Late Antique and Byzantine Studies

University of London
MA in Late Antique and Byzantine Studies
This course, leading to a University of London M.A. is taught over one year (full-time) or two years (part-time); it is intended to give a grounding in Late Antique and Byzantine Studies to students who may have had their previous training in a variety of different subjects, and to offer a preparation for research work. Students may enroll at King's College 0r Royal Holloway College; applicants should consult the Colleges as to the options which they may pursue. Students are encouraged to enroll at the College where the courses offered are closest to their particular interests, but this is not a strict requirement. Many students are likely to wish to take a taught course at one College, and work for their dissertation at another.



The following description describes the programme under the regulations which will apply from 2006/07



All students must attend the introductory seminar, MB03 Introduction to Byzantium; this meets weekly in the first seven weeks of the first semester, when a variety of experts provide an introduction to their own subject. In mid January and early June the seminar is reconvened, and students are expected to make their own presentations of their dissertation topics. Attendance at the Seminar is a requirement; there is no assessed work.



All students must undertake a dissertation on an approved topic in the field of Late Antique and Byzantine Studies.



All students must also take one language testing course (marked + in the list of courses), one skills course (marked * in the list of courses) and one further taught course:



I Research Skills

Language

+ * K005 Classical Greek I (for beginners)
This course involves three hours of classes a week in both semesters; it is intended to provide students with the basic structures of classical Greek grammar, and some reading experience.


+ * K015 Intermediate Greek
This course involves three hours of classes a week in both semesters; it is intended to provide students who have some knowledge with a thorough grounding in classical Greek grammar, and some reading experience.

+ * MB02 Byzantine Greek II (advanced reading course)
This course involves preparing and translating passages from at least four different Byzantine authors, for two hours every week throughout the year.

+ * CLASG055 Latin for Beginners
An introduction to the Latin language for complete beginners, designed to bring them to a point where they can read simple texts in Latin.

+ * CLASG065 Intermediate Latin
A course for students who have completed a beginners' course in Latin, designed to extend their knowledge of the language to a point where they are ready to read substantial texts.

+ * K290 Medieval Latin Literature
The course is in two parts; the first term is exploratory: students will read a substantial sample of verse and prose, concentrated in a particular period. In the second term the class will learn how to edit a medieval Latin text.


+ * Another relevant language at an appropriate level

All the above language courses (except K290 which is examined by course-work) are assessed by a 3 hour written examination in May.

Applied Skills
+ * M380 Greek Palaeography : a two hour class every week on Greek Palaeography, taught with students taking the MA in Classics and Ancient History. This course is only available to students with a good knowledge of Ancient or Mediaeval Greek


+ MB23 Elementary Greek Palaeography: The course concentrates on the minuscule script from the 9th-15th c. It aims to bring students up to a level where they would be able to transcribe texts from facsimiles of Greek manuscripts, and distinguish different styles. The material is adapted each time to the level of the class. In general the course covers simpler minuscule literary hands, nomina sacra, ligatures, abbreviations and symbols. The course involves 40-60 hours of teaching and course work, mainly transcribing texts from facsimiles of manuscripts and commenting on the layout of the text and on the script, either in class or individually. This course may be taken by students who are starting to learn Greek.


+ M381 Latin Palaeography: : a two hour lecture and a two hour class every week on Latin Palaeography, taught with students taking the MA in Classics and Ancient History). This course may be taken by students who are starting to learn Latin.


+ * M731 Latin Epigraphy
This is a dedicated MA course, designed to introduce students to both the practical study and the interpretation of Latin inscriptions of all types. Students will learn how to measure and record inscriptions (including making squeezes); how to read and interpret epigraphic texts; and how to edit and prepare epigraphic texts for publication. They will study and interpret a wide variety of examples different types of inscriptions: official, public, private and graffiti, from Rome, Italy and the provinces. The course will end with an extended case study of the varied material from Pompeii. It is intended to make use as much as possible of photographs and of epigraphic material in the collection of the British Museum.

+ *M730 Greek Epigraphy
The aim of this course is to give students both a training in the practical techniques of epigraphy, experience in dealing with inscriptions and their context, and also practice in the analysis and use of inscribed texts in the study of the Greek-speaking world. Students are expected to have a working knowledge of Greek (to Intermediate level or equivalent).

+ * Greek Papyrology
This course offers an introduction to Greek papyrology, both literary and documentary. Topics include writing materials, papyrus and its uses, find-spots and preservation, book-hands and cursives, and the light shed on the social, economic and intellectual life of Hellenistic, Roman and early Byzantine Egypt. This course is only available to students with a good knowledge of Ancient or Mediaeval Greek


+ An appropriate unit, normally ACMMET Methods and Techniques of Humanities Computing with ACTLMS: Tools and resources for humanities computing, from the MA in Humanities Computing (KCL)

Part II
Taught course
The courses marked with o are those which are likely to be available in 2006-7. Students are advised that they should check the starting date of particular courses with the institutions concerned; teachers retain discretion to admit students to a particular course.

King's College:
o AB/MA 26. The Greek Novel and its Influence (1 st to 21 st Centuries)
The focal point for the course is the study by Margaret Anne Doody, The True Story of the Novel (1996), which reappraises the historical development of the genre, through two millennia, in relation to its earliest known starting point, the novels (or romances) of ideal love written in Greek during the 1 st four centuries of the Common Era/AD. The other core theoretical and historical approach to the subject is the influential essay by M.M. Bakhtin on the chronotope in the novel, from the 1st to the 19th centuries.

o + * K290 Medieval Latin Literature
The course is in two parts; the first term is exploratory: students will read a substantial sample of verse and prose, concentrated in a particular period. In the second term the class will learn how to edit a medieval Latin text.

MB303 Byzantium and the West, A.D.843-1002
A comparative study of relations between the Greek East and the Latin West, investigating contacts and conflicts at the level of ecclesiastical politics, imperial ideology, diplomacy, and the broad field of cultural influence.

o K866 Gender from Antiquity to Byzantium
This course aims to explore the practical and conceptual relations between women, men, and society in the ancient Greek, Roman, and Byzantine worlds: to examine the social and cultural roles of men and women, and the ideologies and understandings of sexual difference with which they were bound up. The subject will be approached thematically, with attention given to the various methodological problems and theoretical concerns raised throughout the course. Topics such as the family and inheritance, women and power, and medical knowledge, will provide the focus for parallel sessions which will examine and compare these issues in the different periods under consideration. This allows not only for a suitable depth of study using a wide range of evidence, but also for aspects of continuity as well as change to emerge clearly across both the political and religious transformations of the era-most especially the shifts from city-states to empire, and from civic paganism to imperial Christianity.

* MB06 Constantinople and its descriptions
The course is devoted to the study and analysis of our sources for the city of Constantinople (324-1453). Some of these sources are archaeological; but for the most part they are literary texts, written by inhabitants and by visitors. The course will be devoted to the careful study of a series of texts from different periods, examining how the image of Constantinople has been presented over many centuries; texts will be studied as far as possible in the original language(s)

* MB08 Byzantine Hagiography
(Course subject to approval) The aim is to introduce students to the issues raised by the development of a new literary genre, hagiography, from the fourth century. As well as looking at the wider issues, and reading a considerable number of texts in translation, they would also be expected to analyse the language and content of a specific text (in Greek or Latin)

Arabic Philosophy (course from the MA Philosophy)
The course aims to give students an understanding of the historical development and philosophical interest of philosophy produced in the Arabic-speaking world, focusing on the time period from al-Kindi (9th century) to Averroes (12th century), which one might call the ���classical��� period of Arabic thought. However some attention will be paid to developments after the classical period towards the end of the course. A further aim of the course is to bridge the gap between existing graduate courses in Post-Aristotelian and Mediaeval Philosophy.

o Medieval Jewish Philosophy (from the MA in Philosophy of Religion, C608)
The nature of Medieval Jewish Philosophy and the Islamic context within which the majority of the philosophers to be studied were working. The central figures in the course will be Saadia Gaon, Yehuda Halevi, Moses Maimonides, Levi Gersonides and Hasdai Crescas. Topics include: arguments for the existence of God; the nature of God; religious language; philosophical interpretations of the doctrines of creation, prophecy and providence; free will and omniscience; rationalising the commandments; human perfection; Jewish eschatology; and the problem of evil.

