ROMAN HISTORY

1) Knowledge and understanding: students will be able to identify key moments in Roman history and the main theories of modern scholars.

2) Ability to apply knowledge and understanding: students will acquire notions of source analysis (literary, legal, epigraphic, numismatic and archaeological).

3) Autonomy of judgement: students will acquire tools and techniques for autonomous interpretation of historical data.

4) Communication skills: students will be able to explain orally the aims, procedures and methods of Roman history.

5) Learning skills: students will be able to identify unexpected results of research and their possible developments in terms of methodology and impact.

Frontal and interactive lectures.

Attendance is not compulsory.

The course is divided into two modules.

Module A (4 ECTS credits) provides an overview of the history of Rome from its origins to the fall of the Western Roman Empire. The topics covered are:

-        The origins of Rome and the Regal Period

-        The social, political, and religious organization of Republican Rome

-        Roman expansion in Italy and the Mediterranean

-        The crisis of the Republic and the emergence of personal rule

-        The social, political, and religious organization of the Principate

-        The transformation of the third century

-        The Dominate

-        Christianity

-        The crisis of the Empire: from AD 476 to the age of Justinian

Module B (2 ECTS credits) is devoted to the reading and interpretation of historical sources: Reading the Sources to Write History: Selected Case Studies.

MODULE A: Roman History from the Origins to the Fall of the Western Roman Empire (4 ECTS)

Students must study one of the following textbooks:

• Storia di Roma antica. Dalla fondazione al 476 d.C., ed. by F. Russo, Pearson, Milan, 2025, pp. 1–437.
• Il mondo dei Romani, ed. by F. Santangelo and G. Traina, Piccola Biblioteca Einaudi, Turin, 2024, pp. 1–403.
• G. Cecconi, La città e l’impero. Una storia del mondo romano dalle origini a Teodosio il Grande. New edition, Carocci Editore, Rome, 2021, pp. 1–536.

MODULE B: Reading the Sources to Write History: Selected Case Studies (2 ECTS)

Required readings (available in open access):

1. C. Soraci, "Introduzione", in E. Frasca and C. Soraci (eds.), Iulia Florentina e i martiri catanesi. Atti della Giornata interdisciplinare di studi in memoria di Monsignor Gaetano Zito (8 February 2020), Acireale, 2021, pp. 19–30. https://www.disfor.unict.it/sites/default/files/files/Iulia%20Florentina%20e%20i%20martiri%20catanesi(1).pdf
2. C. Soraci, "Autorità maschile e vissuti femminili: la storia di (sant’) Agata", in M. Albana, E. Commodari, E. Frasca, C. Soraci, and E. Taviani (eds.), Autorità maschile e vissuti femminili tra storia e psicologia. Atti del convegno (Catania, 30–31 March 2023), Edipuglia, Bari–Santo Spirito, 2023, pp. 141–166. https://www.academia.edu/113619157/Autorit%C3%A0_maschile_e_vissuti_femminili_la_storia_di_sant_Agata
3. C. Soraci, "Ognina in età antica", Annali della Facoltà di Scienze della Formazione dell’Università degli Studi di Catania, 23, 2024, pp. 3–16. http://ojs.unict.it/ojs/index.php/annali-sdf/article/view/294/305
4. C. Soraci, "La Casa III M: la sede di una societas publicanorum?", in Negotiatores italici ad Agrigentum: la sede di una societas publicanorum nel quartiere ellenistico-romano?, Thiasos, 14/2, 2025, pp. 73–83. https://www.thiasos.eu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/14-2_9_Soraci.pdf

Students must also study one of the following seven articles (available in open access):

1.     One of the articles included in E. Frasca and C. Soraci (eds.), Iulia Florentina e i martiri catanesi. Atti della Giornata interdisciplinare di studi in memoria di Monsignor Gaetano Zito (Catania, 8 February 2020), Acireale, 2021:

-       T. Sardella (pp. 31–64)

-       D. Palermo (pp. 65–74)

-       V. G. Rizzone (pp. 75–87)

-       C. Soraci (pp. 89–105)

-       E. Frasca (pp. 117–129)

-        F. Arcaria (pp. 131–170)

-        M. Ruggieri and C. Soraci (pp. 171–190)

Available at: https://www.disfor.unict.it/sites/default/files/files/Iulia%20Florentina%20e%20i%20martiri%20catanesi(1).pdf

2. C. Soraci, "Le mura e il sacro: difesa e devozione nella Catania antica", Annali della Facoltà di Scienze della Formazione dell’Università degli Studi di Catania, 22, 2023, pp. 21–41. Available at: http://ojs.unict.it/ojs/index.php/annali-sdf/article/view/291
3. C. Soraci, "I luoghi di culto dei martiri di Catania tra storia, topografia, politica e religione (4th–6th centuries CE)", Gerión, 42/2, 2024, pp. 469–494. Available at: https://revistas.ucm.es/index.php/GERI/article/view/96292
4. C. Soraci, "I dati epigrafici: i bolli del tetto e la tessera nummularia", in Negotiatores italici ad Agrigentum: la sede di una societas publicanorum nel quartiere ellenistico-romano?, Thiasos, 14/2, 2025, pp. 15–21. Available at: https://www.thiasos.eu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/14-2_3_Soraci.pdf
5. C. Soraci, "I graffiti del vano D: la ‘Stanza di Silla’", in Negotiatores italici ad Agrigentum: la sede di una societas publicanorum nel quartiere ellenistico-romano?, Thiasos, 14/2, 2025, pp. 23–32. Available at: https://www.thiasos.eu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/14-2_4_Soraci.pdf
6. C. Soraci, "Né Demetra, né Iside: il culto di sant’Agata nel primo millennio", ASSO, IX, 2025, pp. 93–118. Available at: https://www.prospettive.eu/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Soraci-Ne-Demetra-ne-Iside.-Il-culto-di-santAgata-nel-primo-millennio.pdf
7. C. Soraci, "Gli Atti del martirio di sant’Euplo e le Passioni di sant’Agata: una rilettura storica", in A. La Manna, A. Mursia, and C. Soraci (eds.), Agata, Euplo e Lucia. I primi martiri siciliani tra Tardoantico e Alto Medioevo, Rome, 2025, pp. 61–92. A PDF version of this chapter will be made available on the Studium platform.

Please remember that in compliance with art 171 L22.04.1941, n. 633 and its amendments, it is illegal to copy entire books or journals, only 15% of their content can be copied.

For further information on sanctions and regulations concerning photocopying please refer to the regulations on copyright (Linee Guida sulla Gestione dei Diritti d’Autore) provided by AIDRO - Associazione Italiana per i Diritti di Riproduzione delle opere dell’ingegno (the Italian Association on Copyright).

The teachers undertake, within the limits of the financial resources, to ensure as far as possible that a copy of the adopted texts is available in the departmental library or (in the case of hard-to-find texts, articles and essays) to make them available on Studium, in accordance with the applicable copyright laws.