ASSESSMENT TASKS

1. Preparatory Exercise: This task counts only 10% towards your final grade.

It is university policy that you receive feedback as soon as possible in the session. As many of you will be undertaking this unit as the first in your university career, we are offering a very short exercise based on Tutorial Topic Two ('The Values and Goals of the Roman Nobility'), to ensure that you are familiar with the desired mode of presenting evidence and documenting an academic paper.

To that end we are asking that you submit a very short paper (of no more than 100 words) on the following topic:

Identify three important values of the Roman nobility, and provide the evidence from the ancient sources for our knowledge of each of these values. (The means of referencing your paper will be discussed at the preceding tutorial.)

In this exercise, we are looking for three distinct Roman aristocratic values found in the sources provided, clearly outlined (within the word limit), the citation of ancient evidence, clarity of presentation, good expression and grammatical accuracy. The exercise will be graded according to these criteria (e.g., systematic citation, number of sources cited, and standard of presentation). The paper should be written in prose, not point form.

This is what is termed a 'low-risk task'. It will count relatively little towards your final assessment (thus removing a good deal of pressure), but it will get you into the swing of things early; it is due to be submitted on Wednesday March 30th by 11.59pm). The assignment is designed to assist you in the preparation for your essay.

The mode of desired referencing will be found on the Department of Ancient History website. Under 'Teaching Materials’:  <http://mq.edu.au/about_us/faculties_and_departments/faculty_of_arts/department_of_ancient_history/teaching_materials/>, you will find 'Essay Presentation Guides'. Go to 'Short Version (recommended for 100-level students)'. Further on the desired mode of referencing, see below, under ‘Essay’.

2. Source Dossier (worth 15% of your final grade): In this exercise, you will construct a ‘source dossier’ of at least ten ancient sources on a particular Roman politician to be identified in Week 6 (from a variety of source material that will be discussed in class in Week 6). In this way you will become familiar with the different information that can be extracted from literary testimonia (i.e., written texts), epigraphical sources (i.e., inscriptions) and numismatic sources (i.e., coins).

Exercises will be graded according to the number of sources found, proper source citation and clarity of presentation. The assignment must be submitted on Thursday April 28th by 11.59pm.

3. Essay: One essay, counting for 35% of the final mark, is required.

The staff will prepare a full source dossier based upon the research we have undertaken together for the previous exercise. Using this dossier, you will submit a profile and an evaluation of the career of the same individual. The Essay is due Tuesday May 17th by 11.59pm. (Fuller details will be supplied in lectures, together with guides to the exercise.)

This essay will be graded according to the clarity of your presentation and the degrees of sophistication with which you draw inferences from the available evidence.

Please note that Ancient History Essay Presentation Guides are available on the Ancient History website (under ‘Teaching materials’):

<http://mq.edu.au/about_us/faculties_and_departments/faculty_of_arts/department_of_ancient_history/teaching_materials/>

3. Examination: There is a two-hour examination scheduled in the University Examination Period. It is worth 40% of the final assessment. It will include:

 (i) a range of passages for discussion (drawn from the passages that will be studied in lectures and tutorials);

(ii) a set of ten short-answer questions testing your knowledge of the Roman political system (worth 10% of the overall examination mark);

(iii) a compulsory question on the nature of Rome's crisis and the Republic’s strengths and weaknesses (which is here pre-circulated.)

"A state without the means of some change is without the means of its conservation." (Edmund Burke)

Discuss this proposition with regard to the Roman Republic between the period 168 and 80 BC.  Was the Roman Republic without the means of change? Was change the solution in your opinion? Discuss with regard to political developments between 168 and 80 BC. (In your answer, you should make specific references to the particular problems that Rome faced in this period and to the solutions proposed and/or enacted by various individuals.)

IMPORTANT: The University Examination period in 1st Session 2016 is from 14th June to 1st July.

You are expected to present yourself for examination at the time and place designated in the University Examination Timetable. The timetable will be available in Draft form approximately eight weeks before the commencement of the examinations and in Final form approximately four weeks before the commencement of the examinations at: <http://students.mq.edu.au/student_admin/timetables>. The only exception to sitting an examination at the designated time is because of documented illness or unavoidable disruption. In these circumstances you may wish to consider applying for Special Consideration. To be eligible for Special Consideration, a student must notify the University of a serious and unavoidable disruption within five (5) working days of the commencement of the disruption (Disruption to Studies notification). All Disruption to Studies notifications are to be made online via the University’s Ask MQ system. Information about the unavoidable Disruption to Studies process is available under the 'Policies and Procedures' section of this Unit Guide. You are advised that it is Macquarie University policy not to set early examinations for individuals or groups of students. All students are expected to ensure that they are available until the end of the teaching semester, that is, the final day of the official examination period.

