29685 - Greek Historiography (1) (LM)

Learning outcomes

After completing the course students will achieve a critical awareness in the field of Greek Historiography (especially of classical and hellenistic ages). They will be able to use the basic tools for research,  to communicate orally and also to acquire the critical knowledge of the issues and the most important problems in their context. They will be able to valorize different cultures critically. Last, they will update their knowledge with scholarly tools.

Course contents

The main topic of the course is:

1) Arrian and historiographical tradition on Alexander the Great.

It will be examined according to the following order:

a) the figure and the work of Arrian in the context of the historiography of II Century AD (h. 4)

b) Purpose of Anabasis (reading of the proems) (h. 4).

d) Arrian and his predecessors of IV-III Century BC (h. 8).

c) The silences of Arrian (h. 6).

e) Intentional history in Arrian: some examples from IV Century BC to imperial ages (h. 8).

A general knowledge of greek historiography from the beginning to the imperial ages is presupposed. Text for the exam: M. Bettalli, Introduzione alla storiografia greca, Carocci, Roma 2009 (second edition).

Readings/Bibliography

For the general part students should study the following texts:

1) M. Bettalli (a cura di), Introduzione alla storiografia greca, Carocci, Roma 2009 (second edition).

For the specific topic: 

2) S. Asirvatham, The Memory of Alexander in Plutarch’s Lives of Demetrios, Pyrrhos and Eumenes, in T. Howe – F. Pownall (eds.), Ancient Macedonians in the Greek and Roman sources. From History to Historiography, Classical Press of Galles, Swansea 2018, pp. 215-255.

3) J. Atkinson, Originality and its Limits in the Alexander Sources of the Early Empire, in A.B. Bosworth - E.J. Baynham (eds.), Alexander the Great in Fact and Fiction, Oxford University Press, Oxford 2000, pp. 307-325.

4) H. Bowden, Alexander as Achilles: Arrian’s Use of Homer from Troy to the Granikos, in T. Howe - F. Pownall (eds.), Ancient Macedonians in the Greek and Roman sources. From History to Historiography, Classical Press of Galles, Swansea 2018, pp. 163-179.

5) B. Burliga, Arrian’s Preface to the Anabasis Alexandrou and Plutarch’s Prologue to the Life of Alexander, "Classica Cracoviensia", 18 (2015), pp. 51-81.

6) J. Carlsen, Greek History in a Roman Context: Arrian’s Anabasis of Alexander, In J. Majbom Madsen – R. Rees (eds.), Roman Rule in Greek and Latin Writing. Double Vision, Brill, Leiden-Boston 2014, pp. 210-223.

7) F. Muccioli, The Ambivalent Model: Alexander in the Greek World between Politics and Literature (1st Century BC/ beg. 1st Century AD), in K.R. Moore (ed.), Brill's Companion to the Reception of Alexander the Great, Brill, Leiden 2018, pp. 275-303.

Text of Arrian: F. Sisti - A. Zambrini (a cura di), Arriano. Anabasi, ed. Fondazione Valla, Milano 2001-2004 (the passages read and translated from greek will be indicate during the course). Other texts to be studied in greek: Plut., Alex., 1; Egesia di Magnesia, BNJ 142 T 4, T 5, F 5 and fragments of  (compresi Diodoro Siculo e Curzio Rufo). The sources will be included in PDF avalable on the website (some of them  are to be studied in greek). Who does not know greek must study the Introduzione di F. Sisti to the first volume of Arriano. Anabasi, quoted above.

Students not attending the course will study the texts no. 1-7 quoted above and furthermore:

8) F. Muccioli, La storia attraverso gli esempi. Protagonisti e interpretazioni del mondo greco in Plutarco, Mimesis, Milano-Udine 2012, chapters I and IV.

9)  S. Cagnazzi, Carete di Mitilene, Tored, Tivoli 2015  or C. Ravazzolo, Efippo di Olinto,Tored, Tivoli 2017.

10-12) Papers of  S. Asirvatham, S. E. Koulakiotis, S. Wallace in K.R. Moore (ed.), Brill’s Companion to the Reception of Alexander the Great,Brill, Leiden-Boston 2018.

Teaching methods

Lecture class. PowerPoints, PDFs of sources, images and maps will be used during the course.

Assessment methods

The exam is oral. First it will be texted the knowledge of the institutional part, with some questions about specific authors or historiographical 'currents". Thereafter it will be texted the knowledge of some topics discussed during the course (with one or two questions about the items indicated in the course contents).It will be texted the knowledge of texts in greek

Outstanding knowledge of both the handbooks and the texts, with espressive skills, is evaluated at the maximum; serious lacunae in the knowledge of the handbook and no skills in the reading and interpretations of the texts do not allow to pass.

Teaching tools

PowerPoints, PDF of sources, images and maps (all included in the didactic material).

Office hours

See the website of Federicomaria Muccioli