ZENOBIA SYLLABUS BY VANESSA GORMAN

(Spring 1997)

Prof. Vanessa Gorman

This course is designed to expose the graduate student to crucial modern discussions concerning race, class, and gender in classical antiquity. It is also designed to help students learn to evaluate evidence and analysis arguments to see if the evidence presented leads to the conclusions reached. I do not assume any prior knowledge of Classical Greece or Rome, but the more you know going in, the better you will be able to assimilate the material you will be reading. I will be giving short, synopsis histories of both periods, along with a basic timeline of events.

Each student will be expected to read and report on individual and group assignments. I am aiming for each student to report on 2 individual books and 2 individual article "bundles" (2-3 select articles). Four people must lead the discussion on required books (Snowden, Blundell, Dixon, and Loraux), which assignment counts as an article bundle. In general, for report and discussion a minimum of 30 minutes will be allotted per book and 15 minutes per article. Time will vary according to the number of students in the class, but once time allotments are made they will be strictly enforced so that other people are not short-changed. The number of assignments may be cut if enrollment is high, but it will not be increased.

Each student must also write up in the form of a book review the report from any one of his/her individual assignments excepting required reading and the shorter article bundles (5-10 pages, double-spaced). This review will be due at the latest by Wednesday of finals week, although it may be turned in at any time before that date and early submissions (anything turned in by week 13) will be offered a chance to rewrite.

Students are also expected to attend all classes and take part in class discussion, particularly in regard to the required reading, but also in the form of asking questions and discussing the feasibility of information in the reports.

Students will be graded approximately as follows:

15% x 4 = 60% Oral Reports

20% Paper

20% Class Participation and Attendance

Required Reading

• Brunt, P. A. Social Conflicts in the Roman Reublic. New York: Norton, 1971. 0-393-00526-0 $7.95
• Wiedemann, Thomas. Greek and Roman Slavery. Routledge 1989. $17.95, 0-415-02972-4
• Lintott, Andrew. Violence, Civil Strife, and Revolution in the Classical City, 750-330 B.C. Routledge/Croom Helm 1981, $14.95, 0-7099-4170-6
• Snowden, Frank M., Jr. Before Color Prejudice : the Ancient View of Blacks. Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 1983. Rpt. 1991. 0-674-06381-3, $15.95.
• Lefkowitz, Mary. Not Out of Africa : How Afrocentrism Became an Excuse to Teach Myth as History. New York, NY : BasicBooks, c1996.
• Blundell, Sue. Women in Ancient Greece. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1995. 0-674-95473-4, $19.95
• Dixon, Suzanne. The Roman Family. Baltimore: JHUP, 1992. 0-8018-4200-x, $14.95
• Loraux, Nicole. Children of Athena: Athenian Ideals About Citizenship and the Division Between the Sexes. Trans. By C. Levine. Princeton: PUP, 1994. 0-691-03762-0, $16.95
• Patterson, Orlando. Freedom. Vol 1: Freedom in the Making of Western Culture. Basic Books 1992. 0-465-02532-3, $15.00

Reserve Reading

All of the required books are on reserve at the library. Also, the following are also on reserve for everyone's use in Week 9:

• Martin Bernal, Black Athena : the Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Civilization, vols. 1 and 2, 1987-.
• Mary R. Lefkowitz & Guy MacLean Rogers, eds., Black Athena Revisited, 1996.

I expect that you will obtain all other necessary books from the library. Check for them immediately, and recall them expeditiously. If you have difficulty getting them, talk to me at the soonest moment. Of course you are always free to obtain them from a bookstore (I recommend the two Borders in Omaha or Barnes and Noble in Lincoln) but you certainly don't need to. Interlibrary loan is another possibility, if performed quickly. If you do not secure your book at least a week before your report is due, you are not pursuing this course seriously and the excuse will be met with a loss of goodwill and a much more difficult assignment.

Reading Schedule

Week 1 (1/13): Introduction; Assignments; Introduction to Greek History [Gorman]

Week 2 (1/20)

• Introduction to Greek History, continued
• Andrew Lintott, Violence, Civil Strife, and Revolution in the Classical City, 750-330 BC (Required: Gorman)

Week 3 (1/27)

• Antony Andrewes, The Greek Tyrants
• G. de Ste Croix, The Class Struggles in the Ancient Greek World, pp. 1-326 only
• W. R. Connors, The New Politicians of Fifth Century Athens
• Bundle:
  • R. Drews, "The First Tyrants in Greece," Historia 21 (1972) 129-44
  • R. J. Hopper, "Plain, Shore, and Hill in Early Athens," Annual of the British School at Athens 56 (1961) 189-219

Week 4 (2/3)

• G. L. Huxley, Early Sparta
• Bundle on Sparta
  • A. H. Snodgrass, "The Hoplite Reform and History," Journal of Hellenic Studies 96 (1965) 110-22
  • Paul A. Cartledge "The Peculiar Position of Sparta in the Development of the Greek City-State," Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 51 (1980) 91-108
  • Thomas J. Figueira, "Mess Contributions and Subsistence at Sparta," Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association 55 (1984) 87-109
• Introduction to Roman History [Gorman]
  • P. A. Brunt, Social Conflicts in the Roman Republic (required: Gorman)

Week 5 (2/10): NO CLASS

Week 6 (2/19)

• Ramsey MacMullen, Roman Social Relations, 50 BC to AD 284
• J. A. Talbert, The Senate of Imperial Rome (pp. 9-98, 341-430 only)
• Peter Garnsey, Social Status and Legal Privilege in the Roman Empire

