HIST2005 Introduction to World History: Antiquity

The ancient Mediterranean world (c. 800 BCE-250 CE) is often seen as the fountainhead of “Western” culture, but what was it really like?  This course will have two aims: to understand the core contributions (philosophical, political, literary, etc.) of the ancient Mediterranean world to later periods of “Western” history, and to understand its relationship to the rest of the world (Han China, India, ancient Near East, etc.).  To do so, we will focus on a series of “moments” (and the related sources), which either had a particular influence on later periods or display the interconnectedness of the ancient world.  It will also include a visit to the University Library to examine reproductions of ancient Western material culture.

Week 1 (4/09): What is the “West”?  The Key Questions of the Course

Readings: Anthony Appiah, Western Civilization; Frank Jacobs, Where is Europe?

Week 2 (11/09): Archaic Greece: Linear B and the East Face of Helicon

Readings: The Greek Alphabet part 1, part 2 (section 14 only); Homer Iliad (bk 1 only). 

Week 3 (18/09) Pre-Modern Monarchy

Readings: Hiero https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1175/1175-h/1175-h.htm (all).

Week 4 (25/09): The Greek Polis, Warfare and Democracy

Readings: Pericles’ Funeral Oration; Old Oligarch, Constitution of the Athenians.

Greek letters quiz.

Week 5 (02/10): Greece and the World: The Persian Wars and Alexander

Readings: Herodotus Bk. VII.138-239 (Thermopylae); Portrait of Alexander the Great.

Map quiz.

TBC – Visit to UL Special Collections Room to view museum objects.  Students who cannot attend should watch video tour. 

Week 6 (09/10): Greek Philosophy, The Many Paths to Happiness 

Readings: EITHER Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics Books 1&2; OR Plato, Meno (all). 

Week 7 (16/10): The Etruscans

Readings: Etruscan Art; Herodotus & Livy; Polybius, II.17-25.

Week 8 (23/10): Rome: Foundation, Growth and the Clash with Carthage

Readings: Livy, Ab urbe condita, Bk 1; Vergil, Aeneid Book 1, lines 1-33.

Week 9 (30/10): Rome: Republic to Principate. 

Reading: Polybius, Histories, Bk 1, ch. 1-4; Bk 6, ch. 1-18. 

Visit to Special Collections (5/11), 14:30-16:15,  3/F UL (University Library)
(if you cannot attend please watch the video tour)

Congregation – no class (06/11)

Week 10 (13/11): Rhetoric and Cicero.  

Readings: Rhetorica ad Herennium (All of Bk 1, III.28-40 on memory); Cicero, Pro Caelio.   

Week 11 (20/11): Rome and the Far East

Readings: Pliny, Natural History, VI.20-39; Sinitic sources on Rome. 

Recording: https://cuhk.ap.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=9b9cbd0e-f51a-495e-9fbb-b146005629e0

Week 12 (27/11): Roman Law, Slavery and Empire. 

Readings: XII Tables, Justinian, Institutes, 1,1-6 (persons); Institutes, 2,1-6 & 10-12 (property); Institutes, 3,23-25; Institutes, 4,3-5 (obligations – contract and delict); Digest 40.1-4 (manumission); “Imperium” in Oxford Dictionary of the Classical World [online through library website].

20% attendance and participation in lecture

Each student is required to attend the weekly lecture and the tutorials, as well as participate in class exercises, discussions, etc. (5%).  Students must also ask at least two questions over the course of the semester (you must announce your name before you ask the question) (15%) with half the grade given for asking the questions (7.5%), then the other half given for the quality/relevance of the questions (7.5%).  From time to time, I will also cold-call students on students.  N.B. Students arriving more than 15 minutes late will be counted as absent. 

Students will also be expected to attend at least three meetings of the world history seminar or digital humanities seminar (advertised on the departmental website and RIH website).

