CLCS 181: CLASSICAL WORLD CIVILIZATIONS

FALL 2009: PRELIMINARY SYLLABUS

Tues-Thurs., 9:00-10:15 AM; Class of 1950 Lecture Hall

Prof. Nicholas K. Rauh

Stanley Coulter 211

Dept. of Foreign Languages and Literature

Office Hours: Tues.-11:00-12:00 PM; THURS. 2:45-3:30 PM; and by appt.

Office Phone: 496-6079

rauhn@purdue.edu

Teaching Assistant:

Ben Howland

Stanley Coulter 140

Dept. of Foreign Languages and Literature

Office Hours: Tues.-1:00-2:00 PM; Wed.. 2:00-3:00 PM; and by appt.

Office Phone: 496-3990

bhowland@purdue.edu

REQUIRED TEXTS:

On-line course website and assigned links are available at the course website free of charge: http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~rauhn

HARDCOPY RESOURCES ON RESERVE (Undergraduate Library, Rauh, CLCS 181):

D. Brendan Nagle, The Ancient World: a Social and Cultural History

Henry Boren The Ancient World: An Historical Perspective

J.B. Pritchard, The Ancient Near East.

V. Ehrenberg, From Solon to Socrates

Oxford Classical Dictionary.

Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites.

PURPOSE OF COURSE: to explore the development of Ancient Urban Civilizations from Prehistoric times to the emergence of regional polities (India, China, Africa) at the time of the Roman Empire (ca. 200 AD).

COURSE REQUIREMENTS: On-Line Lectures and Primary Source Readings linked via the website, 100 pages per week. Two quizzes, midterm and final exams. Quiz materials include a simple map test (10 ITEMS) and brief multiple-choice questions (20 ITEMS). Midterm and Final Exams comprise a combination of map test, multiple-choice, and one long essay, to be selected by lot. The quizzes and exams will explore the material covered both in class and in the readings. Make-up quizzes and exams are possible under extraordinary circumstances, but they will NOT follow any specified format and will therefore be more difficult than the originals. Announcements regarding make-up exams will NOT be posted at the website. If you miss an exam for any reason, you need to attend class for details about the make up.

GRADE DISTRIBUTION: Each quiz (2) = 20%; each exam (2) = 30% of final grade. (Each quiz is worth 40 pts; each exam is worth 60 pts, for a total of 200 pts (180 and above – A; 160-180 = B; 140-160 = C; 120-140 = D). All extra credit opportunities are based on the same point system and range from 1 to 18 points.

CURRENT SCHEDULE OF EXAMINATIONS (all in class): QUIZ 1, TUESDAY SEPT. 22; Midterm Exam – TUESDAY, OCT. 20; QUIZ 2 TUESDAY NOV. 17; Final Exam -- TBA.

CLASS ATTENDANCE POLICY

ATTENDANCE POLICY: Attendance in this class will be monitored on a regular basis in order to gauge over-all student performance. Periodic in-class extra credit exercises will be used to accomplish this. Extra credit exercises will NOT be announced in advance. NO MAKE UPS ARE POSSIBLE FOR THESE EXERCISES. TO OBTAIN THE CREDIT YOU MUST ATTEND THE CLASS WHEN THEY ARE ASSIGNED.

CLASS DISTURBANCES: Each and every student enrolled in CLASSICS 181 remains responsible for the CLASSICS 181 course materials, assignments, deadlines, in-class announcements, and examinations, regardless of whether he or she chooses (or is able) to attend class. It is the assumption of the professor that those students who do attend class do so to attend the lectures and to focus on class instruction. For this reason the professor will not tolerate class disturbances or interruptions during his lectures. The professor welcomes any and all student questions, as indicated by raising one's hand, as well as at-large class discussion. Private in-class discussions otherwise cannot be tolerated. Any student found to be causing a disturbance in the CLASSICS 181 classroom will be subject, without further warning, to immediate and automatic expulsion from class. Re-admittance will be determined following direct consultation with the professor at his office.

CLASSICS 181 WEBPAGE (under construction)

http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~rauhn

Use it to download lectures, maps, and images for quizzes, exams, and extra credit assignments. Students are responsible for all materials posted at the website. Familiarize yourself with the various links. The Instructor will try to maintain an active class bulletin board at the website; however, students are responsible for all announcements made in class regardless of whether or not these get posted at the website.

Includes all exam materials and the syllabus:

-Bulletin Board

-Lectures

-Links to primary source readings

-Maps and Images

-Essays

-Extra Credit Pottery Quiz and Roman Forum Map.

If you don't have a career account go swipe your Purdue ID to get on account (at ME 2445, Math 231...etc.)

