Analyze the Late Roman Empire through Diocletian (r. 284-305 CE) and Constantine the Great (r. 306-337 CE) — Tetrarchy, bureaucratic expansion, the Edict of Milan 313 CE, and the founding of Constantinople 330 CE — per Peter Brown's Late Antiquity framework
Exercise Difficulty 3 ~5 min hist.g6.s.ex_05

Source Card Analysis

MG-7 Interactive Physical / non-image

8.5x11 inch laminated double-sided card. FRONT: 'MG-7 Ancient-and-Classical Source Card' header; 6 numbered questions: (1) SOURCING — Who created this source? When? Where? Why? (Wineburg Move 1); (2) CONTEXTUALIZATION — What was happening at the time and place this source was created? What had just happened? What was about to happen? (Wineburg Move 2); (3) CORROBORATION — Does another source from the same time and place agree or disagree? Is the creator a partisan? (Wineburg Move 3); (4) CLOSE READING — What does the source literally say in its words? What does it leave unsaid? (Wineburg Move 4); (5) LIVING DESCENDANTS — Who today is a living descendant of the people who created or were addressed by this source? How do they treat this source as a living heritage? (NMAI Essential Understanding 5 extended); (6) WHOSE TRANSLATION? WHOSE SILENCES? — Who translated this source into English and when? What perspective is MISSING from this source (e.g., the slave perspective on Diocletian's edicts, the dasi/dasa perspective on Ashoka's edicts)? (WHA / SHEG move). BACK: scaffolded sentence frames for each question; a short-form version (4 Wineburg-only questions) for students still building source-analysis stamina.

MG-12 Chart
8.5x11 inch educator handout: top half shows photograph of the surviving inscribed stone fragment from Aphrodisias (now

8.5x11 inch educator handout: top half shows photograph of the surviving inscribed stone fragment from Aphrodisias (now in the British Museum and other collections); bottom half shows 12 selected price-and-wage entries from Elsa Rose Graser 1940 translation revised by Siegfried Lauffer 1971: e.g., 'maximum price for 1 modius (~8.62 L) of wheat: 100 denarii; maximum daily wage for unskilled rural laborer: 25 denarii including food; maximum daily wage for skilled mason: 50 denarii; maximum daily wage for school-teacher of reading: 50 denarii per student per month; maximum daily wage for elementary tutor: 200 denarii per student per month'; etc. Bottom edge: 'Source: Diocletian Edictum de Pretiis Rerum Venalium 301 CE. Translation: Graser 1940 / Lauffer 1971.' MG-7 Source Card prompts printed on reverse for source-card written response.

Prompt

Apply MG-7 Source Card Wineburg Moves 1-2 (Sourcing + Contextualization) to Diocletian's Price Edict 301 CE (MG-12 handout). Answer in 3-5 sentences.

How it's presented
mode text
Answer criteria
type rubric scored
rubric
Move 1 (Sourcing): Diocletian's imperial chancery, 301 CE, eastern Roman provinces (Greek + Latin), to control inflation. Move 2 (Contextualization): third-century crisis recently ended; severe inflation from currency debasement; military pressure from Sasanian Persia and Germanic frontiers
Hints
  1. MG-7 Move 1: who / when / where / why.
  2. MG-7 Move 2: what was happening at this time.
Misconceptions to watch
  • Confusing Diocletian's Edict 301 CE with later edicts
  • Forgetting the third-century crisis context
Used in lessons