UCD School of Classics

This seminar module looks at ancient warfare in its social contexts from the era of Homeric warriors to the decline of the Roman legions, c. 800 BC – AD 300. The focus will be on current areas of debate among modern scholars and extensive use will be made of written primary sources (in translation) as well as archaeological and artistic material and comparative material from other ancient societies.

The topics studied may include piracy and predatory warfare, the impact of warfare on the lives of non-combatants such as women, children and slaves, command and leadership issues in different ancient communities, the significance of ethical and religious considerations in warfare, and the nature of ancient imperialism. The precise contents of the module will, however, depend in part on the preferences of those students who have chosen to take it. They will be consulted prior to the commencement of the course to establish a syllabus that reflects their interests.

Preliminary reading:  

•  Philip de Souza ed., The Ancient World at War: a global history (Thames & Hudson, 2008)
• Harry Sidebottom, Ancient Warfare: a very short introduction (Oxford University Press, 2004)

This module will introduce graduates to aspects of the reception of Classical Antiquity in Renaissance Italy. We will explore a range of different engagements with the literature and material culture of Antiquity. These will include responses to the Classical world in Renaissance poetry and prose literature, political and historical writing, and developments in archaeology. The traditional tendency to ‘purify’ the Classical world along Christian lines and the incipient move to view all things Classical in their original antique contexts will also be examined. 

Recommended reading:

Philip Jacks, The Origins of Rome in Renaissance Italy. Cambridge University Press, 1993

Christopher S. Celenza, The Lost Italian Renaissance: Humanists, Historians, and Latin's Legacy. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004.

At the height of its success as a sophisticated urban society, Romans looked back to their austere agrarian beginnings for the roots of their national identity and traditional morality. Roman moralists wrote of a Golden Age in the past where traditional morality appeared to grow from closeness to nature and the land: the question of how to live ‘in accordance with nature’ in an increasingly extravagant culture troubled Rome ’s elite. This module explores the ideas about the natural world that emerge from Roman writings on nature and on the land. We will examine the theories about nature and the universe that emerge form the writings of Lucretius, Seneca and Pliny, and the approaches to farming and country life that are discussed by Cato, Varro and Columella. As we will explore, ideas about what is ‘natural’ and ‘unnatural’ and the relationship of nature to culture are crucial to deep-seated problems about identity, morality and the question of how best to live in a complex society.

Euripides (c. 485–407 BC) was the youngest of the three great Athenian tragedians, and by far the most popular in antiquity. He was associated with progressive ideas in philosophy and politics, and his plays have been thought to question the behaviour and even the very existence of the gods. His more notable plays include: Medea, which deals with the role of women in Greek society and with the justification of revenge; Hippolytus, a study in religious belief and abnormal psychology which was the model for Racine’s Phèdre; Electra, an ironic and subversive treatment of the same myth as Aeschylus’ Libation Bearers; Helen, with its comic and escapist view of the Trojan War; and his late masterpiece Bacchae, dealing with the exhilarating and destructive influence of Dionysus. The module will also deal with modern versions of Euripides’ plays, with particular reference to the Irish dramatists Marina Carr, Brendan Kennelly, and Frank McGuinness.

Classical historiography was seen by the early Christian historians as a series of wars. It is not difficult to see why: Herodotus said he would show why the Greeks and barbarians fought each other; Thucydides’ subject was the war between the Athenians and the Spartans; Polybius thought every intelligent person would want to know how Rome subjugated most of the known world in less than 53 years; Appian structured his history around Rome’s acquisition of territory, and historians writing in Latin were no less exercised by the topic of war. The commonplace ‘history is written by the winners’ would seem difficult to contradict and yet it is possible to find criticism of the undisputed winners, the Romans, in writers such as Diodorus who observed:

‘The Greeks, after witnessing in person the butchery and beheading of their kinsmen and friends, the capture and looting of their cities [by the Romans], the abusive enslavement of whole populations, after, in a word, losing both their liberty and the right to speak freely exchanged the height of prosperity for the most extreme misery.’ 32.26.2

This course will look at the writing of history, what ancient authors were trying to do, why their work survived, and how the topic of war is presented in it. Possible topics will include studies of individual ancient historians, and also the origin of Greek historiography, history and historia, characterisation in history, speeches, readers and reception, the different genres (war monograph, continuous histories, universal histories, church history), internal and external wars, fiction and history, biography and history. The subject of how modern authors have approached ancient historiography is another fruitful area, perhaps best approached first through the writings of Arnaldo Momigliano. The precise and final appearance of the course would depend on the interests of the students participating.

Two recent books are good starting points for those interested:

• A companion to Greek and Roman historiography 2 vols edited by John Marincola, Blackwell, Oxford 2007
• Historians on History 2^nd edition, edited by John Tosh, Pearson, Harlow 2009