Roman History

Ancient Rome. A Biography.

The course is divided into three parts of 20 hours each, A, B and C.

Part A: From the Origins of the City to the Age of Imperialism (753-146 BCE)

In this first part, the problems of reconstructing Rome's most archaic history will be addressed. After a methodological introduction aimed at outlining the nature of the documentary sources at our disposal, some of the best-known historiographical theories concerning the earliest phase of the city will be analysed. We will then move on to the early Republican period to outline the contours of the clash between the two main components of the civitas, the patrician and the plebeian. Finally, the last lessons of the first part will be devoted to the expansion of Rome in Italy and the Mediterranean.
The leitmotif of the analysis will be the importance of the biographical element. The more archaic history of the city will be reconstructed by tracing the biographical events of some important personalities whose actions defined the political, economic and institutional contours of the first phase of Rome's history.

Part B: The Crises of the Republic: from the Reforms of the Gracchi to the Establishment of the Augustan Principate (133-27 BCE)

This second part deals with the delicate period that led to the crisis of the republican system and the establishment of the Principate as a new form of government after a long series of civil wars. The lectures will focus on the reforms of the Gracchi brothers, which led to a rapid radicalisation of political confrontation and the introduction of violence as a weapon of contention between the parties. This is followed by the events of the civil wars, which pitted the most influential members of the senatorial aristocracy against each other in rapid succession, from Marius and Sulla, to Pompey and Caesar, to Octavian and Antonius. An analysis of the reforms introduced by Octavian Augustus at the end of the last civil war will conclude this section. Again, the various phases of this very long civil war will be analysed in the light of the biographical events of some of the most important figures in Roman politics. Some lectures will also be devoted to the study of the biographical and historiographical profiles of some important scholars of Ancient Rome who, since the end of the 19th century, have provided the keys to the study of the historical discipline.

Part C: The Imperial Age: from Augustus to the Crisis of the 3rd century CE.

In this last part, we will follow the consolidation of the political and institutional system established by Augustus and the numerous crises caused, above all, by the method of imperial succession, which was never fully defined by the founder of the Principate. Once again, the analysis of the main political junctures of this period will take into account the importance of the biographical element. Not only the lives of the individual emperors will be studied, but also the personalities that surrounded them, starting with some important female figures.