Indiana
University
History
H610/H710
Colloquium/Seminar
in Medieval European History
The
Fall
of Rome
| Fall Semester 2013 | Dr. Deborah M. Deliyannis |
| Place: Ballantine Hall 316 | Office: Ballantine Hall 708 |
| Time: Mon 5:45-7:45 pm | Office Hours: W 1-3 pm or by appt. |
| email:
ddeliyan@indiana.edu
|
Phone: 855-3431 |
Description
After AD 400,
the Roman
empire became geographically smaller and smaller, and by the year 500,
western
Europe had dropped out completely, fragmented into many smaller
kingdoms.
For at least 1000 years, people have been fascinated by the "fall
of
Rome", and have blamed it on a variety of causes. In this class,
we
will look at what is meant by the term "fall of Rome", and will then
consider some of the theories, both ancient and modern, proposed to
explain it.
A focus of the
class will
be the large number of books and articles published in the last 15
years
specifically about the topic of "The Fall of Rome."
We will consider not only the theories
about Rome's fall, but also the reasons that modern people have been
fascinated
by the topic, and what scholarly and contextual issues might be driving
their
interpretations.
Readings
Readings are
assigned from
books that are on 4-hour open reserve in the Wells Library, or articles
that
have been placed on Oncourse in the Resources folder.
Most of the books are available for
purchase, and you might consider purchasing them, but this is not
required.
Course
requirements
25% Class
participation
15% Presentation of
two monographs about the "Fall of Rome" (see below)
20% Presentation of
bibliographic essay/research paper
40% Bibliographic
essay/research paper
100% TOTAL
Participation
A large part
(25%) of the
course grade is based on general class participation.
You are expected to do the reading for
each week, and come prepared to discuss it. Your
participation grade will be based
as much (or more) on what you say as how much you say.
I will give you an estimate of your
participation grade halfway through the semester, so that if necessary
you can
work to improve it.
Presentation
of monographs
One component
of
participation will be the reading and presentation of two of
the group
of recent monographs on the "Fall of Rome" (the
list of these books can be found at
the end of the syllabus). Each person
will be assigned two books in such a way that two or three people will
be
presenting on each book. You and
your colleague(s) will be expected to give a brief presentation (10
mins max)
about your books, in light of everything else we have read, in class on
Nov.
18. These do not need to be formal
book reviews, but more of a sort of discussion of how you feel about
the
books. All books are either
available electronically through IUCAT, or else have been placed on
open 4-hour
reserve in Wells Library; or you may choose to buy them.
Bibliographic
essay/research paper and presentation
There will
also be a
10-15-page bibliographic essay (H610) or a 14-20-page research paper
(H710), on
a topic of interest to you and related to the Fall of Rome in some way.
You must email
me a
statement of your topic on Sept. 23, and you must have
discussed it with
me first (during office hours or by appointment; talking about it
before or
after class is not sufficient).
A preliminary
bibliography
for your paper must be emailed to me on Oct. 21. Some
of the materials you may need may
not be in our library, and you will be expected to order them from
interlibrary
loan.
This project
will result
in a 20 minute presentation in one of the last two class meetings
(dates will
be assigned by Sept. 30, based on topics).
In the interests of preparing you to give conference papers, I
would
like you to write up and read your presentation. Part
of the preparation will be timing
yourself to keep to the 20-minute format.
Tentative schedule
Aug. 26 Introduction
Sept. 2 NO CLASS - LABOR
DAY
Sept. 9 Books
about the Fall: lessons for modern worlds?
Readings: Pocock, J. G. A.
"Edward Gibbon in History:
Aspects of the Text in The History
of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," with responses by
Patricia Craddock and Glen W. Bowersock. In The
Tanner Lectures on Human Values,
vol. 11, ed. Grethe B. Petersen. (Salt Lake City: Univ. of Utah Press, 1988), pp. 289-384. PDF
Gillett, Andrew. Review Article: "Rome's Fall and
Europe's Rise." The Medieval
Review 07.10.12, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.baj9928.0710.012
Ward-Perkins,
Bryan. "The Decline and Fall
Industry." Standpoint
(online) 2009: http://standpointmag.co.uk/the-decline-and-fall-industry-features-september-09-bryan-ward-perkins
O'Donnell on
Heather, Ward-Perkins in BMCR: http://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2005/2005-07-69.html
Elton on
Goldsworthy in BMCR: http://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2010/2010-03-63.html
Sept. 16 Decline, Fall,
Transformation?
Readings: Ward-Perkins, Bryan. "Continuitists, Catastrophists, and
the Towns of Post-Roman Northern Italy," Papers of the
British School at Rome 65 (1997): 157-176. PDF
Liebeschuetz,
J. H. W. G. "The uses and
abuses of the concept of 'decline' in later Roman history, or, Was
Gibbon
politically incorrect?" with comments by Averil Cameron, Bryan
Ward-Perkins, Mark Whittow, and Luke Lavan, in Recent Research in Late
Antique
Urbanism, ed. Luke Lavan (Portsmouth, NH:
2001), pp. 233-245. PDF
Noble,
Thomas F. X. "Introduction:
Romans, barbarians, and the transformation of the Roman
Empire." In From Roman
provinces to Medieval kingdoms,
ed. T. F. X. Noble (London:
Routledge, 2006), pp. 1-22.
