Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion of the course students will have gained a deeper understanding of the historical profile (main political developments, main issues and research objects) of the Hellenistic Age and the early period of the Roman Provinces organized in the Greek East. They will also become familiar with the critical ecamination and use of primary historical sources.
Course Content (Syllabus)
Object of the course: to familiarize the students with the main concepts and problems of the Hellenistic period and the early Imperial times, also with the main characteristics and the historical profile of the Hellenistic times - finally with the analytical and synthetic approach of primary sources related to the Hellenistic and Roman Imperial Era.
Week #1 The Hellenistic and the Roman periods of Ancient Greek History: the literary and epigraphic sources
Week #2 The Successors of Alexander the Great: The political developments leading to the consolidation of the major Hellenistic Kingdoms (323-272 BC).
Week #3 The basic features of Hellenistic monarchy: the personal character of the monarchy, the legitimating of royal power, the relations between the suzerain and the cities.
Week #4 The Ptolemies: the administrative and fiscal organization of Egypt. The exploitation of the land. The relations between the Greeks and the Egyptians.
Week #5 The Seleucids: the administrative and fiscal organization of the kingdom. The exploitation of the land. Seleucid Iran and Seleucid Asia Minor. The relations with the Greek cities under Seleucid rule.
Week #6 The Antigonids: the administrative organization of Macedonia. The relations with the cities of Macedonia and Southern Greece.
Week# 7 The Greek cities and the koina: civic life and euergetism. The political organization of the Achaean and the Aitolian Leagues.
Week #8 An age of unstable balance (272-220 BC): The Syrian Wars, the Chremonidean War, the War of Kleomenes.
Week#9 The Coming of Rome I: Political developments from the Social War to the War of Antiochos
Week#10 The Coming of Rome II: Political developments from the Third Macedonian War to the War of Aristonikos. The creation of the roman provinces of Macedonia and Asia.
Week#11 Greek cities and Hellenistic states under Roman hegemony and rule (129-30 BC): civic institutions and Roman taxation. The Mithridatic Wars. The impact of the Roman Civil Wars on the Greek World
Week#12 The Greek World in the Imperial Period: civic institutions, euergetism, the provincial koina and the imperial cult.
Week#13 The Greek World in the Imperial Period: Cities and Emperors-cities and Provincial governors. The integration of Greek cities and local elites into the structures of the imperial state. The award of Roman citizenship to Greeks.
Keywords
Monarchy, ruler-cult, euergetism, civic freedom, emperor-cult
Course Bibliography (Eudoxus)
Η. J. Gehrke, Ιστορία του Ελληνιστικού κόσμου (μετάφραση/βιβλιογραφική επιμέλεια Άγγελος Χανιώτης, εποπτεία Κώστας Μπουραζέλης), Αθήνα 2003.
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F. W. Walbank, Ο Ελληνιστικός Κόσμος (μετάφραση Τ. Δαρβέρης, επιμέλεια Π. Νίγδελης, Λ. Μανωλόπουλος), Θεσσαλονίκη² 1999.
Additional bibliography for study
HH.Bengtson, Ιστορία της Αρχαίας Ελλάδας, (μετάφραση Α.Γαβρίλης), Αθήνα 1979.
P.Leveque, Ο Ελληνιστικός κόσμος (μετάφραση Μ.Παπαηλιάδη, επιμέλεια Κ.Ζουμπουλάκης), Αθήνα 2003.
Ιστορία του Ελληνικού Έθνους (Εκδοτική Αθηνών) τόμος ΣΤ΄.
E.Will, Histoire politique du monde hellénistique, Nancy 1969.
P.Green, Alexander to Actium. The Ηistorical Evolution of the Hellenistic Age, Berkeley 1990.
Μ.Sartre, L’ Orient Romain, Paris 1991.
E.S.Gruen, The Hellenistic World and the Coming of Rome, Berkeley 1984.
A.Erskine (εκδ.), Α Companion to the Hellenistic World, Oxford 2003.