INDS 214: Rome the Eternal City: Approaches and Explorations (Interim January 2013)
Munich-Verona-Rome
Rome
Pompeii
SYLLABUS
Instructors: Professors Markus Dubischar (Classics) and Robert Cohn (Religious Studies)
Course Description
The breadth and depth of Rome's historic and cultural legacy are matched by only few other
cities in the world. This course will be a double journey in time. Naturally, we will explore the city of
Rome itself, focusing mainly (but not exclusively) on classical antiquity. In addition, we will attempt to
recreate the experience of traveling to the Eternal City as an educational and transformational
experience sought by noblemen, intellectuals, and dreamers in the 18th and 19th centuries. The travel
reports of four famous "tourists" (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, and
Henry James) will add depth and reflection to our own journeys and explorations.
This course consists of three main parts: first, the approach to Rome, literally and
metaphorically, following Goethe's path (but faster by train) via Munich, Innsbruck-Brenner, and
Verona; second, explorations in Rome, combining classroom sessions and archeological, cultural, and
art-historical excursions; third, a concluding visit to the Naples area and two of the best-excavated sites
of Roman antiquity, the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum that were catastrophically destroyed by the
erupting Mt. Vesuvius in 79 CE.
Learning Outcomes
In this course, students will gain critical historical understanding of Rome as a cultural and
political center through the ages, as well as of "Rome" as an idealized city of the imagination. By the
end of this course, students will be able to:
1. Identify the major historical developments and cultural characteristics of ancient Rome's four
major periods (Kings, Republic, Empire, Late Antiquity).
2. Demonstrate the perennially close relationship between text and context by relating classical
texts to Rome's sites that the texts presuppose or refer to.
3. Describe the influence of Jewish culture and religion on Roman life.
4. Trace the continuities and discontinuities between pagan Rome, Christian Rome, and Catholic
Rome.
5. Identify the major historical and cultural developments in Italy after the fall of the Roman
Empire (Mediaeval Ages, Renaissance, Baroque Age, Nationalism, Modernity).
6. Assess how our image of ancient Rome is indebted especially to the Renaissance and European
Romanticism.
7. Contrast travel habits in the 18th and 19th centuries with traveling in today's globalized world,
and explain how traveling as a social practice is inevitably conditioned by intellectual, economic,
and technological factors and forces at the time.
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Itinerary and Course Topics
NEWARK LIBERTY AIRPORT
Monday, January 7
4pm – Group meets Newark Liberty Airport
7:30pm – Depart Newark Liberty on United Flight 9254
MUNICH: Roman Antiquities North of the Alps
Tuesday, January 8
Orientation
10:20am – Arrive at Franz Joseph Straus International Airport Munich, Germany
11am – Transfer by public transportation to Hotel
3pm – Walking Tour of Munich
Wednesday, January 9
Munich: Ancient and Modern
9am – Tour of Glyptothek, Antikensammlung
12pm – Lunch in the T.U. Mensa
3pm – BMW Museum
8pm – Communal Dinner at the Hofbräuhaus
MUNICH to VERONA: Following a Centuries-Old Travel Route across the Alps
Thursday, January 10
Travel day
9:30am – Depart Munich Hauptbahnhof by train, via Innsbruck-Brenner
3pm – Arrive at Verona, Porta Nuova Station
VERONA: A Roman Urban Center in Northern Italy
Thursday, January 10 (cont'd)
Orientation in Verona
4pm – Walking tour of Verona
8pm – Group Dinner at Osteria Verona Antica
Friday, January 11
Verona: From Rome to Romeo
10am – Tour of Verona's Roman sites (arena, theater, triumphal arch, city gates, bridge,
mosaics, marble streets)
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1pm – Lunch
3pm – Tour of Juliette’s House and Verona’s churches
ROME: The "Eternal City"
Saturday, January 12
Travel day and orientation in Rome
10am – Depart Verona Porta Nuova by high-speed train
2:15pm – Arrive Roma Termini
2:30pm – Transfer by taxi to apartments
4pm – Walking tour of Trastevere, grocery shopping
Sunday, January 13
Ancient Rome I: The political center of ancient Rome
9am – Lecture
10am – Capitol with Archeological Museum
3pm – Forum Romanum
7pm – Group dinner at Taverna dei Quaranta
Monday, January 14
Ancient Rome II: Official representation and propaganda
9am – Lecture
10am – Fora of Julius Caesar, Augustus, Trajan
3pm – Ara Pacis and Pantheon
Tuesday, January 15
Ancient Rome III: Imperial megalomania
9 am – Lecture
10am – Circus Maximus
3pm – Colosseum, Baths of Caracalla
Wednesday, January 16
Jewish Life in Rome
9am – Lecture
10am – Walking tour of the Jewish Ghetto
1pm – Group lunch at Taverna Del Ghetto
Free afternoon and evening
Thursday, January 17
The Christian Transformation of Rome: Late Antiquity and the Medieval Ages
9am – Lecture
10am – Case Romane, Basilica di Santa Maria in Trastevere
3pm – San Clemente, Santa Maria del Popolo
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Friday, January 18
The Power and Splendor of the Catholic Church: Rome in the Baroque Age
9am – Lecture
10am – Il Gésu
3pm – The Vatican, St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican Museums
Saturday, January 19
Modern Rome
Free morning and lunch
3pm – Via del Corso, Via dei Condotti, Italian National Pasta Museum
8pm – Opera at Teatro dell’Opera
NAPLES/POMPEII: Under the Shadow of Mt. Vesuvius
Sunday, January 20
Travel day and orientation Bay of Naples
TBD – Depart Roma Termini by train
TBD – Arrive at Napoli Centrale
3pm – Bus ride to the top of Mt. Vesuvius
Monday, January 21
Excavated after almost 2,000 years: the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius, Pompeii, and Herculaneum
9am – Lecture
10am – Tour of Pompeii
3pm – Tour of Herculaneum
Tuesday, January 22
Naples City
9am – Lecture
10am – Walking Tour of Naples
1pm – Group lunch at Pizzeria I Decumani
2pm – Naples Archaeological Museum
Wednesday, January 23
Travel Day
TBD – Depart from Aeroporto Internazionale di Napoli
TBD – Arrive at Newark Liberty Airport
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Course Materials
G.S. Aldrete, Daily Life in the Roman City, University of Oklahoma Press 2004.
