AN4431 Poverty and Social Life in Late Antiquity

Academic year

2025 to 2026 Semester 2

Further information on which modules are specific to your programme.

Key module information

SCOTCAT credits

30

The Scottish Credit Accumulation and Transfer (SCOTCAT) system allows credits gained in Scotland to be transferred between institutions. The number of credits associated with a module gives an indication of the amount of learning effort required by the learner. European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) credits are half the value of SCOTCAT credits.

SCQF level

SCQF level 10

The Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF) provides an indication of the complexity of award qualifications and associated learning and operates on an ascending numeric scale from Levels 1-12 with SCQF Level 10 equating to a Scottish undergraduate Honours degree.

Availability restrictions

Available to General Degree students with the permission of the Honours Adviser

Planned timetable

TBC

This information is given as indicative. Timetable may change at short notice depending on room availability.

Module coordinator

Prof C A Machado

Prof C A Machado
This information is given as indicative. Staff involved in a module may change at short notice depending on availability and circumstances.

Module Staff

Dr Carlos Machado (CARM3)

This information is given as indicative. Staff involved in a module may change at short notice depending on availability and circumstances.

Module description

Poverty was a crucial aspect of life in late antique society. Highly unequal economic structures, wars and invasions, new Christian-inspired attitudes to inequality, and the development of new social institutions such as charity contributed to make the existence of the poor more visible and more urgent to contemporaries than in previous periods. This module will analyse the development of the concept of poverty and the social, economic, and cultural aspects of the subaltern classes in Late Antiquity, examining them in their rural and urban settings. It will consider their relations with other social groups and their strategies for survival in a society undergoing dramatic change.

Relationship to other modules

Pre-requisites

AS STATED IN THE SCHOOL OF CLASSICS UNDERGRADUATE HANDBOOK

Assessment pattern

2-hour Written Examination = 40%, Coursework = 60%

Re-assessment

Examination = 100%

Learning and teaching methods and delivery

Weekly contact

2 hour seminars (11 weeks)

Scheduled learning hours

22

The number of compulsory student:staff contact hours over the period of the module.

Guided independent study hours

278

The number of hours that students are expected to invest in independent study over the period of the module.

Intended learning outcomes

  • Discuss modern concepts of poverty in the social sciences and their applicability to the study of late antiquity
  • Identify the social developments that characterized this period from the perspective of the lower/subaltern classes
  • Discuss and critically evaluate modern scholarship on late antique social history
  • Criticise social categories as presented in modern studies and ancient sources
  • Interpret the diversity of sources available to the historian dealing with the period, showing awareness of the problems that they pose to scholars