HST 402: The Roman Republic

A survey of Roman history from 753 to 44 B.C. Students will explore the foundations of Rome in archaic Italy and its unlikely rise to become the dominant military power in the Mediterranean, then trace Rome’s descent into civil war and autocracy under Pompey and Julius Caesar. Topics include archaic Italy, the Monarchy and Republic, the Struggle of the Orders, Roman law of the Twelve Tables, the Roman family, household and slavery, Rome’s consolidation of Italy, the Punic Wars, Hellenism and intellectual developments in Rome, medicine, philosophy, and politics, Roman identity, the civil wars and the Fall of the Republic, and more.