Saint-Louis University - Bruxelles
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HIST1320 - Seminar on History of Antiquity (Advanced level)



Credits : 9

Lecturer :
Mode of delivery :
Face-to-face , first and second term, 30 hours of theory.

Timetable :
First term
Wednesday from 13:30 to 15:30 at Ommegang Om421
Second term
Wednesday from 13:30 to 15:30

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


Learning outcomes :
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).

Prerequisites :
Co-requisites :
None

Course contents :
The theme chosen for the year 2020-2021 is colonization, a recurring and multifaceted reality in Greco-Roman Antiquity, but which is only rarely approached as a socio-cultural upheaval by ancient authors. However, the perception of the other which is inherent in the colonization process, and the positioning of oneself which results from it, profoundly influenced the developments of Greco-Roman civilization, through reactions of resilience, adaptation, or of appropriation. During the seminar, we will retrace the main stages of the expansion of peoples in Antiquity; we will question old sources, epigraphic and archaeological evidence on the new influences exerted by newcomers on local communities, from religion, through language and onomastics, to town planning, land management, and the emergence of olive growing and viticulture. More broadly, it will be about investigating how men and women found their place in a new, different, bigger world. To do this, each student will focus on studying a region of their own choosing and whose ancient history is punctuated by the settlement of new peoples. Once these individual results are assembled, compared, compared to each other, we can propose a “cartography” of colonization which reveals the political and social complexity of the process, the diversity of the actors, as well as the socio-cultural implications.

For information, 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.


Planned learning activities and teaching methods :
Program of guided individual readings, assisted research sessions, with alternating lectures by the teacher, handling of working instruments (constitution of a bibliography, comparison of editions of texts or inscriptions, treatment of sources, etc. ) and discussions on the theme of the seminar (historical criticism, proposition of hypotheses, etc.). Students will also be invited to prepare small intermediate assignments and present them in class.

Assessment methods and criteria :
- 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.



Recommended or required reading :
The composition of a bibliography is part of the student's work.


Other information :
None