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: Syracuse between Dion and Timoleon (12 h.).

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).

Alternatively:

L. Breglia - F. Guizzi - F. Raviola, Storia greca, Edises, Napoli 2015 ovvero C. Bearzot, Manuale di storia greca, Il Mulino, Bologna 2015 (third edition).

The study of the handbook of Bearzot or of Breglia - Guizzi - Raviola must be combined by the study of F. Landucci, Il testamento di Alessandro. La Grecia dall'impero ai regni, Laterza, Roma-Bari 2014.

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

About the topic discussed during the course (n. 2) students should study the following texts:

3) S. De Vido, Prologo in Grecia. Premesse della spedizione di Dione in Sicilia, in G. De Sensi Sestito - M. Intrieri (ed.), Sulla rotta per la Sicilia: l’Epiro, Corcira e l’Occidente, ETS, Pisa 2011, pp. 447-458.

4) S. De Vido, Tyrannos, Strategos autokrator, Dynastes. Le ambigue parole del potere nella Sicilia di IV secolo, in M. Mari - J. Thornton (ed.), Parole in movimento. Linguaggio politico e lessico storiografico nel mondo ellenistico, Serra Editore, Pisa-Roma 2013, pp. 45-59.

5) F. Muccioli, Il culto di Timoleonte a Siracusa nel contesto politico e religioso del IV secolo a.C. Tradizione e innovazione, in T. Gnoli - F. Muccioli (eds.), Divinizzazione, culto del sovrano e apoteosi. Tra Antichità e Medioevo, Bononia University Press, Bologna 2014, pp. 37-57.

All the three articles are available in academia.edu.

Teaching materials' PDF is available on the website of Unibo and students must bring the printed version to the exam. Students of classics should study some sources in greek (as indicated in the PDF of teaching materials). Other students should study also:

M. Vegetti, Chi comanda nella città. Greci e il potere, Carocci, Roma 2017.

Students not attending the course will study the texts quoted above and, furthermore:

6) E. Santagati, Timoleonte. ‘Hieros aner’ tra storia e propaganda, Rocco Carabba, Chieti 2017.

7) P. Butti de Lima (a cura di), Platone. L'utopia del potere. La settima lettera, Marsilio, Venezia 2015.

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 (other students should study the book of Vegetti, or the books of Santagati and Butti de Lima).

Then it will be texted the knowledge of some topics discussed during the course (with one or two questions about the articles 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