An Introduction to the History of Ancient Greece
Fall 2008
History of Ancient Greece from the Homeric period to the death of Alexander the Great. Development of the city-state, Athenian democracy, and the nature of Greek politics; the conflict between Greece and Persia, and between Sparta and the Athenian naval empire; consequences of the latter conflict--the Peloponnesian War--for subsequent Greek history; finally, the Macedonian conquest of Greece and Persia.
Lecture and weekly discussions; midterm, final, seven-page paper, and occasional quizzes in section. Weekly readings will average between 100 and 125 pages a week, to be taken from the following (students are not responsible--for exam purposes--for the entirety of any of these, although--note!--they will have to read all of either Herodotus or Thucydides for the paper):
Herodotus, History (Chicago)
Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War (Landmark)
Plutarch, Greek Lives (Oxford)
Plato, The Apology of Socrates
J. M. Moore, Aristotle and Xenophon on Democracy and Oligarchy (California)
Pomeroy, Burstein, Donlan and Roberts, Ancient Greece: A Political, Social, and Cultural History, (second edition, Oxford 2008)
and a course packet