Royal Holloway and Bedford New College:
CL5314 The Late Roman and Early Byzantine City
Starting with the development of the Classical urban form of city of the second century AD, the course examines the implications of the spread of Classical urbanism throughout the empire. It then looks at the cultural changes of the late third and fourth centuries, notably the Christianisation of the Roman empire, and the implications of those changes for the city. We will then examine the 'decline' of the ancient city and theories surrounding the 'rise' of the medieval city.

o M720 The Christianisation of the Roman World: Constantine to Justinian
The course explores the Christian transformation of the religious life of the ancient world: how far and by what means change was achieved, and its relation to various groups and social and political institutions: intellectuals, clergy, women, upper and lower classes, cities and countryside, central governments. Apart from the intrinsic interest of the period and the developments investigated, the value of the course to M.A. students lies in the introduction to a wide range of visual and documentary sources, especially to hagiography. Knowledge of Greek and/or Latin is useful but not essential.

o HS5219/5220 Byzantium and the Crusades
This course traces the interaction between the Byzantine empire and the crusading movement in the years c.1050-1204, focusing in particular on how the Byzantines viewed the crusaders and the crusading ideal. Early classes will give an outline of Byzantine political thought, literary culture and attitudes to the Islamic and Western worlds, and the course will then consider how these factors moulded the policies developed by the emperors to deal with passing crusading armies and with the Latin states in Palestine. The second half of the course will consider the decades leading up to the Fourth Crusade and the sack of Constantinople in 1204, and assess whether this disaster was the result of a series of unforeseen accidents, or of calculated and careful planning.

o Byzantine Autographs of the Palaeologan Period (13th-15th century)

The course examines Byzantine autograph manuscripts of the Palaeologan period (13th-15th century). It focuses on surviving autographs of distinguished Byzantine scholars and teachers who played an important role on the cultural and political scene in the last period of the Byzantine Empire. These autographs provide evidence for the use of both calligraphic and personal scripts, often by the same author, who made extensive use of abbreviations, ligatures and symbols. Some of these autographs are working copies, annotated, corrected and re-worked by the author himself. This helps to follow the process by which a Byzantine author revised and edited his own work.Students are expected to have a working knowledge of Greek (to Intermediate level or equivalent).

Greek Hands of the Palaeologan Period (13th-15th century)

The course focuses on the following areas: (a) the political and cultural changes in the Byzantine Empire following the capture of Constantinople by the Crusaders in 1204, the recapture of the City by Michael VIII Palaeologus in 1261 until its fall to the Ottoman Turks in 1453, as these are reflected in the various Greek literary, documentary and scholarly hands; (b) the theological dialogue between the Greek Orthodox and Roman Catholic theologians that culminated in the Council of Ferrara-Florence (1439) as attested in Greek manuscripts; (c) the activity of Greek scholars and scribes in Byzantium and Western Europe, and their role in the translation of Latin texts and the transmission of classical Greek texts during the Renaissance; (d) the passage from the Greek manuscript to the Greek printed book, especially in Italy. Students are expected to have a working knowledge of Greek (to Intermediate level or equivalent).

Royal Holloway with University College:


Philosophy under the Roman Empire.

A general study of Middle Platonism and Neoplatonism from the revival of dogmatism in the first century BC to the sixth century AD. Reference will also be made to related philosophical developments in the period 100 BC - 200 AD, especially in the Aristotelian tradition. Students will also be required to show knowledge of the content of and the philosophical issues raised by set texts, which may be studied in translation: in 2005-6, Plotinus, Enneads 1.6 and 5.1 and Plutarch, On the Creation of the Soul in the Timaeus

University College:


ARCLG045 Roman Archaeology: Selected Topics and Current Problems
[Pre-approved course from M.A. in Archaeology]
The aim of this course is to provide an introduction to the methods of historic archaeology in the context of the study of society and economy of the Roman Empire. The course will emphasise the limits and potential of a variety of sources for our understanding of the Roman World including literacy and sub-literacy texts, archaeological sites, coins, pottery and other artefacts. A background knowledge of the history and material culture of the Greco-Roman world is desirable but knowledge of Greek or Latin or modern European languages, though an advantage in some of the topics to be considered, is not a requirement for this course.

MB590 Byzantine Egypt
This course looks at the richly documented history and culture of Egypt in the 4th - 7th centuries.

o Before Western Europe. Identity and Power in the Latin Mediterranean West AD 400-800
The main issues explored during the course are: how the different barbarian peoples were considered and described by Roman writers; how the various barbarian ��lites recounted their peoples��� origins, the myths they used and how much they owed to those Roman narratives; what ethnic identity had to do with the relationship between new Barbarian rulers and the Roman population; how it contributed to the construction of political bodies; if religion was ever used as a tool to claim ethnic identity; the extent to which we are able to understand the various Barbarian peoples��� ethnic identity and how we can use this evidence to see how the Mediterranean society changed the further it went from the Roman times.

