CLAS 600s

CLAS 600 Research Methods in Ancient Mediterranean Cultures (0.50) SEM	Course ID: 013021
A team-taught course exploring the variety of methodologies involved in studying the ancient Mediterranean. Each contributing faculty member will showcase the particular methodologies employed in his or her research.

CLAS 601 The Integration of the Ancient Mediterranean World (0.50) SEM	Course ID: 013033
The greater Mediterranean Basin, joining Europe, Africa and Asia, has a long and influential history. This fall-term course, which all M.A. students will be required to take, introduces the major processes of cultural integration in the Mediterranean from the Bronze Age to the end of the Roman Empire. This course will be co-taught by two faculty members.

CLAS 633 Ancient Drama / Ancient Identies (0.50) SEM	Course ID: 013022
This course will examine the representation of identity in ancient drama, and in ancient society. Greek and Roman plays, both tragic and comic, changed substantially in form and subject matter as they made their way from Athens in the fifth century BCE, across the immense Hellenistic kingdoms, and into the republic of Rome in the third century BCE. Broadly speaking, fifth century Greek tragedies and comedies strongly focused upon Athenian political events, and explicitly engaged the historical figures, and socio-political issues of their day. In contrast, comedies written in the Hellenistic period have been interpreted as a depiction of the domestic trials of a Greek household, a situation that makes no reference to contemporary events or characters. In short, the comedies of the Hellenistic period are bereft of political commentary. In the second half of the course, we will consider the response of Greek drama to Macedonian domination. In traditional historical narratives of the early Hellenistic period, Macedonian hegemony and the rise of large autocratic empires are linked to the decline of Athenian democracy and the rise of 'individualism'. Do the late plays of Aristophanes, and the drammas of Menander and Plautus, all devoid of socio-political content, suggest a civic body that is disengaged politically? How did the Hellenistic and Roman audience receive and read the dramatic characters? To whom, and how, were these plays speaking? Did the plays implicitly engage civic issues, or were they merely understood as light relief from the world of resettlements, economic risks, and ever present war? How do the Hellenistic dramas of Menander and Plautus shape identity, if at all?

CLAS 635 Dining in the Greek and Roman World (0.50) SEM	Course ID: 013034
This course examines the civilizations of Greece and Rome through their dining practices as depicted in art, architecture, and literature, from the eastern origins of the Greek symposium through the late Roman banquet.

CLAS 637 The Underworld and Afterlife in Ancient Mediterranean Literature (0.50) SEM	Course ID: 013035
This course explores the development of the idea of the Underworld and Afterlife, with special attention to the catabasis (the visit to the Underworld), in literary and epigraphic sources from Mesopotamia, Ancient Greece and Rome. Analyses will focus on the philosophical, religious, political, psychological and literary dimensions of the material.

CLAS 640 Eastern Mediterranean Trade and Cultural Exchange (0.50) SEM	Course ID: 013036
Literary and archaeological evidence for contact between cultures of the Eastern Mediterranean in the Iron Age is examined from a Greek perspective. Phoenician, Assyrian, Egyptian, Phrygian. Lydian, Persian and Greek relations are explored.

CLAS 641 Greek and Anatolian Fine Wares (0.50) SEM	Course ID: 013037
Both external and internal influences on the development of this richly decorated and culturally significant craft and art form will be studied for rare insights into facets of ancient Mediterranean life.

CLAS 643 Artistics and Cultural Commonalities in the Hellenistic Mediterranean (0.50) SEM	Course ID: 013024
When the term "Hellenistic" was first coined in the 19th century by J.G. Droysen, implicit in his terminology was an understanding that there was a fusion of various culture threads that resulted in and Hellenic koine (shared culture) that spread throughout the Mediterranean from the death of Alexander the Great to the Battle of Actium (323-31 BCE). In the years since Droysen's analysis, scholars have emphasized the "Greekness" of the koine, yet the Hellenistic world was on where the Greek generals who split Alexander's empire were left in charge of areas with their own long cultural heritage, such as Egypt and Persia. In addition, Rome became involved in the Eastern Mediterranean by the second century BCE, adding its cultural heritage and demands to the mix. This multiplicity of cultures and cultural ideas shows that, while the overriding cultural ideology may have been Greek, the many threads present should be viewed rather as koinai and not a monolithic koine. This course will examine these and other isssues by looking at the various centres of Hellenistic culture (Alexandria, Antioch, Athens, Delos, Pergamon, Rome) and seeing what contributions each make to the artistic koinai of the age. What general presumptions and assumptions have scholars made in the past? Are certain regions responsible for specific styles or do they reflect the styles of the day? What role does Rome play as the eventual cultural hegemon?

