Required Texts:

Apuleius, trans. Lindsay, The Golden Ass (Indiana University Press)
Athanasius, Life of St. Anthony the Great (Eastern)
Augustine, Confessions (Oxford University Press)
Beard and Crawford, Rome in the Late Republic (in bookstore and on reserve)
The New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha/ New RevisedStandard Version: College Edition (Oxford University Press)
Brown, World of Late Antiquity (W. W. Norton)
Elsner, Imperial Rome and Christian Triumph (Oxford University Press)
Garnsey, Peter and Richard Saller, Roman Empire: Economy, Society and Culture
(University of California Press)
Josephus, The Jewish War (Penguin USA)
Livy, Early History of Rome (Penguin USA)
Lucretius, The Way Things Are (De Rerum Natura) (Indiana University Press)
Ovid, Metamorphoses (Indiana University Press)
Readings on the Roman World (Pamphlet in Bookstore)
Seneca, The Stoic Philosophy of Seneca (W. W. Norton)
Tacitus, The Agricola and the Germania (Penguin USA)
Tacitus, The Annals of Imperial Rome (Penguin USA)
Virgil, The Aeneid (Bantam Doubleday Dell Publications)

Recommended Texts:

Marius, A Writer's Companion, 3rd ed. (McGraw)
Hacker, A Writer's Reference, 3rd ed. (Bedford)
Williams, Style: Toward Clarity and Grace (Chicago)

All texts may be purchased at the Reed College Bookstore; a limited number of each are on reserve in the Library. Also on reserve: Oxford Classical Dictionary; Oxford Companion to Classical Literature; Anchor Atlas of World History, Volume I; Richard Lanham, Revising Prose.

CONFERENCE ASSIGNMENTS The Registrar makes initial assignments to conferences in this course which continue through the year. Students who subsequently find it necessary to change conferences must petition the Humanities staff (forms for this purpose may be obtained from the Registrar or from Karen Bondaruk, CC 308). Turn completed forms into Nathalia King, Hum 110 Chair, in CC 305. No conference changes will be permitted after the second week of the term.

PAPERS, WRITING ASSIGNMENTS, AND EXAMINATIONS Three course-wide papers will be assigned, due at the times designated on the schedule of readings and lectures. A mid-term examination will be given on Friday, March 19 from 9-9:50 a.m. in Vollum Lecture Hall. A final examination for the spring term will be given Monday, May 10, 8-12:00 a.m. Rescheduling of the mid-term or final exam will be allowed only for medical reasons.

ELECTRONIC ACCESS An archive of course materials for Humanities 110 is available on the course's web page. It includes the syllabus, paper topics, schedule of videos, and many of the lecture handouts from this year and previous years, as well as some new pages designed to help students tap Internet resources on course-related subjects. The web page may be reached through Reed's main page via Academic Life and Course Materials, or directly at this address: <http://academic.reed.edu/Humanities/Hum110>. Many of the course materials are also archived in Microsoft Word format on the Courses Server (via the Chooser in the zone Academic Servers).

Schedule of Readings and Lectures

Week 1

Jan. 25 Beard and Crawford, Rome in the Late Republic (available in the bookstore and on reserve)
Lecture: Raymond Kierstead, "The Virtuous Republic"

Jan. 27 Livy, Early History of Rome, pp. 33-101
Lecture: Walter Englert, "Livy and the Re-Creation of Rome"

Jan. 29 Livy, Early History of Rome, pp. 105-180, 374-402
Lecture: Nathalia King, "What is a Body Politic?"

Week 2

Feb. 1 Augustus, The Accomplishments of Augustus (in Readings); Suetonius, "Augustus" from The Twelve Caesars (in Readings)
Lecture: Joel Bernard, "The Roman Revolution"

Feb. 3 Garnsey and Saller, The Roman Empire, Chapters 1-3
Lecture: Raymond Kierstead, "Roman Emperorship"

Feb. 5 Virgil, Aeneid, Books 1-4
Lecture: Nathalia King, "Dido and Aeneas, or Relations of History and Romance"

Week 3

Feb. 8 Virgil, Aeneid, Books 5-8
Lecture: Ellen Stauder, "Ekphrasis and the Representation of Empire in Virgil"

Feb. 10 Virgil, Aeneid, Books 9-12
Lecture: Tom Gillcrist, "Why the Aeneid Ends as it Does"

Feb. 12 Garnsey and Saller, The Roman Empire, Chapters 6-9, Conclusion; Elsner, Imperial Rome and Christian Triumph, chapter 4
Lecture: Laura Arnold
Feb. 12 Holliday, "Time, History, and Ritual on the Ara Pacis Augustae" (in Readings); Elsner,Imperial Rome and Christian Triumph, intro. and chapter 1-3
No Lecture

Week 4

Feb. 15 Holliday, "Time, History, and Ritual on the Ara Pacis Augustae" (in Readings); Elsner,Imperial Rome and Christian Triumph, intro. and chapter 1-3
Lecture: William Diebold
Feb. 15 Garnsey and Saller, The Roman Empire, Chapters 6-9, Conclusion; Elsner, Imperial Rome and Christian Triumph, chapter 4
Lecture: TBA

Feb. 17 Ovid, Metamorphoses, Books 1-3
Lecture: Jay Dickson, "Erring by Design"

Feb. 19 Ovid, Metamorphoses, Books 4-6, 15
Lecture: Nigel Nicholson, "Silver Latin"

FIRST PAPER DUE - Saturday, Feb. 20th, 5 p.m.