o Codes and Practice: the world of Roman law from antiquity to the early middle ages

This course aims to provide students with an introduction to the shape of the living body of Roman law from classical antiquity to the early Middle Ages and the historical issues that raises. For in fact, of course, the classic texts of Roman law developed over a millennium or more in response to changing social and political environments as the society to which they related developed from a modest central Italian city republic into an imperial superstate before setting out on divergent paths in the aftermath of the fall of the western empire. This course charts the relationship between the production of normative texts, legal interpretation, and legal practice against this shifting social and political background. At various junctures the development of this legal system was punctutated by attempts to codify certain sections. The core of this course comprises the analysis of the surviving or partially surviving codifications (e.g. the Theodosian and Justinianic Codes, the Breviarium of Alaric, and the Digest) as well as those reconstructed from later sources (e.g. the XII Tables and the Edictum Perpetuum) against their historical context so as to expose students to the full complexity of the texture of the source material. Interspersed are sessions analysing the actual practice and social impact of Roman law based on specific case studies.

Birkbeck College

HICL079P Language and power in the later Roman Empire (285-565)(0.5 unit)
This course will explore the political and socio-cultural transformations which took place between the third and sixth centuries AD by analysing the shifting relationships between language, education and power. Throughout classical antiquity the possession of cultivated speech (expressed through traditional models of Latin and Greek speakers and texts) functioned as a cultural marker of communities, as well as individuals. As the Western empire gave way to new hegemonies of political power and social authority (for example, the Christian Church, the rise of asceticism, the establishment of the so-called 'barbarian' successor kingdoms) new languages of power were negotiated. Yet the paradox of reinvention through classicism persisted in the West, as in the East. A further theme of the module will thus explore whether the late Roman educational system allowed for a new multi-ethnicity, rather than simply clinging to models inherited from the past. We shall begin by analysing the historical stereotypes of decline, decadent language and antiquarianism that still characterise the later Roman period. We shall then explore the variety of social and cultural contexts in which education in the arts of language took place, before moving on to highlight some of the specialised and inventive rhetorical techniques that were developed in late Roman classrooms. We shall then question how the distinct techniques and habits of thought acquired through studying the arts of language were applied in diverse practical contexts. Finally we shall examine the legacy that late Roman arts of language left to the early medieval West and Byzantium.
General themes to be covered will include: the concept of literacy and the limits of education; the relation between oral speech and written text; the functions of socio-cultural identity; changing relationships between pedagogy, persuasion and political power; and the evolution of distinct genres of 'canonical'
Autumn term 2004: Tuesday 6.00- 8.00 pm, Birkbeck College
Taught by: Dr Caroline Humfress

To be taken together with
o HICL004P Ancient Political thought and its medieval legacy (0.5 unit).
This module will explore major themes and topics within ancient political thought, examining how, where and in what contexts ancient political thinkers from Plato to St Thomas Aquinas developed distinct approaches to the relationship between individuals and their political communities. We shall pay particular attention to debates over the relationship between law, theology and theories of political action. Another major theme of the course will be the relationship between texts and theorists: the formation of different and distinctive 'schools' of thought and the gradual development of a canon of texts which remains foundational for modern Western political theory today. Through a study of some of the important and influential theorists in the history of ancient political thought - such as Plato, Aristotle, Epicurus, Cicero or St Augustine - we shall first seek to contextualise their ideas in the time and circumstances under which they were writing, before moving on to examine the legacy of key ideas and concepts (for example justice, political community, property, political ethics and slavery) in later medieval contexts.
Spring term 2005: Tuesday 6.00- 8.00 pm, Birkbeck College
Taught by: Dr Caroline Humfress

* Religion and the State; Traditions and Innovations, 200-600 AD (0.5 unit)
Taught by: Dr Caroline Humfress

Heythrop College

The Church in the Christian Empire (AD 336-604)
[Pre-approved course from M.A. in Church History]
The course is intended to explore the impact that the Church had on the wider society, and its opportunities for development and expansion, in the context of the Christian empire; to analyse the relations between Church and State, particularly in the context of the ecumenical councils; and to evaluate to what extent early Christianity was suited to become the religion of a whole society

Not all of these options will be available in any one year; others may be offered from time to time. Courses are normally be assessed by 2-4 essays adding up to c. 10,000 words in total, or by a combination of examination and essays or by an examination.
Part 4
Dissertation
A dissertation of not more than 10,000 words on an approved topic, which must be submitted by 1 September.
Dissertation guidelines

