Course Description
Law and its functions in ancient society from archaic Greece through the fifth century A.D. Includes discussion of Greek, Roman, and Christian legal codes, legal procedure, and the theory of law; also of law as a source for social history, especially issues of gender, class, crime, and the ancient economy.
Additional Requirements for Graduate Students:
Research term paper; presentation to class or leading class discussion.
Athena Title
Ancient Law
Prerequisite
Any HIST course or ENGL 1101 or ENGL 1101E or ENGL 1101S or ENGL 1102 or ENGL 1102E or ENGL 1102S or POLS 1101 or POLS 1101E or POLS 1101H or POLS 1101S
Semester Course Offered
Offered every year.
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Student Learning Outcomes
- By the end of this course, students will be able to arrive at conclusions about law and society in antiquity gathering and weighing evidence, logical argument, and listening to counter argument.
- By the end of this course, students will be able to write stylistically appropriate papers and essays. Students will be able to analyze ideas and evidence, organize their thoughts, and revise and edit their finished essays.
- By the end of this course, students will be able to identify how the history of law in antiquity has shaped social and cultural identities and attitudes toward class and property, justice and criminality, and gender and sexuality, encouraging them to understand diverse worldviews and experiences.
- By the end of this course, students will be able to apply appropriate methodological approaches to their analysis of primary sources and to organize their evidence to show historical continuities and discontinuities.
- By the end of this course, students will be able to generate their own research question or topic, locate suitable primary and secondary sources, and synthesize their ideas in novel ways.
- By the end of this course, students will be able to initiate, manage, complete, and evaluate their independent research projects in stages and to give and receive constructive feedback through the peer review process.
Topical Outline
- This course will explore the various functions of law in society--it can control violent behavior, resolve conflict, regulate the control and transfer of property, consolidate the power of the aristocracy or protect the poor and vulnerable, divide society into distinct classes and categories, and serve many other purposes.
- Ancient ideas of the nature of law
- The sources of legal authority in antiquity
- Criminal and civil procedure
- The position of women
- Family structure
- Attitudes toward sex and sexuality
- Taxes, crime, and the ancient economy
- Readings may include legal codes from archaic Greece (including descriptions of Lycurgus' reforms), Hesiod's "Works and Days," selections from the Attic orators, selected Platonic dialogues, the XII Tables, selected speeches of Cicero, the Institutes of Gaius, the Digest of Justinian, canons of the early Christian councils, and the Theodosian Code; sources of Jewish law, including Leviticus and the Mishnah, may also be assigned.
