Greek History Ma
A.Y. 2021/2022
Learning objectives
The aim of the course is to provide students with secure advanced knowledge of Greek history in its chronological development as well as of the specific research methods and current approaches and perspectives within the discipline by means of an in-depth treatment of a monographic theme and a critical and methodologically sound approach to ancient sources.
Expected learning outcomes
The expected learning outcomes include:
- advanced knowledge of the development of Greek history and especially of the political, institutional, socio-economic and cultural issues investigated during the course;
- ability to analyse, contextualise and critically interpret ancient sources (literary, epigraphic and archaeological) according to their specific characters and the thematic issues they individually pose;
- ability to use research methods and bibliographical resources developed by modern scholarship with a view to investigating the ancient Greek world;
- ability to communicate effectively using appropriate language and proving capable of critical judgment with regard to the topics and issues taken into consideration.
- advanced knowledge of the development of Greek history and especially of the political, institutional, socio-economic and cultural issues investigated during the course;
- ability to analyse, contextualise and critically interpret ancient sources (literary, epigraphic and archaeological) according to their specific characters and the thematic issues they individually pose;
- ability to use research methods and bibliographical resources developed by modern scholarship with a view to investigating the ancient Greek world;
- ability to communicate effectively using appropriate language and proving capable of critical judgment with regard to the topics and issues taken into consideration.
Lesson period: Second semester
Assessment methods: Esame
Assessment result: voto verbalizzato in trentesimi
Single course
This course cannot be attended as a single course. Please check our list of single courses to find the ones available for enrolment.
Course syllabus and organization
Single session
Responsible
Lesson period
Second semester
Lectures will be held in presence with access to 100% of the capacity of the lecture room. Students need to register their presence for each lecture via the Lezioniunimi app or the Orari portal. Lectures will be at the same time live streamed on the Teams platform.
Course syllabus
Course title: Athens, the allies and the empire between the fifth and fourth centuries BC: politics, economy and society
The aim of the course is to analyze the dynamics in the relationship between Athens and Athenian democracy and the external world in the fifth and fourth centuries BC with a view to underlining continuity rather than rupture.
The topics dealt with during the course will be as follows:
Part I
Part I.A will focus on a selection of questions concerning the Delian league and Athenian imperialism, both in their organizational, political and economic aspects and in their ideological implications. It will look into the way the empire was presented and problematized in Thucydides' work and in Athenian drama and compare such images with the realities of day-to-day administration as mirrored by the epigraphical and archeological documentation, which can be used to enrich, integrate and sometimes even "correct" Thucydides' narration.
Part I.B will focus in turn on Athens in the fourth century and on the "ghost of empire", which, in a dramatically changed international context, deeply affected Athenian politics to the battle of Chaeronea. The foundation and the development of the Second Athenian league will be considered both in the light of Xenophon's "Hellenica" and their disconcerting "omissions" and of a selection of inscriptions (including the "charter" of the Second Athenian league in Aristoteles' decree and the new evidence on political, fiscal and economic history offered by some recently published Athenian laws).
Part B will revolve around Xenophon's Poroi (Ways and Means), a peculiar treatise dated to just before 350 BC where the author acknowledges the failure of the experiment of the Second Athenian league in the aftermath of the Social War and proposes a plan of economic and financial reforms. Such measures are designed to allow Athens to recover its prosperity by exploiting all resources that already exist in Attica and not by exploiting, as in the fifth century, her allies. The analysis of Xenophon's arguments will provide numerous insights into Athenian (as well as, generally, Greek) society and economy.
The aim of the course is to analyze the dynamics in the relationship between Athens and Athenian democracy and the external world in the fifth and fourth centuries BC with a view to underlining continuity rather than rupture.
The topics dealt with during the course will be as follows:
Part I
Part I.A will focus on a selection of questions concerning the Delian league and Athenian imperialism, both in their organizational, political and economic aspects and in their ideological implications. It will look into the way the empire was presented and problematized in Thucydides' work and in Athenian drama and compare such images with the realities of day-to-day administration as mirrored by the epigraphical and archeological documentation, which can be used to enrich, integrate and sometimes even "correct" Thucydides' narration.
