Roman Era.
(200 BC-100 AD) The Roman Historians.
With the Roman historians, history becomes truly universal in scope: the ‘human world’ is no longer a merely geographical entity but a unified narrative. This course starts with Polybius’ history of Roman ascension before moving to the histories of Livy and Tacitus. The concept of Fortune and the primacy of political reality as a historical subject are of chief concern.
(c. 70 BC - 18 AD) The Latin ‘Golden Age.’
Coming soon.
(c. 100 BC - 250 AD) The Roman Jurists.
The tradition of Roman law, spanning over a millennium, has exercised a profound influence on the West. This course offers a detailed analysis of this tradition. The principal textual source here is Justinian’s Corpus Iuris Civilis. We begin with a cursory glance at what is known of the Twelve Tables and some of the earliest Jurists (Flavius, Mucius, Servius), then move to a study of Cicero’s Laws and the thought of Labeo, before turning to the period of ‘Classical Roman law’: Gaius, Papinianus, Paulus, and finally Ulpian and Modestinus. The course ends with a brief meditation on the subsequent history of Roman law in the transition to modernity.
(c. 50 - 180 AD) Early Post-Actium thought.
The battle of Actium marks the end of the Roman Republic and the rise of the Empire. Hellenistic slowly gives way to new Roman and Christian modes of thinking. This course covers late Stoicism (Seneca, Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius), the Gospels, and latin works such as Longinus’ On the Sublime, Pliny’s Naturalis Historia, Strabo’s Geographia, and the writings of Lucan, Plutarch, and Quintilian.
(c. 20 - 300 AD) Neoplatonism and Late Hellenistic mathematics.
This period of thought, largely an Alexandrian phenomenon, is the last definite expression of Hellenistic culture. The course begins with a study of the mathematics of Heron, Hipparchus, Menelaus (Sphaerica), Ptolemy (Almagest), Diophantus (Arithmetica), and Pappus. From here we move to Neoplatonism: Plotinus’ Enneads, the work of Porphyry, and the thought of Iamblichus. The course draws to a close with the work of Clement and Origen of Alexandria. Proclus is the last figure who receives treatment.
(c. 180 - 630 AD) The Latin Church Fathers.
This period is marked by the Edict of Milan (the legalisation of Christianity throughout the Empire - to be followed by the Edict of Thessalonica). The completion of the Vulgate by Jerome, the writing of Augustine’s City of God, and the murder of Hypatia were among the significant events of the time. The course focuses on the development of Christian thought throughout this period. The figure of principle interest will be Augustine; other figures include Tertullian, St Ambrose, St Jerome, Pope Gregory, and St Isidore of Seville.