GRADING

The grade a student receives will signify their overall performance in meeting the learning outcomes of the unit. Grades will not be awarded by reference to the achievement of other students nor allocated to fit a predetermined distribution. In determining a grade, due weight will be given to the learning outcomes and level of the unit. Markers in the unit will use the following grades:

HD = High Distinction 85–100

D = Distinction 75–84

Cr = Credit 65–74

P = Pass 50–64

F = Fail 0–49

ASSIGNMENT SUBMISSION

All written work (apart from the examination) must be submitted through the iLearn website. Please upload your assignment to the drop-box under the relevant week. Save your assignment as a pdf or a doc file (a pdf is best). All assignment files should be saved with your full name in the label of the file. All assignments should include the following at the start: Student name; Student number; Assessment Task Title or Question.

Assessments 1 to 3 will be returned via the Turnitin tool on the iLearn Unit site and will contain feedback from the marker. Information about how to submit work online can be accessed through the iLearn unit site.

Over the course of AHIS110 your work will be marked by at least two members of staff.

ABOUT THIS UNIT

This unit concerns itself with the beginning of the Roman Republic's drift towards its political collapse, and in particular with the beginnings of the so-called "Roman Revolution". Special attention will be paid to the period from 168 BC, when Roman troops destroyed the Macedonian army at the battle of Pydna, to the establishment of Sulla's dictatorship (82–80 BC), when the age of the General was at hand and the Republic's days were numbered. Developments in this period, both internal and external, are of critical significance in the history of western civilization. We look closely at traditional political and social institutions, values and practice, and try to assess the effect on these of Rome's emergence as the dominating power in the Mediterranean. The main questions will be how and why the traditional political order was challenged and finally overrun by violence leading to military autocracy and the radical transformation of the Republic. Larger social and economic developments in Italy and the Mediterranean will need to be addressed, and the distinctive features of the moral and political thought of the period will also be considered. The course is largely a study of the Roman nobility and its members' response to change and crisis.

CLASSES

For lecture times and classrooms please consult the MQ Timetable website: <http://www.timetables.mq.edu.au>. This website will display up-to-date information on classes and classroom locations. Where possible, external students are welcome to attend internal classes.

Lectures: The lectures for this unit will be recorded and the audio recordings can be downloaded or streamed via the Echo 360 system which can be accessed via the iLearn site.

Tutorials: Topics for discussion and questions to be addressed are set out under the appropriate week on the iLearn unit site. The material covered will form an essential preparation for your responses in Part (i) in the Examination. Preparation for each tutorial is advised, since the material covered in these sessions will be examined. Only by reading the material set for discussion in advance will you receive the full benefit of these sessions. Students are asked to discuss tutorial topics amongst themselves by posting online via the General Discussion Forum on the iLearn website.

There are tutorials each week for most weeks of the session (but not in weeks One, Five and Seven). We hope that participation in these discussions will be a vital and rewarding part of the unit.

RESOURCES

Required Reading and Texts

(i)      Ancient Sources

All students are expected to have a copy of the ancient sources listed below. All tutorial exercises which do not draw on material in the Unit Book of Readings (see below) will be based on source material in these works.

Plutarch Roman Lives: A Selection of Eight Lives (Oxford World's Classics)*

Appian The Civil Wars (Penguin Classics)

* Please note that the Lives of Plutarch that are covered in this unit are also available in two Penguin editions: Plutarch Makers of Rome (Penguin Classics) and Plutarch The Fall of the Roman Republic (Penguin Classics). These two books could be purchased as an alternative to the first of the two books above.

Other essential ancient sources to which reference will be made in the lectures have been compiled in a Book of Readings The Roman Republic in Crisis (revised edition) which will be available for purchase at the beginning of the session.

NOTE

In this course emphasis is placed upon the direct examination of the ancient sources and evidence. Students are expected to base all their work on a personal examination of these sources. It will not be sufficient simply to read modern studies on any topic, however sound and highly recommended these are: it will be essential to look first at the ancient sources on which all modern studies are necessarily based.

(ii)     Modern Studies

A useful textbook account for the period will be found in H.H. Scullard, From the Gracchi to Nero (5th edition, 1982) whose notes on pp. 381ff. provide reference to more recent modern studies. It is highly recommended for background reading.

Required and recommended texts are available for purchase at the Co-Op bookstore <http://www.coop-bookshop.com.au>.

Shorter paperbacks which provide an introduction to Republican history and a background to the period we are studying are:

Michael Crawford, The Roman Republic (Fontana, 1978); P.A. Brunt, Social Conflicts in the Roman Republic (Chatto & Windus, 1971); David Shotter, The Fall of the Roman Republic (2^nd edition, Routledge, 2005); and Catherine Steel, The End of the Roman Republic 146 to 44 BC. Conquest and Crisis (Edinburgh University Press, 2013).

These (the last two especially) are readily available and are recommended for purchase to those wanting a wider perspective.