F. Coarelli, Rome and Environs : an Archaeological Guide, transl. J.J. Clauss and D.P. Harmon, University
of California Press 2007.
Course Reader, provided by the instructors, containing
(1) passages from Latin literature in English translation (see below)
(2) excerpts from travel writings by Johann Wolfgang Goethe's Italian Journey, Charles Dickens'
Pictures from Italy, Mark Twain's Innocents Abroad, and Henry James' Italian Hours
(3) excerpts from current scholarship, including H. Hearder, Italy: a Short History, 2nd ed.,
Cambridge University Press 2001; E. Gruen, Diaspora: Jews Among Greeks and Romans, Harvard
University Press 2004; Bernard Green, Christianity in Ancient Rome: the First Three Centuries,
T&T Clark 2010; D.E. Karmon, The Ruin of the Eternal City: Antiquity and Preservation in
Renaissance Rome, Oxford University Press 2011; D.H. Larmour and D. Spencer (eds.), The Sites
of Rome: Time, Space, Memory, Oxford University Press 2007; ### Gombrich
Special Resources
While in Italy, we will use logistical and pedagogical support by the Paideia Institute.
Prerequisites: None
Active Participation
Students will arrive on time and prepared for class sessions and excursions; contribute
meaningfully to discussions in class and on excursions; ask questions about what they don't understand,
whether it concerns ancient Rome or modern Italy; listen carefully to others and treat everyone with
respect; gain as much intellectual benefit and life experience as possible from every situation; and
contribute positively to the experiences of the other members of our group.
Failure to comply with any of the above, and especially tardiness, will count severely against the
participation score.
Attendance
Attendance for all planned activities is mandatory.
Daily Assignments
To enhance "deep" learning while abroad, most days will see assignments in the form of
readings, presentations, discussions, and/or on-site tours. As the character of our journey changes,
depending on where we are, so will the nature of these assignments. There is, however, one standing
assignment: the written daily travel journal (see immediately below).
Daily Travel Journal
Like many travelers to Italy in the 18th and 19 centuries, the course participants will maintain a
daily travel journal in a sturdy, bound notebook. Its contents should be rich in factual information –
derived from our excursions, readings, and classroom sessions – and mature in reflections about ancient
Roman or Italian history, culture, and society. To respect privacy, the instructors will not read the
students' journals, or do so only with permission by the student. But the instructors will check that the
journals are well-kept and current.
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The journals will also provide the raw material for two "travel letters" that each participant will
write (see below). Moreover, since memories of extraordinary experiences in our youth can bring us joy
in later life, it may be worthwhile to keep the journals long after the trip.
Two Travel Letters
Letter-writing was another common practice of travelers in past centuries. Reviving this mode
of communication, every participant will write two "travel letters." They will be addressed to a real or
fictitious person. Letters may be hand-written or typed. The target length for each letter is 800 to 1,000
words.
The letters may be based on the personal travel journal and should therefore likewise contain
substantial factual information and personal reflection. The letters will show the student's ability to
focus on particularly fascinating and instructive aspects of our travels and to relate them effectively to
someone who was not on this trip and has maybe never traveled to Italy at all.
Our course readings from the travel reports by Goethe, Dickens, Twain, and James (see course
reader) may be helpful for this project. These writers, too, wrote for audiences who would likely never
travel to Italy themselves, and they, too, could not rely on camera phones and social media to share
their experiences. Differences between travel customs past and present will become sharply noticeable
this way.
Exam
At the end of the trip, there will be a written exam.
Academic Honesty
To maintain the scholarly standards of the College and, equally important, the personal ethical
standards of our students, it is essential that assignments be a student’s own work. A student who
commits academic dishonesty is subject to a range of penalties, including suspension or expulsion.
Finally, the underlying principle is one of intellectual honesty. If a person is to have the self-respect and
the respect of others, all work must be his/her own. (Student Handbook, p. 7 and pp. 20-21.)
Privacy Statement
Moodle contains student information that is protected by the Family Educational Right to
Privacy Act (FERPA). Disclosure to unauthorized parties violates federal privacy laws. Courses using
Moodle will make student information visible to other students in this class. Please remember that this
information is protected by these federal privacy laws and must not be shared with anyone outside the
class. Questions can be referred to the Registrar's Office.
Grading Policy
Active participation
Daily assignments
Daily travel journal
Three travel letters
Exam
25 %
15 %
10 %
30 %
20 %
100 %
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