Office: 112 Irvin office ph. # 529-1486

Department of Classics, 105 Irvin (location of my mailbox)

office ph. # 529-1480

• All required readings are collected for you in coursepaks available at Oxford Copy Shop.

• All required readings will also be put on reserve at King Library. This means you don't necessarily have to buy the coursepak, but you should copy most (if not all) the materials from reserve when you read them so that you have the texts to discuss in class.

• On occasion, we may be dividing into groups and reading different articles/selections for one day. These will only be on reserve.

Description:

This course explores the varied ways in which Greek and Roman peoples attempted to come to terms with their expanding world and more particularly the peoples inhabiting it. We will be concentrating primarily on the ways in which concepts of "race" and "ethnicity" helped them organize or articulate both their own identities and those of others. In order to fully understand the impact of "race" and "ethnicity" on ancient thought about identity, we will first consider the roots of such concepts in contemporary thought--exploring ways in which race and ethnicity are currently defined. Are they, for example, considered "natural" categories or ones that are strictly contingent on historical and political contexts? (or both?) So, too, we will need to examine ways in which "race" and "ethnicity" can even be studied in antiquity--i.e., where can we find traces of such ideologies in both textual and material remains? The bulk of the course will then apply these discussions and methodologies to the study of three primary periods: archaic and classical Greece, the Hellenistic Period, and finally the Roman Empire.

Course Objectives:

In examining both ancient and modern conceptions of race and ethnicity, I would like students of this course to:

• learn to think critically about identity categories--that is, the many ways in which we understand ourselves and others. This involves an ability to not only comprehend the "roots" of such categories (which are themselves often obscured by rhetoric), but also to analyze the causes and results of such thinking. That is, why do we use terms like race and ethnicity in defining people? What impact does it have on both the people formulating the categories and those defined by them?

• appreciate the fundamental relationship between Self and Other that is implied by any approach that discusses identity through difference (here, racial or ethnic). That is, when we study the ways in which ancient Greeks and Romans represented other peoples (often through a process of defining themselves against such peoples), we simultaneously need to come to terms with the ways in which they represented themselves.

• understand the impact of many diverse factors on conceptions of "race" and "ethnicity," including: power and domination (who has the power to define these categories?); source (do all ancient authors portray "race" and "ethnicity" in the same way? how do authors differ? why? how do different sources differ in the information they convey about such concepts? i.e., textual vs. archaeological), and historical context (do identities shift because of historical events or changing polticial and social contexts?)

• increase their understanding of the complex and multi-cultural world of Greco-Roman antiquity while concentrating on this particular facet of identity formation.

Evaluation:

Final grades will be based on:

Class Participation 15%

To help me evaluate your class participation, every other Wednesday I will collect a short paragraph from you in which you describe (concisely, but comprehensively) your participation in the past two weeks. What questions did you raise for the class? What ideas of your own did you present? How did you contribute to small group activities? This may be hand-written, but should be legible!

Paper #1 (2-3 pages) 10% due Wednesday, September 9

Paper #2 (5-6 pages) 20% due Wednesday, October 7

Paper #3 (3-4 pages) 15% due Monday, November 2

Paper #4 (5-6 pages) 20% due Wednesday, December 2

Take-home final (5-6 pages) 20% due at the end of our finals period

(Monday, Dec. 14, 5:30 p.m. )

Please note that I will not accept late papers (NO EXCEPTIONS) unless I have approved an extension PRIOR to the due date.

Tentative Syllabus:

(Note that all readings are due on the date listed)

Definitions & Methodologies

8/26 Course Introduction

• Video "Ethnic Notions"

8/31 Racial Formations

• Michael Omi & Harold Winant. "Racial Formation" from Racial Formation in the United States.

9/2 The (pseudo-) Science of Race

Class Participation Self-Evaluation Due

• James Shreeve, "Terms of Estrangement," from Discover, November 1994.

