Introduction to Ancient Greek History
Greek civilization from the Bronze Age Dark Ages through the end of the classical period, taught by the late Donald Kagan, Yale's Sterling Professor of Classics and History and a National Humanities Medal winner. The 24 lectures, recorded in Fall 2007, move from the rise of the polis through Sparta, the Persian Wars, the Athenian Empire and its democracy, and the Peloponnesian War to the twilight of the independent city-states. Students read Herodotus's Histories and Thucydides's Peloponnesian War in translation alongside Kagan's own scholarship, and the course offers a choice between a midterm-final-paper track or one that adds weekly discussion sections. All lectures, syllabi, and transcripts are free through Open Yale Courses. Kagan's four-volume history of the Peloponnesian War grew directly out of this material.