CLAS 644 The Sacred Island of Delos: Cultural Crossroads (0.50) SEM	Course ID: 013023
This course will take an interdisciplinary approach to the study of the Greek island of Delos. Literature about the island, its important historical and religious roles, its multicultural population and the island's material remains will all be examined, encompassing a time period from ca. 2000 BCE - 300 CE. The students can approach this material from a philological, historical, archaelogical or art historical perspective. Using Delos as a focus, it is hoped that students will see the need for integrated approaches to the study of the ancient Mediterranean and learn of the important, multifaceted roles this island played throughout history.

CLAS 653 The Hellenistic Kingdoms: Conquest and Cultural Interaction (0.50) SEM	Course ID: 013025
This course examines the cultural interaction that took place within the Hellenistic kindoms in the wake of the Macedonian conquest and the subsequent Wars of the Successors. It uses both Greek and native source material (where the latter is available) to analyze the character of this interaction and the impact the it had on both sides. The history of the Hellenistic kingdoms, in the specific context of international relations with the native peoples dominated by the Hellenistic rulers, is one of both alienation and assimilation, of bigotry and acceptance, of rebellion and (often uneasy) co-operation. The course looks at both positive and negative aspects of that interaction between cultures that was so profoundly characteristic of the Hellenistic kingdoms, examining both culture clash and, ultimately, the benefits that mutual intercourse may (or may not) have brough to both sides.

CLAS 654 Greeks and Egyptians in Ptolemaic Egypt (0.50) SEM	Course ID: 013026
This course focuses on a specific period within Egyptian history: the Ptolemaic era, when Egypt was ruled by the Greco-Macedonian dynasty descended from Ptolemy I. For roughly three centuries, until the suicide of the Ptolemaic queen Cleopatra VII in 30 BC, the Egyptians lived under an alien ruling authority of Hellenic heritage. Furthermore, they lived and worked alongside numerous immigrants of the same heritage, immigrants who appear to have benefited frequently from the differential laws, practices, and institutions that favoured them and did nothing for the native people of Egypt. Yet at the same time, a study of Ptolemaic Egypt reveals also a pattern of increasing assimilation between Greeks and Egyptians. Such assimilation was not solely the result of increasing mutual tolerance and respect. Indeed, the history of Greco-Macedonian relations with the Egyptians demonstrates that whatever respect and privileges the ruling classes ultimately granted to the natives of Egypt were at least in part the result of violent Egyption assertivenss, in the form of armed rebellion. The history of interactions between Greeks and Egyptions in Ptolemaic Egypt offers an unmatched opportunity for the examination of the relations between rulers and ruled, of the clash between ethnic groups, and of the forces that lead to reception on the one hand and resistance on the other.

CLAS 655 Roman Frontiers and Provinces (0.50) SEM	Course ID: 013027
The Roman world was a vast cultural mosaic embracing the remnants of the Hellenistic, Celtic and Punic civilizations. This seminar will explore the history and development of the frontiers and provinces of the Roman Empire. Topics to be discussed include: frontier defences, methods of expansion and control, urban and rural settlement, cultural and religious development, economy and daily life.

CLAS 656 Topics in the Principate of Augustus (0.50) SEM	Course ID: 013038
An exploration of key aspects of the Principate of Augustus from the time he accomplished his 'restoration' of the Roman Republic in 28/27 B.C. until his death in A.D. 14.

CLAS 657 Roman Trade, Travel and Communication (0.50) SEM	Course ID: 013039
A study of the means of transportation, routes for trade, and methods of communication employed in the Roman world. Shipping and road systems for the transportation of both bulk and luxury goods will be examined, as well as the methods by which both private and public communication occurred around the Mediterranean.

CLAS 658 Roman Pottery Distribution (0.50) SEM	Course ID: 013040
The four classes of pottery in general use in the Roman world (amphoras, fine wares, common wares and cooking wares) will be studied, including their main centers of production and cultural roots, and their distribution from one end of the Mediterranean to the other.

CLAS 659 The Decline of the Roman Empire and its Conseqences for the Mediterranean (0.50) SEM	Course ID: 013028
An examination of the compound crises which afflicted the Roman Empire in its later centuries, with a view to identifying and analyzing the underlying social, economic, political, logistical and ecological forces at work in creating them, as well as the various "solutions" to these crises which people applied across the Mediterranean which led to what we call the "Medieval" era. Taking as its starting point Joseph Tainter's the Collapse of Complex Societies (1988), the class will look at various explanations for Rome's "Decline & Fall" advanced by scholars from the time of Gibbon to current applications of ecological theory to the analysis of historical events. Relevant comparisions to other cultures which have suffered similar declines, as well as to present-day events, will be made as they arise in the chronological order of the course material.

CLAS 690 Directed Studies (0.50) SEM	Course ID: 013041
Directed Studies for individual students.

CLAS 691 Special Topics (0.50) SEM	Course ID: 013042
A selection of material from one author or several authors or investigation of selected themes, topics, genres at the graduate level.