FF:DSBcB27 The Unrelenting World - Course Information

DSBcB27 The Unrelenting World: Labour, Violence, and Death in Ancient Roman Society

Extent and Intensity

2/0/0. 4 credit(s). Type of Completion: z (credit).

Teacher(s)

Mgr. Tereza Antošovská, Ph.D. (lecturer)

Guaranteed by

Mgr. Tereza Antošovská, Ph.D.
Department of Classical Studies – Faculty of Arts
Contact Person: Jitka Erlebachová
Supplier department: Department of Classical Studies – Faculty of Arts

Timetable

each odd Tuesday 8:00–9:40 A21

Prerequisites (in Czech)

! DSBcB027 The Unrelenting World

Course Enrolment Limitations

The course is also offered to the students of the fields other than those the course is directly associated with.
The capacity limit for the course is 40 student(s).
Current registration and enrolment status: enrolled: 1/40, only registered: 0/40, only registered with preference (fields directly associated with the programme): 0/40

fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with

• Ancient History (programme FF, B-DST_) (3)

Course objectives

The aim of the course is to introduce students to the dark side of the ancient world and to the reality of everyday life. A part of the course will be also a work with relevant primary texts for the purpose of approaching the perspective of the ancient citizen and of practicing the student’s ability to analyse historical sources.

Learning outcomes

Students will get practical experience with primary sources and analysis of historical sources. This experience they excercise in final essay (with the excercise of the abilities of interpretation, argumentation and writing skills).

Syllabus

• Work, violence and death belong to the fundamental phenomena of every human society, but their perception and meaning differ in each society. What was the concept of labour in the Roman society? How did the world of work and leisure varied – conceptually as well as in fact – for the elite and common people, adults and children, free citizens and slaves? What do we know about the perception, function and prosecuting of violence in a society which had public killing as a popular form of entertainment? And finally, how were dying and death perceived, as a human faced them due to the high mortality rate already from tender age and more often than today?
• 1) The idea of work and profession (attitudes to manual x intellectual work, view and “professions” of an elite society, concept of “free time”)
• 2) A silent majority: labour from childhood to old age (apprenticeship, free citizens x slaves, city x countryside)
• 3) Brutality around: public violence (crime and punishment, games, wars)
• 4) Domestic violence: boundaries of acceptable physical punishments and brutality
• 5) On a way to death: health, disease and dying
• 6) Culture of death: perception of death and afterlife

Literature

required literature
• NUTTON, Vivian. Ancient medicine. London: Routledge, 2005, xiii, 486. ISBN 0415368480. info

recommended literature
• The murder of Regillaa case of domestic violence in antiquity. Edited by Sarah B. Pomeroy. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2007, 249 p. ISBN 0674025830. info
• Rome at warfarms, families, and death in the Middle Republic. Edited by Nathan Stewart Rosenstein. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2004, x, 339 p. ISBN 0807828394. info
• Spectacles of death in ancient Rome. Edited by Donald G. Kyle. New York: Routledge, 1998, xii, 288 p. ISBN 0415096782. info
• Geschichte des privaten Lebens. Edited by Paul Veyne - Holger Fliessbach. Frankfurt am Main: S. Fischer Verlag, 1989, 621 s. ISBN 3100336313. info

not specified
• viz studijní materiály a doporučená literatura na základě vybraného tématu

Teaching methods

Lectures, reading primary texts and interpreting them

Assessment methods

Active participation; essay on chosen topic

Language of instruction

Czech

Further Comments

The course is taught annually.

• Enrolment Statistics (Autumn 2019, recent)
  
• Permalink: https://is.muni.cz/course/phil/autumn2019/DSBcB27