Unit GREEK HISTORY
- Course
- Humanities
- Study-unit Code
- GP000241
- Curriculum
- Moderno
- Teacher
- Massimo Nafissi
- Teachers
-
- Massimo Nafissi
- Hours
- 72 ore - Massimo Nafissi
- CFU
- 12
- Course Regulation
- Coorte 2018
- Offered
- 2019/20
- Learning activities
- Caratterizzante
- Area
- Storia, archeologia e storia dell'arte
- Academic discipline
- L-ANT/02
- Type of study-unit
- Opzionale (Optional)
- Type of learning activities
- Attività formativa monodisciplinare
- Language of instruction
- Italian
- Contents
- The program for 6 CFU is limited to points 1-2; for 9 CFU it includes points 1-3; for students of Classics who hold a 12 credit exam, it includes points 1-4a; for other students who wish to obtain 12 credits, it includes points 1, 2, 3 and 4b. Please note the distinctions specified for the content and texts prescribed in relation to the number of credits and the different courses of study for each point.
1. (6, 9 and 12 CFU exam) An introduction to Greek history, from the Bronze Age to the Battle of Actium.
2. (6, 9 and 12 CFU exam) Basic knowledge of the works of Herodotus and Thucydides.
3. The agora of Athens: history, institutions, monuments. (9 and 12 CFU exam)
4a. (12 CFU exam, Classics) Introduction to Greek epigraphy: inscriptions from the Athenian agora.
4b. (12 CFU exam, other students): supplementary readings. - Reference texts
- 1.
Handbooks:
M. Bettalli (a cura di), Storia Greca, Carocci, Roma, 2006.
An historical atlas.
2.
For a general overview of the personalities and works of Herodotus and Thucydides:
Herodotus:
- students attending the curriculum of Classics, D. Asheri, Introduzione generale, in Id. (a cura di), Erodoto. Le Storie, l. I. La Lidia e la Persia, Milano, Fond. Valla - Mondadori, 1988, pp. IX-LXIX;
- all other students: M. Bettalli, Erodoto, in M. Bettalli (a cura di), Introduzione alla storiografia greca, nuova ed. Roma 2009, pp. 47-66.
Thucydides: F. Ferrucci, Tucidide, in M. Bettalli (a cura di), Introduzione alla storiografia greca, nuova ed. Roma 2009, pp. 67-96.
3.
Selected readings from:
E. Greco in collaboration with R. Di Cesare, F. Longo, D. Marchiandi, Topografia di Atene: sviluppo urbano e monumenti dalle origini al III. secolo d.C. Tomo III 2: Quartieri a nord e a nord-est dell'Acropoli e Agora del Ceramico, Agora del Ceramico, Pandemos, Atene-Paestum 2014
John McK. Camp, The Athenian Agora: Site Guide, Fifth edition, Princeton, N.J.: American School of Classical Studies at Athens 2010.
M.H. Hansen, La democrazia ateniese nel IV secolo a.C. (trad. it. A. Maffi), LED, Milano 2003.
4a.
Handbook:
M. Guarducci, L'Epigrafia greca dalle origini al tardo impero, Roma, Istituto Poligrafico dello Stato, 1987 (e successive ristampe);
Papers and booklet uploaded on Unistudium
P. J. Rhodes, R. Osborne, Greek Historical Inscriptions 404-323 BC., Oxford 2003.
4b.
Students attending less than 60% of the lessons and all the students not attending the curriculum of classics who hold a 12 CFU exam should read one among the following two books
- M.H. Hansen, La democrazia ateniese nel IV secolo a.C. (trad. it. A. Maffi), LED, Milano 2003, pp. 133-388;
- M. Giangiulio, Democrazie greche, Carocci, Roma 2015;
or all the following papers:
M. Nafissi, Forme di controllo a Sparta, Il Pensiero Politico, XL 2, 2007, 329-344
M. Nafissi, Krypteiai spartane, in A. Beltrán, I. Sastre, M. Valdés (dir.), Los espacios de la esclavitud y la dependencia en la Antigüedad, Homenaje a Domingo Plácido, Actas del XXXV coloquio GIREA, Madrid 2015, Presses universitaires de Franche-Comté 2012, 201-229.
