The World of Ancient Rome.

Catalog description

Humanities 304 offers students an in-depth look at Roman Culture, its language, laws, arts, history, philosophy, literature, and cultural values. Students can expect to live and breathe Roman culture, and gauge its impact on the world then, now, and all of the time in between. The course will explore Roman culture from its earliest fragments of Latin inscriptions and the customary Twelve Tables of Law, through the tumultuous Roman passions for building, power, love, lust, war, bread, and games. The course ends in the Roman dust, when the Western Empire falls, circa 476 CE, and the surviving eastern half grows ever stranger as the centuries pass. Students will learn about Rome both in the grand scale of its huge achievements and ambitions, as well as in the small ways of everyday life. The course contributes to the Minor and Concentration in the Humanities.