Peasants, Empresses and Holy Virgins: Women in Late Antiquity

Module overview

Late Antiquity can be narrated as a period of powerful emperors, domineering bishops, and barbarian warlords. In this module we will be looking, instead, at the lives and agency of women during the same period. We look at women’s legal and social status and at how they exercised power, whether in their own right or indirectly as mothers, wives or sisters of powerful men. We investigate how women are portrayed in the sources, from the “good empress” Eusebia to Theodora, the actress turned empress. We discuss how and to what extent Christianity changed the lives of women and think about the effect of war on women. Our case studies will include women from a wide range of social spheres, from a Gaulish girl of humble status who eloped with her boyfriend to Justa Grata Honoria, sister of the emperor Valentinian III, who proposed to Attila the Hun in a bid to escape the control of her brother.

Aims and Objectives

Learning Outcomes

Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

analyse critically a variety of textual, visual and material culture sources
engage with secondary literature on women in Late Antiquity, and contribute to the debates relating to the historiography of the topic

Knowledge and Understanding

Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

the social and legal position of women in Late Antique society
Late Antique portrayals of women
women in a pagan and Christian context

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

utilise and develop your time-management skills
research historical questions and communicate your findings convincingly and concisely in written assignments
locate and use effective textual, visual and material culture sources in the library and on-line, synthesising this material in order to develop cogent arguments

Learning and Teaching

Teaching and learning methods

Teaching methods include lectures and seminars

Learning methods include close reading of primary sources and discussion of key themes and ideas

Study time
Type	Hours
Wider reading or practice	26
Preparation for scheduled sessions	50
Seminar	12
Lecture	12
Completion of assessment task	50
Total study time	150

Resources & Reading list

Textbooks

Sivan, H. (2011). Galla Placidia: The Last Roman Empress.

Cooper, K. (1999). The Virgin and the Bride: Idealized Womanhood in Late Antiquity.

Potter, D. (2017). Theodora: Actress, Empress, Saint (Women in Antiquity).

Hillner, J. (2022). Helena Augusta: Mother of the Empire.

Undheim, S. (2017). Borderline Virginities: Sacred and Secular Virgins in Late Antiquity.

Assessment

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.

Breakdown
Method	Percentage contribution
Written assignment	40%
Essay	60%

Referral

This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.

Breakdown
Method	Percentage contribution
Resubmit assessments	100%

Repeat

An internal repeat is where you take all of your modules again, including any you passed. An external repeat is where you only re-take the modules you failed.

Breakdown
Method	Percentage contribution
Essay	60%
Written assignment	40%

Repeat Information

Repeat type: Internal & External