EMPIRE AND INDIVIDUAL: FROM ALEXANDER TO CAESAR (CL3117)

Home>Academic Catalog 2024-2025>Course Catalog>

A tour through 300 years of Greek and Roman history and shifting multiethnic empires, from the death of Alexander to the death of Cleopatra (30 BCE). We read a lot: overviews of the Hellenistic Age and the Roman Republic as well as original works by Menander, Epicurus, Cleanthes, Callimachus, Theocritus, Aratus, Apollonius Rhodius, Polybius, Plautus, Terence, Ennius, Sallustius, Cicero, Caesar, Lucretius, Catullus, and others.

Code: 
CL3117
Name: 
EMPIRE AND INDIVIDUAL: FROM ALEXANDER TO CAESAR
Discipline: 
CL (Comparative Literature)
Type: 
CCI
Level: 
Undergraduate
Credits: 
4
Can be taken twice for credit?: 
No
Pre-requisites: 
None
Co-requisites: 
None
Equivalencies: 
EMPIRE AND INDIVIDUAL: FROM ALEXANDER TO CAESAR (HI3117)

Learning Outcomes

  1. Get used to tackling a difficult philosophical text and to discussing it both as a philosophical argument (structure of argument, meaning of terms, is the argument valid, role in the context of a theory developed by the author, etc.) and a literary work (genre, audience, style and figures of style, text function, etc.)
  2. You will acquire a basic overview of the history of the Hellenistic (c. 300-30 BCE) period the Roman Republic (500-30 BCE), including political history, social history, and history of ideas
  3. You will become able to read critically, using basic techniques of historical source criticism and generic analysis
  4. You will come to understand key ideas of Hellenistic philosophy (Skepticism, Cynicism, Epicureanism, Stoicism) and explore its reception in Rome
  5. You will have a good idea of the literature of that time, having read samples of almost all great authors of that period
  6. You will improve your reading skills by studying a wide range of complex texts from a different time period
  7. You will learn to apply methods of philology and new historicism to avoid anachronistic interpretations and become able to recognize the alterity of a different culture
  8. Local and Global Perspectives: Students will enhance their intercultural understanding of languages, cultures, and histories of local societies and the global issues to which these relate (CCI LO1)
  9. Aesthetic Inquiry and Creative Expression: Students will engage with artistic or creative objects (e.g., visual art, theatrical works, film) in different media and from a range of cultural traditions (CCI LO2)
  10. Exploring and Engaging Difference: Students will think critically about cultural and social difference; they will identify and understand power structures that determine hierarchies and inequalities that can relate to race, ethnicity, gender, nationhood, religion, or class (CCI LO3)
  11. Civic and Ethical Engagement: Students will demonstrate awareness of ethical considerations relating to specific societal problems, values, or practices (historical or contemporary; global or local) and learn to articulate possible solutions to prominent challenges facing societies and institutions today so as to become engaged actors at various levels in our interconnected world (CCI LO4)

Archived Syllabi