00996 - Greek History

Learning outcomes

After completing the course students will achieve a critical awareness in the field of historical knowledge and specifically in the area of Greek History. They are able to use the basic tools for research; also they acquire the critical knowledge of the issues and the most important problems related to Greek history from its origins to the Hellenistic age and reading documents and sources.

Course contents

1. Themes, problems and protagonists of greek history, from the beginning to the end of Hellenism (48 h.). This section is divided by topics, from the so-called return of the Heraclidai to the end of the hellenistic kingdoms (31-30 BCE)- The purpose is to provide a framework of the whole greek history.

2. Analysis of a specific topic: Hellenist history in the poetry of C. Kavafis (h. 12).

Exam of the following poems:  Il dio abbandona Antonio; Teodoto; Il re Demetrio; La gloria dei Tolemei; Il corteo di Dioniso; La battaglia di Magnesia; Il malcontento del Seleucide; Oroferne; Sovrani alessandrini; Filelleno;Ambasciatori da Alessandria; Aristobulo; Cesarione; Un loro dio; Nella città dell’Osroene; Demetrio Sotere; Dario; Il favore di Alessandro Bala; Quanti combatterono per la Lega achea; Ad Antioco Epifane; Epitaffio di Antioco, re di Commagene; Nel 31 a.C. ad Alessandria; A Sparta; In una grande colonia greca, 200 a.C.; Alessandro Ianneo e Alessandria; Vieni, re degli Spartani; Potevano pensarci; Nel 200 a.C.; Posidoniati.

Readings/Bibliography

For the institutional part (no. 1) students should study the following texts:

1) D. Musti, Storia greca. Linee di sviluppo dall'età micenea all'età romana, Laterza, Roma-Bari 1990 (second edition and reprints) and F. Muccioli, Storia dell'Ellenismo, Il Mulino, Bologna 2019,

Alternatively:

L. Breglia - F. Guizzi - F. Raviola, Storia greca, Edises, Napoli 2015 and F. Muccioli, Storia dell'Ellenismo, Il Mulino, Bologna 2019, otherwise C. Bearzot, Manuale di storia greca, Il Mulino, Bologna 2015 (third edition) and F. Muccioli, Storia dell'Ellenismo, Il Mulino, Bologna 2019,

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

 

About the topic discussed during the course (no. 2) students should study the following texts:

3) C. Kavafis, Le poesie, Einaudi, Torino 2015.

4) A. Momigliano. Saggezza straniera. L'Ellenismo e le altre culture, Einaudi, Torino 2019, second edition).

5) B.W. Frier, Making History Personal: Constantine Cavafy and the Rise of Rome (available on academia.edu or on https://lsa.umich.edu/modgreek/window-to-greek-culture/c-p--cavafy-forum.html ).

Lecture notes and teaching materials (PDF 1 and 2) are avalable in the website (students should download and bring them to the exam). PDF 1 concerns the institutional part; PDF 2 includes the ancient sources of Kavafis.

For students of Curriculum classico some texts are to be studied in Greek; they are indicated in PDF 1.

Students which attend the course but without specific knowledge of greek should integrate the translation of the sources with I Greci. Storia Cultura Arte Società, I Greci oltre la Grecia, Einaudi, Torino 2001 (essays by I. Savalli Lestrade, A. Panaino).

Students not attending the course will study the texts quoted above (included the sources in PDF 1). Furthermore:

1) I Greci. Storia Cultura Arte Società, I Greci oltre la Grecia, Einaudi, Torino 2001 (saggi di I. Savalli Lestrade, A. Panaino, G.F. Del Monte, K. Karttunen).

2) Plutarco, Vita di Demetrio, in Vite di Demetrio e Antonio, ed. Bur o Fondazione Valla (with introduction and commentary).

3) G. Squillace, Memorie di Clio. Fonti per lo studio della storia greca dall’Età Micenea all’Ellenismo, Utet Università, Torino 2019.

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. It will be tested the knowledge of the sources downloaded in the PDF in the teaching materials. This part is divided in the following parts:

-one question about archaic greek history (and occasionally insights);

- one question about Classical Greek history (and occasionally insights);

- one question about Hellenistic history (and occasionally insights);

-one question about historiography (the main historians, especially those studied during the course).

Students of classics should show their knowledge of some greek sources in the original text, indicated in the PDF.

Then 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).

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

See the website of Alice Bencivenni