HIST 205 History of Ancient Greece
A chronological survey of the political and social history of Greece from "Agamemnon to Alexander to Augustus." Covers the period from the late Bronze Age through the Hellenistic era, beginning with the Mycenaean kingdoms and concluding with the conquest of Cleopatra, the last ruler of the Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt, by the future Roman emperor Augustus (31 BC). Focusing in particular upon the construction of Greek identity as shaped by such factors as geography, warfare, economy, and intercultural contact, the course will employ a textbook, primary sources read in English, and maps and other images to explore important issues in the evolution of Greek society. Subjects treated will include the rise of the Greek polis (city-state), the Greek colonization of the eastern and western Mediterranean, the development of diverse governmental and constitutional structures ranging from tyranny to democracy to monarchy, the blossoming of Greek artistic and intellectual life during the classical period and the conflicts between Greeks and Persians and between Athens and Sparta, the expedition of Alexander the Great, and the relationships of the Hellenistic kingdoms with Rome.