Part I.B will focus in turn on Athens in the fourth century and on the "ghost of empire", which, in a dramatically changed international context, deeply affected Athenian politics to the battle of Chaeronea. The foundation and the development of the Second Athenian league will be considered both in the light of Xenophon's "Hellenica" and their disconcerting "omissions" and of a selection of inscriptions (including the "charter" of the Second Athenian league in Aristoteles' decree and the new evidence on political, fiscal and economic history offered by some recently published Athenian laws).
Part B will revolve around Xenophon's Poroi (Ways and Means), a peculiar treatise dated to just before 350 BC where the author acknowledges the failure of the experiment of the Second Athenian league in the aftermath of the Social War and proposes a plan of economic and financial reforms. Such measures are designed to allow Athens to recover its prosperity by exploiting all resources that already exist in Attica and not by exploiting, as in the fifth century, her allies. The analysis of Xenophon's arguments will provide numerous insights into Athenian (as well as, generally, Greek) society and economy.
Prerequisites for admission
The course, an advanced course, is addressed to students who have already taken an introductory course in Greek History.
Teaching methods
Part A will be offered in a lecture format; part B will be more interactive and will be organized in a seminar-like format. The course takes the students through the different topics with an approach based on a detailed analysis and commentary on the relevant sources and a critical discussion of interpretative perspectives developed in modern scholarship. All texts and documents analyzed during the lectures are available, in advance for downloading, on the dedicated course website on the Ariel platform.
Attendance of lectures is recommended but is not compulsory.
Attendance of lectures is recommended but is not compulsory.
Teaching Resources
Part I
A.1
Together with the lecture notes and ancient sources examined during the course (which will be uploaded ahead of each lecture on the Ariel platform):
1) TUCIDIDE, La guerra del Peloponneso, libro III (recommended edition: Tucidide. La guerra del Peloponneso (a cura di F. Ferrari e G. Daverio Rocchi), Milano, Rizzoli, 1985 and reprints) (NB: for Classics students a selection of chapters to be read in Greek will be indicated in the classes);
2) S. HORNBLOWER, La Grecia classica. Dalle guerre persiane ad Alessandro Magno, Milano, Rizzoli, 1997, chs. 1, 2, 6, 12, 13-17;
3) M.I. FINLEY, L'impero ateniese: un bilancio, in M.I. FINLEY, Economia e società nel mondo antico, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 1984, pp. 53-80;
4) One of the following texts:
- G. MARGINESU, Il costo del Partenone: appalti e affari dell'arte greca, Roma, Salerno 2020;
- two chapters from J. NEILS (a cura di), The Parthenon: from Antiquity to the Present, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2005.
A.2
1) SENOFONTE, Elleniche, libro V (recommended edition: Senofonte. Elleniche (a cura di G. Daverio Rocchi), Milano, Rizzoli, 2002 and reprints) (NB: for Classics students a selection of chapters to be read in Greek will be indicated in the classes);
2) J.K. DAVIES, Sparta e l'area peloponnesiaca. Atene e il dominio del mare, in S. SETTIS (a cura di), I Greci. Storia, cultura, arte, società, II.2, Torino, Einaudi, 1997, pp. 109-161;
3) E. BADIAN, The Ghost of Empire. Reflections on Athenian Foreign Policy in the Fourth Century BC, in W. EDER (a cura di), Die athenische Demokratie im 4. Jahrhundert v. Chr., Stuttgart, Steiner, 1995, pp. 79-106.
Part B
1) SENOFONTE, I Poroi. Introduzione, traduzione e commento storico a cura di E. Pischedda, Pisa, Edizioni ETS, 2018;
2) L. DE MARTINIS, Eubulo e i Poroi di Senofonte. L'Atene del IV secolo tra riflessione teorica e pratica politica, Trieste, EUT, 2018 (available for downloading at https://www.openstarts.units.it/bitstream/10077/22355/5/GT5_Eubulo.pdf), pp. 93-208.
Bibliography for non-attending students
Part A
A.1
1) TUCIDIDE, La guerra del Peloponneso, libro III (recommended edition: Tucidide. La guerra del Peloponneso (a cura di F. Ferrari e G. Daverio Rocchi), Milano, Rizzoli, 1985 e successive edizioni);
2) L. CANFORA, Tucidide. La menzogna, la colpa, l'esilio, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2016;
3) S. HORNBLOWER, La Grecia classica. Dalle guerre persiane ad Alessandro Magno, Milano, Rizzoli, 1997, capitoli 1, 2, 6, 12, 13-17;
4) M.I. FINLEY, L'impero ateniese: un bilancio, in M.I. FINLEY, Economia e società nel mondo antico, Roma-Bari, Laterza, Torino, Einaudi, 1984, pp. 53-80;
5) CHR. HÖCKER-L. SCHNEIDER, Pericle e la costruzione dell'Acropoli, in S. SETTIS (a cura di), I Greci. Storia cultura arte società, II.2, Torino, Einaudi, 1997, pp. 1239-1274.
A.2
1) SENOFONTE, Elleniche, libro V (recommended edition: Senofonte. Elleniche (a cura di G. Daverio Rocchi), Milano, Rizzoli, 2002 e successive edizioni);
2) J.K. DAVIES, Sparta e l'area peloponnesiaca. Atene e il dominio del mare, in S. SETTIS (a cura di), I Greci. Storia, cultura, arte, società, II.2, Torino, Einaudi, 1997, pp. 109-161;
3) E. BADIAN, The Ghost of Empire. Reflections on Athenian Foreign Policy in the Fourth Century BC, in W. EDER (a cura di), Die athenische Demokratie im 4. Jahrhundert v. Chr., Stuttgart, Steiner, 1995, pp. 79-106;
4) C. BEARZOT, Il federalismo greco, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2009.
Parte B
1) SENOFONTE, I Poroi. Introduzione, traduzione e commento storico a cura di E. Pischedda, Pisa, Edizioni ETS, 2018;
2) L. DE MARTINIS, Eubulo e i Poroi di Senofonte. L'Atene del IV secolo tra riflessione teorica e pratica politica, Trieste, EUT, 2018 (available for downloading at https://www.openstarts.units.it/bitstream/10077/22355/5/GT5_Eubulo.pdf), pp. 93-208;
3) J. ANDREAU-R. DESCAT, Gli schiavi nel mondo greco e romano, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2014.
A.1
Together with the lecture notes and ancient sources examined during the course (which will be uploaded ahead of each lecture on the Ariel platform):
1) TUCIDIDE, La guerra del Peloponneso, libro III (recommended edition: Tucidide. La guerra del Peloponneso (a cura di F. Ferrari e G. Daverio Rocchi), Milano, Rizzoli, 1985 and reprints) (NB: for Classics students a selection of chapters to be read in Greek will be indicated in the classes);
2) S. HORNBLOWER, La Grecia classica. Dalle guerre persiane ad Alessandro Magno, Milano, Rizzoli, 1997, chs. 1, 2, 6, 12, 13-17;
3) M.I. FINLEY, L'impero ateniese: un bilancio, in M.I. FINLEY, Economia e società nel mondo antico, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 1984, pp. 53-80;
4) One of the following texts:
- G. MARGINESU, Il costo del Partenone: appalti e affari dell'arte greca, Roma, Salerno 2020;
- two chapters from J. NEILS (a cura di), The Parthenon: from Antiquity to the Present, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2005.
A.2
1) SENOFONTE, Elleniche, libro V (recommended edition: Senofonte. Elleniche (a cura di G. Daverio Rocchi), Milano, Rizzoli, 2002 and reprints) (NB: for Classics students a selection of chapters to be read in Greek will be indicated in the classes);
2) J.K. DAVIES, Sparta e l'area peloponnesiaca. Atene e il dominio del mare, in S. SETTIS (a cura di), I Greci. Storia, cultura, arte, società, II.2, Torino, Einaudi, 1997, pp. 109-161;
3) E. BADIAN, The Ghost of Empire. Reflections on Athenian Foreign Policy in the Fourth Century BC, in W. EDER (a cura di), Die athenische Demokratie im 4. Jahrhundert v. Chr., Stuttgart, Steiner, 1995, pp. 79-106.