PDF
Ando, Clifford. "Decline, Fall, and
Transformation." Journal of Late
Antiquity 1 (2008): 31-60. PDF
Sept. 23 In Late Antiquity,
does Rome fall?
paper
topics due
Readings: Brown, Peter R. L.
The World of Late Antiquity, 1st
ed. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1971.
Wells reserve DG77 .B879 - just
skim through this if you haven't read it
Cameron,
Averil. "The 'Long' Late
Antiquity: A Late Twentieth Century Model," in T. P. Wiseman, ed., Classics in Progress. Essays on Ancient
Greece and Rome, pp. 165-191. Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 2002.
PDF
Marcone, Arnaldo. "A Long Late Antiquity?:
Considerations on a Controversial Periodization." Journal
of Late Antiquity 1 (2008):
4-19. PDF
James,
Edward. "The Rise and Function
of the Concept 'Late Antiquity'." Journal
of Late Antiquity 1 (2008):
20-30. PDF
Sept. 30 Did people at the time
think Rome was falling/had fallen?
Readings:
Croke, Brian. "A.D. 476: The
manufacturing of a turning
point," Chiron 13 (1983): 81-119.
PDF
Salvian, De
Gubernatione Dei (online)
Choose
three of the following authors, look out for what each says, in his
historical
works, about Rome's fall/transformation:
Orosius, Ammianus Marcellinus, Sidonius Apollinaris, Ennodius
(Life of
Epiphanius, esp.), Jordanes, Gildas, Marcellinus Comes, Gregory of
Tours, Isidore
of Seville, Bede, Paul the Deacon, or any others that you want [note
that I
have listed mainly Latin authors, I prefer that you use at least two
from this
list, although if you want the third to be something different
(Procopius?),
that's fine. Of course you may use
whatever translations you would like, or the original text.]
Oct. 7 The
barbarian invasions and settlement
Readings: Goffart, Walter.
"The Theme of 'the Barbarian Invasions' in Late Antique and
Modern
Historiography," in Rome's Fall and
After (London: Hambledon Press,
1989), pp. 111-132. PDF
Halsall,
Guy. "Movers and Shakers: the
Barbarians and the Fall of Rome," Early
Medieval Europe 8 (1999): 131-45.
PDF
Goffart,
Walter. "Rome's Final Conquest: The Barbarians," History
Compass 6:3 (2008), pp. 855-883. PDF
Goffart,
Walter. "The Technique of Barbarian Settlement in the Fifth
Century:
a Personal, Streamlined Account with Ten Additional Comments." Journal of Late Antiquity 3 (2010):
65-98. PDF
Halsall, Guy.
"The Technique of
Barbarian Settlement in the Fifth Century: a Reply to Walter
Goffart." Journal of Late
Antiquity 3 (2010): 99-112.
PDF
Oct. 14 Climate
and environmental change
Readings: Gunn,
Joel D.,
ed. The Years without Summer:
Tracing AD 536 and Its Aftermath (New
York, 2000). Ch. 1, Joel Gunn, "A.D. 536 and its 300-year aftermath," pp. 5-20, and Elizabeth Jones, "Climate, Archaeology, History, and the Arthurian Tradition: A Multiple-Source Study of Two Dark-Age Puzzles," pp. 25-34.
Arjava,
Antti. "The Mystery Cloud of
536 CE in the Mediterranean Sources," Dumbarton
Oaks Papers 59 (2005), 73-93. PDF
Larsen,
L. B. et al., "New Ice Core Evidence for a Volcanic Cause of the AD 536
Dust Veil," Geophysical Research
Letters 35 (2008), L04708 PDF
McCormick,
Michael, et al. "Climate
Change During and After the Roman Empire:
Reconstructing the Past from Scientific and Historical Evidence." Journal
of Interdisciplinary History 43.2 (2012): 169-220. PDF
Oct. 21 The
Justinianic Plague
bibliographies
due
Readings: If you can read
French: Durliat, Jean.
"La peste du IVe siècle: Pour un
nouvel examen des sources
byzantines." In Hommes et
richesses dans l'Empire byzantin,
ed. Catherine Abadie-Reynal (Paris, 1989), I: 107-119, with a response
by J.-N.
