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 2023
- Offered
- 2024/25
- 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
- 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. Herodotus on Athens and Sparta: Readings from The Histories, book I.
4. Hystory of Thebes from 404 to 362 (Prof. Emilio ROSAMILIA).
5. Readings for non-attending students.
The program for students who take a
6 CFU exam is limited to points 1-2;
for classical literature students who take a 12-CFU exam, it includes points 1, 2, 3;
for other students wishing to obtain 12 CFU, it includes points 1, 2, and 4.
Further reading is required for non-attending students (5). - Reference texts
- 1.
Handbook: M. Bettalli (ed.), Storia Greca, 3rd. ed., Carocci, Roma, 2021.
A historical atlas that pays sufficient attention to the geographical space in which Greek history developed in its different phases.
2.
A complete reading of one of the nine books of Herodotus' Histories and one of the eight books of Thucydides' Peloponnesian War, in any recent translation of their works.
A general introduction to the two historians, their lives, thought and work.
Introduction to 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.
Introduction to Thucydides:
F. Ferrucci, Tucidide, in M. Bettalli (a cura di), Introduzione alla storiografia greca, nuova ed. Roma 2009, pp. 67-96.
3.
Herodotus on Athens and Sparta:.
Reading, translation, essential commentary of some passages from Herodotus book I.
The texts will be made available in PDF on UniStudium. A list of them will be provided during the course,
The bibliography will be indicated during the lessons.
4.
History of Thebes from 404 to 362
Reading in Italian and essential commentary of passages from Hellenica Oxyrinchia and Xenophon's Hellenica.
The texts will be made available as soon as possible in PDF on UniStudium.
Lectures by prof. Emilio ROSAMILIA.
Further readings will be indicated later in the semester.
5.
Substitute readings for non-attending students.
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 following monographs:
- 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;
- M. Giangiulio (a cura di), Introduzione alla storia greca, Il Mulino, Bologna 2021, 15-262;
-M. Lupi, Sparta. Storia e rappresentazioni di una città greca. Carocci, Roma, 2017.
Students with disabilities and/or with SLD who, having completed regular accreditation through SOL, have obtained access to University services, can apply for the compensatory tools ensured by law (e.g. textbooks in digital format; teaching materials in accessible formats: presentations, handouts, workbooks, provided if necessary in advance of the lessons), for which consult https://www.unipg.it/disabilita-e-dsa.
For the request, students are invited to ask the teacher, who will put them in contact with the Disability and/or DSA Department Coordinator (prof. Alessandra Di Pilla: alessandra.dipilla@unipg.it) - Educational objectives
- The course introduces students to Greek history and culture in the broadest sense. As a first-year course, it is also one of the first occasions on which students are confronted with the teaching of history at university level. They are confronted with complex political, cultural and social phenomena in their interrelationships, and at the same time are called upon to understand phenomena, structures and dynamics in their cultural specificity.
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.
• Basic 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.
• An understanding of the work of Herodotus and Thucydides, the essential features of classical historiography and its use as evidence for knowledge of the past.
• For students sustaining the 12 CFU Classical Literature course:
Instruments and methods for the analysis of a classical text of historic content: First rudiments.
• For students sustaining the 12 CFU examination of other courses history of Athens at the end of the Peloponnesian War and bibliographical tools for reading and commenting on Lysias' orations and Xenophon's Hellenics.
Skills:
The course contributes to the development of communication skills, the application of one's knowledge and the refinement of learning practices:
• 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 that does not regard historiographical narratives as passive accounts of events, but as expressions of historical thought and narrative constructions, as well as elaborations of pre-existing traditions and oral or written 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 have embarked on a path of learning thereof.
- Teaching methods
- Lectures. Reading sources and documents in Italian translation.
Students with disabilities and/or DSA may request, in consultation with the lecturer, any teaching materials in accessible formats (presentations, handouts, workbooks), provided if necessary in advance of the lectures, as well as the use of other technological tools to facilitate study. For general information, please consult the University Services at https://lettere.unipg.it/home/disabilita-e-dsa and contact the Departmental Contact Person (Prof. A. Di Pilla). - 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.
