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Introduction to the Socio-Economic History of the Ancient World

A.Y. 2024/2025
9
Max ECTS
60
Overall hours
SSD
L-ANT/03
Language
Italian
Learning objectives
Lessons have the aim of introducing the student in the main structures of Greek, Hellenistic and Roman societies (with some references to ancient Near East), while giving him knowledges about sources, methodological problems, the main interpretative theories of these structures. So in a synthetic way will be presented agriculture and agronomic ancient think, the exploitation of natural products (mines, caves ), the development of bank activities, industrial productions end their organization, and finally commerce (networks, local markets, international markets ).
Expected learning outcomes
Knowledges: the student will acquire a knowledge of the organisation of the main sectors of the economy of classical societies and he /she will consider all this in relation with richness and status parameters of people and social groups. The student will acquire the capacity of creating links between historical events and phaenomena and the economic structures as well as some fundamental cultural elements of Ancient societies. A historiographic, as well as a methodologic approach, is a central objective to obtain, in particular through the analysis of the documents -mainly in Greek and Latin-, but in general of all the sources (papyrological, archaeological, numismatic, epigraphical, literary) and their often apparent contradictions. Competences: the student must obtain a critical capacity of interpretation of documents and ancient sources through which it is possible to reconstruct the social and economic history of the Graeco-Roman world. For this purpose, Graeco-Roman Egypt will be a true "laboratory," being the area from where documentary material mostly comes. The critical method must be applied also to the interpretations of the historiographical thought.

Lesson period: Second semester

Lessons timetable

Assessment methods: Esame
Assessment result: voto verbalizzato in trentesimi

Exams calendar

Single course

This course can be attended as a single course.

Take a single course
Course syllabus and organization

Single session

Responsible
Bussi Silvia
Lesson period
Second semester
Course syllabus
A+B (6 CFU, 40 hours):
-Introduction: greek thought about oikonomia and birth of structured societies
-personal status and society: Greece, Hellenistic World, Roman world
-cultural and economic bases of classical societies: chronological transformations and local, regional peculiarities.
-Focus on:
1)Familyas the basis of greek and Hellenistic polis
Family in Roman society
2) Woman in greek and hellnistic societies: local peculiarities and structural differencies
Roman Women
3) Priests and priestesses, culture and economy of the sacred in Greece, inside the multicultural hellenistic societies, in the Roman context
4) Army: recruitement and training, social and economic role from greek polis to roman empire
5) Slaves: legal, economic, social aspects of a very hybrid cathegory of people from classical Greece to Roman Empire

C (3 CFU, 20 hours): Greek, Hellenistic and Roman World confronted to the other.

We will analyse institutional, juridical, cuiltural, economic and social aspects of the relations that ancient societies had with the "other: Greeks with foreigners, Hellenistic societies with an other interior or exterior, Romans with Greeks, Jews, Barbarians
Prerequisites for admission
No prerequisites for admission. Better if the student has done exams of Greek and/or Roman History
Teaching methods
The course is offered in a lecture format. All the topics will be presented to students, based on interpretative theories as well as sources, which the teacher will read in Italian translation. Attendance is not mandatory but highly recommended.
Teaching Resources
Studenti frequentanti
Oltre agli appunti delle lezioni:

6CFU
-N. Bernard, Donne e società nella Grecia antica, Carocci 2011
oppure
F. Cenerini, La donna romana, Il Mulino 2013
-G. Brizzi, Il guerriero, l'oplita, il legionario, Il mulino 2008
-J. Andreau, R. Descat, Gli schiavi nel mondo greco-romano, Il Mulino 2014

9 CFU:
-N. Bernard, Donne e società nella Grecia antica, Carocci 2011
Bettalli, Brizzi, Guerre ed eserciti nelle società antiche, Il mulino 2019
- J. Andreau, R. Descat, Gli schiavi nel mondo greco-romano, Il Mulino 2014
-Carlà, Marcone, Economia e finanza a Roma, Il Mulino 2011

Studenti non frequentanti:

6 CFU:
-N. Bernard, Donne e società nella Grecia antica, Carocci 2011
-F. Cenerini, La donna romana, Il Mulino 2013
OPPURE
L. Capponi, Cleopatra, Laterza 2022
- S. Huebner, The Family in Roman Egypt: a Comparative approach to intergenerational solidarity and conflict, Cambridge 2013
- G. Brizzi, Il guerriero, l'oplita, il legionario, Il mulino 2008

9 CFU:
-N. Bernard, Donne e società nella Grecia antica, Carocci 2011
-F. Cenerini, La donna romana, Il Mulino 2013
OPPURE
L. Capponi, Cleopatra, Laterza 2022
-J. Andreau, R. Descat, Gli schiavi nel mondo greco-romano, Il Mulino 2014
-B. Cunliffe, Greeks, Romans and Barbarians. Spheres of InteractionLondon 1988
-T. Harrison, Greeks and Barbarians, Edimbourgh 2002
OR
.K. Vlassopoulos, Greeks and Barbarians, Cambridge 2013.
Assessment methods and Criteria
The exam will be oral, an interview, and marks will be out of 30. Students will have to demonstrate to have a clear knowledge of topics treated during the lectures (if attending) and of the bibliography indicated in the programme. Students are expected to organize discourse rationally, with awareness of sources and modern historiography, and to show a critical attitude about topics and sources. Students' presentation must be linguistically accurate with use of the discipline-specific language.
L-ANT/03 - ROMAN HISTORY - University credits: 9
Lessons: 60 hours
Professor: Bussi Silvia
Shifts:
Turno
Professor: Bussi Silvia
Professor(s)