Migration Mobility in Rome

3 Credits · Level: Undergraduate

How can we write a history of migration in the Roman empire? This course introduces students to a host of issues stemming from this question, with a chronological focus spanning the history of the Roman empire, from the foundational stories of Aeneas’ flight and Romulus’ asylum to the forced migration of “Romans” from Rome in the later Roman empire by other migrating peoples. Contemporary definitions of mobility, such as displacement and migration, and persons on the move (asylum seeker, refugee, migrant, immigrant) will be scrutinized for their applicability to the Roman world. Students will assess how Rome’s foundational stories were mustered by the Romans themselves (e.g., in Livy or Vergil), outsiders and others after them (e.g., in post-Revolutionary Haiti or colonial Australia), to specific ends in debates over origins, citizenship, asylum and nation building. Attention is also given to forced migrations, such as sentences of exile and mass deportations of the enslaved.