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This course builds on the academic maturity of students in a master's program, including the necessary knowledge and skills for studying the cultural history of the ancient, medieval, and modern world. It expands on previous knowledge and skills to such an extent that by the end of the course, students will have
- gained knowledge of the role of the cultural significance of the 'Fall of Rome' throughout the centuries;
- learned how to analyse and contextualise historical narratives on this topic (and their re-appropriation), based on different types of source materials, ranging from various disciplines and fields of expertise such as literature, law, epigraphy, archaeology, and art history;
- contributed to the dissemination of the insights of historians on the re-use of historical narratives to a wider audience.
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In February 2015, ISIS/Daesh released a video in which it referred to its beliefs about the events at the end of days, followed by its pledge to conquer Rome. In this message, intended as much for its followers as for its adversaries, ISIS connected its apocalyptic thoughts with the fall of Rome. It is not only a potent example of the enduring symbolic significance of Rome as a city as well as a concept; the video message is also one of the latest instalments of apocalyptic discourse around Rome's demise, a narrative that has been exploited on countless occasions since Antiquity.
In this course we will explore the long life of this apocalyptic vision of the fall of Rome, from Antiquity through the Middle Ages to modern times. We will specifically focus on the mechanisms that are at play when past narratives are employed for contemporary aims. In addition to expanding our knowledge of the cultural memory of the fall of Rome at the end of times, this course also aims to explore ways in which the insights of historians can be communicated outside the academic community.
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