72438 - Social History of the Byzantine World (1) (LM)

Learning outcomes

The course aims at conveying to the student the knowledge of mentality and values of the Byzantine society, as well as the evolution of its social structure and features of its economic life (landscape and settlements, money, factors of production, distribution and consumption). At the end of the course the students is able to contextualize critically the acquired notions in the framework of the socio-economic history of late antique and medieval Mediterranean. He is able to read specialised literature in at least one foreign language.

Course contents

The course is divided into two parts: 1) Introductory part; 2) Monographic part

1) Introductory part (12 hrs.): Introduction to Byzantine history.

This part of the course consists of an introduction to the Byzantine world. Being conceived as a preparatory unit to the contents of the monographic part, in it the lecturer will focus on the salient aspects of the political, cultural, and social evolution of the Byzantine Empire from the 4th to the 15th century.

 

2) Monographic part (18 h). The Queen City. Urban development and society in Constantinople from the 4th to the 6th centuries.

The re-founding of ancient Byzantium by the Emperor Constantine led to the creation, between the 4th and 5th centuries, of the sole large metropolis that arose in what we call Late Antiquity. Before the new city on the Bosporus reached the development of other eastern megalopolises, such as Alexandria or Antioch - or like Rome itself, in the West - it still took at least a century and a half from its foundation. Conceived ideologically by Constantine as a 'New Rome', its political and urban planning sought to reduplicate the model of the ancient capital of the Roman Empire, with a new imperial palace and a new senate. The course therefore aims to reconstruct the topography of the city's powers and the stages of its urban expansion from its foundation to the reign of Justinian. The role of the imperial court in conditioning the development of the capital will also be explored, as well as the emergence of a peculiar urban society that was highly stratified internally. In the Justinian era, several historians estimate that Constantinople had a population of around half a million people. This meant that the emperors paid constant attention to the organisation of its supply, which has left eloquent traces in both historical and archaeological documentation.

Readings/Bibliography

1) Introductory part

Reading is required of:

― Georg Ostrogorsky, Storia dell'impero bizantino, It. trans. Turin 1968 (or following editions).

P.S. Non-attending students are also required to read:

― L’uomo bizantino, a cura di Guglielmo Cavallo, Roma -Bari 1992.

 

2) Monographic part:

― Gilbert Dagron, Costantinopoli: nascita di una capitale, 330-451, trad. it. Torino 1991

― Wolfgang Müller Wiener, Costantinopoli, la nuova Roma, in Storia di Roma, 3. L’età tardoantica, II. I luoghi e le culture, Torino 1993, pp. 143-174.

― P. Schreiner, Costantinopoli. Metropoli dai mille volti, presentazione di S. Ronchey, trad. it. Roma 2009 (ed. originale tedesca 2007).

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.

Assessment methods

Passing the examination requires an oral test. It consists of an assessment of the notions relating to the introductory part of the course and a discussion of the content relating to the monographic part.

 

The final mark for the examination is determined by the following scores: 12/30 for the introductory part; 18/30 for the monographic one.

Teaching tools

― Translations of sources

― distribution of photocopies

― power-point presentations.

Office hours

See the website of Salvatore Cosentino