Module description
Topic: Bread and Circuses
Chariot racing, gladiatorial combat, staged confrontations between humans and animals, and athletics as well as theatre entertained mass audiences in the Roman empire throughout antiquity. Through its close connections with other areas of ancient life, including religion, economic organisation, political power and patronage and group and gender identities, Roman entertainment is very revealing of contemporary concerns and values.
This module will explore the evidence for Roman spectacles from the Republic to late Antiquity, investigating the forms they took and the insights they offer into ancient societies. Alongside what was written by ancient pagan and Christian authors, for example Tacitus, Pliny and the martyr Perpetua, it considers diverse material evidence, images showing the games, buildings that housed them, inscriptions that celebrated them, and the remains of participants. It investigates the attitudes of Roman observers, including critics and fans and the perspectives of the performers who were often compelled to participate. It examines the responses of modern scholars to an aspect of Roman culture of which the violence and sadism is challenging to understand. For students in Classics it builds on their understanding of Roman history and archaeology established by first year modules.
NB The module discusses ancient representations of violence in text and image and material evidence including human and animal remains. Some reading discusses judicial and other forms of violence in other historical contexts.
Assessment details
750 word commentary (30%) & 2000 word essay (70%)
Educational aims & objectives
This course aims to identify what can be reconstructed of entertainment and spectacle culture in the Roman world, and to discuss its interpretation, drawing both on primary sources and on scholarly approaches. It combines close study of the evidence for individual forms of entertainment (including case studies of particular performances, events and sources) with a broad overview of their comparative social and political role. It requires students to consider the respective contributions of texts, inscriptions and visual and archaeological evidence, in the reconstruction and evaluation of ancient entertainments. Students will be encouraged to use the rich evidence available in and around London for spectacle culture, including the British Museum and surviving remnants of Roman spectacle buildings.
Teaching pattern
10 x 1 hour lecture and 10 x 1 hour seminar (weekly)
Suggested reading list
Christesen, P. and Kyle, D. eds. 2014. A Companion to Sport and Spectacle in Greek and Roman Antiquity, Chichester
Coleman, K. 2011. ‘Public entertainments’, in M. Peachin ed,. The Oxford Handbook of Social Relations in the Roman World, Oxford 335–57
Dunbabin, K.M. 2016. Theatre and Spectacle in the Art of the Roman Empire, Ithaca
Futrell, A. 2006. The Roman Games: a sourcebook, Oxford
Köhne, E. and Ewigleben, C. eds. 2000. The power of spectacle in ancient Rome, Berkeley
Toner, J. 2014. The Day Commodus killed a Rhino, Baltimore