TERM 1

Week 1

• The Near East: geography
• Syria before Rome

Week 2

• The Roman annexation
• Establishing the province: Pompey to Nero

Week 3

• Consolidation and expansion: Vespasian to Severus Alexander
• The Sasanian revolution

Week 4

• Palmyra
• The struggle for Mesopotamia

Week 5

• The rise of the federate Arabs
• Seminar 1: Why did the Romans lose Syria?

Week 6

• No classes: Reading week

Week 7

• Governors and provinces
• ‘Client’ kings

Week 8

• The major kingdoms
• The civic hierarchy

Week 9

• The progress of urbanism: Syria and Phoenicia
• The progress of urbanism: Judaea, Palestine, Arabia

Week 10

• Calendars and time
• Seminar 2: Consumers and producers: city versus country

TERM 2

Week 1

• Land use
• The ‘Dead Cities’

Week 2

• Water and irrigation
• Agricultural production

Week 3

• Special products, building materials
• Long distance trade

Week 4

• Taxes and state burdens
• Pottery

Week 5

• Coinage
• Seminar 3: Great weight, great prestige: the trade in exotic stone

Week 6

• No classes: Reading week

Week 7

• Civic politics
• The monumental city

Week 8

• Alternative cities
• Hellenism and identity

Week 9

• Artistic genres: architectural decoration
• Sculpture

Week 10

• Mosaic
• Seminar 4: Oriental Religions: a modern myth?

TERM 3

Week 1

• Gods
• Temples

Week 2

• Judaism and Christianity
• Monophysitism

Week 3

• The military presence
• Military strategy and the frontiers

Week 4

• Revision