9/8 "Mapping the Terrain: Definitions"

M/T Exchange Day

• Stephen Cornwell & Douglas Hartmann, "Mapping the Terrain: Definitions," from Ethnicity and Race: Making Identities in a Changing World

9/9 "Race" & the Practice of History

Paper #1 Due

• Martin Bernal, "Race in History," from Global Convulsions: Race, Ethnicity, and Nationalism at the End of the Twentieth Century

• Robert Stam & Ella Shohat, "Contested Histories: Eurocentrism, Multiculturalism, and the Media, " from Multiculturalism: A Critical Reader.

9/14 "Race" and the Study of Classical Antiquity: "Blacks in Antiquity"?

• Frank M. Snowden, J., "Preface" and "The Physical Characteristics of Ethiopians--the Textual Evidence," from Blacks in Antiquity: Ethiopians in the Greco-Roman Experience

• Lloyd Thompson, "Conclusion" from Romans and Blacks

Ancient Greece

9/16 Early Greek Colonization: Race, Ethnicity & Archaeology

Class Participation Self-Evaluation Due

• Stephen Shennan, "Introduction: Archaeological Approaches to Cultural Identity," from Archaeological Approaches to Cultural Identity

• Ruth D. Whitehouse and John B. Wilkins, "Greeks and Natives in South- east Italy: Approaches to the Archaeological Evidence," from Centre and Periphery: Comparative Studies in Archaeology

9/21 Identity & (As) Difference in 5th-century Athens

• excerpt from Herodotus on the Persians, Histories, Book 1, ch. 130-142. • Edith Hall, "Setting the Stage," from Inventing the Barbarian: Greek Self-Definition through Tragedy.

9/23 Inventing the Barbarian?

• Aeschylus, The Persians

9/28 Mapping the Terrain: Defining "Ethnicity" for the Greeks

• Jonathan Hall, "The Role of Language in Greek Ethnicities," from Proceedings of the Cambridge Philological Society 41.

• (for comparison) Pierre L. van den Berghe, "Language and Nationalism in South Africa," from Race and Ethnicity: Essays in Comparative Sociology

9/30 Greek Ethnography: Herodotus on Egypt

Class Participation Self-Evaluation Due

• excerpt from Herodotus on Egypt, Histories, Book 2, ch. 33-99.

10/5 Gender & Ethnicity: A "Barbarian" Invades Greece

• Euripides, Medea

10/7 Some "Greeks" Invade Barbarian Lands

Paper #2 Due

• Euripides, Iphigenia in Tauris

10/12 Race & Ethnicity as (pseudo-) Sciences: the Influence of Natural Environment

• "Airs, Waters, Places," from the Hippocratic Writings

The Hellenistic Period

10/14 The Hellenization of the Ancient Mediterranean?

Class Participation Self-Evaluation Due

• Jonathan Friedman,"Notes on Culture and Identity in Imperial Worlds," from Religion and Religious Practice in the Seleucid Kingdom

10/19 The Emergence of Jewish Identity

• Shaye J.D. Cohen, "Religion, Ethnicity, and 'Hellenism' in the Emergence of Jewish Identity in Maccabean Palestine," from Religion and Religious Practice in the Seleucid Kingdom

10/21 Race, Ethnicity & Identity in Ptolemaic Egypt

• Roger Bagnall, "Greeks and Egyptians: Ethnicity, Status, and Culture," from Cleopatra's Egypt: Age of the Ptolemies

• Willy Clarysse, "Some Greeks in Egypt," from Life in a Multi-Cultural Society: Egypt from Cambyses to Constantine and Beyond

• primary sources from Ptolemaic Egypt:

excerpts from Naphtali Lewis, Greeks in Ptolemaic Egypt: Case Studies in the Social History of the Hellenistic World.

