Course Details

Daily Schedule
Faculty

Course Description

This course combines study in the Departments of Classics and the Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World.  This intensive survey course familiarizes students with the art and architecture of Rome during the early Imperial era (ca. 40 BC - AD 140), through investigation of significant sites, monuments and museum collections in Rome and locations throughout southern Italy. The course will be taught with a combination of lectures on topics of Roman art and archaeology and Roman literature as appropriate for each site, art form, or period involved. Items considered will include both monumental and domestic architecture, wall painting, mosaics, sculpture, coins, epigraphic evidence, as well as maps and ancient sources. The lectures on Roman art and archaeology will focus on visual material through the presentation of sites, monuments and artifacts. Lectures on Roman art will also give students a brief history of the archaeology and scholarship of certain monuments and sites. The classical authors discussed will include those works which reflect on the Imperial era and enhance our understanding of the age with first-hand accounts.  Readings will help bring to life the sites we visit throughout the course.

Schedule

Week 1: Introduction
The Rise of Rome and the Period of the Republic

Week 1/Day 1
In-Class Lecture:
Introduction and Review of Roman History and Roman Art Through Hadrian

Site Visits:
Temples in Largo Argentina
Roman (Republican) Forum
Forum of Caesar
Tabularium
Tomb of Bibulus
Forum Antiquarium

Week 1/Day 2
In-Class Lecture

Site Visits:
Round Temple near the Tiber
Temple of Portunus
Republican Victory Temples
S. Omobono
Fabricius’ Bridge
Tiber Island Prow & Tiber River Boat

Week 1/Day 3
In-Class Lecture

Site Visits:
Aristocratic Houses on the Palatine
House of Livia
House of the Griffins
Palatine Museum
Montemartini Power Plant Museum

Week 1/Day 4

Site Visits:
Via Appia
Tombs of the Servilii and Caecilia Metella on the Via Appia
Catacombs

Week 2: Augustan Rome

Week 2/Day 1
In-Class Lecture

Site Visits:
Roman Forum
Palatine
House/Apartment of Augustus
Temple of Apollo
Forum of Augustus

Week 2/Day 2
In-Class Lecture

Site Visits:
Augustus’ Mausoleum
Ara Pacis
Sundial Obelisk
Auditorium of Maecenas

Week 2/Day 3
In-Class Lecture

Site Visits:
Pyramid of Gaius Cestius
Remains of Republican City Walls
Theater of Marcellus
Temple of Apollo Medicus Sosianus
Porticus of Octavia

Week 2/Day 4
Palazzo Massimo Museum

Week 3: Rome, Tiberius through Nero

Week 3/Day 1
In-Class Lecture

Site Visits:
Domus Aurea
Stadium of Domitian
Nero’s Aqueduct & Nymphaeum

Week 3/Day 2
In-Class Lecture

Site Visits:
Caelian City Gates
Aqua Claudia at Colosseo
Temple of Claudius Platform
Baths of Caracalla)
Roman houses on the Caelian
Capitoline Museums

Week 3/Day 3
In-Class Lecture

Site Visits:
Aqua Claudia/Anio Novus at Porta Maggiore
Tomb of Eurysaces
Aqua Virgo Arcades
Trevi Fountain

Week 3/Day 4
Sperlonga & Terracina/Temple of Jove

Week 4: Rome, the Flavians through Hadrian

Week 4/Day 1
In-Class Lecture

Site Visits:
Roman Forum
Temple of Roma and Venus
House of the Vestals as rebuilt in AD 113
Arch of Titus
Ramp and Hall at NW angle of Palatine
Domitian’s Palace
Temple of Peace
Horrea on the via Sacra
Temple of Vespasian and Titus

Week 4/Day 2
In-Class Lecture

Site Visits:
Markets of Trajan
Trajan’s Forum
Trajan’s Column
Forum Transitorium = Forum of Nerva
Temple of Venus Genetrix/Forum of Caes.,rebuilt AD 106-113
Basilica Ulpia
Library
Colosseum
Circus Maximus
Meta Sudans
Stadium/Piazza Navona
Ludus Magnus

Week 4/Day 3
In-Class Lecture

Site Visits:
Pantheon
Saepta Julia
Basilica of Neptune
Hadrian’s Mausoleum/Castel S. Angelo
Aelian Bridge
Vatican Museums

Week 4/Day 4
Site Visits:
Travertine Quarries; Hadrian’s Villa at Tivoli

Week 5: Trade and Commerce, and Ostia The Port City

Week 5/Day 1 FREE

Week 5/Day 2
In-Class Lecture

Site Visits:
Trajan’s Port

Week 5/Day 3
In-Class Lecture

Site Visits:
Monte Testaccio
Porticus Aemilia
House and Horrea under S. Clemente
Museo Altemps

Week 5/Day 4
In-Class Lecture

Site Visits:
Plan of Ostia in Gate at Ostiense; Ostia Scavi and Museum

Week 6: The Bay of Naples

Week 6/Travel to South
Pompeii
Herculaneum
Villa at Boscoreale
Villa at Oplontis
National Archaeological Museum Naples

Wrap-up and good-byes

Faculty

Crispin Corrado is the creator of the Brown Summer Program in Rome. She earned her Ph.D. in Roman Art and Archaeology at Brown University, and received her A.B. and A.M. at the University of Chicago. Crispin was a student in the American Academy in Rome’s Summer Program in Archaeology, and excavated for two seasons at Pompeii with a team from the University of Rome. She has worked as curatorial intern in the departments of ancient art at the Smart Museum of Art at the University of Chicago, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, and the Vatican Museums, in Rome, Italy. While intern at these institutions Crispin assisted in the creation and implementation of exhibitions of ancient art, co-authored catalogs, wrote articles and presented guest lectures. During the spring semester of 2002 Crispin was Lecturer in Classical Studies at Brandeis University. Crispin is currently Adjunct Assistant Professor of Classical Archaeology at the University of California, Rome Study Center, and lives full-time in Rome.
Sarah Nix completed her Ph.D. in Classical Languages and Literature at Brown University in 2004. She has taught at Brown University (Latin and Greek), Moses Brown School, the University of Rhode Island, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Currently she heads the Latin program at Miss Hall's School. Her research interests include Augustan and Early Imperial Literature, Latin Epic, and Greek Tragedy. In addition to her work as a classicist, Sarah spent a summer excavating in the Roman Forum and in Tuscany with the American Academy in Rome's Summer Program in Archaeology. She has also lived and worked in Thailand, teaching English at Chiang Mai University in Chiang Mai, Thailand.