Syllabus | Spring 2012
Required Texts
- Aristophanes, The Clouds, trans. Arrowsmith (University of Michigan Press)
- Aristotle, Politics, trans. Reeve (Hackett)
- Aristotle, The Nicomachean Ethics, trans. Irwin (Hackett)
- The New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha New Revised Standard Version: College Edition (Oxford)
- Cicero, Selected Works, trans. M. Grant (Penguin)
- Livy, The Rise of Rome, trans. Luce(Oxford)
- Lucretius, On the Nature of Things, trans. Englert (Focus Philosophical Library)
- Ovid, Metamorphoses, trans. Melville (Oxford)
- Petronius, Satyricon, trans. R.B. Branham (University of California Press)
- Plato, Republic, trans. Reeve (Hackett)
- Plato, Trial and Death of Socrates, trans. Grube(Hackett)
- Plautus, The Pot of Gold and Other Plays, trans. E.F. Watling (Penguin)
- Seneca, The Stoic Philosophy of Seneca, trans. Hadas (Norton)
- Theocritus, Idylls, trans. Verity (Oxford)
- Virgil, The Aeneid,trans. Mandelbaum (Bantam Doubleday Dell)
- Various readings on the Roman World available on e-reserves
Recommended Texts
Empereur, Alexandria: Jewel of the Nile
Harvey, The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing (Hackett)
Williams, The Craft of Argument (Univ. of Chicago Press)
All texts may be purchased at the Reed College Bookstore; a limited number of each is on reserve in the Library. Also on reserve: Oxford Classical Dictionary; Oxford Companion to Classical Literature; Anchor Atlas of World History, Volume I; Richard Lanham, Revising Prose.
E-Reserves
To access texts that are listed as being on e-reserves, go to the syllabus, find the day's reading assignments and follow the link to the text. You will need your kerberos username and password to be able to access the texts.
Conference Assignments
The Registrar makes initial assignments to conferences in this course that continue through the year. Students who subsequently find it necessary to change conferences must petition the Humanities staff (forms for this purpose may be obtained from the Registrar or from Kathy Kennedy, Chem 303). Turn in completed forms to Robert Knapp, Hum 110 Chair, in Eliot 406. No conference changes will be permitted after the second week of the term.
Papers, Writing Assignments, and Examinations
Three course-wide papers will be assigned, due at the times designated on the schedule of readings and lectures. A final examination for the spring term will be given in finals week, Monday, May 7th, 8:00 AM – Noon in Vollum Lecture Hall. Rescheduling of the final exam will be allowed only for medical reasons.
Schedule of Readings and Lectures
Please study the Basic Chronology of the Ancient World
+ Expand Weeks | - Collapse Weeks
Fourth Century Athens
Week 1
Mon. Jan 23
Aristophanes, The Clouds
Lecture: "The Comic City" / Nigel Nicholson
Additional Resource: Lecture Handout
Wed. Jan 25
The Trial and Death of Socrates
Lecture: "A Kind of Gadfly" / Pancho Savery
Additional Resource: Lecture Handout
Fri. Jan 27
Plato, Republic, Books 1 and 2
Lecture: "Who is Cephalus?" / Peter Steinberger
Week 2
Mon. Jan 30
Plato, Republic, Books 3 – 5
Lecture: "Sex, Gender and the Power of Philosophy" / Tamara Metz
Wed. Feb 1
Plato, Republic, Books 6 and 7
Lecture: "Platonic Metaphysics" / Walter Englert
Additional Resource: Lecture Handout
Fri. Feb 3
Plato, Republic, Books 8 – 10
Lecture: "The Quarrel Between Philosophy and Poetry in Plato's Republic" / Hugo Moreno
Additional Resource: Lecture Handout
Week 3
Mon. Feb 6
Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, Books 1 and 2
Lecture: "Aristotle, Happiness, and the Human Good" / Steve Arkonovich
Additional Resource: Lecture Handout
Wed. Feb 8
Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, Books 3 and 6
Lecture: "Aristotle's Dangerous Idea"/ Troy Cross
Fri. Feb 10
Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, Books 8:9, 9:9-12 and 10:6-10; Politics, Book 1
Lecture: "The Virtue of Political Science" / Tamara Metz
Week 4
Mon. Feb 13
Aristotle, Politics, Books 1, 2:1-5, 3, 4:1-3 and 5:1-4
Lecture: "The Politics: History and Constitutional Theory" / David Garrett
Additional Resource: Lecture Handout
The Hellenistic World
Wed. Feb 15
Peter Green "The New Urban Culture: Alexandria, Antioch, Pergamon" (JSTOR);
Andrew Erskine, "Culture and Power in Ptolemaic Egypt: The Museum and Library of Alexandria (JSTOR);
Aristotle, Politics, Book VII. 1-12.
