quiz #6
VIEW (D2L): PowerPoints on Jews and Christians, Mystery Cults, Magic and the Crisis of the Third Century and write and upload response paper #6
READ (online): Egeria, Pilgrimage and complete and upload reading worksheet #6
READ (D2L):
Lucian, Alexander the Quack Prophet; (online): summary of The Metamorphoses; (D2L): Apuleius, The Metamorphoses book 11 and complete D2L discussion #6

7

Decline and Fall?

READ (textbook): Martin, Ancient Rome, chapters 9 and 10 and take D2L quiz #7
VIEW (D2L): PowerPoints on Science and Technology, Roman Philosophy and the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire and write and upload response paper #7
READ (D2L): Vitruvius, On Architecture, book 1 and Lucretius, On the Nature of Things, book 1 and complete and upload reading worksheet #7
READ (D2L):
The Theodosian Code, book 9, Titles 2–17 and complete D2L discussion #7

***Short paper #3 is due with assignment #7***
***Short paper #2 revisions (not required) are due with assignment #7***

U of A | Bauschatz