Ancient Greece - Readings

Reading: The Funeral Oration.
"Our government does not copy our neighbors', but is an example to them."

"And, if I am to speak of womanly virtues to those of you who will henceforth be widows, let me sum them up in one short admonition: To a woman not to show more weakness than is natural to her sex is a great glory, and not to be talked about for good or for evil among men."

Pericles' great speech to re-affirm why Athens is at war (from Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War).

Reading: The Melian Dialogue.
"... the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must."

The Athenian give the Melians a dose of harsh city-state politics. (from Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War).

Reading: Socrates' Proposal for his Sentence. (second last section)

"And so he proposes death as the penalty. And what shall I propose on my part, O men of Athens? Clearly that which is my due... I say that maintenance in the Prytaneum is the just return."

The jury expects Socrates to beg that his sentence be reduced from death to exile. Instead, he argues for "maintenance in the Prytaneum*". (from: Plato's Apology).

*The Prytaneum was a public hall where dinners would be held for diplomats and Olympic Champions at the state's expense. Essentially, with his life on the line, Socrates proposes his punishment should be free dinners for life for the service he provides to Athens by asking difficult questions.

Reading: Rhampsinitus and the Thief
"As he spoke, the princess caught at him, but the thief took advantage of the darkness to hold out to her the hand of the corpse. Imagining it to be his own hand, she seized and held it fast; while the thief, leaving it in her grasp, made his escape by the door."

This is the story that amused me. It's a longer tale found a little more than halfway through Book II of Herodotus' The Histories. Search the text for the name Rhampsinitus (from Herodotus: The Histories).

Ancient Greece - Timeline Handout

Once again, thanks to archive.org, the .pdf handout is available for download.

I had to do the guesswork for the lifespan of some early figures like Homer, Cliesthenes and Pisistratus. The sequence is preserved but there are few reliable dates for Greek history in the 6th Century and beyond.

Ancient Greece

This is a tale of new ideas, ambition, overconfidence, war, and desperation. Come hear about the rise and fall of Athens, the war that "saved the western world", and the legendary stories (the Odyssey and the Iliad) that inspired the Greeks. You'll also meet a cast of unforgettable characters: the sh*t disturbing Socrates, the dreamer Plato, captivating Pericles, the story-weaving historian Thucydides, brash Alcibiades, and more!

After we cover the five most popular trivia questions about Ancient Greece and the major stories that all scholars must learn we'll discuss the brutal realism of Athenian imperial politics, the details of their limited citizenship and democracy, as well as sex and gender in the ancient world (including same-sex relationships like the Sacred Band of Thebes).

The echoes of the Ancient Greeks continue to resonate in our world. Their spirit was revived during the Renaissance and continues to touch our movies ("This is Sparta!"), government, modern Olympics, architecture, theater, philosophy, and art (pictured: The School of Athens).

Ancient Greece
Thursday, February 5th.
8pm-9:30pm
$5 Unit 102 (46 Noble Street)

"It is from the greatest dangers that the greatest glory is to be won."
Thucydides
History of the Peloponnesian War

The French Revolution and the Rise and Fall of Napoleon

The French Revolution is a story about bold ideals, human rights, betrayal, war, violence, and one of the most discussed conquerors in history, Napoleon.

Come find out why French history from 1793-94 has been labeled the Reign of Terror, why chopping off people's heads with a falling blade was seen as a humane practice, and how 18th century democracy was born in blood. We'll also cover Napoleon's wild successes, his great blunder in Russia, and the comeback that shook the world.

We'll also discuss the Princess and the Pea, Maid in Manhattan (spoiler alert: this film is awful), and why this generation finds Charles Dickens to be boring,

The French Revolution
and
the Rise and Fall of Napoleon

Thursday,
January 22nd.

8pm-9:30pm

$5 Unit 102 (46 Noble Street)

In the words of Thomas Jefferson: "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots & tyrants. It is it's natural manure." (1787)

The Roman Empire Timeline - handout now available

Thanks to the incredible archive.org the handout for the Roman empire lecture is now available. It will also be available at the lecture.

Page 1
The timeline really shows how much popular Roman history is concentrated in the transition from Republic to rule of the Emperors. As a sidenote -I'm really pleased with this timeline (begun in Microsoft Excel and completed in OpenOffice's Calc spreadsheet program).

Page 2
The write-up is a brief summary of the most famous stories from Roman history. It also includes a list of suggested readings.

*I had to extrapolate (read: make up) dates for the lifespans of Tarquinius Superbus, Lucretia, and Marcus Junius Brutus.

The Roman Empire

This lecture will be the story of Rome. It is an enormous tale that spans over eight-hundred years with a memorable cast of characters (including Julius Caesar, Cleopatra, Spartacus, Hannibal, and Jesus).

In one hour you'll have a grasp of the Roman Empire, a burning desire to read Plutarch, and you'll be able to answer the five most popular trivia questions about Rome.

Roman influence is still under the surface of our culture. We can see traces of Rome in our laws, words, calendars, education, monuments, and entertainment. We can also ask questions about the nature of Empire and what the Romans can teach us about democracy, the Iraq war, and what it means to be a good person.

The Roman Empire

Thursday,
January 8th.

8pm-9:30pm

$5 Unit 102 (46 Noble Street)

(Facebook Event here)

Holiday wrap up

We ran out of the All the Philosophy cheat sheets at the KnowMore lecture last night. Feel free to download a copy from archive.org

The topic of the next lecture has not been settled. It may be:
Introduction to Global Conflicts in our Lifetime
Creating your own Political Opinion
All the Science
the Story of Julius Caesar
Life in Nazi Germany
All the Art
the Story of Napoleon
Famous Writers and their Work
All the Religion
the Story of the French Revolution

Your input is always appreciated.

We'll reconvene on Thursday, January 8th.

The book that I'm posing with in the picture is Will Durant's The Story of Philosophy. He is an articulate writer who can satisfy your desire for more detail.

His book discusses Plato, Aristotle, Francis Bacon, Baruch Spinoza, Voltaire, Rousseau, Immanuel Kant, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Spencer, and Nietzsche.

(thanks for the photos, Marc!)