CLST 277-001: The World of Late Antiquity Spring Semester 2026 Dr. Jacqueline Long Monday, Wednesday, Friday 9:20am-10:10am Dumbach 123

Study Guide for the Final Examination

Format

• cut-and-dried questions about basic factual information, including dates (small credit per item, and a small component of the exam)
• primary-source selections: given an image or short passage from a late-antique documentary or literary text we have studied, explain what knowledge and understanding of late antique history and culture this passage helps you to arrive at, and how - include pertinent facts about the source's context and nature, but focus on the passage itself, the information it contains, and your critical analysis: show how to use the image or passage best for pursuing historical inquiry (each item will yield a medium-sized quantum of credit, but the items together add up to a major component of the exam)
• essay: explore a historical problem, setting forth relevant, specific, concrete evidence from late antique sources, explaining how to derive knowledge and understanding from the evidence, and showing how the knowledge and understanding inform your answer to the problem (the largest single item of credit; a major component of the exam)

Things to study

Terms and items you should be able to identify, to comment upon, or to refer to in a historical essay include, for example:

• geographical locations of important events and centers of significant communities and activities: e.g., Adrianople, Rome, Milan, ascetic-practice sites, Alexandria, Holy Land pilgrimage-sites, Callinicum, Thessalonica, Constantinople
• institutions of the Roman state and concepts and practices relating to them: e.g., military recruitment, "federate" status, treaties, "curial" obligations, Roman state priesthoods, the Altar of Victory, the authority of the pontifex maximus, state-supported professorships, praetorian prefects, the urban prefects of Rome and of Constantinople
• different kinds of communities within the Roman state and distinctive concepts and practices relating to them: e.g., "federate" tribes, the Roman army, the Roman and Constantinopolitan Senates, town councils, congregations (of various Christian sects and of other religions), monastic communities, ascetics and ascetic practice, pilgrimage
• important titles, terms, and concepts connected with Roman emperors: e.g., Augustus, Caesar, pontifex maximus, usurper, dynasty
• important buildings and monuments in Rome and other cities of the Empire, both specific edifices and their types more generally: e.g., amphitheater, circus/hippodrome, palace, forum/agora, temple, basilica, church, synagogue, triumphal arch, honorific column, obelisk, roads, bridges, aqueducts
• important religious terms: e.g., sacrifice, deacon, catechumen, priest, bishop, anchorite, eremitic, coenobitic, monk, proselyte, Gentile, penance
• literary texts we have used as sources, their authors, and other information that helps assess the texts: e.g., Ammianus, Symmachus's Referral 3, Ambrose's Letter 17, Letter 18, Letter 20, Letter 40, and Letter 51, Augustine's Confessions, Ambrose's preaching and hymns, Athanasius's Life of Antony, and the Itinerary of Egeria
• documentary and material sources we have used and information that helps assess them: e.g., imperial laws, conciliar rulings, funerary inscriptions, the Bordeaux Itinerary, and the Minutes of the Roman Senate concerning publication of the Theodosian Code
• major historical forces and actors we have traced, including social, intellectual, and cultural history: e.g., war, rebellion, ethnic difference, corruption, religious controversy (between different religions and between different varieties of belief or practice within a religious allegiance), the aspiration for holiness, Roman traditions, law, social class, gender, visual art, individual emperors, usurpers, military and civilian officials, Christians (ecclesiastics, monastics, and laypeople), pagans, Manichees, and Jews - as you review your notes from the readings and from class, make a list

Moments, fields of activity, and developments to follow - see also daily Study Questions:

• successions of Roman emperors after Julian, including mechanisms of election, dynasty, appointment, rebellion, and alliance
• usurpations and their consequences
• ideals and expectations relating to Roman rulers
• operations and relationships of Roman armies: specific campaigns and general tactics, recruitment, billeting on civilian populations, involvement in public works and enforcement of civil order
• foreign relations of the Roman state
• Rome and Constantinople as the preeminent capital cities of the Roman empire: institutions and societies
• social interactions in other cities of the Roman empire: specific incidents, and facilities and practices relating to more general types of experience
• social class: categories and the opportunities and expectations associated with each
• formal education in late antiquity
• Neoplatonism: fundamental concepts, intellectual background, and implications for pagans and Christians
• developments in Christian asceticism and pilgrimage: ideals, understandings, and varieties of practice
• developments in structures of Christian ecclesiastical authority
• families: social organization, relationships, and expectations current in late antiquity
• gender: late antique understandings, expectations, and standards of behavior for men and women both in ordinary social contexts and in practices of religious discipline
• demands Christian and Jewish identity did or didn't put on attitudes to traditional Greek and Roman culture
• aesthetic values in late antique literature and art
• the legacy of Roman government and culture beyond late antiquity

Revised 27 April 2026 by jlong1@luc.edu
http://www.luc.edu/classicalstudies/