This course offers an introductory survey of the history of the ancient Mediterranean world, from the rise of city states in Mesopotamia c.3000 BC to the transformation of the Roman Empire in the 5th and 6th centuries AD. The emphasis will be on the major developments in the political and social history of the ancient Near East, Egypt, Greece, and Rome, with special attention to those institutions, practices, ideas, and objects that have had an enduring influence on the development of western civilization.

What kind of a place was the ancient world? What is distinctive about antiquity and how is it defined? Was there, in fact, a single ancient world or just a series of discrete civilizations—Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, and Rome? What do we know about this distant past, and how? This course will provide answers to these questions, by giving you an introductory survey of the history of the ancient Mediterranean world, from the emergence of cities in Mesopotamia circa 3000 BCE to the fragmentation of the Roman Empire at the end of the fourth century CE. The course has three main foci. The first is to survey the major events and developments in the social, economic, and political history of the ancient Near East, Egypt, Greece, and Rome. The second focus is to consider, very much along the way, the origins and development in the ancient world of ideas, practices, and institutions that have had an enduring influence on the development of western civilization. These will include the emergence of cities, kingship, and written law in the Near East and Mesopotamia; dynastic rule and priestly power in Egypt; tyranny, democracy, citizenship, imperialism, colonization, slavery, freedom, religious persecution and martyrdom in the Greek and Roman worlds. The third focus will be on the Mediterranean itself, for it was on and around its deep waters that all of these developments took place, and it left on each of them its distinctive mark. Lectures and textbook readings will provide an essential historical narrative as well as interpretations of central problems. Primary source readings will give students an opportunity in discussion sections to grapple with some of the evidence on which our narratives and interpretations are based. Assessment will be based on five quizzes, two short papers, a midterm and a final exam, both of which will take the form of essays to be written at home (open-book) within an assigned period of time.

All lectures will be delivered synchronously via Zoom, and recorded for asynchronous review. Discussion sections will be held synchronously via Zoom and not recorded. Quizzes will be administered online via bCourses.

Repeat Rules

Course is not repeatable for credit.

Requirements class fulfills