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Classical
Studies: History Reading Lists
Classics
> Programs & Courses >
Graduate > Classical
Studies > History Reading Lists
Topics
in Greek History
1.
Religion. What role did religion play in the
life of the polis? Discuss some representative festivals of the
Athenian year. Discuss how Spartan festivals functioned in the
organization of Spartan society. What role did religion play in
the lives of individuals (e.g., in major transition points of
life, including birth, adolescence, adulthood, marriage and death)?
What was the function of Panhellenic festivals in Greek history?
Choose one festival and discuss its role in Greek history (e.g.,
Panathenaia, Olympic, Nemean, Pythian and Isthmian Games). What
kinds of competitions were held and how might they reflect social
organization and concerns? What was the role of the Delphic Oracle
in Greek history?
Price, S. Religions of the Ancient Greeks. Cambridge,
1999.
Bruit-Zaidman, L. and P. Schmitt Pantel Religion in the Ancient
Greek City. Translated by P. Cartledge. Cambridge, 1992.
2.
Economy. How is the ancient economy to be understood?
Was it just like the modern economy (only smaller) or was it qualitatively
different from the modern economy? What role did status, gender
and class play in the organization of economic activity? What
was ancient agriculture like and did it change over time? What
was the role of trade in the ancient economy? Was colonization
a product of overpopulation and land shortage or the quest for
raw materials and new markets? What was the role of slavery in
the economy?
Finley, M.I. (1999) The Ancient Economy. New Edition
with preface by Ian Morris.
Osborne, R. (1987) Classical Landscape with Figures. The Ancient
Greek City and its
Countryside. London.
3.
Women. What was the life of women like in Ancient
Greece? What differences were there between different poleis and
over time? What was the role of women in the life of the polis?
In religion, in the economy? What differences did class and status
make?
E.Fantham
et al. Women in the Classical World. Image and Text.
Oxford, 1994.
4.
Polis and Politics. What factors contributed
to the rise of the Greek polis? How do we explain the different
political trajectories of Greek poleis (e.g., why did some experience
tyranny, and others not? ) How was citizenship defined and how
did it change over time?
R. Osborne, Greece in the Making 1200-479 BC. Routledge,
1996.
5.
Athens. Describe and explain the political development
of Athens from Cylon to Ephialtes. Discuss the creation and maintenance
of the Athenian empire. Did empire make radical democracy possible?
How exploitative was Athens of its fellow Greeks? Was the Athenian
democracy "a democracy in name only" (to what degree
was it run by elites)? What role did the popular courts play in
the democracy? Did the Athenian democracy change from the early
fifth to the late fifth century? Did it change between the fifth
and the fourth century?
M.H. Hansen The Athenian Democracy in the Age of Demosthenes.
Oxford, 1989
J. Ober, Mass and Elite in Democratic Athens. Princeton,
1989.
A. Powell, Athens and Sparta. Constructing Greek Political
and Social History from 478 BC. Routledge, 1988. Chapters
1-3 (on empire).
6.
Sparta, Messenia and the Peloponnesian League.
Describe and explain the peculiar constitutional development of
Sparta. What unique challenges did Sparta face in the Peloponnese
from its origins through the Peloponnesian War and how did it
meet them? Why was Sparta unable to maintain its hegemony in the
fourth century?
Cartledge, P. Sparta and Lakonia. A Regional History 1300-362
B.C. London, 1979.
7.
Warfare. How did warfare change over time? In
what ways did warfare interact with the social, political and
economic life of Greek poleis? Discuss the impact of a particular
war (e.g., Persian, Peloponnesian, Philip's conquest of Greece)
on the life of the communities involved.
S. B. Pomeroy et al., Ancient Greece. A Political, Social
and Cultural History. Oxford, 1999 (relevant sections)
Anton Powell, Athens and Sparta. Constructing Greek Political
and Social History from 478 BC. Routledge,
1988. Chapter 5 (on the Peloponnesian War).
8.
Greek historiography. What are the origins of
Greek historical writing? How different is Herodotean history
from Thucydidean? How different are the writings of fourth century
and Hellenistic historians (as far as we know them) from earlier
historiography?
