Julius Caesar and His Times

Module Code:

MCLA1820

When taught:

Michaelmas (residential students)

Credit points:

20

Method of Assessment:

1 x 5,000 word essay

Teaching Methods:

Seminars (residential); Module pack (distance)

Availabilty

Residential and distance students

Lecturer:

Federico Santangelo

Contact hours (for residential students):

20

Syllabus:  

This module is a comprehensive study of the fascinating figure of C. Julius Caesar (100 – 44 BC), a Roman politician, general, and intellectual, whose extraordinary achievements have prompted deep interest through the centuries, and not just among ancient historians. We will not simply go through the biography of Caesar, his political and military achievements, and the seminal political experiment marked by his dictatorship. We will try to look at the context in which Caesar’s career unfolded, and we will discuss the structural factors that made Caesar’s success and the fall of the Roman Republic possible. Much of our study will be guided by the works written by Caesar himself, the Commentaries on the Gallic War and those on the Civil War: two extraordinary accounts of Caesar’s take on his own time, and two remarkable literary works in their own right, which deserve to be studied in detail. The evidence provided by an illustrious contemporary of Caesar, Cicero, will be in the forefront too. We will study and discuss Caesar in the context of his own time, one of the most exciting phases in the history of Roman intellectual history, and a period of traumatic historical change. We will try to make sense of the remarkable personality of this man, and at the same time we will have to explain Caesar’s success within a longer-term account of Roman history. It will be an ancient history module, of course – but much of what we will do may well be of interest to the students of Latin literature and Roman religion too.

Learning outcomes:  

• To become familiar with the main sources of evidence for the history and religion in the late Roman Republic.
• To become aware of the problems with and limitations of that evidence.
• To investigate modern reactions to, interpretations of, and preconceptions about the figure of Julius Caesar.

Transferable and other skills involved:  

• To develop critical, analytical and problem-solving skills through the writing of coursework and through the close analysis of ancient texts and artefacts in seminars (residential students).
• To develop and enhance skills in written presentation through essay work.
• To develop and enhance skills in oral presentation through participation in seminars (residential students).
• To develop the skills necessary for conducting in-depth research.

Main recommended texts:

• Z. Yavetz, Julius Caesar and his Public Image, London 1983.
• R. Syme, The Roman Revolution, Oxford 1939.
• C. Meier, Caesar, London 1995.
• M. Gelzer, Caesar. Politician and Statesman, Oxford 1969.
• L. R. Taylor, Party Politics in the Age of Caesar, Berkeley 1960.
• A. Lintott et al. (eds.), Cambridge Ancient History IX, Cambridge 1994.
• P. A. Brunt, The Fall of the Roman Republic, Oxford 1988.

Evaluation (including student evaluation):  

Students will be asked to complete a questionnaire at the end of the module. This will be used by the Department in its annual review of all its teaching to help evaluate the module’s success. The external examiner will also have the opportunity to make comments and results of the questionnaires will be discussed in the SSCC.