Citizenship, Belonging and Exclusion in the Roman World

Catalog description

What did it mean to be a citizen in the Roman world? What did citizens do in order to support their claims to belong in the civic community? Conversely, what about those members of the community who were judged not to belong? What limitations acted upon them, and what were the terms of their exclusion? This course will begin by exploring practices of citizenship in the Roman Republic and Empire: voting, serving in the military, running for office, and so on. It will then examine the experiences of those who, for some reason, were excluded from one or more of these roles. Fundamentally, our question is: “To what extent was Roman society diverse and inclusive?” No prior knowledge of Roman History is required. Texts will be discussed in translation.