T. J. Luce. The Greek Historians. Routledge, 1997
9.
Documents and Greek History. What types of documents
have been preserved? What are our earliest examples of writing?
What did the Greeks use writing for? How literate was the average
Greek? What differences are there (if any) between the uses of
writing by different poleis? What particular periods/cultures
are most illuminated by documents?
R. Thomas Literacy and Orality in Ancient Greece, Cambridge,
1992.
R. Meiggs and D. Lewis, A selection of Greek historical inscriptions
to the end of the fifth century B.C., 1969
10.
Material Culture and Greek History In what ways
does the archaeological record contribute to our understanding
of Greek history? Describe some ways that archaeology has modified
our understanding of the literary and documentary sources. What
are the distinctive ways that survey archaeology (as opposed to
traditional excavation) contributes to our understanding of Greek
history?
J. Whitley The Archaeology of Ancient Greece. Cambridge,
2001.
Click here to download PDF of Greek History ID's
Topics in Roman History
The works on this list presume a working knowledge of the outline
of Roman history such as that to be found in A. Ward, A History
of the Roman People 4th ed.
1.
Imperialism in the Mid-Republic
2.
Agrarian Reform and other crises of the late second century
- E.
Gabba, "Rome and Italy: The Social War." In The
Cambridge Ancient History, ed. J.A.
Crook, A. Lintott and E. Rawson 9: 104-28.
- A.
Lintott, "Political History, 145-96 B.C." In The
Cambridge Ancient History, ed. J.A. Crook, A. Lintott and
E. Rawson 9: 40-103.
- D.
Stockton, The Gracchi
3.
The careers of Marius and Sulla
- A.
Lintott, "Political History, 145-96 B.C." In The
Cambridge Ancient History, ed. J.A. Crook, A. Lintott and
E. Rawson 9: 40-103.
- R.
Seager, "Sulla," A. Lintott, "Political History,
145-96 B.C." In The Cambridge Ancient History,
ed. J.A. Crook, A. Lintott and E. Rawson 9: 165-207.
4.
Was the Roman Republic a democracy?
- M.
Gelzer, The Roman Nobility
- L.R.
Taylor, Roman Voting Assemblies
- F.
Millar, The Crowd in Republican Rome
5.
The Fall of the Republic (with special attention to the career
of Caesar)
- Either
M. Gelzer, Caesar: Politician and Statesman or C. Maier,
Caesar
- T.P.
Wiseman, "The Senate and the populares, 69-60
B.C." In The Cambridge Ancient History, ed.J.A.
Crook, A. Lintott and E. Rawson 9: 327-67
- T.P.
Wiseman, "Caesar, Pompey and Rome, 59-50 B.C." In
The Cambridge Ancient History, ed. J.A. Crook, A. Lintott
and E. Rawson 9: 368-423
6.
The Image of Augustus and the Augustan settlement
- R.
Syme, The Augustan Aristocracy
- In
Toher and Raaflaub
- P.
Zanker, The Power of Images in the Age of Augustus
7.
Romanization
- G.
Woolf, Becoming Roman
- R.
MacMullen, Romanization in the Age of Augustus
8.
The governing class of the Roman Empire
-
W. Eck, "Emperor, Senate, and Magistrates." In The
Cambridge Ancient History, ed. A. K. Bowman, P. Garnsey,
and D. Rathbone, 11:214–37. 2d ed. Cambridge, 2000.
- "The
Growth of Administrative Posts." In The Cambridge Ancient
History, ed. A. K. Bowman, P. Garnsey, and D. Rathbone,
11:238–65. 2d ed. Cambridge, 2000.
- F.
Millar, "Emperors at Work." JRS 57 (1967):
9–19.
- R.
P. Saller, Personal Patronage under the Early Empire.
Cambridge, 1982.
9.
The economy of the Roman Empire
- M.I.
Finley, The Ancient Economy
- P.
Horden and N. Purcell, The Corrupting Sea, 175-297
10.
Rome and its neighbors
- E.
Luttwak, The Grand Strategy of the Roman Empire
-
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