The study of Ancient History covers an exceptionally broad intellectual, methodological, and evidentiary field. No two students will find themselves pursuing exactly the same course itineraries. Nevertheless, there are some anchors around which those itineraries can be arranged. The 20 units of a student’s career through coursework are distributed in the following way, with courses and teaching integrated in the second and third years:
Year One |
Year Two |
Year Three |
8 courses (4/semester) |
6 courses (3/semester) |
6 courses (3/semester) |
|
2 courses taught (1/semester) |
2 courses taught (1/semester) |
First year students will also audit the undergraduate introductory survey courses in the ancient societies relevant to their research and pedagogical interests, and undertake a course of readings that will be developed in collaboration with the instructor of the relevant course. In subsequent years, course choices are made in consultation with the Graduate Group Chair, However, methodology, historiographical problems, and direct, unmediated engagement with primary texts remain the foundation of a student's course of study. We believe that, together, these courses provide an essential foundation for the practice of Ancient History, both as a scholar and as a pedagogue.
Students should make themselves aware of graduate courses in departments to which faculty members of the group are affiliated: Anthropology, Classical Studies, History of Art, Religious Studies, History, the Penn Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, and Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations. We also strongly encourage students to explore graduate courses in other fields and other disciplines, which will extend and enhance their capacity to ask scholarly questions about the ancient world. Depending on the language(s) deemed most appropriate to a particular course of study, students might find themselves taking these courses in Classical Studies, Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Religious Studies, or Linguistics.
Course choices are made in consultation with the Graduate Chair. A sense of the range of possible courses of study can be obtained from the following course itineraries, grouped according to the broad field of the doctoral dissertation that emerged from the course of study:
Historiography/Literature Interest:
Year One |
Year Two |
Year Three |
Problems in Greek History |
Greek Sanctuaries Sacred Law |
Greek Epigraphy |
Post Baccalaureate Greek |
Greece Anatolia and East |
Historical Greek Grammar |
CLST Proseminar |
Herodotus |
Tacitus |
Latin Poetry and Poetics |
|
|
Rome’s Medn Economy |
Power, Money, GDR Athens |
Latin Historical Documents |
Latin Literature Survey |
Polybius and Livy |
Ind Stud |
Issues in Folklore Theory |
Cicero’s Dialogs [Bryn Mawr] |
Greek Civic Culture of Roman Asia Minor |
Material Culture Economic History Interest:
Year One |
Year Two |
Year Three |
CLST Proseminar |
Ancient Economies |
Roman Architect & Topog |
AAMW Proseminar |
Papyrology |
Greek Epigraphy |
Advanced Greek Survey |
Advanced Latin Survey |
Tacitus |
Latin Poetry: Exemplary Trad |
|
|
Methods in Roman History |
Ancient Medicine |
Roman Epigraphy |
Roman Architect & Topog |
Ind Stud |
Architecture of Rome |
Homer |
Greek East Roman Era [Princ] |
Ind Stud |
Advanced Latin Survey |
|
|
Cultural/Social History Interest:
Year One |
Year Two |
Year Three |
Greek Epigraphy |
Advanced Greek Survey |
Roman Letters |
CLST Proseminar |
Religion Late Antique Syria |
Religion Magic Rome [Princ] |
Hellenistic Imperial Historiog |
Caesar |
Judaism/Christianity among Greeks and Romans |
Problems in Roman History |
Biblical Hebrew |
Center/Region Anc Med [Princ] |
Greek Prose Composition |
Second Sophistic |
Problems Greek History |
Ind Stud: Greek |
Papyrology |
Origins Middle Ages [Princ] |
Latin Poetry |
|
|
Political History/Epigraphy Interest:
Year One |
Year Two |
Year Three |
AAMW Proseminar |
Intro Archaeology Ceramics |
Greek Poetry |
CLST Proseminar |
Polybius |
Greek Epigraphy |
Roman Letters |
Latin Prose Composition |
Indo-European Grammar |
Argonaut Myth |
|
|
Aegean Bronze Age |
Problems in Roman History |
Ancient Seafaring |
Hellenistic Imperial Historiog |
Greek Epigraphy |
The Greek Polis |
Greek Prose Comp |
Latin Historiography: Ammianus/SHA |
Indo-European Grammar II |
Ind Stud: Latin |
|
|
Religious/Historiographical Interest:
Year One |
Year Two |
Year Three |
Polybius |
Problems in Greek History |
Greek Sanctuaries |
CLST Proseminar |
Greek Historiog [Princ] |
Rabbinic Narrative |
Advanced Greek Survey |
Hellenistic Judaism: Josephus |
Tacitus |
Judaism/Christianity: Identity and Polemics |
|
|
Problems in Roman History |
Jews in Greek/Roman World |
Ind Stud |
Greek Epigraphy |
Ancient Economies |
Josephus as Historiographer |
Rabbinic Judaism: Messianism |
Greek Prose Composition |
Identity/Self-Definition Judaism and Christianity |
Ind Stud |
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