13352 - Roman Antiquities and Institutions

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course the student is acquainted with the most important public and private institutions of the Roman world and is able to analyse them through the critics of literary, documentary, and iconographical sources. He is able to understand the evolution and dynamic of those institutions, in the frame of the social, political, and historical context. He is able to properly communicate on the main topics related to this discipline.

Course contents

Oriental Cults in Rome (3rd-5th centuries).

This course aims to deepen some aspects of the religiosity in the Roman world during the crucial period in which Christianity was spreading and gaining a foothold.

Special attention will be paid to the crisis of the imperial cult and the concomitant diffusion of the oriental cults.

Readings/Bibliography

1. Jörg Rüpke, La religione dei Romani, Einaudi: Torino 2004.
2. Ennio Sanzi, I culti orientali nell’impero romano: un’antologia di fonti, Cosenza: Lionello Giordano editore 2003.

 

Caution: The texts from the anthology will be read and exhaustively commented during the lectures. It is up to the students who do not attend the lectures to prepare this part for the exam autonomously. To do this they shall resort to finding of the comments in the original editions. For this reason it is advisable to follow the lessons.

Teaching methods

During the lessons the ancient texts that are found in the anthology recommended in the program will be contextualized, translated, discussed and commented.

Assessment methods

Oral examination. The interview will evaluate critical and methodological skills developped by the student, who is invited to get confronted with the texts covered during the course. The student's capability to face the sources and the bibliographical materials in order to identify useful information allowing to describe all cultural areas of the discipline will be assessed. The achievement by the student of an organic vision of the issues addressed during the course, the development of a critical attitude towards their use and his/her mastery of a specific scientific language will be assessed with a mark of excellence. A mechanical and / or mnemonic knowledge of the subject, a low capability of synthesis and analysis and / or correct but not always appropriate language will lead to a decent evaluation; training gaps and / or inappropriate language - although in a context of a minimal knowledge of the material - will lead to votes that will not exceed the sufficiency. Training gaps, inappropriate language, confusion while facing the reference materials offered during the course will be evaluated as unsatisfactory.

Teaching tools

The course will be organised in frontal lessons held by the teacher himself. He will sometimes make use of an overhead-projector, computer presentations and photocopies of the texts. All these materials can be found at the end of the course also on-line on the web-page of the course.

Office hours

See the website of Tommaso Gnoli