Admission requirements
This course is part of the (Res)MA History Programme. Students from within the specialization the course belongs to have right of way. It is not accessible for BA students.
Description
Society, Culture and Religion in Roman Asia Minor, 133 BCE-400 CE
In 133 BCE the last king of Pergamon bequeathed his kingdom to Rome. The revolt sparked by this decision was soon suppressed and the province of Asia (western Asia Minor) was added to the Roman empire. During the next two centuries Roman control was gradually extended over the entire region between the Aegean and the Euphrates. In the triumviral and Augustan periods a considerable number of Roman veteran colonies was established in various parts of this vast area. The topics that can be researched in this seminar are countless. The western districts of Asia Minor had been urbanized since the Archaic period. How did these cities and their population fare under Roman rule? And how did the inhabitants of these cities come to terms of with their new Roman overlords? Do we see any changes in the local or regional economies of Asia Minor, for instance in the important harbour city of Ephesus? What happened to the populations of the Roman colonies? Did they continue to speak Latin or were they quickly ‘hellenized’? Which developments do we see in the polytheistic religions of the cities and villages of Asia Minor, and how did the inhabitants of these cities and villages deal with adherents of monotheistic religions, initially Judaism and later Christianity?
As this brief description implies, students will be allowed (indeed encouraged) to follow their own interests, as long the as the focus remains on discontinuities, or continuities, in the fields of administration, local political life, economic life, social life, culture or religion.
Admission to the course is dependent on the successful completion of an entry-test which will be held in week 2 (one week after the introductory session). Literature: S. Mitchell, Anatolia. Land, men, and gods in Asia Minor, vol. 1 (Oxford 1993). Although this is an old book, it remains the most recent synthetic overview of (parts of) Roman Asia Minor. This simple fact is enough to show how much new work is still to be done when it comes to this part of the Roman empire.
Course objectives
General learning objectives
The student has acquired:
- The ability to independently identify and select literature, using traditional and modern techniques;
- The ability to independently identify and select sources, using traditional and modern techniques;
- The ability to analyse and evaluate a corpus of sources with a view to addressing a particular historical problem;
- The ability to analyse and evaluate literature with a view to addressing a particular historical problem;
- The ability to independently formulate a clear and well-argued research question, taking into account the theory and method of the field and to reduce this question to accessible and manageable sub-questions;
- The ability to independently set up and carry out an original research project that can make a contribution to existing scholarly debates;
- The ability to give a clear and well-founded oral and written report on research results in correct English, when required, or Dutch, meeting the criteria of the discipline;
- The ability to participate in current debates in the specialisation;
- The ability to provide constructive feedback to and formulate criticism of the work of others and the ability to evaluate the value of such criticism and feedback on one’s own work and incorporate it;
- (ResMA only:) The ability to participate in a discussion of the theoretical foundations of the discipline.
Learning objectives, pertaining to the specialisation
The student has acquired:
- Thorough knowledge and comprehension of one of the specialisations as well as of the historiography of the specialisation Ancient History, focusing particularly on the unification processes in the Graeco-Roman World, 400 BC – 400 AD; insight into the recent large-scale debates in the field with respect to both the history of mentality and socio-economic history.
- Thorough knowledge and comprehension of the theoretical, conceptual and methodological aspects of the specialisation or subspecialisation in question, with a particular focus on the following:
-in the specialisation Ancient History: the comparative method; application of socio-scientific methods; specialized source knowledge, in particular of documentary sources, and more specifically epigraphy.
Learning objectives, pertaining to this Research Seminar
The student:
- will have acquired a deep knowledge of the impact of Roman rule on Asia Minor
- will have improved his/her ability to carry out historical research using primary sources
- will have significantly improved his/her ability to assess the merits/weakness of existing publications dealing with various parts of Asia Minor as well as her/his ability to develop a sustained argument dealing with a specific problem in the field of ancient-historical studies
- (ResMA only – will have singnificantly improved her/his ability to deal with difficult primary sources, large amounts of literary, epigraphic or archaeological evidence and complex historical debates. She/he will have significantly improved her/his ability to carry out original research which raises new questions, pioneers new approaches and/or points to new directions of future research.
Timetable
The timetables are available through MyTimetable.
Mode of instruction
- Seminar (compulsory attendance)
This means that students must attend every session of the course. If a student is not able to attend, he is required to notify the lecturer beforehand. The teacher will determine if and how the missed session can be compensated by an additional assignment. If specific restrictions apply to a particular course, the lecturer will notify the students at the beginning of the semester. If a student does not comply with the aforementioned requirements, the student will be excluded from the seminar.
Assessment method
Assessment
Written paper (6,500-7,500 words, based on research in primary sources, excluding title page, table of contents, footnotes and bibliography)
Entry test
Oral presentation
Assignment 1: short paper (2-3 pages) dealing with the administrative structures of Roman Asia Minor (a necessary prerequisite for all other types of research)
Assignment 2: short paper (2-3 pages) dealing with (traditional (i.e. non-Christian) forms of religion in Roman Asia Minor.
measured learning objectives: 1-16
Weighing
Written paper: 70 %
Entry test: 10 %
Oral presentation: 10 %
Assignment 1: 5: %
Assignment 2: 5: %
The final grade for the course is established by determining the weighted average with the additional requirement that the written paper must always be sufficient.
Deadlines
Assignments and written papers should be handed in within the deadline as provided in the relevant course outline on Brightspace.
Resit
Should the overall mark be unsatisfactory, the paper is to be revised after consultation with the instructor.
Inspection and feedback
How and when a review of the written paper will take place will be disclosed together with the publication of the results at the latest. If a student requests a review within 30 days after publication of the results, a review of the written paper will have to be organised.
Reading list
S. Mitchell, Anatolia. Land, men, and gods in Asia Minor, vol. 1 (Oxford 1993).
Registration
Enrolment through MyStudyMap is mandatory.
General information about course and exam enrolment is available on the website.
Contact
For course related questions, contact the lecturer listed in the right information bar.
For questions about enrolment, admission, etc, contact the Education Administration Office: Huizinga.
Remarks
Not applicable