This course is designed to acquaint students with modern scholarship about
the ancient world, specifically about books on the Ancient History Reading List
for the M.A.
The first class meeting will be held on campus; thereafter it will meet in my
home.
Students will be graded on their discussion of the assigned works, on the weekly papers, on their presentations, and on the historiographic paper they produce.
On the date of the final examination, students will turn in a 15-page paper on one of the historians we have read, situating the historian in his or her time and place in ancient historiography.
| August 30 | Introduction |
| September 13 | Finley, Early Greece, ISBN: 039330051X–buy used |
| September 20 | Andrewes, The Greek Tyrants, ISBN: B0007DUVRM or 0090295641–buy used |
| September 27 | Jones, Athenian Democracy, ISBN 0801-83380-9--buy new or used |
| October 4 | Bengston, The Greeks and the Persians--Xerox |
| October 11 | Olmstead, "Persia and the Greek Frontier Problem," Classical Philology XXXIV (1939)—On JSTOR |
| October 18 | St. Croix, "Character of the Athenian Empire" & Bradeen, "Popularity of the Athenian Empire"--file sent; preliminary annotated bibliography |
| October 25 | Momiliano, Alien Wisdom, ISBN: 0521-38761-2: buy used or new |
| November 1 | Gelzer, The Roman Nobility, ISBN 1597-40046-7--buy used |
| November 8 | Syme, The Roman Revolution, ISBN 0192-80320-4--buy new or used; final annotated bibliography |
| November 15 | Syme, The Roman Revolution; paper presentations |
| November 22 | Taylor, Party Politics in the Age of Caesar, ISBN 0520012577–buy used; paper presentations |
| November 29 | Salmon, "The Evolution of the Augustan Principate", Historia III (1956)–file sent; paper presentations |
| December 6 | MacMullen, Christianizing the Roman Empire, ISBN 0300-03642-6-buy new or used; paper presentations |
I. Each week students will submit a 1-2 page written response to that week’s readings. These responses must address three specific questions. 1. What is the author’s thesis? 2. What kinds of sources does the author use and how does that shape the scholarship? 3. Do you think the book/article works (Is the argument convincing? Does the evidence support it? Is the author contributing to the historiography in important ways?).
II. Each student will be responsible for leading class discussions on one of the week’s readings. Presenters will provide initial observations and background, and engage the class in discussion.
You will each write a 15-page historiographical paper on a historian we have read or will read in which you will analyze the historian, discussing background, education, family, intellectual development, chronological milieu, etc. Students will also discuss the historian’s background, the historian’s major work(s), and how the background affected the choice of historical subject matter as well as the conclusions drawn therefrom.
Each student will prepare a preliminary and a final annotated bibliography of the material to be used in the final historioraphical paper. In your papers, you must demonstrate that you are able to handle original sources, commentaries, the periodical literature, and historiographic monographs.
In addition, you will present the results of your research to your classmates and demonstrate your ability to make a sustained oral presentation of historical material.