What you must do in this unit
- Read chapters 3 and 4 in the textbook.
- Read Pericles' Funeral Oration.
- Read my notes on Ancient Greece.
- Check out Professor Campbell's video Is The Iliad B.S.?
- Study the Questions to Consider and the Key Terms for the Unit.
- Submit the Required Ancient paragraph (50 points).
What you can do in this unit
- Two online videos by Professor Sheda Vasseghi, NVCC, on Cyrus and the Achaemenid Persian Empire (550-330 BCE)
- Jonathan Hagos, a student in HIS 111, created this story map illustrating the military campaigns of Alexander the Great.
- Listen to some further information about this unit as a mp3 file. You can also read the information as a txt file. There is also information about the Ancient Hebrews, mp3 file or txt.
- Read the remarks by Professor Blois about the fires that swept through Greece and threatened Athens in the summer of 2009.
Some videos that you can watch for this unit
- The Persians & Greeks: Crash Course World History #5
- Hunts on site: Thermopylae
- Alexander the Great and the Situation ... the Great? Crash Course World History #8
- Parthenon
- A Mysterious Illness Takes the Lives of One Third of Athenians
- For extra credit please suggest to your instructor a relevant video for this unit of the course. Send the title of the video, the URL and a brief explanation of why you find the video interesting and applicable to the material that is being studied in this unit.
Extra Credit Options
- For up to 25 points of extra credit, read Plato's Allegory of the Cave and write a one-page paper in which you explain, in your own words, the allegory and indicate why it is important. Here are two videos, one animated, and one not animated, dealing with the allegory.
- For up to 25 points of extra credit, read the documents associated with the Trial of Socrates, including Plato's Apology and, in a one-page paper (maybe two pages), note and explain the main points of Socrates' defense.
- For up to 10 points of extra credit,you may choose to do an extra credit assignment on the Melian Dialogue (also here). In the "Dialogue," the Ancient Greek historian Thucydides reconstructed the negotiations that took place between the Athenians, who wanted to annex the island city-state of Melos, and the Melians, who wished to remain neutral and not get involved in the war between Athens and Sparta. In 416 BCE, after discussions failed to reach an agreement, the Athenians invaded Melos and enslaved the inhabitants of the island. The representatives of Melos argued for neutrality; Athens asserted that neutrality was just not good enough and that Athens had a right, and duty, to assert its power. Sound familiar? The "Melian Dialogue" remains a stunning example of how stronger nations/countries/societies manipulate ideas of justice and natural rights to achieve their own political ends. In a one-page paper, assess the relevance of some of the issues touched on in the "Dialogue" to recent (last 25 years) international politics.
- For up to 10 points of extra credit, you may also choose to do an extra credit assignment on Thucydides.
- For up to 10 points of extra credit, read some of Aristotle's comments on democracy (from his Politics), and summarize his views on democracy and the polis in a long paragraph.
- For extra credit, please suggest a relevant website for this unit of the course. Send your instructor the title of the site, the URL and a brief explanation why you find the information interesting and applicable to the material being studied this unit.
Unit Learning Objectives
- Upon successful completion of this unit, you will be able to (1) explain the development of Athenian democracy, (2) summarize the key features of democratic practice in Ancient Athens and (3) analyze a historical primary source.