What does “family” mean to you? What constitutes a “household”? In the Roman world, a household (domus) might include multi-generational kinship units, enslaved people, and freed people. Together, these individuals comprised what Romans called a familia. Using the concepts of domus and familia as our starting point, this course will introduce students to fundamentals of Roman history through the study of domestic life. Each week, we will gradually build a fuller picture, focusing on a particular category of actor in the household (e.g., freeborn children, enslaved people, patriarchs, etc.). Actors in the household are not limited to people, however, and we will also spend time thinking about how non-humans (e.g., domestic animals), objects, and the technologies of daily life shaped how people moved through space and interacted with one another. To do so, we will draw on the remarkable resources available to us through U-M, including the Kelsey Museum and Papyrology Collection, learning how to evaluate various types of evidence (from personal letters to household tools to literary texts) and read against the grain. As a first-year seminar, this course is also designed to help students hone their research skills and get more comfortable reading and evaluating scholarly articles; our assignments will focus on these skills. Ultimately, this course is meant to help students learn to conduct research, engage critically with historical sources, and explore questions about family, intimacy, and hierarchy that also speak to important issues in our present.

Course Requirements:

Written exercises, short class presentations, participation in discussions

Intended Audience:

First-year students

Class Format:

Two seminar-style meetings each week.