Part B
1) SENOFONTE, I Poroi. Introduzione, traduzione e commento storico a cura di E. Pischedda, Pisa, Edizioni ETS, 2018;
2) L. DE MARTINIS, Eubulo e i Poroi di Senofonte. L'Atene del IV secolo tra riflessione teorica e pratica politica, Trieste, EUT, 2018 (available for downloading at https://www.openstarts.units.it/bitstream/10077/22355/5/GT5_Eubulo.pdf), pp. 93-208.
Bibliography for non-attending students
Part A
A.1
1) TUCIDIDE, La guerra del Peloponneso, libro III (recommended edition: Tucidide. La guerra del Peloponneso (a cura di F. Ferrari e G. Daverio Rocchi), Milano, Rizzoli, 1985 e successive edizioni);
2) L. CANFORA, Tucidide. La menzogna, la colpa, l'esilio, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2016;
3) S. HORNBLOWER, La Grecia classica. Dalle guerre persiane ad Alessandro Magno, Milano, Rizzoli, 1997, capitoli 1, 2, 6, 12, 13-17;
4) M.I. FINLEY, L'impero ateniese: un bilancio, in M.I. FINLEY, Economia e società nel mondo antico, Roma-Bari, Laterza, Torino, Einaudi, 1984, pp. 53-80;
5) CHR. HÖCKER-L. SCHNEIDER, Pericle e la costruzione dell'Acropoli, in S. SETTIS (a cura di), I Greci. Storia cultura arte società, II.2, Torino, Einaudi, 1997, pp. 1239-1274.
A.2
1) SENOFONTE, Elleniche, libro V (recommended edition: Senofonte. Elleniche (a cura di G. Daverio Rocchi), Milano, Rizzoli, 2002 e successive edizioni);
2) J.K. DAVIES, Sparta e l'area peloponnesiaca. Atene e il dominio del mare, in S. SETTIS (a cura di), I Greci. Storia, cultura, arte, società, II.2, Torino, Einaudi, 1997, pp. 109-161;
3) E. BADIAN, The Ghost of Empire. Reflections on Athenian Foreign Policy in the Fourth Century BC, in W. EDER (a cura di), Die athenische Demokratie im 4. Jahrhundert v. Chr., Stuttgart, Steiner, 1995, pp. 79-106;
4) C. BEARZOT, Il federalismo greco, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2009.
Parte B
1) SENOFONTE, I Poroi. Introduzione, traduzione e commento storico a cura di E. Pischedda, Pisa, Edizioni ETS, 2018;
2) L. DE MARTINIS, Eubulo e i Poroi di Senofonte. L'Atene del IV secolo tra riflessione teorica e pratica politica, Trieste, EUT, 2018 (available for downloading at https://www.openstarts.units.it/bitstream/10077/22355/5/GT5_Eubulo.pdf), pp. 93-208;
3) J. ANDREAU-R. DESCAT, Gli schiavi nel mondo greco e romano, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2014.
Assessment methods and Criteria
The exam is oral and aims at ascertaining knowledge of the topics dealt with during the course, also by means of a critical discussion of ancient sources and modern scholarship.
Assessment criteria are the following: ability to organize knowledge through discourse; ability to reason critically with regard to the topics considered; critical awareness of the problems of method posed by the study of ancient society and by the use of ancient sources; ability to present topics and express oneself with the specialist language appropriate to the discipline.
Marks are out of 30.
Assessment criteria are the following: ability to organize knowledge through discourse; ability to reason critically with regard to the topics considered; critical awareness of the problems of method posed by the study of ancient society and by the use of ancient sources; ability to present topics and express oneself with the specialist language appropriate to the discipline.
Marks are out of 30.
Unita' didattica A
L-ANT/02 - GREEK HISTORY - University credits: 3
Lessons: 20 hours
Unita' didattica B
L-ANT/02 - GREEK HISTORY - University credits: 3
Lessons: 20 hours
Unita' didattica C
L-ANT/02 - GREEK HISTORY - University credits: 3
Lessons: 20 hours
Professor(s)