Please contact Dr. Mark Graham with any questions you may have
Grove City College
The History and Archaeology of the Roman Empire:
Rome, Pompeii, Carthage (HIST 390)

May 16 - June 1, 2010

Course Description

  The Romans once ruled somewhere between 50-70 million people, in an Empire stretching from Britain to the Tigris, and from the Danube to the Sahara.  This course will explore that Empire and its provinces via readings and archaeological sites and monuments.  We will analyze what remains at the Empire’s center and capital, and then strike out to an early Italian imperial city.  We will then travel extensively throughout some of Rome’s earliest and most important provincial regions in North Africa.  Comparative study of center and periphery (topographic, archaeological, archaeological, artistic, etc.) will be a vital emphasis throughout.


Readings

- Peter Garnsey and Richard Saller, The Roman Empire: Economy, Society, and Culture. 
Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987.

- Paul MacKendrick, The North African Stones Speak.  Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1980.


Student Responsibility

- One Exam on Lectures and Readings

- Typed and Polished Travel Journal with personal and scholarly reflections on readings and lectures throughout.

- Active Participation in relevant events (all lectures and on-site explorations).

- On-Campus Lectures (GCC): We will meet as a group for 5 lectures and discussions over the course of the Spring Semester 2010.  These meetings will provide background and will help situate our trip culturally and historically.

- On-Site Lectures and Explorations (Rome and environs, Pompeii, Tunis, Carthage, Bulla Regia, Chemtou, Dougga, Sbeitla, Kairouan).


Lectures

Lecture One (3/10) – “The Corrupting Sea”: The Mediterranean as an Historical Unit

Lecture Two (3/17) – Urbanitas: An Empire of Cities and Citizens
Read Garnsey and Saller Chapters 1-4

Lecture Three (3/24) -- Oikonomos:  Economy and Society
Read Garnsey and Saller Chapters 5-8

Lecture Four (4/9) – Romanitas: Unity and Diversity
Read Garnsey and Saller Chapters 9-10 and MacKendrick Chapters 1-2

Lecture Five (4/14) – “To Carthage Then I Came”
Read MacKendrick Chapters 3-4


Itinerary

May  17 Arrival and Walking Tour

Arrive Rome 7:20 AM and check into hotel
Walking tour orientation of Rome including:
Piazza de Popolo
Spanish Steps
Trevi Fountain
Vittorio Emanuel
Trajan’s Forum
St. John Laterine


May  18          Palatine Hill, Forum, Coliseum

Palatine Hill and Imperial Complex
Roman Forum, guided tour and time for free exploration
Coliseum


May 19            Ostia Antica

Ostia Antica, guided tour and time for free exploration


May  20           Capitoline Museum

Baths of Caracalla
Circus Maximus
Capitoline Museum
Pantheon
Plaza Navona


May  21           Catacombs and Vatican City

Christian Catacombs
Guided Tour of Vatican Museum
Sistine Chapel
St. Peter’s Basilica


May  22         Pompeii

Guided Tour of Pompeii


May  23          Free Day

Students given the day to explore Rome on their own


May 24Departure for Tunisia

Departure for Tunisia – 9:20 AM



The program will continue in Tunisia until June 1.

Please contact Dr. Mark Graham with any questions you may have