Contact information

Dorian Borbonus (Ph. D.)

Assistant Professor

University of Dayton

History Department (HM 431)

300 College Park

Dayton, OH 45469-1540

+1-937-229 2866

borbondo@notes.udayton.edu

The other night at the columbarium: a funerary pompa enters the

Columbarium 2 in the Vigna Codini near the Via Appia in Rome

(after A. Kuhn, Roma 1913: 139, fig. 148)

Research focus

My main academic interest is in commemoration and especially funerary commemoration in Roman culture. My dissertation focuses on columbaria, rather unique collective tombs in Rome (see the imaginative reconstruction on the right). In this study I focus both on tomb architecture and on the thousands of funerary inscriptions that were found in these tombs. Such an inter-disciplinary approach is essential to the study of antiquity. In the case of the columbaria, it is the only way to even understand these amazing monuments.

I am also interested in the topography and cityscape of Rome. At the University of Pennsylvania, I contributed to a research project that produced a period map of Rome in the Augustan period along with a detailed commentary. I currently work with Dr. Gigante from the University of Louisville on a project that documents and analyzes a cemetery at the Via Salaria in Northern Rome.

My Dissertation abstract

My Curriculum Vitae

Teaching responsibilities

I teach history classes at all levels. While the focus of my classes is on history, I often draw on my background as an archaeologist and study history through material remains.

Course descriptions

My contribution to the Humanities Base program (“The West & the World”), is a class called “Ancient World History.” This class surveys the world’s cultures from the Paleolithic through the Middle Ages, but also includes extensive analysis of primary sources that students treat in short presentations and papers. HST 103 Syllabus

“History of Ancient Greece” covers Greek history from the Bronze Age through Roman times. In this class, we study everything that made the Greeks unique, but we will also see how much they were influenced by others. HST 302 Syllabus

“History of the Roman Republic and Empire” focuses on the expansion of Rome, the disintegration of the Republic and the international world of the Roman Empire. We will also talk about Gladiators, but only for about half of one lecture! This class develops the idea that “Roman” culture is heavily influenced by long-standing traditions. Roman history is really Mediterranean history. HST 303 Syllabus

The seminar “Roman Social History” (HST 486) is a research- and writing-intensive course for History majors covering central issues and debates among Roman social historians, such as the structure of the Roman family and the process of Romanization.

Fieldwork

My fieldwork activity took me to projects in Greece and Turkey. I worked at the excavations of Didyma (2000 and 2001), Corinth (2002) and the Kerameikos of Athens (2003). In 2003, I worked on the field survey in Sinop. I conducted the research for my dissertation in Rome in 2004.

Links

University of Dayton – History Department

University of Pennsylvania – Graduate group in the Art and Archaeology of the Mediterranean World

The research project Mapping Augustan Rome

Some of my conference abstracts –