ROMAN HISTORIOGRAPHY

The course is one of the core educational activities characterizing the Master’s Degree Program in Humanities.
It has the purpose to guarantee to the students the advanced knowledge of Roman historiography; through the study of a topic, the political communication, assures to the students the knowledge of a essential aspect of the Roman political history and rhetoric. It has the purpose to guarantee to the students the knowledge of the methodology of research in the roman historiography; knowledge of the lexicon of the subject. The students will develop research and didactical skills in the subject and acquire skills as critical approach during the evaluation of information and news, and understanding of events and cultural processes crucial in the constitution of the occidental identity. Attending and studying will allow students to acquire the ability to point out the roots of nowadays’s issues about political communication in order to make them comprehend better. It intends to guarantee the acquisition of cognitive abilities as sketch out a scientific research and practical abilities as be able to hand the results of scientific research over through the scientific communication.
The achivement of these goals assures to the student the cultural, disciplinary, methodological knowledge to insert in the world of work in didactical, cultural, communication-linked field suitable with his itinerary of the academic studies.

Attending the course and the seminar and practicing individual study allow students to acquire specific knowledge: the methodology of historical reconstruction, the deep knowledge of fundamental events in order to comprehend Roman historiography and history, with specific attention to political communication, the lexicon of the subject. Will make students acquire these cognitive abilities: to apply the historical research's methodology with particular focus on the Roman historiography; to recognize events and models in the sources; to be able to understand the events thanks to their historical context without modernize; to be able to understand the political communication in the light of the fact that it uses rhetorical instruments. Will make students acquire these practical abilities: sketch out a scientific research and be able to hand the results over through the public history and the scientific communication selecting the contents, the ways of communication, the time, know how to deal with teamwork. The students will acquire these skills: know how to interpret historical processes about the Roman political communication; know how to employ a critical approach toward the information sources; interpret correctly the origin of customs of Roman age that survived in contemporary age.

Students should already have attended a BA level Roman history course.
A good knowledge of italian language is necessary.
Foreign students are invited to contact the teacher beforehand.

Through an ample introduction, an exemplification made by the teacher and a presentation, the result of teamwork made by students, the course will examine the subject:: 'Political discourse in legends of the monarchic age'. Legendary tales do not relate to real events; they are an important indicator for understanding Roman thought and social rules. Founding legends were constructed in times after the events they described to legitimise behaviour and values established over time. The mos maiorum defined proper conduct for the citizen; thus attributing certain practices to a remote origin gave them legitimacy and identified them as a behaviour model. On the one hand, the speeches of the monarchic age are an opportunity to clarify the actions attributed to the protagonists, on the other hand, they are a tool for ancient authors to express their own vision of the past. They are constructed by the rules of rhetoric and therefore document its rules. The student will therefore acquire historical knowledge on political communication and how to identify the origin of some practices of political communication that find application today, but will also acquire knowledge on the history of Roman historiography in Latin and Greek in its evolution and peculiarities. The student will acquire knowledge of the different genres, the awareness of the relationship of interaction between historiographic products and historical dynamics; on the techniques of transmission of historical memory by the ancient literary tradition. The student will acquire the methodology, the tools of historiographic research, the appropriate use of the scientific lexicon.

All foreign students are invited to contact the course tutor beforehand in order to discuss their study programmes for individual assessment.

The evaluation is based on three parts: the check of knowledge on the course contents through an oral examination on topics of the course and on topics developed on texts recommanded in the bibliography; during the same oral test the check of knowledge on contents explained by other students; during seminar, the oral exposition of brief personal research about the politica communication (substituted for non attending students by extra lectures).
Through these exam the teacher verifies:
1) knowledge: acquisition of fundamental concepts and scientific lexicon of the subject and the methodology of historiographical research;
2) cognitive abilities: the application of the methodology of historical research with particular focus on the use of sources and on critical approach on bibliography about the Roman historiography; the ability of analysis of historical and historiographical processes; practical abilities: communicative abilities, for the public history and scientific communication (selecting the contents, the ways of communication, the time, know how to deal with team work)
3) skills: capability to analyze reality and information and to increase critical awareness in peculiarity of each historical period about historiography.
Each category of examination is judged according to a scale of thirty points, and the final mark is the result of the average of the points earned for each examination.
All foreign students are invited to contact the course tutor beforehand in order to discuss their study programmes for individual assessment.

Classes will be lead as 13 teacher's lesson and 2 lesson as seminar, so that all students will have the opportunity to participate in class presentations. A specific research topic will be assigned to each participant. Ancient sources and further readings that will help students prepare their presentation will be provided in class.

Italian

Students who attend this course will be entitled to take part to the seminar activities, stages and training courses organised by the Roman History and Classics faculty during the two terms (the calendar of activities will be provided in class and on the Ca' Foscari website).

oral

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "Poverty and inequalities" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development