3 What common beliefs, practices, and institutions unified the Roman world? How stable was this unity? Were there significant differences between the eastern and western Mediterranean?

3 What are the most difficult choices that Augustine has to make regarding his friends, family, education, career, and religion?

4. Rome Converts to Christianity / Christianity Converts to Rome September 5

3 What does Tertullian mean when he asks "What indeed has Athens to do with Jerusalem?"? How might Augustine answer this question?

Augustine, Confessions, IX-X

3 Some saints are remembered for heroic deaths, other for long-suffering patience, others for intelligence, others for charitable works. Why is Perpetua a saint? What qualities does she display that make her worthy of particular attention or veneration? What does the story of her martyrdom tell us about relations between the living and the dead? How is Perpetua’s sanctity related to her historical circumstances? Is she a distinctly Roman saint? Do what extent did Christianity adapt to prevailing Roman values? To what extent did early Christians reject Roman traditions? What accounts for Christianity's success in this world?

3 Did Barbarians invade Europe and destroy Roman civilization?

Procopius, Secret History, chapters I-VI.

3 Procopius viciously attacks the Emperor Justinian and the Empress Theodora, even going so far as to describe Theodora’s misspent youth as a showgirl-courtesan-prostitute. Does the rancor of his account detract from his reliability as a historian? Do you trust his account of Justinian’s character?

3 What does Procopius tell us about entertainment, sports, sex, and shopping in a sixth-century Mediterranean city?

3 What does the Law of the Salian Franks tell us about Frankish society? What are the strengths and limitations of law codes as historical sources? Compare the priorities of Frankish legislation with those of Justinian’s Digest. Do these law codes reflect differences between Frankish (or Visigothic) and Byzantine society?

3 Describe the social structure of medieval Europe. How uniform or varied is this social structure from one place to another? How does the social structure change over time?

3 What motivated people to convert to Christianity? From what did they convert? How unified were Christians in their beliefs during this period? How did they resolve their differences?

12. Bede’s England October 3

Bede, A History of the English Church and People Book III; Book IV, 1-16, 27-32.

3 What made someone a king in Bede’s world? What responsibilities and powers did kings have?

13. Bede’s England II October 10

Bede, A History of the English Church and People, Book V

3 Does Bede’s History have an argument?

14. The Recitation October 15

Koran, surahs 1, 47,

Ibn Ishaq, Life of Muhammad,

Brown, World of Late Antiquity, 189-208.

Rosenwein, A Short History of the Middle Ages, chapter 2.

3 What does the Koran say about Jews and Christians? In what ways is the Koran like Christian and Jewish scripture? How does it differ?

15. al-Andalus October 17

Islamic Conquest of Spain,

The Chronicle of 754, The Treaty of Tudmir, in Olivia R. Constable, Medieval Iberia: Readings from Christian, Muslim and Jewish Sources, pp. 28-42. [on reserve in the library]

3 Which of these accounts of the arrival of Muslims in Iberia is the earliest? Which is the most reliable?

16. The Interaction of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam October 22

Jews and Later Roman Law,

A Jewish Administrator under Caliph Hisham, in Medieval Iberia [on reserve in the library]

Jessica Coope, "Religious and Cultural Conversion to Islam in Ninth-century Córdoba," Journal of World History 4 (1993), 47-68. [on reserve in the library]

3 What is the status of Jewish minority communities in Muslim Spain? Jessica Coope describes some of the features of conversion to Islam in Muslim Spain and we’ve discussed Bede’s account of conversion to Christianity in England. What, if anything, do these types of conversion have in common?

17. Women in Frankish Society October 24

Dhuoda, "Letter to her Son," in Carolingian Civilization, nos. 28, 42, 47.

Justinianic Marriage Legislation,

[We have already read this source, but you should review it if you don't remember it well]

David Herlihy, "Land, Family, and Women in Continental Europe, 701-1200," in Women in Medieval Society, ed. Susan Mosher Stuard (Philadelphia, 1976), 13-46. [on reserve in the library]

3 What responsibilities does Dhuoda emphasize to her son? What kinds of power did women have in medieval society? What other sources that we have read can illuminate this question?

*** Paper Two Due ***

18. Icons and Images in the East and West October 29

Carolingian Civilization, nos. 15, 16.

In Defense of Icons,

Paulinus of Nola, "The Decoration of His Churches," Augustine on Images, and Gregory the Great to Bishop Serenus, in Early Medieval Art, Caecilia Davis-Weyer (Toronto, 1986), 17-22, 40-49. [on reserve in the library].

3 What roles do images play in education and religious devotion in the early Middle Ages?

19. Monks, Nuns, & the Sacred Page: Sheepskin as Information Technology October 31

The Rule of Benedict,

Life of Benedict of Aniane, Letters of Alcuin, in Carolingian Civilization, nos. 17-21, 26, 56, 64.

3 What can you tell about literacy and the circulation of knowledge in the Carolingian world? What ideas do Benedict of Nursia and Benedict of Aniane share?

20. The Carolingian Achievement: Pepin and Charlemagne November 5

Carolingian Civlization, nos. 6-15, 24, 55, 73.

3 The sources gathered and translated in Carolingian Civilization provide a number of different perspectives on life in Francia during the eighth and ninth centuries. Some historians have seen the reigns of Charlemagne, his immediate predecessors, and his successors as a Renaissance. What does this mean? What evidence of a Renaissance do you see? Which sources shed the most light on this question?

21. The Later Carolingians November 7

Carolingian Civilization, nos. 25-30, 33, 37, 38, 44, 58, 72.

3 What do these sources tell us about government in this period? Are the rulers described just and effective? If so, why? If not, why not?

22. Relics November 12

Einhard’s account of the Roman relic trade in Carolingian Civilization, no. 34.

3 Why do relics become such central features of early medieval spirituality? How did medieval people determine the authenticity of relics? Are relics like images and icons?

23. Alfred’s England November 14

Introduction and Asser’s Life of King Alfred in Alfred the Great.

3 Compare descriptions of Charlemagne with Asser’s Life of Alfred? Do medieval thinkers agree about what makes a great king? Does one biographer seem more reliable than the other?

24. Alfred’s England II November 19

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, in Alfred the Great

3 How is the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle organized? Does it tell us more or less than Asser's Life of Alfred?

25. The Vikings November 21

Accounts of Viking Raids in Carolingian Civilization, no. 69-71.

3 Were the Vikings especially bloodthirsty? Or were they brave, skilled, and industrious? What accounts for their success?

26. Looking Back December 3

3 In-class exercise. Required reading will vary from one student to the next.

27. Norse Civilization I December 5

Chronicles of the Vikings, chapters 1-10

3 Are Vikings portrayed differently in these sources? Compare Norse law (chapter 8) with other legal systems we have studied. How are they similar? Where do they differ? Compare the account of the Norse conversion to Christianity to other conversions we have studied (e.g. Augustine’s to Christianity, Bede’s account of the conversion of England, conversion to Islam in Córdoba).

28. The Year 1000, The Peace of God, and the First Crusade December 10

Rosenwein, A Short History of the Middle Ages, chapter 4

*** Paper Three Due ***

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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