Programme

The geography of the Greek world. Periodisation of Greek history. The Bronze Age: The Minoan civilisation. The Bronze Age: The Mycenaean civilisation and its demise. The Dark Ages. The formation of the polis. Definition of 'polis'. The so-called... The Greek Renaissance and its characteristics. The Homeric poems as a historical source. The so-called colonisation. The aristocratic lifestyle. The experience of tyranny. Sparta: lines of internal political development from the Iron Age to the so-called '6th-century reforms'. Athens: lines of internal political development in the Archaic period. Draco, Solon, Pisistratus and the Pisistratids, and Clisthenes. The formation of the Persian Empire. The Ionian Revolt. The Persian Wars. The Pentekontaetia. The Peloponnesian War, in all three phases. The consequences of defeat in the Peloponnesian War for Athens. The consequences of victory in the Peloponnesian War for Sparta. The War of Corinth. Sparta and the cities of Asia Minor. The King's Peace. Theban hegemony. Philip II and the growth of Macedonia. Alexander the Great and his expedition. The Diadochi and the three wars between them. The formation of the Hellenistic states: The Ptolemies, the Seleucids, the Antigonids and the Attalids. The Cremonid War. The Achaean League. Events of the 3rd century BC. Sparta in the 3rd century BC. The Macedonian Wars. Wars with the Seleucids. Rome and Egypt.

Core Documentation

M. BETTALLI – A.L. D’AGATA – A. MAGNETTO, Storia Greca, Roma, Carocci Editore, 2013 (entire volume). Mandatory.
M. BETTALLI, Introduzione alla storiografia greca, Roma, Carocci, 2009, pp. 47-61; 67-91 (Herodotus and Thucydides). Recommended.

For non-attendees. Reading of:
M. GIANGIULIO, Democrazie greche. Atene, Sicilia, Magna Grecia, Roma 2015.

Attendance

Optional. Attendance at 24 out of 36 hours is, however, required for attending students; attendance will be ascertained by roll call.

Type of evaluation

Students will be asked questions to test their understanding of the key events in Greek history from the Bronze Age to the Hellenistic period. They will also be asked questions about the works of the founders of Greek historiography, Herodotus and Thucydides. Their knowledge of the geography of places in Greek history will also be assessed.