HISTORY AND CIVILIZATION OF ANCIENT ROMANS

The course is one of the core educational activities characterizing the Master’s Degree Program in Humanities.
It has the purpose to guarantee to the students the advanced knowledge of Roman history; through the study of a topic, the political communication in the Domus principis, assures to the students the knowledge of a essential aspect of the Roman political history. It has the purpose to guarantee to the students the knowledge of the methodology of research in the roman history; knowledge of the lexicon of the subject. The students will develop research and didactical skills in the subject and acquire skills as critical approach during the evaluation of information and news, and understanding of events and cultural processes crucial in the constitution of the occidental identity. Attending and studying will allow students to acquire the ability to point out the roots of nowadays’s issues about political communication in order to make them comprehend better. It intends to guarantee the acquisition of cognitive abilities as sketch out a scientific research and practical abilities as be able to hand the results of scientific research over through the scientific communication and the public history.
The achivement of these goals assures to the student the cultural, disciplinary, methodological knowledge to insert in the world of work in didactical, cultural, divulgation and communication-linked field suitable with his itinerary of the academic studies.

Active participation in lectures and individual study will enable students to develop the following abilities and competencies, articulated according to the Dublin descriptors:
- Knowledge and Understanding: knowledge and understanding of specific problems and themes of Roman history and civilization; proficiency in analyzing sources; ability to connect theoretical and methodological content to the interpretation of past, present, and future events and processes.
- Applying Knowledge and Understanding: ability to historically contextualize literary and epigraphic documents and to comment on them from the perspective of Roman history.
- Making Judgements: ability to read and contextualize previously unknown sources and to discern the peculiarities of specific themes in Roman history.
- Communication Skills: ability to communicate the specifics of the discipline using appropriate terminology; ability to convey, argue, and present research findings to various stakeholders and target audiences.
- Learning Skills: ability to apply learning outcomes to unfamiliar contexts and to utilize updated tools and bibliography; ability to engage with seminar topics.

Students should already have attended a BA level Roman history course.
A good knowledge of italian language is necessary.
Foreign students are invited to contact the teacher beforehand.

Through a ample introduction and an exemplification made by the teacher and classroom exemplification, result of teamwork made by students, the course "Ceremonies and Rituals as Occasions for Political Communication in Republican and Imperial Rome: the funera of the mobilitas" aims to analyze, following a careful reconstruction of ritual phases, how these occasions constituted moments where the Roman ruling class, by instrumentalizing a private ceremony and transforming it into a public event, ensured communication with the populus Romanus to showcase their capacity for leadership through the display of their "symbolic capital." Through a selection of significant episodes (funerals of Publicola, Sulla, Caesar, Augustus, and the members of the Domus Augusta), communication strategies will be investigated, actors and contents of political communication will be identified; finally, attention will be given to the strategies implemented by Augustus to construct his role within the Roman res publica, including the instrumental use of these ceremonies. The student will acquire the methodology, the tools of historical research, the appropriate use of the scientific lexicon.

All foreign students are invited to contact the course tutor beforehand in order to discuss their study programmes for individual assessment.

The evaluation is based on three parts: the check of knowledge on the course contents through an oral examination on topics of the course and on topics developed on texts recommanded in the bibliography; during the same oral test the check of knowledge on contents explained by other students; during seminar, the oral exposition of brief personal research about the politica communication during the Late Republic and the Early Empire (substituted for non attending students by extra lectures).
Through these exam the teacher verifies:
1) knowledge: acquisition of fundamental concepts and scientific lexicon of the subject and the methodology of historical research;
2) cognitive abilities: the application of the methodology of historical research with particular focus on the use of sources and on critical approach on bibliography about the Roman history; the ability of analysis of historical processes; practical abilities: communicative abilities, for the public history and scientific communication (selecting the contents, the ways of communication, the time, know how to deal with team work)
3) skills: capability to analyze reality and information and to increase critical awareness in peculiarity of each historical period.
Each category of examination is judged according to a scale of thirty points, and the final mark is the result of the average of the points earned for each examination.
All foreign students are invited to contact the course tutor beforehand in order to discuss their study programmes for individual assessment.
Assessment Grid:
28-30L: excellent mastery of the topics covered in class and in the textbooks; excellent ability to prioritize information; appropriate use of technical terminology of the discipline;
26-27: good knowledge of the topics covered in class and in the textbooks; good ability to organize and present information; generally correct use of the technical terminology of the discipline;
24-25: fair knowledge of the topics covered in class and in the textbooks; fair ability to organize information; use of technical terminology of the discipline not always correct;
22-23: occasionally superficial and/or incomplete knowledge of the topics covered in class and in the textbooks; presentation not always clear and/or lacking in technical terminology of the discipline;
18-21: occasionally incomplete knowledge of the topics covered in class and in the textbooks, but still sufficient; presentation not clear and/or lacking and/or with scarce use of the technical terminology of the discipline.

Classes will be lead as ten teacher's lesson and five lessons as seminar, so that all students will have the opportunity to participate in class presentations. A specific research topic will be assigned to each participant. Ancient sources and further readings that will help students prepare their presentation will be provided in class.

Italian

Students who attend this course will be entitled to take part to the seminar activities, stages and training courses organised by the Roman History and Classics faculty during the two terms (the calendar of activities will be provided in class and on the Ca' Foscari website).

For any questions, students are encouraged to contact the professor.

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