DSMA02 Reading and Interpretation of Historical Sources - Rome

Faculty of Arts
Spring 2025
Extent and Intensity
0/2/0. 4 credit(s). Type of Completion: k (colloquium).
In-person direct teaching
Teacher(s)
Mgr. et Mgr. Markéta Melounová, Ph.D. (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
Mgr. et Mgr. Markéta Melounová, Ph.D.
Department of Classical Studies – Faculty of Arts
Contact Person: Jitka Erlebachová
Supplier department: Department of Classical Studies – Faculty of Arts
Prerequisites
!(OBOR(DST) && TYP_STUDIA(B))
Very good knowledge of Latin or ancient Greek.
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is also offered to the students of the fields other than those the course is directly associated with.
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives
In the seminar, sources related to selected topics from the history of the Roman Republic and the Principate whose analysis requires more profound knowledge of political, economic, social or even legal context will be read.
Students will work predominantly with texts in the original, either within ordinary editions, or in the form of electronic sources accessible from the database hub Litterae ante portas.
Learning outcomes
At the end of the course students will be able to search out and select independently primary sources appropriate for the subject of their research in Roman history, to analyze and interpret them professionally in the context of the author, genre and period.
Syllabus
  • In the seminary parts of Greek and Latin sources concerning history of Rome from the beginnings to the end of the Principate will be read. The selection of topics may be subject to change. The selection of sources will include sources of various kinds: historians as well as epigraphic and legal sources or poetry. The texts will be read preferably in the original language.
  • The texts will usually be chosen from these areas: Greek historians of the Roman Republic and the Principate (Polybius, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Cassius Dio; Herodianus); Titus Livius; Augustan poets (pseudo-Tibullus - Panegyricus Messalae, Propertius; Ovidius - Ex Ponto); Latin historians of the Early and High Empire (Cornelius Tacitus – Agricola, Historiae; Plinius Minor – Epistulae, Panegyricus Traiani; Historia Augusta); edition of epigraphic sources (Monumentum Ancyranum; Augustan edicts from Cyrene; Senatus consultum de Cn. Pisone patre; Lex de imperio Vespasiani).
Literature
    required literature
  • The Cambridge companion to the Roman historians. Edited by Andrew Feldherr. 1st pub. Cambridge: Cambridge University, 2009, xviii, 464. ISBN 9780521670937. info
  • A companion to Greek and Roman historiography. Edited by John Marincola. Pbk. ed. 1st pub. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011, xli, 705. ISBN 9781444339239. info
  • SYME, Ronald. Emperors and biography : studies in the Historia Augusta. Oxford: Claredon Press, 1971, vii, 306. ISBN 0198143575. info
    recommended literature
  • SYME, Ronald. Tacitus. Vol. I, II. Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1958.
  • A companion to Tacitus. Edited by Victoria Emma Pagan. 1st pub. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012, xvii, 599. ISBN 9781405190329. info
  • Latin panegyric. Edited by Roger Rees. 1st pub. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012, xvi, 430. ISBN 9780199576715. info
  • KAPUST, Daniel J. Republicanism, rhetoric, and Roman political thought : Sallust, Livy, and Tacitus. 1st pub. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011, viii, 196. ISBN 9781107000575. info
  • The Cambridge companion to Tacitus. Edited by A. J. Woodman. 1st pub. Cambridge: Cambridge University, 2009, xvi, 366. ISBN 9780521697484. info
  • Irony and misreading in the Annals of Tacitus. Edited by Ellen O'Gorman. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000, vii, 200 p. ISBN 0521660564. info
  • SCHEITBAUER, Andrea. Kaiserbild und literarisches Programm : Untersuchungen zur Tendenz der Historia Augusta. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 1987, 236 s. ISBN 382049927X. info
  • VON ALBRECHT, H. Lateinische Literatur. 1983. info
  • HOHL, Ernst. Über die Glaubwürdigkeit der Historia Augusta. Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1953. info
Teaching methods
Critical analysis of selected texts, discussion.
Assessment methods
Active particiation in class, completing ongoing tasks, home preparation of texts to be read in the class, attendance (70 %).
Language of instruction
Czech
Further Comments
The course is taught annually.
The course is taught: every week.
The course is also listed under the following terms Spring 2020, Spring 2021, Spring 2023, Spring 2024.
  • Enrolment Statistics (Spring 2025, recent)
  • Permalink: https://is.muni.cz/course/phil/spring2025/DSMA02