Classics

The course provides advanced knowledge to the archaeology of Mesopotamia, Syria-Palestine, and Anatolia. It focuses on civilizations and artistic cultures of Mesopotamia, Syria-Palestine, and Anatolia during the Bronze and Iron ages. Students learn the methodologies and the perspectives of near eastern archaeology and art history. They learn to recognize and critically examine archaeological and visual materials, to characterize material culture, and acquire the necessary tools for framing data within their chronological, historical and political framework.

The course outlines Archaeology and Greek Art History, from the Protogeometric period to Hellenism. During the starting lessons, the teacher gives advice on the studying, explains the exam carrying out, and gives the outlines of the basic elements of the discipline, in order to fill in possible gaps in students' knowledge: Introduction to Greek civilization through its historical and geographical framework; the periodization and the specific terminology; and main aspects of architecture, urban planning, artistic, and handcrafted production of the Greek World (sculpture, painting, mosaic, pottery) in the Protogeometric, Geometric, Archaic, Classical, and Hellenistic periods.

By the end of the course students have a basic knowledge of Greek civilization, in its historical and artistic development. They will be familiar with the history and geography of the first millennium BC, according to the traditional periodization of Greek civilization: Protogeometric, Geometric, Archaic, Classical, and Hellenistic periods. They will also have mastered the languages, topics, and methods of the discipline when interpreting artistic and cultural phenomena from a historical angle. They will be able to use cultural material to describe cultural encounters, be able to speak and write using terminology appropriate to their scientific discipline, and also have learned to listen, understand, and debate respectfully with different viewpoints, and know how to spot tie-ups among different disciplines.

The course is focused on the principal themes of the discipline with particular attention to typologies, functions, and significance of the Roman monuments and artistic expressions with spots on history of research, methods, and chronological questions. By the end of the course, thanks to the presentation and discussion of the basic components and main manifestations of Roman art, architecture, and town planning, students are familiar with the main themes of the discipline serving as a basis for the definition of the problems in a context of historical–cultural interaction. Moreover, students acquire the basic skills for independent use of the research tools and scientific bibliography and are able to reason critically and analyze or interpret data. They also learn to listen, understand, and debate respectfully with different viewpoints, and know how to spot tie-ups among different disciplines.

This course explores banquet culture in the Mediterranean, investigating the traditions of the Greeks, Etruscans, and Romans. Our journey will take us to museums and archaeological sites in and around Rome, as well as Tuscany, Lazio, and Campania. In particular, we study the material remains from the Etruscan town of Tarquinia, the Villa of Tiberius at Sperlonga, the Greek city of Paestum, and the luxury villas of the Bay of Naples. As we explore these ancient aristocratic villas, we also explore the pastimes of the elite related to banquets, such as raising fish, birds, and flora, by studying their gardens, fisheries, and wine and olive presses, as well as the entertainment accompanying these feasts. Key ancient texts, such as the ancient Roman cookbook by Apicius, invite us into the Roman kitchen with original recipes and menus. Through the investigation of the ritual of feasting, this course assesses how the Roman banquet has shaped our ideas of culture, leisure, and status today.

This course introduces students into the riches of the Latin literary tradition. It is designed in such a way as to cater primarily for the immediate needs of students coming up to university without any background knowledge of ancient literature and aims to offer a chronologically laid out, broad survey of periods, genres and best known authors of Roman literature and thought.

The Greek myths of gods, heroes, and heroines have played a crucial role in the history of Western art, literature, and music. This course examines Greek myths as found in Greek literary sources and provides students with an introduction to the study of Greek mythology in its literary, social, historical, and philosophical context.

Every object has stories –shaped by human uses– to tell. This course explores how visual and material culture offers a distinctive window for understanding the past by choosing specific artefacts from the ancient Mediterranean, reconstructing their "biographies" and using them as a prism for thinking about wider social issues. Using both iconic and lesser-known objects, the course focuses on themes such as image and text; religion, power and ideology; warfare; funerary rituals; daily life and its fictions; and gender and sexuality.

This course offers an introductory survey of the development and major artistic achievements of Roman art and architecture from the early Republic to the reign of the Roman emperor Hadrian in the early 2nd century AD. The course places art and architecture in its social, political, and cultural context. It explores themes such as the representation of the human form, the use of narrative and mythology in art, urbanization, and the development of architectural forms such as temples, commemorative monuments, and buildings for spectacle and leisure with attention to some of the iconic buildings and sites of the ancient world, such as the Colosseum, the Pantheon, and Pompeii.

Students are introduced to the political, social, and economic history of ancient Greece during the the "Classical" period, c. 480-323 BC. This era spans from the Greco-Persian Wars to the death of Alexander the Great. This course explores sources and methods that modern historians use to study ancient Greek culture, including literary texts that are read in translation and artefacts from the ancient world.

This course explores the development of ancient science and technology and its interrelation with Greco-Roman societies and the environment. The course encompasses the ancient Mediterranean area and the Near and Middle East and range from the Bronze age to the early Middle Ages, with a focus on the Roman period. It takes a wide view of technology, ranging from primitive tools and agriculture to automata (robots), aquaducts, and catapults. The course uses texts and archaeological evidence, and incorporates field and museum learning experiences as well as explaining the latest scientific advances.