Lecture: "Building Cities and Making Culture in Alexander's Empire" / Simon Finger
Additional Resource: Lecture Slides: PDF (11M) or Powerpoint (18M)
Additional Required Lecture:
Timothy Howe, St. Olaf College: "Everyone Wants to be Alexander. Royal Propaganda and the Politics of Memory in Ancient Alexandria." Vollum Lecture Hall at 4:40 p.m.
Fri. Feb 17
Theocritus, 1-7, 11, 13, 15, 17
Lecture: "Country Matters" / Robert Knapp
Additional Resource: Lecture Handout
FIRST PAPER DUE: Saturday, Feb. 18, 5:00 PM See Paper Topics
Week 5
Mon. Feb 20
The Hellenistic Statue;
Study this Image Gallery before lecture and conference;
R.R.R. Smith, "Pergamon and the Great Altar," Hellenistic Sculpture: A Handbook, pp. 155-166 (on e-reserve);
Stewart, "Looking Forward: After Alexander," Art, Desire, and the Body in Ancient Greece, pp 205-230 (on e-reserve)
Lecture: "The Hellenistic Art of Pergamon in Context" / William Diebold
Additional Resource: Lecture Handout
Wed. Feb 22
The Book of Daniel, Jewish Study Bible (on e-reserve)
Lecture: "The Writing is on the Wall" / Jan Mieszkowski
Fri. Feb 24
1 Maccabees, Oxford Annotated Bible, ch. 1-6:1-17, ch. 8-9:1-22, ch. 14.
Lecture: "Maccabees I: History, Narrative, Jewishness" / Marat Grinberg
Additional Resource: Lecture Handout
Week 6
Mon. Feb 27
Polybius, Histories, Book 6, sections 1-39, 47, 50-58 (on e-reserve)
Lecture: "Greece Meets Rome: Polybius and the Phenomenon of Rome's Rise to Power" / Ellen Millender
Additional Resource: Lecture Handout
Wed. Feb 29
Plautus, Miles Gloriosus
Lecture: "Romans Making Fun of Greeks Making Fun of Romans" / Sonia Sabnis
Additional Resource: Lecture Handout
The Roman Mediterranean
Fri. Mar 2
Lucretius, On the Nature of Things (De Rerum Natura), Book 1 (lines 1-637, 921-1117), Book 2 (lines 1-293), and Book 3 (all);
Garnsey & Saller, The Roman Empire, chapter 9 (on e-reserve)
Lecture: "Epicurean Naturalism" / Paul Hovda
Friday, March 2nd – "Spartacus" (dir. Stanley Kubrick), film presentation, 7:00 – 10:00 pm, Bio. 19
Week 7
Mon. Mar 5
Lucretius, On The Nature of Things (De Rerum Natura). Books 5 and 6
Lecture: "The Mortal Universe: Lucretius on the Plague" / Elizabeth Drumm
Wed. Mar 7
Cicero, On Duties III
Lecture: "Cicero and Roman Philosophy" / Walter Englert
Additional Resource: Lecture Handout
Fri. Mar 9
Cicero, Second Philippic
Lecture: "Endgames" / Michael Faletra
Additional Resource: Lecture Handout
10-18 MARCH: SPRING BREAK
The Roman Empire
Week 8
Mon. Mar 19
Livy, Ab Urbe Condita, Preface and Book I
Lecture: "Livy and the Re-Creation of Rome" / Walter Englert
Additional Resource: Lecture Handout
Wed. Mar 21
Livy, Ab Urbe Condita, Book II.1-25 and Book 5.19 – end
Lecture: "The Body Politic" / Nathalia King
Fri. Mar 23
Augustus, Res Gestae; (on e-reserve)
Suetonius, Life of Augustus (on e-reserve)
Lecture: "Augustan Self-Fashioning and the Early Roman Empire" / Michael Brumbaugh
Additional Resource: Lecture Handout