H.-J. Gehrke, Incontri di culture: l'ellenismo, in Storia d'Europa e del Mediterraneo, dir. A. Barbero, vol. IV, M. Giangiulio (ed.), Roma 2008, pp. 651-702. - Educational objectives
- Knowledge
• General knowledge of the main problems of the Greek political and social history from the Bronze Age to the Battle of Actium.
• General knowledge of the political and social institutions and the culture of the Greek world, in their local and temporal diversities, with particular reference to Athens and Sparta.
• Provide students, through the reading of ancient sources in translation, with an elementary knowledge of the work of the two most important Greek historians living in the fifth century, Herodotus and Thucydides.
• Essential knowledge of some monuments of the agora of Athens (Bouleterion, Tholos, Metroon, Monument of the Eponyms, Stoa of Zeus Eleutherios, Stoa Basileos, Stoa Poikile, Hephaisteion, Temenos of the Twelve Gods, Group of Harmodios and Aristogeiton etc.), and of the related historical problems and of the political and religious values and realities (9 and 12 CFU exam);
• Understanding, through the example of the agora of Athens, of the integrated character of every kind of evidence – written, monumental and material – and of the decisive importance of an interdisciplinary approach in the study of the classical world (exam from 9 and 12 CFU).
• Introduction to Greek epigraphy: local alphabets, standard epigraphic notes, and knowledge of some important historical epigraphs (12 CFU exam).
Applying knowledge and understanding:
• Using a language appropriate for the description of historical phenomena of the ancient world, as well as possessing general and specific concepts necessary to describe these phenomena.
• Ability to express - when necessary - the complex, problematic, and hypothetical character of historic reconstructions.
• Ability to reflect upon historical phenomena and processes, within the limits posed by a non-analytical knowledge of the same. - Prerequisites
- No special requirements, except a basic knowledge of the Greek language and its most common lexicon for students attending the curriculum of classics. Students in the curriculum of classics that take a final exam without having studied the Greek language in high school must demonstrate that they have embarked on a path of learning thereof.
- Teaching methods
- Lectures. Reading sources and documents in Italian translation.
- Other information
- Attendance checked by roll call. Supplementary readings are imposed to students who attend less than 60% of lessons. Attendance by working students is not checked.
- Learning verification modality
- Ongoing test at the end of the first 36 hours of the course: passing the test with a grade higher than 10/15 exempts the student from the verification during the final examination of a part of the course foreseen in point 1 (chapters 3 - 11 of the manual). The mark obtained is positively evaluated in the final assessment (see below).
The final assessment consists of two tests, both to be carried out at the end of the course. Written test (it orients the evaluation in general): basic knowledge of the geography of the Greek world (blank map) (12.5%); chronology of the main events of Greek history, short open answer (25%); detailed questions: multiple choice test (12.5%); open questions relating to points 1, 3 and 4 of the course (respectively 30, 10, 10%). The evaluation takes into account the correctness of the written form. Duration of the test: 2.00 hours.
The candidate who has passed the ongoing test is granted the maximum of the evaluation for the questions related to the part of the course object of the ongoing test (approx. 25% of the total value of the written test).
Interview (specifies the outcome of the final assessment, taking into account in case a particularly positive result in the ongoing test): further verification of knowledge, with special reference to points 2, 3 and 4a of the program.
Level of oral exposition skills: clarity and propriety of language, particularly in reference to key-concepts in the description of the institutions and social phenomena, political and cultural and historical development; ability to express complex concepts and hypotheses; synthesis ability; for students in the curriculum of classics, knowledge of Greek and translation of texts listed in the syllabus. The test typically takes 30'-40 '. - Extended program
- 1. An introduction to Greek history, from the Bronze Age to the Battle of Actium. Chronological and geographical framework, political and social institutions, political and cultural history.
2. Personal reading (in translation) of one of the books from Herodotus' Histories and one from Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War. An adequate information on Herodotus, Thucydides and their works is also required.
3. Some monuments of the agora of Athens (Bouleterion, Tholos, Metroon, Monument of the Eponyms, Stoa of Zeus Eleutherios, Stoa Basileos, Stoa Poikile, Hephaisteion, Temenos of the Twelve Gods, Group of Harmodios and Aristogeiton etc.), and related historical problems, and both political and religious values and realities;
4a. Introduction to Greek epigraphy: local alphabets, standard epigraphic notes, and knowledge of some important historical epigraphs.