Greek History: From Agamemnon to Alexander

CS AH 256
Credit hours 3
Contact hours 45

This course is a survey of Greek history from the Mycenaean to the Hellenistic Period. The class will examine the major events and achievements of the Greek world within a political, social, and economic framework. The course will cover the development of the city-state (the polis), changing forms of government, including aristocracy, oligarchy, tyranny and eventually democracy, with an emphasis on comparing parallel developments of cities with discrete political traditions. Using Classical texts by historians - primarily Herodotus and Thucydides - as a guide, we will examine the phenomenon of colonization, the Persian Wars, the Athenian Empire, the Peloponnesian War and the rise of Macedon and regional federations. Sicily was dominated by tyranny for most of the Greek period, by using Sicilian cities, such as Syracuse itself, Leontini, Catania, Agrigento, we will examine the relationship between the city and its population in the context of greater traditions in Greek and also Roman history.

Students will be expected to complete two papers, a midterm and a final examination.

Prerequisites: none

Required Texts:
1. de Selincourt, A. (translation) (1974) Herodotus, The Histories, London: Penguin Books
2. Warner, R. & Finley, M. (translation) (1974) Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, London: Penguin Books
3. Pomeroy, S. et al (1999) Ancient Greece: A Political, Social and Cultural History, Oxford: Oxford University Press