Biraben, 121-25. PDF
Sarris,
Peter. "The Justinianic
Plague: Origins and Effects." Continuity
and Change 17.2 (2002): 169-182. PDF
Little,
Lester K. "Life and Afterlife
of the First Plague Pandemic," and Michael McCormick, "Toward a
Molecular History of the Justinianic Pandemic," in L. Little, ed., Plague
and the End of Antiquity: the pandemic of 541-750, pp. 3-32 and
290-312. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2007. PDF
News
report, May, 2013: http://news.discovery.com/history/archaeology/plague-helped-fall-of-roman-empire-130510.htm
Oct. 28 What
changed? Social and Economic Impact
Readings:
Wickham,
Chris. "The Other Transition: From the Ancient World to
Feudalism,"
Past and Present 103 (1984): 3-36. PDF
Brunner,
Karl. "Continuity and
Discontinuity of Roman Agricultural Knowledge in the Early Middle
Ages." In Del Sweeney, ed., Agriculture in the Middle Ages -
Technology, Practice, and Representation, pp. 21-40.
Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1995. PDF
Wickham, Chris. "The Fall of Rome Will Not Take
Place." In Little, Lester K.
and Barbara H. Rosenwein, eds. Debating
the Middle Ages: Issues and Readings,
pp. 45-57. Malden: Blackwell,
1998. PDF
Sarris,
Peter. "Continuity and Discontinuity in the Post-Roman Economy," Journal of Agrarian Change 6
(2006): 400-413. PDF
Henning,
Joachim. "Strong rulers weak
economy? Rome, the Carolingians, and the archaeology of slavery in the
first
millennium AD." In Michael McCormick
and Jennifer
Davis, eds. The Long Morning
of Medieval Europe, pp. 33-54. Burlington,
VT: Ashgate, 2008. PDF
Nov. 4 What
changed? Cities
Readings: Barnish,
S. J. B. "The Transformation
of Classical Cities and the Pirenne Debate." Journal
of Roman Archaeology 2 (1989):
385-400. PDF
Carver,
M. O. H. Arguments in stone:
archaeological research and the European town in the first
millennium. Oxford:
Oxbow, 1993. Wells
reserve CC175 .C37 1993
Liebeschuetz, J. H.
W.
G. Decline and Fall of the
Roman City. Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 2001. Read
Chs. 1, 9, 12, and 13. Wells reserve
DG70.A1 L54 2001 (I hope!)
Kulikowski, Michael.
"Archaeological and
Historical Categories of Evidence in the Transition from the Ancient
World to
the Middle Ages," in Paradigms
and Methods in Early Medieval Studies, ed. Celia
Chazelle and Felice Lifshitz (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007), pp.
248-270. PDF
Nov. 11 What changed? Roman art, technology,
material culture
Readings: Nees, Lawrence. Early Medieval Art. Oxford: 2002. See esp. chs. 4, 5. PDF
Nees, Lawrence.
"Ethnic and Primitive
Paradigms in the Study of Early Medieval Art," in Paradigms and Methods
in Early Medieval Studies, ed. Celia Chazelle and Felice
Lifshitz
(New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007), pp. 56-83. PDF
Fleming, Robin. "Recycling in Britain after the Fall of Rome's Metal
Economy," Past and Present 217 (2012):
3-45. PDF
Nov. 18 Modern books redux: reports and analysis
Nov. 25
NO
CLASS - THANKSGIVING
Dec. 2 student
presentations
Dec. 9 student
presentations
Papers
due in my email, Friday Dec. 20 at 5:00 pm
Recent monographs about the "Fall of
Rome"
Note: these
books do not comprise all books
published about the Later Roman Empire, Late Antiquity, or the Early
Middle
Ages; rather, they are the English-language books that explicitly seek
to gain
readership by using words like "Fall of Rome" in the title.
Heather,
Peter. The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History. London: Macmillan, 2005. Pp. xvi, 572. Wells reserve
DG311 .H43 2005.
Also published as The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New
History
of Rome and the Barbarians.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006. Pp. xvi, 572.
Ward-Perkins,
Bryan. The Fall of Rome and the End of Civilization. Oxford: Oxford University Press,
2005. Pp. viii, 239. online
through IUCAT
Goffart,
Walter. Barbarian Tides: the Migration
Age and the Later Roman Empire (Philadelphia: University
of Pennsylvania Press,
2006). online through IUCAT
Halsall,
Guy. Barbarian Migrations and
the Roman West, 376-568 (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2007). Wells
reserve DG311 .H35 2007
Rosen,
William. Justinian's Flea: The First
Great Plague and the End of the Roman Empire (2008) OR Justinian's
Flea: Plague,
Empire, and the Birth of Europe (New York: Viking,
2007). Wells
reserve DF556 .R67 2007
Kelly,
Christopher. Attila the Hun,
Barbarian Terror and the Fall of the Roman Empire.
London: The Bodley Head, 2008. Also published as The End of
Empire: Attila the Hun and the Fall
of Rome. New York:
Norton, 2009. Wells
reserve D141 .K45 2009
O'Donnell,
James J. The Ruin of the Roman
Empire: A New History.
Harper Collins, 2009. Wells
reserve DG311 .O49 2008
Goldsworthy,
Adrian. The Fall of the
West: The Slow Death of the Roman
Superpower. Widenfeld &
Nicolson, 2009. Wells reserve
DG311 .G67 2009. Also published as How
Rome Fell: The Death of a Superpower. New Haven: Yale
University Press, 2009.