History Of Ancient Rome

general courses

History of Rome: main issues, discussions and currents of research.

Presentation of key themes of the history of the Roman community, from the foundation of the City to the fall of the Western Empire, with emphasis on the evolution of the Roman society, state institutions and rules of the political process, and the rôle of the military factor.

Main themes:

The foundation of Rome in the macroregional (Western Mediterranean) and local (Tyrrhenian Italy) setting.

The regal Rome: territorial growth, society, institutions.

Early Republic: Latin alliance, the conflict of the orders and its solution.

The making of the instruments of expansion and the conquest of Italy and the Mediterranean.

Classical Republic (4th-2nd century B.C.): society, institutions, politics.

Crisis and fall of the Republic: causes, symptoms, course.

From the Republic to the Empire: institutional and political aspects.

The making of the imperial society: romanization of the the Empire and its limits.

Rise and growth of Christianity; Christians and the Empire.

The crisis of the 3rd century A.D.: causes and effects.

The New Empire, its society, institutions and functioning.

Christianisation of the Empire; Christianity and the Graeco-roman civilisation.

Völkerwanderung, division of the Empire and the fall of the West: an accident or inevitable historical process?

T. Cornell, The Beginnings of Rome. Italy and Rome from the Bronze Age to the Punic Wars (c. 1000-264 BC), London-New York 1995.

W.V. Harris, War and Imperialism in Republican Rome. 327-70 B.C., Oxford 1979.

R. Syme, The Roman Revolution, Oxford 1939 (i wiele późniejszych wydań).

F. Jacques, J. Scheid, Rome et l’intégration de l’Empire (44 av. J.-C.–260 ap. J.C.), Paris 1992.

E. Stein, Histoire du Bas-Empire. I: De l’État romain à l‘État byzantin (284-476), Bruges 1959.

On the completion of the course an attentive student is aware of the specificity of the socio-political entity that was Rome, knows its historical significance and understands the nature of research problems the students of her history have to grapple with.

The requirement for getting credits in Roman history and the criterion for individual assessment is attendance at lectures.