Greece and Rome: An Integrated History of the Ancient Mediterranean

by Robert Garland

Streaming video, 2008

Status

Available

Call number

938

Publication

The Great Courses (2008), Edition: 2nd, 18 hours, 36 lectures

Description

History. Nonfiction. HTML: Integrated approaches to teaching Greek and Roman history are a rarity in academia. Most scholars are historians of either Greek or Roman history and perform research solely in that specific field, an approach that author and award-winning Professor Robert Garland considers questionable. In these 36 passionate lectures, he provides an impressive and rare opportunity to understand the two dominant cultures of the ancient Mediterranean world in relation to one another - a relationship that has virtually no parallel in world history. He shows you how these two very different cultures intersected, coincided, and at times, collided. You'll discover the extraordinary culture that we call Greco-Roman: a unique fusion of civilizations that encompasses statecraft, mythology, language, philosophy, fine arts, architecture, science, and much else. Who were the Greeks and the Romans? How did they organize their societies? How did they interact? In this unique integrated historical approach, you'll see how Greece and Rome's relationship resembled a marriage: two distinct personalities competing in some areas, sharing in others, and sometimes creating a new synthesis of the two civilizations. And you'll consider their more substantive cultural differences, including religion, their views of foreigners, and their ways of thinking. You'll delight in the variety of sources - literature, archaeology, the visual arts, coinage, inscriptions - that Professor Garland draws upon to assemble a fascinating and complex picture of these two great civilizations. And you'll appreciate how he keeps Greece and Rome focused on how this material affects us today..… (more)

Language

English

Original language

English

Physical description

7.6 inches

Local notes

[1] Who were the Greeks? Who were the Romans? [2] Trade and travel in the Mediterranean [3] Democratic or republican [4] Law and order [5] Less than fully human [6] Close encounters, 750–272 B.C. [7] Velvet glove, 272–190 B.C. [8] How the two polytheisms (almost) merged [9] Iron fist, 190–146 B.C. [10] Last Hellenistic dynasts, 146–31 B.C. [11] Why the Greeks lost; why the Romans won [12] Philhellenism and Hellenophobia [13] Two languages [14] Leisure and entertainment [15] Sex and sexuality [16] Death and the afterlife [17] From mystery religion to ruler cult [18] Greek cities under Roman rule [19] Greeks in Rome; Romans in Greece [20] Hellenism of Augustus [21] Art, looting, and reproductions [22] Architecture, sacred and secular [23] Science and technology [24] Disease, medical care, and physicians [25] Greek epic and its Roman echo [26] Tragedy and comedy [27] Love poetry, satire, history, the novel [28] Greek influences on Roman education [29] Greek philosophy and its Roman advocates [30] Hellenomania, from Nero to Hadrian [31] Jews, Greeks, and Romans [32] Christianity's debt to Greece and Rome [33] Apotheosis of Athens [34] Decline of the West [35] Survival of the East [36] Enduring duo