Module CLAS2301: ARCHAIC GREECE c800-479BC

Department: Classics and Ancient History

CLAS2301: ARCHAIC GREECE c800-479BC

Prerequisites

• EITHER CLAS1601 Remembering Athens OR CLAS1581 Greeks and Romans: Approaches and Perceptions.

Corequisites

• None.

Excluded Combination of Modules

• None.

Aims

• To contribute to students' learning about the Graeco-Roman world by introducing them to the study of an interesting and important period in Greek history, building on and extending the learning experience of modules studied at level 1.

Content

• The main topics covered are: 1. Introduction: Greece at the End of the Dark Age 2. The Greeks Overseas: Trade and Colonisation 3. Tyranny 4. Early Sparta (to c. 600) 5. Athens: The Crisis of the Seventh Century and the Reforms of Solon 6. Athens: The Pisistratid Tyranny 7. The Rest of the Greek Mainland in the Sixth Century 8. The Eastern Greeks and the Barbarian Empires 9. The Persian Wars (outline only) 10 Athens: The Reforms of Cleisthenes and After 11 The Reign of Cleomenes in Sparta.
• The prescribed texts are: Herodotus, I. 1 - VI. 93 Thucydides, I. 1-21, VI. 2-5, 54-9 [Aristotle], Athenaion Politeia, 1-22 Plutarch, Lycurgus and Solon Select inscriptions and other short texts.

Learning Outcomes

• The development of Greece during the period specified; the evidence for that development; modern scholarly views of that development and of the evidence for it.

• Ability to use appropriate methods in evaluating ancient evidence and modern discussions to reconstruct and understand the history of Greece during the period specified.

• Ability to deploy and interpret evidence; to understand how people have acted in different circumstances and with what results; to construct clear and cogent arguments and to criticise the arguments of others; to present facts, interpretations and arguments in good written English.

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

• LECTURES serve to impart information and methods of interpretation of both ancient evidence and modern scholarship; CLASSES ON SOURCE TEXTS provide engagement with literary and epigraphic evidence; FORMATIVE ESSAYS AND TEXT COMMENTARIES provide practice in assembling and evaluating material, constructing arguments and criticising the arguments of others, and producing good written English; TUTORIALS contribute to the critical handling of material and to the evaluation of evidence and arguments; In the EXAMINATION source passages for comment test the students' knowledge and understanding of the evidence and of problems of detail, essay questions test the students' knowledge and understanding of wider issues.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment:

One 2,000-word essay (M.T.); one text commentary 15 minutes' writing time + essay 45 minutes' writing time (Ep.T.)

■ Attendance at all activities marked with this symbol will be monitored. Students who fail to attend these activities, or to complete the summative or formative assessment specified above, will be subject to the procedures defined in the University's General Regulation V, and may be required to leave the University