Readings should be completed prior to the class period
for which they are assigned. Students are responsible for
any and all changes made to the syllabus during the semester.
Additional readings will be added.
Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5
Week 6 Week 7 Week 8 Week 9 Week 10
Week 11 Week 12 Week 13 Week 14 Week 15
Week 1
9/2 Introduction. Early Human History and the First Civilizations
9/4 Gilgamesh, Eden, and the Origins of Civilization
Readings:
- Perry, 4-18; "Gilgamesh and Hammurabi"
Primary Sources:
Week 2
9/9 Hittites, Hebrews, Assyrians and Persians- the Evolution of
Near Eastern Civilization.
Readings:
- Perry, 18-28; OT selections
Primary Sources
handouts
9/11 Snake Goddesses and Homeric Heroes:
Civilization Reaches Europe
Readings:
- Perry, 39-42; Iliad and Odyssey
Week 3
9/16 Man is a Political Animal- Rise of the Polis
Readings:
- Readings: Perry, 42-46; Lycurgus, Thucydides, Hesiod
9/18 Greek Religion and Values
Readings:
Week 4
9/23 Women, Slaves, Mules and Sophists- The Fifth Century
Readings:
- Perry, 48-52, 56-59; 65-69
9/25 Useless Questions, Self-knowledge, and the Cave
Readings:
Week 5
9/30 “Revolution Thus Ran Its Course From City to City, . . .“
The Breakdown of the Polis
Readings:
10/2 Alexander Cuts the Gordian Knot
Readings:
Week 6
10/7 Elephants over the Alps, Pyrrhic Victories, and a Roman Lake
Readings:
10/9 Lucretia and the XII Tables: Virtue and Law in Early Rome
Readings:
Week 7
10/14 Rome Crosses its Own Rubicon- Crisis and Revolution
Readings:
10/16 The Last of the Old Romans?
Readings:
Week 8
10/21 “It was the best of times. It was the worst of times.”
Rome in the Principate and the Crisis of the Third Century.
Readings:
10/23 A New Religion, a New Capital, a New Society?
Readings:
Week 9
10/28 Jerusalem and Athens- What has Salvation to do with the World?
Readings:
10/30 The Prophet, Veils, Peoples of the Book,
and the Survival of Empire
Readings:
Week 10
11/4 Wergeld, the Consolation of Philosophy, and the Roman Shepard
Gregory I, Clovis, Emmeram, and a Sacred Landscape
Readings:
11/6 Charlemagne and the Making of Europe
Readings:
Week 11
11/11 Lords, Vassals: Freedom, Service and Obligation
Readings:
11/13 Manors, Fairs, Merchants, and the Rise of Towns
Readings:
Week 12
11/18 Monks, Saints, Popes, and St. Peter’s Keys
Readings:
11/20 “How to live in this world, but for the next?” Patron saints,
Crusades, investiture, and marriage.
Readings:
Week 13
11/25 Heloise and the Doctors
Readings:
11/27 The Tomb, the Light, and the Troubadours
Readings:
Week 14
12/2 Rats, Plague, and Dislocation:
Social and Economic Reorganization
Readings:
- Perry, 189-191, 260-266, 195-200
12/4 New Worlds and New Monarchies: Reexamining Authority
Readings:
Week 15
12/9 Schisms, Mystics and Reformers
Readings:
12/11 Beatrice, Lucretia, and Mona Lisa
Readings:
