Classics and World Religions

This course surveys the history of ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece and Rome, a span of almost 3500 years. Among the topics we’ll be considering in this course are: the development of agriculture and the first towns and cities in the ancient Near East, Athenian democracy, the conquests of Alexander the Great, and Rome’s more lasting version of empire. Three lectures per week and one discussion section.

This course begins with an examination of an historical novel whose action takes place in the context of Roman slavery. We will contrast Saylor’s depiction of Roman slavery with the picture suggested by the ancient evidence which survives. This includes: descriptions of slavery and slaves by the slave owners; literature that features characters who are slaves; and archaeological remains that illustrate the conditions of slavery. Finally, the experience of African-American slaves in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, a period more documented than the Roman, helps us to imagine much more about the Roman institution than what we could infer from the ancient sources alone.