Monsters, Murder & Mayhem: Biography in the Ancient World
a) Rationale
This course will look at biography from the Greek world through to late antiquity in
order to reconstruct the lives of prominent Greeks and Romans. We will also attempt
to understand the historical circumstances under which these works were written.
Authors to be studied include Xenophon, Nepos, the Gospels, Suetonius, Plutarch,
and the Historia Augusta. Discussion will centre on the question of what constitutes
biography, the way in which biography was used by individual authors and what it
can reveal about the period in which it was composed.
b) Course Aims and Objectives
Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes






an understanding of the ancient genre of biography
an understanding of the relationship between Greek and Latin biographical and
historical writing
an understanding of how the writing of biography reflects the time in which it was
written
an understanding of how these writers represented character, either fictional or
real
an ability to use critically a variety of different methodologies and approaches to
assess this body of material
bibliographical research skills to enable students to find independently additional
information relating to the study of ancient biography
Transferable Skills




written skills and oral communication skills
analytical skills
ability to recognise and focus on important aspects of a wide-ranging subject and
to select specific examples
ability to produce a concise summary
There is no significant overlap with any other course.
C. Student intake
The course is intended for third and fourth year undergraduates. There is a degree of
flexibility as to the minimum number of students to make the course viable or the
maximum which can be accommodated, but it is expected that the nature of the course
will prove appealing to students.
D. Contents of the course
The course will trace the origins of biography, and its later development. Lectures
will focus on specific authors/works:
Xenophon
Nepos
the Gospels
Suetonius
Plutarch
Philostratus
Diogenes Laertius
Historia Augusta
St Jerome
Seminars will be based around the lectures, focusing on specific problems and issues
within those topics.
E. Organisation of teaching
The course organiser is Dr Sandra Bingham; Dr Lucy Grig, Dr Gavin Kelly and Dr
Simon Trepanier will also teach on the course. There will be two meetings per week:
in weeks 1, 4, 7, 9 and 10 there will be two lectures; in weeks 2, 3, 5, 8 and 11, there
will be a lecture and a seminar.
F. Student Assessment and Guidance
60% exam; 40% assessment.
G. Feedback and Evaluation
The usual procedures in the Classics department concerning student feedback and
evaluation will be followed.
H. Resource Requirement
The course will be taught by Drs Bingham, Grig, Kelly and Trepanier and no
additional tutors will be required. The availability of books either in the University
Library or the National Library of Scotland has been checked. The University Library
is adequately stocked, but the acquisition of additional publications will be
recommended prior to the commencement of the course.
I. Documentation
The following is a sample bibliography. Please note that the course will be designed
in a flexible manner to enable students to focus on a wide range of subjects in their
essays, thus minimising the risk that access to books will constitute a problem. The
bibliography in the course booklet will thus be much longer.
Sample Bibliography
Aune, David E. (1988) “The Gospels as ancient biography” in The New Testament in
Its Literary Environment (James Clarke & Co.: Cambridge)
Bradley, K.R. (1991) ‘The imperial ideal in Suetonius’ Caesares’, ANRW II.33.5:
3701-3732
Burridge, Richard A. (2004) What are the Gospels? A Comparison with GraecoRoman Biography. (Eerdmans: Grand Rapids)
Due, B. (1989) The Cyropaedia. Xenophon’s Aims and Methods. Aarhus Univ.Press:
Aarhus
Duff, T. (1999) Plutarch’s Lives: Exploring Virtue and Vice.(Clarendon Press:
Oxford)
Edwards, M.J. & S. Swain (1997) Portraits: Biographical Representation in the
Greek and Latin Literature of the Roman Empire (Clarendon Press: Oxford)
Geiger, J. (1985) Cornelius Nepos and Ancient Political Biography (Franz Steiner
Verlag: Stuttgart)
Hägg, T. et al (edd.) (2000) Greek Biography and Panegyric in Late Antiquity
(University of California Press: Berkeley)
Horsfall, N. (1989) Cornelius Nepos: Lives of Cato and Atticus (Clarendon Press:
Oxford)
Lewis, R. G. (1991) ‘Suetonius’ “Caesares” and their literary antecedents’, ANRW
II.33.5: 3623-3674
Momigliano, A. (1971) The Development of Greek Biography (Harvard U.P.:
Cambridge)
Mossman, J. (ed.) (1997) Plutarch and his Intellectual World (Duckworth: London)
Pelling, C.B.R. (2002) Plutarch and History: Eighteen Studies (Classical Press of
Wales: Swansea)
Podlecki, A.J. & S. Duane (1991) ‘A survey of work on Plutarch’s Greek lives, 19511988’, ANRW II.33.6: 4053-4127
Sage, Paula Winsor (1991) ‘Tradition, genre, and character portrayal : Cyropaedia 8.7
and Anabasis 1.9’ GRBS 32: 61-79
Syme, R. (1968) Ammianus and the Historia Augusta (Clarendon Press: Oxford)
Syme, R. (1971) Emperors and Biography (Oxford University Press: Oxford)
Titchener, F. (2003) ‘Cornelius Nepos and the biographical tradition’, Greece and
Rome 50.1: 85- 99
Titchener, F. (1991) ‘Critical trends in Plutarch’s Roman lives, 1975-1990’ ANRW
II.33.6: 4128-4153
Wallace-Hadrill, A. (1983) Suetonius (Yale University Press: New Haven)