30109 - Greek Institutions (1) (LM)

Learning outcomes

Students will learn how to arrange and update knowledge concerning some of the most important public and private Greek institutions. They will learn how to use different historical sources (literary, documentary, archaeological, iconographic) and how to select the most appropriate methodologies for the explanation and the interpretation of data.

Course contents

1. Sources and tools for the study of Greek institutions (lectures 1-2).

2. Institutions of the Hellenistic age: cities and kingdoms. Training for institutional topics will be offered through:

a. analysis of selected inscriptions concerning the institutions of the Hellenistic age (lectures 3-10)

b. a collaborative exercise concerning an epigraphic source of the Hellenistic age assigned by the teacher and to be presented by the students during the course (lectures 11-15).

A detailed list of inscriptions and sources will be provided in the first lecture and will be included among the teaching materials online (cf. IOL Insegnamenti Online).

 

It should be noted that knowledge of ancient Greek language (understanding a text with the dictionary or at least understanding the correspondence with the translations offered), if not already acquired, must be reached before the oral examination.

Lectures: MON TUE WED 11-13, Aula Celio, via Zamboni 38, from November 11, 2019

Readings/Bibliography

Students who have no prior knowledge of the discipline are invited to read G. Camassa, Forme della vita politica dei Greci in età arcaica e classica, Monduzzi, Bologna 2007.

Students are required to study the following individual study texts:

1. M.H. Hansen, La democrazia ateniese nel IV secolo a.C. (trad. it.), LED, Milano 2003, from chapter 4 to chapter 12.

2. M. Mari (a cura di), L'età ellenistica. Società, politica, cultura, Roma 2019, from chapter 1 to chapter 7.

 

Students who won't be able to attend lectures must talk with the teacher to define specific course contents. In addition to texts listed above (1. and 2.), they will study J. Ma, Antiochos III and the Cities of Western Asia Minor,Oxford University Press, Oxford 1999.

Bibliographic resources are available at the DiSCi Library of Ancient History (Bologna, via Zamboni 38).

Teaching methods

The course consists mainly of workshops: students will take part in lessons and practise studying institutions and solving related problems.

Those who never studied ancient Greek language and alphabet before are strongly recommended to start immediately. The knowledge of ancient Greek will be strengthened through the reading of selected inscriptions.

Assessment methods

The oral examination will test the knowledge of the course contents (including selected inscriptions) and of the individual study texts. It will take place in three steps: 1. a question about the text by Hansen with discussion of related problems; 2. a question about the text by Mari with discussion of related problems; 3. students will be required to read, translate and explain one of the Greek inscriptions studied during the course and to answer a question about the lessons' contents.

If the student achieves a complete vision of the topics discussed in class and required for the discipline, provides an effective critical commentary, shows mastery of expression and of the specific language, both written and oral, he obtains excellence in the evaluation.

Average marks will be awarded to a student who has memorized the main points of the material and is able to summarise them satisfactorily and provide an effective critical commentary, while failing to display a complete command of the appropriate terminology.

A student will be deemed to have failed the exam if he displays significant errors in his understanding and failure to grasp the overall outlines of the subject, together with a poor command of the appropriate terminology.

Students enrolled in the course as part of an Integrated Course (I.C.) are required to pass the oral examination of the two parts in the same date (the evaluation will be the arithmetic mean resulting from the final grades of the two courses).

Teaching tools

Original sources will be displayed during lectures with the aid of video projector. Sources to be read will be supplied online (IOL Insegnamenti Online).

Office hours

See the website of Alice Bencivenni