OVERVIEW

The aim of the course is to provide a general overview of Greek civilization and history, from the period of the Bronze Age civilizations to the Roman conquest of Greece. Students will be able to understand the political, military and constitutional development of Greek cities through the analysis of textual tradition, epigraphic evidence and archaeological data.
  The course will be divided into two modules, the first aimed at
Through the reading of the texts of some passages of Thucydides, the theme of the so-called century of Pericles and the Peloponnesian War will be explored in depth

AIMS AND CONTENT

LEARNING OUTCOMES

In addition to acquiring knowledge and an appropriate language to express it, the educational goals involve the development of the ability to operate in interdisciplinary and comparative terms and to stimulate the propensity for research through writing exercises, developing individual and original research with the support of the teacher.

AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

The aim of the course is to provide the elements to understand Greek history and civilization, from the period of the Bronze Age civilizations to the Roman conquest of Greece. Students will be able to understand the political, military and constitutional development of Greek cities through the analysis of the reading of historians and the analysis of documents, from epigraphic evidence to archaeological data.
According to the Dublin descriptors, students should, at the end of the course, acquire:
1) knowledge and understanding in a post-secondary level field of study and knowledge of the fundamental themes in their field of study.

2) ability to apply knowledge and understanding in a way that demonstrates a professional approach and possesses adequate skills both to devise and sustain arguments and to solve problems in their field of study.
3) autonomy of judgment.
4) communication skills.
5) learning skills necessary to undertake further study with a high degree of autonomy.

PREREQUISITES

Basic knowledge of the ancient world, elements of historical geography of the Eastern and Western Mediterranean.

TEACHING METHODS

The organization of teaching activities is distributed among the following types: lectures, exercises, seminars, and other activities (for example, museum visits, written assignments or individual research presented by students in a collective end-of-course seminar; group work; field teaching experiences, etc.). There will also be space for interventions by Italian and foreign scholars.

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

Module A The course addresses the main issues of the Greek world and provides the theoretical and methodological foundations for the study of Greek civilization and history and for its reconstruction through literary and papyrological sources, archaeological, epigraphic, and numismatic data. Throughout the lectures, a path in Greek history will be presented, highlighting a vision of the ancient world that allows for the illumination of that set of "patterns" which have been decisive in the construction of classical cultures: forms of myth, kinship structures, systems of attitudes, religious representations, interspecific relationships (the relationship between man/animal), the translatability of languages and cultures, gender configurations.Module B The course includes an in-depth study dedicated to the 5th century, the century known as that of Pericles. The concept of the "Thucydides Trap" is the formula that today political scientists use to explain the dynamics behind contemporary conflicts, starting from an analysis of the Athenian historian of the 5th century BC. His thesis is that conflicts are generated by an imbalance of power that arises between an older power and a rising young force. In his work, the historian analyzes the "First World War" of antiquity and also a long civil war among the Greeks, which emerges during the crisis of the Athenian model of democracy: this is a process that will last twenty-seven years (from 431 to 404 BC) and will conclude with the end of Athenian imperialism and the decline of the "democratic" model. In the early years of the war, an unexpected and catastrophic event undermines Pericles' cautious strategy: the concentration of citizens within the walls transforms Athens, with the arrivalAthens, with the arrival of the epidemic, in a theater of the 'plague'. A virus that will kill more than a third of the inhabitants of Attica, including Pericles himself and his legitimate sons. But the account of the epidemic in the eight books on the war should be considered a meta-narrative closely related to the war and the siege of Athens. One cannot analyze the epidemic in Athens without considering Thucydides' narrative strategies. The historian's perspective, contemporary to Hippocrates, is that of someone who has experienced the disease and recovered from it. With his testimony, he has objectively and masterfully described how an unpredictable, irrational, and inorganic element can cause 'the end of a world' so that, if another reset of that kind were to occur, there would be elements to recognize it and intellectual tools to understand its impact on society and the devastating effects of the epidemic, which with 'athumia' (discouragement, fear, dismay) and the consequent "anomie" (loss of respect for any norm) also corrodes the social body from within and leads to "stasis" (civil war). A surprisingly contemporary text that allows for reading known events in today’s news through the lens of history. For students not coming from a classical curriculum, translation of texts from Greek will not be required, but the ability to refer to the specific terms used in the original texts and to grasp their actual value will still be necessary.

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

MODULO A  

 Manuale M. Corsaro - L. Gallo,  Storia greca, Firenze (Le Monnier), 2010 o successive ristampe (pp. 308).

oppure  D. MUSTI, Storia greca. Linee di sviluppo dall'età micenea all'età romana, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 1994.

MODULO B-  

LIBRI

di E. VILLARI, LE TRAPPOLE DI TUCIDIDE, GUERRA ASSEDIO EPIDEMIA,  LEG 2023

A reading of your choice

1- ( a cura di E. VILLARI) IL PAESAGGIO E Il SACRO, DeFerrari, Genova, 2014.

2-IL MORSO E IL CAVALIERE, Il melangolo, Genova, 2001.

3 - ( a cura di) I Politeismi antichi , GUP 2019 ( on line open source)

TEACHERS AND EXAM BOARD

LESSONS

LESSONS START

7 october

Class schedule

The timetable for this course is available here: Portale EasyAcademy