Ancient Greek Hist, 800-146 Bc · History
Covered a broad history of ancient Greece from the Homeric era to Alexander's conquest of Greece.
NOTE: Giovanni is not actually a professor at Columbia, he's a grad student in ancient history. That said, if he teaches here again, seek out the courses he TAs, regardless of the professor. I never thought a discussion section could be so helpful and fun. He was great at distilling the contents of the lecture and helping to understand complicated governmental systems or battles. He usually knew the answers to our questions and if he didn't he found them out and e- mailed the section with the answer. Simply put, Giovanni is the man.
A lot of things. I really became passionated by Ancient Greek history and R. Billows and Francesco Cassini really played a great role in the development of such an interest. I really enjoyed taking this class out of my major and would definitely recommend it.
This course provided a lot of context for much of the Ancient Greek world from the 9th century BCE to the 3rd century BCE. It also greatly improved my analytical skills and ability to read and recognize vital components of ancient primary and secondary sources.
I learned all about Ancient Greece from its history to its politics to culture and art. I also learned the importance (and enjoyability) of reading primary sources like Herodotus, Thucydides, Polybius, etc. and how to use them in essays.
How to approach primary sources and think critically of the information. An in depth look at Ancient Greek culture.
I learned a lot about Greek history and how to perform historical analysis on primary documents and sources.
I gained a much better understanding of the foundations of democratic self-government in classical Greece, and the opposition it faced.
I learned, in much greater detail, about the historical development of Greek civilization, from the Homeric age to the rise of the Roman Republic. But beyond just the events and historical figures, I was able to work on reading primary historical sources closely and critically. We worked with the writings of Herodotus, Thucydides, and Plutarch, among others. These works helped to show me not only how historical events supposedly unfolded but also how, through writing, history is produced and preserved.
I learned about the politics and culture of ancient Greece