Introduction to Ancient Greek and Roman History

This introduces students to key aspects and events in ancient Greek and Roman history, and to some of the main historians of Greece and Rome. It is designed to form the necessary background for our upper-level courses in archaeology and ancient history. Firstly, we will explore the development of city-states in 6th and 5th c. BC Greece, with an emphasis upon the achievements of Athens in the Classical period. Students will be introduced to the history-writing of Herodotus and Thucydides. They will also explore how other types of primary sources - drama, comedy, philosophical essays and archaeological evidence - help us to understand Athenian concepts of state-identity, the role of the citizen and of government in their lives. Secondly, we will explore key moments in the history of Rome down to the early Empire. Again, emphasis will be upon understanding how to use our primary sources to understand the past. For instance, we will use Cicero's letters and essays to understand elite social and political networking in the Late Republic, the civil wars of Pompey and Caesar. How did Roman historians such as Livy, Suetonius and Tacitus differ from their Greek counterparts? How can we use surviving forms of evidence - material, epigraphic, literary - to understand what was important to the political and social life of Romans?