HISTORY 354

SYLLABUS FOR HISTORY 354 -- SPRING 2006

The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

Schedule and Readings
Requirements and Grading
Image Gallery
Useful Web Links
Reference Works

**Advice for the Paper**

Prof. Michael GADDIS	Lectures:
Office hours: Tuesday and Thursday 2:00-4:00	Monday and Wednesday 2:15-3:35
313A Maxwell Hall	Maxwell Auditorium
443-4832
jmgaddis@maxwell.syr.edu

My Home Page Link to Graduate Student Section

TA/Grader: Frank Mann

Office hours: Wednesday 1:00-2:00

029 Eggers Hall

443-9906

fpmann@maxwell.syr.edu

It has been two hundred years since Edward Gibbon spoke so eloquently of the "decline and fall of the Roman Empire" and the "triumph of barbarism and religion." Scholarship in recent decades has revolutionized our understanding of what we now call Late Antiquity, an exuberant age midway between Ancient and Medieval worlds, characterized not by "decline" but rather by profound religious, political and cultural vitality and transformation. The course will focus on the Roman Empire and its neighbors in the Mediterranean world from the third through seventh centuries AD. Late Antiquity was an era in which people came increasingly to define their identity in exclusively religious terms, and as such it can be said to begin with Christianity’s rise to political power, and end with the coming of Islam – developments which continue to shape the cultural and political contours of Europe and the Middle East to this day.

This course offers a comprehensive survey, taking in political, social, economic and cultural history, with a particular emphasis on religious developments. Topics will include the conflict between paganism and Christianity; Constantine’s conversion; the transformation of classical culture; Rome and the barbarians; the military collapse of the western empire; asceticism and monasticism; women in late antiquity; the origins of Islam. We will take a multicultural perspective, going beyond the traditional focus on Greco-Roman elites to include other cultures such as Coptic Egyptian, Syriac, Persian, North African, and the "barbarian" Europeans. Much attention will be given to the reading, interpretation and discussion of primary sources.

Requirements and Grading:

First paper: 4-6pp, due Feb. 13: 25%

Exam, in class March 22: 25%

Second paper, 4-6pp, due April 17: 25%

Final paper, 6-8pp, due May 10: 25%

Participation: Although this is primarily a lecture course, I am reserving a portion of class periods for discussion, usually centering around close reading of the assigned texts. For each class, please bring your copies of the assigned readings with you and be prepared to talk about them. Frequent and conspicuous lack of preparation will hurt your final grade.

First Paper: 4-6pp, this paper is due in class on Monday Feb. 13. This paper, like the later ones, will require you to use and cite primary sources, which is what we call texts written by people who lived in the period we’re studying.

Exam: In class, Wednesday March 22. This will include both paragraph-length identifications and longer essays, and will cover material from lectures and assigned readings to date. Essay questions will be given out in advance, the week before spring break. For each essay question, you will be allowed to bring in and consult during the exam one 3"x5" notecard you have prepared in advance. ID’s will not be announced in advance.

Second Paper: 4-6pp, due in class on Monday April 17. Similar format to first essay. Topics will be announced in late March.

Final Paper: 6-8pp, due at 4pm on Wednesday May 10 in my office, 313A Maxwell Hall. This will be a "creative" exercise in which you will get a chance to show off what you’ve learned by imagining yourself as a late antique person and seeing the world as he/she saw it. There will be a wide variety of possible characters and situations available. Have fun with it, but also draw seriously upon class materials, particularly the primary sources. Details of the assignment will be announced in early April.

E-mail and Internet: I am running this class under the assumption that each of you has a basic familiarity with browsing the web, access to a computer, and an e-mail account that you check reasonably often. Please see me immediately if this is not the case. I will collect all your e-mails in class, and then use group mailings to make announcements, circulate discussion questions in advance of class, etc. Please familiarize yourself with the course website: http://faculty.maxwell.syr.edu/gaddis/HST354/index.htm which will contain an online version of this syllabus as well as links to relevant websites and images shown during lectures. You should check it at least weekly for updates.

