Roman History M.A. Reading List

READING LIST FOR M.A. COMPREHENSIVE EXAM - ROMAN HISTORY

The following list specifies the required readings and options for the M.A. in Classical Antiquity, Special Field examination in Greek History. Students are expected to consult with an appropriate faculty advisor—who will become the chair of the examination committee—and personalize a reading list that will form the basis of their written examination. Students should finalize their list before the summer between their first and second years in the program. The written exam will constitute half of the three-hour M.A. exam in Classical Antiquity. The exam usually consists of two sections. The first consists of IDs, based mainly on the Political/Military History section of the exam list. The second consists of two essays. You will choose two of four prompts, based primarily on your special fields lists. You can ask the Associate Chair of Graduate Studies for copies of previous exams in Roman history. You are more likely to succeed on the exam if you have supplemented your independent work on this reading list with courses in Roman history, ideally at the graduate level.

Political and Military History

Please read The Romans: From Village to Empire by Boatwright et al. for a narrative overview of key historical themes from the Republican and Imperial periods. You should also read three of the following primary sources in translation, chosen in consultation with the head of your exam committee:

• Livy, Histories, Books 1–6, 20, 21, 37, 39
• Polybius, Histories, Books 1-6
• Caesar, Gallic War
• Caesar, Civil Wars
• Appian, Civil Wars
• Cicero, Verrine Orations
• Cicero, Catilinarian Orations
• Sallust, Catiline and Iugurtha
• Plutarch, Lives of Coriolanus, Fabius Maximus, Marcellus, Cato the Elder, Tiberius Gracchus, Gaius Gracchus, Sertorius, Brutus, Mark Antony
• Tacitus, Annals
• Tacitus, Histories
• Tacitus, Agricola and Germania
• Suetonius, Lives of the Caesars
• Dio Cassius, Roman History, Books 50-end

Special Fields

In consultation with the head of your exam committee, you should select two special fields from the following list. The committee will help you design a reading list for your special fields, including ancient texts in translation as well as important scholarly books and articles.

1) Social History
2) Economic History
3) Roman Law
4) The Roman Provinces
5) The Roman Army
6) Intellectual Culture and Education
7) Late Antiquity
8) Gender and Sexuality
9) Roman Egypt

Sample Special Fields 1 (Roman Law/Late Antiquity):

Procopius, Secret History
Ammianus Marcellinus58
Codex Theodosianus bk. 1 + Gesta Senatus
Dig. 1

Connolly, Lives Behind the Laws: The World of the Codex Hermogenianus
Dillon, The Justice of Constantine
Harries, Law and Empire in Late Antiquity
Humfress, Orthodoxy and the Courts in Late Antiquity
Lenski, Constantine and the Cities
Matthews, The Roman Empire of Ammianus

Sample Special Fields 2 (Provinces/Gender and Sexuality)

Pliny the Younger, Letters, Book 10
Apuleius, The Golden Ass
Lucian, Dialoogues of the Courtesans
Petronius, Satyricon

Alcock, Graecia Capta
Brooten, Love Between Women
Mazurek, Isis in a Global Empire
Milnor, Gender, Domesticity, and the Age of Augustus
Sapsford, Performing the Kinaidos
Woolf, Becoming Roman