CRN	13366	Distribution	C
Course No.	CLAS / HIST 155
Title	Roman Civilization
Professor	Alan Zeitlin
Schedule	Mon Wed 11:30 am - 12:50 pm OLIN 306

An introductory survey of the history, literature, and material culture of the ancient Romans, beginning with the first settlements around 1000 B.C.E. and ending with the fall of the Roman Empire in the west in 475 C.E. The focus will be on Rome's growth from a small city-state into a world power; on the related transition from Republic to Empire; and on the social and cultural developments bound up with these changes. Readings will be taken mostly from primary sources: the writings of Livy, Tacitus, Plutarch, Suetonius, Lucretius, Cicero, Virgil, Ovid, Plautus, Petronius, and Apuleius. We will also make extensive use of slides and web-based materials to examine the surviving monuments of this era.

CRN	13151	Distribution	C
Course No.	CLAS / HIST 201
Title	Alexander the Great in History, Fable and Fiction
Professor	James Romm
Schedule	Tu Th 11:30 am - 12:50 pm OLIN 201

An examination of the figure of Alexander, as he appears in historical records, ethical philosophy, fantasy, romance, and myth. We will begin by reading the historical sources on Alexander preserved from antiquity, especially the orations of Demosthenes, the Anabasis of Arrian and the biography of Alexander by Plutarch; then we will turn to the countless legends and lore that arose out of that history, including the Alexander Romance and its many offshoots in Persian, Hebrew and Indian traditions; the medieval epics and dramas surrounding Alexander; and the modern explorations which, depending on their political perspective, have seen in Alexander a champion of Western civilization, a Nietzschean superman, or a tyrant of Hitlerian proportions. Questions will be raised throughout regarding the recoverability of historical facts and the cultural/psychological impulses that govern how history is reconstructed as myth and fiction.