CLAS 155 - January in Rome: The Art, Archaeology, and Topography of Ancient Rome

A survey and tour of the major spaces, surviving monuments and artifacts of the city of Rome from the earliest occupation of the Palatine around 1000 BCE to the first major Christian buildings in the 4th century CE. Students learn architectural building techniques, systems of dating based on types of stone and brickwork, problems in identifying surviving buildings, the iconography of Roman political sculpture, and issues of Roman copying and reuse of original Greek art. We consider the incorporation of Roman monuments into subsequent architecture, including Fascist political (re)use of archaeology, as well as problems of conservation in the context of the modern city. Finally, visits to the excavated cities of Pompeii and Ostia make visible the lives and activities of those lost in the literary record, including women and slaves. Alternate years. (2 Credits)