Late Assessment Penalty

Unless a Special Consideration request has been submitted and approved, (a) a penalty for lateness will apply – two (2) marks out of 100 will be deducted per day for assignments submitted after the due date – and (b) no assignment will be accepted more than seven (7) days (incl. weekends) after the original submission deadline. No late submissions will be accepted for timed assessments – e.g. quizzes, online tests.

Marks are indicative until final review/moderation after the exam period is finished.

ASSESSMENT TASK 1 WEEKLY ONLINE DISCUSSION

All students will be expected to post at least one (1) response to the Online Discussion forum each week. This posting should be between 100-300 words and it should be in response to the questions posted for that week. These questions will relate to the primary texts in your Book of Readings each week.

The assessment criteria for this task is based on participation and the quality of your postings. Grading criteria includes clarity of expression and argument, evidence of independent thought, and the relevance of your response to the questions set by the tutor.

These posts are due at midnight of the Sunday of each tutorial week (i.e. Week 2 is from Monday 2nd - Sunday 8th March, and the online discussion should be made by midnight on Sunday 8th March). You are welcome to continue posting to the weekly discussion forum after this due date, but any postings made after midnight on Sunday will not be counted for assessment purposes. You are also welcome to start new discussions each week on topics of interest, but these will not be counted towards this assessment task.

The Online Discussion component is worth 15% of your overall assessment. You will need to post a response to at least 9 of the weekly forums from Weeks 2 to 4 and Weeks 6 to 12 (inclusive). Note that any postings that you make for Week 1, 5 and 13 will not count towards these 9 weekly posts.

 

ASSESSMENT 2 ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY

Students will submit an annotated bibliography of 15 (fifteen) references that will be used for the Major Essay (Assessment 3). In a maximum of 1500 words, these references should include brief commentaries which summarise the work and its relevance to the major essay question. Primary and secondary sources should be included. See weekly bibliographies and the general references in the Delivery and Resources folder below for ideas as to where to start.

ASSESSMENT TASK 3 MAJOR ESSAY

Major Essay Questions

 1. Discuss the factors that led to Constantine's foundation of the city of Constantinople. Why are there differing versions of the city's foundation and inauguration in the sources?

2. Analyse the evidence of Justinian's policy of military and territorial reconquest, and discuss the reasons why he would have adopted such a policy.

3. What do you consider to be the main contributing factors to both periods of iconoclasm (726-787CE and 813-843CE)?

4. How did the Fourth Crusaders justify their attack on fellow Christians and their looting of churches in Constantinople? Examine both Western and Byzantine accounts of the Fourth Crusade and compare their responses to the removal of holy relics and works of art from the city.

5. Discuss the strategies employed by the Fourth Crusaders to besiege Constantinople in 1204CE. Why did the Crusaders attack Constantinople, and how and why were they successful?      

6. Discuss the relationship between the church and state in Byzantium with particular reference to the reign of two emperors. How do you think the Byzantines themselves perceived the relationship between the church and emperor?

7. Discuss the distinctive features of Byzantine art and/or architecture. How was Byzantine art and/or architecture different from Western or early Islamic art of the same period?

 8. Choose two aspects of everyday life in Byzantium and consider the extant evidence to determine what it can tell us about the everyday lives of the Byzantines. Are there any issues with using these sources, and why is the evidence of everyday life less prominent than that of the lives of emperors and saints?  

9. Based on the extant sources, what do you consider to be the main contributing factors to the fall of Constantinople in 1453CE? Was the fall of Constantinople inevitable?

 

GENERAL BIBLIOGRAPHY   City of Constantine

Reference works

(**) - available online via MQ library

**Cambridge History of the Byzantine Empire c.500-1492 ed. J. Shepard (2008).

Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, 3 vols ed. A. Kazhdan (1991)

Oxford History of Byzantium ed. C. Mango (2002)

**James, E. (ed.) A Companion to Byzantium. (Chichester, U.K. ; Malden, MA, 2010).

The Oxford Handbook of Byzantine Studies ed. E. Jeffreys (2009)

The Byzantine World ed. P. Stephenson (2010)

A Chronology of the Byzantine Empire ed. T. Venning (2005)

Prosopography of the Byzantine Empire ed. J. R. Martindale (2001-)

Dumbarton Oaks Bibliographies (1973-)

**The Blackwell Companion to Eastern Christianity, ed. Ken Parry (2007).

The Palgrave Atlas of Byzantine History ed. J. Haldon (2006)

Some relevant journals:

Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies

Byzantinische Zeitschrift

Byzantion

Dumbarton Oaks Papers

Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies

Journal of Hellenic Studies

Revue des Etudes Byzantines

Travaux et Mémoires

 

General Reading:

*Bassett, S. The Urban Image of Late Antique Constantinople (Cambridge, 2007).

*Byrd, K.M. Pierre Gilles' Constantinople: A Modern English Translation (Italica Press, 2008).

*Cameron, A. The Byzantines (Oxford, 2006). 

*Gregory, T. A History of Byzantium (Oxford, 2010).

**Grig, L. and Kelly, G. Two Romes: Rome and Constantinople in Late Antiquity (Oxford, 2012).

*Harris, J. Constantinople: Capital of Byzantium (London, 2007).

*Hatlie, P. The monks and monasteries of Constantinople, ca. 350-850 (Cambridge, UK; New York, 2007).

*Magdalino, P. Studies on the history and topography of Byzantine Constantinople (Aldershot, 2007).

*Mango, C. ed. Studies on Constantinople (Aldershot, 1993).

Mango, C. & Dagron, G. eds. Constantinople and its Hinterland (Aldershot, 1995).

*Necipoglu, N. ed. Byzantine Constantinople: Monuments, Topography and Everyday Life (Leiden, 2001).