History 643 is a graduate seminar concerned with the major issues, trends, developments, and personalities of western history until the sixth century A.D. This course surveys various approaches to the period, examining the political, social, religious, economic, cultural, and intellectual background of western civilization from its beginnings to the end of the western Roman Empire. While both primary and secondary sources will be used in History 643, the emphasis of the course lies in the reading and interpretation of primary source materials and in the use of secondary sources to try to get at some of the conundrums of the ancient past.

The purpose of this website is to provide you with background and insight into the basic history of the period we will study and to introduce some of the problems that historians of the ancient past contend with. The site is divided up into sections that you may access via the title buttons below the main title.