Global Arc

An introduction to Roman culture emphasizing tensions within Roman imperial ideology, the course explores attitudes toward issues such as gender and sexuality, conspicuous consumption, and ethnicity through the works of authors such as Petronius, Lucan, and Tacitus. It also considers the role of cinematic representations of ancient Rome in 20th-century America. Two lectures, one preceptorial.

In the age of self-help books and memoirs, one wonders, can we really change? Can writing offer us the hope of transformation? Of conversion? How do you publish the "self"? Can literary genres serve as models for how to live one's life? We will confront such questions through the fictions and philosophies of the past; through historical figures such as Socrates and St. Augustine and the fictive characters of drama and the novel. Weekly theoretical readings on the self and narratology will also urge us to explore the boundaries of literature and philosophy and to seriously consider how we enact narratives of change in our daily lives.

A formative episode in Western civilization: the Greeks from the rise of the city-state, through the conflict between Athens and Sparta, to the emergence of Macedon in the fourth century B.C. Emphasis on cultural history, political thought, and the development of techniques of historical interpretation through analysis of original sources (Herodotus, Thucydides, and others). Two lectures, one preceptorial.

The Greek experience from Alexander the Great through Cleopatra. An exploration of the dramatic expansion of the Greek world into the Near East brought about by the conquests and achievements of Alexander. Study of the profound political, social, and intellectual changes that stemmed from the interaction of the cultures, and the entrance of Greece into the sphere of Rome. Readings include history, biography, religious narrative, comedy, and epic poetry. Two lectures, one preceptorial.

A study of the causes and unforeseen consequences of one small city-state's rise to world-empire, primarily through the analysis of ancient sources (including Livy, Polybius, Caesar, and Cicero) in translation. Emphasis on the development of Roman society and the evolution, triumph, and collapse of the republican government that it produced. Two lectures, one preceptorial.

A study of the profound transformation of Rome by the multicultural empire it had conquered, ending with the triumph of Christianity. Emphasis on typical social and cultural institutions and on the legacies of Rome to us. Ancient sources in translation include documents, histories, letters, and novels. Two lectures, one preceptorial.

This course considers the problem of slavery in the Roman world, from the early Republic to the end of the Empire. There will be some coverage of the background developments in the slave system under the earlier age of the Greek city-states. A wide range of subjects concerning slavery in Roman society will be considered including the causes of the creation of the Roman slave system, the ways in which it was maintained, its main social and economic functions, and the problem of resistance to servitude.

From epic bards, drinking songs, and classical tragedies to judicial speeches, funeral comedies and gladiators - ancient Greece and Rome knew how to put on a show! We will cover the most important performative genres of antiquity. We will read texts from the archaic to the Roman Imperial period in English translation, paying special attention to the reconstruction of their performance and cultural contexts. We will also listen to modern reconstructions of ancient music and look at ancient art representing various types of spectacles. The course also introduces occasional comparative material from other cultures, ancient and modern.

The historians of Greece and Rome produced some of the most exciting and influential writings to survive from antiquity. This course investigates how and why ancient Greeks and Roman authors represent the past. Substantial selections from the major classical historians, as well as from the epic poets who influenced and challenged them in preserving the memory of great deeds. Emphasis will be less on the value of these ancient texts as sources of information than on how historical writing develops in response to different social and political circumstances. No prior knowledge of Greek or Roman history or literature is required.

Ranging from the Neolithic to the 21st century, this course will survey the history of human bondage. Topics to be explored include the role of slavery in the rise of the first Neolithic states; the institutionalization of slavery in ancient Mesopotamia, the Greco-Roman Mediterranean, and ancient China; the proliferation of slave systems elsewhere in Eurasia and on the African continent; the economic and political transformation of the Old and New Worlds through the commodification of African and Native American bodies; and the feedback loops linking ancient slave systems to modern ones.