Enslavement and Culture in the Roman Empire, 2025-2026 - Prospectus

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

The Roman Empire was characterized by mass-enslavement: particularly in Italy, but also elsewhere in the Empire, large numbers of people were held as slaves – in cities and on the countryside. This reality closely intertwined with Roman imperial hegemony: enslavement became significantly more widespread in the period of imperial conquest, and it became a defining feature of Roman imperial culture. Yet, the pervasiveness of enslavement in Roman imperial culture has not always been appreciated by ancient historians.

In this research seminar we will reassess the relation between Roman imperial hegemony, enslavement and cultural change by looking at the role of enslavement in the transformation of culture and society between the early second century BCE and the late third century CE, using a combination of literary texts, epigraphic sources and architectural remains. The course will start from the history of enslavement in the Italian peninsula, but students will be welcome to write papers on any aspect of the relation between enslavement and Roman imperial culture.

In order to participate in this course students need to make an entry test in the form of a 1000 word essay. For the entry test, students will read a cohesive selection of c. 180-200 pp. from the following titles (using more than one title):

George, M. (ed., 2018). Roman Slavery and Roman Material Culture. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Joshel, S.R. and L. Petersen (2014). The Material Life of Roman Slaves. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Roth, U. (2007). Thinking tools: agricultural slavery between evidence and models. London: Institute of Classical Studies.
Stewart, R.M. (2012). Plautus and Roman slavery. Oxford: Wiley Blackwell.
Vlassopoulos, K. (2021). Historicising Ancient Slavery. Edinburgh Studies in Ancient Slavery. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

Precise instructions will be published on Brightspace; deadline for the entry test will be 48 hours before the first class.

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:

is able to link histories of enslavement in the Roman world to processes of empire formation;
is able to understand and analyze the evolving role of enslavement in Roman imperial culture;
is able to find and analyze written and material sources for the study of enslavement from the last centuries BCE and first centuries CE;
(ResMA only – is able to situate scholarly assessments of Roman imperial enslavement in their intellectual and historical context).

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)
measured learning objectives: 1-8, 11-16
Entry test
measured learning objectives: 4, 7, 11-12, 14, 16
Oral presentation
measured learning objectives: 3-7, 11-16
Assignment 1 (debates and historiography)
measured learning objectives: 4, 7, 11-12, 14, 16
Assignment 2 (textual evidence)
measured learning objectives: 4, 7, 11-16
Assignment 3 (spaces of enslavement)
measured learning objectives: 4, 7, 11-16

Weighing

Written paper: 60%
Entry test: 5%
Oral presentation: 5%
Assignment 1: 10%
Assignment 2: 10%
Assignment 3: 10%

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

A full overview of relevant literature will be published on brightspace

Registration

Enrolment through MyStudyMap is mandatory.

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.

Enslavement and Culture in the Roman Empire