Insegnamento
GREEK HISTORY
Docente
FRANCESCO GUIZZI
Students will acquire knowledge of the Athenian history and institutions, increasing their understanding of ancient evidence, especially literary texts and epigraphic documents. By citing and discussing the sources, they will be enabled to interpret and interrelate historical narratives. By comparing these sources with archaeological evidence they will be able to reconstruct historical contexts.
The course will tackle the institutional issues by applying the knowledge and understanding of ancient sources and will lead the students to make their own judgments on this basis.
The History of the Greeks covers a period of about 2,000 years. The present course aims at analyzing only a small part of this time span. It will focus on Athenian democracy, its history and institutions from Cleisthenes' reforms in 508/7 BCE to the fourth century BCE, with few insights into Hellenistic and Roman political developments.
Lessons:
1-3: Ancient evidence (sources and methods);
4-10: A History of Athens to the end of the Peloponnesian War (Aristotle, Athenian Constitution part one: ch. I-XLI);
11-29: Athenian democratic institutions: (Aristotle, Athenian Constitution part two: ch. XLII-LXIX);
30: Conclusion.
Ideally, students should have already taken a college-level survey course in Greek History.
Useful reading requirements:
- P.J.Rhodes, A Short History of Ancient Greece, London-New York 2014, 2015
- C.W. Hedrick jr., Ancient History (Blackwell Introductions to the Classical World), Malden, MA-Oxford 2006 [downloadable from Sapienza Library website];
- J.Boardman, J. Griffin, O.Murray, Oxford History of Greece and the Hellenistic World, Oxford 20022.
- P.J.Rhodes, The Greek City State. A Source Book, Cambridge 20072.
or The sourcebooks of the series Translated Documents of Greece and Rome:
- Ch.W.Fornara, Archaic Times to the End of the Peloponnesian War, Cambridge (UP) 1983
- Ph. Harding, From the End of the Peloponnesian War to the Battle of Ipsus, Cambridge (UP) 1985
1) Aristotle, Constitution of the Athenians (greek text downloadable at:
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0045%3Achapter%3Dfragments)
2) P.J.Rhodes (ed.), Aristotle, The Athenian Constitution, London 20022.
3) M.H.Hansen, The Athenian Democracy in the Age of Demosthenes, Oxford-Cambridge (Mass.) 1991, 26-177; 225-320
4) A.L. Boegehold et alii, The Lawcourts at Athens: Sites, Buildings, Equipment, Procedure, and Testimonia (The Athenian Agora, 28), Princeton 1995.
[All volumes of the Athenian Agora series are downloadable from JStore through Sapienza ID]
Other literary evidence downloadable at:
- http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/collection?collection=Perseus:collection:Greco-Roman
Inscriptions (PHI):
- http://epigraphy.packhum.org/
- https://www.atticinscriptions.com/
- http://ig.bbaw.de/
A reference book on the Aristotelian text is:
- P.J.Rhodes, A Commentary on the Aristotelian Athenaion Politeia, Oxford (UP), 1979, 1993(2).
The teaching activity and learning process is based on the combination of:
1) 30 video-lectures (the professor presents the course contents, in a way similar to classroom frontal teaching, supported by slides).
2) Individual study: reading the ancient sources mentioned in 3.1, 3.4 and the modern literature about Athenian democracy (3.3).
3) Interactive activity: preparation of a short essay that will be revised by the professor. This activity is strongly recommended. The students are required to read and comment a choice of two epigraphic texts out of:
AIUK vol. 4.2 (2020): British Museum. Decrees of the Council and Assembly - Stephen Lambert
[https://www.atticinscriptions.com/media/papers/pdf/AIUK_4.2_wrdb7sK.pdf]
For the learning of the discipline, video-lectures and other teaching materials are available to students on the web page of the course.
Professor and tutor will assist the students during the entire academic year through e-mail correspondence and, at the student's request, video-reception (dates and times to be agreed in advance with the professor and the tutor).
Students will self-evaluate their level of learning and their knowledge of Greek history by answering to a number of questions concerning both historical issues and ancient sources (available on the web page).
The evaluation will consist in an oral exam (questions concerning general and specific topics addressed during the video-lectures) and, eventually, in the final discussion and evaluation of the short essay prepared by the students (see above, 4).
The acquired knowledge and competencies will allow the graduates to be employed as professional experts in a wide range of potential institutions, such as those connected to education, research, cultural heritage management, protection and valorisation, e.g. museums; public administrations; academic entities; organisations working in the field of literature, translation, publishing and editing, inter-cultural activities etc.