Tuesday, February 8

Here are some terms and topics for you to focus on as you assimilate the material in th chapter for today:

Terms:

• Roman Republic
• Augustus, principate, Pax Romana
• Diocletian
• tetrarchy
• Constantine (pictured at right, below)
• Julian the Apostate (pictured above)
• barbarians
• coloni
• villas

Topics:

• What problems impaired the functioning of the Roman Empire during the third century? What measures did Diocletian take to deal with them?
• Know something about the gradual division of the Empire into East and West.
• What features of the Roman Empire remained in place through the early Middle Ages? What changed?
• What was the position of women in the Empire?

In general, be prepared to characterize the contribution of Rome to the early medieval world that emerged from the Age of Migrations.

Homework

• What is the purpose of betrothal? What rights do women have regarding betrothal gifts? In all of these betrothal laws what is the central issue?
• Marriage. What rights do women have here? What do you learn about the purpose of marriage?
• Divorce. When is divorce permitted? Are the justifications the same for men and women? What results if one of the three "crimes" cannot be proved?
• What conclusions can you draw about the status of women from this text? What protections are women guaranteed?

Disclaimer