How to do well in this course: It’s a simple formula. Come to class, take good notes, do the readings. If you miss a lecture, get the notes from a friend. You will not do well in this course if you skip class or don’t bother to do the reading.

Lateness Policy: For the first two papers, the following rule applies. For each day late, the grade is reduced by one full letter (A becomes B, B becomes C, and so on) unless you have a bona-fide excuse (serious medical or family emergency). "I didn’t feel well yesterday" doesn’t count as a medical excuse: I will need a note from the Health Center or from your advisor.

For the final paper, I have already given you the latest possible due date, the last day of exam week. This leaves us very little time to read them before we have to report final grades to the Registrar. Accordingly, we are not able to accept any late papers for this assignment.

Academic Dishonesty: This course will enforce the policy set by the University and the College of Arts and Sciences, which is as follows:

"Syracuse University students shall exhibit honesty in all academic endeavors. Cheating in any form is not tolerated, nor is assisting another person to cheat. The submission of any work by a student is taken as a guarantee that the thoughts and expressions in it are the student’s own except when properly credited to another. Violations of this principle include: giving or receiving aid in an exam or where otherwise prohibited, fraud, plagiarism, the falsification or forgery of any record, or any other deceptive act in connection with academic work. Plagiarism is the representation of another’s words, ideas, programs, formulae, opinions or other products of work as one’s own, either overtly, or by failing to attribute them to their true source." (Section 1.0, University Rules and Regulations.)

What this means, in plain English, is that the writing in your papers must be yours – not copied from a book, or from another student, or from the internet – and anything borrowed from elsewhere (e.g. direct quotations from sources) must be properly marked as such and footnoted. More specific instructions on proper citation style, along with a handout detailing examples of plagiarism, will be distributed with the first paper assignment. Ignorance of the rules will not be accepted as an excuse.

Any student caught plagiarizing or cheating will receive a "zero" (worse than an F!) for that assignment, with predictable consequences for his/her overall average. He/she will also be reported to the Dean’s Office, which may or may not choose to take more serious action. A second offense will result in an automatic F for the course. That said, I am not out to "get" anyone – I am happy to explain the rules to anyone who is unsure. Please talk to me or your TA if you have any questions!

Readings:

Required Books (purchase at Follett’s Orange Bookstore):

Averil Cameron, The Later Roman Empire (hereafter "LRE").

Averil Cameron, The Mediterranean World in Late Antiquity (hereafter "MWLA").

Ammianus Marcellinus, The Later Roman Empire (hereafter "Ammianus").

Besa, The Life of Shenoute.

Procopius, The Secret History.

Seamus Heaney trans., Beowulf.

There will also be a xeroxed collection of primary sources (texts written by ancient people) available from the Copy Center in Marshall Square Mall. It should be ready by the second week of class.

In addition, some assigned readings will be found on the Internet. Follow the hyperlinks on the schedule below.

Note: each day, you should come to lecture already having read whatever is listed for that day on the schedule below, and prepared to discuss it.

Schedule:

Week One Week Two Week Three Week Four Week Five

Week Six Week Seven Week Eight Week Nine Week Ten

Week Eleven Week Twelve Week Thirteen Week Fourteen Week Fifteen

Week One: Introduction and Roman Background.

Wed Jan. 18: Introduction to the course; concept of "Decline and Fall."

Week Two: The Mediterranean and Roman Background.

Mon Jan. 23: The Mediterranean world in the second century: geography, demography, facts of life.

Read: Cameron LRE pp.1-29.

Braudel, "Seeing the Sea" (handout)

Wed Jan. 25: Roman civilization in the First and Second Centuries.

Read: Xerox pp.1-21.

Week Three: The Rise of Christianity.

Mon Jan. 30: Roman religion and its challengers; early Christianity.

Read: Xerox pp.22-38.

Read online: The Martyrdom of Perpetua. If this site is down, try this alternate location, or this one.