For further information please write to the relevant course directors:

Mrs Charlotte Rouech��: email: charlotte.roueche@kcl.ac.uk
Department of Byzantine and Modern Greek,
King's College, London, WC2R 2LS.
application details

Dr. Charalambos Dendrinos: email: ch.dendrinoc@rhul.ac.uk
The Hellenic Institute,
Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, Egham, Surrey TW20 0EX:
application details


Benet Salway, Department of History, email: r.salway@ucl.ac.uk, or Dr. Antonio Sennis, email: a.sennis@ucl.ac.uk, Department of History, University College, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT
application details

Teachers involved in the course include:


Birkbeck College
Dr Caroline Humfress, Lecturer in History
Late Antique and Mediaeval History

King's College
Dr. Peter Adamson, Lecturer in Philosophy
Arabic Philosophy


Professor Roderick M. Beaton, MA PhD (Cambridge), Koraes Professor of Modern Greek and Byzantine History, Language and Literature
Medieval and Modern Greek literature

Miss Carlotta Dionisotti, BA (Oxford), Lecturer in Classics
Late republican and Augustan literature; medieval and renaissance Latin; history of scholarship

Dr. Rebecca Flemming, MA (Cantab), DPhil (London), Lecturer
History of Medicine

Professor David Ganz, MA, DPhil (Oxford) Professor of Palaeography
Latin palaeography

Professor Judith Herrin, MA (Cambridge), Ph.D. (Birmingham), Professor of Late Antique and Byzantine Studies,
The transition from antiquity to the Middle Ages; women in late antiquity and Byzantium

Dr. Fiona Haarer, MA, DPhil (Oxford), Lecturer inClassical Language and Literature (2003-2005)
Language, Literature and History of the fifth and sixth centuries

Dr. Tassos Papacostas, MA (London), D Phil (Oxford), Research Associate
Byzantine History, the Prosopography of the Byzantine Empire

Mrs. Charlotte Rouech��, MA (Cambridge), Reader in Classical and Byzantine Greek
Greek epigraphy; late Greek and Byzantine literature; the development of the late Roman city

Dr Daniel Rynhold BA (Cantab), MA (UCL), PhD (LSE), Lecturer in Jewish Studies
Jewish Philosopy, Philosophy of Moses Maimonides, Joseph Soloveitchik and practical justification in Jewish philosophy

Dr. J. M. Whitby, MA (Oxford) , PhD (Edinburgh), Research Associate
Literature of late antiquity and classical antecedents.

Royal Holloway College

Professor Richard Alston, B. A., PhD (London), Reader
Roman Egypt; urbanism in the ancient world; Roman army

Dr. Samuel Barnish, M.A., D.Phil (Oxford), Lecturer in the History of the Later Roman Empire and Early Medieval Europe
Late Roman and post-Roman history, especially western Europe and Ostrogothic Italy; the writings of Cassiodorus, especially his Variae

Julian Chrysostomides, MA, BLitt (Oxford), Reader emerita, Director, The Hellenic Institute
The Hospitallers in Rhodes, the late Byzantine Peloponnese, Byzantine women, Venetian documents as a source forByzantine Huistory

Dr. Charalambos Dendrinos, MA, PhD (London), Lecturer in Greek Palaeography
Byzantine language and sources, Greek palaeography; Porphyrogenitus Project

Dr. Jonathan Harris, MA, PhD (London), Lecturer in Byzantine History
Late Byzantine History, Byzantium and the Renaissance, the Greek Diaspora in Western Europe, The Greek Community in London (1500-1830).

J. N. P. Horden, MA (Oxford), Reader in Medieval History
Mediaeval medicine in east and west

Dr. Anne Sheppard, MA, DPhil (Oxford), Senior Lecturer
Greek philosophy, especially Neoplatonism; ancient literary criticism.

University College

Dr. B. Salway, MA, D Phil (Oxford), Lecturer in Ancient History
Roman History

Dr. Antonio Sennis, Lecturer in Early Medieval European History
Medieval European history

Professor John Tait
Egyptian philology (especially Demotic and Coptic) and social history.

Heythrop College

Dr. Richard Price, MA (Oxford), DPhil (Oxford), BD (London), MTh (London), Dean of Studies
The History of Christianity down to AD 600; the Development of Christian Thought down to AD 600 ; the History of Sexuality and the Family; Russian Christianity