10/26 Language and Ethnic Boundaries in Ptolemaic Egypt

• Dorothy Thompson, "Literacy and Power in Ptolemaic Egypt," from

Literacy and Power in the Ancient World

The Roman Period

10/28 Race, Ethnicity & Identity in Roman Egypt

Class Participation Self-Evaluation Due

• Naphtali Lewis, "The Coming of the Romans," from Life in Egypt Under Roman Rule

• primary sources from Roman Egypt:

The Southern Frontier," "The 'special account' of Egypt," "The administration of Egypt," "Control of Movement in Egypt," "Grant of citizenship to an Egyptian," Pliny, Epistle 10.10, "A Tax moratorium," "Flight from Fiscal oppression/Notice of flight," and "The 'purging' of Alexandria"

11/2 Race, Ethnicity, and Romanization: An Introduction

Paper #3 Due

• D.B. Saddington, "Race Relations in the Early Roman Empire," from Aufstieg Und Niedergang der Römischen Welt, II. 3

• primary sources: "On the Retention and Loss of Roman Citizenship" & "Admission of Provincials to the Senate"

11/4 Race & Ethnicity as (pseudo-) Sciences: the Influence of Natural Environment,

• excerpt from Pliny the Elder, Natural History

• primary source: "The Races of Man: Climate and Culture"

"Africa/Italy: An Interdisciplinary International Symposium will be held at Miami on November 6th & 7th

11/9 Ethnicity and Urban Spaces: Two Ancient Cities

• Dorothy Thompson, "Ethnic Minorities," from Memphis Under the Ptolemies

• Ramsay MacMullen, "The unromanized in Rome," from Diasporas in Antiquity

• Juvenal, Satire 3

• primary sources: "The Grandeur of Rome" & "Rome the Emporium of the World"

The Western Empire

11/11 Subjugating the West: Caesar in Gaul and Britain

Class Participation Self-Evaluation Due

• excerpts from Books 4 & 6 of Julius Caesar, The Battle for Gaul.

• further primary sources: "Caesar Invades Britain/The First Expedition & Britain and Its Inhabitants"

11/16 Ruling the West: Ethnicity and Administrative Structures

• Cicero, Pro Fonteio

• further primary source: "Precepts of Provincial Government"

11/18 Roman Ethnography: Tacitus on Germany and Britain

• Tacitus, Germania

• excerpt from Tacitus, Agricola

• Pliny, Epistle 7. 25

11/23 Can the Subaltern Speak? Native Revolts in the Roman Empire

• Stephen L. Dyson, "Native Revolts in the Roman Empire." from Historia 20

• excerpt from Tacitus, The Annals of Imperial Rome.

• further primary sources: "Expressions of Anti-Roman Feeling" & "Pro- Roman and Anti-Roman Sentiments"

The Eastern Empire

11/30 Romans/Greeks

• Greg Woolf, "Becoming Roman, Staying Greek: Culture, Identity and the Civilizing Process in the Roman East" from Proceedings of the Cambridge Philological Society 40

• excerpt from "The Wisdom of Nigrinus"

• Pliny, Epistle 8. 24

• further primary sources: "The Beginnings of Roman Domination in the Greek World," "The De Facto Roman Protectorate over 'liberated' Greece and the East," and "The Influx of Hellenism and the anti-Hellenistic Movement of the Second Century B.C."

12/2 The Roman Near East

Paper #4 Due

• Nicholas Hodgson, "The East as Part of the Wider Roman Imperial Frontier Policy" from The Eastern Frontier of the Roman Empire

• Fergus Millar, "Empire, Community and Culture in the Roman Near East: Greeks, Syrians, Jews and Arabs," from Journal of Jewish Studies 38

• primary sources: "The Internal Effects of Foreign Conflicts, " "Letter of Claudius to the Alexandrians," & "Alexandria, the Crossroads of the World"

12/7 Jewish Identity in the Roman Empire

• Shaye J.D. Cohen, "'Those Who Say They Are Jews and Are Not': How Do You Know a Jew in Antiquity When You See One?" from Diasporas in Antiquity

• primary sources: "Privileges of the Jews," "Protection of Freedom of Worship of Jews," and re-read "The Futility of Revolt," "The Ravages of Revolt," and "Hatred of Rome the Oppressor" from "Pro-Roman and Anti-Roman Sentiments"

12/9 Last Day of Classes

Class Participation Self-Evaluation Due

12/14 FINAL 5:30 p.m.; Take-home Final Due