Students with disabilities and/or DSA: for any information on the University's services, please visit https://lettere.unipg.it/home/disabilita-e-dsa and contact the Departmental Contact Person (Prof. Alessandra Di Pilla: alessandra.dipilla@unipg.it). - Learning verification modality
- The final examination consists of an oral interview at the end of the course.
Test of knowledge: the text conforms the syllabus and the specific requirements of the different courses, the CFUs that each student intends to obtain, and the relevant recommended reading.
All students are tested on their basic knowledge of all periods of Greek history (Archaic, Classical and Hellenistic, usually with one question on each) and on their actual reading of the classics of historiography required by the programme (Herodotus and Thucydides).
- Evidence of competence: ability to express oneself orally, in particular with regard to the concepts necessary for the description of social, political and cultural institutions and phenomena and of historical development; ability to express complex concepts and hypotheses and to organise information in a hierarchical, logical and synthetic manner; for students of Classical Literature, the ability to translate from Greek, to contextualise and comment the texts proposed during the course.
The assessment will take into account the breadth and depth of knowledge, the ability to express oneself at a conceptual and argumentative level, the logical rigour and personal character of the exposition, the knowledge of the Greek of the passages examined and the ability to contextualise and comment on them.
The test typically takes 30'-40 '
Students with disabilities and/or DSA, who have been duly recognised by the SOL and have obtained access to the University's services, may, for the purpose of taking exams, make use of the compensatory aids, assistive devices and inclusive technologies provided for by the regulations, to be requested and agreed with the teacher well in advance of the exams. For further information, please visit https://www.unipg.it/disabilita-e-dsa and contact the Departmental Officer for Disability and DSA (Prof. Alessandra Di Pilla: alessandra.dipilla@unipg.it). - 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.
The Minoan and Mycenaean civilisations;
The Dark Ages or Early Iron Age;
The 'Renaissance' of the 8th century BC;
the Greeks at sea: mobility and 'colonisation';
the archaic polis, the tyrranids and the culture and lifestyles of the archaic elites;
Sparta;
Athens in the Archaic period;
Greeks and Persians;
Greece between the Persian Wars and the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War;
Athenian democracy;
The Peloponnesian War;
The West and the Western Tyrants;
The Spartan hegemony;
The Second Athenian Naval League, Sparta and the Theban hegemony;
Philip II;
Sicily and Magna Graecia in the 4th century;
Alexander the Great;
Diadochi and epigones;
The Hellenistic kingdoms;
Greece in the 3rd century BC;
The West in the Hellenistic Age;
The Roman conquest of the Hellenistic world.
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. Herodotus on Athens and Sparta: readings from Book I of the Histories.
Herodotus' narrative defines for us, in addition to the events that determine the Persian Wars and the Persian Wars themselves, the guideline around which the best-known facts of the Archaic period are reconstructed, particularly for Sparta and Athens. Thus, in Book I of the Histories, we read about the legislation of Lycurgus and the successes that definitively defined Sparta's role as hegemon in the Peloponnese, while for Athens we read about Solon and, above all, the history of the tyranny of Pisistratus. However, the historian places these stories in the context of a possible anticipation of the clash between the Greeks and the Persians (the king of Lydia's search for allies in Greece for the war he intends to wage against Persia), and they are based on already structured local oral traditions. The lectures aim to clarify what the historian's purpose is, what the meaning of the stories he has collected is, and what line of events can be reconstructed. A precise list of a limited number of passages will be provided, which will have to be read, translated from the Greek and given narrative and historical context and commentary.
4. History of Thebes from 404 to 362
Reading in Italian and essential commentary of passages from Hellenica Oxyrinchia and Xenophon's Hellenica. Through the reading of texts in translation, the student will be able to approach the tumultuous events of a Greek city that rises to the role of great power by raising the banner of freedom for the Greek cities, but acting with unscrupulous violence in its own regional sphere. - Obiettivi Agenda 2030 per lo sviluppo sostenibile