Lecture Topics

Term 1:

Week 1: Introduction, definitions, historical context

Week 2: Athens in the sixth century BC

Week 3: The post-Pisistratid crisis and the reforms of Cleisthenes

Week 4: Athens and the Persian Wars

Week 5: The rise of the Athenian Empire + Seminar 1

Week 6: No lecture

Week 7: The culture of democracy + Essay 1 deadline

Week 8: The arsenal of democracy + Seminar 2

Week 9: The Peloponnesian War

Week 10: Democracy interrupted: the oligarchic coups of 411 and 403 BC

 

Term 2:

Week 1: The character of the restored democracy

Week 2: Democracy in fourth-century political thought

Week 3: Democracy set in stone: epigraphic evidence

Week 4: Guest lecture (Dr Manuela Dal Borgo) - imperialism and game theory

Week 5: The Second Athenian Empire + Seminar 3

Week 6: No lecture

Week 7: The defeat of Athens and the abolition of democracy + Essay 2 assessment deadline

Week 8: Guest lecture (Dr Christine Plastow) - oratory, law and democracy. This lecture will take place on Thursday 1 March, 2-4pm, in OC0.02 (on the same day as the Thursday sessions of Seminar 4)

Week 9: Rome, democracy and imperialism

Week 10: Classical Athens in modern thought

Term 3:

Week 1: Discussion session: "Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others"

Week 2: Gobbets + exam revision: Athenian Empire(s) and imperialism

Week 3: Gobbets + exam revision: Athenian Democracy and democratic ideology