DEPARTMENTAL SUPPLEMENT TO SYLLABUS (FYI):

• The World Health Organization now considers H1N1 to be a global pandemic. Although the disease is no deadlier than it was during summer 2009, experts anticipate a second, stronger wave (by which we mean more cases) of the disease during fall 2009, with students returning to schools and campuses across the United States. Please take precautionary measures (outlined at http://news.uns.purdue.edu/fluinfo/) and do not come to class if you have a fever or for seven calendar days of recovering from influenza. This syllabus, course requirements, deadlines, and grading percentages are subject to changes resulting from any campus wide emergency that could occur. Please check periodically for updates to online course material.
• The Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures will conduct online course evaluations for the first time this fall, 2009. Students will be notified of the availability of online evaluations on November 20, 2009, and you will receive automatic reminders until December 12, 2009. Although instructors will be notified regarding the rate of response, the results of the online evaluations will not be released to your instructor until December 23, 2009, after final grades have been submitted.

READING AND LECTURE SCHEDULE

Below is an overview of the course assigned readings. FOR THE DAY_BY_DAY READING SCHEDULE, CLICK HERE.

SECTION ONE: PREHISTORY TO THE LATE BRONZE AGE:

Introduction, Prehistory and the NEOLITHIC REVOLUTION; MESOPOTAMIA: Sumeria, Akkadia, Babylonia; ANCIENT RELIGION (Gilgamesh Epic) and SOCIETY (Hammurabi's Law Code); ANCIENT EGYPT: Old, Middle, New Kingdoms; THE LATE BRONZE AGE: Minoan Crete, Mycenaean Greece, the Hittites; FALL OF THE BRONZE AGE;

READINGS TO BE COMPLETED BY TUESDAY, Sept. 22:

On-line Lectures: Course Introduction, Chronological Dating, Human Prehistory, Pagan Religions, Hammurabi's Babylon, Ancient Egypt, Bronze Age Aegean, Fall of the Bronze Age;

On-line Readings: Prehistory Readings 1; Prehistory Readings 2. Old Testament: Genesis, ch. 6-9 (for Sumeria); Hammurabi s Law Code; Gilgamesh Epic; Genesis, 37-50; Exodus 1-20 (for Fall of Bronze Age).

--QUIZ I, TUESDAY, Sept. 22 IN CLASS --

SECTION TWO – THE RESURGENT IRON AGE: NEAR EASTERN EMPIRE BUILDING, ISRAEL, ARCHAIC GREECE:

THE IRON AGE: Phoenicians, Hebrews, and the PERSIAN EMPIRE. ANCIENT ISRAEL, ANCIENT INDIA, Dark and Archaic Ages in Greece; Rise of Tyranny; Constitutions of Sparta and Athens; The Persian Wars; THE ATHENIAN EMPIRE;

READINGS TO BE COMPLETED BY TUESDAY OCT 20:

On-line Lectures: Iron Age Near East Empires, Ancient Israel, Ancient India, Archaic Greece, (Non) Tyranny in Sparta, Tyranny in Athens, Rise of the Athenian Empire; Radical Democracy in Athens,

On-line Readings: Old Testament: I Kings 1-22; II Chronicles 2-5; Isaiah, 1-13; About Buddha; Herotodus on Greek Tyrants: Peisistratus; Cypselus, Cleisthenes of Sikyon;

--MIDTERM EXAM TUESDAY OCT 20 (IN CLASS)--

SECTION THREE – THE EMERGING HELLENISTIC WORLD: CLASSICAL AND LATER GREECE, EARLY ROME

GENDER, CULTURE, SOCIETY IN PERICLEAN ATHENS; PELOPONNESIAN WAR; Rise of Macedonia; the Campaigns of Alexander the Great; Hellenistic Culture, Philosophy, Science. Ancient China and the World System; Archaic Rome and the founding of the Roman Republic; the Roman Constitution; the Aristocratic Ethos; Reasons for Military Success; Military Expansion and Conquest; the war with Hannibal; Economic and Social Changes of the Middle Republic.

READINGS TO BE COMPLETED BY TUESDAY NOV. 17:

On-line Lectures: Rise of the Athenian Empire; Radical Democracy in Athens, Pottery Forms and the Greek Male Symposium, Greek Gender Relations and Sexuality, The Development of Greek Rational Thought, The Decline of Greece/Rise of the Hellenistic World, Classical China,

On-line Readings: Plutarch's Life of Pericles; Aristophanes, Lysistrata; The Clouds; Euripides, The Medea; Confucius Readings: The Commonwealth State; the Lun Yu; the Analects;

-QUIZ 2, TUESDAY NOV. 17 IN CLASS-

Section Four - The Roman World, Continued

The FALL OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC -- the Gracchi, MARIUS AND SULLA, THE FIRST TRIUMVIRATE, THE DICTATORSHIP OF CAESAR; THE AUGUSTAN SETTLEMENT; the Early Roman Empire; Roman Society and Culture (Roman Women); Reasons for Imperial Collapse. Ancient Africa.

On-line Lectures: Archaic Rome, The Roman Constitution, The Roman Aristocratic Ethos, Roman Imperialism, The Fall of the Roman Republic, Dictators and Emperors, The Pax Romana, Late Philosophical Developments, Ancient Africa

On-Line Readings:; Suetonius, Life of Caligula; New Testament: Gospel of John.

FINAL EXAM, TBA