Week 7 (2/24)

• Thomas Wiedemann. Greek and Roman Slavery (required; no individual report)
• Yvon Garlan, Slavery in Ancient Greece
• ONE OF THE FOLLOWING:
  • Keith Bradley, Slavery and Society at Rome
  • Keith Hopkins, Conquerors and Slaves
  • K. R. Bradley, Slaves and Masters in the Roman Empire: A Study in Social Control
• James S. Romm, The Edges of the Earth in Ancient Thought: Geography, Exploration, and Fiction

Week 8 (3/3)

• Frank Snowden, Before Color Prejudice (required)
• Aubrey Diller, Race mixture among the Greeks before Alexander
• FILM: Black Athena

Week 9 (3/10)

• Mary Lefkowitz, Not Out of Africa: How Afrocentrism Became an Excuse to Teach Myth as History (required; no individual report)
• Issues on Black Athena from Bernal and Lefkowitz-Rogers
  • Cleopatra and the race of the Egyptians
  • Linguistic arguments (Neit, Seth, etc.) [warning: difficult]
  • Egyptian colonization of Greece in the Bronze Age
  • Herodotos and the Egyptian origins of Greek religion
  • Ancient origins of the Masonic rites and the problem of 19^th century historiography
  • Other (please specify)

Week 10 (3/17)

• Sue Blundell, Women in Ancient Greece (required)
• Bundle from Helene Foley, ed., Reflections of Women in Antiquity
  • Susan G. Cole, "Could Greek Women Read and Write?" (219-46)
  • Carolyn Dewald, "Women and Culture in Herodotus' Histories" (91-126)
  • Helene P. Foley, "The Concept of Women in Athenian Drama" (127-68)
• Bundle from Averil Cameron and Amelie Kuhrt, editors, Images of Women in Antiquity
  • Susan Walker, "Women and Housing in Classical Greece: The Archaeological Evidence" (81-91)
  • Dyfri Williams, "Women on Athenian Vases: Problems of Interpretation" (92-106)
  • Ruth Padel, "Women: Model for Possession by Greek Daemons" (2-19)

Week 11 (3/24) SPRING BREAK

Week 12 (3/31)

• Nancy Demand, Birth, Death, and Motherhood in Classical Greece
• From Sarah Pomeroy, ed., Women's History and Ancient History
  • Cynthia B. Petterson, "Continuity and Change: Three Case Studies in Hippocratic Gynecological Therapy and Theory"
  • Ann Ellis Hanson, "Cultural Construct of the Female Body in Classical Greek Science"
• Bundle on infanticide
  • D. Engels, "The Problem of Female Infanticide in the Graeco-Roman World," Classical Philology 75 (1980) 112-20
  • Mark Golden, "Demography and the Exposure of Girls at Athens," Phoenix 35 (1981) 316-331
  • W. V. Harris, "The Theoretical Possibility of Extensive Infanticide in the Graeco-Roman World," Classical Quarterly 32 (1982) 114-116
• Bundle from Elaine Fantham, et al., eds, Women in the Classical World
  • "Spartan Women: Women in A Warrior Society," 56-67
  • "Amazons in Control," 128-135
  • "The Hellenistic Period: Women in a Cosmopolitan World," 136-82

Week 13 (4/7)

• Loraux, Nicole. Children of Athena: Athenian Ideals About Citizenship and the Division Between the Sexes (required)
• Bundle:
  • Cynthia Patterson, "Hai Attikai: The Other Athenians," Helios 13 (1986) 49-67
  • Thucydides [any translation], Perikles' Funeral Oration [2.34-46]
  • Lisa Kallet-Marx [exact title forgotten: something on Athenian War Widows], pp. 133-144 in Ralph M. Rosen and Joseph Farrell, eds, Nomodeiktes (Michigan 1993)
• Madeleine M. Henry, Prisoner of History: Aspasia of Miletus and Her Biographical Tradition
• Patricia A. Watson, Ancient Stepmothers: Myth, Misogyny and Reality

Week 14 (4/14)

• Suzanne Dixon, The Roman Family (required)
• Suzanne Dixon, The Roman Mother
• Richard A. Bauman, Women and Politics in Ancient Rome
• Bundle from Elaine Fantham, et al., eds, Women in the Classical World [Note: also used in weeks 12 & 15]
  • "Republican Rome I: From Marriage by Capture to Partnership in War-the Proud Women of Early Rome," 216-42
  • "Republican Rome II: Women in a Wealthy Society-Aristocratic and Working Women from the Second Century BCE, 260-79

Week 15 (4/21)

• Bundle from Elaine Fantham, et al., eds, Women in the Classical World [Note: also used in weeks 12 & 14]
  • "Women, Family, and Sexuality in the Age of Augustus and the Julio-Claudians," 294-329
  • "Women of the High and Later Empire: Conformity and Diversity," 345-94
  • NOTE: FANTHAM (WEEKS 14-15) COUNT AS ONE BOOK]
• TWO OF THE FOLLOWING:
  • Gillian Clark, Women in Late Antiquity: Pagan and Christian Lifestyles
  • Ross Shepard Kramer, Her Share of the Blessings: Women's Religions Among the Pagans, Jews, and Christians in the Greco-Roman World
  • Tal Ilan, Jewish Women in Greco-Roman Palestine

Week 16 (4/28)

• Orlando Patterson, Freedom in the Making of Western Culture (required). Subdivide into:
  • Pre-Greek and Greek
  • Roman and Christian