Political structures and institutions of the ancient world [LHISB223]

Learning outcomes

- To develop specialist knowledge in areas of the historical discipline and to understand the issues of the discipline; - Develop critical thinking and scientific reasoning skills; - To be open to other disciplines and to understand their links with history; - To provide students with solid information on key concepts and the evolution of political institutions in ancient societies.

Objectives

At the end of the course, the student should be able to: - characterise the functioning and evolution of the main political structures and institutions of the ancient period; - explain the mechanisms and processes at work; - understand and analyse an ancient document from these institutions and structures; - make nuanced comparisons between similar institutions from different periods or regions.

Content

The course is primarily designed to deepen the political and institutional aspects of the ancient period covered in the History of Antiquity course (LCLAB 101). Indeed, in all periods, the political entities that can be described as "cities" obeyed rules that are important to know in order to adequately understand the legal, political and social phenomena that these human entities experienced. Although antiquity is a very broad field, the course will focus spatially on Greek and Roman societies; chronologically, it will begin with the world depicted in the Homeric epics (c. 10th c. BCN) and end with the transformations of the Severan era (2nd c. BCN). The course is divided into two parts. The first is devoted to the Greek world, where the main challenge will be to avoid generalizing from some lesser-known cases. Thus, if an important place will be given to the Athenian political system, the organization of the so-called "Dorian" cities will also be examined, as well as that of the federations of cities (koinon, symmachies, "federal states"), as well as the Hellenistic kingdoms. The second part will be devoted to Rome, a community whose particularity was to present itself as a res publica until the end of the ancient period, while its rules of operation were obviously different according to whether the regime was a kingship, a republic or an imperial monarchy. It will then be important to grasp the specificities of each "The aim of this chapter is not only to highlight the 'regime', but also to show more permanent structures that are sufficiently malleable to adapt to different political changes. A chapter will also be devoted to the administration of the Empire and to local entities.