Living with Roman slavery: evidential approaches to understanding the slave experience ADED11972E
- Academic Session: 2023-24
- School: Short Courses
- Credits: 5
- Level: Level 1 (SCQF level 7)
- Typically Offered: Summer
- Available to Visiting Students: Yes
Short Description
This course gives students a short introduction to the life of a slave in ancient Rome. Due to the lack of evidence from slaves themselves, it will emphasise the importance of using a variety of evidentiary sources (literature, legislation and material culture) when studying Roman slavery and will use those to develop an understanding of the life of a slave, from the point of enslavement to the point of manumission.
Timetable
Block 3, weeks 1-5
2 hours per week for 5 weeks
Wednesdays, 19.00-21.00
Requirements of Entry
None
Excluded Courses
None
Co-requisites
None
Assessment
2 gobbet-style source analyses of a textual and an archaeological primary source, accompanied by a short discussion of how they contribute to our views of slavery in ancient Rome (c.1000 words in total).
Course Aims
This course aims to:
■ Introduce students to ancient source materials, both archaeological and textual
■ Expose the biases in primary sources and see past them to engage with the evidence they contain
■ Provide a balanced insight into Roman slavery from what is often fragmentary or one-sided evidence
Intended Learning Outcomes of Course
By the end of this course students will be able to:
■ Explain how slavery functioned in Roman society
■ Identify and evaluate the wide-ranging and often fragmentary evidence of Roman slavery
■ Demonstrate a critical approach to ancient source materials.
Minimum Requirement for Award of Credits
Students must submit at least 75% by weight of the components (including examinations) of the course's summative assessment.