Face-to-face , first and second term, 30 hours of theory.

First term
Tuesday from 15:45 to 17:45 at Ommegang Om421
Second term
Wednesday from 13:30 to 15:30 at Ommegang Om421

French. An open-mindedness to the classical languages (for the sources) and to the main modern languages used in research is desired.

The seminar aims at introducing the student to the writing of a scientific paper. Within the framework of a theme defined by the teacher and relating to the Ancient World, the students will carry on an assisted research and will familiarize themselves with all the steps of a scientific-historical approach (heuristic, composition of a bibliography, analysis of the modern historiography, manipulation of the reference tools, scientific argumentation).

For the Bachelor in History :

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The theme chosen for the academic year 2019-2020 is the assassination of Caesar and the switch from the Republic to the Empire in Rome. The assassination of Julius Caesar is traditionally interpreted and presented as a republican resurgence by which the assassins, led by Brutus and Cassius, tried (unsuccessfully) to save the freedom of the Romans, threatened by the introduction of a new monarchical and autocratic regime. But is that really what the "Republicans" wanted? Were their final failure and the triumph of Octavian Augustus, first emperor of Rome, predictable and inescapable? So many fundamental questions, already debated many times, but without definitive answers, which will be addressed during this seminar.

For information, the theme chosen for the academic year 2018-2019 is that of the federal states in the ancient Greek and Italic worlds. The notion of “federal state” is still a matter of debate among historians, as it covers many different realities. At first, we will try together to specify the different initiatives of the Ancients in this matter (especially in the Greek world: Achaean, Etolian, Boeotian, Thessalian leagues, etc., where there is a more abundant documentation), before, in a second step, to look at the case of the federation of the Latins (also called Latin League), to which Rome was integrated at the beginning of its history. We will then examine the degree of influence of Greek federal experiments on pre-Roman Italy and Lazio.

For information, the theme chosen for the academic year 2017-2018 was about the social struggles between the patricians and plebeians that shook up the fifth- and fourth-century BC Rome, a set of disorders known under the name of "struggle of the orders". Insofar as the literary sources are later of about four centuries than the told events and as they were the object of numerous narrative manipulations, we led together the investigation to try to disentangle the truth from the lies. The students were led to deepen a particular aspect in a personal work.

Program of supervised individual readings, sessions of assisted research, with alternation of teacher's presentations, manipulation of reference tools (composition of a bibliography, comparison of the different editions of texts or inscriptions, treatment of sources, etc.) and of discussions on the topic of the seminar (historical criticism, proposal of hypotheses, etc.).

- Assessment of the participation throughout the seminar, on the basis of reading reports and of the achievement of intermediate tasks (40% of the final mark).
- A final work, of about twenty pages for the students in Bloc 2, must be written out (60% of the final mark).
- Errors in spelling and syntax will be subject to a penalty of up to 5 points of the final mark.

The composition of a bibliography is part of the student's work.

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