Greece and Rome: A new model of antiquity

Join archaeologist Michael Shanks in a tour through more than a thousand years of history, 700 BCE to 450 CE, debunking a host of myths and misconceptions about Graeco-Roman antiquity and offering a fresh view of what was driving the motor of ancient history. Drawing on new approaches that have hardly escaped academic journals and seminar rooms, we will avoid the plot of the well-worn stories and focus on the way the ancient world worked around the key concern of membership ¿ who belonged to civic community and who didn¿t, on what grounds, and with what consequences. The class will take you back to the origins of city life in the Near East, to the princely societies of Bronze Age Europe to show how the scene was set for the success of the city states of the Mediterranean, and how important it is to maintain a big perspective on Greece and Rome. Not afraid to offer critique of orthodoxy, we will share alternative views of familiar and unfamiliar features of antiquity, in the arts and culture, the likes of poetry and portraiture, philosophy and religious institutions, and in politics, including misunderstandings of Athenian democracy and Roman military might. You will come away from the class with a new view of antiquity and why we should still be fascinated by its relevance to today. Advanced undergraduates are welcome to register.