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College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Liberal Arts and Sciences College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Andrew Wolpert

Department of Classics

CLA 3930: History of Ancient Greece, Spring 2018

Instructor

  • Andrew Wolpert, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Classics
  • Email and Office Phone: wolpert@ufl.edu, 352-273-3702
  • Office Hours: Tuesday Period 4 and Thursday Periods 4-5 or by appointment
  • Office: 138 Dauer Hall

Class Format (Hybrid)

  • Class meetings on Tuesday and Thursday Period 3 in Flint 119
  • Weekly online discussions (asynchronous)

Course Description and Objectives

An examination of the political, social, and cultural history of ancient Greece from the Bronze Age to the Hellenistic Era (c. 1600 – 323 BCE). Topics include the rise of the polis, the military power of Sparta, Athenian democracy and democratic culture, gender and society, the Peloponnesian War, and Macedonian hegemony. Emphasis on primary sources and the reading of a broad range of texts. Students will identify the political institutions, social structures, economic conditions, and cultural mentalities of the ancient Greeks; apply historical methods and theories to ancient Greek literary and material evidence; analyze the historical changes that took place in ancient Greece from the Bronze Age to the Hellenistic Era; and communicate clearly and effectively in written and oral form about the major historical trends of ancient Greece.

Required Texts*

  • Pomeroy, Sarah, B., Stanley M. Burstein, Walter Donlan, Jennifer Tolbert Roberts, and David Tandy, eds. A Brief History of Ancient Greece. 3rd edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013. ISBN: 978-0199981557.
  • Nagle, D. Brendan and Stanley Burstein. Readings in Greek History: Sources and Interpretations. 2nd edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013. ISBN:978-0199978458. 

* Students may purchase any edition of the required texts. However, the Weekly Schedule lists the page numbers of the most recent editions.  If you purchase earlier editions, read the sections (not the page numbers) listed in the Weekly Schedule. 

e-Learning

  • All other readings are available on the course’s Canvas page in e-Learning.

Course Requirements

  • Attendance (10%). Attendance will be taken at class meetings. There will be a 50% deduction for arriving late or leaving early.
  • Class Participation (6%). Class participation will be assessed for two intervals (i.e., January 16 – February 27 and March 13 – April 23), based on student preparation for class and participation in class discussions.
  • Online Discussions (30%). Students will participate in weekly online discussions before the Thursday class meeting.The lowest score will be dropped. See Canvas for information on the requirements and the deadline for the online discussions.
  • Three Exams (54%): Exam 1 (18%) on February 8, Exam 2 (20%) on March 29, and Exam 3 (16%) on April 24. On each exam, students will be asked to analyze two primary sources for their historical significance and answer one essay question. Study aids are not permitted during the exams.
  • This course has no pre-requisites.

Grading Scale*

A = 93–100%
A- = 90–92%
B+ = 87–89%
B = 83–86%
B- = 80–82%
C+ = 77–79%
C = 73–76%
C- = 70–72%
D+ = 67–69%
D = 63–65%
D- = 60–62%
E < 59%

*Grades are rounded to the nearest whole number (e.g., 89.4% = 89% and 89.5% = 90%)

 

WEEKLY SCHEDULE

January 8 – 12: Introduction

  • Tuesday: Ancient Greece
  • Thursday: Source for Ancient Greek History
    • Pomeroy et al., Introduction (pages 1-11 in the 3rd edition).
    • Roisman, pages 1–25 (see Canvas).

January 16 – 19: Early Greece

  • Tuesday: Bronze Age
    • Pomeroy et al., Chapter 1: Early Greece and the Bronze Age (pages 13-40 in the 3rd edition).
    • Nagle and Burstein, Chapter 1 through A.2. (pages 1-7 in the 2nd edition).
  • Thursday: Dark Age
    • Pomeroy et al., Chapter 2. Stop at  “The End of the Dark Age” (pages 41-58 in the 3rd edition).
    • Nagle and Burstein, 1.C.1.: “Shield of Achilles” (pages 12-15 in the 2nd edition).

January 22 – 26: Ancient Greek Society

  • Tuesday: Work
    • Pomeroy et al., “Hesiod: The View from Below” in Chapter 3 (pages 77-79 in the 3rd edition) and the following sections in Chapter 6: “The Greek Economy,” “Agriculture and Trade,” and “Metics in Fifth-Century Athens” (pages 177-180 in the 3rd edition).
    • Robin Osborne, “The Economics and Politics of Slavery at Athens,” in The Greek World, edited by Anton Powell (London: Routledge, 1995), 27–43 (in Canvas).
    • Nagle and Burstein, 2.C.2.: “Hesiod’s Works and Days” (pages 15-22 in the 2nd edition) and 1.H.3.: “Only Farmers Can Be Good Citizens” (pages 33-35 in the 2nd edition).
  • Thursday: Leisure
    • Pomeroy et al., Chapter 3: start at “Arts and Sciences” and stop before “Relations Among States”  (pages 83-95 in the 3rd edition).
    • Ian Morris, Archaeology as Cultural History (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 2000), 171-185.
    • James Davidson, Courtesans and Fishcakes: The Consuming Passions of Classical Athens (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1997), 43-49.
    • Nagle and Burstein, 2.C.: “Aspects of Aristocratic Life at Its Peak” (pages 52-58 in the 2nd edition).

Jan 29 – February 2: Archaic Greece

  • Tuesday: Warfare
    • Pomeroy et al., “The Hoplite Army” in Chapter 3 (pages 79-85 in the 3rd edition).
    • Nagle and Burstein, 1.H.1.: “The Reality of Battle” (pages 30-32 in the 2nd edition) and 4.F.1.-2.: “The Spartan Army” and “A Hoplite Battle: Mantinea” (150-54.
  • Thursday: Colonization and Tyranny
    • Pomeroy et al.,”The Colonizing Movement” and “The Archaic Age Tyrants” in Chapter 3 (pages 71-74  and 81-83 in the 3rd edition).
    • Nagle and Burstein, 1.D. “Colonization and the Expansion of the Polis System: The Case of Cyrene” (pages 22-26 in the 2nd edition) and 2.F.: “The Crisis of the Aristocracy” (pages 62-71 in the 3rd Edition).

February 5 – 9: Early Sparta

  • Tuesday: Historiography on and Sources for Early Sparta
    • Pomeroy et al., Chapter 4: Sparta (pages 99-119 in the 3rd edition).
    • Roisman, pages 85-116 (in Canvas).
  • Thursday: Exam 1 on material from January 8 – February 9

February 12 – 16: Early Athens

  • Tuesday: From Cylon to Solon
    • Pomeroy et al., Chapter 5: The Growth of Athens and the Persian Wars. Start at the beginning of the chapter and stop before “Pisistratus and His Sons” (pages 121-28 in the 3rd edition).
    • Aristotle, Constitution of Athens (in Canvas).
  • Thursday: From Pisistratus to Cleisthenes
    • Pomeroy et al., start at “Pisistratus” and read through  “The Reforms of Cleisthenes” in Chapter 5 (pages 128-36 in the 3rd edition).
    • Josiah Ober, “Athenian Revolution of 508/7 B.C.: Violence, Authority, and the Origins of Democracy,” In Cultural Poetics in Archaic Greece, edited by Carol Dougherty and Leslie Kurke (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993), 21-32.
    • Aristotle, Constitution of Athens (in Canvas).

February 19 – 23: The Persian Wars

  • Tuesday: From the Ionian Revolt to the Battle of Marathon
    • Pomeroy et al., “The Rise of Persia” through “The Battle of Marathon” in Chapter 5 (pages 136-146 in the 3rd edition).
    • Nagle and Burstein, 3.A. and 3.B.(pages 78-92 in the 2nd edition).
  • Thursday: The Second Invasion
    • Pomeroy et al., “The Invasion of Xerxes” through “The Persian Invasion through Greek Eyes” in Chapter 5 (pages 146 -150 in the 3rd edition).
    • Nagle and Burstein, 3.C. (pages 92-109 in the 2nd edition).

February 26 – March 2: Classical Athens (Part 1)

March 12 – 16: Classical Athens (Part 2)

  • Thursday: Men and Women
    • Pomeroy et al., start at “Oikos and Polis” and stop before “the Greek Economy” in Chapter 6 (pages 170-77 in the 3rd edition).
    • Lysias 1, “On the Murder of Eratosthenes” (in Canvas).
    • Andrew Wolpert, “The Politics of the Oikos,” CJ 96 (2001): 416-24 (in Canvas).
  • Thursday: The Pentecontaetia
    • Pomeroy et al., read Chapter 6, starting at the beginning and stop before “Pericles and the Growth of Athenian Democracy” (pages 152-60 in the 3rd edition), and read Chapter 7 from “The Breakdown of the Peace” through the end of the chapter (pages 211-217 in the 2nd edition).
    • Thucydides, selections (in Canvas).

