75994 - Cultural History of Byzantium

Learning outcomes

The course aims at conveying to the student the political and religious conceptions, values and modes of social behaviour, as well as the organisation of material life in the Eastern Roman Empire. By the end of the course the student is able to know the historical constituent features of Byzantine civilisation and its close relationship with the societies of the medieval West, Orthodox Slavia and the Sasanian and Muslim Near East. The student is also able to assess the role played by Byzantium in the process of transmitting the traditions of classical and Hellenistic antiquity, as well as Slavonic and Ottoman traditions, into the cultural heritage of modern Europe.

Course contents

The course is divided into two parts: 1) General; 2) Monographic.

1) General Part (12 hours). This section introduces the key aspects of the Byzantine world, focusing on political ideology, the church and monasticism, social values, administration, the military, and the economy.

 

2) Monographic Part (18 hours): At the Twilight of the Ancient World: Theoderic, the Goths, and Italian Society (493-535).

Post-Roman Italy was characterized by the rule of two military leaders, Odoacer (476-493) and Theoderic (493-526), who can be described as ‘barbarian’ in the sense that neither was born within the traditional boundaries of the Roman Empire. Both demonstrated great political intelligence and leadership qualities, but it was the latter who was capable of building a kingdom whose stability impressed both contemporaries and later generations. Among the many intriguing aspects of the Theoderic era—defined as the period from Theoderic’s rise to power until the outbreak of the Greco-Gothic war in 535—the course aims to delve into two in particular: 1) the organization of the kingdom by the Gothic sovereign and his relationship with Roman administrative culture; 2) the methods of settlement of the Ostrogothic community in the peninsula, with particular attention to the territorial context and monuments of the city of Ravenna. Both topics will necessarily intersect with issues of political ideology, ethnic interaction, and identity representations.

Readings/Bibliography

1) General Part

Required reading:

― Antonio Carile, ‘Bizantino, Impero’ in Grande Dizionario Enciclopedico Utet, Torino 1986, s. v., pp. 394-405.

2) Monographic Part

Required reading:

― Herwig Wolfram, Storia dei Goti, Italian edition revised and expanded by the author, edited by Maria Cesa, Rome 1985, pp. 431–530.

― Claudio Azzara, Teoderico, Bologna 2012, pp. 9–96.

― Pierfrancesco Porena, “Voices and Silences on the Settlement of the Ostrogoths in Italy,” in P. Porena, Y. Rivière (éds.), Expropriations et confiscations dans les royaumes barbares. Une approche régionale, Collection de l’École française de Rome, 470, Rome 2012, pp. 227–278 (PDF of the article available on the author’s Academia.edu page).

For those particularly interested in the topic of the Ostrogothic settlement, the latter article may be replaced with: Pierfrancesco Porena, L’insediamento degli Ostrogoti in Italia (Saggi di Storia antica, 33), Rome 2012, pp. 7–181.

 

For non-attending students, in addition to the cited bibliography, the following reading is recommended: Guglielmo Cavallo (a cura di), L'uomo bizantino, Roma-Bari 1992.

 

 

Teaching methods

The first part of the course is designed as a series of traditional lectures in which the lecturer will present, with the aid of PowerPoint images, the salient developments of the Byzantine Empire from the foundation of Constantinople to its conquest by the Ottomans. The second part, on the other hand, is organised in seminar mode; in it the lecturer will read and translate documents in the original language, trying to stimulate students towards an understanding (and discussion) of the methodological and terminological aspects of historical research.

 

P.S. Foreign students wishing to follow the course are required to have a knowledge of Italian of at least level B 2.

 

Students with SLD or temporary or permanent disabilities. It is suggested that they get in touch as soon as possible with the relevant University office (https://site.unibo.it/studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/en ) and with the lecturer in order to seek together the most effective strategies for following the lessons and/or preparing for the examination.

Assessment methods

An oral test is required to pass the examination.


This consists of an assessment of the knowledge of part A of the course (general) and a discussion of the content of part B (monographic).


The final mark of the exam is determined by the following scores: max. 12/30 for part A) general of the course; max. 18/30 for part B) monographic of the course.

Teaching tools

— Translation of sources

— power-point presentations.

Office hours

See the website of Salvatore Cosentino