History: The Rise of the Greeks

This course will look at the development of Archaic Greece from c.800 BC in all its major aspects. We will examine the expansion of the Greek world and the creation of its earliest writing and literature, along with the major period of Greek colonisation and its effects in the Mediterranean as a whole. We will go on to look at the development of a “hoplite revolution” across the Greek world and its social consequences, as well as the political development of the city states of Athens and Sparta, and fundamental importance of the early Greek poets, statesmen and philosophers for future Western society. You will be introduced to all the major diplomatic, artistic, cultural and military aspects of the period. The course also aims to include a scheduled excursion to a museum or site of historic interest, as part of the course.