March 19 – 23: The Peloponnesian War

  • Tuesday: The Archidamian War
    • Pomeroy et al., start at the beginning of Chapter 8 and stop before “The Rise of Comedy” (pages, 218-228 in the 3rd edition).
    • Thucydides, selections (in Canvas).
  • Tuesday: The Sicilian Expedition
    • Pomeroy et al., start at “Between Peace and War” and  stop before “The War in the Aegean” in Chapter 8 (pages 231-39 in the 3rd edition).
    • Thucydides, selections (in Canvas).

March 26 – 30: The Peloponnesian War

  • Tuesday: The Ionian War
    • Pomeroy et al., read from “The War in the Aegean” to the end of Chapter 8 (pages 239-45 in the 3rd edition).
    • Andrew Wolpert, “Thucydides on the Four Hundred and the Fall of Athens,” in The Oxford Handbook of Thucydides, edited by Sara Forsdyke, Edith Foster, and Ryan Balot (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017) 179–91 (in Canvas).
  • Thursday: Exam 2 on material from February 12 – March 26

April 2 – 6: Fourth-Century Athens

  • Tuesday: The Thirty
    • Pomeroy et al., read from the beginning of Chapter 9 and stop before “The Trial of Socrates” (pages 248-49 in the 3rd edition).
    • Aristotle, Constitution of Athens 34-41 (in Canvas).
    • Xenophon, Hellenica 2.3-4 (in Canvas).
    • Andrew Wolpert, “The Violence of the Thirty,” in Ancient Tyranny, edited by Sian Lewis (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2006), 213-23 (in Canvas)
  • Thursday: The Restored Democracy of Athens
    • Lysias 12, “Against Eratosthenes” (in Canvas).

April 9 – 13: Rise of Macedon

  • Tuesday: Sparta and Thebes
    • Pomeroy et al., “The Fourth Century: Changing Ideas, Continuing Warfare” and “Sparta, Athens, Thebes” in Chapter 9 (pages 253-59 in the 3rd edition).
    • Nagle and Burstein, 7.A.-B (pages 226-48 in the 2nd edition).
  • Thursday: Philip the Great
    • Pomeroy et al., Chapter 10 (pages 283-300 in the 3rd edition).
    • Nagle and Burstein, 7.D. (pages 257-64 in the 2nd edition).

April 16 – 20: Alexander the Great and the Hellenistic Kingdoms

  • Tuesday: Alexander the Great
    • Pomeroy et al., Chapter 11 (pages 301-25 in the 3rd edition).
    • Nagle and Burstein, 7.E.-7.I. (pages 265-85 in the 2nd edition).
  • Thursday: The Hellenistic Kingdoms
    • Pomeroy et al., Chapter 12 (pages 326-59).
    • Nagle and Burstein, 8.A.-8.C. (pages 286-304 in the 2nd edition).

April 24: Exam 3

  • Tuesday: Exam 3 on material from April 2 – April 20

Course Policies

  • Academic Honesty: UF students are bound by The Honor Pledge which states, “We, the members of the University of Florida community, pledge to hold ourselves and our peers to the highest standards of honor and integrity by abiding by the Honor Code. On all work submitted for credit by students at the University of Florida, the following pledge is either required or implied: “On my honor, I have neither given nor received unauthorized aid in doing this assignment.” The Honor Code specifies a number of behaviors that are in violation of this code and the possible sanctions. Furthermore, you are obligated to report any condition that facilitates academic misconduct to appropriate personnel. If you have any questions or concerns, please consult with the instructor of this class.
  • Students with Disabilities: Please do not hesitate to ask for accommodation for a documented disability. Students requesting classroom accommodation must first register with the Dean of Students Office (http://www.dso.ufl.edu/drc). The Dean of Students Office will provide documentation to the student, who must then provide this documentation to the Instructor when requesting accommodation. Please ask the instructor if you would like any assistance in this process.
  • Attendance and Make-up Policy: Requirements for class attendance and make-up exams, assignments, and other work in this course are consistent with university policies: https://catalog.ufl.edu/ugrad/current/regulations/info/attendance.aspx
  • Course Evaluation: Students are expected to provide feedback on the quality of instruction in this course by completing online evaluations at evaluations.ufl.edu. Evaluations are typically open during the last two or three weeks of the semester, but students will be given specific times when they are open. Summary results of these assessments are available to students at https://evaluations.ufl.edu/results/.

Counseling Resources

Students experiencing either health or personal problems that interfere with their general well-being are encouraged to seek assistance through the university’s health care and counseling centers. Resources are also available on campus for students who wish to explore their career options.