Week 5

Feb. 22 Tacitus, Annals, pp. 31-60, 90-99, 104-128
Lecture: William Diebold, "The Representation of the Emperor"

Feb. 24 Tacitus, Annals, pp. 157-255
Lecture: Nigel Nicholson, "'At that repulsive gathering his had been merely a female part' (Ann. XI.36): Gender Boundaries in Ancient Rome"

Feb. 26 Tacitus, Annals, pp. 275-324, 335-397
Lecture: Carl Anderson, "Irony and Suicide"

 

Week 6

March 1 Lucretius, The Way Things Are (De Rerum Natura), Books 1 and 3
Lecture: Walter Englert, "Poetry and Philosophy in Lucretius"

March 3 Lucretius,The Way Things Are (De Rerum Natura), Books 5 and 6
Lecture: William Peck, "Lucretius and the Causes of Things"

March 5 Seneca, The Stoic Philosophy of Seneca: On Providence, On the Tranquillity of the Mind, and Letters, 47, 65, 70
Lecture: William Peck, "The Internal Forum"

Week 7

March 8 Tacitus, Germania in The Agricola and the Germania; Tacitus, Histories 5. 1-10 (in Readings); Elsner, Imperial Rome and Christian Triumph, Chapter 5
Lecture: Geoffrey Schmalz, "Roman Views of Germans and Jews"

March 10 Genesis: 1-23; Kugel and Greer, "The Rise of Scripture" (in Readings)
Lecture: Jay Dickson, "Back to Basics"

March 12 Genesis 23-50; Nancy Jay, "The Logic of Sacrifice" and "Sacrifice and Descent" (in Readings)
Lecture: Gail Sherman, "Sacrifices and Stories"

SECOND PAPER DUE - Saturday, March 13, 5 p.m.

Week 8

March 15 Exodus 1-7:19; 11-24; 32-34
Lecture: Steve Wasserstrom, "Hebrew Temple and Priesthood"

March 17 Isaiah 40-55; Daniel; Kugel, "The Messiness of History" (in Readings)
Lecture: Steve Wasserstrom, "Hebrew Prophecy: Universality and Particularity"

March 19 MID-TERM EXAM - 9-9:50 a.m., Vollum Lecture Hall.

 

SPRING BREAK - March 20-28

Week 9

March 29 Gospel of Matthew, Josephus, The Jewish War, chapter 7
Lecture: Michael Foat, "Knowing Jesus"

March 31 Josephus, The Jewish War, chapters 17-23
Lecture: Joel Bernard, "'Bandits, Prophets and Messiahs': Josephus' Jewish War"

April 2 The Tractate Avot (The Ethics of the Fathers); Cohen, "The Emergence of Rabbinic Judaism"; "The Rule of the Community" (all in Readings)
Lecture: Steve Wasserstrom, "The Rabbis on Halakha and History"

Week 10

April 5 Paul, Romans; Acts 9-19; Frend, "Paul and the First Expansion 30-65" (in Readings)
Lecture: Nathalia King, "Commission under Grace"

April 7 Gospel of John
Lecture: Ellen Stauder, "Between Jew and Hellene: the Emerging Christian Community of the Gospel of John"

April 9 Revelation
Lecture: Michael Foat, "Lifting the Thick Heavy Curtain"

Week 11

April 12 Apuleius, Golden Ass
Lecture: Gail Sherman, "Narrative and Repetition"

April 14 Apuleius, Golden Ass
Lecture: Walter Englert, "The Danger of Curiosity, or Lucius' Conversion"

April 16 The Martyrdom of Saints Perpetua and Felicitas (in Readings); Brown, The World of Late Antiquity, pp. 1-48; Elsner, Imperial Rome and Christian Triumph, chapter 6
Lecture: Nathalia King, "The Martyrdom of St. Perpetua"

 

Week 12

April 19 Elsner, Imperial Rome and Christian Triumph, chapters 8-9, epilogue, and afterword
Lecture: Peter Parshall, "Christianity and Classical Art"

 

April 21 Athanasius, Life of Anthony; Anthony (Antony), Letter #6 (in Readings); Brown, The World of Late Antiquity, pp. 49-112
Lecture: Raymond Kierstead, "Holy Bodies"

April 23 Augustine, Confessions
Lecture: Nigel Nicholson, "Augustine's Beginnings"

THIRD PAPER DUE - Saturday, April 25th 24th, 5 p.m.

Week 13

April 26 Augustine, Confessions
Lecture: Jan Mieszkowski, "The Search for Absolute Evil"

April 28 Augustine, Confessions
Lecture: Michael Foat, "Contemplation"

April 30 Augustine, Confessions
Lecture: Gail Sherman, "Time and Truth, or Why the Confessions does not end with Book Nine "

FINAL EXAM Monday, May 10th, 8-12 a. m., Vollum Lecture Hall