SECOND PAPER DUE: Saturday, March 24, 5:00 PM See Paper Topics
Week 9
Mon. Mar 26
Peter J. Holliday, "Time, History, and Ritual on the Ara Pacis Augustae" (JSTOR);
Study this Image Gallery before lecture and conference;
Browse the Ara Pacis Augustae In-depth Visual Documentation website;
Lecture: "The Ara Pacis in Context" / William Diebold
Additional Resource: Lecture Handout
Wed. Mar 28
Virgil, Aeneid, Books 1 – 4
Lecture: "Virgil and Epic" / Maureen Harkin
Fri. Mar 30
Virgil, Aeneid, Books 5 – 8
Excerpt from Dido and Aeneas by Mark Morris
Lecture: "Dragging Dido: Re-making Epic" / Hannah Kosstrin
Additional Resource: Lecture Handout
Week 10
Mon. Apr 2
Virgil, Aeneid, Books 9 – 12
Homer, The Iliad, Book 24 (on e-reserve)
Lecture: "This is the End" / Pancho Savery
Additional Resource: Lecture Handout
Wed. Apr 4
Ovid, Metamorphoses, Books 1 – 3
Lecture: "Generic Transformations" / Elizabeth Drumm
Fri. Apr 6
Ovid, Metamorphoses, Books 4 – 6, 15
Lecture: "Power and Narrative in Ovid's Metamorphoses" / Gail Sherman
Additional Resource: Lecture Handout
Week 11
Mon. Apr 9
Roman Statue: Laocoön;
Study this Image Gallery before lecture and conference;
Winckelmann, "Reflections on the Imitation of Greek Works in Painting and Sculpture," pp. 3-11 and 33-43 (on e-reserve)
Lecture: "A Work to be Preferred to All That The Arts of Painting and Sculpture Have Produced: The Laocoön" / William Diebold
Additional Resource: Lecture Handout
Wed. Apr 11
Philo, Embassy to Gaius (on e-reserve);
Matthew B. Schwartz, "Greek and Jew: Philo and the Alexandrian Riots of 38-41 CE" (online)
Lecture: "Imperial Spectacle and the Invisible God" / Michael Faletra
Additional Resource: Lecture Handout
Thursday April 12th – "From Jesus to Christ," Part I, video presentation, 7:00 – 9:00 pm, Psych 105
Fri. Apr 13
Paul: Romans
Lecture: "Faith and the Moral Life" / Michael Foat
Additional Resource: Lecture Handout
Additional Resource: Lecture Powerpoint
Week 12
Mon. Apr 16
Paul: 1 Corinthians
Lecture: "For now we see in a mirror dimly": Paul before the End Times / Gabriele Hayden
Tuesday, April 17th – "From Jesus to Christ," Part II, video presentation, 7:00 – 9:00 pm, Vollum Lounge
Wed. Apr 18
Gospel According to Mark
Lecture: "The Jesus of Mark" / David Garrett
Fri. Apr 20
Seneca, The Stoic Philosophy of Seneca, On Providence, Letters 70 (Suicide), 76 (The Sole Good), and 92 (The Happy Life)
Lecture: "What Can a Man Desire if He Possesses Everything That is Honorable" / Paul Hovda
THIRD PAPER DUE: Saturday, April 21, 5:00 PM See Paper Topics
Week 13
Mon. Apr 23
Seneca, On the Tranquility of Mind and Letter 47 (Slaves)
Lecture: "Seneca and Roman Slavery" / Sonia Sabnis
Additional Resource: Lecture Handout
Wed. Apr 25
Petronius, Satyricon, pp. 1-73
Lecture: "Novelties" / Jay Dickson
Fri. Apr 27
Petronius, Satyricon, pp. 75-152
Panel Discussion: Marat Grinberg, Nathalia King, Walter Englert, Robert Knapp