28278 - Hellenistic History (1) (LM)

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course the student will be able to know in a deeply way the Hellenistic history. He will know the most up-to-date tendencies of scholarship and he will be able to approach the main problems concerning the historical development of Greek world from the death of Alexander the Great onwards, with special attention to the intercultural relations. He will able to use different sources.

Course contents

Analysis of the following topic: Jews and Greeks from Alexander to the Hasmoneans. The main issues addressed are:

1) Jews in the Greek sources (4 h.);

2) Alexander and Jerusalem (4 h.);

3) Jews between Seleucids and Ptolemies (20 h.);

4) Jews and Spartans (2 h.).

A short paper (10-15 pages) should be written by the student on a topic chosen together with the teacher (delivery deadline: one week before the exam), or, alternatively, the study of  F. Landucci Gattinoni, Il testamento di Alessandro. La Grecia dall'impero ai regni, Roma-Bari 2014.This book is highly recommended to students who have not a prior knowledge of hellenistic history.

Readings/Bibliography

Course materials:

1) F. Muccioli, Le orecchie lunghe di Alessandro Magno. Satira del potere nel mondo greco (IV-I secolo a.C.), Carocci, Roma 2018.

2) F. Muccioli, Elementi per una riconsiderazione delle etnie minoritarie nel regno dei seleucidi, «Ricerche Storico Bibliche», 2015, 1, pp. 71-89.

3) E. Dabrowa, The Hasmonean Monarchy in the Hellenistic Context, «Electrum», 11 (2006), pp. 159-169.

4) E. Krikona, Plunder of Temples by Seleukid Kings. The Cases under the Reign of Antiochos III, Seleukos IV, and Antiochos V, «Journal of Ancient history and Archaeology», 4, 1, (2017), pp. 19-28.

5) B. Eckhardt, The Seleucid Administration of Judea, the High Priesthood and the Rise of the Hasmoneans, «Journal of Ancient History», 4 (2016), pp. 57-87.

6) L. Troiani, Storia antica e storia classica: il caso dell’Oriente greco-romano, «Histos», 5 (2011), pp. 107-116.

Texts of no.  2-4 are available on academia.edu; texts of no. 5 and 6 are available on the websites of the journals.

Text of no. 1 is propaepeuditic to the course.

Other texts integrate lessons and match topics of the frontal lesson.

Class notes and teaching Materials available in the website of Unibo (the download is required: students will bring the printed copy to the exam).

Students not attending the class should write a paper (or study the volume of Landucci). Furthermore, they should study texts no. 1-4 and the following texts:

7) A. Dihle, I Greci e il mondo antico, Giunti, Firenze 1997, pp. 51-99.

8) F. Landucci Gattinoni, L'ellenismo, Il Mulino, Bologna 2010.

9) Essays of  A. Panaino, G.F. Del Monte, K. Karttunen, L. Troiani, in I Greci. Storia Cultura Arte Società, 3, Torino 2001.

Teaching methods

Taught class, with full discussion of the sources of the teaching material.

Assessment methods

The exam is oral. First, there will be a debate on the paper prepared by the student or on the book by Landucci Gattinoni. Secondly, the knowledge of the course contents will be tested (lessons; individual study texts).

If the student achieves a complete vision of the topics discussed in class and required for the discipline, a good knowledge of the texts of scholarship, shows mastery of expression and of the specific language, both written (if required) and oral, he will obtain excellence in the evaluation.

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.

The final evaluation in the integrated course of Greek history (archaic and Classical Greek history + Hellenistic history) is the arithmetic average of both evaluations.

Teaching tools

Before the beginning of the course, aPDF will be at disposal in the teaching material on the website with all the sources discussed during the course.

Office hours

See the website of Federicomaria Muccioli