Priceless — the Twelve Labors of Hercules performed by… Vladimir Putin. (Gratias to Ben Auger!)
Constantine the Great — convert or con-artist?
Because, of course, folks can’t get enough Ebola coverage…
The next entry, following Rome II, in the Total War series of strategy games will be Total War: Attila in February of 2015.
At some point in the first few weeks of Latin I, usually shortly after I’ve thrilled a crowd of tacit freshmen by explaining what diphthongs and antepenults are, I try to set aside a chunk of class to walk through a broad timeline of Roman history. As the year progresses, and we learn about Romulus and Hannibal and Augustus in detail, it’s my hope that this initial overview of the chronology will remind my kids that the Roman state itself was impressively enduring. Rome begins with a mob of Italian shepherds and rogues, inspired by bird-signs, building huts on the Palatine. It ends with an army of Greeks and Genoans, gathered on the walls of Constantinople, desperately repairing breaches created by Turkish cannons. In order to explain how in the heck we start in Italy and end in Thrace two millennia later, I’d like my students to understand how all the pieces fit together.
When they get into the history, the textbooks — for sound reasons, of course — tend to focus almost exclusively on the Republic and the very early Empire. Still, it seems a shame to me if my students only encounter Diocletian or Constantine XI as little more than names attached to dates. Therefore, time permitting, I occasionally offer my classes options for projects that might encourage them to do some solid exploration into the later years of the Roman Empire. I have offered, as an example below, the instructions for a simple film project:
Description: Create a new HBO series focused on the reign of a later emperor.
Requirements:
( 1 ) Write plot outlines for 10 episodes (1/2 pg each, double-spaced). The story arc should cover the entire reign of the emperor (or emperors) chosen. Although you should ultimately be aiming to create a show that would be a work of historical fiction, you must make reference to at least ten actual events from that emperor’s reign.
( 2 ) Create a list of characters who will appear in the series, with a brief description of each one. You must include six characters who were historical figures, along with four fictional characters.
( 3 ) Film a trailer for the series (roughly 5 minutes), in which you should introduce at least half of the characters and make reference to at least five key events.
List of Emperors:
(a) Valerian (253-259) and Gallienus (253-268)
(b) Diocletian (284-305)
(c) Constantine I (306-337)
(d) Valentinian I (364-375), Valens (364-378), and Theodosius I (379-395)
(e) Arcadius (383-408) and Honorius (393-423)
(f) Justinian I (527-565)
(g) Heraclius (610-641)
(h) Irene the Athenian (797-802)
(i) Basil II the Bulgar-Slayer (976-1025)
(j) Alexius I Comnenus (1081-1118)
(k) Constantine XI Palaeologus (1449-1453)