BASC61213 - Alumni Sequence: The Romans II

Course Description

The Spring Seminar focuses on texts dealing with daily life to allow us to explore other areas of the Roman world and its influence that are not always seen in more lofty genres. Through comedy and religion, we get a glimpse of the pleasures and anxieties that are found in all levels of Roman society.

The Spring Tutorial offers two analyses of the successes and failures of the Roman Empire, one from the perspective of a contemporary conquered subject during its rise, and one from a later European looking back over the whole arc of Roman history. 

Course Outline

Readings for Spring:

Apuleius, The Golden Ass, Penguin Classics, ISBN  978-0140435900

------ The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version with Apocrypha, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0195283808

Plautus, Four Comedies: The Braggart Soldier; The Brothers Menaechmus; The Haunted House; The Pot of Gold, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0199540563 

Shakespeare, Comedy of Errors, Signet, ISBN 978-0451528391

Polybius, The Histories, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0199534708

Montesquieu, Consideration on the Causes for the Greatness of the Romans and Their Decline,,Hackett Publishing Company, ISBN 978-0872204966