CLST 277-16-016: The World of Late Antiquity

Projects

Goals

• To work collaboratively
• To study in greater depth material that complements common class readings
• To present what you have learned to the class in a creative, engaging way, so we can all learn too
• To provide the instructor with a written report of your research and collaborative work on the presentation, so she can assess your project with appropriate understanding
• To plan and develop a project over time

Dates

• Friday, 2/5: preliminary statements of interest due
• Monday, 2/8: group assignments returned; exchange phone numbers and begin to plan preliminary research
• Friday, 2/26: first progress reports due from each group member
  • What have you read, so far?
  • What questions have you begun to formulate about your topic? What seems to be important? What seems especially interesting?
  • What plans has the group developed so far to investigate your questions?
• Week of Monday, 3/1: consultations with instructor
• Wednesday, 3/31: second progress reports due from each group member
  • What have you read, so far? List bibliographical references, and summarize briefly what each item is contributing to your research.
  • How have you refined your questions about your topic? What issues have emerged as the most interesting and important?
  • How is the group starting to plan to address these issues in your presentation?
• Week of Wednesday, 4/7: consultations with instructor; presentation schedule will be announced
• Monday, April 19: Presentation by Group A: Julian, Oration in Praise of Eusebia
• Friday, April 23: Presentation by Group 1: Claudian, Panegyric for the Sixth Consulate of Honorius and imperial adventus
• Project reports are due one week after your group's presentation, i.e., Group A on Monday 26 April and Group 1 on Friday 30 April: see guidelines below

Project reports

Reports should be relatively formal, typed and including bibliography of your research (separately from the page-counts suggested). What I want them to do is to give me insight into how your group's presentation came together, and in particular what you contributed to the collaboration. Please address the following issues:

• Outline and describe the conclusions from your research that your group sought to present: what have you learned about your group's topic? (3-5 pages, including what you read and how it contributed to your group's research; this section may work best structured as an essay on the topic of your presentation)
• Outline and describe how the group designed your presentation: how did your collaboration evolve? Who did what? How did your thinking about the project change as you all got in to your research? How did you select what to present, and how to go about presenting it? (1-2 pages)
• Reflect on the project: did the presentation achieve what you wanted? What might you do differently, if you had to do it all again? What did you learn from pursuing research as part of a collaborative project and from presenting your research in class, that might be different from what you would have done pursuing research individually and presenting it only in a formal paper? (1 page)

• How does Julian define Eusebia's role as empress? What values for feminine conduct does he uphold? How does Eusebia's activity relate to an emperor's? Compare and contrast to items we have read about emperors.
• How do Julian's own distinctive interests figure in the speech -- how does his praise of Eusebia advertise his own values and passions? Compare and contrast especially to Misopogon.
• Research resources:
  • Glen Bowersock, Julian the Apostate, DG317 .B68, Cudahy Reserves
  • Gillian Clark, Women in Late Antiquity, HQ1127 .C53 1993, Cudahy Reserves
  • Diotima: Materials for the Study of Women and Gender in the Ancient World

Group 1: The Emperor Arrives: the sensory and ideological experience of later Roman imperial pageantry: Claudian, Panegyric for the Sixth Consulate of Honorius, in Michael Dewar, ed., Panegyricus de sexto consulatu Honorii, PA 6373 .E5 P34 1996, Cudahy Reserves
Presentation Friday 23 April

• What ceremonial customs framed a later Roman emperor's "arrival" at a city of the empire? What did the ceremony suggest about the emperor? How does place function within the ceremony of "arrival"? What did the ceremony do for the citizens, as a performance and otherwise?
• Compare and contrast this poem both to Ammianus's account of Constantius II's "arrival" to Rome in Book 16.10, and to Claudian's panegyric for the consulate of Olybrius and Probinus. How does Claudian's job as a ceremonial poet influence the way he treats Honorius's visit to Rome? How does the fact he is treating the consulate of an emperor, not just a citizen, affect his poetry?
• Research resources:
  • Michael Dewar, ed., Panegyricus de sexto consulatu Honorii, PA 6373 .E5 P34 1996, Cudahy Reserves
  • Sabine MacCormack, Art and Ceremony in Late Antiquity, DG124 .M33, Cudahy Reserves
  • Michael McCormick, Eternal Victory: Triumphal Rulership in Late Antiquity, Byzantium, and the Early Medieval West, DG89 .M25 1986, Cudahy Reserves