Schedule of Readings and Assignments

For each meeting, please come into class having read and thought about the readings assigned for that class.

Readings listed with the book icon () are from the assigned textbook, Mathisen, Ancient Mediterranean Civilizations, 3d Edition.

Everything listed under each meeting—the textbook readings, Gilgamesh, and Clouds—is fair game for the quizzes we’ll have at the start of some meetings.

January 2023
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February 2023
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March 2023
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April 2023
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May 2024
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1 Introduction and Themes

Thursday, January 26

  • Before the meeting:

2 The Origins of Civilization

Tuesday, January 31

  • Before the meeting, read all of the following:

3 Mesopotamia

Thursday, February 2

  • Before the meeting, read all of the following:

4 Sumer

Tuesday, February 7

  • Before the meeting, read all of the following:

5 Semitic Mesopotamia

Thursday, February 9

  • Before the meeting, read all of the following:

6 God-Kings of Egypt

Tuesday, February 14

  • Before the meeting, read all of the following:

7 Egyptian Empires

Thursday, February 16

  • Before the meeting, read all of the following:

Tuesday, February 21

No meeting

8 The Bronze Age Aegean

Thursday, February 23

  • Before the meeting, read all of the following:

9 Dawn of the Iron Age

Tuesday, February 28

  • Before the meeting, read all of the following:

10 How Not to Run an Empire: The Assyrians

Thursday, March 2

  • Before the meeting, read all of the following:

11 The Success of the Persian Empire

Tuesday, March 7

  • Before the meeting, read all of the following:

12 The Greek Dark Age

Thursday, March 9

  • Before the meeting, read all of the following:

13 Midterm Exam

Tuesday, March 14

14 Ancient Asia: China, India, and the Steppes

Thursday, March 16

  • Before the meeting, read all of the following:

15 Archaic Hellas

Tuesday, March 21

  • Before the meeting, read all of the following:

16 Sparta and Athens

Thursday, March 23

  • Before the meeting, read all of the following:

17 The Persian Menace

Tuesday, March 28

  • Before the meeting, read all of the following:

18 Wars Between the Greeks

Thursday, March 30

  • Before the meeting, read all of the following:

19 The Rise of Macedon

Tuesday, April 4

  • Before the meeting, read all of the following:

Thursday, April 6

No meeting

Tuesday, April 11

No meeting

Thursday, April 13

No meeting

20 The Legacy of Alexander

Tuesday, April 18

  • Before the meeting, read all of the following:

21 Early Rome

Thursday, April 20

  • Before the meeting, read all of the following:

22 The Roman Republic

Tuesday, April 25

  • Before the meeting, read all of the following:

23 The Acquisition of Empire

Thursday, April 27

  • Before the meeting, read all of the following:

24 The Republican Crisis

Tuesday, May 2

  • Before the meeting, read all of the following:

25 Collapse of the Republic

Thursday, May 4

  • Before the meeting, read all of the following:

26 Crossing the Rubicon

Tuesday, May 9

  • Before the meeting, read all of the following:

27 Augustus, Princeps, Imperator

Thursday, May 11

  • Before the meeting, read all of the following:

28 The Roman Principate

Tuesday, May 16

  • Before the meeting, read all of the following:

29 Final Exam

Tuesday, May 23