Introduction to Classical Studies

Clara Shaw Hardy LDC 258 646-4230, chardy Office Hours: MW 12:30-1:30, TTh 10:30-11:30	Chico Zimmerman LDC 253 646-4233, czimmerm Office Hours: MWF 9:30-11:00, TTh 1:30-2:30
Required Books: Reader (available for $18 in Classics Office: LDC 230 Four Texts on Socrates, West	Iphigeneia at Aulis, Euripides The Peloponnesian War, Thucydides
Course Goals: Formal At the end of this course, you should: be familiar with two significant periods in Classical Antiquity; develop an understanding of the discipline and sub-disciplines of Classics have a critical sense of what makes encounters with the past well-informed and the knowledge of how to achieve them.	Course Goals: Informal During your work in this course, we would like you to experience: Pleasure; Reflection upon your own relationship to time and tradition; Curiosity about the ancient world, Desire to satisfy that curiosity.
Course Requirements: Unfailing attendance in class (if you must miss, please let one of us know when and why) Careful reading of assigned texts Active participation in all class activities, including in-class writing exercises, small group work, discussions, etc. The following Gradable Acts: two short papers, written work for in class simulation/case studies, website review, take-home final exam. Class participation, including daily caucus assignments, is also a gradable act.	Course Themes: Crisis in Government: The Demands of Empire Rhetoric Theater and Politics Tension between public and private life
Evaluation: Your grade will be computed based on the following percentages: Class Participation: 20% The Class Participation grade is based on a possible 50 points: one for each of 25 Caucus responses, 10 for attendance (1 point deducted for each unexcused absence), and 15 for other in-class activities. Paper 1: 20% Ekklesia Speech: 10% Website Review: 10% Paper 2: 25% Final Exam: 15%

Jan. 24	The Ekklesia			Write a speech for your character to deliver in the ekklesia on the issue of the Sicilian Expedition.
Jan. 27	Comedy	Thucydides 6. 8-24 and Aristophanes’ Clouds (in West)	What fault lines or tensions does the play suggest were current in Athens?	Paper 1 draft due Tuesday, Jan 28 by 5:00 p.m in Classics office
Jan. 29	Rhetoric	Reader: 10. Antiphon (read either first or second Tetralogy) and Plato’s Euthyphro	How do the arguments in the Tetralogies differ from those in the Euthyphro?	Why might Socrates be seen as a threat to the Athenians?
Jan. 31	Trial of Socrates	Plato’s Apology and Crito	How compatible are the views on civic obligation presented in these two texts?	How does the death of Socrates fit into the context of the crisis at Athens?
Feb. 3	TRANSITION: Comparing Empires	Work on paper		What are the benefits and drawbacks of democracy?   Paper 1 due
Feb. 5	Crisis of Succession	Reader 11: Tacitus Histories 3.80-86	How does this crisis differ from the fall of Athens in 404?	When we use the term "the Romans" who do we mean?
Feb. 7	Life under an Emperor	Reader ??: Tacitus Histories 1.1-11	What sort of imperial power is Rome?	What differences might you expect in the types of literature produced in an autocracy?
Feb. 10	Mid-term Break: No class
Feb. 12	The Augustan Settlement	Reader 12: Tacitus Annals Chapter 1	What does Tacitus see as the main problem facing Rome?	Is autocracy the logical outcome for an imperial power?
Feb. 14	The rise of the Freedman	Reader 13: Petronius Dinner with Timalchio 38-59	Who has power in Trimalchio’s world and why?	How does autocracy redistribute power in the context of traditional class structures?
Feb. 17	Life as Spectacle	Reader 13: Dinner with Trimalchio 59-84	Is there anything at Trimalchio’s dinner party that is not staged? Is anything real?	How does one judge what is real in a world where everyone is an actor?