Dr. Rob S. Rice, Instructor-898-7426/4975; E-Mail: rrice@mail.sas.upenn.edu, "Olbia,"Williams 702
Spring Semester, 1995--Mondays, 4:30-7:10, Williams 220
Course Syllabus and Reading Assignments
This survey course is intended to give students a broad familiarity with the sister civilazations that dominated the West from approximately the 8th Century B.C. to the 5th Century A.D. The course is structured for all levels of students, with a major emphasis on the students' own utilization of primary and secondary source material.
Course Requirements: Weekly quizzes 20%
Midterm 20%
Course Paper 20%
Final Exam 40%
Access of and electronic mail from the class WWW Home Page is also a class requirment. Mail may be sent from the previous link by any browser.
Intangibles such as class participation shall also figure in your grade. Make-ups for quizzes missed will be at the instructor's discretion and in accordance with University policy.
The weekly quizzes are intended to provide a good motivation for the reading necessary for your maximum benefit from this course, as well as to provide preparation for the Midterm, itself a preparation for the Final. The 8-10 page course paper will involve your analysis of a given historical event from Plutarch and other scholarship. There will be a chance to submit a first draft for critique and revision.
Texts:
Plutarch, The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans . Dryden Translation, Revised and Edited by Sir Arthur Clough. 2 vols. New York: Modern Library, 1992.
Chester G. Starr, A History of the Ancient World. 4th Ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991.
These three massive tomes are more frightening in appearance than they are in reality. All are now in the bookstore.
Reading Assignments
1/16 Clough's Introduction to the Plutarch, Theseus, Romulus. , Comparison; Starr, pp. 104-119; 437-455.
1/23 Artaxerxes, Numa, Solon; Starr, pp. 185-227, 247-295, 456- 463.
2/6 Pericles, Lysander: Starr, pp. 298-356.
2/13 Agesilaius, Demosthenes; Starr, 359-393.
2/20 Alexander, Pyrrhus; Starr, pp. 394-412, 463-476.
2/27 Midterm
3/6 Spring Break
3/13 Demetrius, Philopoemen; Starr, pp. 413-436; 488-494.
3/20 Fabius, Marcellus; Starr, pp. 478-488.
3/27 Agis & Cleomenes, Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus, Comparison; Starr, pp. 503-516.
4/3 Marius, Sulla; Starr, pp. 516-524.
4/10 1st Drafts of Papers Due; Lucullus, Cicero; Starr, pp. 525-533.
4/17 Caesar; Starr, pp. 533-561.
4/24 Papers Due; Galba, Otho; Starr, pp. 561-644.
5/8 Final Exam