30% Participation in tutorial, including 10-minute individual oral presentation on reading (10% for presentation part) 

Active and engaged participation in tutorial.  In each tutorial, one or several students should give a 10-minute presentation (with PowerPoint) consisting of 5-minute summary of one reading/image of your choice followed by 5-minute argument about why it is relevant to the key questions of the course.  Please keep to 10 minutes total!   If you refer to Greek terms and names, please write them in the Greek alphabet.  There will then be 5 minutes for the TA and other students to ask questions; each student must ask at least one question during one of the four tutorials.  You must email the PowerPoint presentations to the TA at least 1 hour in advance of class.  You will receive a grade and comments based on ideas (40%), structure (20%), style (20%) and oral/gestural delivery (20%).  The sign-up sheet for individual texts/images will be passed around in week 3. 

10% 2 In-Class Quizzes

There will be two short quizzes: writing Greek words (Week 4) and mapping the Mediterranean (Week 5) [see week 1 PP].

40% 3-hr Examination

3-hour written examination held during the examination period. Students will write 2 essays (weighted equally), one each chosen from two categories (4-6 choices per category): 1. Topics covered in specific weeks in the course 2. Larger questions related to the broader themes of the course. For advice on essay writing, see: https://writingcenter.fas.Harvard.edu/pages/strategies-essay-writing . N.B. In essays, a coherent argument is more important than the recitation of facts.

E.g. Category 1 Example Questions: 1. ‘Etruscan culture was identical to Roman culture. Discuss.’ 2. ‘Aristotle’s philosophy offers the best path to happiness. Discuss.’ 3. ‘What was the legacy of Julius Caesar?’

Category 2 Example Question: 1. ‘Compare the political systems of classical Athens and Republican Rome.’  2. ‘How useful is the concept of the “West” for understanding the political and cultural geography of the ancient Mediterranean’ 3. How important was religion to life in the ancient Mediterranean?’

Tutorial dates and times shall be determined after the add/drop period has concluded.

All readings will be primary sources.  However, students looking for a textbook may refer to the relevant chapters in Norman Davies, Europe: A History. 2014 (copies in UL).  More detailed treatments are found in J. Boardman, J. Griffin, and O. Murray, Oxford History of Greece and the Hellenistic World (2002) and D. Potter, Ancient Rome: A New History (2014, etc.), which are available for purchase in various locations.  For the class, however, you need only attend the lectures and do the provided readings for full credit.   

Students should also look up the authors they are presenting on in The Oxford Dictionary of the Classical World [available online through library catalogue]. 

AI Policy

This is a no AI class. No use of AI is permitted for any assessment or class activity.

In addition, no electronic devices will be permitted in class (unless a student has individual medical/learning special arrangements that require it). Electronic devices include laptops, tablets, cell phones, etc. These should be placed out of sight at all times. From week 3, attendance points will be contingent on following this rule.

Attention is drawn to University policy and regulations on honesty in academic work, and to the disciplinary guidelines and procedures applicable to breaches of such policy and regulations. Details may be found at http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/policy/academichonesty/.

With each assignment, students will be required to submit a signed declaration that they are aware of these policies, regulations, guidelines and procedures.

• In the case of group projects, all members of the group should be asked to sign the declaration, each of whom is responsible and liable to disciplinary actions, irrespective of whether he/she has signed the declaration and whether he/she has contributed, directly or indirectly, to the problematic contents.
• For assignments in the form of a computer-generated document that is principally text-based and submitted via VeriGuide, the statement, in the form of a receipt, will be issued by the system upon students’ uploading of the soft copy of the assignment.

Assignments without the properly signed declaration will not be graded by teachers.

Only the final version of the assignment should be submitted via VeriGuide.

The submission of a piece of work, or a part of a piece of work, for more than one purpose (e.g. to satisfy the requirements in two different courses) without declaration to this effect shall be regarded as having committed undeclared multiple submissions. It is common and acceptable to reuse a turn of phrase or a sentence or two from one’s own work; but wholesale reuse is problematic. In any case, agreement from the course teacher(s) concerned should be obtained prior to the submission of the piece of work.