Institutional, cultural and social history of the Roman Empire

Pre-requisites: No specific requirements.

Course objectives: Gaining knowledge on the main features of the institutional, social and cultural history of the Roman Empire.

Course description: Students will learn about the institutional, social and cultural history of the Roman Empire from the establishment of Principate to the downfall of the Western Roman Empire. They will observe the development of existing institutions and the establishment of new ones, they will study the Roman state, its administration, social relations, as well as main features of the history of culture.

Learning Outcomes: Students will aqcuire basic scientific knowledge on the main features of the institutional, social and cultural history of the Roman Empire.

Literature/Reading:

• A. H. M. Jones, The Later Roman Empire I-III, Cambridge 1964.
• The Cambridge Ancient History XI: The High Empire, AD 70-192, Cambridge 2007.
• The Cambridge Ancient History X: The Augustan Empire 43 BC-AD 69, Cambridge 2006.
• The Cambridge Ancient History XII: The Crisis of Empire A.D. 193-337, Cambridge 2007.
• The Cambridge Ancient History XIII: The Late Empire, AD 337–425, Cambridge 2007.
• The Cambridge Ancient History XIV: Late Antiquity: Empire and Successors, AD 425–600, Cambridge 2007.
• E. Stein, Histoire du Bas-Empire, Paris 1958.
• T. D. Barnes, The New Empire of Diocletian and Constantine, Cambridge Mass. and London 1982.
• F. F. Abott – A. C. Johnson, Municipal Administration in the Roman Empire, Princeton 1926.
• W. Eck, Senatoren Von Vespasian Bis Hadrian. Prosopographische Untersuchungen mit Einschluss der Jahres- und Provinzialfasten der Statthalter, Munchen 1970.
• B. Levick, The Government of the Roman Empire. A Sourcebook, London and New York 2000.
• S. Treggiari, Roman Social History, London and New York 2002.
• A.N. Sherwin-White, The Roman Citizenship, Oxford 1932.
• Cultural Identity in the Roman Empire, ed. R. Laurence and J. Berry, London and New York 1998.
• F. Millar, Rome, the Greek World and the East, Vol. 2: Government, Society and Culture in the Roman Empire, Chapel Hill and London 2004.