Unit GREEK HISTORY

Course
Philosophy and ethics of relationships
Study-unit Code
GP005064
Curriculum
Filosofia e storia
Teacher
Massimo Nafissi
Teachers
  • Massimo Nafissi
Hours
  • 72 ore - Massimo Nafissi
CFU
6
Course Regulation
Coorte 2021
Offered
2021/22
Learning activities
Caratterizzante
Area
Discipline classiche, storiche, antropologiche e politico-sociali
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 students who take a 6 CFU exam is limited to points 1-2; for students who take a 9 CFU exam, it includes points 1 and 3; for classical literature students who take a 12-credit exam, it includes points 1, 2, 3b, 4; for other students wishing to obtain 12 credits, it includes points 1, 2, and 5. Further reading is required for non-attending students (6).
1. An introduction to Greek history, from the Bronze Age to the Battle of Actium.
2. Basic knowledge of the works of Herodotus and Thucydides.
3. The Agora of Athens: history, institutions, monuments.
- 3a. i. General introduction to the agora; ii. the tholos and the pre-existing buildings; iii. the bouleuterion and the Metroon; iv. the stoa of Zeus Eleutherios and the sanctuary of the Twelve Gods; v. the stoà basileios; vi. the stoà poikìle and the stoà of the Herms; vii. the statues of the tyrannicides.
- 3b. Three thematic groups to be chosen from those listed under i-vii in 3a.
4. Reading Thucydides' Pentekontaetia.
5. Readings in place of point 4.
6. Readings for non-attending students.
Reference texts
1. Handbook: M. Bettalli (ed.), Storia Greca, 3rd. ed., Carocci, Roma, 2021.
An historical atlas.

2.
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 (to be indicated during the classes):
E. Greco con la collaborazione di R. Di Cesare, F. Longo e 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.

4.
Thucydides' Pentecontaetia (I 89-117). Reading, translation, essential commentary.
The bibliography will be indicated during the lessons.

4.b: Substitute readings.
4.b: Students taking courses other than classics who want to achieve 12 credits are required to read a book chosen from the following two:
- 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 of the following articles or book chapters
- 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, a cura di M. Giangiulio, Roma 2008, pp. 651-702.
- A. Magnetto, I rapporti tra i diversi soggetti politici: la diplomazia internazionale, in M. Mari, a cura di, L’età ellenistica. Società, politica, cultura, Roma, Carocci 2019, 81-106.
- M. Mari, I linguaggi della politica e i culti dei sovrani, in M. Mari, a cura di, L’età ellenistica. Società, politica, cultura, Roma, Carocci 2019, 107-131.

5. Students of any course of study attending less than 60% of the lessons who intend to obtain 6, 9 or 12 credits are required to read one of the two monographs or all the articles and chapters indicated in point 4b, if necessary in addition to what they have already done in accordance with point 4b.
Educational objectives
Knowledge
• Knowledge of the general lines of Greek history, from the Bronze Age to the battle of Actium. Clear knowledge of the succession of events and of the different phases of the historical development and of the geographical frameworks in which they take place.
• 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.
• Essential knowledge of the main monuments of the Agora of Athens in the Classical and Hellenistic periods, of the historical issues, values and political and religious realities related to them (9 and 12 CFU exam).
• Understanding, through the example of the Athenian Agora, of the integrated nature of all kinds of testimonies - written, monumental and material - and of the interdisciplinary nature of the scientific study of the ancient world (9 and 12 CFU exam).
• First rudiments in the analysis of a classical historiographical text; tools for reading and commenting on the text of Thucydides; perspective of the author, oral traditions, historical reconstruction, with particular reference to the Pentecontaetia of Thucydides.

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.
• Acquire sensitivity to an approach under which historiographic sources are not passive reports of events, but expression of historical thought and forms of narrative construction, and elaboration of preexisting traditions and oral accounts.
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
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) (ca. 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 and clarity in writing.
Duration of the test: 2.00 hours.

Interview (specifies the outcome of the written assessment):
- Further verification of knowledge, with special reference to points 2, 3a or b, 4, and 5 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. Reading of Thucydides Pentecontaetia (I 89-117). Historical and historiographical commentary.
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