HISTORY

DR. SCHUERMAN    

SPRING 2009

LECTURE OUTLINES--#2

CLASSICAL ROOTS OF THE WESTERN WORLD

Terms highlighted in olive are particularly significant and may appear as "identifiers" in the tests, midterm, or final.

I.    THE GREEKS

    A.    The Emergence of the Greek Polis

        1.    Geographical considerations

        2.    Forerunners of the Greeks

            a.    Minoans

            b.    Mycenaeans

            c.    Fall of Mycenae

        3.    Homer and the Greek Spirit

        4.    Evolution of the Polis

            a.    Description and characteristics

           5.   Sparta

         6.  Athens 

• Draco

• Solon

• Pisistratus

• Cleisthenes         

    B.     The Classical Period of Greece

        1.    The Historic 5th Century b.c.e.

            a.    The Persian Wars (499-479 b.c.e.)          

• the Greek Trireme; cross section

            b.    Athenian hegemony

            c.    The flowering of Athenian democracy

            d.    The Peloponnesian War (431-404 b.c.e.)

        2.    The end of the "Golden Age"

            a.    Decline of the Polis

            b.    4th century Greece

    C.    The Legacy of the Greeks:  Philosophy

            Art, and Literature

        1.    The birth of thought

            a.    The "matter" philosophers

            b.    The Pythagoreans

            c.    The Sophists

        2.    The great Greek philosophers

            a.    Socrates

•  Respone to jury (the first two selections, Socrates 1st and 3rd address to the jury)
• The death of Socrates by Jacques-Louis David, 1787, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

            b.    Plato

            c.    Aristotle

        3.    Greek art and architecture

            a.   Sculpture

• Archaic Greek kouros (c590 b.c.e.)    
• Egyptian sculpture (c2600 b.c.e.)    
• kouros #2  (c480 b.c.e.)
• Classical Greek sculptures:  #1, #2 (mid 5th. cent b.c.e.)

            b.   Architecture 

• The Parthenon, Nashville Parthenon
• The Greek "column" and the three orders of Greek architecture

        4.    Greek drama and history

            a.    The writers of tragedy and comedy

            b.    Greek historians

II.    ALEXANDER THE GREAT AND THE 

        HELLENISTIC WORLD

    A.    The 4th century rise of Macedon

        1.    Phillip II

        2.    Alexander the Great

        3.    Successor kingdoms

    B.    The Hellenistic world

        1.    Culture and Science  Laocoon and his Sons

        2.    Hellenistic Philosophy

            a.    Epicureanism

           b.    Stoicism

            c.    Skepticism

           d.    Cynicism

III.     THE RISE OF ROME:  THE REPUBLIC

    A.    The Roman Constitution (510-287 b.c.e.)  

• Struggle of orders
• "Cursus Honorum"
• Roman Senate
• SPQR

    B.    Roman expansion 

        1.    Unification of Italy (510-265 b.c.e)        

        2.    Punic Wars and control of western Mediterranean (264-201, & 149 b.c.e.)

•  Hannibal       

        3.    Control over Hellenistic states (150-140 b.c.e.)

        4.    Consequences for the Republic

    C.    Decline of the Republic

    D.    Rise of "military strongmen"

        1.    The Gracchi 

        2.    Sulla and Marius

        3.    The First Triumvirate

• Pompey, Julius Caesar and Crassus

      E.    The rule of Julius Caesar--"He bestrode the world like a collosus" (Shakespeare)

•  Defeat of Pompey
•  Liason with Cleopatra
•  "Dictator of Life"
•  Reforms
•  Assassination

     F.    Second Triumvirate

• Octavian, Mark Anthony and Lepidus   
• Battle of Actium

IV.   THE PAX ROMANA OF THE "EMPIRE"

    A.    Augustus, Empire and the Pax Romana

•  The "Principate"--rule of the "first citizen"

  --"Imperator" and the power of "Imperium"  

  --The restoration of Republican constitutional "forms"

•  200 years of the "Roman Peace" based on:

  --Maintenance of Peace, order and security

  --Efficient government and collection of taxes

  --Prevention of the accumulation of power

  Resulting in:

  --a sense of harmony throughout the empire

  --economic growth, expansion and prosperity

  --flourishing of Greco-Roman culture

    B.    The Julio-Claudians

        1.    Tiberius

        2.    Caligula    

        3.    Claudius    

        4.    Nero

    C.    The Flavians

        1.    Vespasian

        2.    Titus

        3.    Dominitian

    D.    The five "good Emperors"

        1.    Nerva

        2.    Trajan,

        3.    Hadrian

        4.    Antonius Pius

        5.    Marcus Aurelius 

    E.    The reign of military dictators

            Septimus Severus

          The "backroom emperors"  235-285 b.c.e.

IV.   ROMAN SOCIETY, INNOVATIONS AND LEGACY

        1.    Roman arch: #1, #2,

        2.    Roman roads

        3.    Architecture of the empire

                    The Pantheon, #2 

        4.    Roman law

          5.    The Games

                    Gladiators and the Coliseum

                Charioteers and the Circus Maximus

V.    THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY AND 

          ROME'S DECLINE

    A.    Empire in Decline

        1.    Third century crisis

• the army

• the borders

• economy

• plague

        2.    Diocletian  

•  the "tetrarchy"
• economic controls
• hereditary controls

3    Constantine

• Constantinople--the "New Rome"

        4.   Barbarian invasions 

       4.    The triumph of Christianity 

    B.    Birth of Christianity

        1.    Judaism in the First Century B.C.E.

        2.    The teachings of Jesus of Nazareth

        3.    Paul (Saul of Taursus)

        4.    Empire and Christianity's spread 

V.    THE END OF THE CLASSICAL WORLD

    A.    The fall of the empire in the West

    B.    The Eastern successors

        1.    Byzantium--the continuation of the "Roman Empire" 

• Justinian

• Hagia Sophia (Saint Sophia), 2

        2.    The rise and spread of Islam  

• Muhammed

• Mecca and Medina

• Qur'an (Koran)

• Jihad

08/05