A stocktaking of modern scholarship and a useful summation of many of the problematic issues arising in this topic will be found in M. Beard and M. Crawford Rome in the Late Republic. Problems and Interpretations (London, 1985). Even more recent introductions to various themes is provided by Harriet I. Flower (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to the Roman Republic (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2004), designed for readers new to the subject; and Nathan Rosenstein and Robert Morstein-Marx (eds), A Companion to the Roman Republic (Oxford, Blackwell, 2006).

There are two important works of reference for the course which are available in the Macquarie University Library and some other libraries:

The Oxford Classical Dictionary (abbreviated OCD) is the standard work of reference in English for Roman and Greek history and culture.  It provides reliable and succinct explanations and definitions of technical terms, summary biographies of prominent individuals, and accounts of institutions, etc.

T.R.S. Broughton The Magistrates of the Roman Republic (abbrev. MRR; 2 vols, 1951-2; Vol. 1 covers the period 509-100 BC; vol. 2 the period 99-31 BC), copies of which will be held in Reserve.  This is an invaluable book which gives, year by year, a full, systematic list of the known political officials and magistrates, a summary of their actions in office and full references to the known ancient sources. A supplementary volume (vol. III) was published in 1986.

Also to be regarded as a standard work of reference is J.A. Crook et al. (ed.), The Cambridge Ancient History vol. IX2 (Cambridge University Press, 1994).

More detailed reading lists relating to particular topics will be made available electronically on the iLearn unit site.

UNIT WEBPAGE AND TECHNOLOGY USED AND REQUIRED

This unit will use iLearn: <https://ilearn.mq.edu.au/login/MQ/>. PC and Internet access are therefore required. Basic computer skills (e.g., internet browsing) and skills in word processing are also a requirement. Please consult teaching staff for any further, more specific requirements.

SATISFACTORY COMPLETION OF UNIT

Attendance

It is expected that students spend 9 hours per week on individual study and participation across the 15 weeks of the session.

It is also expected that students attend the on-campus session on the Saturday at the close of Week 3 (19th March). The session will run from 10am until 4pm and be held in the Ancient Cultures Research Centre in Building W6A Level 3 (at the end of the corridor). Students who are unable to attend the on-campus session for reasons beyond their control should contact one of the convenors as soon as possible.

Students are also required to participate in tutorial discussions online via the General Discussion Forum on the iLearn website.

Students must attempt each of the 4 assessment tasks and achieve an overall mark of 50% or above to complete the unit satisfactorily.

Please see the unit's iLearn website for the schedule of topics to be covered each week in the internal mode of delivery. The external recordings will follow this schedule as closely as possible.

There have been no substantive changes made to the unit since the last offering.

ASSIGNMENT SUBMISSION

All written work (apart from that generated in the examination) must be submitted through the iLearn website. Please upload your assignment to the drop-box under the relevant week. Save your assignment as a pdf or a doc/docx file (a pdf is best). All assignment files should be saved with your full name in the label of the file. All assignments should include the following at the start: Student name; Student number; Assessment Task Title or Question.

Information about how to submit work online can be accessed through the iLearn unit site.

ASSIGNMENT RETURN

Assessments 1 to 3 will be returned via the Turnitin tool on the iLearn Unit site and will contain feedback from the marker. Every effort will be made to return assignments in a timely fashion.

EXTENSIONS AND PENALTIES FOR LATE SUBMISSION OF WORK

Extensions for assignments can only be granted for medical reasons or on compassionate grounds. Without documentation (medical or counselling certificates) or prior staff approval, a penalty of 2% a day, including weekends, will be applied. If required, applications for extensions should be made before the assignment's due date. (For students who have suffered serious and unavoidable disruption to their studies, see further under Disruption to Studies Policy below.)

NB You should always keep a copy of completed tasks in case of loss.

DISRUPTION TO STUDIES POLICY

<http://www.mq.edu.au/policy/docs/disruption_studies/policy.html>

This Policy applies only to serious and unavoidable disruptions that arise after a study period has commenced. Such disruptions commonly result from personal, social or domestic circumstances and may include illness (either physical or psychological), accident, injury, societal demands (such as jury service), bereavement, family breakdown or unexpected changes in employment situations.

Notification of Disruption to Studies

In order to support students who have experienced serious and unavoidable disruption, the University will provide affected students with an additional opportunity to demonstrate that they have met the learning outcomes of a unit.

An additional opportunity provided under such circumstances is referred to as Special Consideration. Special Consideration will be granted after careful evaluation of evidence supporting a notification for disruption to studies.

DISRUPTION TO STUDIES NOTIFICATION

It is a student’s responsibility to notify the University of their circumstances. All students of the University have the right to provide notification of a disruption to studies.

A student may notify the University of a disruption to their studies regardless of whether the disruption meets the serious and unavoidable criteria.

To be eligible for Special Consideration, a student must notify the University of a serious and unavoidable disruption within five (5) working days of the commencement of the disruption (Disruption to Studies notification).  

All Disruption to Studies notifications are to be made online via the University’s Ask MQ system.

Students granted a Disruption to Studies may by awarded an Incomplete Grade in first session results released in mid-July.