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. N.B. This link is working now and offers a good outline of basic Formatting Rules you can follow in this Wiki.Latin 493A - Spring 2007
Stephanus' Public Bookmarks for Ancient Greek History
This is an Independent Study in Latin but focused on Ancient Greek history. Novum, scio!
Lauren -- As a fundamental way of proceding in this Independent Study, you should post on this wiki page entries that include, but aren't limited to, these categories of information:
1. Week 1 (1/8 - 1/12)
AssignmentRead Thomas R. Martin, An Overview of Classical Greek History from Mycenae to Alexander
2. Week 2 (1/15 - 1/19)
AssignmentRead Thomas R. Martin, An Overview of Classical Greek History from Mycenae to Alexander
Lauren's comments and/or questions:
3. Week 3 (1/22 - 1/26)
AssignmentRead Thomas R. Martin, An Overview of Classical Greek History from Mycenae to Alexander
Lauren's comments and/or questions:
4. Week 4 (1/29 - 2/2)
AssignmentHerodotus, The History, book 1
NB You can find an English translation in Magale. If you prefer, you may read from an online version, such as Herodotus in the Perseus Digital Library
.I was really struck by Herodotus sense of grand design in history.
Lauren, poke around this ancient history site and post some comments that reveal topics of interest you have found.
The Internet Ancient History Sourcebook
I think this site would be useful to any student of history, especially the section on primary and secondary sources. It's important for us to know how to use certain types of sources and to ask questions about the validity of each and every source we come across. I also found more interesting links on the site, like the Greek Philosophy Archive (I enjoy Plato) and religion sites that I can use in my other classes.
Also, I really enjoyed reading Gerald Schlabach's comical "A Sense of History: Some Components". I thought he had alot of advice to offer the reader as far as demostrating how a person should look at history- not assuming anything, and trying to look at each event through many perspectives and levels.
5. Week 5 (2/5 - 2/9)
When reading Book 1 of Herodotus' The Histories, I was surprised to see how much "philosophy" and different themes run through the book. Fate and the need to change it, was a major issue.I enjoyed reading the part when Croesus asks the wise Solon who the happiest man in the world is. It was really cool how Solon tells the story of Cleobis and Biton, because we saw their statues in Delphi last summer. Solon uses the story of the twin brothers to prove his point that you can never truely be Labled as "happy" until death, because man is a creature of chance, and you never know what could happen tomorrow. Tying in one of the many themes of his histories, fate. "... not God himself could escape destiny." (H1, 91)
The book also stresses the importance of predicting the future for the ancient peoples. Through many ways such as the oracle, fortune-telling or dreams etc, they believed that they could predict and change their destinies. Every major decision is made by first consulting the Oracle at Delphi or by predictions through dreams. One of For example, Croesus' main reason for attacking the Persians was not because they were rich in luxuries, it was because he believed that the Oracle said he would win. Afterall, "No one is fool enough to choose war instead of peace." (H1, 47)
I thought it was ironic how Croesus sent tons of gifts to Apollo's Oracle, then Apollo saved Croesus from the pyre, and afterwards Croesus turns right around and insults Apollo by sending messangers to Delphi with his chains to ask, " if it was the habbit of Greek God to be ungreatful." (H1, 90) If this were a Greek play, there would be some retaliation from Apollo.
6. Week 6 (2/12 - 2/16)
7. Week 7 (2/26 - 3/2)
So far, I have really enjoyed reading Michael Grant's Readings in the Classical Histories. His selections are well chosen and cover every sort of aspect a classical author could write about, making reading very interesting. I also liked how Grant introduced each classical author before he presented their writings, it made the readings easier, especially for the authors I wasn't familiar with, because I wasn't lost, I knew where and what each person was writing about before I read their selections.
~HeRoDoTuS?~
Although I recently read many of Grant's Herodotus selections, I didn't mind reading them again, as he picked many of my favorite sections. I particularly enjoyed reading "Croesus, King of Lydia and his Athenian Visitor Solon". I just think it's funny, in an ironic sort of way. Croesus sends Solon away, thinking him a fool, when in fact it would have probably benifited the king in the end to keep the wise man around.
I thought Herodotus' descriptions of the Egyptians was very interesting. In his "Description of the Egyptians", it seems as though he thought the Egyptians were a backwards people. He was always comparing them to "the rest of the world", "the other men", or "the Greeks" when describing ther customs and culture. In the reading, "The Pyramid of Cheops", I found that not only was he critical of the citizens of Egypt, he also gave a particularly harsh look at Egypts leaders. I thought this was suprising because I always invisioned the Greeks as seeing Egypt as not superior to them, but at least being on the same level in terms of culture and knowlege. Recognizing that they weren't uncivilized. Maybe I'm just thinking about later Greek-Egyptian relations.
I just recently saw the movie, 300, and then read Herodotus' account of King Leonidas at Thermopylae... It's amazing how movies can skew everything...
~ThUcYdIdEs?~
I found Thucydides was easier to read, his style was more straight forward and flowed better than Herodotus. (Maybe it was the translation style?) His descriptions of events and different civilizations were als more vivid and detailed. Like Herodotus, Thucydides tells his readers where he got his evidence, what details he will consentrate on, and ultimately why he is wrting this account.
I loved "Pericles' Funeral Speech". I wonder how much of the speech was made up be Thucydides, and how much can actually be attributed to Pericles. For me, the speech had a dual purpose. First of all is was a funeral speech made in the memory of the fallen warriors, but it was also a stimulating and powerful speech that would have probably bee used to rally the troops. The description of the tomb for "the missing" remided me of our practice today, making a tomb for those who were lost.
The description of the Great Plague of Athens was very vivid. Nobody knew what to do, what caused it, how to prevent it... The reader gets a sense of hopelessness when reading the section. Thucydides states that his purpose in writing about the plage was to describe it, in case it should attack again, people may recognize it. This says a lot about his charactor. When reading about the plague, it reminded me of accounts made by people who lived throught the Black Plague of the middle ages. There were many parallels, especially how people handed the chaos and confusion the sickness caused. Like the Black Death, the plague of Athens caused many people to go 'crazy' and throw caution and civility to the wind. People didn't care about aything, they did what they wanted, even if that included breaking laws and acting wrecklessly. "No one expected to live ong enough to have to pay the penalty for his misdeeds". (T 79) They wanted to get enjoyment out of life while they still could.
You have posted some good commentary on your readings in the Grant collection. Keep up the good work.
8. After Spring Recess through the end of Semester
~ Julius Caesar ~
Caesar's battle scenes are very detailed and descriptive, I could see why people still use them to study today. After reading "The Defeat of the Helvetii" and "The Defeat of the Nervii", you can see the difference between the early Greek way of writing and the Roman. Not only does the writing flow more, (good translators? Or more up-to-date style?) but there is a difference between subjects that are stressed by the writer. In the early Greek times, writers seemed to pay more attention to Gods and other supernatural phenomena then the Romans do (so far). Julius Caesar did not go to the Oracle to see if he was going to be victorius before his campaigns..... or if he did, he wouldn't write about them, becuase it probably would have made him look weak in front of his people.
The descriptions of the battles, and his military moves were very interesting to read. He describes what he did, why he did it and the effect it had on his legions. For example, when he gives the order for two of his legions to join together in a square formation, so they could attack from all sides. After they did this, the men were more bold, could support eachother, and put up a stronger resistance. These kinds of descriptions show Caesar's skills as a military leader. I get the sense that these descriptions were not only meant to impress his people, but future generations of military leaders.
