Classics: Greco Roman Political Thought

See Schedule of Courses for specific titles.

PACE students with permission and override Special Topics courses cannot carry CC designations

Democracy was once invented in Ancient Greece, as was the rule of law, and political theory, but the theorists mostly did not like democracy. This is a survey of major works and concepts concerning politics and governance in the ancient Greek and Roman world, including Plato, Aristotle, Thucydides, tragedies, Homer, Cicero, and Seneca. Topics covered will include the rule of law, ideal states, justice, ancient democracy, and the Roman Republic and Empire. The span of time will be about 1500 years, from 'Homer' to Marcus Aurelius.

The most important task in this course is reading primary sources: think of it as listening to Greek and Roman voices. There will also be some reading of secondary sources.

Presentations, summaries of secondary literature, midterm and final with both factual and conceptual content (right-or-wrong answer questions, short identifications, essay questions, explanation of primary source passages).